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11 eyes

11eyes

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Alternate Titles: イレブンアイズ (Japanese)

Original Japanese Release Date: 2009-10-06

Episode Length/Run-time: 12 Episodes

Summary:

One day, shortly after losing his sister to suicide, Satsuki Kakera finds himself transported into a terrifying and unnatural world later called the “Red Night.” Together with his friend Minase Yuka, they find others from their high school and vow to discover the secret of the Red Night and why they were forced into it. Magical powers, dark secrets and reluctant heroes are revealed in their desperate journey for escape.

Review:

This anime left quite a bit to be desired, the plot development starting off slowly only to grow slightly before slamming to a sudden and, like I said, underdeveloped end. Back stories found little opportunity to be revealed, and when they were, it felt forced or rushed, all attempts at characterization belittled in the effort. The characters themselves, outside of that, are average at best, from the squeaky voiced, first sort-of and then completely annoying moe love interest, the boy who tries too hard to be the hero and is completely oblivious to the love interest’s plight, and the girl with all the power but the inability to love… until HE comes along, to the badass rule breaking hot guy and the girl who switches personalities every time she takes off her glasses. Verbatum. And that was just the protagonists.

The animation style is decent, standard for its genre, and the fight scenes, as few as there turned out to be, weren’t poorly done, but in the overall scheme of things, it did little to help its score. While on the other hand, the music was apparently mediocre enough that it was forgettable. Nothing much can be said about 11 Eyes outside of the fact that it held some interest. I didn’t find myself waiting for it every week, but when it came down to it, I wasn’t bored or dying to claw my eyes out, just wishing for a little more of this or a whole lot more than that. As for the ending, like the rest of the anime, it left more to be desired than I’d hoped. But it WAS an ending, unlike some anime are cursed with, so for that at least, I applaud it, letting it slip into the 2.5/5 range.

hand maid may

Hand Maid May

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Alternate Titles: Hand Maid メイ

 

Original Japanese Release Date: July 26th, 2000

Episode Length/Run-time: 11 Episodes

Summary:
Saotome Kazuya is a super computer genius.  However, one day his life is turned upside down when a cyberdoll is delivered to his doorstep and is to be his maid.  She is only 1/6 the size of a normal person and so this creates some problems.  Little does Saotome know that these are only the beginnings of his troubles as more cyberdolls soon arrive to join them.

Review:

This anime is bad.  How bad is it?  Let’s find out.  You know those harem anime where somehow a nerdy, wimpy guy has like 8 chicks fawning over him?  This is one of those.  Think Love Hina.  Basically, what happens is that gradually, more and more cyberdolls show up at his house and eventually, there is like ten of them.   And of course, Saotome can’t pay for the cyberdolls they sent him because hes a poor student, so the company comes to collect their dolls.  They send the most incompetent repo men in existance as what happens is that these characters serve as a great deal of the comic relief in the show.

This is a show that Chiaki worked on when for a gender studies research project.  The show displays the gender differences between east and west cultures.  May, a female cyberdoll, is essentially an object, a thing, and not a person.  Actually, all the cyberdolls are women, and also technically, Saotome’s possessions.  Despite these apparent gender differences, the show is bad.  The animation is poor, the visuals are dated, the voice acting grating, and the music uninspiring.  This show just serves as one of the first harem shows involving the nerdy, weak male lead.  It does little else than provide some cheap comedy that often falls flat on its face.

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mitsudomoe

Mitsudomoe

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Alternate Titles: None

Original Japanese Release Date: 2010

Episode Length/Run-time: 13

Summary:

There is one thing that no teacher in Japan ever wants, and that is to be the homeroom elementary teacher of the dreaded Marui triplets: Futaba, Mitsuba, and Hitoha.  Futaba is the youngest, a tomboy, stronger than most grown men, clueless and obsessed with boobs.  Mitsuba the middle child is quiet but filled with quirks such as her obsession with the Gachi Rangers (kind of like power rangers), or the fact that she reads porn all the time and can be more fearsome than the other two when provoked.  Hitoha is the eldest and is the self proclaimed queen of the world, and she is willing to do whatever it takes to see this come to pass.  Satoshi Yabe, a newly hired teacher has his hands full with these three as crazy happenings follow.

Review:

The summary above is really all the plot Mitsudomoe has.  There’s a full cast of main and sub characters that come in and out of the story as the humor requires them.  But the only other semblance of a story is the passing of time through the series.  This show is based entirely on the characters and the funny situations they get into.

That being said, it does it wonderfully.

Every episode had me rolling in side-splitting laughter.  It was the dubbed Shin Chan in Japanese.  These young girls talking about boobs, nipples and more was just too funny.  But they don’t rely too much on the crass humor.  When they do they find a new fresh take.  Or find a new slapstick hyjink to put the characters through.  I kept expecting it to get tired and old, but they kept making me laugh from start to finish.

The animation is child-like and simple, fitting the show.  Flashy things aren’t really needed here.

The main criticism is that it’s not going to change your life. There’s no story and there’s no developed plot.  But what this anime does it does WELL.  And it’s one I highly recommend for anyone looking for a good laugh.  The other plus is each episode is broken into about 3, 7 minute segments, so you can devote as much or as little time as you want to it.

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K-On!!

K-On!!

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Alternate Titles: None

Original Japanese Release Date: April 6th, 2010

Episode Length/Run-time: 26 Episodes

Summary:

Yui, Mio, Ritsu, Azusa and Tsumugi are back but trouble is brewing! The girls are graduating and the quintet must find enough new members for the club to replace those leaving Azusa behind.

Review:

So this season of K-On!! is mostly more of the same; tons of cake eating, tea drinking, tons of clumsy moe girls and mostly good rock music. If you want to get the major jist of this show, go read the review of the first season of K-On!. Instead of repeating all the same stuff here, I’ll merely note the differences between the two seasons.

This season has two key differences that I notice. First, it’s longer. In fact it’s much longer. Double the length in fact. I thought that 14 episodes of moe filler was enough but apparently somebody didn’t think so. You’ll get a full dosage of 26 episodes of moe laughs and giggles from this show. Second, this show emphasizes music MUCH less than the prior season. Because there is so much less emphasize on practicing the music, the girls don’t perform their music nearly as much and in my opinion the show loses its identify a little.

In summary, this is a moe series that lost the battle, giving up any semblance of a story for more moe gags. If you want to know what K-On! is all about, I recommend you watch the first season as it is a much better series.

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