12 Days of Christmas – Day 10 – Lumps of Character Coal

For those of you who celebrate Christmas, I’m sure you all have had your fair share of sub par gifts. Sure, you may or may not get the new video game console or the newest version of the I-phone, but there is always one thing you can count on, and that is some lame present that you have no use for what so ever. Usually, these types of gifts come from some sort of third aunt, twice removed or cheapskates who are trying to weasel their way out of their holiday obligations, ala George Costanza. The same basic concept applies to the types of characters  found in anime.

Practically the only thing Simon did the entire series

Summer Season 2010 Post Mortem

The fall season of anime has already started, which means that the summer season has come to a close. Of course, most of us watch more shows than we could – or care to – write about, and here are our brief thoughts about what we watched this past season.

Ookami-san and Seven Companions 12 – Not So Happily Ever After

After the “ending” of the main plot provided in the previous episode, I was expecting one final side story to take advantage of this show’s premise. Turns out, I was hoping for too much, as another main plot thread returned before taking several steps back. It was a somehow fitting way to end this series, which kept raising expectations, only to spend the rest of the time crushing them.

Ookami-san and Seven Companions 11 – That’s It? Really?

The word of the week is anticlimactic. After last week, I was expecting the story to continue all the through to the end of the series, but it all came to an end in this episode. It even omitted the OP, as is common with final episodes. That’s not to say that this one provided closure. No, it seems that J.C. Staff is gunning for a 2nd season, and doing a poor job of it. Hopefully the final episode can provide some lulz before this mediocre series closes out.

Ookami-san and Seven Companions 10 – The Beginning of the End

This was the most serious episode yet, presenting us with what is clearly the beginning of the final arc. We got to see some of our heroes being put in real danger by being manipulated by Shirou, and we also got to see Ryoushi finally take some steps to strengthen himself, in order to prepare for the inevitable showdown for Ryouko that he still doesn’t realize will be coming. The episode even managed to stick in a couple fairy tale analogies, adding a fun new character, even as several of the old ones came back to play important roles. This was a strong episode, and I’m looking forward to seeing how this show will close out.

Ookami-san and Seven Companions 9 – Snow White, the Triplets, the Quadruplets, and the Little Red Riding Hood

I like the return to the episodic structure, where each episode has a clear and pretty much atomic story based on some fairy tale. This week’s episode was a very obvious Snow White parody, and though the story was too overdramatic, the twist of how Ringo entered the story and the good visuals and aurals more than made up for it.

Ookami-san and Seven Companions 8 – Finally found what I was looking for, sort of

Now this was the type of episode I was expecting from this show when it started. The Otogi bank helping out another poor soul with humorous consequences, bookended by a hilariously twisted version of the Three Little Pigs. That gag and the rest of the episode was chock full of self referential humor. The only disappointment was the narrator who, again, did little more than speak the obvious over everyone else’s lines.

Ookami-san and Seven Companions 7 – Growing Impatient

Even though it lacked an obvious fairy tale analogy yet again, I somewhat enjoyed this episode. Yes, amnesia is the laziest trick in the book. But that’s the kind of thing I’ve come to expect from this show. At least they brought Ryouko to a hospital instead of hitting her on the head again to fix her like in 30 Rock.

Ookami-san and Seven Companions 6 – Flashbacks, Flashbacks, and More Flashbacks

Like episode 3, this one featured flashbacks to the characters’ middle school days, though in this one, they were the meat of the episode. The closest thing to a fairy tale analogy I could find was in Ringo, the Little Red Riding Hood, visiting the home of Ookami, the Wolf, to give her her schoolwork and finding her in bed, just like in that tale. The similarities stopped there, though. The result was a pretty bland episode that didn’t really take advantage of the time it had to flesh out the characters’ back stories.

Ookami-san and Seven Companions 5 – Unmet Expectations

This episode sees the main plot, introduced in episode 2 but ignored since, return in a big way. Like the previous episode, the humor fell flat most of the time, and the fairy tale adaptation wasn’t anything to write home about either. At the same time, it introduces a couple interesting plot points that make me pause and rethink what I was expecting out of this show.