Hi all, this will be the fourth part of the Spring 2012 impressions. Just one more to go after this! Edited: Sorry for the long delay. Some unforeseen circumstances came up which caused me not to have internet access for 2 and a half weeks. Will talk more about this at the end of the next entry.
Also on my anticipated list is Saki: Achiga-hen ~Episode of side-A~ I have been waiting for this every since it was announced. It is not really the second season of Saki, but a spin-off actually with the setting revolving around the Achiga Girls Academy's mahjong club instead. Though after watching 4 episode, I would say it is just as intense as ever! For those who do not know, it is a series on Japanese-styled Mahjong.
Episode 1 started about 3 years back in time when Hanamura Nodoka(Yes! The same Nodocchi in the previous Saki!) is still a 6th grade shougakusei.(Looks like Nodoka developed early >:F)Though she is no longer one of the main protagonist, it is still refreshing to see some of the old cast in an earlier stage. Nodocchi is still Nodo-licious when she is a loli!
Takakamo Shizuno and Atarashi Ako was waiting for the bus when they saw the newly transferred Nodoka. They soon became friend and after finding out that Nodoka plays mahjong, they took her to the Achiga Children's Mahjong Class where it used to be the clubroom for the Achiga Mahjong club. They introduced her to the teacher of the class, Akado Harue, a former Achiga Mahjong Club legend.
After some teasing around over Nodocchi's 'future potential', they started a round of mahjong. Nodoka won the matches and they decided to call the number one of the Mahjong Class, Matsumi Kuro. She is the first year student of the Achiga Girls Academy. After more teasing of the legendary Nodoppai, they started another round of mahjong. Nodoka was puzzled as to why she couldn't get any Dora at all and asked the teacher if they took out the Dora in advance. Nodoka was shocked to see that Kuro had all the Dora.
The day ended soon after. The second half was about Akado Harue past. She stopped playing Mahjong right after her lost in the semi finals 6 years ago due to the trauma. With the year nearing, Ako decided to attend Ada middle school and then Bansei High School as they have the strongest mahjong club in the area. Shizuno and Nodoka however decided to attend Achiga Girls Academy. Akado Harue was later scouted by a professional team to play in the league. The children mahjong class was then disbanded.
Sometime later, Nodoka had to move to another area due to her parents work. A further sometime later, Shizuno saw Nodoka on the TV as she takes the became the champion of the middle school individual mahjong tournament. She had this weird feeling and decided to call Ako. They then together with Kuro decided to revive the Achiga Mahong Club!
In episode 2, we see the new Achiga mahjong club scouting for more members to form a full team. The next member to join the team is Matsumi Yuu, Kuro's Onee-chan! She is very sensitive to the temperature and covers herself up even during summer. The four girls then discuss about the last member to include in the team.
They decided to ask Arata Sagimori, Yuu and Kuro's childhood friend and the admirer of Akado Harue. However, Kuro refused as she stopped playing mahjong when her idol have stopped. Upon hearing the news that Akado Harue joined the Professional League, she agreed to join the club. During then, Akado Harue came back from her tournament. They had lost due to her trauma. She decided to become the coach of the team and also to regain what she had lost 6 years ago in the tournament.
The progress is kind of fast but the faster the better! We will be able to see those awesome mahjong battle pretty soon!
In episode 3, we see the girls trashing Bansei High School with ease in the prefectural tournament and is on their way to the national tournament! Before the national, Akado revealed that they will be traveling around to play with all the runner up of each prefecture.
They first went to Nagano to play with Ryuumonbuchi High School. After all the traveling around, they summed up the results to find that except Ryuumonbuchi High School and an individual of Sangamaki in North Osaka, they managed to defeat the rest. They went to a training camp sometime later and then set off to the Nationals!
I really can't wait to see them battle it out into the tournament. The reason for this spin off to showcase Achiga is probably due to the fact that they are at the polar opposite of Kiyosumi, Nodoka's team. Also, if you have watched the first season of Saki, you should know that Saki, Nodoka's teammate has a sister who is very much skilled than her. I wonder will she be showing up and playing off with the Achiga girls. Anyway, though you don't have to, but I would suggest you to watch the first episode before this to learnt a little about Nodoka's team because I believe there will be some showcase of them in the near future.
My rating for this awesome mahjong series is a 7.7 up till episode 3 because it was a little too fast paced. But after watching episode 4, I would give it a 8.5 overall!
After some teasing around over Nodocchi's 'future potential', they started a round of mahjong. Nodoka won the matches and they decided to call the number one of the Mahjong Class, Matsumi Kuro. She is the first year student of the Achiga Girls Academy. After more teasing of the legendary Nodoppai, they started another round of mahjong. Nodoka was puzzled as to why she couldn't get any Dora at all and asked the teacher if they took out the Dora in advance. Nodoka was shocked to see that Kuro had all the Dora.
The progress is kind of fast but the faster the better! We will be able to see those awesome mahjong battle pretty soon!
I really can't wait to see them battle it out into the tournament. The reason for this spin off to showcase Achiga is probably due to the fact that they are at the polar opposite of Kiyosumi, Nodoka's team. Also, if you have watched the first season of Saki, you should know that Saki, Nodoka's teammate has a sister who is very much skilled than her. I wonder will she be showing up and playing off with the Achiga girls. Anyway, though you don't have to, but I would suggest you to watch the first episode before this to learnt a little about Nodoka's team because I believe there will be some showcase of them in the near future.
My rating for this awesome mahjong series is a 7.7 up till episode 3 because it was a little too fast paced. But after watching episode 4, I would give it a 8.5 overall!
Nyarlko (pronounced as Nyaruko)is a Nyarlotep alien whose actual name is Nyarlathotep(I get tongue-tied every time for trying to pronounce it). Try googling her real name to see her true form! She has come to Earth on a mission for the planetary defense organization and also to protect Yasaka Mahiro.
So far, I have no idea what was actually going on so I can't write much about the plot. I totally watched this for you know what reason and after episode 2, things got more intense with Cthuko arrival. So far this is how things are: Cthuko(another female alien, different species from Nyarlko) wants to make a baby with Nyaruko but Nyaruko dislikes her; Nyaruko however likes Mahiro(an Earthling) and wants to bear his baby but he obviously do not like her; They are all living under Mahiro house due to circumstances.
I personally feels that it gets amusing with Cthuko trying to get lovey dovey with Nyarlko but gets rejected and than similar things happen to Nyarlko with Mahiro. Watch this if you are into moe characters or Cthulhu Mythos.
My rating for the series is a 7.6/10! And last of all, （」・ω・）」うー！（／・ω・）／にゃー！
The genre of the series is Action and Adventure. It is about an arms dealer named Koko Hekmetyar and how she and her skillful team travels around to sell weapons to many organization and escaping all the crisis. Koko just recently recruited a young child soldier named Jonathan (Mostly called Jonah).
The strength about this series is not the so much of the character development but the awesome battle scenes and the way the plot develops. You will really be amazed by the gun battle.
Another to be mentioned is that before this series and its trailer is out, based on just the character art, i have always thought Koko is a male. I got a shock when i watched the trailer but was ok with it. A thing that i find not so good about this series is the seiyuu choice for some of the characters. I personally do not think the voice of Itou Shizuka-san fits the character of Koko Hekmetyar. I think that Koko needs a voice more similar to the voice of Watanabe Akeno-san instead. But nevertheless, that is just my own opinion.
There isn't much I could elaborate about this show except its awesome gun fights, therefore I shall stop here. My rating for this is a 7.9/10 as I still find something missing in the series (can't really express what i mean) and when that is included, I will probably be able to give it at least an 8.5.
After watching 3 episode of it, I would say that the way in which the relationship of the characters develop is planned and executed brilliantly. Though it uses the usual 'transfer student' trick, the story doesn't fail to impress. I would say the main strength of this series would be the characters-to-characters development. Also, one thing to note is that there is quite a lot of Jazz musics in this series. So, if you are a Anime and Jazz lover, you will love this. I personally don't listen to Jazz music but I was impressed with how great the Jazz sounded in this series.
So basically, the plot started with Kaoru, a boy who transferred over to the new school due to some circumstances. He later meets Ritsuko, the class president and Sentarou, a notorious school bully who is also Ritsuko's childhood friend. He was later targeted by Sentarou due to him being a rich man kid. After a few incident, they somehow became friends.
[Spoiler]In the end, Kaoru falls in love with Ritsuko but Ritsuko had a deep crush on Sentarou ever since she was a kid. Sentarou however treats Ritsuko only as a sister and later fell in love with a senpai, Yurika whom he saved during an incident. After a few episode, we see that Yurika may actually have some sort of a love relationship with Sentaro's 'brother'.[/Spoiler]
Hence, I personally feels that the character's relationship is really well-developed and really cannot wait to see what will be happening next. I would say that the relationship development is somewhat like Ano Natsu de Matteru though with a much deeper, complex and realistic background.
I really love the series, the Jazz music in it as well as the theme songs(will be touching on this in another entry). This series also have quite a good animation I would say! I believe that it is definitely at least an 8.8/10 series.
It started abruptly with a introduction and then the introduction of Yuki and his grandmother moving to a new house again(Yuki's grandmother's work requires them to move once a while.). Haru, a self-proclaimed alien appeared next and somehow included himself into the family. In his new school, Yuki introduced himself to his new classmates and thought that he would screw up like his previous experiences. He managed to do it calmly at first and then fell into a state of panic. (It seems that he would be "drowning" when he panic but others will see him giving an angry face). Haru soon follows. He had this weird water gun which will be able to brainwash someone when fired(like those mind erase beam used by aliens in movie). He shot Yuki and without knowing they performed a weird dance and the class was laughing. They later became friends together with Natsuki, a "fishing prince".
The relationship between the characters seems to flow naturally. Coco, Haru's sister was introduced later. It seems they came to Earth for a mission, to catch the "big fish" in the ocean. It seems that Yuki have been chosen by Haru for this job. They managed to learnt the basics from Natsuki and manged to catch their first fish in a few episode.
Other characters worth mentioning (and that i can remember of) are Erika, the boy's classmate(I believe she would play a substantial role at a later stage) and Usami Sakura, Natsuki's imouto who is kawaii in my opinion! >w< (Not to mention, she is voiced by Ogura Yui-chan!! <-- Starting to love her voice after Kami-sama no Memo-chou's Alice. Though her roles are not that many, but it seems that she often voices really cute characters! She is also a member of the girls group YuiKaori!)
Going back to the main topic, Tsuritama is indeed an enjoyable anime to follow. As an original production, I find it decent but not that great. Reason behind this verdict is because there exists a sense of suspense of wanting to know what is Haru's real mission and how will it develop, but it isn't really that strong. Also, this series have plenty of unique characters but not that strong I would say.
I would give it a 7.3 for now and shall see what plot twist would it have in the future. :)
パートファイブ！
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