Weekly Round-Up: September 5th

Reviewed this week: Antique Bakery 7, Chi’s Sweet Home 77-83, Chocolate Underground 7, Kyouran Kazoku Nikki 16-17, Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu 8, Ryoko’s Case File 8, Slayers Revolution 8-9, Soul Eater 21-2, Telepathy Shoujo Ran 10, Sisters of Wellber Zwei 1-4, World Destruction 8

…and in manga: backlog continues to pile up

ANIME

CURRENT SERIES RANKINGS

1. Chi’s Sweet Home (1)- cuteness overload
2. Hidamari Sketch x365 (2) – 365 times the fun
3. Soul Eater (3) – Krona
4. Natsume Yuujinchou (4) – Nyanko-sensei forever!
5. Xam’d- Lost Memories (5) – Humanform
6. Detroit Metal City (6) – I’m gonna f***ing raep you!
7. Wagaya no Oinari-sama (7) – pure white oni
8. Nabari no Ou (8) – tranquil aid to meditation
9. Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu (10) – ridiculous
10. Slayers Revolution (9) – Dragon Slave
11. Koihime Musou (11) – Xu Chu
12. Antique Bakery (12) – domestic violence
13. Kyouran Kazoku Nikki (13) – everything at or below this line is wasting my precious life!
14. Someday’s Dreamers ~Summer Skies~ (14) – magic can’t do everything
15. Real Drive (15) – flashback
16. Allison and Lillia (17) – plane crash is the new train wreck
17. Ryoko’s Case File (18) – attack of the killer mangrove
18. Itazura na Kiss (19) – dislikeable cast
19. World Destruction (20) – some stuff happened
20. Telepathy Shoujo Ran (21) – meaningless <- dropped!
21. Chocolate Underground (22) – chocolate is forbidden

SLOW RANKINGS

1. Tetsuko no Tabi (1)- is this ever going to be subbed?
2. Love GetChu! (2)- light entertainment
3. Sisters of Wellber Zwei (-) – it’s back!
4. Gunslinger Girl- Il teatrino (3)- licensed
5. Himawari!! (4) – needs less plot
6. Himitsu (-) – demoted to slow

Antique Bakery 7: Despite being particularly unseasonal, Antique Bakery decides to throw in a Christmas episode in which Tachibana decides he must dress as Santa and personally deliver everyone’s cakes. Before that, however, everyone must go intense training in everything from caramel decoration to waiting tables. To be honest, this is the least interesting episode of the series so far, although the main cake of the episode did look a lot like one due to appear in next week’s episode of The Hairy Bakers.

Chi’s Sweet Home 77-83: Batches of Chi’s Sweet Home will never be unwelcome, and this one is as packed with cuteness as ever as Chi gets trapped in a drawer, meets up with the black cat once again and generally charms everyone with her antics. The tagline for this series should be ‘cats have never been this cute’.

Chocolate Underground 7: Smudger, Huntly and Louise need to learn how to make chocolate out of the raw ingredients they have found, but obviously such recipes aren’t just lying around- they’ll need a reliable contact. Fortunately, given their tendency to discuss their top secret plans openly, the local bookstore owner proves to be most helpful in their search for chocolate recipes and a chocolate radar proof place in which to prepare and sell it, allowing the series to magically jump ahead to a time when our heroes own Chocolate Underground is going strong. Wow, that was fast- especially when compared to the non-development that has characterised much of the series so far.

Kyouran Kazoku Nikki 16-17: Just when you thought that the humans turning into animals plot was over, it turned out that the last couple of episodes was just a warm-up for the same thing happening all over again- and sadly, this tiresome development detracts from what could have been an interesting look at Teika’s past. Whilst Teika and old friend Madara re-enact The Lion King, however, Kyouka manages to mess it all up with her over-energetic insanity- I really want to like her, but she makes it very hard.

Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu 8: After the disappointment of last episode, this instalment seems almost tranquil in its safe, unremarkable nature. Having realised that she’s never been on a date, Mika decides to take Yuuto out so she can teach him how to make a move on Haruka, but of course in the process she realises she’s rather enjoying her time with ‘onii-san’. This episode adds absolutely nothing to my experience of anime thus far, but by the same token it is at least inoffensive.

Ryoko’s Case File 8: We’ve had giant reptiles and killer plants, so of course the next logical step is a deadly insect- the Ultrasonic Bug. Said bug has the ability to emit inaudible frequencies which cause people to feel depressed and suicidal, but could its release be the work of an obviously suspicious mad scientist? Well, that question answers itself, but I have to admit that this episode had some decent background music and an unintentionally amusing quality to it- I almost look forward to seeing what ridiculousness the writers can come up with next.

They’re going to kill us all!

Slayers Revolution 8-9: When their way is blocked by a giant fortress created by Wiser, our heroes give the inspector the runaround- which suits Xellos just fine. Ultimately, however, it’s time for everyone’s favourite ‘priest’ to step in, forcing Lina to surrender- which will at least get her straight to Gioconda’s boss castle. What follows includes skirmishes with underlings (including an assassin and an android) plus a Flashback Mode for Pokota as he relives the days when he wasn’t a stuffed toy. Even so, the series still isn’t grabbing me in the way its predecessors did.

Soul Eater 21-2: Maka has descended into madness in order to combat Krona, but never fear, my friends, because not only is there very little actual fighting, but everyone comes out of it as good friends in preparation for the next arc. Before that, however, this arc must be completed, and with all the distractions, our heroes seem unlikely to make it in time as Medusa’s underlings prepare to free the Demon God from imprisonment in a bag made of his own skin (no, really). It could do with a bit more action, but overall this remains the cool and enjoyable show it always has been.

*DROPPED* Telepathy Shoujo Ran 10: Where Ryoko’s Case File and World Destruction are at least merciful in their relatively brief length, the thought of watching another 16 episodes of this tripe finally caused me to snap- especially with this one giving me a headache. In this utterly pointless instalment, Midori wanders around town by herself because she’s too proud to admit she’d rather spend the time shopping with Ran and Rui, before finally meeting up during the evening’s fireworks festival. I suppose they weren’t unnecessarily meddling in other people’s lives this episode, but that’s small consolation for a series so dull I fear my IQ has suffered from watching it. Lol I like animes yeh.

*NEW* Wellber no Monogatari ~Sisters of Wellber~ Zwei 1-4: Going back to Sisters of Wellber is like booting up an old school RPG and listening to the tinny music as you play through the standard plot devices- which is to say it’s watchable, but as mediocre as ever. This season, the focus is on Tina as she aims to get revenge for her parents’ murder, complete with stops by NPC homes and the abrupt realisation that she loves Galahad, causing her to break up with Jin (what about the status quo!?). It’s hardly remarkable, but at least it passes the time- not that I need any help with that right now.

World Destruction 8: On the way to the imaginatively named Autumnland, our heroes collapse in the desert and end up getting rescued by some sort of sandship- which promptly has an accident and ends up trapped under the surface. Naturally, I was hoping that the entire main cast would get crushed by the sand so that the series could end early and put us out of our misery, but it was not to be, and thus there are five more episodes to go.