Review Hibike (sound) Euphonium

I am all over this pairing

Kumiko Oumae is a girl who has been practicing the Euphonium for years although she had no great plans for music. When she entered high school school she joined the orchestra club almost as a matter of course and meets up with some news friends as well as Reina a friend from middle school who is more serious about music. As always this is a new chance and what will happen this year?

Got your nose

Hibike Euphonium is a coming of age story based around a school orchestra. Being from the studio it does (Kyoto animation) comparisons to the show K On are inescapable (to be entirely fair I referred to Reina as Trumpet Mio for a couple of episodes). However given the show's plot and emotional weight it is wrong to call it a slice of life show.

Senpai noticing you comes with it's own dangers

This show has a fairly large cast of minor characters, this being a show about an orchestra. I found that this show uses them to introduce new angles in the overall theme of working hard to be good at music in a competitive environment. All this is done while not taking too much time away from the main cast and giving them enough time to feel fleshed out. 

Terrorist fist jab

Overall I found Hibike Euphonium to be a really good story in terms of looks, theme and characters. It's an all around solid package.

Rating the silver Minmay for being such a great musically driven show. 

Summer 2015 Season overview part seven final jokes

I haven't reviewed everything this season but this is all I think I can get around to for now. I am over half way through July so season previews are a bit old now. Anyways these last three shows are all comedies if various types and qualities. No hits out of the park though.

Castle town Dandelion

In a small but kingdom there are nine super-powered and royal siblings, yet who live in a normal house instead of a castle, who are in a contest to see which one of them with be the next monarch.

This show is pretty much a harmless comedy with a really wacky premise. Although there are some underwear jokes in the first episode you don't see the character's panties so I can't really call this show fan service laden.

Seiyu's life

Futaba is a brand new Seiyuu (voice actress) who just landed her first job in a new anime show but she lacks confidence.

I found this show somewhat instructive as well as entertaining. I would think of the show as something of a Shiro Bako lite.

Shimoneta a world without dirty jokes

In the near future all sexual material and even words are banned but there is rebel called blue snow who fights back while wearing underwear on her head.

My biggest problem with the show is that I live in a world with ample porn so I need more than this show's elementary stabs at dirty humor get me off so to speak.

Summer 2015 season overview part six Where the weird things are

Anime blogging is like war. No seasonal plan survives contact with reality. I planned on watching God Eater (that way I could perfectly fantasy theme this block of shows) by now but I was able to watch three at least somewhat interesting shows. They may not be for everybody but at least they aren't stinkers like a couple of shows this season. Besides I think I am out of monster puns already.

Overlord

Momonga is the last member of his guild to stay online when the MMO game he likes goes offline. However something strange happens, he remains in the game and the npcs start gaining personalities.

This show takes a very different tack to it than other shows of it's theme given the main character's social isolation. This could be very good or not but here is to hoping.

Chaos Dragon

The island of Namul has been mostly conquered by two other kingdoms. However there is a band of adventurers chosen by destiny and the guardian dragons who might just change things.

This show is reported an adaptation of a rpg played by some famous creators. However the first episode is mostly the country is conquered and some kid gets superpowers with some hints of a more involved plot down the line.

Ranpo Kittan Game of Lapace

A young man wakes up to see his teacher has been murdered and a bloody hacksaw in his hand. Questioning this leads him to a teenage detective.

This show looks like it could be a series of short stories, from the genre (mystery) and episode title. I was really taken aback by the directing in this show and would recommend it to more artsy types of anime fans.  

Summer 2015 season Overview part five Moe survives

If you have been watching anime anywhere near recently you probably know that there are a ton of moe shows of various stripes. As a reviewer I sort of take it upon myself to step on any landmines so to speak and see if any of those shows are worth watching. As for the three shows I will be writing about this article

School Live

Yuki and her friends are a part of the school living club, meaning instead of going home they live at school. However not is all that it appears to be at first.

This appears to be your ordinary slice of life show with four girls doing nothing, however there is quite a twist to the show that reveals itself near the end of the first episode. You might want to watch.

Himouto Umaru chan

Umaru is a model student who is perfect at everything. However at home she is a shameless Otaku who spends all of her time on manga and the computer.

I found this show to be a simple comedy that is pretty funny. My Personal title for the show is "My little sister can't be this chibi." as it feels kind of like Oreimo without the incest angle. 

Million Doll

This show about a local idol group and a fan girl who is interested in idols.

This is a short show (about eight minutes) that really doesn't really do anything fun or interesting. I would recommend you the reader skipping this show.

Summer 2015 Season Overview part four Red vs Blue

Now about this time in a season I get some rather interesting shows to watch. It is also a week since new shows started coming out so I start watching shows not one Crunchyroll as well. Two of the shows are somewhat female focused and one that looks like it is made for the western fan base of anime fans. All shows look like they will be at least enjoyable for their target demographic.

Aoharu x Machine gun

Hotaru is a girl who dresses up as a boy with a strong sense of justice. She gets roped into fighting in survival games with a host member who is an enthusiast.

With some of the character designs I feel that is a somewhat shoujo anime although some people might say otherwise. However I do feel that it has a broad appeal and was generally good enough to be a recommendation for just about anybody.

Snow White with Read Hair

Shiroyuki is a woman with striking red hair and skills as an herbalist. One day she is summoned by a prince to be her concubine but fate has other plans for her.

This is one of the few shoujo anime of the season. I found that this show was well done and if you are at least open to the genre this show is worth watching

Gangsta

Worick and Nick are two mercenaries who take jobs in a crooked city run by the mobs and crooked cops.

This is a very  violent and gritty show. Even though it rather gratuitous with the violence I felt the character to be interesting. The fact that Nicholas is hearing impaired is an interesting twist with the show.

Summer 2015 Season Overview Part three Monster Mash

Exactly how does one group two harem comedies with a shonen action show and make it all seem to fit? By having a monster theme to them. As for rating the shows two of them feel quite average and one looks like it could be a break out for it's genre. Which one is it you ask? You will just have to read the rest of the article to find out.

Actually I am

Asahi is a boy who has extreme difficulty keeping any sort of secret. One day though he finds the girl he likes is a vampire and if her secret comes out she will have to leave.

I found this pretty average although I feel the worst thing that I can say about it is that it feels like a lesser copy of the monster girl show (see below) without enough originality to make both worth watching unless you really like the genre.

Ushio and Tora

Ushio finds out his family legacy one day when he finds a demon stuck to a wall by a spear. He is forced to release the demon in order to fight other demons.

Shonen shows are kind of hard to read by the first episode. One thing that I can say for certain is that if you remember the old Oav from back when this first episode is pretty much the same as the first episode of the Oav.

Everyday with monster girls

Three years ago the existance of monster girls became public. Now a young man named Kimihito is living with Miia a lamia and sexy highjinks ensue.

I am usually not too fond of fan service shows in a critical sense however I found this show to be really fun and delightful. The characters are good as well as the humor.  

Summer 2015 Season Overview Part 2 Fantasy and Reality Collide

If there is one big problem that I have with doing first episode reviews of shows it is that a lot of shows are mainly just setup in the first episode. This is especially true with fantasy shows in that you have to explain how the world is different before the story gets too far along. As I watched a couple of fantasy shows for this group I ran into this problem a couple of times.

Gate

One day a gate to a fantasy world opens up and a fantasy army attacks. They are quickly defeated but several months later the JSDF (the Japanese equivalent to the military) sends a force into the gate.

I felt the first episode was a bit hard to get a read on other than it had an otaku main character and there were some cute fantasy girls shown in the opening. I won't write this show complete off yet but it doesn't feel like it is going to become some anime classic.

Rokka Braves of the six flowers

There is a prophecy that six heroes will save the land from the demon god just like they did centuries ago. Self proclaimed (but to be honest he pretty strong) strongest man in the world Adlet Mayer believes that he is one of the chosen heroes.

Although this first episode is mostly exposition I do give the show points for it's pretty good action scene and Mesoamerican aesthetic. There doesn't look like there is too much negative in the show just yet so I will continue watching.

Charlotte

Yu is a young man with the ability to possess other people for five seconds. He uses this ability to cheat on tests until he discovered and forced to transfer to a different school.

I had high hopes for this show and it looks like my optimism was at least somewhat rewarded. Most of the first episode goes into introducing the main character, who has a good deal more personality to him than your average slack jawed harem protagonist. I also found the little sister to be cute and not in a creepy way. I will continue watching. 

Summer 2015 Season overview part 1 Small schools

Hello everyone. I am back from my sort of hiatus (brought on by a bunch of overtime) to talk about the new anime shows of the season. For the first batch of shows I chose a couple of short running shows as well as one other one (I try to theme these articles but it almost never comes out perfectly). While I tend to avoid very short shows as they take longer to write about than to watch. However I found these shows substantial enough to be worth writing about and if you are the right kind of anime fan, good enough to watch.

Note all of the anime listed is available at crunchyroll

My wife is the student council president

Hayato is the vice president of the high school after losing the election to Ui. Later another surprise occurs when he finds out that she was engaged to him at the age of three and has come to fulfill that promise.

This show is harem show with some fan service in it. While I usual write a lot of these shows off I found there was a decent emotional element to the show. However who knows, it could all turned sour.

Wakaba Girl

Wakaba is a rich girl who wants to be a more common girl. At the normal high school she goes to she meets and befriends three other girls.

This is a slice of life show which can be pretty much described as four girls stand around and be cute. This show is only eight minutes long so it might be bite sized enough for quite a few viewers.

Classroom Crisis

In the future there is a special classroom on Mars which is also a branch of a corporation. As in anime tradition there is a transfer student, who the rest of the class has to save from asteroid miners who have kidnapped him. As a twist it turns out that he had transferred to the class in order to downsize it.

I found Classroom Crisis to be a possibly decent show with some good action elements to it although none of the characters really stand out. I think the worst that I can say about the show is that it feels rather forgettable.