Review: Chihayafuru

KARUTA IS SERIOUS BUSINESS!!

Chihayafuru is about kids who are so obsessed with Karuta that they don't even think much about their future carreers, hence making the main character Chihaya Ayase lagging in Academics. However, she's so ambitious that she tries extremely hard to find members for her Karuta club. Two were people she knew from childhood who also plays Karuta, and the other two are completely new to the game but finds it very much related to their interest.

What is Karuta? Google it.

it all started with the tomboy Chihaya, who initially was only obsessed with her pretty sister who dreams to become a model... until she met Wataya Arata, a Karuta prodigy. After Wataya criticizes her childhood 'ambitions', she became intrigued with the card game. Before Wataya left the primary school, they made a promise that they'll forever be Karuta players and meet in a competition. And the habit is stuck with her until high school. Unfortunately, when she reunites with Wataya several years later, it seems that he has given up on his dreams to become the Karuta... king(?). So what to do? She has worked hard for years to become his rival, and suddenly he's no longer interested?

So being a weeabo of course I'm attracted to this anime. And in spite of being a shoujo genre, everything reminds you of your typical sports anime. Well, you have rivalry, challengers and challenges and practices. And we also learn that even if it's just a mere indoor card game, you still need to build up your stamina to endure the throughout the gameplay and improve on your speed. Chihaya, even after years of obsessing with the game, finds that she still has a lot to improve on. She may be a pro, but when she gets emotionally furstrated, that ruins all her perfect plays. By meeting her childhood friends and the newbies, it helped her improve as they provide her with statistic, morale support and a more effective way to memorize the cards.

Just like certain sports anime, the movement or skills of the characters sometimes look exaggerated. But what the heck? you want to make the story interesting, let's just consider them as metaphors.

this anime has a lovely OP

Like Kanade Oe, I'm more interested in the 100 poems and the meanings. Plus, thanks to her their school's Karuta club look loveliest in their traditional costumes. She reckons is a MUST in a traditional game, although in the modern world it is no longer practical. But the obi seemed to helped her in the game.

The show ends with some kind of hint that there'll be a second season. By the end the team has not entered the final battle yet. I guess if we're curious we should go read the manga.

I have nothing else to say but if you want a mix of sport shounen feel with a Japanese traditional indoor game, and a dash of shoujo mood, then do try this anime :3

Review: Kaichou wa Maid-sama!

[WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS]

[don't be fooled my the promotional image. Sure looks disgusting to me...]

Kaichou wa Maid-sama (The President is a Maid!) is about a very stern female seitoukacihou President of Student Council who works part-time as a waitress in a maid café. For those who don’t know, it’s not the kind of maid you hire from Indonesia (no offense intended), but the kind of servant that is dressed in fancy French Maid costume. A particular community in Japan have this fetish therefore a maid café is opened to satisfy their fandom. Though the kaichou is oblivious to the fact that this interest comes from anime, she just had to work since her dad left her family with massive amount of debt. At least she didn’t sell her body. However, she had to keep this after school activity a secret in order to maintain her reputation at school. Until that gorgeous heartbreaker in school found out, that’s when she starts to get paranoid.

Misaki Ayuzawa – She worked her arse off to become the school president in order to be a representative of the girls welfare in that school. The school she enrolled to used to be a boys’ school, and when it turns into co-ed it’s hard for the girls to get used to the environment. Moreover that the school lacks testosterone but have that untrustworthy masculine aura instead. She’s obviously biased towards her female schoolmates, while she poses as a 'demon' towards the men. In order to help her mom who doesn't seem to be affected by the disappearance of her husband, she works as a waitress in the maid café where she’s known as Misa-chan. Misaki doesn’t give a crap about looking feminine, all that matters is that she’s happy with the way she is; a tsundere.

[kakkoi!!]

Takumi Usui – The hottest guy in school in the eyes of the blind girls who knew nothing of him yet straight away confess only ending up with tears. Honestly, I don’t see what’s so charming about this guy. I know even the manga version of him, he can’t even rival the bishounen-ness of the Host Club boys (Ouran) [NOT EVEN THIS]. In terms of personality, he’s rather bland to the point that his mischief doesn’t work at all. For some reason, he keeps Misaki’s secret for his own entertainment and becomes a regular at the maid café just to stalk Misa-chan. I gotta agree with Misaki that he’s a “perverted alien”. I’m always annoyed with the type of characters that are illogically perfect. But then again, Usui isn’t really the ideal man anyway. He doesn’t give a crap about other people unless Misaki is involved; I don’t see this as romantic but... "HE'S THE WORST"

[doesn't this makes you wanna punch him in the face??]

The Three Idiots – The only people other than Usui from Misaki’s school who knows of her dark secret. This comic relief gang became fans of Misa-chan right after she PWN’d them in the first episode. It’s hard to believe they were former delinquents and could even laugh about their sorry past.

Other characters include the BFFs, the fangirling cafe manager, a shota trap internet idol, J-rocker, a gynophobic (possibly) gay dude and a glutton childhood friend cum "a new challenger!".

Initially, I was impressed by how the story portrays a strong, independent girl with aikido skills to defend herself. Misaki is awesome in so many ways, and can almost pass of as a “Knight in Shining Armour”. This was further satisfied by the ‘Momotaro’ episode and the butler café challenge. Unfortunately, towards the end the story begins tumble like a rock rolling down a high steep. I’m not sure if it’s due to the fact that the tsundere weakness is gradually revealed, or it could be because of the subtle reverse harem. As for the ending, didn’t quite like the idea where the pair is somehow forced to participate in an activity for ‘couples’. I’m pretty sure this is overused, and to me it’s a lousy excuse to make them be together. And not to forget the idea where Misaki keeps getting fanboys now and then... Which is kind of typical for shoujo manga to make the heroine loved by plenty of weirdos regardless of her lack of qualities as a girlfriend/wife. I wasn’t satisfied with the final half of the season, and it’s really a disappointment because I had truly enjoyed the earlier episodes.

[Just one of those costumes this tsun is forced to wear cos everything needs MOE now... h-hey! what are you looking at?]

Nothing special about the OP and ED, but I’d like to point out that the ED sequence kept hinting Usui’s origins or past, but NEVER in the anime had it revealed anything about him. I’m pretty much angry about this too.

INB4 GOREADMANGA.

Nah, I’d rather not. I hate Usui anyway.

p/s: sorry can't help it but this is my favourite scene 8D
pps: honestly, I really do hate Usui. Stop calling me a tsundere DX

Review: Kuroshitsuji (anime)

[it's not BL, okay!!]

[WARNING: This review may contain spoilers!]

[WARNING 2: Sebastian fangirls GO AWAY!]

I finished this a long time ago. but I'm bored and I feel like writing reviews. So I picked Kuroshitsuji because I see everyone is obsessed about Sebastian, and I wanted to know what's so great about him. Then there's a shota that I'm attracted to, so I bought the anime before reading the manga. As I suspected, though it is not officially BL, but there are hints. *wink*

Oh yeah, this is Square-Enix's production! My fave game company.
Set in the Victorian era, this is a story about a 12 year old boy who lost his parents in a fire. He made a Faustian contract with a demon who serves him as a (combat) butler. Somehow this brat called Ciel Phantomhive got his riches back after he makes a deal with the demon butler, Sebastian Michaelis. Ironically he's named after a real life Sebastian Michaelis, a French inquistor who compiled a hierarchy of demons in Hell. Ciel is a sour-faced boy with an eye-patch, an have enough intelligence to manage a toy and candy company. But he's completely useless in combat so he goes SEBASTIAN, I CHOOSE YOU to protect him from pedophiles. But Sebastian doesn't mind being treated like a pokemon because it's his job anyway... until Ciel finds the murderer of his parents....
PROTAGONISTS PLEASE...

1. Sebastian Michaelis

Dontcha? Oh everybody does except for me :). Sebastian is overrated. His perfection is awesome but it's a turn off because he's a demon and he can do all the house chores impossibly fast. Faster than vampires! Every girl dreams of getting into his pants, including Maylene the maid, but you can obviously see how he condemns clumsy and imperfect people. Yup, the very moment he shoos the other servants away and do everything himself, I know I can never love him (I've met somebody who does all the work without discussing with his subordinates - i didn't like that leadership). And I wonder why you want a boyfriend like this hehehehehe.... unless you make a Faustian contract with him, he'll defend you with his life (?)... but it's not sincerely because it's what he has to do!

2. Ciel Phantomhive

 

Is it me, or are child geniuses overrated? Like his predecessors, he serves the Queen. But unlike his predecessors, he has a bodyguard. He treats him like a chess piece, and other people he knows are his chess pieces including his aunt. So he doesn't mind sacrificing his pieces until he attains his goals. Like Lelouch who's unathletic, but Lelouch has more pawns. Oh yea, one of Ciel's eyes is cursed too! Dammit, weird eye power is overrated too. He has an a fiancee who's complete opposite of him and annoys him with her girlish decorations (these b1tches just HAVE to exist). But poor Elizabeth just wants to cheer him up even though she's oblivious about what's really going on in his life.

3. Servants of the Phantomhive Household
Well at first I thought that the servants are useless, because Sebastian practically did everything the servants cannot do. He's an attention whore, so what can we do about it? But later in the anime (and manga) you'll find out what's their actual purpose.
- Tanaka. Issit me or are butlers always named Tanaka and Sebastian? Maybe the japanese butlers are Tanaka descendants... hmm. Anyways, he's the house steward, and used to be a butler serving under Ciel's late parents. But he got stabbed and can't do anything much... but he still can kick ass.

[From left: Maylene, Bardroy and Finnian]

- Bardroy. The cook. He cooks with flamethrowers and bombs. Go eat some black things if you leave him be. He's an American, and he's a bomb expert who can use whatever he finds in the kitchen to ward off intruders.
- Finnian. The gardener, who kills of flowers instead of giving them life. He was actually a super soldier of some sort about 500 years before Allelujah's time, so he has super strength in spite of his girlish looks.
- Maylene. The clumsy maid with a cracked pair of glasses. She refused to change them because it's the first present her master gave. But the truth is, she's a far-sighted sniper. You should see how she use hundreds of rifles to decrease the reload time.
***
Unfortunately, like any other anime adapted from a manga, it does not follow the real storyline much. At first, it did, until it reached the middle, where suddenly the plot got f*cked up at the point where everyone is fed with curry bread. Some characters that only appear once in the manga, became re-occuring characters. I'm okay with that because I love them (although they're lamer than Sebastian) - Grell Sutcliffe and Viscount of Druitt... both are rather gay-ish but they amuse me.

[yes I do, Grell!!]
In fact, the anime is gay-er than the manga. There's this dog-man called Pluto (only available in the anime) and he's often seen naked begging for Sebastian's affections. Fanservice much? I nosebled. Yeah... not to forget Grell's pansexuality that is misintepreted as lustful homosexual (not that I mind heh).
Towards the end, it becomes an angel and demon feud. Guess who won lol.
Adding up to the weirdness, it's the Queen Victoria's preserverence of youth and death god's realm (at least we get to see European's Soul Society). Suddenly Lau, the incestuous President of the British Branch of a Chinese trading company got his true purpose revealed when the manga didn't conclude anything about him yet. And the Undertaker's true self is revealed! Then it is revealed how useless Ciel is without Sebastian. And then the mission of the two protagonist seem to be complete, but then I heard the second season is coming. I really hope they don't f*ck it up anymore, cos I do want to see the Noah's Ark Circus.
Somebody please tell me if the Victorian butlers are really capable of being bodyguards too!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention another butler and his bratty lord. But this butler is more like a bodyguard who can do chores like cooking curry. They're good looking fellahs from India. Most likely ancestors of Bollywood actors. I suppose this is one of the three encounters of the name 'Soma' (other than Persona series and Gundam 00) - he's a cheery prince that claims to be Ciel's friend. In my opinion, his servant Agni is a hell lot better than Sebastian. (but why Indian youth always get white hair? Take a look at Lakshata in Code Geass and that Indian mercanary in Bladestorm video game). Although he's human, he can rival with Sebastian's skills. And he doesn't pretend to be nice, and he's at least genuinely helpful to the Phantomhive servants - something Sebastian failed to do (the story is about him, the black butler, of course he deserves all the limelight lol).

[Agni says, "DONTCHA wish you boyfriend was RAW like me?"]

So what do I think overall? The animation is pretty for a manga based anime. I'm happy with the exact adaptation in the first half until the sudden alteration of plotline in the middle of the episode. more supernatural stuff dominated the series, and I think the manga makes more sense. I'm really glad that that Maaya Sakamoto plays Ciel; I'm always amazed by how she can use husky voice and sing like a woman as well.
My favourite song is the second ED, Lacrimosa by Kalafina.
btw don't get me wrong. I love the manga, just not satisfied with the anime. And I may have offended Sebastian fangirls here - oi i told u to go away, didn't I? *points at the top* Sorry but... I fangirl too. It's just that I'm not the kind of person who shuts one eye to one's weakness(es) especially when s/he is so-called perfect (direct translation of a Malay phrase + pun intended). now now... don't get angry. Here' have a motivator~