So Hanasaku Iroha is the second series I’ll be blogging this season. The thing which makes this show stand out is that although on the surface it’s about cute girls like so many other shows, these aren’t your average friendly cute girls. In fact, they’re deeply flawed people who are actually kind of jerks. I’m really looking forward to Iroha dishing out some payback and Minko eat that spinach.
You can’t help but feel a bit sorry for even Minko though after seeing the adults in this series. That assistant chef especially— bullying Minko and asking if Iroha has any friends. It’s obvious that the person without any friends would be him. Clearly, Iroha’s grandmother has her issues as well. But still, compared to Minko’s mother, her grandmother actually looks good. I realized Iroha’s mother was irresponsible in the first episode, but it still seemed like she and her daughter were a close family. It still does seem like they are close, in their own way, but not exactly as the happy family I had imagined. And don’t let me get started on that author…
So far this show has been great for piling on the rage. In my opinion the best shows are the ones that give the viewer an emotional attachment, whatever emotion that happens to be. We can only hope that the rage will continue to build up and explode spectacularly. Iroha’s explosion against Minko and Nako was a bit corny but still very satisfying, especially seeing Minko finally give in. It seems like Iroha will win those two over soon, and hopefully we won’t move into a happy idyllic inn life but rather continue with the anger from the adult side. And no, I don’t feel guilty for wishing that they’ll be miserable for the sake of my entertainment value.
So first, Hen Zemi. I’m actually enjoying this, although most of the humor is of the “I can’t believe they did that” variety. This show stretches the boundaries of socially acceptable behavior to the limit, and just when you think they can’t go any further, jumps fifty miles downstream. And then does it again and again and again. Really, don’t watch this without knowing what you’re getting into. However, the TV show does seem a bit toned down from the OVA (which was also enjoyable). Hen Zemi does have a strong cast of characters, none of whom I could describe as boring, and the humor is pretty good if you can bear to watch it.
Azazel-san also goes far past the boundaries of decency, but the humor here didn’t really work for me and I ended up just finding it gross. It was more slapstick humor as opposed to the dialog-based comedy of Hen Zemi. I also felt that it didn’t build up the inappropriateness as well and went more for the shock value. But I guess it’s really just that I didn’t find the jokes funny. What the demon did to the woman and his summoning gift— how are those supposed to be funny? They’re just disgusting. I could probably say the exact same thing about Hen Zemi though, so I’m really not sure what makes one work for me and the other fail…
Ok, this show is officially awesome. This is what a fighting show should be like. None of that preachy touchy-feely stuff or people getting hurt. Just hundred kill combos, humongous explosions, and combo attacks from thousands of feet in the air. That’s the kind of fighting show I can get behind.
I often don’t like fanservice because it serves to substitute for actual humor or plot, but Dog Days has been able to use it to great effect in furtherance of its jokes. In particular Eclair’s falls, the King’s armor and Eclair’s loss of clothes were all hilarious. When the fanservice is as funny as this I really can’t complain.
For those like me wondering what soft tennis is, it’s apparently the same as regular tennis except it’s played with a soft rubber ball and is popular in East Asia. The show Softenni follows one school’s soft tennis team and their path to the championship (well… maybe not). This being from Xebec, I was pleasantly surprised by the (relatively) toned-down fanservice. Most of it occurs in Asuna’s (pink haired girl’s) fantasies and actually serves to parody the usual harem tropes which are thankfully avoided.
