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K-On! けいおん!
Anime Review by Karen Gellender
We were going to review K-On! for you, but we decided to have some tea first. Oh, and tea goes better with some delicious snacks, like this fresh-baked strawberry tart. There's nothing quite like whiling away a hot afternoon by chatting with friends... wait, weren't we going to do something? Oh, never mind, we'll get to it—and how delicious is this tea? So delicious!
For something so incredibly popular, K-ON!, the story of five girls who form a high school band, is amazingly languid and meandering. There is progression, in the sense that we watch the girls grow as musicians and as friends throughout their high school careers, but the anime shows virtually zero urgency getting to any of it. Read More...
Kimi to Boku. 君と僕。
Anime Review by Karen Gellender
Someone finally did it: after what feels like several hundred TV series on the topic of "cute girls doing cute things," someone finally made an equivalent version with boys. While it's similar to a lot of other recent school-life shows featuring female casts, such as A-Channel and Yuru Yuri, Kimi to Boku stands out from the pack for reasons other than the gender-swap. Fans of the slice-of-life genre will likely find the show's combination of interesting observations about adolescence and understated humor very appealing, although the show may be too slow at times for anyone who isn't already a fan of the genre. Read More...
Kare Kano 彼氏彼女の事情
Anime Review by Karen Gellender
Karishi Kanojo no Jiho, more commonly known as Kare Kano, is really two shows. The first is the tale of the developing relationship of dueling straight-A students Yukino Miyazawa and Soichiro Arima, while the second is a grand tour of showrunner Hideaki Anno's directorial quirks. This makes Kare Kano hard to pin down, since to put it bluntly, the first show is really, really good and the second one? Not so much.
First, the good: Kare Kano is one of the few romantic comedies that actually deals with love, as opposed to infatuation. Typically, the "I love you" confessions come at the end of a romantic comedy, with the assumption that whatever comes after will fit into Happily Ever After territory. Read More...
Heaven's Lost Property
そらのおとしもの
Anime Review by Brian Cirulnick
There's an old chestnut of a 1970's disco-era song "Heaven Must be Missing an Angel" and that's basically the premise (sorta) to Heaven's Lost Property; an angel falls from the sky and becomes the fanservice chick for the male protagonist, but there's a twist, which is that this angel can pretty much grant any wish, and our young man with an overactive libido lets it go to his head, and I don't mean the one above his neck, if you know what I mean.
This of course, leads to a considerable amount of flying skirts, exposed panties and boobies for every girl in the high school, far too many episodes taking place at bath houses and beach-bimbo bikini-blitzkriegs, and yet, while this show manages to be some of the most depraved viewing short of absolute hentai, it amazingly accomplishes a true heavenly miracle; it's a show with a plot, a sweet cast of characters, and a meaningful, heartfelt message about true friendship. Read More...
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Hetalia Axis Powers - Cutout Chibi Characters Magnet Collection
What's nice about this ever so kawaii magnets is that you can make your fridge or school locker anime friendly on a low budget. This magnet set features six characters from the Japanese webcomic that has gone on to conquer the world.
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Codename Sailor V
コードネームはセーラーV
Manga Review
by Linda Yau
Kodansha has been the fan pleaser for this year, with re-releasing the Sailor Moon series in its Japanese reissue entirety; it has also pleased English speaking fans greatly for releasing for the first time Codename Sailor V. This is reading that should be done before dipping your toes into the spin off world of Sailor Moon. Read More...
The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi-chan
涼宮ハルヒ
Manga Review
by Linda Yau
The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi-chan is not to be confused with the series of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, both titles has different illustrators. Rather this review is talking about the official parody spin off of the main manga title. This is also not a review for the light novel, of which the entire series is originated from. Reading this book means that you have already been a fan of Haruhi Suzumiya and want to get more into knowing the personalities and antics of the SOS Brigade. Read More...
Gurren Lagann
天元突破グレンラガン
Manga Review
by Linda Yau
I don't believe that I need to confirm this, but does heroic and adventures type stories ever not benefit from having a beginning? Reading the manga is not going to be the same experience as watching the anime, but to concentrate on the drawings of each character, as well as get into the nuances of the story, then the comic is the way to go. Read More...
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