Minami-ke Okaeri - Episode 1

After a generally highly regarded first season of Minami-ke, the second season of this slice of life show, Okawari, somehow managed to ruin much of what the franchise brought to the table with lower quality animation coupled with looser, less humorous scripts and plots. Overall, it was a disappointment of a series, that started out at a mediocre pace before getting stuck in a rut and really spoiling the whole thing. However, Minami-ke is back for 2009 with Okaeri, so can can it right those wrongs and return this series to its rightful place in our hearts?


Well, let's start out by talking about the animation and artwork quality. It's terrible. Really terrible. While Okawari certainly wasn't the greatest looking anime series in history, I felt that some of the criticisms towards its visuals were a little overly harsh. This time around though I'm pulling no punches, as it somehow manages to have become even worse still, and cringeworthingly so. There are so many glaring errors in movements and basic anatomy that it isn't just disappointing, it's downright distracting, and by the close of the episode I was spotting visual incongruities far more easily than I was any jokes.

Putting the animation quality to one side, there is something soothing about Minami-ke as a whole, which is so often the case with slice of life shows, and once again in this opening episode even away from the pure humour there's something likeable about the everyday concerns of Haruka, Kana and Chiaka, alongside the myriad people who know and interact with them. It's a shame then that once again this episode just seemed to be going through the motions much of the time, from the inevitable New Year shrine visit which began the episode onwards. In fact, only parts of the "Cup Yakisoba phenomenon!" section managed to get a giggle out of me, while the rest of the instalment barely held my interest by a thread, unlike the sparkling dialogue and characterisation we've come to expect from the likes of Hidamari Sketch and Lucky Star.

So, if you hoped that Minami-ke Okaeri was going to save this franchise, then it looks like you're going to end up disappointed, as certainly from this first episode there was basically nothing to redeem it. The series can, of course, pull itself out of this rut with some good humour and script writing, despite its appaling art quality, but sadly I just don't see that happening. I'll keep on watching though, just in case.

Oh, and just in case you think I'm exaggerating about the art quality, check this out (click for the full-sized image):

Hyakko - Episode 12

After the last episode of Hyakko surprised a little by turning on the humour where it had previously been lacking, the latest instalment of this slice of life series turned things entirely on their head, eschewing comedy almost entirely in favour of a far more dramatic storyline.

For starters, we're finally introduced properly to Torako's older sister, Oniyuri, in an episode that fills in all of the blanks regarding her familial situation and why she looks nothing like her siblings - In short, they all share a father but Torako has a different mother from her brother and sister.


As you can imagine, this arrangement creates its fair share of tension, with much of the burden coming down on Torako, which is why on occasion she fails to come home at night, instead staying with a friend wherever she can find one. It's this state we find her in at the start of this episode, and as Oniyuri confronts her and later tries to force her to go home properly the next day, so a big old scene in the middle of the school hallway erupts in front of all of Torako's class mates.

From here we get it all really - A slap, arguments, tears, friends unsure of what to do or how to help, but in the end all's well that ends well, Torako's friends rally round her and her sister apologies, all rolled up into a surprisingly powerful little package. Having watched this, it makes me wonder why they chose to go down the comedy route with Hyakko at all, as this was by far the best episode of the series, bringing a slice of reality to this slice of life series in a way that was engaging, touching, and finally made good use of some of the myriad characters that have been introduced throughout this series. What a shame then that it's taken twelve episodes for Hyakko to begin to find its strengths, although perhaps they're simply counting on the commissioning of a second season to do the job properly?

White Album - Episode 1

It's new anime season in Japan once again to kick-start the new year, and the first series for my cogitation and digestion is White Album - No, nothing to do with The Beatles before you ask, but it does have something of a musical bent I suppose.

The protagonist of this series is Touya Fuji, a University student who doesn't particularly seem to have much going for him - He's not exactly the most dedicated student and he struggles to hold down a job of any kind, for starters. Oh, and it's the 1980s. However, life isn't all bad for Touya - He's dating an up and coming idol named Yuki. Then again, even this isn't as good as it seems... As her career has taken off, so he's seeing less and less of her, reduced to (rather amusingly in this opening episode) watching glimpses of her on TV with the rest of the audience rather than getting to spend any time with her in the flesh.


Despite all the excitement and glamour, life seems to be a bit tough for Yuki herself, with a rather scary (on occasion at least) senior mentoring her, and bullying and bitching from other idols who share a place on the show she works on making life hard even before you consider the fact that she's away from her boyfriend and thrust into the strange world of showbusiness.

So, the scene is set for what could be a pretty interesting series, and certainly this episode gave us glimpses of both Touya's more mundane life and the difficulties of being an upcoming idol backstage, all wrapped around the story of boyfriend and girlfriend and the problems created by this unique set of circumstances. Beyond that, we've also been rather hurriedly introduced to a number of other characters, largely female (this is a transition to anime from an eroge after all), who will doubtless play a greater role in future episodes as things most likely become more fraught for the main couple.

As always, the first episode is never a good time to pin too much on any series, and although White Album hasn't really stood out for me here as a wonderfully animated or characterised series in this opener, its premise has quite a lot of promise, so for now I shall happily hope that it lives up to that promise over the following episodes to turn into the well portrayed, character-driven series it could be.

Hyakko - Episode 11

Well, whaddya know? After having quite the moan about how dull and unfunny episode ten of Hyakko had proved to be, so it goes and manages to improve itself in the very next episode. Not to the heights of absolute hilarity admittedly, but it made for a far more entertaining prospect nonetheless.

The episode got itself off to a good start, with the class teacher Amagasa playing with his new T-Phone (no prizes for guessing what this device is trying to pass itself off as). Indeed, the early minutes of the episode throw in a couple of little Apple iPod advertising parodies, which I got a kick out of at least.


Anyhow, the mainstay of this episode sees Amagasa taking over the class of one of the school's other teachers at the last minute - Seeing as English (said teacher's given subject) isn't exactly his forte, he assigns the period as a self-study class, before deciding that it may as well be made into an impromptu P.E. session. After lots of prevaricating by the girls in the class, teams are decided upon, and dodge ball is chosen as the best way to spend the time. What follows is an occasionally mildly humorous, but undoubtedly highly lethal game that turns into something of a bloodbath before reaching its grand finale - A joke that I can't help but think almost gets spoiled a little as we never get to see it.

Compared to its virtually humour-free tenth instalment, it was nice to find things to at least laugh at somewhat in this episode of Hyakko, with a few nice touches that actually made for worthy jokes, and a few other moments that raised a smile. Overall then, I remain disappointed by this series when I think about what could have been, but at least episodes such as this one take the edge off my disappointment.

Telepathy Shoujo Ran - Episode 26 (Completed)

Had this been a thirteen episode series I would probably have been more forgiving, but as it is I have to say that I'm both glad and relieved that Telepathy Shoujo Ran has come to an end. I hate to steal the thunder of a fellow 'Blogger who mentioned this series in passing recently as the dullest anime of the year, but I'm more than a little inclined to agree.


Anyhow, this final episode takes us to a final battle between animals (or rather, humans turned into animals) and humans, and as a result Momoko versus Ran and Midori - A battle that the latter pair eventually triumph over by not fighting at all, which somehow convinces those animals to become humans again. If that sounds weak, then I suppose at least Momoko being reunited with her grandmother made a little more sense and rounded out that particular aspect of the series in a clean fashion. If only the same could be said for poor old Rui - All series it's been heavily hinted at that he has some kind of special power, but by the end of this series we're left none the wiser, and thus simply have to label him as the annoying smart-ass that he was for much of the series. The series also ends with a potential lead into a second season, but I really don't want to contemplate that right now if you don't mind...

In its entirety, there were a few things wrong with Telepathy Shoujo Ran. Firstly, it proved to be an incredibly formulaic series, which works fine for so long but after twenty-six episodes.... well, it leads to people calling it the dullest anime of 2008. Perhaps equally damaging was the way the telepathy angle of this show was abused, with Ran and Midori's powers soon becoming some kind of catch all to help them out of any situation, which extended to levitation, force fields and goodness knows what else. What the main protagnosists of a series can pull something out of nowhere to save them in any given situation, things soon get... you guessed it... dull, as any kind of drama and tension is lost. While early episodes of this series actually managed to foster some of this tension, as more powers were added to Ran's arsenal so any drama or action became less and less interesting. So, Telepathy Shoujo Ran was a nice try I suppose, but it wasn't executed anywhere near well enough to become anything but a decidedly mediocre anime.

Shikabane Hime: Aka - Episode 11

Last episode we were introduced to Shichisei, an organised group of Corpses looking to team up with the betrayer priest we saw earlier in the series with a view to destroying the Shikabane Hime (and, of course, the Kougon cult with it). Circular as these things are, we also come to the realisation that Shichisei were responsible for the death of Makina's family, and the reason for her becoming a Shikabane Hime in search for revenge on behalf of that family.

In this latest instalment, that circular nature carries on to even further degrees, as Keisei tells Ouri about his past, including the hows and whys of his becoming a priest, and how he ended up as a Contracted Priest to Makina. All of this in itself ties in with the Kougon Cult passing the recent information they've gleaned on Shichisei to Keisei, basically putting him and Makina in charge of "dealing" with them.


Meanwhile, seemingly away from all this, Ouri is looking forward to his sixteenth birthday, while Keisei advises him to keep out of the coming skirmishes and Makina all but molests him when he mentioned in passing that he's already seen a member of Shichisei. Of course, keeping out of it sounds like a great idea, but it isn't long before Ouri gets dragged into the conflict with Shichisei whether he likes it or not, thanks to a move which looks likely to have dire consequences for both Ouri and Keisei...

Perhaps it's just me, but it genuinely feels as though Shikabane Hime: Aka has been getting better by the episode as the series has progressed. While it may not be the deepest of shows, it's managed to balance plot progression and revealing any requisite back story pretty well, and has similarly never overdone the action side of things while losing side of any of its prominent characters. Add to that a slightly stop/start horror aspect (which again made a brief appearance here right at the end), and you have yourself a half-decent series which is building up quite nicely to a big climax (before it starts all over again in Shikabane Hime: Kuro of course).

Telepathy Shoujo Ran - Episode 25

At last, we move fully into Telepathy Shoujo Ran's final story arc, inevitably bringing back Momoko (who frankly has been the only half-decent "baddie" in the series anyway) to cause some chaos, the beginnings of which we saw last episode.

After building up the tension last time around, the immediate danger is diffused surprisingly quickly, as a visit to the school grounds finds Ran and Midori's teacher laying injured, having been attacked by a leopard... sorry, clouded leopard (isn't amazing how Rui can be a complete smart-ass even in the most stressful of situations?). The leopard is chased away thanks to Ran's force field abilities (yet another of those special powers which isn't telepathy that she seems to have picked up), and having called an ambulance for their teacher they then call it a day.


By the next morning, it seems that animals are running riot everywhere, not least at Junpei's house where his brother has turned into a tiger, refusing to go back to being human (as you do after a stressful day at college). It turns out that all of the animals on the loose are in fact humans who have transformed, for some long and nonsensical reason that I can't really be bothered to explain. So, the scene is set for a final episode consisting of Ran and Midori trying to convince Momoko of the error of her ways, while fending off a swarm of rabid animals who are in fact humans.

It seems that even when Telepathy Shoujo Ran tries to be dramatic in creating a grand finale, it still manages to end up dull. There was little feeling of real peril in this episode, not particularly helped by Ran and Midori's habit of magicking up new special powers whenever they need one, or the almost complete lack of real emotional depth to the story (you'd have thought people would be more upset by seeing their loved ones turn into animals). Couple that with the really rather poor animation and drawing of said animals, and you have yourself yet another forgettable episode of this series. Thank goodness there's only one left to go before I can put this series to bed.