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Mar 11, 2024
From my understanding, good parents just want their kids to be happy. I may not be a parent myself as of the time of writing this review, but I do see this in my mother, who supported me and my younger brothers in whatever we wanted to accomplish as we grew up. Although she could be a little probing about it, she has also been at least somewhat supportive of our love lives, whoever we happened to like at that time. I do wonder sometimes about one thing, though; neither my brothers nor I have ever been attracted to anyone who's the same sex as
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us, but if any of us were, would our mother love us the same, in the same way the protagonist in the manga I'm reviewing today loves her own son? No matter what the answer to that question may be, she definitely raised me to be the kind of person happily willing to read a manga about a boy who might be gay.
Ladies, gents, and nons, here is my review of Okura's "I Think Our Son Is Gay", known in Japanese as "Uchi no Musuko wa Tabun Gay" (literally "Our Son is Probably Gay").
I Think Our Son Is Gay is mainly told from the perspective of Tomoko Aoyama, a married mother of two. Her younger son, Yuuri, is a bit of a cool kid who isn't interested in romance, and her older son, Hiroki, wears his heart on his sleeve and is very bad at hiding things. Case in point, one night, he lets it slip that he'd like a boyfriend who could cook, only to frantically backtrack and say he wants a girlfriend instead. This, along with several hints from before and after this particular moment, leads Tomoko to believe that Hiroki might be gay, but she would prefer to wait until he's ready to come out to talk to him about it. In the meanwhile, Tomoko watches over Hiroki as he goes through high school, and in the process, her worldview expands a little more each day.
At the time of this manga's creation, Japan still wasn't too open about same-sex relationships - with same-sex marriages still not being legal in Japan - and that is reflected here. While there are no LGBTQ+ characters being shown physically harassed, there are heterosexual characters who make not-always-accurate assumptions about the community; while people making such assumptions actually happening in real life makes this manga realistic, and while it's made clear that they're not necessarily true, those kinds of moments might not be a fun read for some. With that being said, though, while there isn't a whole lot of LGBTQ+ representation outside of homosexuality (and a little bit of asexuality), the representation that is there is solid. No gay character is shown to be overly campy or stereotypical, and although being gay is an important part of their identity, that's not all there is to them.
To start off talking about this manga's characters, I'd like to talk about the most obvious example of what I just mentioned, Hiroki. Although he's not the manga's viewpoint character, we do get to know about as much about him as we probably would if he was. Although he joins a school club later in the story for the sake of spending time with his crush, he gives club activities his all nonetheless. He also displays feelings of inadequacy and low self-confidence at times, which is painfully relatable. Above all, he's a good kid who cares a lot about his family and friends. He is canonically gay, but instead of a caricature, he's a fully-fleshed character whose mangaka wrote him well.
One could also say that Hiroki's mama raised him well in-universe, and with how good of a person Tomoko is, that'd be easy to believe. She just wants to support her boys and let them live happy lives, and while she does have her own feelings of inadequacy about her parenting abilities at one point, anyone could see how good of a job she's doing with both Hiroki and Yuuri. Speaking of Yuuri, while he isn't the type to show his emotions often, he goes through his own struggles, and chapters focusing on him tend to be interesting. Plus, it's revealed that he also knows of his older brother's sexual orientation, and the little ways he shows support for him are quite sweet. Rounding out the Aoyama family is Akiyoshi, Tomoko's husband and Hiroki and Yuuri's father. While he's not a bad father by any means, he is a little behind on his sons' lives due to his job taking him away from home for lengthy periods of time, and early on in the manga, he expresses some close-minded views toward the LGBTQ+ community, unintentionally hurting Hiroki with his comments. Fortunately, especially with Tomoko's help, he is able to gain a more open mind by the end and also build a good relationship with his son, which is nice.
The members of Aoyama family aren't the only characters in the manga, however. We also get to know about some of the people in each of their lives, such as Daigo (Hiroki's crush), Asumi (Hiroki's childhood friend who has a crush on him), and some of Tomoko's mom friends. One particular character who stands out to me is Touno, Tomoko's co-worker at a bento shop who happens to be gay and living with his partner. Through Touno, Tomoko is able to learn about the experiences of a gay guy who's not her son, which further expands her worldview. I may have lamented the lack of LGBTQ+ representation outside of homosexuality, but it's still nice to have him and a few background characters mentioned throughout the manga around so that it doesn't seem like Hiroki's not the only gay person in its universe!
I spent too much time talking about the characters, so let's move onto the artwork. There isn't really much I can really say about it, though. It's cute, it's simple, and it's a good fit for a slice-of-life story like this one. The character designs are also solid, without a single outlandish design in sight. Yeah, I think that sums up how I feel about the artwork.
Do you know what I think? I Think Our Son Is Gay is a pretty good manga. Those who are in the LGBTQ+ community may enjoy its solid representation (and even relate to Hiroki's awkwardness), and those who aren't may come out of it with a more open mind; either way, it's worth the read. Hopefully, if/when I get married and have kids of my own, I'll be able to follow Tomoko's example, no matter what sexual orientation or gender identity they turn out to have.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jan 12, 2024
When people fall in love, they tend to try to make themselves more attractive for them. I mean, who cares about your personality or chemistry with someone when the other person thinks you're hot, right? Sarcasm aside, it's a little ironic that an anime movie could put such an emphasis on attractiveness and popularity when it isn't that popular itself. Why is that, though? Exactly what factors led to Kimi dake ni Motetainda being so unpopular that it didn't even get the English fansub treatment until nearly two years after its release? The desire to find answers to that question, as well as the character
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designs being done by Yamako from HoneyWorks, led me to watch it. Now that I have seen it....yeah, I can kind of see why it's not popular.
In the world of Kimi dake ni Motetainda, or "I Want To Be Popular Just For You" in English, there is a contest known as "The Handsome Competition". In this contest, attractive young men compete in groups of five to show off their appeal to adoring female fans in various ways, with the winning group receiving 10 million yen. One such group - consisting of Tokio Furuta, Shigekazu Ashida, Koutarou Tojima, Aki Sahashi, and Shun Gotouda - comes together when the wealthy Sakiko Horinomiya enlists their help in paying off a 5 million yen debt that resulted from a scam she seemed to fall for. (It should be mentioned that Tokio is reluctant to participate at first, but an accidental stain he creates on an expensive carpet coerces him to do so.) As the boys prepare for the competition - cleaning up their acts and all that - and make their way through it, they find themselves falling in love with Sakiko....somehow.
On the surface, the art looks pretty enough; Yamako did a pretty good job with the character designs, making each of the boys look as handsome as they should be. Then, we get into the actual animation, and....oh, boy. It's far from the worst animation I've ever seen, but the characters look off-model and just awkward overall at times. Well, the animation might not be the best, but at least the voice acting was decent enough. Most of the voice cast is full of experienced voice actors, such as Souma Saitou, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, and Yui Ishikawa, and they all do a solid job at their roles. The only exception to this is Rikiya Tomizono, who has done no voice acting work before or after his role as Koutarou, and his lack of experience in that department does lead to a lackluster performance; at least he still has his live-action acting career to fall back on. If I'm going to be honest, I thought that the Handsome Competition was going to be more of a standard idol competition, which makes it rather funny that "High School Princess", the ending theme sung by the main male leads, kind of sounds like an idol song. Not exactly a song that stands out too much among the other male idol songs, though.
The biggest problem with this movie, however, is its length. Within 54 minutes, it tries to tell a story that would benefit more from being a 12-episode series, and the end result is a horribly rushed plot. To give an example of what this short length affects, there's the romantic subplot, because of course there's a romantic subplot; there are enough guys involved for the female lead to have a reverse harem! Unfortunately, these more romantic parts aren't handled too well; when some of the guys admitted they had a thing for Sakiko, I was just thinking, "Wait, really? Since when?" See, if this movie was a series instead, there could have been more time to develop their relationships with her, making them actually seem like they might have chemistry with her. Out of the guys, Tokio seemed like he might have the most chemistry with Sakiko, but the movie doesn't allow for their relationship to be explored to where they could actually have chemistry. On a side note, the short length also affects the development of the characters themselves; we don't get to see why they are the way they are.
Despite all of my problems, though, I can't really say I found no enjoyment in Kimi dake ni Motetainda. With more polished animation and a longer length - preferably as a series rather than a movie - it could have potentially been a more enjoyable experience, as there were some parts of it that were quite amusing, such as Sakiko's naïveté. Give it a go if you want to watch something with hot guys, but I don't expect to see it becoming popular any time soon.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Dec 28, 2022
(WARNING: This review contains MAJOR spoilers. Proceed with a LOT of caution.)
Spend enough time around the anime block, and you’re bound to at least hear about anime that have a particular combination of genres: ecchi and harem. The premise of one guy being involved with multiple girls has been done time and time again and will continue to be done, and most of those times, fanservice will be sprinkled into the mix. A couple of my favorite anime may be part of these two genres, but like many others, I have grown slightly weary of them. For that reason, when I came across a screenshot
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from a certain ecchi/harem anime that had just started airing, I expected it to just be another generic ecchi/harem anime; looking into it, however, led me to discover that it was an original anime (as in, not based on a manga, light novel, visual novel, etc.), and for some reason, that convinced me to watch the first episode. Despite thinking I’d drop it after that first episode, something about it made me feel like there was more than what meets the eye, so I kept watching.
One entire season later, here we are, with me trying not to do a victory dance over being proven that I was right that something was going on with “Renai Flops”.
Although it takes place in a more futuristic setting than most, Renai Flops starts like any other rom-com anime, with our hapless hero, Asahi Kashiwagi, having five different risqué encounters with five different people - Aoi Izumisawa, Amelia Irving, Ilya Ilyukhin, Bai Mongfa, and Karin Istel. When he finally arrives at school, he discovers that Mongfa is his new teacher, and the rest of them are transfer students in his class. To top it all off, these five all confess their love for Asahi and even move in with him. So begins Asahi’s life with these five, with their feelings for him developing more with each episode. Pretty standard setup for a harem anime, right?
Well…. you know what? We’ll get to that later.
First and foremost, I should talk about the technical aspects of this anime, starting with the art. The character designs are pretty solid for the kind of anime this is, the backgrounds are quite pretty, and the animation was nice and fluid. At the very least, it’s easy to see that Passione put some passion into this project! (Cue someone throwing a banana peel at my face.) The voice cast is full of all-stars - such as Ryouta Oosaka and Ayana Taketatsu - who also do a solid job at their roles. The music is probably the best part of the anime, with the opening and ending themes being quite pleasant to listen to; heck, I went out of my way to purchase the opening theme, “Love? Reason why!!” by Konomi Suzuki, on iTunes! One song that stands out in my mind, however, is the insert song that plays during the final episode; as of now, I don’t know the name of the song, but I do know that it’s sung by Miku Itou and that it, accompanied by the scene that it played in, almost made me cry!
Unfortunately, Renai Flops’s story and characters aren’t entirely at the same quality as the art and sound….although that statement might be debatable. At the very least, the first half of the series will take a lot of patience to get through. Not only are there almost all, if not all, of the clichés that can come with an ecchi/harem anime, there tend to be played out in such an over-the-top way that I found myself cringing. There are a few moments that make it stand out among the crowd, but those moments are few and far between. In the first half, the characters are also pretty standard for this type of anime, with not a whole lot to make them stand out among other characters like them. All of this is on purpose, as is made clear later, but even knowing that doesn’t make the first half of Renai Flops any less exhausting to watch.
There is one thing I can honestly praise the first half of Renai Flops for, though, and that is its foreshadowing. From episode 1, there are hints that something isn’t quite right here. These hints range from pretty obvious, like when Asahi fails to remember his “best friend”, to blink-and-you’ll-miss-it-type moments, such as the date on Asahi’s alarm clock inexplicably changing. A conspiracy theorist could have a field day with those hints, and ultimately, by the time episode 7 ends, they would be doing a victory dance over how correct they were all along.
Well, if their theory was that none of your waifus were real, anyway.
To be more specific, Asahi was part of a simulation, and Aoi, Amelia, Irina (Ilya), Mongfa, and Karin were all artificial intelligences. This plot twist is probably a predictable outcome given the anime’s setting and all of the hints that were dropped previously; however, those who aren’t paying close enough attention will be caught off-guard, and even those who are may not be able to predict the full extent. The moment the plot twist is unveiled, the story steadily begins to improve. There is less fanservice, the characters develop in a way that make you care about them more than before, and as I briefly mentioned earlier, there are some nearly-tearjerking moments during the second half. The ending does raise a few questions, but I wouldn’t say it was a bad ending, by any means.
Overall, I think Renai Flops was alright. Fans of the ecchi and harem genres and those who have a lot of patience may find themselves appreciating what it has to bring to the table. Those who don’t like those genres and don’t have the patience to sit through it, however? Sorry, but you’ll probably see this as a flop.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Feb 2, 2021
(Originally posted on AniList)
Don't you just hate it when a love that was already unobtainable gets even further away even when certain circumstances bring you closer? In what way, you ask? Why, that love becoming your stepsister, of course! Huh? Not enough for you? Okay, how about, while having feelings for that girl, having a one-night stand with another girl that turns out to be her younger sister, and now, SHE'S your stepsister, too? Congratulations! Your life is now a soap opera with the same premise as the anime we're going over today. I read some of the manga of said anime before it came
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out to prepare myself a bit for what was to come, but I never got around to actually watching the anime until two years after it premiered. One thing led to another, however, and here I am now, having gone through this so-called "dumpster fire" in just three days and about to dump my thoughts onto any unsuspecting reader who comes across this.
Lads, ladies, and non-binaries, here is my review of "Domestic Girlfriend", known in Japanese as "Domestic na Kanojo".
Domestic Girlfriend follows the trials and tribulations of Natsuo Fujii, a high school student and aspiring novelist with a huge crush on his teacher, Hina Tachibana. Unfortunately, he knows that his love will never be, as not only is she a teacher who claims to see him as a child, but there are rumors floating around that she already has a boyfriend. One day, when invited to a mixer, he sneaks out with one of the girls at the mixer, Rui Tachibana, and because of Rui's desire to know what sex is like, the two of them lose their virginities to each other. You would think that their association with each other would end with this simple one-night stand, right? WRONG! You see, Natsuo's widowed father soon gets remarried to a woman with two daughters of her own, and those daughters just so happen to be Hina and Rui!
From there, to put it one way, emotional chaos ensues.
Now, the story of Domestic Girlfriend is, by no means, bad. At the very least, it isn't boring; it's the kind of story that will keep a viewer watching to the end, even if for no other reason than wanting to see the main characters make a smart decision for once! However, I do have a major issue with the anime's pacing; skipped events I remember reading in the manga getting skipped aside, the story presented in the anime feels like it's going too fast, with little time for the audience to process what happened. For that, I blame whoever thought it would be a good idea to cram 76 chapters of the manga into a 12-episode series. If the anime had gotten a longer runtime - probably 24 episodes, at the very least - the pacing issues could be fixed.
No matter the pace of the story, though, there's no doubt that the characters are at its heart; unfortunately, the main cast is a frustrating one to follow. Perhaps the biggest source of frustration is the protagonist, Natsuo; while he actually seems like a nice guy, which makes it hard to me to say I hate him, most of his actions make me want to yell about how freaking stupid he is being. Neither Rui or Hina are that much better; Rui makes some questionable choices regarding her relationship with Natsuo, and while I can appreciate how Hina tries to go about her own relationship with him, it's hard to know what her true feelings are at times. As for the supporting characters....well, not a lot of time was given to develop them, so I didn't really care about most of them. However, there are quite a few supporting characters, such as Masaki - uh, excuse me, Marie - Kobayashi, who give decent advice to the main characters, and I genuinely appreciated their presence.
The art and animation, done by Diomedea, is solid overall. There were a few moments of still animation that felt unnecessary, and even aside from that, the animation isn't perfect; however, the colors, the backgrounds, and most of the animation was beautiful. The voice acting is solid, as well, although some of the casting choices, while not bad, surprised me; I don't know what I was expecting with Momo Kashiwabara's voice, in particular, but the softness of Haruka Yoshimura's voice for her managed to catch me off-guard, for some reason. The ending song, "Wagamama" by Alisa Takigawa, is more than solid; the song is a beautiful piece that I wouldn't mind listening to multiple times.
My favorite part of Domestic Girlfriend, however, is undoubtedly the opening theme, "Kawaki wo Ameku" by Minami. I had listened to this song several times and even watched the music video over the course of the past two years, and my feelings for it then are the same as they are now; it is a fantastic song with emotional lyrics that could be relatable for most people, sung with the powerful voice Minami has. It was already perfect for an anime like Domestic Girlfriend, and the visual part of the opening only helped it shine. It's clear to see that the animators went all out with this one, from the colors and movements to the visual storytelling that complimented the story of the actual series. I don't know exactly where it would be placed on my top 20 anime openings, but it's somewhere on that list, for sure.
Overall, is Domestic Girlfriend a trainwreck into a dumpster fire? Absolutely. Is it a bad anime? Absolutely not; those with a taste for melodrama and incest will definitely get a kick out of it. Just....be careful when it comes to the kinds of relationships it depicts, okay?
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 5, 2020
Love isn't always sunshine and rainbows, but during a relationship's best moments, the couple would be so cute and sweet that just looking at them would give you diabetes. A lot of these moments happen when the relationship is as healthy as one can be, but not all of the healthiest relationships start out so well as it eventually becomes. Sometimes, it's just a matter of whether or not you're willing to look past first impressions and see a potential partner for who they are inside. For example, someone who might look scary and cold-hearted may actually have the warmest heart and most gentle personality.
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Wouldn't a relationship with someone like that just be sweet? After reading this manga that was given to me by a friend, I definitely would think so.
Lads, ladies, and non-binaries, here is my review of "Honey So Sweet", known in Japan as simply "Honey".
Honey So Sweet begins when Taiga Onise, a high schooler who is believed to be a delinquent due to his frightening appearance and some unfavorable rumors about him, asks out his schoolmate, Nao Kogure, with the possibility of marriage in the future. (Aaaaand the diabetes have already settled in.) Nao is originally scared of Taiga for the reasons mentioned earlier, but as she gets to know him, she discovers that he's not the delinquent people believe him to be; he even refuses to hit other people without a good reason! Still, Nao originally can't return Taiga's feelings due to her own feelings for her uncle Sou, who has been looking after her ever since her parents died when she was small; thus, the two agree to just be friends. Over time, however, Nao comes to realize that she, too, has feelings for Taiga, and they end up dating (with marriage in mind, of course). From there, the manga follows their relationship and how they ultimately change each other for the better.
Honestly, I'm a little conflicted about the story. On one hand, I can understand how some people may not be entertained by this manga. The whole "tough-looking guy turns to be a big softie who possibly likes cute things" kind of plot has been done time and time again, and it's possible that it will continue to be done several more times; in other words, it's completely unoriginal, and some people may be sick of it. There's also the amount of real conflict in the story; there's not a high amount of conflict, and even the conflict there is in the story doesn't hold a lot of weight because we all know that our lead couple will just get through it. Finally, this is just a nitpick, but I wish that we got more of what happened to the characters at the end; we see a bit of Nao and Taiga as adults in the final chapter and some of the other characters in a bonus comic at the end of the final volume, but I just wish the direction their lives went was explained in more detail.
All of my gripes about the story aside, though, I just can't hate it; in fact, I actually really like this manga. The main reason for this is just how cute the relationship between our two leads is. On their own, they're good characters; Nao is a sweet girl who got a decent amount of development during the story, and Taiga is just a big sweetheart who makes it easy to root for him. Together, however, they present one of the healthiest relationships in shoujo manga. They pretty much always communicate with each other, treat each other with respect, and help each other grow as people. It may not seem like anything special, but when compared to, for example, Honey x Honey Drops, it's more of what a loving, healthy relationship should be like.
Nao and Taiga aren't the only characters in Honey So Sweet, however. This manga also includes a colorful cast of supporting characters who are mostly likable in their own ways. One character I'd like to mention is Miyabi Nishigaki, who appears rather late in the manga; given her actions, it would typically be easy to hate her, but when you think about her personal struggles, it's hard not to feel bad for her. Ayaha Futami is, at an earlier point, in a similar boat to Miyabi, but although he doesn't necessarily have the same problems as Miyabi, I honestly wanted to see him happy, too, as he seemed like a genuinely nice guy, despite my worries that I was going to hate him. There's also Kayo Yashiro and Ayumu Misaki, two of Nao and Taiga's mutual friends; they're fun characters on their own, and although the direction their relationship with each other went was highly predictable, it was still nice to see it develop.
Then, there's Sou. I was originally worried about his relationship with Nao due to her initial crush on him, but seeing their familial relationship and how it developed, my worries quickly went away; it was a perfectly healthy relationship between two family members. Although it's, of course, not in a romantic way, Sou repeatedly demonstrates how much he loves and cares for Nao throughout the manga. I also liked his relationship with Taiga; although Taiga hadn't actually married Nao (yet), it already seemed like he and Sou were family. As for Sou himself, his character development was slower than I was hoping it would be, but I like to think that he had grown a little bit by the end.
As for the art....what can I say about the art? With a cute, fluffy manga like this, a cute art style is essential, and fortunately, mangaka Amu Meguro manages to deliver on that front. The character designs are great, the backgrounds are well-drawn, and the art is adorably simplistic when it's necessary for it to be. The art style is perfect for a shoujo manga like this, and I honestly feel like that it's an ever-so-slight improvement from the mangaka's previous works, like Chiguhagu Planet. What else can be said about it?
Overall, Honey So Sweet is an enjoyable manga with plenty of cute moments. People looking for something incredibly unique won't find it here, but if you just want a simple romance that is as sweet as honey (roll credits), I'd recommend that you give it a read. Just don't be disappointed by the pet name "honey" not being used, though.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Nov 27, 2020
First of all, WRAPPING PAPER ISN'T HAIR! Ahem....excuse me. That's just the name of a badge on Anime-Planet that you can earn by watching this particular anime, which is how I learned it existed in the first place. Despite the curiosity I felt after discovering it, though, I ended up spending YEARS trying to find it with English subs included. I eventually found it and was able to watch this pair of OVAs; however, it's evident now that all of that searching was NOT worth it.
Lads, ladies, and non-binaries, I now present my review of the 1994 OVA series, "Tanjou: Debut".
Tanjou: Debut, known in English
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as "Birth: Debut", is based on a 1993 video game of the same name where the player is a manager for three idols; however, nothing except its opening theme hints that this is what the anime's source material is about. Instead, each of its two episodes tells two completely different stories with some of the same characters. The first episode follows Aki Itou, a high school girl with a crush on an employee at a restaurant she frequents, who is told that said crush already has a girlfriend, and misunderstandings ensue from there. The second focuses more on Saori Fujimura as she and her two friends - one of them being Aki herself and the other being another girl named Kumi Tanaka - dig up a time capsule that they buried 10 years ago. They discover that inside of the time capsule, alongside each of their own boxes with their own possessions inside, there is a fourth box with a small bouquet inside of it, but they can't remember whose box it was....apparently.
Look, I have no problem with each episode having a different plot from the last; there are plenty of other anime that are similarly episodic, but they manage to make sense for what came before each episode and even sometimes be enjoyable to watch. Tanjou: Debut, however, doesn't do either of these things. Some aspects of the second episode don't make sense when you think about what was going on in the first, such as how the relationship between two characters was established in each episode; this disconnect is rather jarring. It certainly doesn't help that neither episode is that enjoyable in the first place; both of the plots in this anime are boring, highly predictable, and full of characters I personally didn't give two cruds about. As I mentioned earlier, both episodes have the same main cast, but both iterations of these characters are as bland as the plots and go through little to no character development.
As for the art....well, a quip about a certain aspect of the character designs in the form of a badge name is why I'm here in the first place, is it not? Not only is the artwork every bit as bad as you probably expect (with Aki's design being especially awful, in my opinion), but while not flat-out awful, the animation is very dated, even for its time; I'm sure that we all know that Studio Pierrot was capable of better even back then. Meanwhile, the music is rather forgettable, as it doesn't stand out when placed next to other tunes from the '90s; I don't even remember how the opening or ending themes go, much less what they were even called. The voice acting isn't anything to write home about, either.
Overall, Tanjou: Debut is a bad way to spend an hour of your time. Looking for it isn't really worth it, either, but if you REALLY want to earn the "achievement" of watching the "wrapping-paper hair anime", be my guest. Don't blame me for not warning you if any negative feelings are born in your heart after you watch it, though.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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May 13, 2020
No one would want the people they care about to be sad; they’d do whatever they can to make sure they’re happy. For those in a loving family, that would include those in their family. There is one anime girl like that, who went back in time just to make her mother happy in the future....but not many people know that the anime she is in exists. I certainly didn’t know it existed until the day I randomly decided to scroll through the list of anime produced by the studio Encourage Films and instantly got attracted to this particular anime’s cute art style. Thus, I
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decided to watch it, although despite its cute art style, I honestly didn’t expect much. Little did I know that I was in for a bit of a treat.
Lads, ladies, and non-binaries, here is my review of the not-so-well-known cutesy anime, Ontama!
The story of Ontama begins with an elementary school girl named Ichigo Tamura being distressed about her family issues; her mother is a very nice woman, but her stepfather doesn’t act the same way, always berating the two of them. One day, while she’s crying in the park about it, she is approached by a person in a bus driver’s outfit, who asks her what her wish is; in response, Ichigo says that her wish is for her mother and her father - her REAL father, that is - to get married instead, as she feels that her real father would have made her mother happier. Next thing Ichigo knows, she is thrown into a magical bus (not to be confused with the Magic School Bus) and driven back in time to before she was born. She ends up meeting her real father, the clumsy Kyousuke Hikami, and, while posing as his little sister, sets off to set him up with her mother, Miyuki. However, she must first overcome some obstacles, such as Kyousuke’s best friend and Ichigo’s future stepfather, Yuuji, who also clearly has feelings for Miyuki.
Oh, did I mention how Ichigo ended up meeting Kyousuke? He cracked her out of an egg. I’m not kidding; that actually happened. That is only one of the many completely random things to happen in Ontama’s story, and most of the time, these random moments can actually be quite funny; I ended up laughing out loud a lot more than I thought I would. However, what I didn’t appreciate was the fact that the comedy took time away from the story, which gave the relationship between Kyousuke and Miyuki less time to develop than it already had and made it feel really rushed as a result. Plus, the plot twist revealed in the last episode was so predictable that it was honestly kind of irritating, and although it answered one potential question a viewer who possibly might not figure it out may have, it just leaves them with more; as a result, I wasn’t as emotionally invested as I could have been.
Despite the story not being that good, I can say that the characters were charming. Ichigo is a decent protagonist; I liked how supportive she was of her parents’ love lives. The one who granted her wish, Cappy, had a cute appearance, but otherwise....he was kind of forgettable. Honestly, not a lot of the characters in the cast stand out that much, not even Kyousuke and Miyuki, who are both important parts of the story; no one was really unlikable, but I didn’t really like them, either. I will give a special mention to Yuuji, however; he is perhaps the most complex character in this simple anime, although I won’t get into it because of the possibility of accidentally entering spoiler territory.
I said at the beginning of this review that the art was what made me watch Ontama, and aside from that, the animation was decent. The quality I watched it in wasn’t that good, but the animation flowed well for the tone it was setting. The character designs were cute, too, and while the backgrounds weren’t anything special, they weren’t awful, either. The voice acting was also decent; while there were times where I felt like the voice actors weren’t portraying the emotions the characters feel good enough, it’s still easy to tell that they’re having fun. Finally, the opening and ending themes were decent in their own ways, but ultimately, I wouldn’t listen to them again.
Overall, Ontama was just a decent anime. If you like zany comedy with a bit of romance on the side, I’d recommend you watch it, but at the same time, no one is going to kill you if you don’t. There are other anime out there where characters take field trips through time, after all.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 28, 2020
“10/10, would bang again”
A lot of bad things have been happening in the world this year, but at least we have anime to distract ourselves. As always, the beginning of 2020 brought us a plethora of new anime to watch this year, but very few of those anime have gathered as much attention as Ishuzoku Reviewers; from getting canceled by Funimation and even some Japanese TV networks to the vote brigading on MAL, all that has happened surrounding it is bound to turn heads. I admit that it was Funimation’s cancellation of the simuldub that finally convinced me to give it a go, but it
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had caught my attention long before then; not only did an anime about reviewing seem like an interesting concept (although I didn’t actually know at the time exactly WHAT - or rather, WHO - the main characters were reviewing), but there was just something about it that told me that it wasn’t just another ecchi anime. Thus, I watched it all the way to the end, and I have to ask myself some questions.
Was it really worth it? Was Ishuzoku Reviewers, known in English as Interspecies Reviewers, worth all of the attention it got this year?
Ishuzoku Reviewers takes place in a fantasy world full of humanoid races with different abilities. Some girls of these different races are known as “succu-girls” - girls with succubus blood in them - and work as prostitutes in various different brothels depending on their race. (Don’t look at me like that! That’s basically what they are!) Two adventurers, a human named Stunk and an elf named Zel, enjoy visiting these so-called “succu-girl joints”, but their individual opinions on each species can vary. Together with Crimvael - a hermaphrodite angel with a broken halo - and a few others who join them from time to time, these adventurers travel to different succu-girl joints and review their experiences for the reading pleasure of others.
If you’re looking for a fantasy adventure series with some fanservice here and there....well, you’re not going to find it in the way you expect. It really doesn’t have much of a story to it; each episode mainly follows the formula of the main characters going to a succu-girl joint and seeing what they have to offer in terms of service and.... “service”. The fact that these succu-girls are such a wide variety of species allows the anime to get creative with exactly how these joints work, and this is for the better or for the worse. One of the better examples, in my opinion, is the Magic Metropolis; although the girls there are merely decoys of an archmage, the customers actually get to spend time with them and form something like a bond with them, and I really appreciated that. However, one of the worst examples - if not the absolute worst - was the egg-laying joint; it treated bird-like succu-girls laying eggs like a fetish, and I was so disgusted by it that I almost tossed whatever opinion I had about the series up until that point into the trash and dropped it there.
There may be a plethora of ways the succu-girl joints work in this anime, but what about the succu-girls themselves? They each get minimal development in their respective episodes, if any at all, and after their episode, we barely get to see any of them again, if we see them at all. Given the overall premise of Ishuzoku Reviewers and exactly how many species would need to be covered in 12 episodes, this shouldn’t be a major problem; however, it just felt to me like tossing someone aside after just having sex with them just to go for someone else, with a cycle like this continuing until the 12 episodes are up, and while it really is just a personal problem, it took me a while to get comfortable with the feeling. (I honestly can’t believe I got comfortable with it at all.) What about the characters who review them, however? Well, at the very least, I appreciate that they’re honest about their sexual desires. Out of the main characters, I think I’d say Crimvael - a.k.a. Crim - is my favorite; not counting....certain aspects....he’s the one I relate to the most. Other than the succu-girls and the ones who review them, there are a plethora of supporting and background characters, with each of them either being somewhat charming or really freaking annoying.
The animation is nice and colorful, and the character designs are good....for the most part. While the attributes for each species make sense for their species, some of those attributes just look disproportionate; I think I may have had flashbacks to Eiken, seeing the watermelons on the minotaurs! Two things that are consistently good, though, are the voice acting and music. Each of the characters’ voices fit their characters, and the voice actors themselves did a great job with the acting part. As for the music....well, if the ending theme, “Hanabira Ondo”, sung by the voice actors of Stunk (Junji Majima), Zel (Yuusuke Kobayashi), and Crim (Miyu Tomita), is catchy (which it is), the opening theme, “Ikouze Paradise”, also sung by the voice actors of Stunk, Zel, and Crim, is a freaking EARWORM; I don’t think it has left my head for the entire time that I’ve been watching it.
Overall, did I enjoy Ishuzoku Reviewers? To an extent, I would say so. Would I recommend it? Not really; you’d have to be comfortable with some really kinky stuff to find enjoyment in everything it has to offer. Ultimately, whether you watch it or not is your choice, and even if your opinion is different from others’, you have got to respect those opinions; the same goes for the many other anime there are out there, including those that are borderline hentai or even straight out hentai.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 6, 2020
How would you feel if you could remember a past life? Would that past life have some kind of impact on your current life? Perhaps in a past life, I could have been more of a mecha fan than I am in this life. Even though I don’t consider myself to be a huge fan of mecha anime, I still happened to have a particular one on my to-watch list for years for rather stupid reasons; after finding a DVD of it at my local library, though, I finally got around to watching it. Now that I’m finished with it, though, exactly what do I
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think of it?
Merge one! Merge two! Go, my review of Aquarion! (Okay, that was terrible.)
Aquarion takes place 12,000 years after a war between the Earth and a race known as the Shadow Angels. The Shadow Angels went into slumber after the end of the war, but eleven years before the beginning of the series, a disaster brought the Shadow Angels back to Earth, with them resuming their feeding of humans’ life force. To combat this, an organization called DEAVA uses a mecha called Aquarion, which had been used 12,000 years prior and requires people with special powers called Elements to pilot three fighter planes called Vectors to combine them into Aquarion by “merging”. (A lot to take in, I know.) The series mainly follows Apollo, a boy who is believed to be the reincarnation of Apollonius, who played a large role in the war. He is recruited by DEAVA to become a pilot for Aquarion, and when his friends are taken by the Shadow Angels, he agrees.
It is difficult to explain what kind of story Aquarion is trying to tell, but exactly what kind of story it actually tells is even worse. A good portion of the anime’s 26 episodes contain filler that contribute absolutely nothing to the plot; filler episodes aren’t necessarily a bad thing if those filler episodes were entertaining to watch, but with Aquarion’s filler episodes, I would just groan out of frustration from how stupid they are. Fortunately, the series DOES try to tell a cohesive story, and I commend the attempts at telling that story. However, most of the plot twists are too predictable or just plain confusing; there were very few that I actually liked. Another thing that I must mention is the fact that it doesn’t try that hard to differentiate itself from other mecha anime; I have at least seen enough mecha anime to be watching this and thinking, “Yeah, that’s happened before.”
As for the characters, they’re honestly a bit of a mixed bag. All of the characters are cliché, but some of them are actually likable in spite of that. However, there is one issue that the characters share, and that is the amount of development. Most of the characters get one or two episodes of real development each, if any at all; after that, although those characters may get some time in the spotlight, any real development instead goes to Apollo, Silvia, and maybe Sirius. I must admit that it was kind of interesting to see the development of Apollo and Silvia’s relationship, but the other relationships in this series don’t get as much attention or development, which is a real shame.
The art and animation.... What can I really say about those? Well, the settings were decent, and some of the character designs were good. The CG animation wasn’t that good, but it may just be that this anime came out in 2005, when CG animation wasn’t the best. I really, REALLY want to praise the more 2D animation; Satelight and Production Reed have each done some decent animation, and in this series, some of the animation is actually good. The key word there is “some”; it may, again, just be the fact that this anime came out in 2005, but the animation quality is a bit inconsistent and falls at times. The biggest offender of this is episode 19; a majority of that episode was drawn in a different style altogether, and while I understand why the animators decided to go that route with that episode (although it did come off as rather jarring), the parts of the episode that returned to the normal style of this series were very poorly animated and came off as even more jarring.
One genuine praise I have for Aquarion, however, is the music. Both of the opening themes sound like they could be the opening themes for most other mecha anime, but they’re catchy enough to warrant a re-listen or two; the same goes for the ending theme, although that is more because of how completely beautiful it sounds, from the instrumentals to Yui Makino’s voice. The soundtrack is pretty good, too; the piano rendition of the first opening theme is absolutely, breathtakingly gorgeous. Finally, I watched the English dub of Aquarion, and the voice acting is pretty good for its time. The characters’ voices fit their characters quite well (although Brian Palencia as Silvia takes a bit of getting used to, although that may just be my fault for not knowing she voiced her and dumbly expecting a different voice to come out of her mouth), and they convey their emotions quite well.
Overall, Aquarion is pretty much just your average mecha anime. No one is going to kill you if you don’t watch it, but hardcore mecha fans may get a kick out of it. There is more to the Aquarion anime than just these 26 episodes, however; I wonder how it evolves from here....
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 20, 2019
Music is a powerful tool. That’s a fact that we may not realize at first, but once it hits you in the face, you can never forget it. Singing allows you to convey any feeling you may feel in your heart, even when it feels like your heart has shattered into pieces by a life-changing event. Who knew that a yaoi (or shounen-ai, whichever way you want to refer to it) anime would make such a thought occur to me? I haven’t read the manga that the anime in question was based off of; I just saw the PV when it came out before the
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actual anime aired and saw that it had a large amount of potential. Originally, I would have blown an anime like this off in spite of that potential due to it being BL; despite it being years since I removed that restriction from myself, this anime is making me seriously regret that I did it at all!
Lads, ladies, and non-binaries, my review of “Given” is about to be given to you! (Yeah, yeah, throw your tomatoes at me and get it over with.)
Given starts off with high schooler Ritsuka Uenoyama reluctantly teaching schoolmate Mafuyu Satou how to play the guitar. You see, Ritsuka is the guitarist for a band, and upon seeing Mafuyu with a broken guitar at his usual napping spot one day, he fixes it for him; as it turns out, Mafuyu doesn’t actually know how to play said guitar, so he enlists Ritsuka to teach him how to play. One thing leads to another - which includes Mafuyu being introduced to Ritsuka’s bandmates, bassist Haruki Nakayama and drummer Akihiko Kaji - and one day, Ritsuka discovers that Mafuyu has an exceptional singing voice. What else could Ritsuka do except invite Mafuyu into his band? As time goes on and the band prepares for a concert, however, Ritsuka begins to learn about Mafuyu’s past.
I’m just going to start off by saying that the story for Given is the best story I’ve seen for a yaoi anime. Yes, it’s even better than that of Doukyuusei. Not only does it have lighthearted moments, but it also displays a darker side, which includes an accurate depiction of how one may feel when they lose a loved one; there are many who will be able to relate to the story and its characters. If there is one problem I have with the story, however, it is that it feels like it ended too early. Of course, the anime ends on a positive note, but I just feel like there is more that could be explored; maybe it’s just me wanting more than just these 11 episodes and nothing else, though.
Not only does Given have an excellent story, it also has a strong cast of characters. In fact, I feel like the characters are one of the anime’s greatest strengths, if not its greatest strength, period. None of these characters are perfect, which is exactly what makes them interesting; it’s interesting to see them grow. Out of the entire cast, Mafuyu is most certainly the one who grew the most; he went from someone who couldn’t express his emotions that well to someone who could express himself through the power of music. Ritsuka is also an enjoyable character who went through a good amount of growth; his relationship with Mafuyu was also perfect, with their chemistry appearing from episode one and their relationship being developed at a reasonable pace. Two more interesting characters are Haruki and Akihiko; being the adult members of the band, they give the two younger members sound advice, yet at the same time, these two can be complete messes, especially Haruki.
Now, I’m just going to remind you that while this is a yaoi anime, it is also a music anime; thus, it is important that this anime has good music. Fortunately, I can say that Given delivers in the music department tenfold. The opening and ending themes - which are respectively “Kizuato” by Centimilimental and “Marutsuke” by Shougo Yano (the voice of Mafuyu) - are amazing and memorable songs that are worth replaying over and over again; the songs’ lyrics - especially that for the opening theme - also fit this anime’s story so well that it’s almost scary, which is something I realized as the anime was still going on. The soundtrack is also really good, and it adds to the atmosphere of the anime. (There is one insert song that stood out to me, but I’ll talk about that later.) The voice actors gave exceptional performances, too; their emotions are conveyed the way they are supposed to.
The animation.... What can I really say about the animation? It’s not my favorite part about the anime, but there’s no denying that it’s really good. There are some pretty good character designs, with the proportions of every character looking great. (Eat your heart out, Houkago no Shokuinshitsu!) Given also makes good use of its colors; there are bright colors used for the more lighthearted moments, and there are darker colors for the sadder moments. Overall, Given just has great animation.
However, everything that is great about Given really comes together in one particular scene in episode 9. This scene is the concert scene where the band performs “Fuyu no Hanashi”, and....wow. The animation, the sound of this song, the way the song connects to the overall story and Mafuyu’s character.... Everything about that scene was perfect. When it hits for the first time, it’s hard not to feel emotional.
Overall, Given was an excellent anime. I recommend this anime to anyone looking for an amazing love story with amazing music. If you refuse to watch it because it’s gay, I won’t force you, but I will say that you’re missing out!
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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