(spoilers, I guess)

"That story's so dumb, only a woman could've come up with such sentimental pap!"

"A girl I've never spoken to before is mutually into me and agreed to marry me if I become successful! All I need to know is that she's physically attractive! This is poor even for the logic of a 14-year-old, but the show doesn't even seem to be questioning it!"

"I, your mom, said you shouldn't become a manga artist. But your dad said this was men's business and I can't override what a man says! Aren't I naggy?"

"Your dream girl is way better than some woman who can study well or has distinguishing characteristics. She's pretty and doesn't stand out, and we all know women are meant to be seen, not heard!"

"Look at how physically attractive her mom is at 42! That means she'll probably be that physically attractive at 42 as well! And as was already established, her looks are the most important thing there is. She's gonna be a great trophy to win!"

gee whiz

There's a bit of a trend here, Bakuman. A terrible trend. I want to ask you to please stop but I doubt you will. What this reveals about the author's view of women is embarrassing.
***

It doesn't take much to get Google to offer to autocomplete my search to "Bakuman misogyny," a search that returns a plethora of results noting more of the same that I've already encountered. Heartening.
***

"Hey, your mom here to nag you some more because I'm a women, am I right, fellas? and oh hold up one of the family's patriarchs cut me off by telling me to get him more food."

And to think the worship of Shounen Jump isn't the most eye-roll inducing thing in this show. If only, huh? But I see this facet of the show indeed has no intentions of ever letting up. Yay~
***

And while crummy in and of itself, this damages other aspects of the show. If you expect the viewer to care about a romance, you also have to give them reason to care about the two(+) people involved in said romance. Even the most bargain-basement harem series gives their lot of female or male characters at least one personality quirk because this is something that's quite obvious and basic. When you go out of your way to establish that a character's only distinguishing trait is that they have no distinguishing traits and render them void as an actual person such that their character exists solely to be an avatar of the concept of "conventionally attractive female love interest," why would I care about her? And if I don't care about her, why would I care about a romance that involves her? At this point, the show is taking my investment for granted. It's bordering on insulting. If you're going to ask me to care, first give me a reason to do so.

And yet the show can't even tell that its romance element is dead on arrival. This is poor writing. And it stems at least in part from the author's views on women causing them to write every female character in the show thus far in this fashion. But hey, this didn't stop their manga from getting published in Shounen Jump, so this show's male protagonists probably have a decent shot.
***

So like 90% of what $female_character has done in this show is silently smile approvingly at our male protagonists actually doing things.

(potentially spoilering)

I've said it before, I'll say it again: An anime adaptation needs to be able to stand on its own. Many series are adapted from still unfinished works and yet manage to offer resolution. Take the first season of Haruhi, for example (let us not mention its second season). That was based off an incomplete series of LNs, and yet still offered closure while more seasons remained fully possible. It can certainly be done. The thing is, Kuragehime doesn't do that well.

The vexing part about that is this is a good, fresh series. There comes a part where you can absolutely tell there simply isn't enough time for this series to properly conclude, and it's absolutely despairing. What you get are a number of plot lines simply left unresolved, and you want more so you can see the rest of this story, but there just isn't more. Sure, you could read the scans of the manga (why has this not been licensed?), but if that's supposed to be an acceptable conclusion, why even start watching the anime adaptation in the first place? An anime's strength cannot be measured by how it fares when you also read the source material, but only by the anime itself. If Usagi Drop can do it in 11 episodes, so too could Kuragehime.

Speaking of Usagi Drop, between that and this, it's pretty hard for me to not get excited whenever I see a josei adaptation airing in the Noitamina slot. That's because like Usagi Drop, Kuragehime is a very good and refreshingly different show. Strong female characters? Kind of. Well, take for example the one career woman we see in the series. She's portrayed as a cruel, conniving harpy who uses her body to manipulate others rather than succeeding on merit and intellect. Is the series trying to suggest this as a truism of all working women? We certainly can't conclude that from one character, but she is who she is. And Tsukimi is lead to discover that she could substantially better herself... if she just more closely follows stereotypical female gender roles. (And of course she's Hollywood Ugly, where she's not really unattractive in her "normal" state, but a makeover later and here comes the debutante.) Well, that's not the whole of it of course, but it's certainly part of the equation. It's the gateway to the rest of that equation, actually. But it's still in a way that's true to Tsukimi, isn't it? Tsukimi's a decent female character in a medium low on good ones, but she's not ideal in that department. That's still better than the usual, however.

Also, a crossdressing character who isn't homosexual, isn't used for comic relief, isn't seen as perverted or deviant and is central to the story? It's like it's not even anime. Kuranosuke is a welcome member to an already pleasant if somewhat underfocused and underdeveloped cast. The fellow residents of Tsukimi's dwelling seem largely like window dressing, mere bezel for other parts of the show to be adorned upon. Side characters aren't a new thing at all, but they can still receive more attention in a series than the ones in Kuragehime do. You rarely see more of them than their respective outlets of fandom. And it's true that they are largely defined by (or define themselves by) these fandoms, but ultimately, they're people, right? Tsukimi is certainly a jellyfish otaku, but she's not just a jellyfish otaku, right? So too we must reasonably assume the others have something more beneath the surface. They work in their role, but they're very limited.

It feels difficult to comment on a story that comes to an abrupt halt, leaving you feeling like its the days of yore, where an OVA might simply run out of budget and stop, finished story or no. What's blossoming is an interesting romance and some self-discovery. But just when it starts to bloom, the series ends. True, a series of course must be compelling at some level if you're frustrated that the story feels incomplete, but it's a damper on any show.

For all the things Kuragehime gets right, some questionable decisions with characters, an abrupt ending and other issues make it a series that can't get any higher than an 8. And an 8 is still good, of course, but with some changes, this series could be quite a bit better. Or a season 2, at least. (If Moyashimon could get one...)

Brace yourself to have the rug pulled out from under you, but Kuragehime is still worth a watch regardless.

Huh.

I checked into it because I couldn't shake the feeling while watching this, and yes, the director is green. It comes across when you watch it. He's still developing his voice. From a directorial standpoint, it's very rough around the edges. With practice, he could probably get pretty good. If he has the ability in him.

But right now he's just showing promise. He's interesting, but inexperienced.

I've seen a number of people praise this series for being "different." Ugh. I hate that kind of praise. Yes, there's something refreshing to not being tediously generic, but substanceless novelty can be even worse. This isn't completely "style for the sake of style" (I'm looking at you, Shinbo) but it's basic and at times clumsy.

The symbolism, while flashy, is nothing more complex than a high school English class ought to prepare you for. (But then, there are a number of reviews on here that say FLCL is plotless, so I guess even that's a bit much to expect.) Honestly, sometimes it comes across as ham fisted. And that all falls back to the director, of course.

The whole series is clumsy, really. The vibrant color palette is misused. The live-action is too often used just for the sake of itself rather than to imbue any meaning. The animation can be sloppy, lazy and technically inept. That pervades the whole work, too. Laziness.

The plot is weak. The central concept isn't strong enough to support the entire series (and at only 11 episodes, you'd think they could avoid running it into the ground. Nope!). The characters aren't as interesting as they want you to think they are.

Do I sound like I'm being negative? I guess I am. But I'm not calling it a bad show, just one that has faint glimmers here and there, but can't live up to its own potential. It's just okay. Nothing great, nothing special. Maybe I'm a bit disappointed because it's a Noitamina title, and I have high expectations of that time slot (I mean, it gave a home to Usagi Drop). But I'm not holding that against the show. It deserves to be judged on its own merits, after all.

Don't feel compelled to see it. It's not a waste of your time, but it's low priority.

There's nothing special about this. It's just standard Xebec fanservice. A whole host of fetishes all gravitating around S&M. You don't watch it for the plot. It works for what it is, but it's nothing more than that.

When this first aired, I downloaded the first episode not sure of what to expect. I wound up watching it four times before the next episode aired. If the 10 didn't tip you off, let me be blunt: I love this show.

This love letter to western culture is blended with anime sensibilities in an orgy of toilet humor, violence and action. Did I mention the soundtrack is awesome, too? I struggle to find the proper words to describe Panty and Stocking. It skimmed the gutter and turned up gold.

Okay, I'll try to elaborate a bit (or you could just watch episode 6 and naturally fall in love with the series yourself). So I've seen from a number of fans and anime cognoscenti a form of praise for various shows that goes "Why, this could have been a live action series!" as though that were a good thing. You know, because anime is stuck in a quality ghetto and could only hope to be as good as a "real show."

I take a bit of a different approach. Part of why I love this show (and titles like Mind Game) is because it's something that could only be animated. No, really, try to imagine a live action version of this. It just wouldn't translate. This is clearly the work of a director who loves animation for animation (you could look into details about him and find plenty that backs that up, too. In case it wasn't obvious from this show, he's a big fan of western animation.)

That parenthetical bit reminds me of what made this show so divisive. Some people complained "But it looks like a cartoon, not anime!" and dismissed it as such. These people are terrible people. Anime isn't an art style. Stop being a weeaboo and enjoy a good show (did you know countries that aren't Japan can also make good things? It's true!)

Anyway, Panty and Stocking comes at you like a flurry. It's frantic, crass, energetic and lively. Have you ever seen Dead Leaves? If so, you know what I'm talking about. If not, well, look, just go find a clip on YouTube and see for yourself how the show moves. No, really, just watch it. I'm already failing to put any of this into words properly, anyway.

If you're the sort to be offended by things, I suppose this show isn't for you. It won't pull any punches. It embraces the obscene. But please don't think this is to sex jokes what Elfen Lied is to violence (a scattershot effort to be SO MATURE). I don't want to call it Tarantino-esque, because it's not like that, although it's kind of in that area. Maybe it's closer to Clerks, but more rapid-fire? That's not really it, either. Actually, the closest I can probably get is Drawn Together in the form of a furious pulp action anime (Drawn Together was apparently stated to be an inspiration, so I guess it fits!).

I have a certain metric that pretty accurately lets me know how much I'm enjoying a show, and that's how often I check the time remaining in an episode. A bad show will see me checking constantly, stunned that it isn't over yet. A great show will feel like only a few minutes have gone by when suddenly the credits kick in. And time flies by when watching this title.

I already mentioned that you should watch episode 6, but this show has a number of standout awesome moments. I'm not going to elaborate here because I'd rather let you experience them without a heads-up.

Okay, I get it, I'm rambling. I just really, really love this show. Azumanga Daioh was my favorite show ever since I first saw it shortly after it aired, and this was the first title that actually gave it a run for its money. I loved this so much I can't even choose between the two. My words here are a jumbled mess because this show is difficult to just capture in text. It's a living, breathing sort of thing. You need to experience it. Get it wherever you can (seriously, put out the BDs already, Funi!) and watch it. It looks awesome, it sounds awesome, the script is awesome, the characters are awesome, it's all awesome. I can only hope that Studio Trigger (where most of the people responsible for this title went to) puts out more like this. This is one of the best titles I've seen in almost a decade of watching anime.

Great, now I want to watch it all over again.

In the interest of testing SMA's recommendation quality, I'm taking the obvious route of watching some of the shows it recommended. This is one such anime.
***

(Score and such later. Consider my reaction to be positive until then.)