Onii-chan no Koto nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne!! Review — D

Reviews, ,

Onii-chan no Koto… shows the life of Shuusuke and his harem of three girls: his (adopted) sister Nao, his childhood friend and freakish stalker Iroha, and class president / closet BL-lover Kondou. The show got off to a strong start in the first few episodes, but managed to lose most of its momentum in the middle by repeating the same jokes over and over again. It was funny the first time Iroha spied on Shuusuke through her telescope and they formed a chain of five people stalking each other. It was less funny six episodes later when Nao and Iroha had done nothing the entire time except follow Shuusuke from the shadows.

The characters could have been interesting, and were when they were first introduced, but quickly lost steam when the creators had them do the same jokes over and over. Nao especially is a fun character to watch as she plots ways to seduce her unwitting brother and loves him for how disgusting and pathetic he is: but in the second half of the series she was basically relegated to a background stalker. Nao’s two friends make an excellent counterweight to her obsessiveness, but they disappeared about halfway through the series. Iroha was amusing for the first episode… but again, after ten episodes of doing nothing but stalking, it can get a bit stale. Her unexplained unholy alliance with Nao throughout the middle of the series didn’t help, as one of the more amusing aspects of her character was giving Nao someone to fight with. Kondou was entertaining when she was having Shuusuke buy her BL books, but after she discovered Shuusuke’s nipples the creators pushed her into the background as well. So all in all, the characters were interesting but poorly utilized.

  • Plot / Script – 3 / 10 – Most of the jokes are used up in the first episode. Six episodes of Nao and Iroha stalking Shuusuke from the shadows are not funny.
  • Characters – 7 / 10 – The characters themselves have potential to be entertaining (particularly Nao and Shuusuke, when he actually does something) but they’re used poorly.
  • Production – 8 / 10 – The animation is definitely unique and enjoyable, particularly the distorted faces. The music and voice acting was not so great.
  • Overall – D

Recommendations – Ore no Imouto…, B Gata H Kei

Onii-chan no Koto… 12

Onii-chan no Koto,

So this was a wrap-up episode, where Shuusuke stays home alone with Nao, goes on a trash-digging trip with the A.G.E., gets sick, and Iroha and Kondou come over. Certainly not the weakest episode of the series, but still fairly boring. We’ve seen all these jokes so many times already… can’t they think up something new? Looking on the bright side, Iroha finally did something other than stalking Shuusuke, although there was still plenty of stalking too.

A milestone of sorts: this is the first series I’ve finished blogging, and I’m quite pleased that I’ve managed to keep going this long. Initially I thought I would write for about a week and then get bored of it, but so far I’m still enjoying it. The lesson does seem to be to choose carefully when picking series to blog, though. It really is a crapshoot picking a show based on only the first episode. The first episode of Onii-chan no Koto was hilarious (although in retrospect, it seemed so bad I assumed it was a parody but was sadly mistaken) but from there on it was all downhill. Probably should have done Level-E instead, which had the opposite trend. But everything else turned out to be a pretty good choice. I’ll probably try to blog five series next year – I’m thinking about doing C : The Possibility of Soul and Probability Control in iambic tetrameter assuming the first episode is any good.

Kore wa Zombie Desu ka! 11

Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka,

Ok, this was awesome! So often comedies will devolve into an attempt at being serious in the last episode for the finale and fail miserably. Kore wa Zombie Desu ka has taken the opposite approach and turned the ridiculousness up a notch, and it’s paid off handsomely! It didn’t make any sense, but who cares?

Where to begin… we have Haruna talking with her chainsaw, Ayumu’s body rebuilding effort and walking around the house naked, the return of the well dressed ghost whales in the sky (an entire fleet this time), Haruna and Ayumu’s double transformation for extra cuteness, the vampire ninja meido orchestra… I was cracking up the whole time. I wish more comedies would realize that it’s ok to just be funny and not try to tell some “point” or in general have an actual plot. But with that said, in spite of (or perhaps because of) all the ridiculousness, the story was actually pretty solid. Which in turn served to make the other zombie’s dying words even more hilarious….

It seems like next episode will be a trip to the hot spring. I think that this show should be able to put an interesting twist on the usual formula, so it should be good. And the plot seems to be done with so we don’t have to worry about the creators holding back. Maybe Yuu will call Ayumu “onii-chan”… I was waiting for her to say that in the tower and for the episode to end, but it didn’t happen. At least the preview didn’t disappoint in this regard.

Lulz Tomonori is on triangle. Somehow I found this the funniest part of the meido orchestra.

Dragon Crisis Review – F

Reviews,

I’ll admit, from the minute in the first episode when a girl came out of a suitcase who could do nothing but say the main character’s name and hug him, my expectations were very low. And they weren’t disappointed.

The biggest problem is that the characters are completely one-dimensional and boring. Case in point: Rose, the aforementioned suitcase girl who is actually a dragon (the main difference between dragons and humans is that dragons go into heat frequently). She quite literally does nothing the entire show except obsess over the main character, Ryuuji, and act cute. Cute as in act like an annoying three-year old cute, except somehow she’s in middle school. Ryuuji is even more annoying: the generic harem lead, his only role is to be indecisive enough so that a hoard of pubescent girls can fight over him without his notice. Then there is Eriko, Ryuuji’s cousin… all I can really say about her after twelve episodes is that she shoots butterflies, used to live in America, and has breasts.

The supporting characters are a bit less annoying (probably because they showed up less). There’s a stereotypical mad scientist, complete with lab coat and spectacles; another mad scientist, who is also a pyromaniac; a European young lady, complete with parasol; the girl in class with a crush on the main character who is to shy to tell him; the girl of tragedy who underwent human experimentation to become a fox girl; the tomboy; the evil black dragon who *gasp* wants to build his own harem, and the priest who struggles over his duty. The priest was the most interesting character, so of course he didn’t show up after episode four. Each haremette starred in a couple episodes and otherwise didn’t have much of a role in the show.

The show seemed to have an interesting setting, but didn’t do much of anything with it except make BS up as it went along. The series seemed to get worse over a time, with the last episode almost reaching the point of so awful it was funny. The climax of the show comes when Ryuuji and Rose upgrade their power to “love engage” by kissing on the mouth instead of the hand, and the enemy is defeated by a pink heart. Seriously.

  • Plot / Script – 4 / 10 – Gaping plot holes… like in one day Rose goes from saying one word to complete sentences and no one notices. The main sources of tension are going into heat and ten minute bursts of amnesia.
  • Characters – 3 / 10 – Cliched and annoying (esp. the main characters)
  • Production – 7 / 10 – Nothing special, but not bad either. The music is ok.
  • Overall – F – Don’t watch it unless you’re really bored.

Recommendations – any of JC Staff’s other shows with the same premise (this is one of the worst) – Shakugan no Shana, Zero no Tsukaima, Yumekui Merry, etc.

Star Driver 24

Star Driver,

Pwnt.

In this episode, we learn the history between Keito and Sugata, and how Keito helped save Sugata together with Wako. Keito and Sugata go public with their betrayal, and Keito’s seal is broken. Sugata is the final boss.

But this only raises more questions: what is Keito’s power of eternity? Honestly, I have no idea. Probably something to do with either memories or preventing change… But also, what are Takuto and Wako’s first phases? From what Wako did to Sugata, I’m guessing that she brings sections of zero time into the real world, but I’m not sure as to Takuto’s.

And why is Sugata even working with Keito? He doesn’t seem too into the whole kissing thing. I would guess that he wants to break the seals so that Wako can be freed from her responsibilities and go to the mainland. Hopefully he has a plan to prevent the world from being destroyed. And hopefully it isn’t “Takuto will think of something.”

Speaking of which, Kanako has officially become awesome (well, even more so). The creators have developed her from a crazy lunatic, a child bride with a pet alligator who kisses random people through the glass, into one of the most well grounded, prepared and selfless characters in the show. Those episodes focusing on Simone and Takashi are paying off in spades now. (and yes, I shared Simone and Takashi’s reaction below)

Another unanswered question: what exactly is the angle behind Sugata’s maids? They’re supposed to kill him if he joins the Hiraboshi? So who are they working for…? And why did they let Keito go in the bed with him, and what did she do? They still haven’t even answered that. Or, for that matter, what the goal of the Glittering Crux and the maidens are. We still know virtually nothing about how and why they were established.

Sugata, you player.

This has set everything up for a fantastic finale and final episode. But there are still so many unanswered questions that I have my doubts about whether they can all be answered satisfactorily in the space of a single episode. I can’t help but wonder if this series would have been better off taking an extra season. It certainly has a strong enough cast and plot that it wouldn’t get boring. But I’m sure the ending will be satisfactory, even if it only manages to answer some of the questions.