...what are you watching...

Gin no Saji (Silver Spoon) live-action jmovie! based on the manga by Hiromu Arakawa. A young, aimless boy, Yuugo Hachiken, enrolls in an agricultural high school to get away from his parents. Compared to Hagaren, this is a quiet story from Hiromu Arakawa that aims to teach as well as show the growth of the young characters. Hachiken stumbles along as he learns about the farm life and its industry and about making friends. The manga's story and characters kinda put me to sleep, but it does less so in the live-action movie. It does well to teach the viewer about the hardships of farm life and where food comes from. The movie doesn't really have any highs and lows, but intermingles small conflicts such as Hachiken's disapproving parents, Mikage's horse competition and Komaba's loss of his family's farm. Everything is showcased without too much drama. The movie equally shows the viewer of the cuteness of animals and the deliciousness of them. I do recall that the manga characters loved to eat meat. Because the school teaches humane practices, there is no turn-off toward eating what they raise. 7/10 rating~ for cute baby pig and delicious-looking bacon.



Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler) live-action jmovie! is an alternative presentation of the manga of the same name. I was disappointed to hear that the main character of Ciel was being replaced by a female character, but the movie is actually not that bad. It is set in modern times, but still retains some of the old fashioned Victorian style. Genpo Shiori is the young woman who runs the Funtom Corporation as a male after her parents are killed. She continues her family's tradition as the Queen's watchdog. Her situation mimic's Ciel; dead parents, revenge-time, contract with Sebastian...and the plot of the movie also resembles the first manga story arc with big hollywood-style plot changes. I enjoyed Sebastian and Rin (the maid)'s fight scenes. The choreography was fun especially with Sebastian's dinner knife. There are some typical bad guy faux pas's in the movie like how long they wait to kill Shiori...answer, just long enough for Sebastian to show up. This weakness didn't detract too much from the entertainment value. 8/10 rating~ for a live-action movie that retained the manga's black humor, snarky dialogue, horror-elements and mystery. Warning: the movie did leave the end open to a sequel.



Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno live-action jmovie! is the first part of the manga's Shishio story arc. The first movie was not as bad as I thought it might have been and this is also not that bad. There's plenty of fun swordplay to watch and the cast is pretty good. I do enjoy laughing at Shinomori Aoshi again. The only thing that does not translate well into the live-action movie is the manga/anime's humor. Kenshin's 'oro's just don't work without the SD faces. As the title suggests, the movie climaxes at the Kyoto fire plot and the gathering of Shishio's 'swords'. I look forward to the conclusion. 8/10 rating~ for that scene with Aoshi...hahaha.

Rurouni Kenshin live-action movie! wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Kenshin had a mildly believable personality and the sword-fighting was kinda cool. The story revolves around some bad guys who wants to buy up Kaoru's dojo/land. A local drug dealer is also making waves while his chemist, Megumi, wants to escape. Kenshin stumbles into the trouble, and gets help from Sano and Saito....fun times. I wish the comedic moments were pushed further so that they got an actual laugh, but it was an enjoyable film. There was enough action to keep me interested. ~8/10 rating~
Minami-ke Tadaima 1! the return of the Minami sisters. There's nothing really interesting to write about the anime. The new season has the same format as the previous ones; short vignettes of their life. Still cute.

Chihayafuru S2 1! it's a new school year and the karuta club needs new members. The episode focuses on Sumire, a girl who joins the club to hook up with Taichi.

Rurouni Kenshin: Shin Kyoto-hen 1! The new version of the Kyoto arc really lays down the nostalgia; almost all the same seiyuu are back, too. Similar to the new version of Hagaren and HxH, this one part 'episode' felt like an episode of 24. It felt like the story was on fastforward. The animation was fairly good, bgm was a mix of the original music and production was decent. The fight scenes didn't feel as impressive compared to today's standards. And Shishio smut? really? Anyway, it was fun watching this. Has it really been over 10 years since the original? eep.


Chihayafuru 25! the end! The characters all get riled up by the Meijin's game, their club teacher sticks up for them at the school meeting and a new school year starts where they have to recruit new members. On one hand this was a great competitive sports story with inspiring characters, while on the other hand, it was also one long introduction to a lengthier series (or one big advertisement to karuta). ~9/10 rating~ for consistent and attractive production, entertaining comedy and likable characters. I very much enjoyed the torturing of Taichi. Minus one since I do not have any interest in reading the manga nor any interesting in playing karuta.

Live-action Kenshin doesn't look too bad. The new Rurouni Kenshin Kyoto OVA anime CM doesn't look too bad either. My guess is that Fushigi Yuugi will be the next one to make a comeback.

Un-Go 8! After getting tasered to snap him out of the hallucination, Shinjirou solves the prison case. There's an intriguing cliffhanger involving the novelist and Inga, but this is still my least favorite anime this season. Only watching because Thursdays are slow days.

Mawaru Penguindrum 21! Of course it builds up the suspense some more. In this episode the family falls apart. This series has more surprise family revelations than any kdrama. And it's actually fun to follow. On the other hand, while I appreciate the variety in ending theme songs, it's not my kind of music. I do like the different illustrations from Lily Hoshino at the end.


Sekaiichi Hatsukoi S2 9! Yukina was remarkably unsparkley for most of the episode, but huzzah, flowers and sparkles come back in the end.

A little disappointed that the new Rurouni Kenshin series is a retelling of the Kyoto arc in OVA form, but hey, the Kyoto arc was pretty darn good.

Ao no Exorcist 19! is a very cute birthday filler.


Redline jmovie! is a fanboy's anime. The recent Madhouse production is about an intergalactic underground racing sport. 'Redline' is the ultimate race which is taking place on a planet where the inhabitants are a war-happy species who actually don't want the race taking place on their planet. So in addition to competing against each other, the racers have to defend themselves against their host. The main character is JP. He is nicknamed 'Sweet JP', since he does not use weapons against his competitors. There's not much story to the movie outside of the race and random fighting. JP mildly reminds me of Spike from Cowboy Bebop though it might be the lanky character design and big hair. The visuals are all sorts of impressive, and may be the only reason to watch this if you aren't inclined to watch testosterone-based action anime. It had the signature Madhouse rich and dark palette plus very detailed alien/monster designs. The animation was impressively fluid and entertainingly exaggerated. Pretty awesome overall. ~7/10 rating~ for visuals and simple story, but I doubt it's worth rewatching.

Isn't it funny when your past comes back to entertain...like when you see the Transformers movies or see that Thundercats has a new cartoon. Or in the case of anime, Kenshin is coming back with a new live-action drama and new anime...And now, Hunter x Hunter is coming back with a new anime. :)

Tiger and Bunny 17! Uplifting father/daughter episode.

Ao no Exorcist 15! Time for Rin's secret to be revealed to his friends.

Sacred Seven 4! School festival episode..zzz..looks like a beach episode is up next week...zzz.

New Rurouni Kenshin anime...oro? I think you can guess people's age by their reaction to this news.