Okami-San and her Seven Companions is a comedy romance anime by the makers of Toradora, which is immediately obvious as both lead females look and act the same give or take height and clothing.
The story revolves around a society dedicated to helping people but asking for favors in return, sort of like the lowest, cleanest form of banking & loans, so it’s no surprise that the society is known as the Otogi Bank. The cast of characters is made up of a group of students with fairy tale motifs behind them from Western & Japanese stories; Main character Taiga I mean Ryoko is based on the Big Bad Wolf, while other leads Ringo & Ryoshi are Little Red Riding Hood & the Huntsman respectively and so on.
Episodes generally focus on jobs which are sometimes more violent in nature when faced with an enemy school, while other episodes focus on most of the characters deep & sometimes dark origin stories; there are also light hearted episodes which play on fairy tale themes such as Cinderella & Snow White; so we have a decent mixture of tones throughout the short series but because it’s such a short series there isn’t enough time to cover everything leaving the whole thing unfinished, also making the final fight with psycho villain Shiro an anti-climax, in fact the last three episodes are just one big confusing mess all together. A character who were supposed to know comes out of nowhere to train Ryoshi, while a plot to separate & destroy the Otogi Bank fails miserably, with the whole plot leaving more holes than Swiss cheese, and then we finish on a half-hearted love confession from Ryoko; it’s a poor way to finish and I hope for a 2nd season to fix this.
The characters are pretty decent as well, I find it strange that it’s called Okami-San and her seven companions when there are clearly eight, but I’m just nit-picking now.
Okami-san or Ryoko if you prefer is a classic tsundere but justified given that her backstory is rather unpleasant, she also wears the cutest ever boxing gloves known as the Kitty Knuckles. Ryoshi is a stupidly shy boy who could pass for Hinata Hyuuga’s twin brother, who is a dead hand shot with a slingshot and pachinko balls.
Ringo is the nice, yet devious one, Liszt is the president of the Otogi Bank who always has a hidden agenda and enjoys cross-dressing; his cousin Alice is comically serious all the time.
Otsu likes dressing up as a maid and always returns favors in a heavy OCD way. Majolica is just the mad scientist who sadly doesn’t get a backstory which is a shame considering her design is really good.
Finally we have Taro & Otohime who function as the world’s cutest couple, Taro flirts with any girl but will always be there for Otohime, Otohime herself used to be chubby and quite often bullied for it but a few nice words from Taro and not only has she got a lover for life but she turns out beautiful. It’s always hilarious watching Taro & Otohime on screen as Otohime’s way of bringing Taro inline is heavily implied to be good sex, as the narrator points out. Speaking of the narrator, while it’s funny hearing her snarky commentary in each episode it does however interrupt a lot of dialogue, this is the same for the subbed version which makes it even worst because you don’t always know if what your reading is the narrator or the characters.
Final Verdict: Okami-San is a very mixed bag when it comes to everything, the characters are good but use a few too many cliches and cookie cutter personalities, while the story starts off well it ends too quickly for it to make any sense. Finally the large shifts in tone between episodes are a bit of a distraction, not helped when the narrator is still being snarky. I’d still give this series a try, even if you don’t gain much from watching it.
My current run of reviews is on hold but to fill the gap here is my review of Mayo Chiki.
Mayo Chiki is a harem series and that probably gives you a fair idea what to expect but every series in this genre has a gimmick and this week’s gimmick is that lead male Kinjiro Sakamichi has Gynophobia which is the fear of women, either causing his nose to bleed uncontrollably or pass out, apparently this was developed because his mother is a pro wrestler who practises her moves on him as does his younger sister Kureha, nothing traumatic just overly affectionate family.
We then meet Konoe Subaru who is a butler to a rich girl named Kanade Suzutsuki, Konoe is apparently the superstar of the school, really attractive, good at school, good at sports, freakishly strong and totally devoted to his master; only one problem, Konoe is actually a girl who is found out by accident by Kinjiro.
I’ve seen enough Harem series to know what’s going on, he has to keep a secret about the gender thing, Kanade uses that to blackmail him, other girls join in on the fun and Konoe ends up madly in love with Kinjiro. Yeah that’s pretty much it.
Well that’s the story out the way let’s look at the characters.
Kinjiro who is nicknamed Chicken due to the translations in his full name is a typical guy with nothing to work from personality wise other than the chronic fear of women.
Konoe is a highly devoted butler who loves sheep plushies. Funny enough in the anime, no one ever finds out that Konoe is a girl other than Kinjiro despite the numerous times she’s dressed as one in plain sight of everyone and has an obvious bust when not wrapped in bandages, she even leans several times towards being a girl while dressed in butler uniform, at least Ouran’s Haruhi was a convincing male.
Konoe’s master Kanade is just a straight up sadist who uses every form of blackmail to play with poor Kinjiro, and likes to pretend to be his lover, it’s difficult to know when she can be taken seriously as she does this in every single episode.
Kureha is a straight up little sister character whose unique talent is pro wrestling the older brother, nothing special.
Usami is a straight up tsundere nothing special there either.
Nakuru at least tries to be different, by being a supporter of slash fan fiction and supporting the relationship between Konoe & Kinjiro, and yes she thinks Konoe is male. She also has an unhealthy obsession with glasses and for some reason has cat ears, she’s probably the only interesting character in this show.
Finally we have Konoe’s father Nagare whose part of the over protective daddy crowd but it’s hard to sympathize with him when he forged a kidnapping and drew a knife on his own daughter, even if he had no intention of using the weapon and even if the intentions were good, that’s still a dick move to pull.
You may have worked out by the selective language that I found this series disappointing, a real chance was there to pull off a unique story but falls for every single Harem trap and doesn’t leave enough time to recover, ending abruptly at 13 episodes before we resolve any of the plotholes. I’m glad there’s no dub, as it wouldn’t be a very good one even with well-established dub actors.
Final Verdict: It’s not a good series, it opens up to great possibilities but goes for tired clichés instead which leaves the overall experience dull.
A long time ago I did a list on both the best & worst modern cartoons, since then four new entries have appeared and one entry from the last list that's had a rethink, so to save me on extensive editing I shall list these five entries here.
Rethink
Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes
Season 2's Skrull Invasion took over the story and became difficult to follow when most of the heroes became disguised Skrulls. The plot was too over complicated when all that was needed was a villain bad enough to be a threat but not too over complex that trying to follow his/her plan gives me chronic headaches.
Worst
Monsuno
What the hell is this show about? Monsuno is a Japanese/American hybrid series like Transformers & like that show is also a promotion heavy toy series. I'm afraid like Redakai, it has the same problem. You don't give a ridiculous name and silly mystic back story to a TOY!!! In fact to quote a certain Cowboy doll.
"YOU ARE A TOY!!!!!" "YOU ARE A CHILD'S PLAYTHING!!!"
Huntik: Secrets & Seekers
At least this show doesn't make it obvious that it was made from a Children's Card Game, but doesn't stop it being utter crap, another mystic show which tries too hard. A sad problem with today's cartoons is that any attempt to copy the Yu-Gi-Oh formula, has resulted in a lot of shows like this one; being completely redundant in content. It doesn't help that I was born in the advertisement heavy cartoons of the 80s & grew up with the still toy heavy but "were trying to give you good messages" 90s so I'm not affected by this anymore.
Gormiti Nature Unleashed
I gave Gormiti a free ride because it wasn't bad enough to warrant a worst mark but only charming enough to just miss the best list, then they made this.
Quite possible the worst CGI show ever made, how the bloody hell does a modern show mess up CGI! Reboot is better than this, CGI Ripoffs of popular films are better than this, heck even amateurs on Youtube are better than this. Italy you are now the worst country for cartoons.
You can't make CGI and you can't make decent cartoons.
Best
Gravity Falls
Disney have done their homework, they realize it's a waste of time trying to compete on the big screen with 2D animation but can't always make CGI last on the small screen without a well known name promoting it, so that's why small screen Disney Cartoons are still 2D. They also know that Phineas & Ferb are nearing their end so lets see what's popular.
"Hey Cartoon Network are doing well with surreal shows, why not do that?"
"That's a great idea lets hire a former employee who worked with JG Quintel"
After a hiccup with Fish Hooks we have Gravity Falls, a show that combines surreal mysteries without looking like they're ripping off Regular Show and plenty of good writing to last a few seasons.
It also makes a change for the female lead not to be the nagging voice of "I told you so" and finally being a crazy free spirit.
So not much has changed but at least Disney is still doing what it does best.
Lets face facts I'm not brilliant with cosplay and time is not something I have these days between a full time job and the lack of spare time I get doing life stuff and social stuff but if I did have time, I'd make it easy on myself and go with ten characters I easily look like, this is mainly because I have such easy to work with Blonde Hair.
10. Flynn Scifo from Tales of Vesperia
Okay the costume isn't simple but the looks are really easy, I'm really starting to get into Tales of Vesperia right now so I'm hoping Flynn is more than just an overly chivalrous knight.
9. Bandit Keith from Yu-Gi-Oh
It's easy for me to look rough on the face seeing as I have to shave every two days and I own enough bandanas and shades to pull it off, plus I'm a dead hand at imitating Yu-Gi-Oh abridged voices... IN AMERICA!
8. Minato Namikaze from Naruto
I respect the character highly and store bought Naruto costumes are really easy to come by but my main reason for choosing Minato is the fact that I love red haired women and Kushina is hands down my favorite female Naruto character.
7. England from Hetalia
There are plenty of blondes in Hetalia but I can't call myself British without actually cosplaying Britain himself, although the eyebrows would be hard for me to pull off.
6. Quatre Raberba Winner from Gundam Wing
A snappy dresser and he has goggles of which I own three pairs, one of which goes with the costume. British cosplay puts more emphasis on costume creation so the snappier the outfit the more points you get, that's why most conventions I go to features a lot of female cosplayers in over sized poofy dresses.
5. Sanji from One Piece
I have actually cosplayed Sanji twice already, once in full suit the other in orange shirt and waistcoat, I don't smoke but I enjoy making fun of 4Kids by using lollies instead.
4. Barnaby Brooks Jr from Tiger & Bunny
Out of all the characters on this list, I resemble Barnaby Brooks Jr the most, I'm roughly the right age, almost the right build, I can already cosplay the guy I just need the jacket and finally my hair naturally flicks up when it's long. But my next three entries are the ones I want to cosplay.
3. Loke from Fairy Tail
He's not my avatar for nothing and I enjoy wearing snazzy suits.
2. Yatterman from Yatterman
This is my next cosplay project, Yatterman. He's an old Tatsunoko character from the 70s but has been remade enough to still be remembered, plus I didn't buy a Kendama for nothing, as it's his main weapon.
1. Hermit from Kenichi Mightiest Disciple
But this guy may replace Loke as my avatar. Hermit is quickly becoming my favorite character so don't be surprised if it does actually happen. Plus he's the only character on this list where I don't even have to bother with a hair style, messy works and I know enough about Kenpo to imitate the movements.
Bonus: Just for fun I'll list one Crossplay
0. Alice Malvin from Pumpkin Scissors
Don't expect me to wear a dress, but I'll happily put on her military clothes.
Back with another Endless Wardrobe to try and figure out what's been going on lately.
What's Still On?
I'm coming to the end of the latest run on Walk of Fame so look out for the next theme which will be announced soon.
Dirty Pair week is in editing stage and will be up soon.
Rune Soldier & Creamy Mami reviews should go up tomorrow, I do have more time this week being off work so hopefully I won't get dragged away too much.
Ballard of Goldena Moonlight will see it's next two chapters both in editing stage.
Keima Katsuragi vs the World is on hold.
The next behind the anime Pokemon should go up this week.
I've already started the video game runs with my most recent 3 Kingdoms list, there will be a review on a Naruto game & Project X Zone coming soon.
Kyatto-Ninden Teyandee is on hold.
Brave Pokemon
Talk about a gutsy move from the Pokemon creators, while I was touring the East of England, I heard tell of Mega Pokemon, apparently this was all the hype over Mewtwo changing forms and he's not alone, joining the list is Lucario, Mawile, Absol, Ampharos, Kangaskhan (Which lets the baby fight as well as the parent) & pictured below personal favorite Blaziken.
So not only will Pokemon X&Y add a number of changes that the game has desperately needed for a decade, it's trying something new. I'll reserve the Digimon comparison until I understand the mechanics behind this.
Another short one but I got a decent picture this time.
