What I'm Watching This Summer Season 2014

Another season has ended, and I'm already looking towards what new shows I'll be watching week after week. Below is my personal list of what I think will be promising, as well as appealing to my personal taste. They're not all along the lines of a josei series (in fact, there's none airing this season surprise surprise) but they look like something a josei fan could enjoy nonetheless!

Zankyou no Terror (Terror in Resonance)

Summary

In an alternate version of the present, Tokyo has been decimated by a shocking terrorist attack, and the only hint to the identity of the culprit is a bizarre video uploaded to the internet. The police, baffled by this cryptic clue, are powerless to stop the paranoia spreading across the population. While the world searches for a criminal mastermind to blame for this tragedy, two mysterious children—children who shouldn't even exist—masterfully carry out their heinous plan. Cursed to walk through this world with the names Nine and Twelve, the two combine to form "Sphinx," a clandestine entity determine to wake the people from their slumber—and pull the trigger on this world. (Summary via Funimation)

My Thoughts

By the director of Space Dandy and Kids on the Slope, this is a psychological thriller that looks equal parts dark and compelling. I love dark anime done right, so hopefully this one makes things interesting this season.

First Episode Aired July 10th 2014

Space Dandy Season Two

Summary

This is the second season of the original series Space Dandy. The story follows the antics of Space Dandy, his personal robot QT and alien delinquent Meow. Together they are a group of alien bounty hunters who set out to find new alien species so they can make some quick cash. This of course is no easy task, and leads them all over the solar system and beyond in search of aliens that haven't been identified yet. (My Summary)

My Thoughts

I really enjoyed the first season of Space Dandy, and I can't wait for its return. Every episode was a new adventure, and the crazy scenarios kept things interesting every time. It took inspiration from Western cartoons, but still retained that Japanese wackiness I love. I know not everyone enjoyed this series as it is very different to Cowboy Bebop, but I find it artistically enthralling and generally entertaining. I can't wait to see Space Dandy's return!

First Episode Aired July 6th 2014

Sailor Moon Crystal

Summary

Sailor Moon is returning for a bi-weekly episode special that retells the first tale of Sailor Moon versus the Dark Kingdom. Taking artistic inspiration from the drawings of Naoko Takeuchi, Crystal is recreating the story of the original story manga. It will retell the story over a 26 episode span. (My Summary)

My Thoughts

It's Sailor Moon, you can't convince me not to watch it. That said, hopefully it isn't horrible! I really enjoyed re-reading the manga, so I'm hoping that the anime stays true to the manga and gives me what I've been waiting to see for over a year!

First Episode Aired July 5th 2014

Anime Review of Golden Time

Each anime season I look forward to seeing new josei titles, only to be disappointed at the lack of josei series, routinely dismissing the adult female demographic. However, I get a little bit of solace from the fact that sometimes a seinen title will be in there that is just gender neutral enough to make it a worthwhile watch. Last anime season Golden Time finished airing, which was definitely a title that blurs the lines between seinen and josei as it has something to offer for the whole young adult demographic.

Below is my review of this little romantic anime!

Synopsis

 

Golden Time is centered around Tada Banri who is a freshmen in college, looking to survive the ups and downs of college life and romance. He meets Yanagisawa Mitsuo (Yana-san) and Kaga Kouko on his very first day, becoming entangled in a complicated love triangle. He meets other friends (old and new) at his new school who help him learn to deal with his past while attempting to make a future with someone new. This series is a Romance Drama with Slice of Life and Comedy elements.

Easily Find My Posts With My New Menu

Hey everyone. I recently created some handy links so you can check out all my reviews, recommendations, etc. easily. I have lots of posts which can be cumbersome to go through, so I've added this feature to make it easier to find exactly what you're after. There's also the Tags list further down as before, but my new small menu at the top should be able to get you in the right direction much easier. Happy browsing!

Love Lab Review

Now that the summer anime season has finished I'm going to be reviewing all the shows I had been watching for the past few months. I've enjoyed them all a lot for different reasons, but I thought I'd start with Love Lab. A shoujo comedy with a sparkle of romance, this show was a lot of fun to watch and had me chuckling on multiple occasions. This is a spoiler free review, so if you're interested in checking this anime out, I'll be going over the good and the bad so continue reading!

Cousin Manga Review (Volumes 1 & 2)

Thanks to peachgummie I was able to find a new series called Cousin. It's a josei series that flew under the radar, but deals with difficult topics such as self-esteem, weight issues, and building self-confidence. I think these are all problems women deal with as they mature and grow into adults, sometimes we never fully realize how to deal with these issues. Cousin by Ikuemi Ryou tackles these problems in an approachable and realistic manner. This really drew me in to continue reading until the end of the second volume (the manga had an official release but Jmanga who translated it shutdown, making the last volume hard to track down) but I'll give you my review so you can consider reading and supporting the official release. I will update this review when I get a chance to finish reading it in its entirety.

Summary

This manga is considered a Drama, Romance, Josei, Comedy and Slice-of-Life

The story follows Tsubomi, a recent high school graduate who begins working part-time out of school. She led a normal boring life thus far and feels unsatisfied with herself in many respects. To further this dissatisfaction she has a cousin she is always compared to. Her cousin is an upcoming idol, good-looking and thin. Tsubomi in contrast wears no make-up and is chubby. She does her best to break out of her past habits by making friends with a coworker Shiro, and finding new love. It's a story of overcoming your own demons and working towards being the person you want to be. It may be a typical plot for a josei manga, but what differentiates this title is how Tsubomi learns to stop being a self-pitying woman, and becomes someone who constantly tries to better herself.

Story

The story isn't finished after 2 volumes, it was completed at 3 volumes but the first 2 develop a lot that I can talk about. I have technically read the first 2 chapters of volume 3, but it's not enough to make a judgment on that volume as of yet. In my summary I highlighted the development of Tsubomi's character as that is obviously the big mover of the plot. At first I found her frustrating, but I quickly related to her when she began to think about positively changing herself. I of course went through a similar phase, however I don't think I was as conscious about it when it was happening. But much like Tsubomi what helped me to change were the people I surrounded myself with. I loved that this story felt real, and that it was relatable on many different levels (that I didn't expect). All this being said, I found the plot at times was slow moving, spending too much time on little points that weren't interesting. Certain points that were the cause of conflict were not very compelling, making them unimportant and not interesting to developing the plot. Although these are problems, they're not major issues to the overall effect of the story. The story gets an 8.0 out of 10 because of its ability to tackle issues in a convincing and relatable manner.

What Animes to Look Out for This Spring 2014

Hey everyone! Long time no post, I know. I've been very busy with school, but I've also been really busy reading and watching anime and manga to give you some reviews! So look forward to that very soon. In the meantime I'm looking at Spring 2014 shows that myself, and other josei fans should look out for and check out. So here's my list!

 

Futsuu no Joshikousei ga [Locodol] Yatte Mita.

Comedy and Seinen

Summary via Anichart: The story is about the life of a high school girl, Nanako, and her senpai, Yukari, who end up becoming the town’s local idols (locodol) upon the request of her uncle. However they would soon learn that their new idol lifestyle is less than stellar as they are only be interviewed by the town’s shopping center, appear on low-budget cable television, and perform concerts on top of the roof of department stores. The girls’ salaries come from the town’s taxes.

My Thoughts: There's a lot of animes focusing on becoming or being an idol nowadays, but this one seems to appeal to an older audience by painting it in a not-so-picture-perfect way. I'm wary of young girls and the seinen genre, but I'm going to see what it's all about anyway.

 

Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii

Shoujo, Romance, Fantasy and Adventure

Summary via MU: Nike, the fourth princess of the Rain Dukedom and one who holds the power to call forth the rain, travels to the Sun Kingdom to marry Sun King Livius for her country, despite her own reluctance. She soon discovers that the King, who conquered the world in only three years after his ascendance to the throne, is still a child!! Furthermore, for trivial reasons, he has demanded that Nike call forth the rain…!?

My Thoughts: A fantasy shoujo title will always pique my interest because it will be in the female perspective, and it reminds me of a nostalgic favourite of mine, The Vision of Escaflowne. I wonder how it's going to flesh out a romance that involves a child king, but perhaps he's not the love interest after all. Either way it has my curiosity.

 

Mekaku City Actors

Comedy, Romance, Sci-Fi and Supernatural

Summary via AniChart: Shintaro Kisaragi--a HikiNEET who shut himself inside his room for 2 years and has been living his life normally until he met a cyber girl named Ene, who appeared in his computer screen when someone anonymously sent him a mysterious e-mail one year ago. One day, Ene had been messing up with Shintaro's PC. which cause him have to go to outside world for first time in 2 years.

My Thoughts: I just looked up HikiNEET which is a combination of someone who is a NEET (not employed or educated) and a Hikkomori (being socially withdrawn). I think having a strange main character always makes for a more interesting story as we see it through their eyes. I can imagine that this anime will also be colourful and full of life (as you can tell from the artwork above). It reminds of Durarara! which had a similar style, so who knows what this anime will explore.

Sailor Moon Short Stories Review

I'm finally reviewing these two books! I just recently picked up the second volume, so now my collection of Sailor Moon manga is complete! Now I'm waiting for the artbook which is going to be amazing! But back to these two manga volumes, if you're curious about them keep reading for the review. I'll answer the question about whether they're worth purchasing or not; are they worth the extra $30 that they cost together? Is it necessary for every Sailor Moon enthusiast? Keep reading to find out!

Short Stories Volume One

If you're unaware, each volume contains chapters involving each of the inner senshi where they're each featured in their own little snippet story. The first volume contains seven small chapters, with four featuring Chibi-Usa (one with Hotaru included), one featuring Makoto, one featuring Ami, and one featuring Rei and Minako. I believe Minako never gets her own true short story because of the two large Sailor V volumes which catalogue her own story in better detail. And speaking of Sailor V, that's what these manga read like, especially this first volume. They feel like they're taking a vein from the Sailor V formula, having minor enemies appear and disappear within the span of 30 pages or so. Don't expect much depth, and don't expect any sort of real canon here either. This first volume in particular feels more like filler than genuine development. The stories are flimsy and are only held up by the characters that take part in them. I won't go into too much detail about each chapter because honestly, there isn't much to say about any of them. Nothing particularly interesting happens, no character development is done, it was mostly a waste of my time reading these. The main driver of each plot is the enemy rather than the characters themselves, so the story revolves around their reaction to the enemy rather than any sort of development on their side of the spectrum. I didn't particularly enjoy the Sailor V series, and I didn't particularly enjoy this volume either. It's nice to see Chibi-Usa in the spotlight, but I would've liked to have seen her with her own troupe rather than her being the kid once again.

I'd recommend this volume if you're looking to finish your collection, but not if you're looking for more Sailor Moon entertainment. The stories don't develop any of the characters in particular, save for the story involving Rei and Minako. I felt especially disappointed by Ami's and Makoto's stories that featured them as desperate teenage girls looking to feel bad about themselves. This volume felt like a way to bring in a little more money before the series finished, and I was disappointed at how empty it was. Volume One gets a 4.0 out of 10 from me. I know this is a low score, if you disagree with me I'd love to hear your responses so send me a message or put a comment down below! I'd love to hear your opinions!

Short Stories Volume Two

Volume Two offers a different set-up than the first one, having only three chapters, with one long chapter featuring Luna. Finally the little feline gets a story of her own, and she deserves it! There's one chapter that features Rei afterward, as well as one final chapter looking into the future of the senshi, with their children. This time the chapters (save for the last one) read nicer, having more integrity than just pumping out empty stories expecting us to buy it because Sailor Moon is on the cover. The story featuring Luna drags out a little bit, but overall I enjoyed it. The enemy is more menacing, and the love story is really cute (especially because Luna cannot act out on her impulses because she's a cat!). The story featuring Rei is also much more interesting as we get to see into Rei's persona rather than just featuring her feeling bad about herself. Her pride gets in the way of her love life, and it's nice to get in her head for once. The Rei in this manga is much different than the Rei I come to know from the anime growing up, and I prefer this character who is independent and a little bit heartbroken from a difficult childhood. It was finally a backstory that I was looking for, rather than dealing with the same fare I already knew about her. The last chapter is called "Parallel Sailor Moon" and takes a jump into the future where all the inner senshi's children become Sailor Scouts. Honestly, it's really dumb, and their children all have curvy bodies despite being 9 at the oldest (their bodies rival their parents' in terms of physical development so I really didn't understand this choice at all). It doesn't actually provide a look ahead, as all the inner senshi are exactly the same save for the fact that they talk about their "hubbies" briefly. I really just didn't understand the purpose of this chapter at all. What about Chibi-Usa's troupe of senshi that were suggested to exist in the past volumes? Apparently they're never brought up again after that. The chapter doesn't ruin the book, but it definitely ends the series on a bad note, which really wasn't necessary.

Overall the second volume was a much better read than the first, making it a 7.0 out of 10 for me. If you're not sure which volume to pick up first then perhaps you should skip out on the first volume entirely. I wasn't quick to buy the second volume because of the poor quality of the first short story volume, and thankfully I was pleasantly surprised with the change in tone for this one. Luna's story as well as Rei's are both worth reading so I suggest picking this volume up if you want more Sailor Moon goodness!

TL;DR, My Consensus

And that's the review. It's unfortunate that only half of this series was worth it, but I guess if you total it out of chapters, only two out of ten are worthwhile reads. Maybe three if I include the final chapter in the first book which was more entertaining than the other chapters in that volume. So if you're collecting the manga then the books are nice to own, with nice cover art, but if you're looking for a good read skip to the second volume.

What are your guys' thoughts? Am I being unfair to this short story series, or do you agree with me? I'd love to hear your thoughts!