Anime review: "Moyashimon"

As I already said, I think this is a poor anime year. I am not really sure how I found this anime, since it is from 2007 and it doesn't have some great rating, but as I didn't have anything else to watch, I decided to give it a try.

"Moyashimon" is based on interesting idea, and when you read its short description on AniDB, you can get a completely wrong idea about it. Nominally, the story is about a boy named Sawaki who can actually see microbes: not as they look when you look at them with microscope, but as a kind cute little "monsters" who communicate with him. He is just entering Agricultural college with his childhood Kei, and both of them are conscripted by famous (but little wacky) professor Itsuki and his attractive assistant Hasegawa, to help them in their research.

Well, although all this has its place in this anime, at the same time this is a slapstick comedy about college life, sake and growing up, including a lot of sexual innuendo and fan-service moments. There is even few episodes where microbe don't even appear (The Spring Festival). Every episode starts with the recap of the previous one, there is normal OP and ED, and at the end there is a short educational movie about bacteria, so the real action last even less than in normal anime. You are right to ask how all this stuff fits in 11 short episodes. The answer is that it doesn't! The anime doesn't really have an ending and all this feels more like an introduction than a real season. Considering that there is a second season of anime and that manga is still ongoing, this is maybe even true. Another problem is the non-existing over-all plot; there is few threads started, but they are strangely left unfinished and unexplained.

On the other hand, anime is full of good jokes and interesting characters. Well, humor is actually pretty individual thing: if you find "being picked as the lucky student to perform cow's ovaries examination" funny, you could like this anime. As I said, there is lot of sexual jokes, but nothing really crass. Characters are one-dimensional and unreal, but they work well together. "Moyashimon" has a strong educational streak about microbes, which you either like or hate.

One of the weaker points of this anime is the design of characters. Few of them are designed purely slapstick, but even those who are drawn "real" are very unimaginative and... Ugly is a bit too strong word, but non-pretty. Colors are also pretty bland, which is a big negative point for me. On the other hand, a big positive point is that people change clothes regularly. I really can't say anything, being positive or negative, about the sound and music.

All in all, "Moyashimon" is good anime, with some interesting setting and good jokes, definitely is not a hit series, owing to its lack of proper story or direction. Even if you find this interesting, I would recommend looking for a review of second season before starting with the first one.

Anime review: "Daily Lives of High School Boys"

I am a little bit late with this post, for it was almost two weeks now since I have watched it. But I had a three-day trip to Germany, few days were spent on field, and so the time passed. It started to fade a bit, but good thing I have made notes.

Anyway, "Daily Lives of High School Boys" was a pleasant surprise. I didn't have any particular wish for watching this anime, but since there was not much out there to choose from and it had a fairly nice rating, I gave it a chance. It turns out that "Daily Lives of High School Boys" is a gag anime with no particular plot. Instead, it consists of several unconnected short "stories" in each episode, between four and eight. There is some timeline to it, but it is not relevant in any case. These short stories revolve around students of one class of all-boys high-school, plus several other boys and girls from other schools (so it is not solely about boys, contrary to the title). The cast is so pretty big, but the names are not really important, since it has different cast for most of the stories.

So, there is no plot, characters are unimportant, why would anybody watch this anime? Because if you are or ever were young, and especially if you are male, you will be able to relate with this anime and find yourself somewhere in it. This anime perfectly depict the mental state of high-schoolers: empty and sarcastic talk, worries about being cool, stupid ideas and wrong facts... But presented in such funny and lovable way. And jokes are just perfect: I watched this anime alone in my room, but kept giggling most of the time, and sometimes even laughing out loud. In spirit, this anime reminded me on "School Rumble", but without the romance part - there is absolutely no drama or angst in this anime. Another anime it reminded me of was "Lucky Star", just that this concentrate on boys and there is no moe.

Unfortunately, there are only 12 episodes. There is a mention of second season in anime, but no information about it on AniDB. Visuals are pretty good, voice acting great, and there is even some catchy music in it.

"Daily Lives of High School Boys" is probably the best gag anime I watched so far, and it is especially good for quick watch - stories last for few minutes each and you can stop whenever you want. If you have any fond memories of high school and like to watch comedies, just try watching the first episode. And remember, later ones are even better!

Anime review: "Bakuman", second season

So, quite fast after fighting against and then succumbing to the first season, I watched the second season of "Bakuman". The good news is that third season (last one, I think) is following this fall. I am looking forward to it. Only thing I can object about it is that is was so good that I watched 20 episodes in one day (Sunday), which resulted in 4 hours of sleep that night and a very sleepy morning at work next day.

As I wrote in my review of the first season, "Bakuman" is a shounen anime flirting with seinen. This is even more notable than in first season. Mashiro "Saiko" Moritaka and Takagi Akito continue struggling to fulfill their dream of becoming the first-rate manga-ka for Shounen Jack, so Saiko can marry Miho (whom he had seen one or twice since their middle school). I know: a typical senseless shounen plot. But for some reason, it works great. In this season even their relationship become a bit more realistic (but still a far away from normal).

In the first season the duo succeeded in getting a serialization of their manga. This made their goal seem quite reachable, but it also brought one shortfall - instead their genius editor Hattori, they are now transferred to a junior editor Miura. Will the new editor be show good enough to support them? And more important, will they first manga prove to be enough to get an anime adaptation?

This biggest plot starts at the beginning, and is resolved toward the end, but there are few side-roads taken around the middle. This is a good thing, because this side plots are used to evolve the characters (I almost used the word setting, but this is a character-centered anime, setting is irrelevant), the new one and the old one. Cast is widened so much that it would be a trouble to remember everybody, if they were not so unique and unforgettable. I didn't expect such evolution of what I thought to be side-characters - there is much character development in this anime. Characters are also more mature. I think that focus of this season is removed from creation of manga toward relationship between them, although manga stay the center that everything revolves. All in all, I think that this season was composed nicely - nice pace, not too slow, but neither too fast; and always interesting.

I read some comments that anime adaptation rushes through the manga, which means that there is probably more material there. This series is completed, so I would like to read the manga original, although after the fiasco with "Black Lagoon", I am somewhat weary. I will keep this one on mind, but not for the close future. Anyway, this season takes around three or four years (in anime time)!

The humor is simply great. There are lots of gags, and it kept me smiling most of the time. But the funniest character of the series so far was Hiaimaru. And to believe that he was introduced so sinister in the first season... I think that I laughed in every scene featuring him. Otters...

There is not much to say about audio or visual side - they are mostly mediocre. I wanted to said that unique design of characters follows more from authors' (Obha Tsugumi  and Obata Takeshi) weak skill that from intention. But I then checked Wikipedia and saw that they are responsible for "Death Note", which was drawn much better, so maybe I am wrong. There are 25 episodes, again.

For conclusion, I think that it is enough to say that second season of "Bakuman" is even better than the first. A nice catch for those who like slice-of-life or comedy anime. Special recommendation for the fans of "Genshiken".