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~Multilingual review, English & Español: Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid~

In the Japanese culture there are two really heartwarming greetings that represent the core of the family bonds: 'Tadaima' (ただいま) and 'Okaeri' (おかえり), respectively meaning 'I'm home' and 'welcome home'. The exchange between these greetings happen when one person arrives home, and there is another one to welcome them back. While not strictly restricted to family members alone, and can be used colloquially between friends and acquaintances, even in workplace and school, these greetings carry a deep and strong meaning behind them, which is no other that 'this is the place I belong to'.

Although there are many ... factors that determine the place we could call 'home', and some of them may, naturally, not include a physical person, in my personal opinion just because there is someone eagerly waiting for your return, and acknowledges that is only natural for you to come back, because this is your place, is nothing less what I would call 'the feeling of getting home'.

While it is impossible to chose which family born in, the choice of what to call our 'home' is entirely up to us, and that includes, the circle of people that will come to form part of it. Claiming that 'there are many types of families as there are stars in the sky' might be quite a silly over exaggeration, however it is not entirely wrong to say there are countless combinations and bonds that shape, what we would later call, 'our family'.

Moving one step back to the things impossible to chose, and the next one in the list is: Falling in Love. However this might be a completely biased opinion since I am a total, silly, romanticist, but there is a thing I believe we all have to agree: It is a completely unexpected chapter in our lives. After all, while all the other emotions arrives from the front door, this little bastard show itself from the back door while you were standing there like a dumb trying to see if Happiness was also in the group. Falling in love with someone takes you completely by surprise, and so as well, in some cases, is the person fated to mess around your entire existence.

Falling in Love + Different race + same gender = Love problems?

In this particular case, to scramble our protagonist life, is a certain dragon's unconditional Love. Blind as it is, but really really that blind that gender, age, and even race, represent nothing but just tiny details, Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid features a mighty powerful dragon who falls in love with a female human, and although remaining an important lead, the show's gimmick does not spin entirely around it, to the extent that it would not fall under the Romance category, the show has way more to offer than a simple fairytale love story.

As previously mentioned, the story follows super mighty dragon Tooru, and her time in the human world after becoming Kobayashi's maid, the person she's completely infatuated in. Kobayashi is a young office lady leading an existence of the prototypical Japanese salaryman. Work until late hours, almost nonexistent private life, (sometimes forced) drinking parties with the boss, and obviously getting home so tired that just opening the home's door is the last action before collapsing to the floor, everyday repeat, repeat and repeat. And so the gray and monotonous everyday life of office lady Kobayashi starts to gain, definitely, more color.

Meet the Kobayashi's household - Residents: 1 human + 2 dragons + ♥ = Family

Being a Slice of Life series as it is, the anime narrates the everyday life of Tooru, self-proclaimed 'Dragon maid', the somewhat stoic office lady, Kobayashi, and little dragon, Kanna. What I really liked the most about this show is how the three of them, with the progression of the story, started to develop the bonds of a real adoptive family, satisfying the affective desires of each other, and caring deeply for the wellbeing of the members. These developments can be seen throughout the great writing of the dialogues between the characters, I specially adored the interactions between Tooru and Kobayashi, as they were the ones that contained the themes which I expressed in the very beginning of this review, 'the place I belong to'.

Tooru's inner turmoil regarding the human world, and her love for Kobayashi, which contradicts the apparently hate and fear for the humanity, are a constant recurring theme for the entire anime's progression. The series explores other themes such as the diversity and integration, something entirely affecting the dragons living in the human world, and their feelings regarding it's inhabitant, because living among them does not necessarily means living with them.

Unknown world + Unknown people + Being different = Trust problems

Going back a bit to the part when I mentioned that all the family members satisfy the affective desires, we can perfectly observe how the relationship wheel spin, and how much these interactions affected the lives of our three main characters. Kobayashi is a really stoic, passive person, and the difficulties she has maintaining a relationship with the other characters are plenty visible to see, specially towards the affection that comes from Tooru, as she has never been close to anyone before, she does not know how to behave. The exchange is bidirectional towards the dragon maid's inner chaos due to the new life and her love for the female human, that allows her to soon discovering that even though she sees humans as inferiors, she does have indeed desire to understand them. And finally little Kanna, the dragon which embraces the new environment with curiosity and willingness to integrate.

Being realised by Kyoto Animation, we can aspect some really cute designs, fluid quality animation, and bright colors, as per the studio's standard procedure. Also the Original Soundtrack was very great too, they accompanied the events perfectly, I could not ask for better.

In my personal opinion this is a great Slice of Life, although moving perfectly according to the standard of the genre, bringing nothing original nor unique to the industry, it succeeds wonderfully in developing the main themes the show reached out to us, transmitting the message and the values, that were set as a primary goal for the accomplishment of what I consider, Quality.

Wonderful characters + excellent development + Great rhythms = Must watch

[Español - Traducción con la ayuda de mi querido amigo OnionSoda]

En la cultura japonesa existen dos saludos de verdad reconfortantes los cuales representan el núcleo de los lazos familiares: 'Tadaima' (ただいま) y 'Okaeri' (おかえり), que significan respectivamente 'Estoy en casa' y 'Bienvenido a casa'. El intercambio entre estos saludos se verifica cuando una persona recién llega a casa, y a su vez, es recibido por la otra persona que se encuentra ya en ella. Si bien no es restrictivo al uso familiar, y puede ser utilizado entre amigos y conocidos, incluso en el lugar de trabajo y escuela, estos saludos cargan el peso de un fuerte significado con ellos, el me gustaría describir como no más que 'el lugar a donde pertenezco'.

Si bien hayan mucho factores que determinan el lugar que llamaríamos 'hogar', y naturalmente, algunos pueden que no incluyan una persona física, en mi opinión personal sólo por el hecho que haya alguien que espere ansiosamente por tu regreso, y reconozca que es normal para ti el hecho de retornar, porque este es tu lugar, es algo que nada más ni nada menos llamaría 'el genuino regreso al hogar'.

Aún siendo imposible la decisión de escoger en que familia nacer, la elección de lo que decidimos llamar nuestro 'hogar' es enteramente al alcance de todos, y con ellos incluye, el círculo de personas que se vendrían a formar alrededor. Exclamar una frase como 'existen tipos de familia cuanto estrellas en el cielo' llegaría a ser una tonta exageración, de todos modos no estaríamos en el error al decir que son incontables las combinaciones y lazos que vendrían a formar, lo que llamaríamos luego, 'nuestra familia'.

Haciendo un paso atrás, a cuando hablábamos de las elecciones imposibles, la próxima en la lista sería: Enamorarse. De todos modos, esto podría ser una opinión parcial ya que soy un completo, tonto, romántico, aún así hay algo en que creo que todos tenemos que acordar: Es un capítulo totalmente inesperado en nuestras vidas. Después de todo, cuando todas las otras emociones pasan por la puerta principal, este pequeño bastardo se presenta por la puerta posterior mientras tú estabas ahí parado como un bobo tratando de ver si Felicidad estaba también en el grupo. Enamorarse de alguien te toma completamente por sorpresa, y lo es inclusive, en algunos casos, la persona destinada a revolver tu total existencia.

Enamorarse + diferente raza + mismo género = Problemas de Amor?

En este caso particular, a desbaratar la vida de nuestra protagonista, es el Amor incondicional de un cierto dragón. Ciego como es, pero realmente ciego que el género, la edad, e inclusive la raza, representan nada más que pequeños detalles, Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid se enfoca en un potente y temible dragón que se enamora de una chica humana, y si bien quedándose como un importante desenvuelve, la esencia del anime no gira completamente entorno a ello, al punto que no caería en la categoría Romance, este show tiene más por ofrecer que una simple amorío de un cuento de hadas.

Como mencionado anteriormente, la historia sigue al potente dragón Tooru, y su estadía después de ofrecer, forzadamente, sus servicios como maid a Kobayashi, la chica por la cual perdió la cabeza. Kobayashi es una joven trabajadora cuya existencia sigue los pasos del típico 'salaryman' japonés. Se trabaja hasta tarde, casi inexistente vida social, (a veces obligadas) salidas a beber con los jefes, y obviamente el llegar a casa tan destruido que, la última acción antes de desplomarse al suelo, es abrir la puerta de casa. El continuo repetirse de los días, una y otra vez. Es así que con la llegada de los nuevos huéspedes, el gris y monótono día a día de Kobayashi comienza a ganar, seguramente, más color.

Conozcan la residencia de los Kobayashi - ocupantes: 1 humano + 2 dragones + ♥ = Familia.

Siendo una Slice of Life como lo es, el anime narra el día a día de Tooru, autoproclamada 'Dragon Maid', la apática joven trabajadora, Kobayashi, y la pequeña dragón, Kanna. Lo que realmente me encanto de esta serie es como las tres, con el desarrollo de la historia, comienzan a establecer los lazos de una verdadera familia adoptiva, que satisfacen las necesidades afectivas de cada uno, preocupándose mutuamente por el bienestar de los miembros. Esta progresión es llevada a cabo gracias a la buena escritura de lo diálogos entre los personajes, especialmente adore las interacciones entre Tooru y Kobayashi, ya que fueron los que contenían los temas con los cuales, anteriormente, decidí abrir esta reseña, 'el lugar a donde pertenezco'.

La confusión interior de Tooru acerca el mundo humano, y sus sentimientos por Kobayashi, los cuales contradicen su aparente odio y miedo por la humanidad, son temas recurrentes por el entero arco narrativo de la serie. La serie explora temas como la diversidad y la integración, cosas que afectan principalmente los dragones que viven en el mundo humano, y sus sentimientos acerca sus habitantes, porque vivir entre ellos, no necesariamente quiere decir vivir con ellos.

Regresando un poco a la parte donde menciono que todos los miembros de la familia satisfacen sus necesidades afectivas, podemos observar como la rueda de las relaciones gira al rededor de la nueva presencia en sus vidas. Kobayashi es una chica de verdad estoica, y las dificultades que tiene al mantener las relaciones con los otros personajes son fáciles de individuar, especialmente cuando se trata del afecto que le proporciona Tooru, siendo el caso de nunca haber sido tan cercana a alguien antes, no sabe cómo comportarse. El cambio es bidireccional hacia el caos interior que tiene la dragon maid debido a la nueva vida que enfrenta y a los sentimientos que tiene por la chica humana, el cual le permite descubrir que aún reputando los humanos como inferiores, tiene de verdad deseo de entenderlos. Y por último esta Kanna, la única que acepta el nuevo ambiente con curiosidad y empeño a integrarse. Aun teniendo una mentalidad similar a la de Tooru, al ser un infante ella logra ver un mundo bajo una diferente luz, un lugar lleno de cosas que esperan a ser descubiertas.

La serie fue realizada por Kyoto Animation, por lo que podemos esperar diseños bonitos, calidad de animación fluida, y colores brillantes, como suele proceder el estudio normalmente. También el audio fue bastante bueno, se acompaña a la perfección a las escenas y eventos, no podría pedir algo mejor.

En mi opinión personal esta es una gran serie SoL, si bien moviéndose perfectamente de acuerdo al patrón del género, trayendo nada de nuevo o revelador a la industria, logra desarrollar, magníficamente, los temas que se propone, trasmitiendo el mensaje y los valores que fueron puestos como objetivo primario para el resultado de lo que reputo, Calidad.

Personajes geniales + Excelente desarrollo + Muy buen ritmo = No hay que perdérselo

~Multilingual review, English & Español: Please tell me! Galko-chan~

Long enough to cover everything that need to be covered and short enough to be interesting, that's the 'mini-skirt rule', and this anime follows it perfectly. However you're still behind a school's desk, or you already left them far behind in your past, I'm pretty sure you all overhead, at least once, a "girl's talk" your slutty girl-classmates did. Leaving aside the disappointment developed when you find out your crush wasn't as pure as you thought, it was sure an embarrassing moment overall.

I once overhead my girls classmates talk about how big a famous singer's genitals were, ... what would they do with both him and his boyfriend (yes, you read right), among few other things I'd have wished to never hear. That particular event was engraved in my mind so whenever I listen to the word "girl's talk" that unpleasant memory comes to my mind giving me shivers down my spine.

Anyway.. Even if the girls in Anime doesn't represent exactly real high school girls (fortunately), 'Please Tell me! Galko-chan' is one of those few anime who gets closer and manages to recreate a genuine girl's talk while leaving aside how disgusting could turn out to be.. if the girls were to be my classmates, that's it.

Fortunately our protagonists are adorable, simple innocent girls and the arguments of such talks, a bit "stimulating" whiteout reaching plain vulgarity, turn out to be interesting and cute at the same time due to the girls reactions when they get embarrassed even by their own conversations, even pushing the viewers to ask themselves 'How will they react to this?'.

The anime develops around 3 kind of stereotypes of High School girls. The 'gyaru', Galko-chan, a busty fashionable blonde girl which surprisingly is, contrary to her looks and behavior, a very kind and inexperienced innocent girl. The 'otaku', Otako, a small girl with glasses who likes to tease Galko with suggestive questions and arguments, with the risk of ending flustered herself sometimes, however she cares about Galko a lot. The 'princess', Oujou, a total airhead rich girl which hangs out often with the previous two ones.

There are also minor characters, don't forget the anime develops mainly inside a classroom, they didn't shine that much but their presence really give off a genuine "classroom environment". When I mentioned the 'mini-skirt rule' it was referred to the episode's duration, 7 minutes each one. I found the duration quite on mark, short enough to be interesting whiteout the risk of being boring. That was the main quality of this show.

I really liked the characters, specially Galko, and how the main cast argued about such suggestive themes with such cute tones, it turned out to be really nice and refreshing. If you're searching for a short anime, maybe with nice girls and lot of humor, you can hardly find any better than this.

[Español]

Larga suficiente para cubrir todo lo que tenga que ser cubierto, y corta, suficiente para ser interesante, esa es la 'regla de la mini-falda', y este anime la sigue a la perfección. Independientemente de que si todavía te encuentras detrás de un pupitre escolar, o los dejaste ya atrás en el pasado, estoy bastante seguro que, al menos una vez, has escuchado por casualidad una 'charla de chicas' que hicieron tus -no tan inocentes- compañeras. Dejando al lado la decepción al descubrir que tú amorío no era tan "pura" como pensabas, fue de verdad un momento vergonzoso.

Una vez escuché hablar a mis compañeras sobre cuánto grande eran los genitales de un famoso cantante, que cosa le harían a él y a su novio (sí, leíste bien), entre otras cosas que desearía nunca haber escuchado. El particular momento se imprimió en mi mente, así que todas las veces que escucho 'charla de chicas', ese desagradable recuerdo revive dándome escalofríos por todo el cuerpo.

De todos modos.. Aunque si las chicas en el Anime están bastante lejos de representar exactamente con perfecta afinidad el modelo de chicas en el mundo real (afortunadamente), 'Please tell me! Galko-chan' es uno de los pocos que realmente se avecina y que logra recrear una genuina 'charla de chicas' dejando a un lado cuán desagradable pueden llegar a ser... Si las chicas en cuestión son como mis compañeras de clase, eso sí.

Por suerte nuestras protagonistas son simples e inocentes chicas, y los argumentos de tales charlas, algo "estimulantes" pero sin rozar la vacía vulgaridad, llegan a ser interesantes y adorables al mismo tiempo debido a las reacciones de las chicas cuando se avergüenza hasta de sus propias conversaciones, empujando al espectador a preguntarse 'Y ahora cómo reaccionarán a esto?'.

El anime de desarrolla al rededor de 3 clases de estereotipos de chicas. La 'gyaru', Galko-chan, una chica rubia, siempre a la moda, y con dos buenos melones qué sorprendentemente, contrario a su vestuario y comportamiento, es bastante inocente y amable. La 'otaku', Otako, una chica con lentes de pequeñas proporciones que le encanta molestar a Galko con preguntas y argumentos sugestivos, aunque si a veces corre el riesgo de quedar avergonzada ella misma. La 'princesa', Oujou, una cabeza hueca total que se junta siempre con las otras dos.

Están presentes también algunos personajes menores, sin olvidar que este anime se desarrolla principalmente adentro de un salón de clases, aunque si no brillaron de modo particular, la presencia de estos personajes le dieron un aire genuino de ambiente escolar a la serie. Cuando mencione la 'regla de la mini-falda' estaba referido a la duración de cada episodio, 7 minutos cada uno. La encontré de verdad acertada, corta suficiente para ser interesante, y sin el riesgo de caer aburrida. Esa fue la mejor cualidad de este anime.

Me gustaron bastante los personajes, especialmente Galko, y también como las chicas protagonistas afrontaban los sugestivos temas con tan adorables tonos, al final se revelo ser bastante refrescante. Si estás en busca de algo corto, tal vez con lindas chicas y mucho humor, difícilmente encontrarás algo mejor que esto.

~Multilingual review, English & Español: Non Non Biyori Repeat~.

The nearest library is away 20 minutes by bike, and a certain popular manga magazine arrives on the shelves Wednesday rather than Monday. The local concept of "market" consists of leaving the merchandise outside in the open air whiteout anyone to look for it, and a normal empty can beside it which main purpose is that of be the "cash register", if we, perhaps, are in search of normal convenient store (kombini) we could find it 40km away, just recently newly opened by the way. People doesn't lock up their houses, the roads aren't paved, there's ... hardly signal for mobile phones (there are some strategic spots though) and Nature reigns, as an absolute queen, over the entire landscape. The local school is an old building that emanates a sightly impression of being abandoned, and with it's only 5 students, everyone in different grades, Elementary and Middle School, regrouped in the same classroom and sharing the same teacher, days seems to go by with such slowly peaceful harmony. Ah... don't forget the candy store that also rent skiing equipment for the winter season, the green hills in the village are perfect for this.

~Welcome to Asahigaoka~

If you were to ask me "what's this anime is about?", with a confident look, almost like if I were trying to brag about, I'd reply "it's about some children growing up in the countryside". Someone who doesn't know this show would certainly look confused ("dude are you serious?") but since this is a "second season", you, who are reading this review, know what I'm talking about, if you don't, well, let me take a little moment of your time to present you this anime developed in a rural village where 4 particular little girls are living and nothing out of the ordinary ever happens, you'll find it for sure interesting... Wait don't believe me?, let me repeat it again, "4 girls in the countryside just living and nothing out of the ordinary ever happens", yeah, ummm really, that pretty much sums up the entire show. "Did I find it interesting?", hell yes!, it's one of the best shows I've ever watched and I'm going to brag about it to never end. For those of you who came up to this review whiteout watching the "first season" I need to warn you about something: you probably would like to watch the 2013 version first.

Non Non Biyori Repeat it's not really a sequel, but it isn't exactly the beginning neither, we could call this season a "supplement" to the 2013 version, something like the chocolate chips we add to the pancakes, pancakes are already good by themselves but with the choco chips are better, well that's practically what Repeat it's about, it made Non Non Biyori, an already excellent anime, more enjoyable, adding also Nutella and strawberries!... well yeah, enough with sweets, I think you already got what I'm trying to say. Anyway It could've been vice versa actually, Repeat the pancake and the 2013 version the choco chips, both of them could be watched "stand alone" and work perfectly fine, but mixing them is way better, and that was the "jump of quality", something that allowed me upgrade my thoughts about this show, the last 12 episodes weren't enough for me to give a 10/10, now it's enough, and I'm really glad for this.

So when I said that nothing out of the ordinary happens and this show is about 4 girls growing up in the country side, you need to imagine it like that, nothing more, nothing less, simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication after all, but that's not the only feature of this show.

"In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity".

Simplicity could be the best but it's a 'necessary' not 'sufficient' condition, in my humble opinion, for a show to that wages all in being "simple" and aims to be considered "good" there are many other requirements that need to be fulfilled. Non Non Biyori managed to do accomplish them, it surpassed plain simplicity by outclassing excellency every single field, from the characters, to the scenery, to the music and animation, in everything. I must confess I'm not able to raise a single complaint, even the tiniest critique, aimed to this anime. Simplicity is the best, I agree, but only if it's NNB's level of it, that's it.

Actually something that really surprised me about this anime, the one I consider the really "spark of quality", is the way how it was portrayed the figure of the children. Our main characters behave, act, think and react like a normally child would, and that's pretty awesome since no other anime I've seen actually managed to capture such simple, innocent and natural behavior, succeeding also in the Comedy field, real comedy with children, that's just too great. In my eyes little kids in other anime are portrayed in such a false and unnatural characterization, I don't actually enjoy them, don't you think so too?.

You never step into the same river twice, greek aphorism 'panta rei', meaning that 'everything flows', nothing remains unvaried, would surely fit what I'm going to say next. Even if 'character development' wasn't a feature in this anime, I'd dare to say our characters changed a bit compared to our last meet, now with the longer time granted, little details unknown to us came to light. Rest assured, such details aren't that significant, our charismatic girls remains still the same as always. Ichijou Hotaru, 5th grader student, the city girl, in appearance very mature but with a secret childish side that everyone refuse to believe, Koshigaya Natsumi, 7th grader, a tomboyish girl with a bright personality bearing a strong impulse to tease her friends every time the occasion is good, then we've Komari, 8th grader, Natsumi's older sister, the childish girl in the group despite being the older one, she's always trying to act with a mature behavior she doesn't own, resulting in embarrassing situations. And the final member, the younger one, Miyauchi Renge, 1st grader, the craziest and bizarre of them all, she's unpredictable and never ceases to amaze her friends and family, the little star of the show.

Would you believe me if I say we could consider Asahigaoka Village as a part of the cast too?, the story revolves around and inside it but it's not merely a background, the atmosphere and the locations in this show represent ones of it's strong points, the hook of the show itself. Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter, throughout the development of the show we're able to admire the beautiful scenery this rural village has to offer in each different season of the year, meanwhile harmonically accompanied by a really fit and relaxing OST playing on the sides, an oasis of tranquility is guaranteed.

So.. do you like pancakes with choco chips, Nuttella and strawberries?, well it's time to get some and start watching this show about 4 girls living in the countryside where nothing ever happens, I assure you it's one hell of mix, it's Bliss.

[Español]

La librería más cercana está a 20 minutos andando en bicicleta, y cierta famosa revista de manga llega a los estantes el Miércoles en vez del Lunes. El concepto local de "mercado" consiste en dejar la mercancía al aire libre sin nadie que la atienda, mientras que al lado está una lata vacía que sirve de "caja registradora". Si buscamos una tienda normal para hacer compras, esa la encontramos a 40Km de aquí, que por cierto acaba de abrir recientemente. Las personas no cierran a llave sus casas cuando salen, las calles no están pavimentadas, difícilmente hay señal para el celular (pero hay algunos puntos estratégicos), y la naturaleza reina soberana sobre todo el paisaje. La escuela local es un viejo edificio que da una cierta impresión de abandono, y con sus únicos 5 estudiantes, todos en grados distintos, reagrupados en la misma aula y compartiendo el mismo profesor, los días transcurren con una armoniosa y pacífica lentitud. Ah... no nos olvidemos de la tienda de dulces que también renta equipaje de ski para la temporada invernal, las colinas verdes de este pueblo son perfectas para esto.

~Bienvenidos a Asahigaoka~

Si me fueras a preguntar "¿de que se trata este anime?", con una mirada confiada, casi como si estuviera por presumir, respondería "se trata de unos niños que viven su vida en el campo". Alguien que no conoce esta serie de seguro me miraría con una cara confusa ("bro ¿dices de verdad?"), pero si como estamos hablando de una "segunda temporada", tú, que estás leyendo esta reseña, sabes de lo que estoy hablando, y si por si caso no lo sabes, bueno, dedícame unos minutos de tu tiempo para presentarte esta serie que se desarrolla en el campo donde 4 niñas viven y no sucede nada de extraordinario, de seguro lo encontrarás de seguro interesante... Espera, ¿no me crees? Déjame que lo repita de nuevo: "4 chicas viviendo en el campo donde no sucede nada de extraordinario", mmm sí, eso resume bastante bien la serie. "¿Lo encontré entretenido?", ¡joder sí!: es uno de los mejores anime que he visto y lo presumiré hasta que me canse. Para aquellos de ustedes que se encontraron con esta reseña antes de haber visto la "primera temporada" déjenme advertirles algo: probablemente quieran ver la versión del 2013 primero.

Non Non Biyori Repeat no es exactamente una secuela, no podemos decir que sea tampoco el inicio, podríamos considerar llamar esta temporada un "suplemento" a la versión del 2013, algo parecido a las chispas de chocolate que le agregamos a los pancakes, los pancakes son buenos ya de por sí, pero con las chispas es mucho mejor; bueno eso es prácticamente Repeat, hizo de Non Non Biyori, un anime ya de por sí excelente, más entretenido y agradable, ¡agregando también Nutella y fresas!... Bueno, basta con los dulces, creo que entendieron lo que estoy tratando de decir. De todos modos, también podría haber sido al contrario, Repeat el pancake y la versión 2013 las chispas, se podría verse una, independientemente si viste la otra, y funcionar perfectamente, pero mezclarlas es mucho mejor, y fue ese el "salto de calidad" que me permitió apreciar más este anime, los pasados 12 episodios no me fueron suficientes para dar un 10/10, ahora sí, y estoy de verdad contento de eso.

Cuando dije qué nada extraordinario sucedía y qué este anime es sobre 4 niñas creciendo en el campo, lo tienes que imaginar así de simple, nada más, nada menos, la simplicidad es la última forma de sofisticación después de todo, pero esa no es la única característica de esta serie.

"Simplicidad en el carácter, los modales, el estilo; en todas las cosas, la suprema excelencia es la sencillez."

Una cosa qué me sorprendió, y es la característica que más aprecie en esta serie, la qué considero la "chispa de calidad", fue la forma en la que se representó la figura de los niños. Nuestras chicas actúan, piensan y reaccionan como lo haría un niño común y corriente, eso lo encontré algo genial porque desde que veo anime es la primera vez que encuentro el modo perfecto de capturar el simple, inocente y natural comportamiento de uno, logrando también desarrollar una comedia hecha de forma espontáneamente por ellos, fue de verdad algo para aplaudir en pie. En mi ojos, los niños que he visto en otros anime presentan una caracterización tan falsa y antinatural, que de verdad no puedo soportar ¿no te ha sucedido esto también?

No es posible bañarse dos veces en el mismo río, el aforismo 'panta rei', qué está a significar 'todo fluye', nada es invariable, pega perfectamente con lo que estoy a punto de decir. Aunque, sí, el "desarrollo de personajes" no es algo que brille mucho en esta serie, estoy dispuesto a afirmar que los personajes cambiaron un poco desde la ultima vez que los encontramos. Ahora que nos fue concedido más tiempo para pasar con ellos, pequeños detalles que antes desconocíamos vinieron a flote. Ninguna preocupación gente, los detalles son mínimos, nuestras chicas carismáticas siguen igual de siempre. Ichijou Hotaru, 5to grado, la chica madura de ciudad, exteriormente presenta una madurez innatural a su edad, qué pero esconde un lado infantil que nadie quiere creer; Koshigaya Natsume, 7mo grado, una chica de carácter alegre y de comportamiento algo varonil que no falla la buenas ocasiones para joder cariñosamente a sus amigas; después tenemos a Komori, 8vo grado, hermana mayor de Natsume, las más infantil del grupo aún siendo la mayor en edad, siempre trata de actuar con una madurez que no le pertenece, dando resultados penosos; Y por último tenemos a Miyauchi Renge, 1er grado, la más pequeña del grupo, pero con una fantasía y un carácter que no dejan de sorprender a sus amigas y familiares, la pequeña estrella del anime.

¿Me creerías si te dijera que podríamos considerar el pueblo de Asahigaoka como parte del cast también? Los eventos se desarrollan allí, pero no es puramente un plano trasfondo, la atmósfera y sus localidades son parte de los puntos fuertes de esta serie, algo que te engancha y te captura de una manera tremenda. Primavera, Verano, Otoño e Invierno, a lo largo que se desarrollan los eventos, somos espectadores del maravilloso paisaje que este pueblo rural ofrece en las diferentes estaciones del año, mientras acompañado por las OST de tonos suaves y armónicos que suenan en el fondo, aseguran un verdadero oasis de tranquilidad.

Por lo que.. ¿te gustan los pancakes con chispas de chocolate, Nutella y fresas? Bueno es hora que te los vayas buscando e inicies a ver este anime sobre 4 chicas que viven en el campo donde nada de extraordinario sucede, te aseguro que es una combinación espectacular, en más, es pura Felicidad.

~Multilingual review, English & Español: SHIROBAKO~

Hey... did you know?, in the Animation Industry an anime episode which is distributed to the production staff members prior to its official release is called "shirobako", litteraly "white box", that's because at time VHS tapes containing the episode were enclosed in white boxes and distributed, despite the fact that white enclosures are no longer used, the term still remains in use in the actual anime industry, thus the anime's title comes from that little particular, SHIROBAKO.

Simple but at the same time meaningful, a word which I was totally unaware of its background story, to tell the truth ... actually even if I've been watching anime for years, I'm completely ignorant when it comes to it's realization and process which follow a simple draw sketch, hand made, into becoming incredible pieces of animation rich of music, effects and sounds. This is the first time I came across with an anime that handles a theme with such professionalism and realism imitating with, almost, absolute perfection the production of an animated series in the real world, exaggerating and overreacting a bit with the details, with the final purpose of avoiding to bore the audience, and such effect results in an ironic comedy sticked that enough to the realism in order to don't lose it's seriousness, SHIROBAKO totally succeeded in recreating a working field with extreme quality.

To summarize this series with just "an anime about making anime" doesn't describe it at all, actually I think it's a devaluation because in that way we're leaving behind the most important theme touched in it, and which is in my opinion, the reason it made shine this show: 'keep working to realize your dreams'. Unfortunately sometimes there are times that working hard doesn't guarantee the results we expect, and thus it feels like the sky fell upon us, like getting hit by a bullet train, extremely painful, sometimes it damages us more than any physical injuries might harm, there it is... the disappointment after failing.

"Not everyone who works hard is rewarded, however all those who succeed have worked hard!"

I need to say that the hard work is really shown through the show, our protagonists aren't passive girls, they've a dream and in order to achieve it they struggle and confront themselves with real life in their respective field of interest, trying to overcome doubts and obstacles, normal things for someone who is initially starting to find a place to fit in this society, after all, the approach to real life feels so genuine that we can easily relate to. Specially the ones who hasn't find a place in this world but keep working hard to find it, we'll be touched directly by the themes developed through this anime.

After the realization of an amateur animated short back in High School, Miyamori Aoi, Yasuhara Ema, Imai Midori, Todo Misa and Sakaki Shizuka, the Animation Club's members, promised all together to realize a professional animation work one day. As the years pass, in the present day, Miyamori is a 'Production Assistant' for Musashino Animation, Ema works as 'Key Animator' in the same studio, Misa decided to go for the computer graphics, Midori is still studying in the University but her goal is to write scripts and Shizuka works part-time meanwhile she tries to emerge as a voice actress. SHIROBAKO is the story about these five young women and the Musashino Animation, behind the scenes, 'what we don't see', of the Animation Industry.

Through the show's development the viewers experience almost each of the productions phases that make up the realization of a TV series, starting from the basic things such as obtaining the rights from the author, to later pass to the productive phases: Script, Storyboard, Character Design, Art Direction, Coloration, Computer Graphics, Sound Direction, Voice Acting selection, Editing and Assembly, and finally the end product delivery to the TV station. Everything obviously presented under the POW of the various characters that make part of this cycle of work, which going through the difficulties they might across, allow us to gain a vision, really close to the reality, of what means to realize a task in this working field, the meeting point, between all the different phases, is represented by Miyamori, our protagonist, which serving as 'Production Assistant' is in charge of coordinating all the works as well as being the bridge for each production's department.

The particular attention on details in this anime is really noteworthy, to allow a better comprehension of each production aspect, Musashino Animation was in charge to realize two anime series (an anime inside an anime!). The script was discussed, what message and which emotions should reach the viewers, redefine the characters in case the result isn't the wanted one, War fell upon the studios when it was confronted a 2D animation sequence to a 3D one and was asked which one was better, meanwhile in another department, voice actors selection was being held, another battleground...

However SHIROBAKO isn't only a documental-anime, since great quality was shown in the characterization of each character presented, casting away any kind of stereotype, going directly through the realism route, a result which ended giving the show a really pleasant atmosphere. The cast was really huge, even so, each one of them had an opportunity to shine in their respective working field, each character had their own identity and goal in life, which through the series, lead them to a route of personal grow and professional development, with a special regard for, obviously, our protagonists.

The complete absence of Fanservice, and the typical cliche scenarios that could expose the girls sex appeal as well as the fanservice yuri undertones, characteristic features for anime with a female-only cast, was something that allowed the anime to have a certain level of professionalism, specially considering the interactions between the characters, it was something I really appreciated.

Animation & Designs were labeled by P.A. Works, it's almost like a seal of guarantee, this studio has the fame of creating one of the best visuals available in the current market, and again, it delivered, characters' range of expressivity was superb, between the bests I've seen. The Sound wasn't completely appreciated, in part because of the anime's frenetic pace, an another because of the heavy dialogues and explanations, in few words the attention was driven off from them, something that I couldn't say it's a bad thing since the OST suited perfectly the scenes, it's just, they didn't were outstanding besides being a bit forgettable.

SHIROBAKO represents an act of Love towards the Anime Industry itself, paying a tribute to all the people who works in this difficult field, and in the same time, showing a side completely unknown to most of us, presenting an original format of entertainment whose protagonists are the people who made all this possible.


[Español]

Oye... ¿lo sabías?, en la Industria de la Animación cuando un episodio de anime es distribuido al equipo de producción, antes de su efectiva emisión, se le llama "shirobako", literalmente "caja blanca". En la época de oro, las video casetas que llevaban el episodio eran distribuidas adentro de cajas blancas, aunque si ya no se suelen usar más, este término se sigue utilizando actualmente en la industria, así que el título de este anime deriva da esa pequeña particularidad, SHIROBAKO.

De simple origen, pero llena de significado, se trata de una palabra que desconocía completamente. Siendo sincero, aunque si mi experiencia con el anime está llegando a la década, soy completamente ignorante cuando se trata de la realización y procesos que permiten a un simple dibujo, hecho a mano, convertirse en piezas increíbles de animación, llenas de música, efectos y sonidos. Esta es la primera vez que me cruzo con un anime que trata de manera profesional y realista el verdadero trabajo que hay detrás de las series animadas, su producción y creación, paso a paso, exagerando un poco de las situaciones de cada día en modo de crear una comicidad irónica, aunque siempre apegada a la realidad, aquel tanto que basta para no dejar de ser tomada en serio. ¿El resultado? SHIROBAKO logra recrear un sector de trabajo de manera fresca y divertida de ver, después de todo, ¡tampoco es que cada profesión sea apta para divertir a un público!.

Definir esta serie sólo como "un anime acerca de hacer anime" no la describe en su totalidad, de hecho la devalúa, porque deja de lado el aspecto más importante, y que en mi opinión, es lo que hace verdaderamente brillar esta serie: trabajar para alcanzar tus sueños. Desafortunadamente hay veces que el trabajo duro no es suficiente y no asegura el resultado que se espera. Es ahí que se siente como si el cielo se nos cayera encima, el mismo efecto que sería ser atropellado por un tren, con la diferencia que es indoloro, pero aún así nos procura un dolor mucho mayor que cualquier daño físico, ahí esta... la decepción después de fallar.

"Trabajar duro no asegura el éxito, pero puedo asegurarte que todas las personas exitosas han trabajado duro"

El esfuerzo y la pasión por alcanzar tus sueños están a la base de este anime, nuestras protagonistas no son para nada pasivas, tienen un sueño y hacen de todo para alcanzarlo, confrontandose con la vida real en sus respectivos campos de interés, y en sus caminos se encontrarán con obstáculos y dudas, cosas normales para alguien que apenas esta comenzando a encontrar su puesto al interno de esta sociedad, después de todo, el aproche con la vida real se siente tan genuino que es muy fácil poder relacionarse. Sobre todo nosotros los más jóvenes, los que todavía no hemos encontrado nuestro lugar en el mundo pero estamos trabajando duramente para ello, nos sentiremos tocados directamente y especialmente por las temáticas afrontadas a lo largo de la serie.

Después de haber realizado un pequeño corto amatorial de animación para proyectar en la escuela, Miyamori Aoi, Yasuhara Ema, Imai Midori, Todo Misa y Sakaki Shizuka, los cinco miembros que formaban el Club de Animación al tiempo del liceo, se prometen un día hacer un verdadero trabajo de animación profesional todas juntas. Los años pasan, Miyamori se encuentra actualmente trabajando como 'Asistente de Producción' para la Musashino Animation, Ema trabaja como 'Diseñador' en el mismo estudio, Misa se fue por el ramo de la animación a computadora y trabaja para una empresa, Midori estudia en la Universidad pero su ambición es llegar a escribir guiones y Shizuka trabaja part-time mientras trata de entrar en el difícil mundo del Doblaje. SHIROBAKO es la historia de estas cinco chicas y de todos los miembros de Musashino Animation, detrás de las cortinas, lo que no se ve, en el mundo de la animación.

A lo largo de la serie la audiencia está presente en casi todas las fases de producción que componen la realización de una serie televisiva, partiendo de lo más básico como obtener los derechos del autor para después pasar a las fases productivas las cuales son: Guión, Storyboard, Diseño de los Personajes, distribución de los keyframe entre los diseñadores, Dirección Artística, paisajes y fondos, Coloración, Computer Graphics, Dirección Musical, creación de sonidos, selección de dobladores, montaje conclusivo hasta llegar finalmente a la entrega del producto final a las estaciones televisivas. Todo obviamente presentado bajo el punto de vista de los varios personajes que hacen parte del ciclo de trabajo, que pasando por las dificultades que se pueden presentar, nos permiten obtener una visión completamente apegada a la realidad de lo que es realizar un determinado trabajo al interno de este ambiente, el punto de conexión, entre todas las diferentes fases es representado da Miyamori Aoi, nuestra protagonista, la cual sirviendo de Asistente de Producción, esta encargada de coordinar todos los aspectos además de hacer de puente entre los repartos de producción.

La particular atención puesta en los detalles es este anime es para premiar, para permitir la plena compresión de todos los aspectos productivos, durante la serie se realizaron la composición de dos series animadas (¡un anime dentro del anime!). Se discutió el guión, que mensaje tenia llegar al espectador y cuales emociones deberían transmitirse, redefinir los personajes cuando no se obtiene el efecto deseado, se confrontó una misma escena hecha en animación tradicional con una en CGI, dando vida a una pelea interna sobre cual es mejor, mientras que en otro reparto se escogían los dobladores, otro campo de batalla...

Pero SHIROBAKO no es sólo un anime-documental, en cuanto grande calidad se demostró en la caracterización de cada personaje presentado, dejando de lado cualquier estereotipo típico, puntando directamente al realísimo, un resultado que sinceramente se aprecia mucho más. El Cast se compone de un gran número de personajes, aún así, cada uno de ellos tuvo la oportunidad de brillar en su respectivo campo de trabajo, cada personaje tiene su propia identidad y objetivo en la vida, que a lo largo de la serie lo conducirá en una vía de maduración y desarrollo profesional, con un enfoque especial, obviamente, hacia nuestras 5 chicas.

La completa ausencia de cualquier forma de fanservice y de las típicas situaciones cliché que enfocan el sex appeal de los personajes, al igual que los típicos tonos fanservice 'yuriescos' que caracterizan la mayor parte de las series que presentan un cast prevalentemente femenino, fue algo que permitió a la serie ser tomada más en serio, presentando un cierto grado de profesionalidad en las interacciones entre los personajes, algo que aprecie bastante.

La Animación & Diseños fueron firmadas por P.A. Works, y de verdad se notó, este estudio tiene la reputación de hacer una de la mejores visuales que hay actualmente en el mercado, y otra vez, cumplió perfectamente, la expresividad que llegan a tener los personajes es de verdad notable, de las mejores que he visto. El Sonido no se pudo apreciar completamente, en parte debido al ritmo frenético que se llegaba a tener en algunos momentos, y en otras debido al diálogo pesado, en práctica la atención fue completamente desviada, algo que no es necesariamente malo, las OST acompañan perfectamente las escenas, sólo que, no se hicieron notar mucho además de ser, un poco, olvidables.

SHIROBAKO representa un acto de Amor hacia la industria del anime en sí misma, homenajeando a las personas que hacen parte de ella, y al mismo tiempo mostrando un lado que era completamente desconocido a la mayoría, presentando un formato original y dando protagonismo finalmente ad aquellas personas que hacen que todo esto sea posible.

~Multilingual review, English & Español: Girls und Panzer~

Nowadays "Cute girls doing cute things" have become an unwritten genre, or better, a keyword that open a window through which we can imagine completely how it's going to be an anime, even if our knowledge about it are pair to zero, we could almost go far and state a "first impression" derived only by hearing those words. We tend to imagine a group of cute girls doing absolutely nothing, actually only cute things, or engaged in some particular activity, sometimes that unusual that we could consider them totally out of ordinary or from what we could call ... "acceptable".

Usually "cute girls doing cute things" type of anime aren't serious ones, mostly comedy or Slice of Life, but there are sometimes that some of them breaks this, almost, rule. The good thing about them is that you could enjoy watching an unusual activity being done by a group of cute girls, and this time I came across something really particular... girls and tanks!, and believe or not, this was quite different from the ones I've watched before, this anime shown a great quality, unexpected differently from a "cute girl doing cute things". You won't find only cute girls driving tanks, in this show there's actually a deep and accurate understanding about tanks, actually this feels that different that there're hardly scenes portraying the typical cliche scenarios.

Fanservice is absent, there are no beach episodes, no thermal waters episode, no Cultural/Sport Festival, no pool episode, any kind of cliche scenario or situation that could expose the girls sex appeal are absent. There aren't fanservice yuri undertones and the girls never groped each other... I was quite surprised, as well as glad, and then again, quality was shown, this anime totally focused on what we came for: awesome battle with tanks.

The story revolves around "Sensha-dō", literally translated as "the way of the tank", and the girls who practices it. What would be that?, -Sensha-dō is the martial art that strives to nurture polite, graceful, humble and brave maidens-, or in other words: Tank warfare with girls!. With that said, the story begins with the new Oarai High School transfer student, Nichizumi Miho, our protagonist, a Sensha-dō veteran by then retired from the battlefields due to a traumatic experience in a competition. Oarai High School distinguish itself from not having Sensha-dō classes.. or so Miho thought, but as soon as she arrives the student council decides to take it up and participate in the National Sensha-dō Tournement. After the initial dubious state, Miho decides to give another chance to Sensha-dō, and along her new inexperienced teammates, the National Tournament awaits, meanwhile unknown for our protagonists but no for us, the viewers, their School is about close if they don't win.

As you've probably realized, the story is quite simple and originality isn't by their side neither, there's practically none character development. If you ask me why such a high score for this anime, I would reply you with three strong points about it:

1- Sensha-dō
2- Really likeable group of characters
3- Focus on important things, leaving cliché and fanservice totally outcast

Even if I tend to like anime with more complicated plots, twists, ect, I need to say that Girls und Panzer "plot development" was carried in a wonderful manner, each episode was focused on the girls training, the realization of plans and strategies for the next battles, bonding, a quick but well done focus on the principal characters, and finally, great tanks battles filled with real accurate "tankery" and details, that's why I listed between the strong points Sensha-dō, which doesn't refer only to the presence of tanks in the anime, it represents the quality of the show itself.

"Sensha-dō isn't War!"

It's a sport, and like every sport, there are rules to follow. I'll now explain briefly in what consist this sport and it's basic rules, just in case you were wondering how and why girls practice such dangerous activity, rest assured, this is actually a well planned sport, in correspondence to the quality level of this show, quite high:

- Tanks admitted in battle are need to be prior Second World War.
- Shells are designed so that they can't penetrate the tanks's armor.
- Black boxes are equipped in order to declare the tank out of game wherever it's damaged by the counterpart.

There are two kinds of Sensha-dō matches, "Annihilation" and "Flag". Just like it's name suggest, the first one consist in immobilize all enemy tanks by first, and the second one, Flag, consist in immobilize the enemy's Flagtank by first. Finally there's a restriction rule for the amount of tanks allowed in the National Tournement by each team, First round up to 10 tanks, Semifinals up to 15 tanks and Final up to 20 tanks. The matches are always 1 Team VS 1 Team.

Our protagonists teams, the Oarai High School team, consists of 5 tanks, later upgraded to 8. The characters operating them have their very own charming and characteristic, quite difficult to mistook one team for another. We've the protagonist's team operated by Nishizumi Miho, who acts as the Commander, like previously said, she's the only experienced one, the Loader, Akiyama Yukari, a tank otaku girl and the most charismatic character in the show, the Gunner, Isuzu Hana, a quite composed and high leveled head girl, the Driver, Mako Reizei, a quiet and gloomy girl but with a kind heart, and finally the Radio Operator, Saori Takebe, a girl who aims to be popular by any means. The other teams are operated by: the Student Council, since taking up Sensha-dō again was their idea, another group consists of History fanatics, each one personalizing a famous past leader, another one consists of Tank Warfare Online gamers, and going on, the variety is assured. I won't write about all of them since the risk of this review becoming really large is quite high, but they are sure a bunch of mixed personalities.

When it comes to Animation and Sound this show couldn't offer for better, battle scenes are done excellent, even the CGI scenes were awesome and flowing, the designs were highly detailed and pleasant for the eyes, and I'm not talking only about the tanks design, also the environment and the battlefield were realized quite well. The Sound was something great, the OriginalSound Track was composed mainly by militaristic tunes quite adapted to harmonize the events in the show, and yet they had an unique but cute charming tune in them which totally fitted also the most passive scenes. They ranged from typical American military tunes to Russian ones, there were also Italians ones!. There was also a very nice musical arrangement of the popular Russian song "Katyusha", fitting the parade of the Soviet Team.

Girls und Panzer is totally not your typical "cute girls doing cute things", it's technical and accurate understanding about tanks make this anime quite enjoyable, and surely, over the top compared to other anime with similar themes. Brilliant execution and development of Battles, along with a fantastic OST, great Animation and whiteout forgetting, a nice crew of High School girls, this anime surely deserve such a high score in my opinion.

[Español]

Hoy en día "cute girls doing cute things" se convirtió en un género de por sí, o mejor dicho, una palabra clave que abre una ventana a través de la cual nos permite, completamente, imaginar como sería un anime aún si no tenemos conocimiento alguno sobre ellos, podríamos ir lejos y decir "una primera impresión" derivada sólo al escuchar esas palabras. Tendemos a imaginar un grupo de chicas empeñadas haciendo absolutamente nada, de hecho sólo cosas lindas, o en otras ocasiones empeñadas en actividades así de particulares que las podríamos considerar fuera del ordinario, o de lo que podríamos llamar "aceptable".

Por lo general "cute girls doing cute things" tipo no son serios, principalmente tratan comedia o Slice of Life, pero hay ocasiones en las cuales esta, casi, regla viene infringida. Lo bueno de este tipo de series es que puedes llegar a disfrutar viendo actividades muy inusuales hechas por grupos de chicas, y esta vez me tope con algo bastante particular.. chicas y tanques!, y créanme o no, esto estuvo bastante diferente comparado con las series que he visto antes, este anime demuestra una tremenda calidad, inesperadamente diferente de lo que se espera de un "cute girls doing cute things". Aquí no encontrarás sólo chicas conduciendo tanques, en este anime hay de verdad un conocimiento profundo y meticuloso sobre tanques, de hecho esta serie es tan diferente a lo normal que no hay casi escenas mostrando el típico cliché.

El fanservice queda excluido, no hay episodios de playa, no hay episodios de aguas termales, no está el típico Festival Cultural/Deportivo, no hay episodio de piscina, todo tipo de escenario cliché o situaciones que expongan el sex appeal de las chicas fueron excluidas. No hubo yuri-fanservice y las chicas nunca se tocaron las unas a las otras... Quede sorprendido, al igual que agradecido, y repito, la calidad se hizo notar, este anime se dedicó completamente a lo que habíamos venido a buscar: buenas peleas de tanques.

La historia gira entorno al "Sensha-dō", traducido literalmente como "la vía del tanque", y las chicas que lo ponen en práctica. De qué se trata?, -el Sensha-dō es la arte marcial que se empeña a cultivar educadas, graciosas, humildes y valerosas doncellas- o en otras palabras: Guerra de tanques entre chicas!. Dicho esto, la historia inicia con la nueva estudiante transferida de Oarai High School, Nichizumi Miho, nuestra protagonista, una veterana del Sensha-dō, ya retirada del campo de batalla debido a una experiencia traumática en una competición. Oarai High School se distingue por no tener un curso de Sensha-dō.. o eso Miho pensaba, no pasó mucho antes de su llegada que el consejo estudiantil decide iniciar un nuevo curso e inscribirse en el torneo nacional de Sensha-dō. Después del inicial rechazo, Miho decide darle otra oportunidad, y juntó con sus nuevas compañeras, del todo novatas, el torneo nacional les espera, mientras que desconocido para las protagonistas pero no para nosotros espectadores, su escuela irá en la ruina si no consiguen ganar.

Como probablemente habrán deducido, la historia es bastante simple, y la originalidad no está siquiera de su parte, tampoco hay desarrollo de personajes. Si me preguntan porque una nota tan alta para este anime, te respondería con sus tres puntos fuertes:

1- Sensha-dō
2- Un grupo realmente agradable de personajes
3- Enfoque total en las cosas importantes, dejando cliché y fanservice completamente fuera

Aunque sí tienden a gustarme anime con una historia más complicada, llena de twists, ect, necesito decir que el desarrollo de la trama de Girls und Panzer fue llevada a cabo de una manera excelente, cada episodio estuvo enfocado en el entrenamiento de las chicas, la realización de planes y estrategias para las próximas batallas, al desarrollo de grupo, a un rápido pero eficaz acercamiento a la vida de las chicas, y finalmente, geniales batallas de tanques, llenas de detalles realmente precisos, fue por eso que la agregue el Sensha-dō entre los puntos fuertes, el cual no se refiere solamente a la presencia de tanques dentro del anime, más bien representa la calidad del mismo.

"Sensha-dō no es la Guerra!"

Es un deporte, y como todos los demás, hay reglas que seguir. Ahora explicare brevemente en que cosa consiste este deporte y sus reglas básicas, sólo por sí estas curioso como y porque estas chicas hacen una actividad así de peligrosa, pero sin preocupación, este es un deporte planeado en el más mínimo detalle, el cual corresponde al nivel de este show, bastante alto:

- Están admitidos sólo tanques precedentes a la Segunda Guerra Mundial.
- El proyectil está diseñado en modo tal que no penetre la armadura del tanque.
- Cajas negras son instaladas con el fin de poner fuera de juego un tanque que ha recibido daño por el enemigo.

Hay dos tipos de encuentros en el Sensha-dō, "Aniquilación" y "Bandera". Justo como de puede deducir de los nombres, el primero consiste en inmovilizar todos los tanques enemigos por primero, y Bandera consiste en inmovilizar el tanque-bandera por primero. Por ultimo hay una regla que pone un techo al número de tanques que se pueden usar en el Torneo Nacional por cada equipo, el Primer Round permite hasta 10 tanques, la Semifinal permite hasta 15 tanques y la Final hasta un máximo de 20. Las batallas son siempre 1 Equipo VS 1 Equipo.

Nuestros equipos protagonistas, el equipo de Oarai High School, consiste de 5 tanques, después agrandado a 8. Los personajes que los operan tienen su propio único carisma y características, imposible confundir un equipo con otro. Tenemos al equipo protagonista, operado por Nichizumi Miho, como dicho anteriormente, es la única veterana del grupo, ella hace de Comandante, después tenemos al Cargador, Akiyama Yukari, una chica Otaku de tanques y la más carismática del todo el show, el Artillero, Isuzu Hana, una chica bastante madura y compuesta, el Conductor, Mako Reizei, una chica callada y algo sombría pero de corazón amable, y por último el Operador Radio, Saori Takebe, una chica que busca ser popular a cualquier costo. Los otros equipos son operados por: el Consejo Estudiantil, dado que fue de ellas la idea de iniciar con el Sensha-dō en su escuela, otro grupo consiste en fanáticos de Historia, cada una de ellas esta metida en un comandante famoso del pasado, otro grupo estaba formado por gamers de juegos sobre tanques Online, y vía diciendo, la variedad está asegurada. No escribiré sobre cada uno de ellos pues el riesgo que esta reseña se convierta en algo bastante largo no es poco, pero les aseguro que se trata de un grupo compuesto por una complicada variedad de personalidades.

Si venimos a la Animación y al Sonido, en este show no pudieron haber de mejor, las escenas de combatimiento fueron hechas excelentes, al igual modo también las de CGI, que fueron de verdad geniales y fluidas, el diseño fue altamente detallado y agradable a la vista, y no estoy hablando sólo de los tanques, también el ambiente y los campos de batalla fueron realizados bastante bien. El Sonido fue algo especial, las Original SoundTrack fueron principalmente de tono militar, adaptas completamente a armonizar con los eventos que sucedían en el anime, y aún así llegaron a tener ese tono "lindo" que acompañaba las escenas más pasivas. Abarcó desde tonos militares típicos Americanos a tonos típicamente Rusos, hubieron también algunos Italianos!. Estuvo presente también una muy buena adaptación de la famosa canción rusa "Katyusha", la cual acompaño la avanzada del equipo Soviético.

Girls und Panzer no es mínimamente el típico "cute girls doing things", su tecnicismo y precisión en materia de tanques y combatimiento lo hicieron demasiado entretenido, y seguramente, lo colocaron en un podio más alto comparado con otros anime de similar contenido y temas. Brillante ejecución y desarrollo de batallas, seguido delicadamente por una fantástica OST, Animación genial y sin olvidar un muy agradable grupo de chicas, en mi opinión, este anime de verdad merece esta nota alta.

It came, almost like if it has been created for one purpose: polarize the public opinion, and yet the same scenario from back then take place, to be or not to be.... mediocre? I guess the answer was already given in that first season, I'll just throw it here, if we're watching this sequel we already know what to expect, there won't be a glorious comeback, we're watching the wrong franchise otherwise, SAO II is the same old SAO after all.. and for those who understand this basic concept, it might be entertaining somehow, I won't hide that fact, just make sure to leave the ... common sense and critic spirit in the next room before you close the door, that it's.

SAO II inherited everything from it's predecessor, specially the bad traits that characterized the first season, traits that were a lot more in highlights this time since we had already experienced them, we live for the second time those faults that made infamous the first season, we could almost say it's practically a déjà vu. Such traits are numerous, we could generalize and call the amount of the bad traits: The SAO Formula, a pattern of events presented since Aincrad, proposed again in Fairy Dance, and finally in this last installment, Phantom Bullet. Being able to determinate such pattern is not something difficult, we could summarize and say: "Kirito came, Kirito saw, Kirito conquered", but since this is a review let's analyze a bit better this concept.

Phantom Bullet takes place a year and half later the SAO incident, Kirito, now living the normal high school life, is approached again by Seijiro Kikuoka, some guy from the Government, who informs him that a series of mysterious murders were happening, where?, obviously inside another Virtual Game. After the previous fantasy themed arcs, this time we have a characterized cyberpunk environment, a huge breath of fresh air, which provides in the only campus SAO distinguish itself, whiteout failing miserably, the Setting (I'll talk about this later). Gun Gale Online, the virtual reality game where a mysterious avatar called Death Gun seems to have the power to "kill" the players inside the game. After a remarkable phrase by our protagonist: "There's no way that someone can be killed inside a game!", almost like if his memories from the SAO incident were erased, he decides to find the culprit by entering this new world, Kirito goes to investigate!.

This is when The SAO Formula emerge completely, in correspondence like the previous arcs, Kirito is assisted by a new female character, in a new game, in a game where you could die in the real world, with an overly pathetic character as villain (Yup, a complete new environment!), but leaving aside those utterly obvious facts, the thing I disliked the most was the absence of simple Logic. If in the first season were remarkable deus ex machinas and bad developed scenes, in SAO II we have the complete absence of logic reasoning.

(Now I'll write some phrases with the interrogation point just to emphasize better my point of view)

Leaving Kirito completely alone during the investigation phase?, Laughing Coffin members that should have been arrested for murder after the SAO incident?, a guarantee security for those, possible, Death Gun's targets by placing some cops inside their house?... no? what about tracing somehow the IP?... for god's sake we're already in a future where Virtual Reality exist and the police can't really trace a player inside a game? and their only savior is a 17 years old kid?, c'mon!.

This season is characterized by Stupidity itself, there are no words able to justify the overly idiotic events occurred, because if there were for the previous season, this time there aren't. And we have yet to talk about how ended Phantom Bullet, the cherry in this cake!, the climax... but that would be spoiler so I won't, I'll just say instead: "ASADA-SAN, ASADA-SAN, ASADA-SAN!!!", you'll understand later and when you reach that part, drop a laugh in my honor.

In a similar mode as the previous arcs, the plot focuses only on Kirito and the new girl (The SAO Formula in action again!), ASSada Shino, while leaving aside the others characters that were once important in the previous arcs, reducing their screen time to only a few scenes. That means we don't get any Asuna or Suguha, already side characters, or how I like to say: "They became part of Kirito's party", and once they join it, the characters loses their personality completely becoming a side character, part of Kirito's harem. Unlike the previous season, the characters psyche is analyzed a bit more deeply and the result is... pretty lame. Actions scenes are replaced with boring dialogues between Kirito and Sinon sharing their experiences with Death and how they dealt with them. Actually I like this kind of approach in the characters but with Kirito?... God no, it doesn't feel right in SAO, it doesn't fit the anime. Cool actions scenes with great soundtrack fits more the show, but that wasn't delivered, in part. The only thing that won't miss in this sequel, in every scene, is Sinon's compact ass, we got a picture of it in every possible angle.

In this second installment Phantom Bullet isn't the only material adapted from the Light Novel, there's also some arcs we could consider as fillers but they aren't, they're present in the Light Novel. Only from SAO we could expect actual canon material to have that unique air that fillers have, anyway these two arcs are Caliber and Mother's Rosario. While the attempt of Excaliber is to light the mood before the heavy drama oriented Mother's Rosario, the result we get it's the exposure of The SAO Formula, yes again. Caliber focuses in Kirito's party, Sinon, already part of his harem, with the special participation of the other girls, Asuna & Company, aid Kirito to complete an ALO Quest. Meanwhile Mother's Rosario focuses on Asuna and her meet with a mysterious girl named Yuuki, drama development is guaranteed.

Like previously commented, SAO II inherited everything from the previous season, also those things worth to be praised, the Animation, the Setting and Soundtracks. Extremely fluid animation followed through the actions scenes meanwhile -not the best Yuki Kajiura recycled work- harmonized the environment. The Setting is something I really liked from the SAO franchise, it's detailed and somehow it drags you inside, Fantasy and Fairy tale like from the previous arcs and now GGO's cyberpunk, it's notable the effort done to create this, I tip my hat. OPs & EDs singles managed to be catchy but a lot less compared to the previous season, anyway "Courage" by Haruka Tomatsu is worth an illegal download at least.

Overall I wouldn't consider it a total waste of time, this show is watchable, I won't say it's a pile of crap or rage about it, I mean, if you're watching SAO II you already know how this was going to be, so I'll just express my expected disappointment with a big "Meehhh" and end this review right here.

~Multilingual review, English & Español: Poor Poor Lips~

Poor Poor Lips was for sure an interesting surprise, and I really mean it, who could have foretold such a great romance development coming from a 4-Koma structured comedy manga? I surely couldn't imagine it, and you won't my dear readers, that's why I'm here to tell you how awesome this manga is, consistent quality are the better words to describe the development, great comedy always present, since the first chapter until the final pages, full with that charming able to gift a final smile to the lector, and believe me when I say you won't get bored ... with it.

The plot revolves around the wacky relationship between a very innocent and simple girl named Nako, and her boss, the "ojou-sama" high class girl, Ren. Following the 4-Koma structure, dominated firstly by a comedic tone, it develops this little and slow romance, full of happy moments but also with that touch of drama and adversities characteristic of any yuri manga.

"You are not my type"

These are ones of the very first words that Ren revolved to Nako, and through the manga, used quite often, but that phrase couldn't ever describe her behaviour towards Nako, since she doesn't leave her alone, to the point of making excuses for her own actions, actions that we could say genuine of a true stalker. Nako, obviously, doesn't know about these "unwanted" attentions, since the girl is very innocent, able to see always the good side of the people. She's quite poor, since all the money she earns goes to the debt that her parents left her when they died, but even in that miserable condition she's able to smile and able to see always the positive side in Life, something incomprehensible for Ren, used to a luxurious life. The design's art is quite simple, the characters aren't that detailed, that reminds the chibi style, but not completely at all, the backgrounds are also simple, but we don't need to forget that this is a 4-Koma, anyway there wasn't a drop of quality through the manga, it was completely constant, and that is appreciated. I personally find the characters design a lot cute, both Nako's and Ren's.

I overly enjoyed this manga, the characters were a lot cute, great development, plenty of romance and great comedy, what else could you ask?

[Español]

Poor Poor Lips fue toda una sorpresa, nunca podría haber imaginado que de un manga a structura 4-koma (ósea ese formato clásico utilizado principalmente para una comedia basada en sketch cortos) naciera una relación tan desarrollada y bien hecha como la que leí en estas páginas, sin perder ese humor característico que estuvo siempre presente desde el primer capítulo, y que nos acompaña hasta los últimos episodios, lleno de ese carisma capaz de regalar una sonrisa al lector hasta el final.

La historia gira entorno a la extraña relación entre una chica bastante simplona y alegre llamada Nako, y la jefa del negocio donde trabaja, la "ojou-sama" de alta clase, Ren. Siguiendo el formato 4-koma, dominado en un primer momento por un tono claramente cómico, se desarrolla este pequeño amor algo lento pero seguro, lleno de momentos felices y una que otra roca en el camino, característico de los manga yuri.

"Tu no eres mi tipo"

Fueron una de las primeras palabras de Ren hacia Nako, algo que le repite bastantes veces a lo largo del manga, cosa que no demuestra absolutamente por su comportamiento, pues no le quita los ojos de encima ni un solo segundo, llegando a inventarse excusas para justificar sus atenciones hacia la chica, las cuales podríamos considerar dignas de un verdadero stalker. Nako obviamente no se da cuenta, siendo una chica bastante inocente, capaz de ver sólo el lado bueno de las personas. Ella conduce una vida en absoluta pobreza, pues todo el dinero que gana va dirigido a la enorme deuda que le dejaron sus padres al morir, pero aún así es capaz de verle el lado positivo a las cosas, llegando a ser feliz, algo completamente irrazonable a los ojos de Ren, acostumbrada al lujo. El arte en el manga es bastante simple, los personajes no son muy detallados, llevando un formato muy cercano al "chibi" pero no del todo, los fondos también son algo simples pero hay que tener en cuenta que esto es un 4-koma, aún así nunca se demostró un bajón de calidad a lo largo de la serie, siempre la calidad fue constante y eso se aprecia. Personalmente encontré el diseño bastante lindos, ambos de Nako y Ren.

Disfruté demasiado este manga, los personajes fueron jodidamente lindos, buen desarrollo, lleno de romance y comedia genial, que más podrías pedir?.

~Multilingual review, English & Español: MM!~

Sadomasochism, Comedy and Romance are the keywords for this series. Considering the bad times I had with similar series featuring these same themes, I would actually say this was a show I should have definitely passed, even if everyone tells me that I shouldn't judge a book by its cover I'm not able to don’t give a first impression to something I haven't seen yet, I can't be helped. But since I'm a baka that doesn't learn from his previous errors I started this show anyway. Oh boy I did good...

In my opinion a successful romance doesn't resides only in ... its girls, since also the guy must be likeable, cool and funny. Many romances just focus on its girls leaving the guy with just a plain, lame and cliché setting, thinking that only the girls are the soul of the show. That actually might be true, in part, because as always the main attractions are girls but I can't stop thinking if maybe am I the only one that think that a group of good girls liking a lame, boring and over cliché guy just feels just too wrong, I really hope I'm not alone in that. Even if our protagonist, Sado Taro, might fall into a bit of cliché traits, he manages to be everything, a cool, likeable and funny character either way, as well as our female leads, so even if a bit cliché, the characters result charming and likeable, is there anything wrong in that?

Sado Taro happens to be masochist, a completely hardcore pervert. He spend his miserable life between boring school lessons in the morning and a part-time job in a mini market in the afternoons, in all his misery the only spark in life is Shiori, a beautiful maiden that often goes to that mini market Taro works. His misery doesn't end after the job's schedule, as soon as he arrives home there's his older sister and mother that tortures him with their 'incestuous' love. Ah poor Taro!, no one understands him, all he wants is a pretty girl that kicks quite hard his ass, he question himself why this cruel world doesn't pleases him?, but after all, we know that a pervert doesn't have an easy life!. In order to express his love for Shiori, Taro decides to get cured from masochism and he revolves to the Second Voluntary Club, a club that's famous for helping the students with their problems.

The event that triggered the beginning for a more, new, painful life was the suddenly interest that Shiori express for Taro, but it seems she doesn't have the courage to talk with him, so Taro takes the lead and affront her. It's revealed that Shiori is actually Hayama, Taro's best friend, cross dressed. After the initial shock, Taro accepts Hayama's secret, grieving that his first love revealed to be a boy. Second Voluntary Club's president, Mio Isurugi, a girl with a BIG god complex had not forgotten the request from Taro and she's determinate to cure him from his masochism. This is where the show truly starts, Taro's being cured by any means possible by Mio, in the Club there's also Arashiko Yuuno, an androphobic girl.

The 3 main characters are Taro, our pervert protagonist, manages to be funny every time he have screen time, he's quite cool when the situation requires so that's probably the only and good point of him. The girl with an enormous god complex, Isurugi Mio, she's a sadistic tsundere, that's quite cliché but since the protagonist is a masochist then that's makes of them a really nice duo. She does everything to cure Sado but that often offer her a possibility to express her inner sadistic side. To close our equilateral triangle, because Sado doesn't have a preference, there's Arashiko Yuuno, the kind and cute girl but those probably aren’t her unique traits since she's a violent androphobic girl, through the show she revolves almost every of her attacks to Taro, to the fortune of this last one. If you're looking for original characters you won't find them here, our protagonists are cliche, I'll just throw it there, but it's how they determinate the evolvement of the anime what impressed and made me appreciate them.

There's a good contrasts between romance and comedy scenes, so it didn't feel off time or inappropriate never through the show, there was an excellent balance of them Rather than following a linear plot each episode offers a new plan to cure Taro and the consequences that derives from it. Very clever and original plans I must say, and thankfully, quite funny.

The art was quite nice, I really liked the character's design, they were detailed whiteout being too flashy. The animation was good, nothing overwhelming or below average, anyway it didn't influence or determine at all in the enjoyment. The OSTs were nice even if a bit forgettable; anyway it fitted each moment in the series. The OP single was really nice, both versions of it, Heaven and Hell. A really nice cast did the voices, Fukuyama Jun, Taketatsu Ayana and Hayami Saori, their voices fitted perfectly the personality of the characters.

Overall I enjoyed very much while watching this show. Definitely judging by only the cover, synopsis or wherever it’s not the right thing to do, anyway if you're a baka like me then you shouldn't have problems skipping a win show like this. To those who aren't, just give it a try, the comedy is awesome.


[Español]

~Multilingual review, English & Español: MM!~

Sadomasoquismo, Comedia y Romance son las palabras claves de esta serie. Considerando la malas experiencias que he tendido con series similares, con temas similares, hubiera dicho seguramente que esta era una serie que debería pasar de alto, aunque sí todo el mundo me repite que no debería juzgar sólo por la portada no soy capaz de no dar una primera impresión, mala o buena que sea, sobre algo que siquiera he visto, no tengo remedio. Pero si como soy un baka que no aprende de sus errores, inicie de todo modos esa serie. Eh si, hice bien..

En mi opinión un buen romance no se basa sólo en las heroínas, porque también el protagonista debería ser agradable, cool y divertido. Muchos romances se enfocan solo en las chicas dejando al chico con un arquetipo bastante aburrido, simple y cliché, pensando que el corazón de la serie son las heroínas. Algo que no es completamente errado, porque como siempre, la atracción principal es la chica, pero no puedo dejar de pensar que si soy el único al que le parece que un grupo de chicas que guste de un pendejo súper cliché y sin personalidad sea algo completamente estúpido, estoy seguro que no soy el único. Aunque sí nuestro protagonista, Sado Taro, caiga un poco en lo que consideramos cliché, se demuestra ser un personaje agradable, simpático y sobre todo, divertido, al igual modo que nuestras heroínas, cliché pero simpáticos y agradables, que hay de malo en eso?

Sado Taro es un masoquista, un completo pervertido. El pasa su miserable existencia entre las aburridas clases en la mañana y su trabajo de medio tiempo en un mini market en las tardes, en toda su miseria hay una sola luz en su vida, Shiori, una bella chica que suele ir de compras al mini donde trabaja Taro. Su miseria no termina después del horario de trabajo, apenas llega a casa, lo que le espera son su hermana y su madre que lo fastidian continuamente con su "amor". Oh pobre Taro!, nadie lo comprende, todo lo que quiere es que una bella chica le pateé el culo, se pregunta a el mismo que porque este mundo cruel no lo satisface, pero como todos sabemos, un pervertido no tiene una vida fácil!. Para poder expresar su amor por Shiori, Taro decide de buscar ayuda, y la encuentra en el Segundo Club de Voluntarios, un club que es famoso por ayudar estudiantes a lidiar con sus problemas personales.

El evento que da inició a una nueva vida, más miserable, para Taro, es el repentino interés de Shiori hacia el, pero la chica no tiene el coraje suficiente para dirigirle palabra, entonces Taro decide de enfrentarla. Se da a conocer que Shiori no es nadie más que Hayama, su mejor y único amigo, después de un shock inicial decide de aceptar este lado secreto de el, al mismo tiempo, maldiciendo porque su primer amor fue un hombre. Es aquí donde entra Mio Isurugi, presidente del Segundo Club de Voluntarios, una chica con un ENORME complejo de dios, la cual no ha olvidado el pedido de Taro de liberarlo de su masoquismo, comienza la nueva vida de Taro a merced de los planes de Mio para "ayudarlo", junto a ellos hace parte también del club una chica androphobica, Arashiko Yuuno. El trío se revela ser muy divertido y capaz de coordinar una buena comedia.

Nuestros tres personajes principales son, Taro, nuestro pervertido protagonista, el cual logra ser divertido cada vez que aparece, el es admirable cuando la situación lo requiere, su única y sola buena cualidad. La chica con el complejo de dios, Mio, ella es una sádica tsundere, algo cliché pero desde que el protagonista es un masoquista, eso los hace una buena y divertida pareja. Ella hace de todo para curar a Taro de su perversión, lo cual a veces le ofrece ocasión de dar desfogo a su lado sádico. A cerrar este triángulo equilátero, porque Taro no tiene preferencia alguna, esta Arashiko Yuuno, la chica dulce y gentil, pero esas no son seguramente sus únicas cualidades, desde que ella es una chica súper violenta debido su fobia hacia los hombres, violencias dirigidas exclusivamente hacia Taro, para la suerte de este último. Si estas buscando personajes originales no los vas a encontrar aquí, lo diré claramente, pero fue como estos personajes determinaron los eventos sucedidos en la serie que me hicieron apreciarlos tanto.

La serie presenta un buen contraste entre el romance y las escenas cómicas, así que no se sintieron fuera de lugar o inapropiadas en ningún momento, excelente balance de ambas. La serie no sigue un desarrollo linear, más bien presenta un formato episódico que ofrece siempre un nuevo plan de Mio para curar a Taro y las consecuencias que derivan de el. Planes que resultan brillantes y originales, y por suerte, también divertidos.

El arte estuvo bastante bien, me gustaron mucho el diseño de los personajes, fueron detallados sin ser muy sobresalientes. La animación fue buena, nada fuera de lo normal o por debajo, de todos modos no determina o influye para nada en el disfrute. El reparto musical, las OSTs, no fueron únicas, a decir verdad algo fácilmente olvidables pero justas para cada momento y escenario durante la serie. El OP single estuvo bastante bueno, ambas versiones de la canción, Heaven y Hell. Un cast de Seiyuus de verdad experto hicieron las voces, Fukuyama Yun, Taketatsu Ayana y Hayami Saori, sus voces eran perfectamente en sintonía con los personajes.

A mi personalmente me divirtió mucho este anime. Juzgar solamente por la portada, por la sinopsis, o lo que sea no es la cosa justa de hacer, de todos modos si eres un baka como yo, entonces no hay riesgos de que te pierdas un anime tan bueno como este, pero si no lo eres, dale una oportunidad, la comedia es simplemente genial.

The conception of "perfection" we previously had is going to change, because after watching Shiba Tatsuya (the protagonists show) in action, the word we used to describe the type of character which is sightly too powerful among his peers, overpowered, is going to be "Onii-sama" from now on. With Shiba Tatsuya, better known as Onii-sama, we reach a level of perfection never seen before in the anime industry, characters we reputed as OP, notable recent examples such as Kirigaya Kazuto (Sword Art Online) or Gilgamesh (Fate/Zero), are practically nothing next to our glorious Onii-sama, capable of turning the Impossible into something actually possible.

> Is a ... problem an OP character as main then?

To that question I reply: "not necessary", since an overpowered main character isn't a big iceberg enough to sink an entire ship, we have plot development and side characters after all; and overpowered isn't a synonymous of " Bad", sometimes is good to watch a main character that isn't completely a weakling, but problems comes when the plot's development is nothing more than a series of events made to emphasize the greatness of our main characters, plural, because Onii-sama didn't descended from Heaven alone, there is his sister, the main female protagonist, Shiba Miyuki, another example of absolute perfection, to accompany him in his journeys.

> So this is an anime about these perfect couple of siblings and nothing more?

We aren't that far to describe this show with that phrase up here, but actually there isn't a better phrase to describe this show neither, since the anime I'll now introduce you is going to be the anime with the most perfect main protagonist I've seen in my whole life, and as you've probably noted, the word 'perfect' isn't used with a positive tone in this review. I'll now claim that I haven't read the LN, this is going to be my judgement from what I've seen in this adaptation.

This show is set on the year 2095 d.c, after the conclusion of the Third World War and the introduction of the Magic System, magician isn't a term anymore related to fairy tails, Science and Technology converged into what we now call Magic. Society developed itself around this new form of Science, and this lead the necessity to create new generations of youngsters capable of crafting this new kind of science, so Magic High Schools were born. This show follows a particular brother and sister, fresh enrolled in the First Magic High School (there are only 9 in the country) at the beginning of the first episode.

"We're not the same"

As everything that isn't "uniform" in the Society, it creates a fracture between the population, racism in few words, and Magic is not the exception. Some individuals are more capable of others, that is a fact, and so is also related to Magic. People who show an incredible magic ability form the Course 1 in the High School, and the others, less capable, form the Course 2. Somehow Onii-sama sucked at the enrollment test score and ended in the Course 2, the so called "Weed" course, meanwhile Miyuki ended in the Course 1, the "Bloom" course. How a perfect being such as Onii-sama ended in the course 2?, that will be explained through the show, something I'll not reveal, let's keep going. Funny fact that actually all Onii-sama's friends, course 2 people, are above the course 1 students in matters of skill combat and magic. This is the classic shounen pattern where all the protagonist's friends are better than everyone else and save the world, with the difference that only Onii-sama is able to save the day here, the rest aren't of any use actually.

In this 26 episodes adaptation from the best-seller Light Novel, there are adapted three arcs, each of them, naturally, revolving around Onii-sama and his friends dealing with an unexpected conflict, unnaturally always is Onii-sama the center of everything that happens in this show, leading the viewers to ask themselves a such basic question as:

> "If Onii-sama doesn't want his true identity being revealed, why does he keep trying everything to be in the spotlights every time?"

Such a million dollar question sadly didnt get an answer, events just keep happening and Onii-sama always saving the day, in the most perfect possible way. And that just seem to be irony, since a characteristic of this show is that of explaining EVERYTHING, well...at least the things related to magic spells, magic sequences and effects. Practically a huge time was spent on explaining things that aren't real and somewhat irrelevant for the development of the story, time that surely could have been spend in a more useful and productive way.

The cast of characters was surely wide, we have practically a character for every kind of stereotype. There's the glasses girl, the tomboy, the cute and moe girl, the silent girl, the tusndere, the Student Council President, the best protagonist's friend, the bad guy who didn't accept the protagonist but later he accepts him, the rival, ect ect ect. Actually none of them had an important role in this show, since its all about Onii-sama, but we're able to find something in common between them, possibly the only reason why the author decided to create side characters for this show, and that would be: "to praise Onii-sama and his sister". Actually that may sound like a joke but believe me when I tell you it isn't, every single side character in every single episode, when they aren't wasting time explaining Magic related things, that remaining time is spend on praising Onii-sama for x, y and z reason, a fact that I found overly above the ridiculous level.

By the other side there's no need to spend a lot of words for our sibling protagonists, there's only a word capable of containing all their essences, 'Perfect'. Onii-sama is good at everything possible imaginable, every presented female character falls for him but he doesn't have eyes for any of them, because Onii-sama cares a lot about his sister, and that was stated several times through the show. Meanwhile Miyuki is his female counterpart, a beautiful young girl which excels in Magic and in everything she does, I'll just end here to write about them, since my writing skills are way too far of being perfect to describe this pair of siblings in the proper way.

When it comes to Animation and Sound, at least, this anime isn't mediocre, animation is made by Madhouse, characteristic trademark of this studio is the high quality animation of its adaptations. The actions scenes were quite fluid and very well done, camera angles and sudden zoom ins and zoom outs were coordinated very well, as well as the OST fitting them, electric-rock oriented, we can't say its perfect as our protagonists but we can say its done quite well, above average for sure. OPs and EDs were quite nice, Rising Hope by LiSA was by far my favorite song from this show.

At some point of this show I couldn't take seriously anything that was happening, too much perfection, events emphasized to show how great the Shiba siblings were, too much useless explanations, pathetic side characters, and a lot of details I didn't mention because they're spoilers, overall is a quite interesting anime that shows how would be to have a perfect MC gaining the praise for each side character presented, something completely original I must say, nothing that I've seen come close to what I've seen in this anime but this is not surely something I would feel to recommend to people.

~Multilingual review, English & Español: The Tatami Galaxy~.

Life wouldn't be less than a simple and plain matter of choices, wherever our life is right now is due to the choices we've made in the past, we're doing and we'll probably make in the future, considering everything said "Life" would just be an abbreviation of the sum of choices we've made up until now.

So...?

Have you ever thought about them?, the choices you've made I mean, I’m pretty sure everyone have dedicated, at least a little moment of their time, to muse about the choices we've made so far in our lives, important or mundane ... ones, it matters not. The best moment would be maybe while we're spacing out during a boring lesson in our classroom or when we're just slacking off a bit at our working place, or if our personality is that of the "pensive" type we already have a space in our schedule to muse about the little events in our lives, leaving aside the type of personality we've, I'm pretty sure we do all have asked ourselves the unavoidable question "What if..." didn't we?.

"Maybe I should have seated next to that pretty girl in the bus, but instead I’ve decided to stand up".

Just an example, how can my life change due to that mundane and maybe insignificant event?, impossible to know it and for that I question myself now "What if I’ve seated with that girl?", a quick reply to that question could be, even if it’s a little creative, that I could have talked with her a little during the ridesharing, I could have found that she's a wonderful girl and she thinks nice of me, next day she could have reserved the sit for me and again we start to talk, this could have lead me to ask her out, to fall in love, get engaged and when I didn't even realize it I've already married that girl. What was the triggering event for that?, "a stupid and mundane choice when I was young" would be the answer of an older version of myself, or maybe, a more realistic scenery would be that the girl gets off of that bus and it was the last time I saw her, anyway it wouldn't be completely wrong to say that we're the product of our choices, but not only, since also the people we meet have the power to change us considerably; maybe you're asking "what does all this things have to do with the review and with this anime?" to that I reply "quite everything", since "we're the product of our Choices" is the main theme of the anime I'm now going to introduce you, The Tatami Galaxy.

(Since our protagonist is nameless I shall now refer to him, from now on, as "The Protagonist")

Throughout the development of the story, we can see how different can be the life of The Protagonist based on the choices he had made and the people he had meet during his first year of University. The premise of this anime is to show us how different could be our lives due to a choice, in our protagonist's case, the choice of a Club to join. How can the choice of joining a certain Club be considered as something important, something that could change completely our lives?, at a first gaze I would say “it’s quite improbable" but I couldn't be more wrong and for our protagonist that couldn't be more true. The Cinema Club?, Tennis Club?, Softball Club?, English Club?, it doesn't matter; all of this show is about The Protagonist's pursuit of his “rose-colored campus life” and what would be that? well it's Everyone's dream: being popular, a lot of friends and a cute girlfriend but that's something that reveals to be a particulary difficult goal to reach for our timid protagonist and lucky isn't even by his side since someone is obstructing him and that obstruction it's represented by a physical person, another character of this anime, Ozu. The relation between Ozu and The Protagonist is a bit weird but I totally loved it, Ozu could be or your best friend or you worst enemy, depending how you approach him. So through many of the clubs The Protagonist joins we're the audience of what would happen to his life if he had only joined a different club in his first year.

The story telling of this anime is unique, incredible unique if I must say it. We need to think of it as a puzzle, a puzzle with 11 parts (11 as the episodes of this anime), so little by little we need to fill the missing parts until it gets finished, at that moment we can actually gaze the wonderfully picture that have been created.

The first thing that strike us are the characters, they're unique in their own way, all of them have a characteristic that would lead them to being crafted into our minds, starting from The Protagonist to the Fortune Teller (you'll love that old baba!) since they are made of a simplicity and yet they're so unique that you'll have a hard time trying to get them off your head (admitted if you want to). First we have The Protagonist, he's a first year University student, quite shy and easily manipulated by the other characters of this show, especially Ozu, whose failing to obtain his precious rose colored life consider his life a total waste. Ozu, whose The Protagonist usually describe his first meet with him as "the first as well as worst", he's a devil like little guy but not only because of his behavior which is indeed evil ("He eats people's unhappiness with three helpings of rice" - The Protagonist's words) but also because of his appearance, he's also the best and only friend of our protagonist. These two are the most important characters in the show, I won't talk about each of them since Tatami Galaxy's really offer a large and above all, original and interesting cast of characters, otherwise this review could get really long. Even if the story revolves around The Protagonist, the other characters aren't less important, I would say actually they're more important than him for the development since our protagonist is a passive character; Remember?...not only the choices are important but also the people we meet could lead our lives to an unexpected turn. This anime goes that far too actually made us understand that not experiencing something is actually an experience itself, and we won't understand that until we finish this anime. The ending is something special; it gives the whole meaning for this show. Comedy isn't missing neither, this show stands out also for its comedy scenes, and every character will make you laugh in a different way, their own way. Johnny' scenes, a character's show, are memorable.

The art is quite particular too, even if you may find it weird at the first sight, we get used to it quite fast and maybe we ask ourselves "Why there aren't more shows like this?”, The animation is Madhouse Studio, so we can count with an incredible high level animation, characteristic trademark of this studio. The OST suited perfectly every scene, from those more " lively" ones to those passives, but for one strange reason we don't give the deserved attention to them, that’s because The Protagonist's speed light monologues will take most of our concentration, leaving the OST in the background, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Both OP/ED are amazing too, I especially liked more the OP single.

Unless you're able to read very quickly you won't be able to leave the Pause button aside, since The Protagonist usually talks in a very speedy way that sometimes we aren't able to read the subtitles in time but that won't be the only thing to interrupt us during the vision of this anime, there are also those The Protagonist's monologues which are so filled with meaning and extremely well written that we could actually feel the urgent of going back to rewatch them, an action I actually repeat many times. It’s incredible but every single phrase pronounced in this show has its own charming and filled with meaning, Wikiquote would have a lot of pages filled with our characters phrases, and I'm not referring to those cliché ones we find everywhere, Tatami Galaxy's ones are all original.

There are anime with meaning and moral, there are anime with funny characters, there are anime with an incredible story and unique storytelling, but I need to say that The Tatami Galaxy was composed by all of them. I would recommend (personal experience) to rewatch this anime after some time, because its incredible the amount of particulars that could be missed the first time, after all, re-watching an anime to us dear let us appreciate those little particulars we could have missed the first time, and in The Tatami Galaxy's case I can assure you'll be surprised.

I've expressed myself the best I could, I hope this review moves someone into watching this anime because it’s really worth. I'm going to leave you, the readers, to visualize the whole bocón of things said in this review, don't hesitate and jump into it you won’t regret it, in that case I’ve realized my main point for this review, otherwise I apologize for being unable to send my feelings towards this incredible anime to you since it's only my fault as a novice reviewer as I'm.

In any case, I appreciate the time you took for reading it.


[Español]

La Vida se reduce a las decisiones tomadas. Cualquiera sea el modo en que esté nuestra vida ahora, se debe exclusivamente a las decisiones que hemos hecho en el pasado. Lo que nos lleva a decir que no estaríamos del todo en error al decir que la Vida no es nada más que la suma de nuestras decisiones. Personalmente soy una persona que no cree en el Destino, pues me gusta pensar que tenemos el control total de nuestras vidas, el control de las decisiones que tendremos que afrontar. Me gusta pensar que tenemos frente a nosotros una cantidad infinita de puertas en vez de una sola.

¿Alguna vez has pensado en ellas, las decisiones que has tomado? Estoy seguro que cualquiera ha dedicado, aunque sea un poco de tiempo, para meditar sobre ellas. Importantes o no, el mejor momento para ello podría ser cuando estamos ociando durante una lección aburrida en la escuela, o mientras ociamos un poco en el trabajo o, si somos del tipo pensativo, no necesitamos estar aburridos para dedicar un poco de nuestro tiempo a meditar sobre todo. Estoy seguro que al menos una vez nos hemos preguntado "¿Cómo sería si..?".

"Tal vez debería haberme sentado al lado de esa chica, pero decidí quedarme de pie"

Es sólo un ejemplo, ¿cómo cambiaría mi vida debido a ese evento tan común y corriente?. No soy capaz de saberlo y por eso si me pregunto "¿y si me hubiese sentado con ella?" una respuesta veloz, aunque un poco creativa, sería que habría comenzado a charlar con ella y me daría cuenta que es una chica estupenda y de que, sorprendentement,e ella piensa lo mismo sobre mí. Al día siguiente me la encuentro de nuevo y comenzamos a charlar otra vez, y esto me lleva a pedirle un día de salir conmigo, a enamorarme de ella y así sucesivamente al matrimonio. ¿Cuál sería el evento que me llevó a todo eso? "Una decisión común y corriente cuando era joven" sería la respuesta de mi Yo anciano o, siendo más realista, la chica se baja del tren y esa fue la última vez que la vi. No estaríamos del todo errados al decir que nosotros somos el producto de decisiones, pero no solamente nuestras decisiones, pues las personas que encontramos a lo largo de nuestro camino tienen el increíble poder de cambiarnos…Tal vez os estés preguntado "¿Qué tiene que ver todo esto con la review o con el anime?" y a eso le respondo: "prácticamente todo", porque "Somos el producto de nuestras decisiones" es el tema principal de la serie que ahora les voy a presentar, The Tatami Galaxy.

(Siendo nuestro protagonista un sin nombre, lo llamaré, a partir de ahora, El Protagonista)

A lo largo del desarrollo de la historia, podremos ver como sería la vida de nuestro protagonista en base a las decisiones que escoge el primer año de universidad y a las personas que encuentra en ella. La premisa de esta historia es mostrarnos cuan diferente pueden ser nuestras vidas debido a una decisión que tomamos. En el caso de nuestro protagonista, la decisión de un Club al cual unirse. ¿Cómo podría revelarse ser una decisión que cambiaría nuestras vidas el escoger a cuál club pertenecer? Es algo que consideré imposible a una primera impresión, algo que se puede considerar una deducción completamente errónea después. ¿El Club de Cine? ¿Club de Tenis?, ¿Football Club? ¿El Club de Ingles? No tendría importancia de verdad pues el objetivo de nuestro protagonista es encontrar lo que él considera "La vida color rosa". ¿De qué se trata esta? Pues eso sería el sueño de todo el mundo: Ser popular, muchos amigos y una bella novia, algo que, claramente, para nuestro tímido protagonista se revela ser una misión imposible. Ni siquiera la buena suerte lo acompaña, pues se encuentra siempre siendo obstaculizado. El obstáculo en este caso es una persona física, otro personaje de este anime, mi favorito, Ozu. La relación entre Ozu y El Protagonista es una de las más geniales que he visto. Fuera de lo normal, pero algo que completamente amé. Ozu o podría ser tu mejor amigo o tu peor enemigo, depende de cómo te le acerques en vuestro primer encuentro. Entonces, a lo largo de este anime, nosotros seremos los espectadores de cómo seria la vida de nuestro pobre protagonista, y cómo esta sería diferente si sólo se hubiera unido a otro club su primer año.

La narración de esta historia es única, increíblemente única si tengo que precisar. Si queremos podemos pensar de esta como un rompecabezas: un rompecabezas de 11 piezas (11 como los episodios de este anime) que poco a poco va cogiendo forma, sólo colocando la última pieza es que podremos apreciar la imagen completa y admirarla es todo su esplendor.

La primera cosa que nos impactará en esta serie serían sus personajes, los cuales son únicos en su forma de ser, hasta dejar una huella en nuestras mentes que difícilmente desaparecerá. Comenzando por El Protagonista hasta la Vieja Adivina (¡Adorarás a esa vieja!), todos son tan simples, pero a la vez son tan únicos que difícilmente los encontrarás aburridos. Primero que todo tenemos a nuestro protagonista, un chico bastante tímido y reservado fácilmente manipulable por otros, especialmente Ozu, el cual al haber fallado en su búsqueda por la "vida color rosa" siente que su vida hasta ahora ha sido un completo desperdicio. Después tenemos a Ozu, sl cual el protagonista suele describir su primer encuentro con el como "el primero al igual que el peor".

Él es un chicho malévolo, y no sólo por su comportamiento ("Él se come la infelicidad de la gente con un contorno de arroz" palabras de nuestro protagonista), sino también por su apariencia que, es de hecho, demoníaca. Estos dos son los personajes más importantes del show. No me pondré a hablar sobre los demás porque Tatami Galaxy ofrece un cast de personajes muy amplio, pero, sobre todo, interesante y original, lo cual me tomaría mucho tiempo y esta review se pondría muy larga. Si bien la historia gira entorno a El Protagonista, los otros personajes no son menos notables. Yo diría que son hasta más importantes para el desarrollo de la historia que el propio protagonista, debido a que este último es un personaje pasivo, ¿Recuerdas?... No sólo las decisiones son importantes, porque también están las personajes las cuales le pueden dar un gran giro inesperado a nuestras vidas. Este anime llega tan lejos tanto da mostrarnos que no experimentar algo es una experiencia en sí y eso no lo llegaremos a comprender hasta el final de este anime. El final es algo especial, algo que le da todo un significado a la experiencia que hemos visto. La comedia no falta, de hecho este anime resalta sobretodo por su comedia, cada personaje te hará reír en un modo diferente, el modo de cada uno de ellos. Las partes de Johnny, un personaje del show, son memorables.

Los diseños son bastantes particulares también. Aunque se pueden encontrar extravagantes en principio, nos acostumbramos de una manera veloz a ellos, a tal modo que nos preguntamos "¿Por qué no hay más como estos?". La animación está hecha por el estudio Madhouse, famoso por la atención y la extrema precisión en sus trabajos. Es de verdad muy fluida y perfecta. El OST encaja perfectamente en cada escena de la serie, desde las más pasivas hasta las más activas. , un particular extraño es que por la mayor parte el OST pasa desapercibido, debido a que los monólogos a la velocidad de la luz de nuestro protagonista se llevan la mayor parte de nuestra atención, dejando el OST en un plano fuera de nuestra percepción, lo cual no es necesariamente algo malo. OP/ED fueron muy buenos, a mí me gustó mucho más el OP single.

Si tu capacidad de lectura no es lo suficientemente veloz estarás pegado al botón de pausa. Eso es porque El Protagonista habla de una manera tan veloz que es casi imposible seguirlo, haciendo la comprensión algo difícil. Pero esa no será la única vez que echaremos el video para atrás, porque también los monólogos de nuestro protagonista están tan llenos de significado que los querremos leer de nuevo. Puede ser increíble, pero cada frase dicha en esta serie es tan llena de significado y resplandece con tanta luz propia que Wikiquote tendría páginas enteras sólo con los diálogos de nuestros personajes… Y no estoy hablando de esas frases baratas que se consiguen en todas las series, las de Tatami Galaxy son todas originales.

Hay animes con significado y moral, los hay con personajes divertidos, hay animes con una increíble narración y desarrollo de la historia, pero tengo que decir que The Tatami Galaxy tiene todo esto y más. Yo recomendaría (experiencia personal) ver de nuevo esta serie después de un tiempo. De eso modo nos podemos dar cuenta de la increíble cantidad de particulares que se dejan atrás mientras los estamos viendo por primera vez. Porque, después de todo, mirar de nuevo un anime que nos gustó nos da la posibilidad de apreciar esos pequeños detalles que nos pudimos haber saltado, y en este caso hay bastantes.

Me exprese lo mejor que he podido, espero que esta review les ayude a decidiros a dedicar vuestro tiempo en este anime, porque de verdad lo vale. Ahora voy a dejar a ustedes, los lectores, el tiempo de visualizar todo lo que se dijo hasta ahora. Si acaso encuentran a este un poco interesante, les digo que no lo duden y denle una oportunidad, ese es el objetivo principal de esta review. Si no es así, pues no logré trasmitir mis emociones sobre esta gran serie con éxito al ser aún un principiante.

En cualquier caso, les agradezco su tiempo.

Gracias.