Anime Series of the Genre: “Comedy”

To Aru Majutsu no Index – Anime Review

Friday, 5 November, 2010


Review: Kamijyo Touma lives in the Academy City, a special advanced city cramped with all sorts of schools and mostly populated by students. Through scientific means, students there are able to obtain and train their special superhuman esper-abilities. Touma seems to have no talent whatsoever as an esper, but in a fight he realizes his right hand can nullify any kind of esper attack. It’s a very rare ability, but maybe his hands repelling all good luck is the reason he always gets himself into trouble. Just recently he found a strange girl called Index sleeping on his balcony; and that’s where the real trouble starts.

The animation quality is pretty good and similar to Shakugan no Shana. The story is set in an interesting near future Japan I think. As the plot goes on more and more shocking truths are uncovered and it never leaves you bored. Shakugan no Shana fans and anime fans who like sci-fi and action should definitely give this anime a try.
Rating: 8,5/10

Kemeko DX – Anime Review

Friday, 5 November, 2010


Review: Sanpeita-kun’s mother is always busily working as an artist at home; that’s why his little sister has to take care of the household. Their father might be gone, but they still do their best to get by. However, suddenly Kemeko appears in Sanpeita-kun’s life crashing into his room with a giant rocket, announcing to marry him. Kemeko seems to be a rather weird and ugly fighting android who protects Sanpeita from other fighting robots who attack him for no particular reason. The beautiful girl inside Kemeko reminds him of his childhood sweetheart, but that is little consolidation for all the trouble she causes.

This anime is a rather well done adaptation of the Kemeko-DX manga. The brilliant animation quality enables an adequate presentation of all those funny jokes and ridiculous situations. There obviously is a developing story with questions and secrets to be uncovered, but you shouldn’t hope for a deep and original story too much. Most of all this show is about comedy with a touch of romance, action and maybe harem.
Rating: 8,5/10

Hyakko – Anime Review

Friday, 5 November, 2010


Review: Ayumi recently transferred to Kamizono School as a high school freshman. Kamizono is a large school attended by more than 3000 students from elementary to high school. Ayumi is a rather silent girl who has problems speaking up her mind. She is determined to change, but still has problems doing so. On this big school ground she gets lost, but soon meets 3 other girls who share her fate and possess very different personalities. They soon become friends; but will they be able to help each other, or only get into more trouble.

Hyakko is a very funny school comedy anime with girls as main characters. It’s one of many shows recently with little story but enjoyable character and lots of comedy. Definitely worth watching for anyone who loves school comedy without any romance.
Rating: 8/10

ToraDora – Anime Review

Friday, 5 November, 2010


Review: Takasu lives alone with his beautiful but undependable mother. His father who isn’t around was a weird bad-ass looking yakuza. It’s because of his genes that Takasu-kun always looks evil and is always feared and mistaken for a delinquent, when in reality he is a caring guy who has to take care of his household on his own. On his first day in a new class he bumps into Taiga, a very small but pretty easily aggravated girl, often called palmtop-tiger, and gets punched in the face. At least all the misunderstandings about his personality are cleared now very early. He later finds out she actually lives in a big apartment just beside his small house. He also finds out they both are in love with each other’s best friends, and so they agree to help each other, which turns out to be not as easy as they think.

Toradora is one of the more deep school comedy romances. The protagonists are interesting and there’s lots of character development while the comedy does not fall short in any way. It’s a story about how, unlike their outer appearances and first impressions, people can be beautiful once you get to know them better and spend time with them. A show not only about love and comedy, but also about prejudice, misunderstandings, false rumors, psychology and friendship. The animation quality is more than acceptable, and from what I’ve read in the manga, the story is really going somewhere. However, the anime rushed the happenings of the manga (which also rushed the story of the original series of novells already) at a few rather important scenes and failed to convey their meanings fittingly. But someone not familiar with the novell nor manga will maybe not notice anything about that.
Rating: 9/10

Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu – Anime Review

Friday, 5 November, 2010


Review: Yuuto is your usual high-schooler except for the fact he seems to be the private maid for his sister and teacher who seem to do nothing but drink and cause trouble. He would have lost all faith in woman if it wasn’t for Haruka, a model student who is rich, pretty, good at studying, sport, piano and everything she does. By coincidence he finds out she actually is an anime otaku. Now she is afraid that her happy student life will crumble if rumors were to be spread, but surprisingly Yuuto isn’t bothered by it and promises to not tell anyone. This was the day they started to spend more and more time together.

I was pretty hyped when I heard there will be a “guy meets perfect girl with secret anime fetish” anime, but after watching it I have to say this show didn’t quite live up to my expectations. The animation quality is fine and the settings seem interesting, but they pick up too many clichés we’ve seen 1000 times in other anime and manga stories. Further more in this show being an anime fan is presented as something that will make people look at you with more disgust than being a rapist; not quite, but it gets too dramatized. If you don’t expect too much, it’s your usual love comedy and enjoyable to watch, but don’t expect any new groundbreaking concepts, plot constructions or character designs.
Rating: 7/10

Sekirei – Anime Review

Friday, 5 November, 2010


Review: Minato is very disappointed to have failed the college entrance exams twice, but his failure life style is about to change as he meets Musubi, a mysterious girl who is suddenly attacked by two other girls using weird lightning powers. Minato decides to help her and finds out that she is a sekirei and part of the sekirei plan, an unknown operation planned out by the MBI Corporation which controls this whole city. There are 108 sekireis and Minato seems to possess the Ashikabi gene to become a master of sekireis and awaken their powers to the fullest. Musubi now is his first sekirei, but being a peaceful guy he cannot understand why sekireis have to fight each other. What will he do?

Sekirei is a harem fanservice comedy action spectacle with a plot that isn’t too shabby for this kind of genre. Being a big fan of the Sekirei manga I had my doubts whether this anime will live up to my expectations. But unlike many other recent manga adaptations, this time they did a pretty decent  job. Animation and script are of a quality adequate for telling the sekirei story. However, those who read the manga will certainly find a few things that are missing or are not presented adequately, to say the least.
Rating: 8/10

Soul Eater – Anime Review

Friday, 5 November, 2010


Review: Maka Albarn and her weapon Soul, are students at Shibusen – a Shinigami Weapon Meister University. The purpose of Shibusen is to train Meisters and Weapons to protect humankind against the Kinshin, demon gods of destruction. When humans go down the wrong path and pursue evil, their souls become possessed by the egg of Kishin. In order to prevent their coming, Maka and Soul hunt these tainted beings. Their goal is to defeat and eat the souls of ninety-nine evil human souls and one witch’s soul in order to evolve into a master weapon fit for a Shinigami. A path that’s not as easy as it sounds.

This supernatural series has fantastic action sequences and unique characters. The storyline is  just as twisted as the artwork. If you’re looking for something dark, new, and exciting, this is for you.
Rating: 7,5/10

Kure-nai – Anime Review

Friday, 5 November, 2010


Review: Kurenai is a laid back high school student living alone in a run-down apartment. He works as a mediator, which is some kind of private agent helping and protecting clients. It’s not uncommon for him to get into serious fights during his work even though he does his best to avoid them. In those fights he sometimes uses a mysterious power he isn’t fully able to control yet.
His newest assignment however will make his crazy life even crazier. He is to live with and protect a 7 years old abducted girl from a prestigious but cruel family. Will Kurenai be able to deal with her selfish and uncommon behavior?

Kurenai is based on a novel and takes a quite different approach to the story than the existing manga. It starts of as an interesting action drama with school comedy tendencies, but quickly loses its excitement as it turns more and more into a family education show only focusing on the moods of the little girl and his weird neighbors. As the manga still seems to be quite interesting I will try not to give up on this show too quickly.
Rating: 7/10