What is up, everybody? Today I wanted to take a look at an anime that I am finding to be a pretty nice addition to the harem genre, and after watching the first half of the show I'd figure I would give you my opinions on what I think is one of my favorite animes of the season. Today we are going to be looking at The Quintessential Quintuplets.
To save time I'm just gonna tell you that the story in this anime is most cliche I've seen for a harem. It starts off with MC, Fuutarou Uesugi, your average covert nerd from every anime ever who somehow ends up becoming a tutor for five smokin hot chicks who all just so happen to be quintuplets. Not only are they all sisters, but they also just happen to belong to a wealthy family. This is good for Uesugi as he sees this tutoring gig as a way to make money to pay back debts he owes and also so he can feed his family. This is also bad for Uesugi because not only are these girls total idiots they are also extremely lazy and try anything to get out of studying.
Aside from the underwhelming story one of the things I really enjoyed from this anime is its characters. Honestly, it's hard for me to select my favorite waifu right now although I am feeling a strong Miku vibe. That's how good the character development in this harem is. Each of the protagonists has their own unique personalities that make their character very likable. Also, the amount of screen time each character gets is a plus as it gives equal development to all the main cast.
The art design in TQQ is admirable. Each of the character designs perfectly matches each of our main protags personalities which I'll give them points for that.
Sound was something I didn't find too appealing. The opening and closing themes are alright but the voice acting was really good and was something I enjoyed.
Overall I think this is a pretty damn good anime so far. If you're looking for something fun to pass the time or you're looking for a good harem to watch then this is something you don't want to pass up.
See you in the next post. Peace.
Also be sure to click the link below to check out my homie over at Time's Up Entertainment. He hosts a series call Anime 101 where he breaks down the synopsis of two different anime. Go check it out if you're looking for something you haven't seen yet. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNj6atR23CmPKU44bESHBwg
What up my homies and homettes. It's been about a couple weeks since my last review. I've kinda been slowing down with my anime viewing lately mostly because I've been getting a little burnt out which is mostly due to me watching a lot of shows in a short amount of time. So I've decided to ease back a little and only watch one show a week so I can at least get a review out in a timely manner.
So for this weeks review, we're gonna be looking at an anime in the CGDCT department. It's also one of my personal favorites.
New Game! is an anime adapted by studio Doga Kobo from the four-panel manga written by Shotaro Tokuno. The story begins with our main character Aoba Suzukaze who, after graduating high school, starts working for a game company known as Eagle Jump where she is employed as a character designer.
Most of the animes focus is on Aoba and her interactions with her fellow colleagues as she learns the ups and downs of creating a video game.
What I really like about this anime is its ability to make you a smile with every episode. New Game's comedy is something that isn't designed to make you burst out laughing but more so is there to give you a warm feeling. Watching a character's reaction over making a deadline or walking in on a colleague sleeping in their underwear is something that gives me a peace of mind and keeps me engaged. The comedy in this anime never feels forced which is what I like. It eases you into the jokes rather than just cramming the shit down your throat in hopes that they can get a laugh out of its audience.
The characters in this anime are something that makes this anime worth the time I spent watching it. It's nice to see characters in an anime that don't feel like I'm watching cardboard cutout tropes. Each one has their own distinct personality that makes the show feel more alive. None of then ever seem too far from the realm of reality which is good. I like characters that I can relate to in some way.
Seeing as this anime is, for the most part, a slice of life there isn't too much of a plot outside of our characters designing a sequel to a game that our MC used to play when she was younger.
Music in this show isn't anything special either. I will say the intro is something that I particularly enjoy and is one that I never skip over.
The animation is also something I really enjoyed. If you've seen other works by Doga such as YuruYuri, Himouto Umaru-chan or Anima Yell you should already know what I'm talking about. I love the vibrancy of each scene and character as it gives the anime life and energy that keeps me craving for more.
Overall I think this is a well put together anime. It doesn't try to be anything standoutish but what it brings to the table is something that, by the end of every episode, will leave you with a smile on your face and a warmness in your heart.
If you're looking for something to pass the time and don't want something too overstimulating then I recommend this anime wholeheartedly. You won't regret it.
What up homies and homettes. Welcome back to another TBO review. Today we're going to be looking at Canaan; an anime from studio P.A.Works, which was based a scenario written by Kinoko Nasu and Takashi Takeuchi for the popular visual novel 428: Shibuya Scramble.
Before I begin I'd like to give a big thanks to my homie over at Time's Up Entertainment for providing the synopsis video for this review. After you're finished with this review be sure to head on over to his Youtube channel to check out his Anime 101 series where every Tuesday he provides synopsis videos for two different animes of the same category. It's a great way for you to discover new anime that you haven't seen yet or if you want a short description of an anime that you're thinking about watching. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNj6atR23CmPKU44bESHBwg
Now that introductions are out the way let's begin the review.
Like I said at the beginning of this post, Canaan is based to the visual novel 428: Shibuya Scramble. This anime takes place 2 years after the events of 428. Here we meet two of our main characters, Maria Osawa and Minoru Minorikawa, two reporters from Japan who are sent out to report on an anti-terrorist conference in Shanghai.
During their visit, they are nearly gunned by two masked gunmen until they are saved by our titular character Canaan, a mercenary and assassin, who is also an old friend of Maria.
It is revealed that the assassins sent to kill Maria and Minoru were part of a terrorist organization known as Snake who is lead by another assassin and rival of Canaan's named Alphard.
As the story unfolds we are revealed the intentions of Snake and learn more about the history behind the relationship between Canaan and Maria.
What really got me with this anime was the relationship between our two protagonist Canaan and Maria. Not having anyone else since the death of her parents Maria is pretty much the only friend that Canaan has. Their shared history and deep bond they have is also one of the main focuses of the anime which creates some really heartwarming moments throughout the series.
The action in this anime is also something that I really enjoyed. GWG is something that I always welcome and with its fast-paced nature and high energy it gets my blood pumpin every time I see Canaan dukin it out with someone. There's never a dull moment with these scenes and they always keep me on my toes.
The story is aight. Nothing too spectacular just your typical good vs evil scenario but with just enough substance to keep me wanting to see what happens next. I really loved its real-world look on terrorism that doesn't go too into the realm of the unrealistic and keeps me engaged the entire ride.
Music in this anime is also something that I was too impressed with although I really did enjoy the intro as it is one of the few intro songs that I don't skip over when I go to watch the next episode. It gets me pumped up for whatever is about to go down.
The animation of Canaan was a big plus to me. Very well detailed and smooth it made every action scene in this picture look that much more awesome.
Character development in this series is something that I was really impressed with and is pretty much one of the main focuses throughout Canaan. Most of the attention is focused mostly on the relationship between Canaan and Maria seeing as how they've had a long history together prior to the events of this anime. Again there are a lot of touching moments between these two that tbh almost had me welling up inside. The only problem that I can say I have is that Canaan's character hardly ever shows any real emotion which I can kinda understand due to her situation, but it also makes her a pretty boring person. Luckily Maria's high energy makes up for this. Alphard was also someone I really enjoy too. At first, I thought she was just gonna be a mindless terrorist just killing people for some sick thrill but she actually has her own motivations for the things she does and is shown to have a cold calculating demeanor that makes her the perfect threat.
Overall I thought this anime was pretty good. If you love GWG action or if you're looking for something with really nice character development I'd give this one a shot.
If there's one game I can say I'm a total otaku for is Minecraft. Been playing this game for over 8 years now and I still can't get enough. I might start putting up periodic post of my adventures when I'm not writing reviews. Who knows I might start a LP video series where I play Minecraft and talk about anime and manga. I've always wanted to start an LP series of this game for the longest time. What do you think?
How's everybody doing? I hope that your new year is going off without a hitch. As for me, I've been on a non-stop animeathon trying to get these reviews out to you all. So today we're going to be looking at another anime from the dark fantasy genre that I highly recommend that you check out if you haven't already.
Maho Tsukai no Yome or The Ancient Magus' Bride is the story of 15-year-old Japanese girl Chise Hatori who decides to put herself up for auction after her family and society have pretty much given up on her. She then meets a man like creature named Elias Ainsworth a being who possesses the head of an animal skull. After purchasing Chise for a whopping five million pounds he takes her back to his home where he explains that he wants her to be his apprentice and hopefully one day his bride. Chise also learns that she is a Sleigh Beggy; a type of mage that can harness almost unlimited magic from herself and the world around her but this puts a profusion of strain on her body causing her to pass out whenever she uses too much magic. This also shortens her life span giving her only three years left to live due to her constant absorption of magic.
Throughout the series, Chise learns to harness her abilities through varies methods with the help of Elias and several other characters they meet throughout the show. Elias also tries to find a way to prevent Chise from dying thus giving her trinkets that suppress her intake of magic till he can find a cure.
Now that I got that quick summary out of the way lets talk about what I really enjoyed so far with this anime. I'm gonna try to keep this as spoiler free as possible so let us begin.
One thing that really got me was the environments throughout the series. One of the major things when it comes to fantasy, in my opinion, is worldbuilding. As the story progresses we are introduced to many different settings. Each one is well detailed and feels really immersive. I love the feeling of being part of the world rather than just an observer.
The animation is also really well done. Again worldbuilding is an important component when it comes to telling a fantasy tale and with that, the artwork should also accompany that aspect and this anime does a really good job of giving life to this world.
The characters, for the most part, are pretty well written. nothing too spectacular but also nothing too unrealistic either. I do like characters that I can relate to because it allows me to connect to them more. Chise's loneliness and search to be part of something that she can call a family makes want to root for her seeing as she was cast aside from her own family.
Elias's character is something that I also enjoyed. His constant over protection and emotional unintelligence is something that I found quite entertaining. It also gives way to some comedic moments that break away from the consistent melancholy throughout the series as he tries to understand Chise's feelings.
The supporting cast is really good bunch themselves. None of them feel like throwaway characters that are just there to tell our main heroine that everything is gonna be alright. Each one has their own backstories and personalities that make them unforgettable.
Overall I thought this was a pretty damn good anime. It has its problems here and there but they never got in the way of me enjoying this show.
If you're looking for a nice fantasy anime to get engrossed in then I highly recommend checking this one out right now. You won't regret it.
Handa-kun is one of those comedies that shows it has potential but can't seem to figure itself out. Now, before I begin I should tell you that I've never seen Barakamon; the original show this anime is based on. All I know is that Handa-kun is a prequel that takes place during Seishu Handa's high school years. For this review, I'm only gonna be focusing on Handa-kun itself and seeing what I think and if it's worth checking out.
One thing I have to tell you is that this comedy only has one running gag throughout almost the entire show. Handa is an introvert that has the perception that everyone in school hates him when in reality everyone adores him to the levels of utter insanity. In one episode a girl threatens to kill herself over a fucking eraser he let her borrow. And that's how pretty much every character is in this anime. Just Handa obsessed maniacs who worship a man for pretty much no real reason. There's also a group known as the Handa Force consisting of, Tsutsui Akane, Nikaidou Reo, Aizawa Junichi, and Kondou Yukio who, all but one, are just Handa obsessed fanboys. Every minute of their screen time is dedicated to them, what else, misunderstanding Handa with an occasional word from the straight man of the group, Yukio, who is one of the few characters in this anime that I actually like. Aside from the overused repetition of misunderstandings, the humor in this anime was pretty well written. I did get a laugh from some of the side characters such as a creepy librarian and a yandere character type just to name a couple.
Also speaking of side characters, that's pretty much how Handa is treated throughout the entire anime. For an anime called Handa-kun there really isn't much focus on Handa himself. Most of the show is focused on the Handa Force more then Handa himself thus a lot of the humor in this anime is from the reactions from Handa's classmates rather than the other way around. Again this did give me some chuckles here and there but the repetition of misunderstandings did start to wear on me halfway through the show. Like I said before the supporting cast in this anime doesn't have much personality outside of obsessing over Handa which, in turn, causes him problems. The only real friend Handa has is his childhood friend named Takao Kawafuji who knows about Handa's popularity, but decides to keep it a secret from him.
Like most slice of life anime, there isn't any real plot. It's just about the daily high school life of Handa-kun as he struggles to make friends even though ironically everyone loves him.
The animation was pretty good. Some of the facial expressions and characters reactions had me snickering.
Can't really say much about the music in this one. The intro was alright but the rest of the soundtrack just sounded like the type of stuff you would hear on a royalty-free site.
Overall I still would recommend this anime. If you can look past the overused joke some of the humor in this anime is pretty damn funny even if the show doesn't focus much on the supposed main character Handa. Even if you haven't seen the original anime this show is based on, such as myself, I still found this pretty entertaining. If you have, then tell me if you enjoyed this spin-off series or not. I'd love to hear your guys opinions.
Now before I begin I should tell you that this isn't gonna be an in-depth analysis about paper vs. digital manga. This is just my opinion on why I gravitate more towards physical forms of literature.
I've only recently started to read manga and it has occurred to me that although there exist platforms for reading manga online I still prefer to read the physical copy. For one I just love the feeling of having a tangible collection of something that I like. Coming home and seeing the effort I put into trying to complete a series I like brings a sense of well being to my soul. Also staring at a bright screen for hours really puts a strain my eyes and although you could say I should just take a break every hour, come on now, I'm an otaku. I don't know the meaning of the word "break". Just something about sitting back on my couch with a book in one hand and a cup-a-joe in the other gives me an unprecedented pleasure that no other form of written media has been able to do.
This isn't to say that I'll never read manga online seeing as how web exclusive manga has been on the rise in recent years with projections indicating that digital manga will exceed paper in sales in the coming future. In fact animes such as One Punch Man, and, my personal favorite, Recovery of an MMO Junkie, were adapted from the digital manga. Plus checking out a manga online first will allow me to determine whether or not it's worth spending my money on the physical copy for my collection.
Overall I'm open to there being more web-based manga seeing as how it doesn't bound an author to a single publisher since they can just upload their comics to image hosting site and/or their social media page. Although I still find it strange that authors still print their material in black and white but I guess that's just an aesthetic thing or to just save time. Still though even if I do prefer paper manga I'm hoping that its digital counterpart finds a special place in otaku culture and even in my heart.
Well, that'll do it for this post. If you have an opinion on the subject please let me know. I'd love to hear what you think about the new digital age of manga reading. Until next time. Peace
