With the new year brings a set of new anime to try out.
Tsukumogami are beloved possessions that take on a youkai form if they've been cherished by it's owner. In this story the Tsukumogami inhabit a rental shop run by non blood siblings Seiji and Oko; the shop exists during the Edo period where fires were common place so having a rental store for objects was just a way to get round it. The story itself revolves around the town inhabitants and their problems which Seiji and Oko solve by lending out Tsukumogami with each of the five having a distinct personality and history.
Notetsu is a bat charm, a trinket similar to modern day phone charms, well looked after until we was passed around as debt payment.
Tsukuyomi is a rare wall scroll who talks big but was hardly used for his purpose mostly because his design is rare.
Usagi is a comb who picked up gossip habits from being used by a mother and daughter who got along really well.
Goi is a smoking pipe who prefers to lay out facts and mediate decisions rather than give his own opinion but as an object used for bringing couples together among commoners will help make that happen.
Ohime is a princess doll that was saved from a life time in storage by a chivalrous thief so romanticizes about it every opportunity she gets.
The story is charming and relaxing with a dash of romance, a good anime to switch to between action shows for a well earned break.
The subject matter is better explained in subtitles over dub, so I doubt one would work.
Final Verdict: This anime was a pleasant surprise, great characters in a good plot does alot to give these 12 episode anime some much needed love.
Happy New Year! It's about time I reviewed anime again.
The Legendary Pai are a set of ten Mahjong Tiles of when collected from various monsters and combined are able to grant any wish the user desires.
After these Mahjong tiles are a Magical Hero, an Alien Bunny Girl, a Dominatrix, an Idol from the Magic World and a Cyborg, all of which butt heads for possession of each piece.
It's already off to a rocky start when it's based on a series of strip mahjong games as well as the plot taking directly from the 2nd not 1st game, yet it fails to be hentai which is what it should've been to begin with; while the 90s art looks nice, it's dumb premise along with a very weak cast of very unbalanced characters and scenes of needless violence doesn't make Su-chi-pai a hidden gem among the OVAs.
You've pretty much seen the best it has to offer so expect your viewing to be short.
Slightly shocked it wasn't picked for dubbing as it was released right in the middle of the OVA era.
Final Verdict: It doesn't even register well as an ecchi anime nor a video game franchise for that matter.
Not part of the Anilog list of YouTube anime but easy enough to find through other official means.
Based on the My Monster Secret manga, Actually I Am, tells the story of Asahi Kuromine who is bad at keeping secrets as his unique personality traits makes him easy to read and tease. He falls for Youko and tries to confess only to discover that she is a vampire by pure accident, it's also revealed that Youko's personality is not of being stand offish or stoic but rather a cute ditzy girl as she tries to avoid drawing attention, this is only the tip of the iceberg as other members of the school reveal their secrets as we also have an Alien piloting a human sized mech, the school reporter with a fortune god in her glasses, a werewolf that changes gender instead of going monster, a couple of demons, an esper and later a time traveller, how will Asahi cope?
I'll start with the good, despite showing itself as an obvious harem it lacks much of the same trappings, we also have the rare case of the protagonist having believable friends as their dynamic is shared with many real life guy groups, usually the guy just has one stupid friend or none at all because he's the only male in school but this is a nice change of pace. I also like that it doesn't go too obvious with it's choice of monster traits.
My only real complaint is the lack of any real funny content, the manga is built with more elaborate facial expressions and a higher emphasis on being a laugh out loud comedy, the anime struggles to match this tone opting for too many quiet moments, doesn't help that Asahi is kind of annoying.
Dub was never made but will be cookie cutter if it was.
Final Verdict: it's better made than you think, just don't expect all the comedy from the manga to translate into the anime.
This is the first of the Anilog reviews, Anilog is an official YouTube account with access to a number of anime approved for use by many Japanese anime companies, in short, you can watch free anime without the fear of it disappearing the next day, it went Global this week so let's begin.
Starting with Aware Meisaku-Kun, it's a comic style short series in which lead Meisaku aims to become a Masterpiece Literature character for fame and fortune, he's immediately met with other characters including a Momotaro style character, a robot Pinocchio, a rice ball and a Kappa. Each episode takes a subject and runs with it for five minutes often referencing the characters strange designs in relation to the subject, the best way I can describe it, it's loud and very Japanese, so for a Western audience, this doesn't have any appeal, nor would it be good for dubbing either. So not a great start for Anilog.
Final Verdict: Way too Japanese for me, after about 4-5 episodes the jokes reach a dead end.
This review will be a long one.
Keitaro once made a promise to a girl when he was younger that he would meet the girl again at Tokyo University; however Keitaro has failed the entrance exam twice and is struggling financially so he calls his Grandmother to try and stay at the Hinata Apartments; what his Grandmother failed to mention was that the Apartments are now a girl's dormitory, needless to say his first impression ends in severe pain but it gets weirder when Keitaro becomes Dorm Manager much to the residents dismay. Over time, Keitaro gets on better with the girls if he can manage to avoid hair trigger violence particularly from Naru who is aiming for the same goal as Keitaro; curious by the similar ambitions, Keitaro wonders if Naru could be the promised girl but standing in their way are rivals, curses and Naru's severe insecurities.
The anime is garbage, the anime only characters are dreadful, the episode plots make no sense, the dub acting is shit, the regular cast act out of character coming across as mean spirited and the animation is cheap and lifeless.
But I really want to give Love Hina a fair chance because the Manga is so much better for writing.
Since character writing is essential in a franchise like this, I'm going to go in depth.
Keitaro: Starts off clueless but once he has a career he can focus on, he actually matures to the point where he is in a better moral light compared to the girls.
Naru: So it makes it ironic that the girl were supposed to cheer for essentially becomes the worst character as her insecurities make her the worst possible tsundere, this plays well into the plot when Naru finally cracks and confesses.
Mutsumi: Only thanks to Mutsumi that Naru was even on that path to begin with as quite often she's more intelligent than her ditzy, sickly demeanour let on. She even fakes amnesia and threatens to marry Keitaro to push Naru into accepting her feelings for Keitaro.
Kaolla Su: Not to say other characters don't have their place as Kaolla Su being so far away from home attaches herself to other people like a little sister, this is evident when her mature side awakens revealing a girl who is very homesick.
Shinobu: Being the opposite, Shinobu closes herself off not helped by a difficult family life leaving her shy and quick to runaway, ironically Nyamo seems to be Shinobu with Kaolla's backstory.
Motoko: Motoko, who is easily my favourite character, idolized her older sister but felt that her sister's marriage took her away from the sword arts and judges men as evil as a result but learns through brutal lessons that she doesn't have to abandon being a woman for the sake of the sword and that Keitaro is a better man than she thought.
Kanako: Kanako pines on the memories of happiness spent with her brother but finds it hard to accept that other women are into Keitaro.
Haruka: Initially lets the chaos go over her head but when Seta pines for her love, Haruka is torn by the idea that she won Seta by default with her friend and Sara's mother passing away, it also suits Seta's need to find a suitable mother figure for Sara who seems to do as she pleases.
Kitsune: Happy to go along for the ride as it's fun to watch, it makes her friend happy and it's always crucial to have an audience surrogate in a harem.
Just by going through the cast properly you can tell that the writing is way better than the shit we ended up with for the anime adaption.
Final Verdict: Simple, read the Manga and Love Hina will actually be decent. The anime was a mistake.
