Nopy's Blog

Bungaku Shoujo (Literature Girl) was originally a series of light novels written by Mizuki Nomura about a girl that can only eat paper with stories/poem on it, in other words, literature. I remember seeing the Bungaku Shoujo novels and an artbook around in bookstores when I was in Japan so when I heard that there was an anime OVA for it I thought I’d check it out. Bungaku Shoujo Memoire is a 3-part OVA that focuses on the characters Touko Amano, Asakura Miu, and Nanase Kotobuki.

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You know it’s terrible stuff, but you just can’t get enough of it. Well, that’s how I feel about High School of The Dead (HOTD) right now. After watching 7 episodes, I think I have a pretty good grasp of the anime and what it’s about. So far the plot has been mediocre, but sometimes great characters can make up for that. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case here. Lets just take a quick look at what kind of characters make up the cast of HOTD:

Takashi Komuro

Takashi is usually portrayed as the “leader” of the group. It makes sense considering he’s a young, physically fit teenager, and they’re always the heroes when it comes to anime. It wouldn’t be so bad if he fit the stereotype of a hero, the one that keeps everything together, fights for justice and all that good stuff, but he’s just another guy. The comments he makes in the show doesn’t make him sound too smart either. As an example, in the 4th episode when Rei asks Komuro whether he’s used a gun before, he replies that he’s seen them on tv. Seriously, if someone asks if you know how to use something, you don’t reply that you saw it on tv, it just makes you seem like someone trying to act smart.

 Usually if the hero is lacking in intelligence, at least he’ll be funny, but Komuro is in no way humourous. Instead, he’s usually trying to get on Rei’s good side or just out smashing things.

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It’s that time of year again! Animethon 17 will be taking place from August 6 to 8, which is less than two weeks away. AT used to be the largest anime convention in Western Canada, but I guess it lost that title to Anime Evolution in Vancouver last year. That explains why the ad now says it’s the longest running anime convention in Canada instead. I actually find it surprising that AT even held both titles. Most people around here have never heard of anime, and a lot of those that have think it’s some kind of Japanese porn because of the government and media. Just to prove my point, when I took this picture at the train platform, the guy sitting next to me gave me a weird look, stood up, and sat down at a bench at the other end of the platform.

Anyways, while I did get a lot of goodies in Japan, one thing I didn’t get any of was manga. I can’t read Japanese so there was no point in my picking any up there. That’ll be the only thing I’m buying at AT this year.

I was planning on writing this post after I had finished watching all of the anime that I had started for the season, but due to me having a lack of time (and interest), I figure if I haven’t finished watching it by now, then it’s going to stay unwatched. That means that for this seasons wrap-up, I’ll only be covering the 3 series that I actually finished: Angel Beats, Arakawa Under the Bridge, and Mayoi Neko Overrun.

Angel Beats

I’ve heard a lot of people complain about Angel Beats from when the character designs were revealed up to the last episode of the anime. A lot of them were about how Angel Beats was just copying other anime, but you can say the same thing about almost any other series, so I just ignored those. When I started watching Angel Beats, I was expecting another drama-comedy with the theme centering around “rebirth”, just like its predecessors: Kanon, AIR, and Clannad.

My expectations were met, but I was a bit disappointed with the delivery. While previous Key works started out with comedy and slowly moved into drama, Angel Beats seemed to be mostly comedy with drama bits thrown in here and there. Otonashi’s reaction at the end of the last episode also made me go “wtf”. For the whole series he was a cool, level-headed guy similar to Yuuichi, Yukito, and Tomoya, then all of a sudden he just breaks down at the loss of his love. I know they wanted to show him as not being a perfect person and having some insecurities, but I thought they went too far with how they handled Otonashi.

Besides the delivery, and that last episode, I actually enjoyed most of Angel Beats. When the series focused on comedy, it made me laugh, and the action scenes were pretty cool. My favourite episode would have to be the one where Yui passes on. I loved the “this is how our lives would be if we were alive” scenes and I thought it was absolutely sweet how Hinata would visit Yui every day and eventually ask her to marry him.

One word to describe Angel Beats: pwahahaawwww (this is me laughing and crying at the same time).

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At the start of the spring 2010 season, Mayoi Neko Overrun was one of the anime that I was on the fence about so I decided to watch a few more episodes. Well, a few more episodes ended up being more than I thought and I am now up to episode 6 of the anime, which is halfway through the series. In case you haven’t heard of Mayoi Neko Overrun before, here’s the synopsis from MyAnimeList:

A heart warming love comedy. Tsuzuki Takumi is a high school boy, who is running a confectionery “Stray Cats” with his sister-in-law Otome. Otome is an extremely good-natured person and is always running around to help people. One day she brings home a runaway girl Kiriya Nozomi. Nozomi’s closed mind gradually opens to them as she works as a pâtissière at Stray Cats.

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