Review Alice and Zoroku

It is the Christmas review so I just had to

Sana appears to be just another young girl wandering around in the rain being chased by some government agents. But the truth is she is a runaway psychic ( whose powers are called the dreams of Alice) being with immense power. Well on the run she happens to run into an elderly florist by the name of Zoroku. The man decides to take sauna in and they begin living together.

Cute girls plotting destruction

Alice and zouroku is an anime adapted from a manga of the same name. Even though the manga is still ongoing the anime does manage to have a satisfactory ending to it. It is an interesting mix of action mystery and some slice-of-life elements causing it to be a bit hard to the classified men genre except for some violent scenes in episodes 4 & 5 there's little to be offended by in the show.

It's actually not as bad as you think

I found Alice to Zoroku to be an interesting mix of genres, being that the show has to much action in it to be a slice of life by any stretch of the imagination. However it's more laid back segments allow it to ground the characters and make the relationships more solid. However I found the show most interesting for having a child protagonist in a show with that much action while staying true to her character. 

Overall I found Alice to Zoroku to be an interesting and somewhat overlooked take on magical girl genre without much of the trope baggage.

Rating the Silver Diclonious (Elfin Lied)

fall 2017 season preview part 4 Sequels all the way down

I usually make it a policy not to review multiple seasons of a franchise since I feel the most boring post I can make is one that says "this show is pretty much the same as it was last season" which I feel I would be doing if I reviewed most second seasons of shows. However I haven't been blogging for over a year so there are several shows that didn't get the review treatment of the first season. Here are three of those shows

Himouto Umaru chan R

Umaru Doma is a beautiful model student who lives with her older brother Taihei (I actually had to look up his name). However at home she is a tiny girl who wants to do nothing more than laze around and play video games. This show is a light comedy who reminds me of Oreimo without the incest sub plot. This first episode doesn't explain much so you should probably watch the first season first.

Shokugeki no Souma San Sara

Yukihira Souma is a hot headed teenage cook who goes to the prestigious and harsh cooking school of Totsuki academy. This time he is gearing up for the right to challenge one of the elite ten and not get expelled in the process. This looks like it will hopefully be as good as the previous two seasons with orgasmic good food and hot blooded cooking action.

Yuki Yuna is a Hero 

Sumi, Sonoko and Gin are three magical girls who are tasked with defending their city from monsters that come from beyond the long bridge. This show is a prequel show to the original Yuki Yuna is a hero. I found it to be a magical girl show with a nice aesthetic. I don't want to give away spoilers but expect this show to get dark in upcoming episodes. 

fall 2017 season preview part 3 girls and their vehicles

Whoever said the whole addition of cute girls as the main characters in anime would ruin it as an art form didn't know what they were talking about. At least two of the shows in this batch of new shows (even if one of them is a second season to something rather old) are clear examples of shows with cute girl protagonists and a good deal of philosophical thought in them. The other one, while a decent so isn't but you can't expect that out of every show.

Girl's last tour

Chito and Yuuri and two girls who travel through the war torn ruins of an empty city. This is the story of their daily lives as the two scavenge the ruins for supplies. This is a very simple and quiet kind of show and yet I find that this is an evocative show and I look forward to future episodes.

Kino's Journey the beautiful world

Kino is a traveler who wanders the world with only the talking motorcycle Hermes. Kino visits each country with the stipulation of only staying three days in each one. Kino's Journey is a well known anime series with a previous season airing in 2003. This show looks to be an episodic show where each episode explores some idea, sort of like old school science fiction. The art style is updated and I like the look of it.

Two car

Megumi and Yuri are on the side car motorcycle racing team. They are both in love with their coach and are at odds with each other, but can they work as an effective team? This show is a simple sports show and I can't say that the first episode of it impressed me all that much. 

Fall 2017 Season preview part 2 Kemono Enemies

The trope of characters having animal traits has a long history in anime (being that animals are the only creatures other than humans and plants don't do much). There are many uses of this trope (including werewolf bishonen in Sengoku blood night, but that is another post). There is little in common with the three shows other than that there are animal themed characters in each of the shows.

Juuni Tenshin 

Every twelve years there is a tournament when twelve people, one of each who represent a member of the Chinese zodiac, fight each other in a battle royal in order to win a wish from a shadowy organization. This show is a dark action anime where many of the characters aren't good people, at least the boar lady who is the focus of the first episode. isn't. However it looks like there will be a strong action component in this show.

Konohana Kitan

Yuzu is a young fox Youkai who is taking up a new job at the local inn. She is inexperienced but a friendly and kind person. This show is one of, if not if, the cute girls doing cute things show of the season. I found the characters to be nice enough and the atmosphere to be nice enough. It might not be a great show but it is a worthwhile show for it's genre.

Urahara

Rito, Mari and Kotoko are three girls who run a hip fashion store in the toyoko ward of Harajuku. One day culture stealing aliens show up and being sucking up everything cultural in sight. By a twist of luck the girls run into a talking fried shrimp who gives them the powers to fight off the aliens. This show is a strange sort of twist on the magical girl genre. this show has an unusual art style to it which might be a turn off for some people.

Fall 2017 season preview part 1 Season of Vampires

After about a year and a half I have arisen from the dead and begun to start blogging about anime again. The fall season is one of the stronger seasons in my experience and I hope that this is the case for this season as well. For the first batch of shows I am watching two shonen action shows and a bishonen visual novel adaptation. None of them feel like particularly stand out shows but at least they weren't horrible.


                                                                    Black Clover

In a world where almost everyone knows magic, there is a young orphan named Asta who can't use any magic. Even on his fifteenth birthday he didn't receive a grimoire like everyone else, or does he?
In short Black Clover is a shonen adventure show with a magic and wizards gimmick to it. It looked a bit generic but one episode reviews on these kinds of shows are a bit difficult since there is usually only enough time to show that the main character has special powers. I did like the character interaction between Asta and Yuno though so I have some hope for the show.

Sengoku Blood Night

Yuzuki is a young woman in the modern world who is transported into a world like Medieval Japan except for the fact that that the important people of the world are creatures like vampires and werewolves. This show is one that is clearly meant for fans of pretty boys so I am not part of it's target demographic. Even so I can't say much in it's praise so because it does as poor job in establishing it's main characters or making me care about them.

UQ Holder

Even though magic is now common knowledge a young boy named Touta is stuck in a rural village even though he wants to travel to the capital. One day though he gains the power of immortality from his teacher Yukihime, even if he doesn't know the weight of that power. Even though this is a sequel to Negima this show doesn't require previous knowledge. This is a shonen adventure show but since it has vampires in the main cast dismemberment is cheap. Also this show promises fan service in future episodes.