Fumi
I’m following several of the new Summer season anime.
Aoi Hana (Sweet Blue Flowers) is a rather sweet tale of girl-girl romance among high-school girls. Fumi moves to a new district and a new school. She discovers that an old schoolfriend, A-chan, attends another school nearby. Fumi is miserable because her cousin recently got married. However she soon meets a tall and charming sempai at her new school. Fumi, a tall, shy girl who cries rather easily, is very cute.
Tokyo Magnitude 8 is a bit different. It’s about a future earthquake of magnitude 8 and claims to be carefully researched. It’s worth getting the 1st episode just to watch the pre-quake sequence – a beautifully scripted Day in the Life of a disgruntled schoolgirl who wishes everything would just self- destruct. Subsequent episodes mix dramatic collapses and tremors with the sort of situations survivors might find themselves in: queuing for toilets or tramping towards ferry terminals.
Spice & Wolf II is up to the standard of the previous series.
Bakemonogatari is about a schoolboy who discovers that a girl in his class is not quite normal. She falls in anime-style slow motion, he catches her and discovers that she doesn’t have any weight. Not one for the faint-hearted – in the opening sequence the wind blows up a girl’s skirt showing her underwear, and when the ‘weightless’ girl suspects that the youth has been talking about her to someone else, she does something beastly to him with a trimming knife and a stapler. The animation is VERY arty. The dialog is very good, and whle the wierdness is quite slow-paced it’s certainly interesting.
Also checked:
Taishou Yakyuu Musume is set in 1925, and is about some schoolgirls (some still wearing kimonos to school) who want to play baseball like the boys. So-so.
Umi Monogatari is about two young sisters who live under the sea (!) and venture on land to return a beautiful ring which somebody has thrown into the sea. They innocently blunder about till they find the owner, and also trigger, or at least get involved in, some dark supernatural doings. Has some nice bright colours; might appeal to younger viewers.
Sora no Manimani is about a school astronomy club. An amusing comedy.
Kanamemo is about a 13-year old schoolgirl, Kana, an orphan who lives with her grandmother, until the old lady dies suddenly and creditors invade the house to reposess anything of value. Kana flees into the streets, and is taken in by an all-women newspaper collective. Three of them are lesbians, and while two are interested in each other …Â This is a light comedy, but I should warn the unwary that while this might have played alright in Japan, some Western viewers, especially parents, may find themselves unamused.
Yokawaraku Gendaimahou: Magical drama. In the first episode, the young heroine, a rather irritating girl with a high opinion of herself, inherits a magical book and staff. Initially without any magical powers, she is chased by dangerous characters who want the staff. She also appears bare-assed in one scene for no valid reason. Avoid.