Tuesday, September 16, 2014

"Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun" or "Gekkan Shojo Nozaki-kun"

It's all for the manga.
This show came out of nowhere this season to become one of my favorites.  Sakura decides to confess to her crush Nozaki.  Nozaki, being the clueless guy he is, thinks she is just fangirling over his secret status as a successful shojo manga author, and invites her to become part of his artistic crew.  Each episode has quite a few LOL moments.  You would think the show would dwell on Sakura and Nozaki's romantic relationship.  But the show actually focuses more on Nozaki's circle of friends who he has incorporated into his work, either physically as technical help, or spiritually as inspiration (or both).  Mikoshiba is a smooth-talking, popular high school boy, but he is actually the model for Nozaki's manga heroine.  Kashima is smooth-talking, "prince-like" high school girl, who serves as a model for Nozaki's manga hero.  The show has a lot of fun making fun of manga tropes by gender-swapping the inspirations for the manga characters.  Seo, Wakamatsu, and Hori, round out his group of friends and all their relationships get even more time than the Sakura-Nozaki relationship.  The comedy evolves from their each character's personalities and relationships, which go against manga-trope expectations.  It's all sounding academic right now, but just watch the show and bust a gut laughing.

Saturday, September 13, 2014

"Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders" ends... for now

Perfect poses.
So sad to watch the final episode of Jojo until it returns in January.  What will I look forward to on Fridays now?  The camaraderie among the group is fun to watch and each successive stand user they fight against is increasingly disturbing.  From evil babies to brain burrowing insect things, you can bet you will be surprised with each stand and stand user.  Still, my favorite is Joseph.  His sudden English exclamations of surprise and general upbeat attitude are something to look forward to each episode.  Polnareff might be my second favorite, just because he gets into the worst situations, but still keeps going.  Hurry up,  January!

OVAs for "Attack on Titan: No Regrets - Birth of Levi" manga

Original video animations based on "Attack on Titan: No Regrets" manga are coming out in December 2014 and April 2015.  Some cool action animation featuring my favorite character Levi is shown in this trailer.