Bakemonogatari Review

Well hello there my fellow otaku, its Fatalefromage again reviewing Aniplex and Shaft’s mystery and supernatural anime Bakemonogatari!

First of all Bakemonogatari or its English synonym, Ghostory is filled with myth, action, and plenty of unexpected laughs along the way. It is based off a light novel by the same name. Make sure before watching this that you find a good subtitled version if you’re not familiar with Japanese Kanji, Hiragana, or Katakana. I found myself having to pause the episode at the beginning of almost every episode just to read the screen cuts. And these screen cuts can be also found thought each episode. Its an interesting addition to the anime indeed, of which the likes I have never seen before. This anime is split up into 5 arcs in which another female character is introduced and their mysterious oddity must be taken care of.

Now as the anime opens up, I was confused as to what the hell was going on. After what seems like a calming walking to school scene unfolds into a plethora of action and blood. In reality this is a flash back from Araragi Koyomi, the male leads past spring break. Without spoiling the plot too much I will say that this event left him almost perfectly human again thanks to a middle-aged man dressed in a Hawaiian shirt named Oshino Meme.

Back in the present time, Araragi-kun is running up an extremely long spiral staircase in this school when a seeming frail girl with long purple hair named Senjougahara Hitagi falls from the highest floor. He catches her but is baffled by how light she is. As if she doesn't weight anything at all.

Sometime after Senjougahara attacks Araragi with an exacto-knife and then a stapler explaining to him that she met a crab during her freshman year and has been weightless ever since. This instance changed my entire view of her completely. She takes up his offer for help rid her of the crab possessing her after realizing that Araragi is different when the cut she gave him from a staple has healed instantly. So basically their situations are similar.

Story wise, at first this anime is confusing, but once you progress though it becomes less of a head scratcher. There aren't many characters to keep track of, so in time it was easy to learn each of their names and strange situations. At times there is a long stretch of two characters talking and no action going on, but its not entirely painful to sit through. If you're not familiar with Japanese myth you may learn something from each of the arcs. As for the flash back at the very beginning of episode one, little will be explained, but fear not a prequel to Bakemonogatari called Kizumonogatari will be coming out soon. The prequel is also based off a light novel.

Animation varies from time to time. At one point it looks like any other anime with colorful characters, but at others the scenery looks like its straight out of a photograph. For instance two of the openings posses this quality quite well.



There are 5 different openings one for each new arc. There seem to be alternate versions of a few of them and one of them actually has been made into a meme.

The sound is nicely done. When it comes to changing the track to set the mood of a certain scene this anime delivers. Wether it be sad, happy, or tragic the music kept me on the edge of my seat. But, I found the music a bit repetitive after hearing it before in previous episodes. Other then that, the openings and ending theme are catchy and cleaver.

Overall each of the main characters possess redeeming qualities and each has a story to tell. I liked how each of them were connected to Araragi or Senjougahara in some way. Also a few of these character's minds and personalties evolve as they become closer to each other. I'm defiantly going to be looking forward to the prequel, because as I could tell by opening scene that its going to be a lot darker then this. So Bakemonogatari gets an 8.5/10.

Kore Wa Zombie Desu Ka? Episode 1 Review

Let me just start by saying, moe is probably one of my least favorite parts of being an anime fan. Looking at the picture for this show I feared the worst. I've seen many moe shows and I can safely say that I haven't enjoyed it once. They're manipulative and don’t have much to offer plotwise. I wasn't looking forward to Kore Wa Zombie Desu Ka?

With a heart full of dread, I pressed play and waited to begin pulling out my hair in frustration.

At first, I was surprised by the mature arty flare it had. I thought this would turn into a more serious moe moe, such as Air or Kanon. It was very pretty to look at and the main character seemed the serious sort. I was thinking this was going to be one of the boring type shows that made me want to kill every character off by the end, because the characters themselves had no real way to endear themselves to me.

Oh how wrong I was.

After a certain point, the main character tries to save a cat, gets hit by a bus and is sent reeling through the trees... knocking off all his clothes, of course.

This would normally kill anybody, of course, however...

So, after those antics were through I started to become mildly amused with this show. Instead of cashing in as a completely moe trope filled horror, it started to have a slight promise of a comedic moe show (This would give the show a 50/50 chance of me being able to stand it.)

The opening, I must say, is completely generic.The song, Ma Ka Se Te Tonight by Iori Nomizu, is the standard high pitched Japanese with a beat electro intro you would expect for a moe comedy. Even if I were to listen to this intro a multitude of times, I can’t see it growing on me. The art for the show, although interestingly colored doesn’t hold my interest. Basically, the art is used as a device to introduce the characters. When I see an anime opening, I want it to be a symbol of the best the show has to offer. The music should be catchy and get stuck in my head, and the art should be really eye catching and memorable. Over all, this opening left me lacking on so many levels.

Anywho... moving on.

We meet our first female moe character. I personally like her construct (but I have a thing for white haired characters.) During the scene where we meet her, I was surprised by the main characters outright moe classification of her. In these types of shows, they tend to try and pretend that they are not moe, while adhering strictly to the moe stereotypes. The main character, Aikawa, outright calls her a tsun.

For those who don’t know here is a quick moe lesson 101: Tsun and Tsundere
These are both terms to describe the characters who appear to be bitches (excuse the language.) They are outwardly mean to the main character, but deep down inside they are really love-dovey with them. Basically like a person with an outwardly hard appearance and soft chewy center.

Eventually Aikawa ends up at a graveyard. Boy, a zombie at a graveyard. How original right? Well enter the next character, Haruna. A magical girl, complete with a magical girl transformation. Antics ensue, in which Aikawa ends up chopped in half in a very graphic manner.

So basically those are the three characters who have been introduced. Though for any moe harem show to be complete there needs to be 3 or more females for every male lead. Knowing that to be the case, I’m sure there will be more characters introduced in the next few episodes. All of whom can be neatly classified into their respective moe tropes and groups.

PedoBear was just trying to enjoy his Lolis! WHY?!

I know I make it a point not to cover plot to much, but there is one part of the episode that I have to cover. It was towards the end, so if you don’t want spoilers I suggest you stop here--

Like I said, this show was supposed to be like an everyday moe, however after laughing so hard at this scene, I can only say that I have never enjoyed a moe show so much. It was a hysterical scene in which Haruna and Aikawa are attacked by a giant crayfish. Scratch that... more like...

Yep. So, to save the day, Aikawa ends up making a magical girl transformation. Complete with the sparkling lights and ribbon wrap around clothes. It was pretty funny and I wasn’t expecting it at all.

-- end of spoilers

Now as for the ending. It’s very much a moe ending, with the characters dancing in chibi forms andincredibly generic music. Personally though, I prefer the ending. It does a much better job of matching the show and I get the right feeling from it. Also, the part at the very end is kinda cute.

So here are the final scores:

Story: 8/10 (the hightest rated moe EVER for me)
Art: 6/10 (really generic)
OP: 5/10
ED: 7/10
Characters: 8/10

That about wraps it up for me. “Take easy, gang.” (that’s right Hieronymus Bosch, I stole it~ you scrub.)
Ha ha, no, just kidding, Bosch is literally the best human being~~~~!
(HB: don't make fun of someone who can edit your article, you muppet)

My face when watching this show.

Ham. This is the future you.

You can't possibly be useful now. Ah well.

I hate when that happens to, man.

No, he's just a regular cosplayer.

Chu-Bra: The Anime: The Review

Recently, I've been kidnapped coerced happily recruited into our friendly review family. There’s a slight problem. Namely, I’m a complete idiot when it comes to anime, manga, and everything Japanese. I haven’t seen more than two or three episodes of an anime since middle school when I watched Dragonball Z. For some reason, someone thought it would be a brilliant idea to bring me in anyway, for an “outsider’s perspective”. I think they were desperate.

The fuck is this Mongolian cartoon shit?

Out of sadism In an attempt to give me the experience I require to properly review further works, they've asked me to review Chu-Bra. Already sore from the day’s previous punishments, I was strapped to a chair and left to silently weep, blood drying on my face while the video played.

ON A RELATED NOTE, I HAVE $5000 CASH AND APPROVE OF THE POLICE. JUST PUTTING THAT OUT THERE.

Driven half an inch from the precipice of total mental collapse, I painfully nudged the "Play" button with my shattered toe, knowing the consequences of refusal.

Oh god, the beatings...

I came in with extremely low expectations. My kidnappers benefactors? Giving me something I'd like to see? Doubtful. An anime about a middle school girls' underwear club? Even worse. I didn't understand how a show centered around that could possibly be worth watching. In some ways it filled those expectations, in some ways it didn't. At this point I'd like to say it was better than the absurdly low bar I set for it when first watching it, but that also isn't saying much. Overall, mixed opinion. I can say one thing for sure though: this show can be a little bizarre.

The plot is fairly straightforward. Our protagonist, Nayu Hayama, tests underwear. Her brother, left to take care of her following her parents' deaths in a tragic accident (oh god orphan cliche), supports them both with a job designing underwear. Taking after her grandmother, Nayu is obsessed with underwear and determined to fight against people's perceptions of it as something dirty. Instead, she sees it as a thing of beauty, just as one might see expensive shoes, a sports car, or a well-designed house. This leads her into wacky hijinks as people mistake her innocent hobby with something more. First a pariah because the school is convinced she wears fancy underwear to either attract older, wealthier men or because she's an outright prostitute, the gossip and wrong conclusions continue from there.

7th grader? Prostitute? WHAT?

Nayu, after initial opposition from incredulous, conservative teachers, begins an underwear club. While at first she struggles to gain members, she eventually makes a breakthrough, gathering enough students to keep it going. Nayu helps young girls in the club, doing things like helping them learn their bra size, instructing them on how to put a bra on properly, and teaching them how to know if their bras are improperly placed. Outside of the club she lends her aid to her friends, designing a bra for Yako that doesn't slip off her undeveloped chest, for example.

The first and one of the most pervasive elements of this show is fan service. Lots and lots of fan service. In the intro, in the ending, everywhere in between. The creators can't let the characters do so much as walk down the hall without an upskirt before moving up to their faces. While I'm not prudish enough to discredit a show just based on that, it does start to get a little irksome after a while. Yes. We get it. They're girls. They have underwear and that underwear covers up fun things. Great. You don't need to have a shot of it every single time you change scenes. There's occasional fan service, and then there's excess. This show fell into the latter category, which seemed to detract from other elements.

To some extent, this struck me as a conflict of audiences. The fan service is clearly an attempt to reach out towards a teenage male demographic. Give a glimpse of some bras, flash some panties, have the girls grope each other a bit, and in a few cases show bare boobs, exactly what you'd expect a stereotypical teenage guy to love. At the same time, it seems to have contradictory subject matter. Early examples include Haruka's harassment by her grade's boys over her large chest and Yako self-consciousness about her comparative flatness, things one would hardly expect the same viewers to care about. Combined with some educational statements about bras and how to use them, Chu-Bra seems to simultaneously reach in completely opposite directions. Some gender neutral comedy is thrown in the mix in an attempt to tie them both together.

Ultimately, this effort to merge audiences falls short of its intended effect. As a guy, I couldn't sympathize with the characters as much as I otherwise would have. That is, I understood their situations and why it would make them feel bad. But I'm not a woman. I've never had woman-only problems. Without that personal connection it doesn't have the same effect it might have on, say, an adolescent girl. At the same time, I'm beyond the point where fan service really does anything for me. If I wanted to see boobs that badly, I have plenty of other avenues.

My porn library has a vast selection.

The one thing left, comedy wasn't enough to truly endear me to the show. Some of it was really bland. A few jokes were genuinely funny. Even when I thought it was humorous, I never found it enough to make me laugh out loud. As a whole, the humor failed to truly capture my attention. There were some funny moments, but it didn't seem to justify my spending the time to watch it.

While it had a few good things going for it, I couldn't help but be disinterested. Some of the elements seemed to directly clash, and the positives weren't strong enough to redeem the show. I can't say I enjoyed Chu-Bra, but I also can't say it was painfully bad. But you know what I would enjoy? Getting out of this basement. Please help.

Score: 5/10





They're watching me even now.