Monday, July 29, 2013

Chihayafuru Season 2 Review

Series: Chihayafuru 2 
Genre: Drama, Sports, Josei
Summary: Now in their second year of high school, Chihaya and her friends share all the fun and worries that come with welcoming underclassmen to the team as they face tough rival schools. The passion of the Mizusawa Karuta Club burns hotter than ever, but with the same refreshing, youthful mood carrying over from the first season.

I'm going to be writing this review in assumption that you, the readers, have already watched the first season of Chihayafuru. I dove into this second season with high expectations from the first, and *most* of those expectations were satisfied. We follow Chihaya and everyone else into another year of karuta, drama, and romance. This season explored new themes and served as a lovely follow up to the first.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Free! Episode 3 Reaction

Now I don't normally post reactions on individual episodes from anime, but I'll be making a few exceptions for ones that really catch my eye, got me pumped, made me emotional, etc etc. Today's reaction will be for Free! episode 3, where Rei Ryugazaki is formally introduced and recruited.
This'll honestly be me fangirling over how much of a babe Rei is but if you think so too then this post should be right up your alley~

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Samurai Champloo Review

Series: Samurai Champloo
Genre: Action
Summary:  Mugen's a buck wild warrior - violent, thoughtless and womanizing. Jin is a vagrant ronin - mysterious, traditional, well-mannered and very strong as well. These two fiercely independent warriors can`t be any more different from one another, yet their paths cross when Fuu, a ditzy waitress, saves them from being executed when they are arrested after a violent swordfight. Fuu convinces the two vagrant young men to help her find a mysterious samurai "who smells of sunflowers." And their journey begins. This is a story about love, friendship and courage... NOT!

What initially attracted me to Samurai Champloo was the fact that Nujabes had composed most of the OST. But when from the moment I watched the first episode of Samurai Champloo, I knew that it was different, a very good kind of different. From the funky hip hop thematics to the fluid, thick, black line animation, Samurai Champloo became more to me than an anime with a good soundtrack.

Monday, July 1, 2013

FLCL Review

Series: FLCL/Fooly Cooly
Genre: Comedy, action, mecha
Summary:  Naota is a normal Japanese 6th grade boy (although a little cynical), but when his older brother leaves for America to play baseball, his brother leaves his homeless 17 year old girlfriend Mamimi behind. Mamimi is sending mixed signals and advances to Naota, and he doesn't know what to do about her. But to make matters worse, Naota's world is totally turned upside down when he is run over by a woman on a Vespa. During their first encounter, she hits him over the head with her bass guitar, which then causes a horn to grow out of his forehead. She calls herself "Haruko" and her presence changes Naota's life to even further insanity.

 A dear friend of mine recommended FLCL to me, which surprised me since he doesn't really watch anime. FLCL had a famous reputation on the internet for being excruciatingly different, and as the populous says, FLCL was definitely a different type of anime. If anything, it's about as close as a piece of literature as anime will ever get.  At first glance, FLCL seems like a fast-paced, random mecha anime that most people don't understand, but looking at it closely, it's absolutely brilliant.