Tag: 2011

Oreimo Specials

Oreimo Specials

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Overview

Oreimo anime specials cover art featuring Sena, Ruri, and Kyousuke
Oreimo Specials Cover Art

The Oreimo Specials are a four-episode OVA that takes place during and directly after the first season of the anime. The first episode in the OVA is actually an alternate version of episode 12 from season one, while the next three episodes all take place between the ending of season one and the beginning of season two.

When the first season ended, it was unclear whether or not the anime would get a second season, and so a different ending was written into the final episode. However, once it was confirmed that there would be a second season, the ending of the first season didn’t match up with what happens next, thus the alternate episode 12 was needed.

In this new version of episode 12, Kirino does go on her trip to America, leaving Kyousuke behind. Because of this, Kuroneko becomes the female lead for the next three episodes of the OVA. It’s during these episodes that we finally learn her real name, Ruri Gokou.

Ruri is now a first-year high school student at the same school as Kyousuke. She claims he isn’t the reason she chose to go to that school, but we all know that’s a lie. I also thought that Ruri was supposed to be the same age as Kirino, but apparently Kirino is younger since she’s still in middle school.

At school, Kyousuke notices that Ruri isn’t making any friends from her class and isn’t interested in joining any clubs, so, as the loyal friend and older brother-type that he is, he decides to help her out. Together they join the game research club because Ruri is interested in making games, although she won’t really admit it.

The president of this club is someone who Kyousuke met in the alternate version of episode 12 when he went to the midnight game release for Kirino. The other members aren’t that important, with the exception of the only other female member, Sena Akagi.

Sena is essentially Kirino’s replacement for most of the OVA because she serves the same role to Ruri. The two girls eventually become friends, but neither of them will actually admit to liking each other. They also have creative differences just like Kirino and Ruri.

Throughout this OVA, Ruri, being the female lead, is also set up to be the primary romantic interest, but, as we all know, Kirino will eventually return and Ruri will be pushed aside for her instead. It’s a shame because once the romantic spotlight was cast on Ruri, I actually started liking her character a lot more.

Ruri "Kuroneko" Gokou from the Oreimo anime specials
Ruri “Kuroneko” Gokou

The latter half of the final episode of the OVA, however, is devoted to Kirino and serves to set up the second season of the anime. Kirino sends a text to Kyousuke telling him to throw away her anime collection, and another text to her father telling him to throw away her awards.

Up until this point, nobody has really heard from Kirino despite her being gone for six months. Because of this, her family is worried about her and so Kyousuke travels to America in order to figure out what’s wrong with Kirino.

Once he gets there, he discovers that she’s having a hard time adjusting to her new life because she can’t play her eroge games, and also can’t seem to beat any of the other girls at track. It’s mainly the failing at track that seems to be giving her the most stress, however, considering that’s the entire reason she went to America in the first place.

In the end, Kirino agrees to go back to Japan with Kyousuke, where she’s reunited with her friends.

New Characters

There are only two new characters who really seem to matter in this OVA. The first is the president of the game research club, Miura Gennosuke. He originally met Kyousuke at the midnight release of some siscon, eroge games that Kyousuke was buying for Kirino.

By the time Kyousuke was able to purchase the games, the final train from Akibahara had already left for the night and so he was stranded with no way to get back home. Luckily, Miura lent Kyousuke his bike because he believed that nobody who would buy the games he did could possibly be a bad person.

Miura is also apparently notably older than the rest of the students because he’s been held back so many times. One of the other club members tells him he should just graduate already, but Miura doesn’t really seem to be bothered by being held back.

The other, more major, new character of the OVA is Sena Akagi, the younger sister of Kyousuke’s friend, Kouhei Akagi. You may recall from either version of episode 12 that Kouhei was at the same midnight release as Kyousuke, but was instead buying a homoerotic game for his younger sister.

This younger sister is the one he was buying it for. Sena is obsessed with homosexual relationships, even to the point of having fantasies about all the male members of the game research club. Because of this, none of the male members of the club particularly like her despite th fact she’s one of only two female members.

She also seems to hate other otaku, despite being one herself, and also hates that her brother appears to be a siscon, despite playing up her role as the younger sister. Everything about her character conflicts with other parts of her character.

Sena Akagi from the Oreimo anime specials
Sena Akagi

Considering the second season of Oreimo appears to pick up directly from where this OVA left off, I think it’s highly likely we’ll see more of both Miura and Sena in the future.

Conclusion

The OVA was a 7/10 just like the first season of the series, and the best part was actually the exact same part as the best part of the first season. For those who aren’t aware, this is when Kyousuke and Kouhei accidentally meet up at the eroge midnight release. I’m glad that scene was left in both versions of episode 12.

Since the OP for this OVA is the same as the OP for the first season of the anime, I won’t be linking it here today.

If you enjoyed this last-minute review (I didn’t have anything to write about today, so I just watched these four episodes), then let me know in the comments below or by leaving a like. You can also follow me on Twitter or Tumblr, or subscribe to my blog via email for all your notification needs.

My review of Oreimo 2 is available here.

Steins;Gate

Steins;Gate

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Steins;Gate anime cover art featuring the Lab members
Steins;Gate Cover Art

Overview

Steins;Gate is one of the most popular and highly rated anime of all time, almost as much so as Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. But what makes it so appealing to the masses? It’s not a fantasy anime like many of those that rise to the top of the most popular list.

Instead, Steins;Gate is simply one of the best sci-fi anime around, a genre which doesn’t seem to get as much love as its fantasy counterpart. Maybe this is because in fantasy, anything goes, and so it’s easier to write a good story, while in sci-fi, things should still be grounded in reality to an extent.

Steins;Gate takes the common, futuristic idea of time travel, and makes it more attainable with our current technology. Sure, the science behind the various forms of time travel in the series is still made up, but we’re not getting a protagonist who easily invents the perfect time machine with our current technology.

Instead, the first time machine is created by accident and can only send short text messages to the past because there’s a limit to how much data can be sent back in time (using the current technology). By putting this limit on the concept of time travel, the series is both more grounded in reality, and has room to grow.

Now, you may think that time travel in any capacity (and there’s definitely true time travel in this series) is completely absurd and in no way grounded in reality, but take a look at other sci-fi anime, such as those in the mecha genre, in comparison.

When you think about giant humanoid mechas weighing thousands of tons running around fighting aliens, sending a small amount of data to the past doesn’t seem so far-fetched anymore. This is what appealed to me the most about the series.

Further, Steins;Gate works with the theory of multiverses, meaning that there are an infinite number of universes, each branching off from each other when a decision is made. This means that when the past is changed, it isn’t really changed, you’ve just now moved to a different branch of the multiverse in which things happened differently in the past.

Characters

Okabe Rintarou, also known as Hououin Kyouma, is the protagonist of the series and self-proclaimed mad scientist. Despite being a college student (who doesn’t appear to actually go to college) he shows signs of an extreme case of chunibyou.

The next member of Okabe’s group, the Future Gadget Lab, is Mayuri Shiina. Mayuri seems to be Okabe’s best friend, but it’s unclear for exactly how long the two of them have known each other.

While Mayuri doesn’t have any technical skills to contribute to the group, she serves as the glue that holds the rest of the members together, although they don’t know it. Her happy personality gives the lab a warm, welcoming feeling.

Itaru Hashida, or Daru, is the third original member of the Future Gadget Lab. He actually has technical skills which contribute to the lab and serves as the primary programmer and builder of the gadgets. Daru is into otaku culture pretty deep and frequents a maid cafe in town.

Makise Kurisu, or Christina as Okabe refers to her, is Okabe’s “assistant” at the lab. She’s a prodigy who wrote a paper on the science behind time travel, but is also against the concept at the same time. As the tsundere of the series, she appears to be everyone’s favorite character, but I still think I like Mayuri more.

Suzuha Amane is a time traveler from the year 2036 and part of a resistance which is fighting to protect the future from becoming a dystopia. It’s clear from the start that she knows more than she lets on, but over the course of the series we learn more about exactly who she is and her relation to the lab members.

The next three characters are still lab members, but less important ones. Ruka is a male shrine maiden who has a feminine appearance, Moeka is a quite woman who blindly follows the orders of someone known simply as FB, and Feyris runs the maid cafe at which Mayuri works and Daru frequents.

Mayuri Shiina holding a knife from the anime Steins;Gate
Mayuri Shiina

Conclusion

While I enjoyed Steins;Gate, I didn’t find the series to be as good as most people seem to believe it is. It’s a solid 8/10, but I wouldn’t rate it any higher than that. In fact, I don’t think I have a single sci-fi anime above an 8, but there are a few others at that rating such as Neon Genesis Evangelion, Gurren Lagann, and Parasyte.

The first half of the anime was pretty slow. I understand that it was setting up the events that come in the latter half, but it was still slow even with that in mind. Then, although I enjoyed it immensely, I found the second half to be somewhat predictable such as how Kurisu died (spoilers).

Finally, at the end of the series I was left with a number of questions, but I’ll end by asking just the one that’s bothering me the most. Did Okabe ever give that Metal Upa to Mayuri? Maybe we’ll find out in Steins;Gate 0, so stay tuned for a review of that some time in the future of this world line.

The OP for Steins;Gate is available here.

Haganai

Haganai

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Haganai anime cover art featuring the main characters
Haganai Cover Art

Overview

Before we begin, let me just say that this is a review of the first season of Haganai (which is 12 episodes long) as well as episode 0 and the bonus 13th episode which I believe came with the DVD release. The second season, Haganai Next, will be reviewed at a later date.

Haganai is a pretty standard high school comedy, ecchi, harem anime except for the fact that Crunchyroll has the uncensored version which I wasn’t expecting when I started the series considering there is a censored version. Either way, this didn’t affect the series very much.

To give an example of how fairly generic this anime is, the harem has a loli, an imouto, a childhood friend, a younger classmate, the popular girl, and a trap. It also combines some other character tropes with these ones so it has a little bit of everything.

Episode 0 was more of a preview than an actual episode as some episode 0’s tend to be. It was only half-length (roughly 12 minutes) and quickly showed a bit of the main cast with a mini plot about making a hot-pot.

However, I didn’t find episode 0 to be entertaining, and if I had watched it before the series (I watched it after) I probably wouldn’t have even given the rest of the anime a chance. The other special episode, episode 13, was more entertaining an full-length.

In episode 13 the cast writes their own novel with each member adding a single page. It was kind of like a mix of seven different fan-fics mashed together which was a pretty entertaining watch.

The main portion of the first season was better than both special episodes. The general plot is that the characters are all part of a club known as the Neighbors Club. The point of this club is to learn how to make friends since each of the characters is a loner for one reason or another.

Basically the series just follows the cast doing a bunch of activities that they think friends would do in order to practice in case they ever actually make friends of their own. It’s clear to the viewer that the main cast have become friends, but none of them ever seem to realize this.

Characters

Kodaka Hasegawa is the protagonist and one of the two founding members of the Neighbors Club (although it was founded without his knowledge). He’s your typical comedy, ecchi, harem protagonist who’s generally oblivious to the feelings of the girls around him.

Yozora Mikazuki is Kodaka’s childhood friend (although he doesn’t know this for most of the series) and she’s generally not as interesting or entertaining as the rest of the characters, as you’d expect from the childhood friend trope. Unfortunately, the series attempts to push her on the viewer anyway.

If Yozora is worst girl, then Sena Kashiwazaki, the popular girl, is best girl. Sena and Yozora are foil characters who don’t really have anything in common. While Yozora is annoying and boring, Sena is “nice” and entertaining. She’s also the main tsundere of the group.

Kobato Hasegawa is Kodaka’s younger sister who suffers from an extreme case of chūnibyō. She usually dresses in gothic lolita fashion like her favorite anime character and thinks of herself as a vampire.

Kobato Hasegawa from the anime Haganai
Kobato Hasegawa

The other loli of the series is Maria Takayama, a sister of the church and apparently a faculty member despite being something like 11 years old. She and Kobato aren’t foil characters like Yozora and Sena, but they do tend to argue with each other frequently.

*Fun Fact: Maria Takayama has the same voice actress as Index from A Certain Magical Index, and this series even references that by having Maria dress like Index in one scene.

Rika Shiguma is Kodaka’s younger classmate and a science student (she literally just does research in the science lab). Although Sena is “best girl,” Rika was the most entertaining due to her love of extremely niche, adult manga.

The final character is Yukimura Kusunoki, a very feminine boy who wants to learn how to be more manly and tough. To do this, he follows Kodaka around and refers to him as “Aniki” as if he were a Yakuza boss.

Despite wanting to be manly, Yukimura solely wears women’s clothes (including bathing suits) because Yozora told him that real men exude an air of manliness even when wearing feminine clothing.

Conclusion

Episode 0 was a 2/10, episode 13 was a 5/10, and the main portion of Haganai was a 6/10. I’m looking forward to Haganai Next because I don’t see how it could be any worse than the first season, but I have other series and seasons of series I want to get through first.

If you’re someone who isn’t yet bored of comedy, ecchi, harem anime, then I’d suggest giving Haganai a watch because it really was an enjoyable series.

The OP for Haganai is available here.

Is This a Zombie?

Is This a Zombie?

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Is This a Zombie? anime cover art featuring the Magical Garment Girl Haruna
Is This a Zombie? Cover Art

Overview

Is This a Zombie? is officially listed under the categories of romantic comedy, magical girl, and harem, but in reality, it’s a comedy that makes fun of a bunch of different genres. The most obvious of these is the magical girl genre which is one I enjoy considering it was my start in anime.

This anime has it all. It has zombies, magical girls with chainsaws, ninja vampires, necromancers, and normal people too I suppose. What more could you ask for?

The general plot is that Ayumu was killed by a serial killer and brought back to life as a zombie by a necromancer. After that, he continued to come in contact with other strange people and monsters. That’s basically it. The plot is fairly loose so the show can essentially do whatever it wants.

Characters

Ayumu Aikawa is the protagonist who was murdered and then brought back as a Zombie. As a zombie he can use over 100% of his body’s power to fight, but also must avoid the sun or risk drying out.

While trying to live his best life as a zombie, he is then forced into becoming a magical garment girl whose job is to fight monsters called Megalos. Unfortunately for him, there is no male outfit for magical garment girls.

While all this is going on, he still has to play the role of a regular high school student as well.

Eucliwood Hellscythe (Eu) is the necromancer who brought Ayumu back as a zombie. She’s mute for the most part, having very few lines throughout the series. Instead, she writes messages on a notepad which she holds up.

Eu is Ayumu’s main love interest and since she doesn’t speak, he often imagines her responding to him in ways contrary to how she actually responds.

Haruna is the genius magical garment girl who wields the chainsaw Mystletainn. Her magical garment girl abilities were absorbed by Ayumu causing her to not be able to fight the Megalos, so Ayumu was forced to use Mystletainn in her place. Although she is a child genius, she is still a child and shows it through her excessive chunibyo, much like Megumin from KonoSuba.

The final of the main group is Seraphim. She’s a ninja vampire who serves Ayumu although she frequently hurls verbal abuse in his direction. I don’t like her character as much as the others so I don’t really have much else to say about her.

Ayumu Aikawa as a Magical Garment Girl from the anime Is This a Zombie?
Ayumu Aikawa as a Magical Garment Girl

Conclusion

After I watched the first season I wasn’t really sure what to make of the anime since it was so all-over-the-place. However, after watching the second season I decided that I did really enjoy it and so I have to give it a 7/10 for being entertaining. My favorite parts definitely involved Haruna, as I’m always a fan of comedic relief lolis and magical girls.

I would recommend this anime to anyone who likes comedy or satirical anime, but even if the satire is lost on you, it’s still a fun watch.

My review of the Is This a Zombie? OVA is available now.

Fate/Zero

Fate/Zero

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Fate/Zero Cover Art featuring Saber (Altria)
Fate/Zero Cover Art

Overview

All right, so here we are with another installment of the Fate series. I previously wrote about Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works (UBW) which is either the sequel to Fate/Zero or it’s the first one and Zero is a prequel. I have no idea, but Fate/Zero comes first chronologically.

As we know from UBW, there are seven unique classes of servants in the Fate series. Those classes are Saber, Lancer, Archer, Rider, Caster, Assassin, and Berserker. While those classes are familiar to us from before, that doesn’t mean the heroic spirits attributed to them are the same.

Putting the classes aside, for now, the general plot this time around is the Holy Grail War that came the generation before the one in UBW. Instead of Shirou Emiya being the main character, his adoptive father Kiritsugu Emiya is the main character.

Anything past this point is probably going to contain spoilers for both Zero and UBW so keep that in mind if you haven’t seen either series.

**Spoilers Ahead**

Issues

The first issue I want to talk about is the relationship between Zero and UBW. I watched UBW first, but some people watch Zero first. That’s all fine, but the real issue is that no matter which one you watch first, the other one gets spoiled.

For example, in UBW the identity of Saber is supposed to be a mystery with some big reveal towards the second half if I remember correctly. However, if you watched Zero first then you already know everything you need to about who Saber is because it’s the same Saber. I don’t believe she tries to hide her identity at all from the viewers in Zero.

Hiding the identity of Saber from the viewers in UBW only makes sense if you’re assuming the viewers are watching UBW before Zero. On the other side, if you watched UBW first like I did, then you already know how Zero ends and who the winner of that Holy Grail War is.

Now I know you’re probably thinking, “oh, well spoiling the ending of Zero seems like a bigger deal than spoiling the identity of Saber so you should just watch Zero first.” Well you’d be right if that was the only thing Zero spoils for UBW, but there’s more.

The fact that there’s a second Archer in UBW is supposed to be some big reveal that changes everything, but if we watched Zero we already know there’s a second Archer and we know exactly who it is.

That’s all I’ll say about the relationship issues between these two entries in the series, because this review is supposed to be mainly about Zero after all. So why don’t we look at the servants themselves next?

Most of the servants are fairly straight forward, but then there’s Assassin. Now I know that I just mentioned this is about Zero, but UBW also had something strange happening with Assassin which you can read about here. This time around, however, we learn that there is a “True” Assassin

What does this mean when I say there’s a “True” Assassin? Well it means exactly what it sounds like, there’s actually only one real heroic spirit attributed to the Assassin class and all the others are fake. Dumb, I know.

Why would you make all these other Assassins throughout all the other entries in the series and decide they’re all actually fake? It goes against everything that was set up as the basic rules of the Holy Grail War, but that’s nothing new for the Fate series as we already know. Breaking its own rules is just standard by this point.

Saber (Altria) vs. Lancer (Diarmuid Ua Duibhne)
Saber vs. Lancer

Conclusion

I rated Zero the same as I rated UBW, 7/10. For me, they’re both fairly similar, but Zero might be slightly better. Also as for which you should watch first, that’s up to you. As I laid out, there are drawbacks to watching either one first so as far as I’m concerned there’s no right choice.

This wasn’t the first Fate entry I’ve reviewed and it won’t be the last. Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya will probably be next and we may even start to dabble in anime game reviews which means Fate/Grand Order could be coming as well.

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