Summer Season Anime Halfway Report

Ah, who doesn't love summer? Time off from school, the pool, hanging out with friends, and for me, a whole bunch of anime. This summer brought me one of the most massive anime seasons I have ever done, with a grand total of ten new airing series, in addition to the one continuing from last season. 

Arcana Famiglia 

The scenario for this anime not unique, but the way it is done sort of is. Felicità is the daughter of the head of the organization Arcana Tarocco, a group of people bestowed special powers by the tarot cards. However, her father is going to retire and the next person to lead the Arcana Taracco will decided by a few duels. Not to mention, he threw his own daughter as a part of the prize, and the winner has to marry, into the mix. She is not alone, because with her two friends, Nova, and Libertà, who refuse to marry her if they win, and together, they have to face the other family memebers.

The scenario is, at the core, a case of the girl not wanting to marry a guy because the father proposed it. Along with that, they decide to throw in a reverse harem, which adds for bishounens everywhere. With that, the art is very pretty, making the guys the main attraction. I hope for good things from it, but right now it seems they are just dealing with side quests. 


Binbougami ga!

We all have that one friend who is super lucky because they have good looks, talent, brains, and excels at everything they do. Sakura Ichiko is that girl, but she has so much luck that the world is being thrown out of balance. That's where our hero, Momiji, our Goddess of Misfortune, comes in, trying to take Ichiko's luck and restore balance to the world. 

Honestly, I like this anime a lot more than I thought at first. It has a lot of slap stick comedy, false fan service, and is just plain funny. It's a different pacing than ecchi comedy, and it had had me laughing. The characters are well done, and the art is vibrant. Honestly, this has exceeded expectations so far, and I keep hoping to have those expectations broken.


Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai

Ryousuke is your typical high school guy, hormones raging and is horny as a guy can be. However, when Lisara, a girl from the world Grimwald, comes to him needing energy to sustain her self in the real world, she comes to him and uses his energy. The catch is though: he looses his sex drive. 

I will admit, I picked up this anime due to the translation of the title: Therefore I can't Fuck. I'm not kidding, and the fact that the plot sounded interesting. The anime lives up to expectations, but in different ways. I will give them credit: they air it uncensored (tits or GTFO) and to boot, the air is good. May the perverseness continue, and hopefully this anime doesn't pull what High School DxD did, and have a crap ending. 


Dog Days' 

The summer also brought us some sequels, and one of them is the second season of Dog Days. Cinque (or Sink or Shinku, depending on subs) returns to the other world, along with his childhood friend, Rebecca and his cousin, Nanami, where they all become heroes and fight alongside each nation in the art of war.

Honestly, this should have never been made. The whole set up of "war" in this anime is not even portrayed correctly. it's like a game, and they need "heroes" to help bring them to victory? No, they just need a tribute really good game show contestant. Despite all this, the art work is good and the music is just barely passable. The characters, like in the first season are decent, but there is honestly just too many. It's twelve or thirteen episodes, we don't need fifty characters!


Hagure Yuusha no Estetica 

We have all seen what goes on when a hero rescues a princess, the hardships he goes through, but what about after the job is done? What is the hero supposed to do? For Ousawa Akatsuki, this is his delima. He has the princess, Miu, and he is living happily ever after in a world where there is nothing but girls, girls, girls.

This anime is basically all the ecchi adventures one guy could ever have. Between helping a girl try on a bra, to swim suit snatching, Ousawa has it lucky. This anime, like Dakara, is aired uncensored, and it provides for some laughs. Honestly, I don't know why this was made, but I like it.


Jinrui wa Sutai Shimashita

In the near future, humanity is dying off, being replaced by a superior race called the faeries. These little guys are adorable, chibi, and honestly, I don't know how they replaced humanity. The main girl in the series, who we just know as "I"or "Watashi," serves as a mediator between the faeries and the humans, even to the point she has a few living at her house.

Why was this even made really? From episode one, it has been one of the weirdest things I have ever seen, and I have seen my fair share of weird things. Episode one brought us the bleeding bread scenario, followed by the buzzing chickens in episode two.  The art for this series is washed out color, similar to Usagi Drop, which isn't a bad thing, just makes the anime different. 


Joshiraku

We all have those days where the original conversation and the ending conversation are not the same thing. In the anime Joshiraku, the girls have random conversations, from moon viewing to how the moon looks like inappropriate things. 

If you're in the anime of "cute girls doing cute things," then you have hit paradise. Coming from the author of Sayonra Zetsubou Sensei, it is an amusing watch. The girls don't really do anything beside sit around for amusing conversations. The art for this anime is top notch I'll admit. Honestly, I hope for a lot for this anime.



Kono Naka Hitori ni, Imouto ga Iru!

Shougo has just lost his dad, and now he has to attend a new school, which is stressful enough as it is already. However, as it turns out, his younger sister also attends the school, but he doesn't know who the sister is. In his search for his sister, he meets a lot of girls along the way. 

Oh, dear lord, this reeks of incest. Along with the fact that he has to meet his illegitiment sister, she also wants to get married, and since his sister can beany girl at the school, the probability for incest is high. Other wise, the characters are semi likable, but they also seem rather flat also. The art work is decent, but otherwise, this anime just seems generic in almost every way it can.


Sword Art Online

As technology develops and advances, there is one thing they have seriously looked over in the gaming industry: virtual reality. However in Sword Art Online, they have developed it to a point that they have not only got virtual reality games, but it is so real that death in the game is actually death in the real world. After Kirito and a whole bunch of other people get trapped in the game, they must not only beat the game to get out, but they must be careful not to die in the game because the virtual reality machine will kill them in the real world. 

Interesting concept for this anime, I  must admit. It's almost every gamer's dream, if not worst nightmare. One of the things that I have found weird about this anime is the fact that it paces out so weird. In one episode, they might cover ten floors, and in the next, they hardly cover two. Another weird thing is they don't seem to take the death thing too seriously. Almost every episode someone dies, and they don't seem to show that they care too much bout auxillery characters. The art is good, the scenries almost look like real world scenarios, and the characters are well drawn. I can only hope they even out the pacing and work on some things (like actually caring that the characters die!). 


Yuru Yuri ♪♪

Like Dog Days, Yuru Yuri also received a sequel. WhileI was more thrilled about this sequel being announced, in the actual series, I feel let down a bit. While we still mainly follow our main four characters, it seems that there is a different feel this season. Maybe it's due to the fact we are seeing more of the the side characters, such as Himawari and Sakurako, or maybe it's the fact they seem to be leaving out Akari a lot more than usual.

The art for this series is as good as the last season. One thing that was a let down for me was the opening and ending themes. In the last season, I could barely get the song out of my head, and this season, I barely notice them honestly.
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All in all, I feel like this season has it extreme good points and the extreme bad points. However next season should not be a let down, and I look forward for more anime to come

I have to thank Mike for watching Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai and Brendan for watching Sword Art Online with me. 

Anta Nante Okotowari

On my shoujou manga reading spree, I came across a shoujou manga that was only four chapters, perfect for my short attention span. The plot was eye catching, and the length perfect, but once I started reading it, I couldn't stop, and it left me craving more. Yes, thats right, this manga's name was Anta Nante Okotowari.

The plot for this manga was a simple one. Yui has a huge brother complex, and at the wedding, she meets a boy crying.She later moves intp an all guys dorm, where she meetd the boy again, but he is the dorm head, and his name is Naruse Kaoru. As ber adventures progress in the dorm, so does Kaoru's and Yui's relationship.

The story for this one was dimple: a girl moving into a guys dorm to get over the crush on her brother and the adventures that ensue there after. True, this manga is short, and that does not allow for many adventures in the dorm, but for the four chapters that were done, it was amusing, and funny at times, and a bit heart warming and touching at others. The story could have easily been slower paced, or perhaps longer, but I think I would still be fine with that fact.

The characters did not have much time to develop, but for such a short manga, they developed nicely. Our heroine, Yui, has a huge brother complex, and Kaoru has, presumably, a sister complex, and these add up nicely, and eventually,they can learn to accept each others differences. The rest of the dorm in the story is not really introduced, except for the dorm assistant head, Mika, who has a crush on Yui. The characters were funny, and they had their own quirks, which I found very pleasing.

The art for this series was nothing special. It was clean and fluid like manga art should be, and each character was distinguishable, but that's probably dueto the fact there was only two main characters you needed to keep up with. The back grounds were also well drawn, and over all, the art for this series was pleasing.

Honstly, I wish that this manga had been longer. It could have been expanded to include more characters, and more humour in general. Kaoru and Yui had a chance to be some of the best characters in manga out there, but since it was so short, that potential was not achieved. But overall, I liked this manga.

Valentine Day 2012

No relationship is perfect, that is a given in life. Some of them are abusive, some relationships have a lot of bickering between the couple, and some of them, although rarely, are just too perfect. However, I have found this valentines day to be especially special due to the fact I have a wonderful person to spend it with. However, it has turned out that no matter how much women may want to think men understand us, they honestly do not. I understand that very well, as most of my friends are guys, and I have compiled a guide to some of the guys' most commonly asked questions.

Question 1-What the hell is with "just friends?" 
For women, breaking up in some cases is not easy. However, we sometimes realize that being in a relationship with some one is not always the best option because let's face it, not every friend is boy friend material. So, when we break up with you in that way, we just mean you are a great friend to me, and I respect you as a friend, but as for a partner, it's not going to work. Also, the other meaning it could have is that Ok, this relationship is over, but let's not talk bad about it to all our friends.We usually mean nothing bad about being "just friends" but it just means that you make an excellent friend, however, we don't want to be dating you just because people change a little bit when they're dating, so keep that in mind.

Question 2-Why don't girls like sex?
You're asking the wrong person for one, I hate to admit it, however, I think that most women do not like sex just because one, we value our virginity. In societal norms, we are taught that your virginity is one of the most sacred things to you, and we sometimes try and hold on to that as long as possible. Also, we don't, we do worry about getting pregnant because if we don't want kids, we don't want them. Other than that, we don't want to have sex with a man we don't love, because whats the fun in that?

Question 3-Is there an age to know what love is and how do you know if it's true love?
For the first half a question, I think that if you have a firm grasp of being attached to someone, be it your parents or friend or someone special, then I say almost any age can pass. However, I do say kids start getting the idea of love about age seven to nine at the earliest. Now, how to know if its true love? Honestly, I myself am still unsure what the concept of true love is. At points, I thought I understood it, however it always turned out I was wrong. I think true love is when you are attracted to the other person, and they are attracted to you, and you both enjoy being with each other and share a lot of intimate moments together. However, as that case may be, I think there is some deep underlying connection that has to go on between the two people that I cannot explain; I guess that feeling is extreme bliss of being together.

I will not guarantee that these are the right answers to these questions; these are just my insights into these questions.All women do tick differently, and I do tick a bit differently than most, however, I think that's what makes life and romance fun. I will say this also: Just have fun and not worry about what makes women tick; it will only lead to to problems. So this valentines day, just have fun and enjoy your selves to the fullest.