I went into Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? (or DanMachi as I’ll be referring to it as from here on out), is a series I wasn’t expecting to get very attached to it. Our story revolves around a young adventurer known as Bell Cranel a 14-year-old boy hoping to become a hero, save the girl, and have a harem of sorts around him. Wait, no, that’s the novels…
Watching a recent episode of My Love Story I got thinking about how realistic and down to earth the series is being. Sure there are most certainly a few things that are a little on the crazy side, but for the most part it’s doing better than Kiss Him, Not Me for example.
Of course most of us read manga and watch anime and don’t really expect or want it to be down to earth and completely realistic, but in some ways I think it’s important to have a few series that break the trend of being completely sakura blossoms and overblown teenage feelings. Lets take a favourite series of mine, Say I Love You as a perfect example of what I’m going for here. The story is focused on shy Mei who has never really had any friends and certainly isn’t thinking of dating, but when she meets Yamato that slowly changes and the two of them must work through their problems, very real problems that couples have, if they wish to stay together. What makes this better is that the manga, given it has more time than the 13 episode anime, deals with a lot of problems that everyday kids go through at one point or another. I appricate the series a hell of a lot for this, especially author Kanae Hazuko who is heavily writing from her own personal experience.
One of the shows which was hyped up at the beginning of this season is Plastic Memories. The idea behind the series is that in a city in the near future humans and androids can live comfortable side-by-side. These androids look and act like humans, with human memory and emotions, the only drawback is that the androids only have a short lifespan before they begin to lose their human personality and their memories. It’s then the job of a Terminal Services to collect these androids just before the end of their lifespan to avoid any unfortunate accidents when they begin to lose their personalities and memories. The idea of humans and androids living side-by-side is an interesting one, but ultimately one that Plastic Memories wastes in the end. It’s worth noting that this article will include spoilers for Plastic Memories.
Your Lie in April tells the story of Kosei Arima. A child prodigy in piano who steps away from the limelight after the death of his mother effects him so badly he can no longer hear the notes he plays. Fastforward a few years and Kosei is introduced to Kaori Miyazono, a free-spirited violinist who slowly encourages Kosei to take up piano once more. It’s a simple story on the surface but with a brilliant amount of depth under it all.
It has been quite some time now since Anime Limited announced any new licenses, but with MCM this weekend the team have promised three new announcements, two of which will be TV series while the other is something different.
When the 2012 summer anime season was first being revealed Humanity Has Declined is the one series I never really looked at. A comedy set thousands of years in the future where humans are becoming a dying breed and once more living very basic and different lives from those of us currently, mixed with fairies. Strangely enough that didn’t catch my interest, and if not for a close friend of mine I’d likely never have gone near it. However, that isn’t to say I’m not glad I did start watching it because odd as the series may seem it is very, very funny and an enjoyable watch.
Children Who Chase Lost Voices is another movie by Makoto Shinkai and thus I went into it expecting good things. I’m glad to say the movie didn’t disappoint me but then if you’re disappointed by the film or not will depend a lot on the viewer.
Fullmetal Alchemist the original series is an interesting series to say the least. Unlike the later Fullmetal Alchemist anime series, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, this series didn’t walk down the path of telling us the same story as the Fullmetal Alchemist manga series did. This series started out telling the basics of the story and then span off on its own to tell its own tale of Edward and Alphonse Elric’s adventures which is the best move it could ever have made. Many say this is one of the best anime series in recent years and with that I can agree. It is certainly a very moving and exciting adventure but the tale can also be very heart-breaking at time.
With a long running manga behind it and Production I.G taking control it was hard not to be a little excited for Blue Spring Ride when the series started airing last season. So, did our anticipated Shojo series live up to the hype and my high hopes?
Considering the string of delays hitting Anime Limited releases as of late you’d be forgiven for not expecting news that the company have moved the release of Kill la Kill part 1, twice, but most definitely in our favour!
