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With anime the likes of Non Non Biyori and Yuru Camp exploding in popularity for their focus on nature and the beauty of exploring your friendship outdoors; I find it disappointing that more of these viewers haven't taken the time to watch the few seasons there are of Yama no Susume.

The premise of Yama no Susume is simple, two childhood friends reunite and rediscover their love for mountain climbing/hiking. The story generally focuses on character relationships and how their friendships are growing, but never shoves this in your face. Each episode has a short run time and makes for an easy watch when you need ... a pick-me-up after a busy day. I find it to be so enjoyable it's hard not to watch it all at once.

While the art and budget is not that of the adaptations I compared it to, I find that there is still something special visually Yama no Susume offers in its often restrained color palette.

To LOVE-Ru sits in a genre that I myself already dislike, so my expectations when I sat down to watch it were low. Keep in mind this review is for a harem anime from a guy that has a genuine distaste for fanservice.


Story: 4/10

What I can give To LOVE-Ru credit for is an interesting premise with a colorful cast of characters. Rito Yuki is a less than average high school boy that through miscommunication with an alien girl somehow ends up in a situation where he needs to marry her. The large majority of the anime focuses on light comedy and ad nauseum ribaldry, once ... in a while stepping away from this to create tension due to the politics and drama of this situation and what it means for Rito. The harem aspect takes time to develop but by the second season it becomes the focus and this hurts the narrative at large.


Art: 7/10

The art is well above comparable titles that would have come out around the same time. Animation, while not always seamless, is lively and fits the tone of each scene. The character designs are distinct enough to be memorable and the repeating environments help the viewer ground themselves in the world the story takes place in.


Sound: 5/10

The voice acting was fairly fine, albeit annoying at times. I suppose this is fine coming from inherently annoying characters such as the main love interest dere-dere and oujo-san character. I didn't find the sound effects used to be pervasive in any way, though the music in most scenes would draw my attention away from what was happening on screen.


Character: 4/10

The characters are written to be generally two dimensional, with most of their interactions stemming from the protagonist's accidental sexual assaults on them. While there's the potential for an interesting dynamic due to the protagonist's feelings for another girl and his obligation to marry this kind alien, this potential is never explored and is instead replaced with a cliche love triangle where the honest and true intentions of each character are largely kept from each other.


Enjoyment: 4/10

My personal distaste for boob grabs and tentacle teasing aside, I found the experience of watching To LOVE-Ru to be mildly annoying to frustratingly dragged out to an almost unacceptable degree. The majority of the anime is filler with some vague characterization sprinkled throughout.
While this approach to character development may work for some, I found it to be taxing to watch and forced into several episodes to remind you that there is a story that isn't progressing. A good premise surrounded by cardboard cutout characters, poorly written interactions, and acceptable art makes To LOVE-Ru a "turn off your brain" watch.


Overall:

One accidental boob grab/10

School Rumble is Azumanga Daioh + Toradora!

The plot mostly revolves around the main characters Harima and Tenma. Harima crushes on Tenma and Tenma crushes on another classmate. The story follows them each in their exploits as they attempt to confess their feelings, often ending up in misunderstandings or situations that prevent them from doing so. The first and second seasons have a very similar feel, however the OVA takes a massive shift and the ending leaves a lot to be desired, so fair warning if you are about to spend the time watching the entirety of this series.

The animation is really decent for 2004. Like ... really decent.
The visual gags were enough to get me to chuckle occasionally and the art style blends and shifts depending on the type of humor it's trying to get across.

The VAs in both the subbed and dubbed versions are really good. The OP is catchy and upbeat. And the soundtrack throughout is fine for what it is.

The characters are all pretty static with the exception of 2 or 3 that receive some significant development throughout the series. Despite this, it can be hard to relate to the characters at times or hard to empathize because the two main characters are both characteristically dumb and this makes for an excuse to reuse gags and plot points again and again.

I enjoyed School Rumble a lot, but was really let down towards the end of it because it turns into a train wreck of one writer's vision against another's and though the series spends so much time on the journey of the characters, the rushed ending means it may not be worth watching for people that want a rewarding experience at the conclusion of the series.

Kiniro Mosaic is a series with an interesting premise, a Japanese girl stays over an English girl's house for a summer and the two become good friends despite the language barrier between them. Eventually the English girl decides to learn Japanese and become an exchange student in the same high school that her Japanese friend attends and lives with her, with their bonds of friendship growing stronger than ever. Mood changes between wordplay comedy and wholesome moments throughout each episode.

The characters are entertaining and their designed well, animation being consistently good. The first episode is a bit misleading because its tone differs drastically from the ... rest of the series. This is cute girls doing cute things through and through with an abundance of Japanese VAs voicing English speaking characters.

Anime is often used as a form of escapism from the daily lives of those viewing it, lately I have found myself using it to unwind after a long day of work. A treat for myself for the hard work that I've been putting in working 50-64 hour work weeks, at work 6 out of 7 days of the week.

In short, I needed this.

Sewyaki Kitsune no Senko-san is an iyashikei style slice of life anime that follows the non-adventures of worn down (same), overworked (same), and consistently stressed out (same) salaryman Nakano after an 800 year old loli fox girl demigod named Senko enters his ... life and starts pampering him to his heart's content. The story is loosely connected throughout the series as you learn more about the characters and their connection.

Doga Kobo has been consistently delivering moe art for a while now, and while the character designs, Doga Kobo's typical light color palette, and neatly drawn backgrounds and environments all lend themselves very well to the iyashikei style, I found the animation to be fairly weak when compared to some of their other works.

The sound design is just fine for the series, playful cheery music when needed, VAs performing well, and audio cues for the subtle tone shifts are all fairly well done.

The characters are pretty one dimensional, and the attempts at giving them depth are hit or miss. You can pretty much figure out how everything will play out by the end of the first or second episode. Nakano is extremely relatable from the perspective of a worn out employee. Senko is endearing and almost seems to be written as waifu bait. I thought the additions of Shiro and the neighbor Jouska were interesting although their interactions with the main characters could have been explored far more.

Overall, I really enjoyed watching this series. It took my mind off the fact that I would be waking up early, riding my bike which had it's brakepads stolen an hour to work on suburban roads, only to work a 10 hour day and take that hour ride in the opposite direction. It's a pleasure to escape from the arduous monotony and banal aspects of daily life, and Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san does just that.

Class is in session, and this week it's a lesson in escapism.
That's your only hint.
Go into this series blind.

Gakkougurashi! is fun. That's it. If you don't want to be spoiled any further I would suggest not to read anything else about this series. Don't look at the synopsis, ignore the rest of this review, and ignore everyone else's reviews. You can't get into Gakkougurashi! and talk about it without ruining the aspect that makes it fun to watch without any idea of what you're getting yourself into.

The story is serviceable for what it is, and while it's not mindblowing, I found it entertaining and things ... I had questioned and found too convenient were at the very least touched on and given a reason for existing. Enough for me to suspend my disbelief. The story isn't exactly chronologically told, but you're kept thoroughly grounded with a sense of time as the series goes on.

The art is very moe coming from Lerche, enough so that you'd be forgiven for thinking at first this could have been the work of Doga Kobo, if not for the choice of colors and backgrounds. The OP gradually changes throughout the series and it's fun to see the visual aspect slowly develop with the story. There's a contrast of art styles that was interesting to look at. I don't particularly remember the animation impressing me at any point, but it does it's job and it's never bad enough to take you out of the show.

I really liked the VAs for Gakkougurashi! This is the first time I had actually thought I should start following a seiyū for their work. As someone that has previously only paid attention to studios that I enjoyed, this may help me decide if something is worth watching in the future. The music range is quite broad and each song suits the emotion the series is trying to capture at the time.

The characters are the weakest part of the series, and it rides too heavily on the protagonist for the other characters' developments, backstories, and personalities to be interesting. Their developments almost serve as filler in between the main protagonists developments.

I enjoyed Gakkougurashi!, but felt it lacked something or perhaps was a little too idyllic at points or felt the plot rushed a lot. While the idea is interesting and it would be fun to dive another level deeper into the plot, I don't think it would be able to hold my attention for another cour.

Toradora! is really fucking good if you like tsunderes, drama, and love polygons in your romance anime, otherwise you won't like it.

Toradora! first introduces you to protagonist Ryuuji Takasu, the tall, beady snake-eyed and often misjudged guy. He's a softie that's feared around school because of his face (thanks to his dad's genetics). He has a run-in with Taiga Aisaka, a small but deadly girl often called the "Palmtop Tiger" due to her fierce nature and short stature. As events unfold Ryuuju and Taiga discover they're neighbors and they both have crushes on eachother's best friends. The story follows them in their exploits as they ... try to help eachother win the hearts of their friends, all building up to romantic drama and a satisfyingly melodramatic conclusion.

The art and animation are what I'd consider on par for the time. The biggest and most impressive bits of animation are saved for the latter half of the series when the drama pops off. Character designs are interesting and varied.

I liked both the subbed version and the dubbed version of Toradora! and think each adds its own flavor to the series. I'd watch one and then the other on a rewatch. Performances are really good on both ends but I feel the dub catches a lot more emotion during the climax.

Characters are all interesting and have their quirks.
Ryuuji is a master of housework and loves to cook and clean.
Taiga fails at simple tasks and is clumsy despite her attitude.
The side characters all play major roles in the plot and it gives them more depth, showing how quickly a character's personality can change once their perception of another changes. They all stay consistent within their respective developments throughout the story.

I really enjoyed Toradora! The drama knows when to pick up so that the story doesn't stagnate or slow down too much. The focus is never shifted too far from the protagonists but their interactions with the side characters are well written and makes them more believable. I think Toradora! is a good, quirky, and dramatic romance story that can be easily accessible to anyone.

So My Little Monster or as I like to call it, Beauty and the REEE, is a series that follows the lives of highschoolers as they learn about relationships within their dysfunctional group of "friends". Mainly, it follows Shizuku and Haru. Shizuku being a plain, cold, boring girl that only wants to study and do well for herself like her mother; and Haru being a violent vigilante with the attention span and reasoning skills of a 5 year old, though being naturally academically gifted.

Basic story flow:
Haru says something flattering or sweet, Shizuku spends a little time starting to see something in him, Haru REEE's and ... halts all progress in the relationship. That, for 13 episodes.

The animation is fine for what it is, when it's present, but most scenes are dialogue filled or monologues/flashbacks. I liked the way characters were drawn, even if they didn't really seem unique their plain look suited the tone of someone trying to be serious when they're surrounded by people who have their quirks turned up to 11.

The side characters are there to either support the main characters with exposition, or to form love triangles so there's a sense of conflict outside of the relationship between the main characters. If you're expecting any character to develop in any meaningful way throughout Beauty and the REE, you're not going to find it.

I found this series to be frustrating to watch but not frustrating enough to hate it. If the main character wasn't a straight man to everyone around her it would be hard to feel grounded.

Minami-ke is a simple slice of life comedy surrounding the lives of the Minami sisters. Whether they're in school or at home, they're causing trouble (most of the time for eachother.)


There isn't really a story, the episodes themselves are self contained plots but character relationships are built throughout the series. You'll see the girls at home and at each of their respective schools as there's a large age gap between them. A lot of the humor comes from the varying personalities of the sisters playing off of eachother or their friends. It's quirky, but never laugh out loud funny.

Animation is fine, never standing out but ... never being offensively bad. The characters are pretty one note and bland, so if there is a character you don't particularly like, sorry to say, but there's no development.

The VAs were fine, the OP/ED were pretty generic and not very interesting.

I find most of the characters to be needlessly obnoxious or pointless at all. If the cast were slimmed down and possibly two traits given to one of the characters rather than having a separate trait for another character it would have been more interesting. Love interests exist but are totally meaningless and the humor that comes from them isn't funny imo.

If you're running out of SOL content to watch it would be worth it just to pass the time.

Tamako Market, a not-so-Cinderella story of an unlikely girl in an unlikely place following a snapshot of her life as the mochi maker's daughter. With a 12 episode season, Tamako Market makes for a fairly quick snack.


Story 6/10:

Tamako Market follows Tamako Kitashirakawa (say that 5 times fast) through her daily life after she has a run-in with a particularly narcissistic bird named Dera Mochimazzi. Her day to day life includes her after school activities as a baton twirler, greeting and talking with every shopkeeper in the market district in which she lives, conversations with her friends and family, and helping her father run the family ... mochi shop. The story doesn't go anywhere for a long time but as you're introduced to characters it becomes more clear the direction it's heading.


Art 10/10:

There's something to say about Kyoto Animation and their ability to make everything so sickeningly sweet. The masters of moe put more skill into the OP than a lot of 2 cour series have, and that is not an exaggeration. The characters are cute, the animation is fluid and the eyes peer into your soul and manipulate your emotions. I've noticed that every time I come back to watch something from KyoAni the first two episodes I get so dizzy and nauseous from the amount of in-betweens, the camera pans, and general flow of animation. I've come to call this moe-tion sickness.


Sound 8/10:

The OP is like a parade and gets you excited before the more relaxed, yet still bouncy pace of the show kicks in. The background music is often silly but emotional scores can be heard through the use of the record store when it's needed.


Character 6/10:

Tamako is....basically Yui Hirasawa, if not a slightly more competent Yui Hirasawa. Her interests and mindset pretty much revolve around the market district she's grown up in and that's basically her character. She's oblivious to the romantic affection of those around her due to being coddled by the entire market district and while she herself feels a great amount of affection towards everyone around her it becomes clear that this will not be a love story early on. Her father attempts to raise his two daughters will the help of their grandfather due to her mother's long since passing, and across the street lives the rival mochi shop owner with his son Ooji. The various shop owners of the district aren't given much more depth, but the few of Tamako's friends that the story introduces you to are fleshed out to a believable level.


Enjoyment 8/10:
Overall 7/10:

You'll like Tamako Market for a unique setting and quirky characters, but it is far from a revolutionary tale or a stand out piece in slice of life. If you like Kyoto's character designs or animation it's definitely worth a watch, but there are moments where the series is just boring, where the tone shift doesn't work, and the resolution after the climax felt really weak. Despite this I found it to be an enjoyable experience more or less.