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Yeah.. It has been veeerry long time since i wrote my latest review. This time, School Rumble! One of my favourite comedy anime so far. Overall, this anime fulfill my needs. Needs of laughter. Yep, I laughed so hard. Many times. The story and characters were awesome. Alright, that’s for short, and.. here are the details.

First, the story. It seems ordinary though, just telling about high school life of Harima Kenji and his friends. He entered high school, met new friends, etc etc. But wait, the main plot of this series is about romantic comedy. Okay, sounds ordinary. The interesting thing was its character relationship. Triangle love everywhere, awkward moment everywhere, and unrequited love everywhere. And wow.. just WOW. Hahaha.. many moments made me laughed so hard, especially when it comes to WRONG TIMING that made awkward moments xD. But well, actually this series have random plot. Not really random though, still easy to understand and have interconnections. And you will definitely laugh if you realized it, LOL.

Next, the character. This series have very good character development. Seems real, hilarious, and didn’t look stupid. The main protagonist, Harima, for example. He looks manly, have big motorcycle, and looks tough. Very typical for a delinquent. But once he must face THIS one thing: LOVE, he changed into a different person. He couldn’t express his feelings at all, and got depressed very easily when he got love problems. His trait often trigger misunderstandings. Many misunderstandings means many awkward moments. The final result is.. LAUGHTER. That’s School Rumble. For example, imagine a situation when you were naked in a room and then a girl accidentaly entered your room. What will you do? And then the situation came worse: another girl came and saw you with that girl. That’s awkward. Very awkward but really funny xD.
Third, the artwork and sound. I like both of them. The shounen-style artwork looks very good. The boys look good, the girls look cute and sexy. That’s really satisfying for such an old anime. Not really old, by the way.. LOL. Animation? THIS. I loved it. Very nice and fluid. Just look at the bicycle scene or the arrow scene. They were well-done and awesome! About the OST, not really good, IMO. The only song I liked is “Scramble” by Yui Horie (Sawachika Eri’s seiyuu). Very good and catchy/

Enjoyment? Well, as a fan of comedy anime, if an anime can made me laugh, I enjoyed it VERY much. This series somehow always found a way to make me laugh so hard. The joke, punchlines, were just.. really funny and epic. Moreover, its story is quite close to real life. I liked that kind of anime.. xD

Last, this anime is very recommended for you who loved comedy anime. I mean, real comedy. Not just shitty fanservice-based perverted jokes. Meh. This series offered much better jokes than those “comedy” animes. LOL xD

Enjoy! :D

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Okay, it’s been a while since my last review, now it’s time for this masterpiece anime. You know, this movie isn’t an ordinary one. I didn’t really understand the story at first. At that time, I thought “Is that it? Seriously? This isn’t interesting at all.” Then I tried to watch it once again. And guess what, I was crying like a baby, LOL. Of course I’m not kidding, I’m serious. The ending was different that other animes and was unexpected. That kind of ending is very very realistic to me.

For some people who loves action & fighting anime, they will find this anime boring because it’s indeed focus on story, mood, symbolism, and dialogue. This anime illustrated all of main characters’ feelings perfectly, although underage audience (below 17) will not immediately understand the mood. When I said 17+, it’s not like this anime is full of ecchi or mature scene, it’s because this anime plays with audience’s feelings, therefore the audience must be mature enough to understand everything this anime brought to them.

Have you ever feel losing something or someone that you really loves? Or the feeling of uncertainty like “I will made it tommorow,” but actually nothing happened, no progress, but you still desperately trying to do the same thing like an idiot? Oh yeah, that feeling is really reallly frustrating, isn’t it? If you haven’t, when you finished watching this anime, you will definitely understand that kind of feelings. Yes, even though you maybe haven’t felt that feelings before, you will understand, because this anime is very superb, it could force you to imagine like this “What if I stood at Takaki’s shoes? What should I do?” That kind of confusion, regret. It’s very simple when I told you by words, but what if you feel like that? And yeah, not every slice-of-life anime could done this, only masterpieces that could REALLY play with audience’s feelings. Yep, I mean REALLY. I’ve seen many animes that tried to do the same thing but failed. It made my tears fell down because of laughing, man.. instead of crying.

Beside that story & mood thingy, one thing that make me impressed: the art. The artwork is indeed very detail and beautiful. When a train comes, for example, WOW that’s amazing! The lighting effect is very realistic and beautiful. The event illustration also, especially the ending scene. Damn, it describes the situation perfectly and very fit with the ED song’s lyrics. That’s the first time I paused a scene because I’m crying (approximately 1-2 minutes paused, that quite a long time, LOL).

Alright, this is what anime should like. This anime didn’t have any fanservice, LOL. If it has, it will DEFINITELY ruin the mood. Recent anime makers should take a lesson from this anime. I’m sick of anime that ONLY sell fanservice, not story or other important things like OST. But if that anime have superb characters, I dont mind though, LOL.

I hope there will be an anime like this one sometime in the future. Yeah, I hope! :)
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Ah, Nisemonogatari.

A sequel that kinda surprised me, because I don't expect that Monogatari has many series and this one had been released this year. Last year I watched Bakemonogatari then fortunately, Nisemonogatari released a few months later. Lucky me, hahaha. Then I immediately take a look at the synopsis. So, it's about Koyomi's sisters. Seems legit.

I didn't really aware about the existence of Koyomi's sister though, but since I watched Nisemonogatari, I think they are very interesting. And now Araragi Karen even become my #1 favorite character, just because of this anime. The interaction between Koyomi and his sisters was always hilarious and fun to watch. Karen & Tsukihi are both annoying at first. Karen is a tomboy, Tsukihi is more girly but then some episodes revealed that she is actually quite sharp & sadist a.k.a yandere.

First thing about this anime: fanservice. Yeah sure this anime is full of fanservice that make me bored when watching the first three episodes. But once again, some interesting dialogues and jokes can make me laugh sometimes. Many fanservice for Suruga, Mayoi, Nadeko, Tsubasa, and Hitagi's fans in the early episodes. I don't mind though, just a bit boring. By the way, Shinobu was really surprising here. In Bakemonogatari, she didn't said a single word, but in Nisemonogatari she was very talkative and a bit annoying. She's like a replacement for Meme who suddenly disappeared, so Koyomi can ask for advice to her. The only episode that can make me laugh hardly and enjoyed it at the same time is the legendary Episode 8 a.k.a "Toothbrush rape episode." I never thought that toothbrushing your little sister can be that erotic. Yeah that must be just fantasy of the author, since I've read a comment from other forum user that have tried it to his little sister and then nothing happened. Hahaha, I laughed after reading that comment.. xD

Second, of course about the story. The main plot is about "impostor" that referred to Karen and Tsukihi. Both of them have something fake. Even Tsukihi is a "fake" little sister from the start. What did I mean by this "fake"? You'll find out after watching this anime. I don't want to post spoilers here. Nisemonogatari also introduced three new villains: Kaiki Deshu, Kagenui Yodzuru, and Ononoki Yotsugi. In "Karen Bee" arc, Kaiki played an important role for what happened on Karen. He also has his own reason for doing something evil. The reason was very realistic, you'll find out later. After Karen has been cured, she changed into an obedient little sister that will always ready to help her brother, because she was very grateful for being saved by him. This obedient attitude is the main cause of the toothbrushing scene . After that, the story focused immediately into Tsukihi's problems. That arc named "Tsukihi Phoenix." Koyomi met Yodzuru and Yotsugi, the demon hunter who will exterminate Phoenix. Since Tsukihi have the Phoenix, Yodzuru ordered Yotsugi to attack Tsukihi. This led Koyomi to the "battle" with Yodzuru, and Shinobu fought Yotsugi. The villains "defeated" and walk out, Tsukihi still being herself. Karen? Guarding Araragi's house.

And bam, the end. The ending was disappointing for me. That story "end" just like that is just... Still I have a big hope for next sequel, although the nearest release is Kizumonogatari (prequel of Bakemonogatari). If it's Monogatari series, I'll watch it for sure, because their "character" has gotten into me, LOL. And also, the OST was always good. Like the ED that sung by ClariS. I liked it. For the OP, I think Tsukihi arc's OP was better than Karen arc's.

The story-telling and character development was amazing, just like Bakemonogatari. The only thing I didn't like is the story that kinda too shallow and boring. Just chit-chat and it's all over. Need more action! By the way, about the artwork: it's even more amazing than Bakemonogatari. I really enjoyed every scene, especially when Karen was there, because her chara design was good. Cute face, nice expression, and slender body. Plus, Eri Kitamura played her voice really good! All of those awesomeness made me gave this anime an overall score of 9 instead of 8, hehehe.

Okay, that's all. When we talked about Monogatari series, we always talked about characters. That's why I liked the Monogatari series and will watch every title of them. If the story isn't good, doesn't matter, because once again, it's all about character.
Yeah, CHARACTER rulez! ^^ read more

So it's time to review the one of Monogatari series, Bakemonogatari.
And yes, my general opinion about Bakemonogatari is :

"The interesting thing is not about its story, but its SHAFT-styled story-telling and character development."

That makes every character seems real, as if they are really exist IRL. Let's start from the main protagonist, Araragi Koyomi. Koyomi's character was rather unique, despite his ordinary circumstances for being surrounded by girls, like other harem animes. He was a perverted man, but very wise and willing to try his best to solved his friends' problems. Sounds ordinary though, but in this review I'm talking about SHAFT. Yes, since this anime was developed by SHAFT, the audiences will definitely have new experience after watching this one. For example, pausing in every "red scene". That's the art of trolling, LOL. Every episode was always interesting although each of them have many dialogues. Furthermore, most of them didn't really important, but still worth to enjoy. Audience who used to watch anime with full of action and less dialogue will definitely got bored easily. I felt that at first, but then I realized that those dialogues are needed to develop each of characters' personality.

Main plot of this anime is about Koyomi and Oshino Meme solving problems of these girls: Hitagi, Mayoi, Suruga, Nadeko, and Tsubasa. Each of their stories are good but not really impressed me. The good thing are these two things that I said again and again: story-telling and character development. In addition, the artwork was awesome and extraordinary. Very different from other animes.

And let me tell you once again, this is what I like about this anime: CHARACTER. This anime itself has a CHARACTER that really differs it from other animes, not just mere "physical" characters. If you know what I mean, hehehe. Talking about characters, the most significant characters of this anime are of course, Koyomi and Hitagi a.k.a the couple. Both of them have unique character. Hitagi claimed herself as a tsundere. But since there is no way a tsundere admit that he/she is a tsundere, so I think her argument is invalid, hahaha.. She was definitely a yandere a.k.a the sadist, but she has sweet and romantic side too. Koyomi successfully take advantage of her sweet side and won her heart. Finally, they started going out.

Then Hitagi revealed herself as a very protective girlfriend. So protective that she won't hesitate to intimidate Koyomi. Koyomi realized that she was dealing with very dangerous girlfriend, so he took his steps carefully to avoid something bad happen to him. Although he tried it, he still couldn't control himself, especially when meeting Mayoi. So, it's a proof that Koyomi is actually a lolicon and yet he was going out with Hitagi. Watch yourself, Koyomi.. hahaha.

This anime revealed that Koyomi have two little sisters, Karen and Tsukihi. Both of them rarely appeared, and just like alarms to wake Koyomi up. Story of Karen and Tsukihi will be told in Nisemonogatari, this anime's sequel.

Okay, time for summary. This anime have five separated stories, but interconnected. Some unnecessary but hilarious moment and dialogues made this anime have strong character development. The OSTs are amazing, especially first OP by Chiwa Saitou (Hitagi's seiyuu) and the ED song "Kimi no shiranai monogatari" by supercell. Therefore, sound is an important factor for this anime. That's why I gave score of 9 for it. For enjoyment, yeah I enjoyed the show. Sometimes I rewatched an episode to read the kanji on "red screen," watch the hilarious moment again, or just enjoying the extraordinary artwork.

Last but not least, I'd like to say thanks for this anime. This anime really inspires me about the art of story-telling and character development.

That's all folks! Thanks ^^ read more

Warning : contains minor spoilers

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I don't always give score of 10 for an anime, but when I do, I give it to this one!

As I mentioned in the previous review about Clannad, Clannad is a masterpiece. This second season is the proof. Clannad series are nothing without the second season, AFTER STORY, and vice versa.

This After Story is the continuation of previous season, as expected. First three episodes are hilarious but a bit boring to me. Starting from episode 4, "shit just got REAL". Yes, this is about reality. REALITY, that may happen someday in our lives once we have done with our education and starts to work, married, and finally have family. Aww yeahh what a sweet young couple.. Tomoya - Nagisa is probably the best couple ever in anime history. Their behavior are awkward at first. Tomoya even didn't have guts to hold Nagisa's hand. But once they often made chit-chat with Nagisa's parents, they were used to got along, became a romantic couple, and finally decided to got married.

Nagisa's bad luck and weak health conditions forced her to repeat 3rd grade (high school) once again. Tomoya couldn't accept this fate at first, but in the end he always supports Nagisa while working hard as an electrician. That makes this anime is full of heart-warming moments regarding Tomoya and his friends, especially when they were gathered together after not seeing each other for a long time, to talk about their lives.

Next, this is about episode 18. The saddest episode I've ever seen. But this single episode was nothing without previous episodes. This episode was very emotional. It's all about Tomoya and Ushio, his daughter that he abandoned because of his great despair. That short trip, with his daughter, led him to a flower garden where Ushio lost her toy. And then, that moment began when Tomoya's grandma told him about his father's live. We all know that Tomoya didn't got along with his father. But let me tell you, the way his grandma telling the story was made me cried again. Damn.

Finally, now I will talk about the saddest moment in Clannad. When Ushio told that she lost her toy, Tomoya suggested that he would buy a new one for her. But she refused and wanted to search it until she find it. Why? Guess what was the reason? You'll find out later.

The voice acting was really awesome too. Okay, that didn't end there, after Ushio said "that" (it's a spoiler :p) line, Tomoya said something to Ushio and then... wow.. I cried again.

Then I thought I will never cried again after that scene. But when Tomoya started to describe Nagisa to Ushio while crying, my tears started to fell down again. Damn you Clannad, hahaha xD T_T

When I thought that this anime would led to a bad ending, suddenly magical things happened. Time has turned back to the point when Nagisa was giving a birth. That moment confused me for a moment, but then I realized that that is all because of the orbs. Orbs? Yeah, that town legend that Yukine told to Tomoya. At first, I thought that doesn't make sense, but I accepted it since this anime actually contains a bit of fictional and magical stuff.

So, After Story finally have a good ending? Yeah, it's true. That is a good news, man. The "supposed to be" last episode (22) was very heart-warming. Describing each of characters' lives, including minor characters like Ryou or Toshio. The episode 23 was about flashback when Tomoya first met Kyou and have indirect influence into Nagisa's live. This episode was hilarious too, especially when Kyou was being pranked by Tomoya and Youhei.

Okay, finally the last words of this review :)
This anime is truly a masterpiece, despite of having a simple but realistic story. Yeah, the story was simple and easy to comprehend, but the awesome thing is about story-telling, voice acting, and BGM, as I said in the Clannad first season review. Key and Kyoto Animation really know well about playing with audiences' emotion. That makes this anime is a..

MASTERPIECE

Nuff said. Okay, I hope this review helpful for you.

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This is one of the non-mainstream (non-shounen) anime type I watched last year. I used to watch shounen anime like Naruto, Eyeshield21, blah blah blah etc. Most of them disappointed me, but not for Clannad. One factor that made me liked this anime maybe because I got bored of shounen anime, haha, but seriously, that's not the main factor. The main factor is the STORY & CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. Those are well-known as Clannad's strong points.

First time I saw the Clannad poster, I think this anime would be another harem anime that have a ball-less male protagonist that surrounded by girls and yet he can't decide to pick one. But I was wrong. REALLY WRONG. It's true that there are lot of girls in this anime but they are not just mere decoration, if I put it bluntly. Each of them have major influence on the main protagonist, Okazaki Tomoya. In this first season, Clannad divided the series into four parts, there are:

1. Fuko arc
2. Kotomi arc
3. Tomoya's life when Nagisa got sick
4. Nagisa arc part 1

One of the most memorable episode for me is the Episode 9 as the end of Fuko arc. That is the first episode ever that successfully forced me to cry. I wanted to hold my tears, but I can't. I thought that I'm not normal but after I read the testimonials from Clannad audiences, I realized that the one who are not normal is the one who didn't cried at all or at least felt touched after watching the episode 9. I was relieved, LOL. The final arc about Nagisa is quite sad too, but not sad enough to make me cry. Therefore, Fuko arc is the best arc in this first season of Clannad, IMO.

Okay, now I will talk about story, art, sound, character, and enjoyment.



Story : 9

In fact, the story is realistic and really close to our daily lives, with some jokes being the exception (i.e Tomoyo's kick on Sunohara, LOL). At first, I think the story is rather ordinary, boring, and slow-paced. Then I realized that this anime have SOMETHING. Yeah, something that make this anime very memorable. Guess what? Yes, the story-telling and dialogues. A great story without great story-telling is rather meaningless and forgetable. Bad story-telling would make great story looked like garbage. Fortunately, that's not happen in Clannad, as expected from Jun Maeda. Awesome!


Art : 8

Many audiences complain about those BIG eyes. Oh yeah some anime chara design have big eyes, but that's not a problem for me. They are quite decent and worth to enjoy. Let's forget the eye size and take a look at facial expression and body proportion. They are really good. The facial expression of each chara really describe their personality. Loved that!


Sound : 9

THIS is the extraordinary factor for Clannad. Those heart-warming and sad moments would not be perfect and memorable without good voice acting, OST and BGM. All of sounds are from the VN, by Key Sounds Label. Thanks to Key Sounds Label, every moment in Clannad was PERFECT to me. Awesome story-telling, awesome seiyuu, and awesome OST.. That's perfect. Then why I didn't give 10 for this factor? I'll explain the detail in After Story review, but the point is, I don't really like the OP and ED even though the BGMs are awesome. But after I completed the After Story, I changed my mind. That's why, in this first season scope, I only give 9 for sound.


Character : 9

As the first season, Clannad has introductions of each chara. Major introduction for Nagisa, Fuko, and Kotomi. Key, who originally created Clannad VN, explained about each character carefully. They told how each character have emotional influence on Tomoya, the main hero. They also describe Tomoya's point of view cleverly, how he solved his problems, interacting with his friends and other people, etc. Now I'd like to make a short description about each main character:

1. Tomoya
He is a delinquent, bad boy, but loved to help other people to solve their problems. He is often trolling and make fun of his best friend, Sunohara Youhei. Even though he is a delinquent, his kindness and charm made many girls fallen for him. That includes Nagisa, of course.

2. Nagisa
She is a sweet girl, dilligent, and has strong determination. Despite her weak health conditions, she tried all her best to solve her problems along with Tomoya and friends. One thing that can make Nagisa fall for Tomoya is he can help her to gather courage to take action, because before meeting Tomoya, Nagisa always being timid and hesitant.

3. Fuko
She is the type of annoying and easy-going girl and yet mysterious at first. She is often being a prank object for Tomoya, because she is too plain and naive. Like Nagisa, she is a very determined person that will try her best to accomplish her goal.

4. Kotomi
The tensai shoujo. She is well-known as a really smart student and spend a lot of time in library. She is very kind but too shy and timid, even more than Nagisa. That makes her have difficulties when interacting to other people. Fortunately, she met Tomoya and being helped to gather many friends.

5. Kyou
She is the 3E class representative that had known Tomoya since 2nd grade. She is the tsundere type that actually fallen for Tomoya since 2nd grade, yet she said she didn't. The proof of this kind of personality showed when Tomoyo suddenly got close to Tomoya, she got jealous and made a red face when Tomoyo asked if she loves Tomoya. She is very easy-going, have many friends, have great courage and also strong in both academics and sports. But when it comes to love problems, she doesn't have enough courage and always thinks about her little twin sister, Ryou.

6. Tomoyo
She is very bold and excellent in both academics and sports. Moreover, she aimed to achieve student council president position to fulfill her goal. She is known as the strongest girl in town. That issue made Youhei wanted to proof it by himself, assisted by Tomoya. The result of Youhei actions is Tomoyo can get closer to Tomoya and make good friends with both of him, even though Youhei still scared of her presence.

Alright, that's quite long, hehehe.


Enjoyment : 8

What I really enjoy about Clannad is the character development and interaction between characters. The story pace is a bit slow but I enjoyed it, especially those Tomoya - Youhei jokes, LOL. There are a lot of heart-warming, sad, funny, and epic moments in this anime, so when I got bored, I often rewatched some episode, especially episode 17 because it was so hilarious.. xD


Overall : 9

Yeah this anime is really great indeed! This anime have changed my stereotype about non-mainstream anime. At first, I didn't watched then because they have inferior quality compared to mainstream anime like Naruto or One Piece. But once again I said, I was WRONG. Those non-mainstream anime, including Clannad are totally worth to watch. And this Clannad series is truly a masterpiece!

Phew, writing a first review is a bit tiring, but it's fun! I hope this review will help you :)

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