Condensed into one post for maximum efficency (laziness).
Black Rock Shooter
A disappointing, unsurprising ending to a medicore show. You know what? I’m going to forget this ever existed. The PSP game was more original than this garbage. I’ve already stated some of my problems with the show earlier but I think that’s really it. Originally, when the PV came out and BRS was just illustrations by huke, we could imagine it to be whatever we wanted it to be. The illustrations were interesting and had style. There are other really cool characters who haven’t ever seen the light of day in any creations of the series. The saw sapped all originality from the series. I’m not saying the OVA was that groundbreaking but it tried to keep the two worlds seperate, left most of it as ametaphor and left things open to your interpertation.
The TV show was just really bad and cliche. It was obvious that everything was going to be solved with the power of friendship and hey, guess what, it was. Let’s forget the years of emotional and psychical abuse from one character unto another! We’re friends after all!
I’m also disappointed with how Dead Master/Yomi was just pushed to the side. She pretty much did nothing important but get abused and then become a jealous psycho. Well, DM dying did make BRS go insane but remember how that had nothing to do with anthing ever again and BRS or Mato didn’t really seem to give a fuck afterwards? Yeah. Also, I would have been impressed if when they showed the girls whose Other World selves that BRS had destroyed, they would have shown actual established characters from the BRS universe. But nope. I guess that would have hurt them even worse if they had wanted to do a second seahahahahahaha
Another
I’ve seen a lot of shows with stupid characters but thank you Another, you have really set the bar high now. You make the cast of AnoHana look like goddamn geniuses. I’ll admit Akazawa was the only character that mattered to me (though Mei was indeed cute) and her death almost made me tear up so I’ll give the show points for that. Everything else was ridiculous. So ridiculous that it was entertaining though.
And hey, at least it wasn’t as bad as Ookamikakushi.
Chihayafuru
Originally, I had only planned to watch Chihayafuru because there is a sore lack of shoujo/josei adaptions in anime. I don’t count otome game adaptions because I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it here but otome game adaptions are literally the worst fucking thing and there are so many good reverse harem manga that could be adapted but no, I digress. The concept sounded silly to me but I figured I could put up with it to get to the shoujo (romance) aspects of the show.
You know what there wasn’t much of? Exactly that. The central focus was the card game. And you know what? I didn’t care at all. Just like Chihaya managed to reel her club members in, she hooked me from the very start. It was original. There are so many things good Chihayafuru. The characters are all unique and enjoyable in their own way (female characters that actually gain weight? shocking!), the animation was very shoujo styled so I doubt I was the only one fooled at the beginning and Chihaya always had great expressions. Another thing? The soundtrack. The OST is amazing. Some tracks are so intense and dramatic that it’s almost a little shocking they come from a show about a competitve poetry card game.
I’m sure this isn’t saying much but I would go as far as to say that Chihayafuru is one of the best anime series I’ve ever seen. It had flaws and I can understand some people finding it incredibly boring. But it made me care about something I previously thought was inane, made me characters I originally might have disliked and Chihaya was just such a good character that routinely warmed my heart.
I’ll be happy beyond words if the rumoured second season is real and airs in the Winter. It’s already a little sad knowing I won’t get to see Chihaya and her friends every week anymore.
Inu x Boku SS
I probably should hold off before writing this because I’m overwhelmed by all these ship feels but I can’t. Just like I couldn’t handle the ending. At all. I had to pause because I was squealing like a little schoolgirl and smiling and just making the weirdest sounds.
Admittedly, I had originally picked this up because it looked sort of shoujo-y. It wasn’t. Not really at all. In fact it wasn’t really anything. Jack of all trades, master of none. It wasn’t really shounen, there wasn’t enough action for that. It was slice of life supernatural comedy that liked to try and be other things. It had major flaws, of course. Nothing really happened. Like. Nothing. There wasn’t any major conflict at all. Well there was actually. Ririchiyo learning to act sociably and get over herself was a major thing. But I don’t know if that counts in the long run. Despite that, I looked forward every week to each episode. I think it could have used a few more episodes to build up Ririchiyo and Miketsukami’s relationship since there were quite a few Karuta and Watanuki episodes but it still worked out for me in the end.
The preview for the last episode looked really disappointing. Like the climax of the series was episode eleven and twelve would be daily slice of life stuff and that their hug and revelation at the end of eleven was the end of their relationship progression. Instead, Ririchiyo actually confesses and my shipper heart flatlined because I had never really expected them to get together. Everything after that was perfect. Their date in the credits, Ririchiyo discovering his stash of photos and their talk about the future was all just so great.
I would say Inu x Boku SS was a really average show. It was. It genuinely was. But mediocre, average shows are shows I just sometimes end up loving. Like Ookami-san or Night Wizard. It just can’t be helped.
May 7, 2012 5:50 pm | 
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