Manga 1 | Everything Else 0

Yep. My lack of updates here is attributed to going on yet another manga binge (and a lil bit of gaming). I simply can’t get enough manga. Every time I run into a deadlock of series to read, I’ll spend an extensive amount of time searching for more. And once I do find more? Of course, I have to read everything.

It’s a never ending cycle. I’ll constantly “catch up” on every new series I find and thus, be without any manga to read. That cannot remain to be since I *have* to have manga to read. I’m just so into manga it’s beyond an obsession. It’s more like a curse.

Yet, I never blog it. More accurately, I never have the drive to blog it. I haven’t figured out why. There are some incredibly awesome series’ out there, many of which deserve to be mentioned at any given juncture, yet… this small juncture that is my blog is not one of them. No, I can’t consider the currently reading manga updates buried in the sidebar as a viable “mention” of said series’.

So why am I here? Will I finally mention some of the more pimp series’? Sadly, nope. I’m just at a crossroad. I’ve nearly caught up on everything I care for and felt like taking a breather. I may watch some anime on this, my precious day off since the manga I have left won’t suck up the entire day. Then there’s this lil Orange Box sitting next to me that I’ve yet to touch. It constantly calls to me.

“Open me.”
“Play me.”
“Quit ignoring me you sonuvabitch, it’s been over a week already.”

Manga. Anime. Games.

It truly is impossible to juggle them all.

This was one of two (or three or something) shows for this season that I was anticipating. I enjoyed (what little I could get of) the manga and expected more of the same from the anime.

Sadly, it was significantly less than the same.

“…less than the same.” Does that even make sense? I swear, the shit I’ll spew out in hopes of being creative.

Anyway…

This show is all about the humor. The material is slice-of-life comedy and the delivery is random, almost slapstick-esque. This episode failed in the delivery. The “punchlines” weren’t “set up” properly. Meaning, instead of teh funnay happening randomly, there was awkward pauses and pseudo-dramatic lead-ins that totally ruined the delivery.

I expected too much, I suppose. I hope things pick up since this episode focused mostly on Kana who is an OK character. From the manga, I liked Chiaki the best so the next episode looks somewhat promising.

Ehh, if this show fails, there’s always the alternate version next season. I still don’t get why there will be two versions of this show but whatever.

One of them has gotta luck out, right?

I have absolutely no idea why I was compelled to start this up again.

I’m glad I did (for now). If the friggin’ second season started off with an episode like this, I would have finished the series already. Stupid ass first episode.

No retardedness just plenty of legit comedy and good faces.

I can’t suppress my praise for this episode. The comedy was silly w/o any perviness. Everyone, especially Saito, had some real nice faces. The drama felt real. Henrietta’s grief felt extremely real. Props to Kawasumi Ayako!

Basically, this episode was like last season except a bit more serious. How can that not be made of win? I hope to ALL THAT IS GOOD AND RIGHT that the first episode was a ploy and I won’t be seeing that nonsense EVER THE FUCK AGAIN.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t all superbness. Given some of the information in the early part of this episode, I thought this story was gonna be longer. More specifically, I thought it was the start of a bigger story. Instead, it was more a remnant of the last season and a bit of a cheap way of pulling at the heart strings.

Story aside though, everything else was awesome. There’s still plenty of this season left for silliness and what-not and I surely hope the seriousness shown in this episode doesn’t get lost. There was no faltering. The gang had to act and they did so w/o a hitch.

Of course, that probably won’t happen right away.

I’m torn. I’m afraid things will slip back like the first episode but I want to see more things like this episode plus the fun times that was the first season.

Friggin’ anime toying with my emotions!

I doubt it’s smart to start all these new series’ when I have so many neglected ones especially since some of these will end up as part of those neglected ones.

…but that won’t stop me from starting them, hahaha.

3 for 3 so far, I enjoyed this one as well.

And ZOMG, it wasn’t one based on a bishoujo game.

I like the premise of this one. It’s so outrageous and random that it screams senseless comedy. I thought the guy was the focus of the series but that’s probably not the case. Judging from what was set up in this episode and the next episode preview, Tamaki seems like the MC. Kirino may share that role. I don’t mind either. Tamaki and Kirino both seems like fun characters, especially Tamaki. A quiet, indifferent girl who has a sense of justice? MOAR NAO.

I had low expectations going into this and I ended up liking it. I had plenty of LOLOL moments. I need a huge draw to keep me watching sports anime so it can still be hit or miss but this was definitely a good start.

Yep, one new anime based off a bishoujo game wasn’t enough. I needed more fuel for my bishoujo game-based anime obsession.

Surprisingly, I really enjoyed this one.

I say “surprisingly” because I didn’t think I’d get into it at the start. The characters didn’t catch my eye right off the bat.

Then it went off and became three distinct stories that are subtly interlinked. Well, maybe four stories if I include the two inside the church. So, instead of waiting for the characters to interest me, there’s a host of mysteries among these stories that ended up grasping me instead.

And I love the mood. It’s an intensely serene atmosphere. Yes, I used “intensely” as an adverb for “serene.” It’s so serene that it stands out. It’s extremely peaceful watching things get set up that I almost feel like there’s no hurry to find out what’s what. Almost.

The backgrounds are quite gorgeous and detailed. There’s a lot of focus on the backgrounds using pan and angle shots and the like so even a guy like me noticed it (I pay very little attention to relevant details while watching anime since I normally focus on random, inconsequential aspects instead).

The part that hooks me in the most is that the stories are definitely connected. Instead of building them up individually and slowly tying them together, this one opted to flat out say there is a connection. It’s different and thus makes things more interesting.

Ah, the ending song really hooks me in as well. It’s a cute tune.

The biggest mystery is why I care so much about these characters’ stories when I don’t really care for the characters themselves. I don’t hate them, I simply don’t like them yet. In terms of personality, none of them stand out.

At least none of them annoy me yet.