Anime Sunday: Winners of Spring 2018

I’m back with a look at the past season for this week’s Anime Sunday. It’s my Winners of Spring 2018!

Golden Kamuy: I enjoyed this series, excepting for the awkward usage of some 3DCG artwork, the series was entertaining on a whole. Whether you will enjoy it is something I can’t tell you, but you might.

Hinamatsuri: This series was oddball enough to make me laugh, but not so slapstick that I couldn’t enjoy the comedy. That can sometimes be a fine line for me, but Hinamatsuri managed to pull it off fairly well.

Series I didn’t get a chance to look at this season, but mean to do so sometime soonish:

Devil’s Line: Being an Urban Fantasy romance series, this might be interesting. Or it could totally disgust me. We’ll see. I may make a post on this series.

That’s it for this week’s Anime Sunday.

Bookish Wednesday: Cherry Blossom Girls by Harmon Cooper

This week for Bookish Wednesday I’m back with another LitRPG, sort of. It’s Cherry Blossom Girls by Harmon Cooper!

Plot Synopsis: I was a just normal guy until the night the cherry blossoms bloomed, the night that Grace appeared on my doorstep. A failed sci-fi writer, a gamer, but a normal guy nonetheless. Grace was everything I was not, a psychic shifter, beautiful beyond my wildest imagination, a government conspiracy waiting to be unraveled…

Plot: The plot of this is rather bland. Honestly while it takes a ton of influences, and states what those are, it also isn’t turning it into something new or interesting. If you’ve ever read the original Elfen Lied manga you’ll know the story of the book pretty freaking quick. It’s not new, and it’s not that great. Another thing against it is that the book is constantly swamped with our main character’s, Gideon, thoughts. It’s also a plot point, Gideon is constantly thinking about things, and usually in a rather stupid way. There are some clever tricks, but honestly the guy is like a giant walking self-insert for the author and it’s not even attempting to be subtle.

Characters: Our leads are okay characters, with our two female leads being much more interesting than Gideon. Honestly I’d almost rather have her be our main Point of View except that we’d still get to hear all of Gideon’s thoughts anyways.

Overall: A mediocre LitRPGish story that has heavy influences by a ton of things, including Elfen Lied, but doesn’t really innovate at all. The fact that our lead is a self insert of the author doesn’t help at all.

For those who like: Urban Fantasy, Sci-Fi, LitRPGs, Action, Drama.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

Anime Sunday: Nerawareta Gakuen

This week for Anime Sunday I’m covering a film! It’s Nerawareta Gakuen!

Plot Synopsis: Kenji Seki’s daily routine was set in stone. Every morning he walks his dog at the beach to get a glimpse of his crush, Kahori Harukawa, as she rides the waves on her surfboard, and walks to school together with his childhood friend, Natsuki Suzuura. Everything changed on a sunny spring morning when he stumbled across Ryouichi Kyougoku, a handsome new transfer student who claims to be a psychic…

Plot: The plot of the film is okay, but it’s not the most amazing Anime film I’ve watched. That said it’s still got a better plot than Twilight so it’s not nearly that bad. I did enjoy it, but seeing it once was enough.

Characters: Kenji is a typical high school boy, he’s got a crush who can’t confess to and he’s got a childhood friend, who happens to be in love with him though he’s dense as hell and doesn’t know it. Frankly my favorite character was Natsuki, I was rooting for her the entire movie, but that’s probably just me.

Art: The art of the movie was good, but nothing really amazing either. It’s better than most TV series, but nothing close to ufotable levels of quality either.

Music: The music was okay, and I did enjoy the ending theme by supercell. That being said the rest of the musc was rather forgettable and wasn’t great.

Overall: If you want a Sci-Fi and Romance movie to watch, Nerawareta Gakuen might not be the first choice, but it’s better than some Romance movies.

For those who like: Sci-Fi, Romance, Drama, Slice of Life, School Life, Interesting Cast of Characters, Good Plot, Okay Art, Decent Music.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

Manga Monday: Hinamatsuri by Ohtake Masao [Quick Review]

This week for Manga Monday I’ve got another Quick Review! It’s Hinamatsuri by Ohtake Masao!

Plot: One night, a strange object falls on the head of Nitta, a member of the yakuza. Inside the box is a strange young girl named Hina. She has tremendous supernatural powers, and Nitta finds himself reluctantly taking her in. Her powers can come in handy for his yakuza business, but he also runs the risk of her using them on him!

Plot: This series is really odd, but I found myself intrigued by it’s quirky plot and I’ll probably end up reading the rest of the series eventually. I know I keep saying that about a lot of series, but some of them are really long and I don’t have the time to read them and prepare materials for my daily columns. I’m not even counting the time it takes me to go through the books I review, and half of those are audiobooks.  Anyways, Hinamatsuri is a really quirky series and I’m intrigued enough by it to forgive the sloppy art.

Characters: Nitta is an odd guy, he’s supposed to be a ruthless Yakuza but he ends up being sort of timid and indecisive and Hina loves to take advantage of him. Which leads to some amusing situations like her bullying him into buying her a stuffed animal.

Art: The art is sorta sloppy, it’s not super detailed or perfectly proportioned. But it has it’s own sort of strange charm that fits the series very well.

Overall: I’m giving the go ahead on this series, it looks interesting enough and I enjoy seeing Hina bully Nitta.

For those who like: Comedy, Slice of Life, Drama, Action, Sci-Fi, ESPers, Funny Plot, Amusing Cast of Characters.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above, or sloppy artwork.

Sensate Saturday: DCD Diamond Cut Diamond by Taguchi Kenji [Quick Review]

This week for Sensate Saturday I have another Quick Review! It’s DCD Diamond Cut Diamond by Taguchi Kenji!

Plot Synopsis: When he was young, Kurosu Keisuke was in a special TV program showcasing children with supernatural powers, called “Esper Shounen”. However during one broadcast, the producer was killed on live television, and the show was cancelled. Now it’s seven years later and Kurosu is in middle school.

Plot: The plot get’s pretty intense, pretty quickly in this first chapter. I’m definitely interested in the series, and I’ll be reading it fully in the future.

Characters: We only get introduced to Kurosu and Yuuyami this chapter really, and it’s pretty clear that there is something between the two of them. Or maybe I’m reading into things too much.

Art: Here’s the only downside to the series, the art isn’t that great. Where I’d expect lots of sharp lines, there aren’t that many and the detail isn’t that well done. It’s not that I could draw better, because I screw up drawing stick figures, but I would’ve thought this would have been better drawn being serialized in a weekly publication.

Overall: I’m giving this the tentative go ahead, it seems interesting enough, but again this is just the first chapter.