Squeals Galore

Ello lovies~
So here I am again, with another review for SIHK. In this episode there was more fan service than the previous one, with the episode pretty much starting out with a make out scene (courtesy of Onodera being traumatized by episode 1's chu and thus having nightmares of Takano-san kissing him. Thank you, paranoia. The fangirls are in debt to you.)

Overall, the episode was rather adorable, this one taking on the chapter in the manga where Takano and Onodera head over to help a mangaka who's running behind, as well as the episode where Takano-san tells Onodera that he's the guy Onodera dated back in high school (his last name changed due to his parents divorcing). Throughout the episode there are a lot of squeals from the fangirls and "EHHHH?!s" on behalf of Onodera (I found his reaction to everything to be quite priceless.)Although there were a few changes that they made in the anime which I kinda didn't like.

For example, when the two come back from the mangaka, the scene opens with the two of them on the couch looking like zombies. I felt that the humor from the whole "why is the sun shining x,x?" moment was lost in the anime. Also, the part about Tanako-san and Onodera being neighbors was changed in the anime. In the anime, Onodera has just moved in and is, coincidentally, Takano-san's neighbor. In the manga, he had already been living there and they had never seen one another simply because of their different schedules. I'm not sure which version I prefer. I kinda liked how in the manga it begins with Takano-san saying "that was fast. Did you come to confess?" and Onodera being like "what are you talking about...I live here." with both of them are standing in front of their respective doors. I just found that to be a great scene...not so sure about the anime >.>;;

On a completely different note, I once came across this video and I simply had to share it with you. Yeah. It's one of them 'effing epic vids' Enjoy!

~GD

Insert Maniac Fan Girl Squeal Here

*creeps back in* Holy crap....has it really been an entire year since I've updated this thing? O_O Wow. That's kinda epic in a really sad kind of way.

Anywhose, a thousand gomen nes for vanishing on all of you-I blame college. It sucks. I know I've been posting summaries for Trace and Hana to Akuma, but those two have ended and frankly so much crap happens in both that if you really wanted to know what happens, I'm gonna tell you to read them. They're good reads and frankly, with all the crap that happens, reading them might make more sense to you than be summarizing them.

But onto the more important topic-mainly the subject of this post. As the title says, I'm in fan-girl mode right now. Why? Because Sekaiichi Hatsukoi episode 1 is finally out. And I must say, I was grinning stupidly the whole way through.

For those of you who don't know, I'm a GIANT Nakaumura Shungiku fan. Ever since I first stumbled across Junjou Romantica, I have been an avid fan of hers (now that I think about it, I think JR was the first boy x boy I ever came across...kinda opened Pandora's Box for me >.>;;). So for me, something like this is enough to make me giddy all over. So, without further ado, here's my review:

Summary in a Nutshell: Onodera Ritsu is a 25 year old man who has left his father's company due to his co workers complaints that the only reason why he is so successful is because of his connections. However, at Murakawa Publishing (the same as in JR ^_^), instead of being assigned to the literature department like he requested, Onodera finds himself assigned to Emerald (spin off of Ruby): the all male shoujou manga editorial department. To make matters worse for our poor hero, on his first day the editor-in-chief "sexually harasses" him by using Onodera as a model for a kiss scene (frankly, if it were me I wouldn't object but...). Thus begins the case of Onodera Ritsu and his life working as a shoujou manga editor.
(NOTE: yes, I have skimmed over some parts-don't want to spoil everything, now do I?)

Seiyu-wise: Seiyu speaking, I was very happy with the cast. My personal favorite I think was Takano-san. He sounds just like I imagined he would, so I was pleased with that. Onodera's was perfect too as was Kisa's and the other lovely gents at Emerald.

Animation: For me, there are two things I am a stickler for in regards to a manga becoming an anime: how good the voice acting is and how well done the animation is, the latter being more important to me. If the animation sucks, I usually don't fly for it. However, considering that I absolutely adored Junjou Romantica, I was 99.9% positive that I would not be disappointed with the animation quality. And I was right. Animation-wise, so far this is a beautiful adaptation of a beautifully drawn manga (main reason why I love Nakamura-sensei is because of her art style). The animation really does justice to her work, and the background music is oh so lovely.

Faithfulness to the Manga: If I had a list of things that peeve me to kingdom come, animes not being faithful to the manga they are based on (or vice versa-yes Escaflowne, I am looking at YOU) would be pretty high up on the list. But, fortunately, so far faithfulness seems to be the way this is going-again, pretty much like JR, which was also pretty faithful.

Favorite Moments: as for top favorite scenes, there's quite a few:
- When Kisa faints from his chair: just made me snort very loudly.
- When Takano-san flings the ruler at Onodera's head: that just made me burst out laughing and had be re winding to that scene like 10 times
- The Kiss: you had to know it was up there. The kiss Takano-san gives Onodera as a 'model' for a mangaka who can't seem to get the angle right. Needless to say that was a "kyaaa~~" moment for me. While I knew it was happening, it's a completely different thing to see a scene like that as an image, an another to see it animated. Fan girl explosion here.
- When Takano-san realizes who Onodera is: I just loved the way they animated his eyes widening. Reminded me of JR and Usagi-san's reaction when Misaki confessed to him. Supah Kawaii ♥

Opening/Ending Themes: While they weren't instantly addicting as Pigstar's Kimi=Hana/ Shoudou, I'm sure the opening and ending themes for SIHK will become favorites of mine as well. The sequences themselves are lovely, with the opening being super perky and the ending theme having a slightly more serious tone to it, which I found balanced out nicely.

Overall, I am very pleased with where this anime is going. Here's hoping it'll be just as good as JR
Till next time~

-GD

The Chu that all us fangirls waited for

The Opening

The Ending