.anime phreak. – call me Ki様

I are back guys! For real? Not sure. Seeing how my last post was almost a year ago, I’m surprise that WordPress didn’t drop -the banhammer- on this blog. Ok ok, lets get going! Reason for starting this again is that a university course – “Introductions to Issues in Literature and Culture” calls for blogging. That’s right, I get marks for blogging. Not on this blog though, but since while I’m doing that one, I might as well do this one also. (Although the blogs have totally different content)

(ヒャッコ)

(How the heck did uploading images get even more confusing? I had to upload this the ghetto HTML way!) /rant

Additional info:

This series is currently completed.
Genre: Comedy, Slice of Life
Demographic: Shounen
Animation Studio: Nippon Animation
Director: Michio Fukuda

Synopsis(ANN):

On the first day of high school at Kamizono Academy, four girls meet each other while lost on the huge campus, and form a friendship. This story follows the daily school life of the four girls and their eclectic classmates.

Artwork and Animation: 8.5/10

Although waterpaint backdrops is neither the specialty nor the focal point of this anime, it still stands out from other animes as being a more bold approach by making them look like they’re out of a sketchbook instead of a finished piece of fine artwork, and I can’t say I hate it. This style especially shine during OP’s and ED’s (2nd ED = beautiful) when the audience diverts their concentration to the artwork as the song play. As you can probably tell if you have seen it already, they toned that style down for the OP’s since the song didn’t exactly fit with it. The animation is also quite outstanding, and big elaborate movements means the studio wasn’t being cheap with this anime at all, although as for originality and style, it didn’t strike me anything out of the ordinary.

Sound (Themes, Voice-overs, and Inserts): 8/10

Cheers, its Hirano Aya! To be able to voice Ayumi after surprising us by going from Haruhi to Konata, she is proving herself to be a versatile seiyu indeed. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for her singing, face pace songs seem to be her forte when she has a commanding singing voice. Not to worry, her single for this anime- “Namida, Namida, Namida”- is not a slow place song, which the name misled me to believe that it is before I watched the anime. A powerful song fill with energy, and at the same time, sorrow. Good job Hirano-sama! As for the opening… I cant say it is the best I’ve heard, in fact, it’s no where near, but it fits. And fitting is all I can give it.

Plot (including character development): 8/10

Like with all the other comedies, Hyakko’s strength should come from the scriptwr… the manga artists who created this. It is good, and I had some nice laughs, although if you ask me to pull out a funny moment right out of my head, I’m afraid I can’t do it. It did not just WOW me like Zetsubou Sensei did (Early on, that is). However, it had slice of life elements that filled the space in between the comedy. Was it the lack of material they had to work with? I do not know, didn’t read the manga. There is no plot movement in this anime, so technically there are no fillers, although some parts can be quite slow, even by slice of life standards.

Directing: 8/10

Nothing jawdropping on this aspect either, the director did what needed to be done, it didn’t exactly enhance my enjoyment out of this anime, but it sure didn’t hinder it. Because of it, nothing noteworthy can really be said about it, neither good nor bad. Or maybe it is just me not paying enough attention… nah.

Overall: 7.5/10

It’s good time to spend time on and enjoy yourself once in a while, but there is nothing to hook me into finishing these series in one go if I had a chance. I guess that’s both the strong and weak point of comedies without a plot, you can enjoy it anywhere anytime, but the level of immersion is kept to a minimal level. I myself don’t like that very much, closure is something I prefer, maybe I’m getting old. *sigh cough cough*