angel beats op

I have yet to find a format for these anime posts that i’m happy with so in the meantime… here’s some rambling steam of conscious stuff to help me come to closure with this series ^^;  ~major spoilers~

In a good news & bad news situation I’m a bad news first sorta guy so let’s start with the things that didn’t work out for me…

Yuri

I didn’t think it’d be an issue for me but surprisingly her haruhi similarities did have a negative impact on the show for me.  I kept finding myself comparing her/the show to haruhi, highlighting reasons why the quirkiness worked for the SOS-dan but not in Angel Beats.  Right from the start my first thought was, “ugh, why is she trying to be like haruhi” ^^;;;

angel beats ep 2

She’s got that same aggressive, “I’m always right” sorta personality… coming up with weird plans that feel awkward and out of place… but instead of regular world to act all this out, you’re in this weird purgatory wondering whether or not anyone has any idea how things really work.  Are her plans stupid?  Brilliant?  Because of the haruhi similarity I was inclined to feel like they were just stupid plans and her whims being carried out… and it gave her a “bad haruhi copy” vibe ^^;;  Also it really threw off my sense of what kind of show it was gonna be.  Was it just trying to cater to haruhi nostalgia or other recent hits?  Or be a serious drama or…?  Oh, and having a band in the show?  my first thought was, “they must’ve thrown that in there since k-on was so popular.”  prolly not true but that’s just the mood seeing yuri/haruhi put me in.   Which leads me to…

Pacing/Atmosphere

It really just didn’t sit well with me having the slap stick antics in a deathless society suddenly juxtaposed with the very serious flashbacks/resolutions of issues the individual characters were dealing with.  Not that I’m against comic relief in a dramatic series… I actually like those scenes very much to help you build your relationship with the characters.  But angel beats takes it a little overboard…

angel beats ep 2

Case in point – episode 1 you’re trying to figure out what’s going on, you find out that they’re in some sort of afterlife and can’t die, hahaha there’s a trap that knocks people out of the building if they don’t knock on the door right or whatever… episode 2 people are dying (for the moment) left and right as they navigate traps aaaaand *bam* we find out yuri’s 3 siblings were murdered in her previous life.  … … … ummmm ok.  Child murder in the midst of slapstick death antics  -_-  Just really didn’t work for me.  Why have such a sudden transition?  It was only episode 2!  I hadn’t developed any sorta feelings for yuri (especially since i was trying to fight the urge to compare her to haruhi) so rather than tragic the story just felt awkward and out of place.

angel beats ep 2

Basically they took what could’ve been a really shocking/disturbing reveal and dulled it down by shoving it in their viewers’ faces prematurely.  It’s like meeting someone for a first date and they bust out with, “oh yeah, did I tell you my mother got murdered last week?”  I mean… you can’t help but feel sorry for them but you’re shocked just kinda want to shrug it off and get on with things.

Also I think this sort of stuff works a lot better when you’re dealing with real world emotions… which I argue we are lacking in Angel Beats due to the lack of death in purgatory.  Lots of shows take fantastic elements in their heavy drama then mix it up with slapstick and lighter toned episodes.  Take code geass for example… really serious story at times with character death mixed in with occasional school festivals or cosplay?  Making a giant pizza?  The valentines day game?  But they haven’t altered your core reactions to tragic situations.  They’re not rewiring your emotions.  So with the lighter episodes you bond with the characters and appreciate the fleeting periods of happiness they get to experience.  Tragedy strikes and you’re that much more attached to the characters’ loss.

angel beats ep 9

Angel Beats on the other hand is trying (well, maybe not actively trying but effectively causing you) to rewire your reactions towards death and violence by eliminating any lasting consequences… while trying to build on back stories that rely heavily on your original interpretations of such -_-  Well, at least, that’s how it ended up playing out for me orz

I think the series would’ve benefited without the “no death” rule in the purgatory they were trapped in… did they really need that element?  I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be terribly hard to write it as such.  Honestly, why were they trying to craft an environment where death didn’t matter when the series revolves so heavily around death and matters left unattended because of it?  I guess maybe you could say it’s part of a theme that no hardship, not even death will prevent people from coming to peace with their lives?  But was that worth sacrificing the show’s pacing?

angel beats ep 10

Definitely not saying that a show needs to be all serious or all funny… but it’s just that this show puts you in a new world with new rules so personally it was just really hard to appreciate the lighter moments the same way.  Usually those moments give you a breather from the serious stuff, brief moments of joy to share with the cast and become more familiar with them… Angel beats felt more like they took 2 different shows and just tried to mash them together ;_;

On the other hand…

So then, despite all that I did like main story they were trying to tell… people trapped until they could come to terms with their regrets, wishes and what not of their previous lives…

Once I finally got somewhat acclimated to the bipolar nature of the show making death a slapstick gag one moment and a tear jerking tragedy the next, i finally was able to build some attachment to the characters.

angel beats ep 7

I’m quite the softy so otonashi’s backstory in ep. 7 & 9, yui’s passing in ep 10 and pretty much all of ep 13 were all able to produce some tears from me ^^;  So not to say any series that makes me cry is good but it definitely means I’ve developed a relationship with the characters which is always a good sign.

angel beats ep 8 ed

Music I enjoyed… though I suppose that may have actually hurt my appreciation of the series overall ^^;;  I say that because it was so nice and solemn… somber.  Made me feel like I was watching a serious drama instead of a comedy/drama fusion ^^;

With eva as one of the first anime i watched, rei type characters get on my good side quickly… made it pretty easy for me to like kanade ^^  Though i wish we got to know her better.  …and to that end… why did otonashi like her so much?

In the end

In the end I just feel like the series could’ve been so much more.  To anyone who’s ever played a good tear jerking visual novel perhaps you’ll agree with me when I say this just scratches the surface of what a good story could be.  I really haven’t played too many but all of them I think had better execution/cohesion than angel beats.  I think either delaying the onset of the serious back stories and easing into it more towards the middle would’ve worked better or maybe starting out more serious and giving the audience a break with lighter stuff midway would’ve been a better approach?  Again though, it may just be that the whole premise that you couldn’t die in purgatory really didn’t work for me.

fortune arterial

Alas I have no background in literature or film so I can’t articulate my complaints with anything but an amateur’s vague sense of dissatisfaction… so yeeeaaah, I won’t try to convince any of you who liked it that I’m right ^^;  But for what it’s worth, the series just felt off to me and I wish it was executed better.

Guy has his thoughts posted in this post which seem to echo my general feelings towards the series.  I won’t be so bold as to say he agrees with me but if nothing else I guess I can say I’m not alone in my disappointment ^^;  (plus he mentions shigofumi, which I noticed he rated as a 10/10.  not sure i’d say it’s perfect, but i’m pretty sure that’s a vastly under appreciated series ^^)

ETERNAL on the other hand enjoyed it very much if you’d like a contrasting point of view.

TLDR

Despite my complaints, overall I think I’d prolly have to say the series was above average, but again it just felt like it squandered an opportunity to be top notch.

以上！

ep 4

Well that only took me about a year to complete ^^;;;  Think I watched the first episode around when it first aired and didn’t finish the series until  last week.  Thoughts and spoilers (probably?) to follow~

op

Thought I’d post on this one since I enjoyed it so much.  As given away by the title, this series is just another romantic comedy… err given away if you know Japanese, huh? ^^;  初 – hatsu (first) 恋 – koi (love).  mmm though I guess I should mention for those wanting to learn Japanese, those are only one of many readings for those characters.  So don’t be surprised if they are read differently in other words ^^;

ep 7

Anyhow, moving on before I get distracted into a learning Japanese post…  I liked how things quickly get complicated… misao likes ayumi… ayumi likes mamoru… who turns out to be misao’s brother… who is friends with yuuji… who misaki likes… who is mamoru’s osananajimi and love interest… etc etc ^^

ep 6

Not sure I’d put hatsukoi in my top 10 or anything, but I think it holds its own with decent plot and characters.  At first I was having trouble getting into the way characters were thinking/behaving, but then looking at the title… it’s supposed to be about peeps falling in love for the first time.  Viewed in that context I thought it was excellent in capturing the sort of petty-yet-it’s-the-whole-world-as-I-know-it scope of teenage love. ^^;

ep 12

‘nother thing that clicked for me were ayumi and koyoi ^^  かわゆす＾＿＾　物凄く可愛かったっす！  Somehow they managed that without annoying the crap out of me ^^;  K-ON! Yui fans should note toyosaki also voices koyoi, who is a hopeless burakon.

ep 4

Kei covers the tsundere contingency for this series, chikura-chan is an artistic, soft-spoken pettanko.  Rika is for the tom-boy fans and misaki + meguru cover oppai and meganekko.  Pretty much all the characters get their own arcs so it’s not just a mindless jumble of moe (well, or maybe it still is, depending on how critical you are :P).  Hailing from shounen jump, it also has its fair share of fan service :P

ep 6

The series wraps things up in 12 episodes, but the manga was only 4 volumes long so I think it ended up being a good length.  Kinda sucks for mamoru and sogabe but again I liked how it captured the troubles of middle/high school romance.  Things like… your crush likes someone else, is moving away, doesn’t seem interested in you at all, doesn’t seem very intimate, is your sister… ok well, all but that last one are common problems :P

ep 8

prolly just me being an old man, but the nostalgia of these sorts of situations (well, in a loose sense ^^;) really made the series for me.  ^^;;  … that and kei’s tsundere power ^^  I suppose it is pretty ordinary and not so deep if you really look at it… eternal has the perfect post for you if that’s what ya think ^^  Though again for the record, I am easily amused…  so thumbs up from me :P

Oh and almost forgot my other favorite character:

ep 5

takei ftw!

err wouldn’t want to end with swimming hentai man so…

ep 12

Was wondering how they’d work in the obligatory onsen scene :P

Decent series, only 12 episodes.  I’d say at least give it a try if you like romantic comedy.  Or perhaps you’re in the mood for a lighter series that isn’t deep… might be a perfect fit ^^ … hmmm think I’ve forgotten my audience.  Already spoiled the ending for those who haven’t seen it, haven’t i? ^^;;;;  Well, maybe not, since it’s presented more in a vignette style…

alrighty, last thing, i promise.  awesome yui-dubbed-with-various-things-ayumi-says vid (niconico):

Took a few pics of cirno today, hope to have them up soon (no, not an insane 40 pic post like nanoha-chan ^^;;;)

以上！

ep 3

Feeling better, woo!!!  Thought I’d do an anime post for a change and since that’s what I’ve been up to.  Recently just finished sorakake… trying to figure out what the heck it was all about ^^;;  spoilers about, but it finished airing awhile ago, so i assume not an issue for most?

First things first… gotta admit I kinda struggled through this one.  Though let me preface this whole rant with the fact that I watch unsubbed raws and my understanding of things may not have been correct.  Please point me in the right direction as necessary ^^;;; m(_ _)m

Fans of the series, brace yourselves, this is not a beaming review ^^;;

ep 4

These navimen?  naviman?  things?  whatever imoko is… are they supposed to be cute?  Funny?  All I know is that imoko was sorta getting on my nerves…

ep 8

And then akiha… not really a main character i had much emotional investment in.  I mean, yeah ok, she’s supposed to be this “n-th-daughter-of-a-crazy-family-who’s-naive” or what not… which is fine… but… her growth is extremely slow and limited to the end… which left me annoyed with her the whole time so that by the time she decides to get serious I didn’t really believe it/didn’t care.

ep 9

Which kinda leads me to another gripe…  I couldn’t get a feel for how the series wanted to portray itself.  Half the time it felt like it was going to be a serious epic story… but then, as pictured above, they felt they had enough time for an omake-ish baseball episode?  Well fine, nothing wrong with omake-ish episodes.  But the thing is that it totally continued to confuse my understanding of the terrible decisions the characters make.

ep 12

Like in episode 12… it’s not long after kagura came for hako-chan or what not… and yet no one’s prepared at all for the following invasion.  Things like this seemed to happen all the time.  Bad guys just waltz in wherever they want to go… security is a joke!  It’s like they don’t care!  So I subconsciously keep thinking that the story isn’t taking itself seriously… without providing me with characters that amuse me otherwise.

ep 18

Another example is in episode 18… really great how kagura just takes akiha away with no resistance.  I know she’s uber or whatever… but *no* resistance?  -_-

ep 13

Speaking of taking things seriously… they put… boxes on their heads?  Then walk around like zombies?  Seriously?  Did no one take a step back and notice it looks ridiculous?  It’s not like I want every show I watch to be super serious the whole time… but when you’re trying to tell a story about powers wrestling for control over humanity and using living humans as parts of a machine… -_-

ep 25

Because of my frustrations with the good guys I ended up doing what I usually do… cheering for the bad guys ^^;  Twin tails to boot, go nami!  ^^;  Felt like she really got the shaft… some about running away from her modeling career but to me at least it seemed like no one in her family was even trying to provide her the support she needed.  So then she gets her hand on some power and goes all murderous… which, ok, fine, is not justifiable… but I just feel like her damn sisters shoulda tried to help her out a bit more…

ep 26

And this was kagura’s plan for saving nami?  “gomen ne?”

ep 26

My response was the same as nami’s.  “haaaa?”

I started out expecting great things… I mean, from trailers and the op and such  it looked like the story of some normal girl getting wrapped with with power/control of this super power canon thing… mysterious mecha woman fighting against energy katana girl… maybe end with some power up awesomeness to starsylph to finally take down the bad guy…

But it seemed like it ended up just going halfway with everything.  You don’t even have a bad guy to focus on once nerval is good all of a sudden…  Felt like in their desire to throw in plot twists they really lost focus…

ep 14

I think in the end my favorite characters were min and bou ^^;  They were my only reliable source of comic relief and the above scene in episode 14 sealed the deal for my sympathy for them ^^;

ep 22

…as opposed to akiha’s temporary loss of imo-chan.  Just when I was finally about to think that the story had decided to get serious/epic…

ep 24

We find out that no, imo-chan lives after all and akiha suffers no loss.

Alas.  Usually I forgive a lot of things that don’t make sense… but that’s when I have some emotional investment in the characters.  Wasn’t the case this time so I got all nit-picky ^^;

Wonder what the general consensus was on this one?  Will have to search around the blagosphere since I avoid anime posts on series I haven’t seen to stay spoiler free ^^;

以上！

Got quite a few recommendations for this one so I was surprised by dialog after dialog after dialog.  ‘course don’t get me wrong – having played my fair share of galge I’m not biased against that or anything.  Rather, was surprised that others weren’t ^^;  pantsu screenshot incoming, don’t say i didn’t warn you.

I suppose with an opening like this though… perhaps it’s not surprising people sat through all that dialogue? :P

pantsu and service aside, I really enjoyed the unique style of the show.  Kinda reminded me of shigofumi and natsu no arashi – not in content, but that both of those shows really captured a certain feel and ran with it.

You may know I’m a japanese language nut so the brief flashes of text on screens really caught my attention and added to my enjoyment -

Not sure if the translators are capturing this in their editorial notes or whatever (well, actually knowing their fanaticism I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve already dissected everything in much more detail ^^;)… but here’s my simplistic take on things:

The above screen seems harmless enough.  Two characters and they even have a reading at the bottom.  However, you’ll notice that 黑, in the screenshot isn’t the usual writing of black, 黒 is.  Also, the other character isn’t very common either – it’s not listed in my “compact” nelson japanese character dictionary (i put “compact” in quotes because it still has 3000 kanji ^^;;).  Finally looked it up for this post and it turns out that 齣 means paragraph or section.  It’s kind of hard to describe the feeling if you’re not familiar with characters, but seeing these non-standard ones evoked a unique sort of flavor for the show for me.

I’ve given up on translating the bottom part for now… more crazy characters that aren’t commonly used anymore make it hard to search ^^;

More word fun below:

Usually kanji aren’t used at all for その (sono == that, or in this case, part of “sono ichi” which is like, “part 1″ or, “the first”).  Not toooo weird to use it, but then they go and bust out 壹 for one (ichi)!  One is usually written 一, sometimes you’ll see 壱 for some old school flavor… but this takes it to the next level ^^;  Turns out that this is the character sometimes used in Korean, and I’m sure it must be a Chinese character as well… not sure if the feeling they wished to evoke was ancient Japan, Korea, China… or just uniqueness ^^;;

And on the bottom, it says something like, “Font used: HGP Mincho B”.  What the heck?!   (oh and they used another weird character in place of 体 (tai) ^^;).

Soooo, just imagine that sort of internal conversation/puzzling going on every time they flash text on the screen… that’s what a large part of the viewing experience was for me ^^;

After geeking out on the language aspect, add in 戦場ヶ原 (senjyougahara)

feisty little mayoi-chan

tomboyish suruga

…who, i really thought was a guy all the times i saw the following ^^;

buruma nadeko

meganekko iinchou tsubasa

I liked the short vignette style of story telling with a greater arc coming to a close as the series ended.  Was like that in shigofumi too.  Characters come and go, but, when done well, their arc will leave a lasting impression on you.

Couldn’t get enuf of mayoi’s butchering of araragi’s name ^^

かみまみだ。

^^

Speaking of mayoi kamimamida, there’s a huge craze of マイムマイム (mayim mayim) vids going around niconico in which she has no small part ^^

Think I’ve watched it at least 10 times ^^;

Oh yes, and top things off with an ED song by supercell!

Really grew on me throughout the series and now I’ve set it as my alarm clock song ^^;

Haven’t seen enough (other shows) yet to call it the anime of the year (or even of that season ^^;;) but it was definitely a solid watch for me.  Need to pick up the light novels now ^^

Without my visual novel exposure I’m not sure I would’ve enjoyed this the same way.  Since playing, long dialog and run of the mill everyday conversation have become part of my expectations ^^;

Have you watched it yet?  Favorite character?

以上！

To all those that have seen hyakko, share wha’cha love!  To those that haven’t, hopefully this will sway you one way or the other~

When it comes to slice of life shows, I generally evaluate them by two simple criteria – characters and chemistry between said characters.  Sooo, let’s see how hyakko stacks up.

~characters~

The series focuses on a group of 4 girls:

能乃村 歩巳 (nonomura ayu) – voiced by none other than hirano aya!

However, aya fans, don’t get too excited – though the show begins with ayu…can’t really say she’s the star of the show.  Honestly if I didn’t recognize her voice… I’d probably like her character a lot less ^^;;  (well, not that I’d dislike her… but rather I wouldn’t really notice her)  In 3 adjectives… shy, polite, and kawaii!

伊井塚 龍姫 (iidzuka tatsuki) – voiced by neya michiko.  Soul Calibur fans like myself may be surprised to know she’s the voice of Sophitia!

The ojyou-sama of the group.  By the book, can come off as cold, aloof.  Do you know the adjective katai?  Literally it means hard, solid, or stiff – applies to personalities too though, and tatsuki.  Personally one of my favorite character types to see brought out of their comfort zone.

早乙女 雀 (saotome suzume) – voiced by yuzuhara konomi ochiai yurika.  Aside from konomi in ToHeart2, seems that ochiai-san has also did yukiho’s voice in the Idolm@aster.

torako’s side kick ^_^  On the quiet side, but that definitely doesn’t mean shy ^^;  Always seems to be surprising ayu and tatsuki with her daitan behavior coupled with an ice cold expression.   torako’s used to it… for the most part :P

上下山 虎子 (kageyama torako) – voiced by orikasa fumiko, Shirley Fenette being the only other character of hers I’m familiar with… though that’s just my failure as an otaku ^^;  fumiko-san has quite a lengthy resume :P

Here we have, in my eyes at least, the real star of the show.  Energetic, care free, whimsical… a great friend ^_^  A touch of irresponsibility too… torako’s the type to try first and apologize later ^^;

Aside from the big 4, there’s a multitude of other characters in case your type isn’t covered by the above girls ^_^

杏藤 子々 andou nene

幕之内 潮 makunouchi ushio

古囃 独楽 kobayashi koma

蕾家 祈 tsubomiya inori

大場 湊兎 ooba minato

涼ヶ崎 知恵 suzugazaki chie

I won’t go into all of them, since half the fun is getting to know them ^_^

There’s a handful of males in the show too, though my favorite is amagasa kyouichirou sensei ^_^

Poor guy has to deal with a class of weirdos :P

~character interactions~

Once a show has got my attention with the characters, then it’s about how they work (or fight :P) together!  I think this is the highlight of hyakko for me.  There are so many combinations of characters that produce amusing situations for me.

torako + tatsuki = fun loving crazy girl + formal katai girl = hilarity ^_^

nene + torako = class president + torako … what could possibly be interesting about that? You must watch and get to know nene ^_^

ushio + torako… torako isn’t exactly a model student, so she hangs out with another delinquent type from time to time. It’s great seeing torako’s beaming cheerfulness clash against the seemingly mean spirited ushio.

koma + ayu/torako (well, mostly during art class ^^;) – episode 4, art class, I loved it ^_^

inori + iori – unfortunately you don’t see much of these sisters in the anime or manga, but I enjoy the little time they have a lot. I think it may be the influence of moe sadako.

minato + ushio = timid, quick to tears type + rough delinquent type (with a soft side :P)

hitsugi + torako – hitsugi is a younger student you see from time to time in the anime. She has a much bigger role in the manga that unfortunately wasn’t covered in anime. At any rate, torako befriending hitsugi is good for the lols ^_^

oniyuri + torako = strict, beautiful onee-san trying to discipline torako. Good for the awwww kawaii~ moments ^_^

kyouichirou + torako – I absolutely love how torako and amagasa sensei interact.

~Soooo~

A great slice of life in my book.  Best complemented by the manga imo though… because if you enjoyed the anime as much as I did, you’ll want more :P  Currently 31 chapters span the 4 volumes of manga published.  In this case the manga has a pretty rough feeling compared to the anime, but the content is the same goodness.

I’m curious what others thought of the last episode – I knew what was going to happen since I had read the equivalent chapter in the manga, perhaps took a lot of air out of it for me.

Optic recently posted about the OP, you can find the ED on youtube, below.

And there you have it.  Hyakko!  Be forewarned, seems many were turned off by the first episode, which, admittedly, doesn’t do the show justice.  As such, I highly recommend watching at least 3 episodes to give hyakko a chance :P

and all I… err… well, guess I’ll keep this post spoiler free so I’ll leave final thoughts to a hidden section somewhere…

Despite my post’s title, really enjoyed the series, if you haven’t checked it out, you might wanna do so.  I guess it was more of a, “That’s it?  I want more!”

In my opinion, a good show if you’re looking for:

• Hot space chicks

• A dash of high school slice of life romance

• A dash of gay(?) alien

• Good ‘ol melee combat with alien technology

• Hot space chicks

• Nakasugi-san

• Hot space chicks

Truth be told no, it’s not a fan service fest like my list might have you believe ^^;  But yeah, anyhow, it’s a self contained 13 episode series (though another season seems to be in the works), just how I like ‘em.

Evidently the anime is based on the manga, which has kinda quirky history – The original run was only like 10 chapters long.  A 4 episode OVA followed that… then many years later that the autor (ゆうきまさみ {yuuki masami} tried again and his second attempt at telling the birdy story I think just concluded, coming in at 20 volumes.

Some spoilers in my thoughts on the series as a whole: (highlight or whatever you like to do to read white on white text :P)

Gah, it’s series like this that pushed me back to follow the source material whenever possible.  Obviously, not having read the manga I’m not sure how the story goes there, but there’s a least a chance that the plot was a little more flushed out.

The ending just seemed a little rushed for me I guess… blast tsutomu, get the ryunka, put tsutomu’s mind back in birdy (did anyone not see that coming? ^^;) and wipe everyone’s memory…?  meh.  and then having nakasugi transfer schools seemed pretty crappy… tsutomu was ready to die for this girl and so now… he says good bye as she transfers schools and doesn’t remember their time together -_-  weak!  I guess I’m also spoiled with the usual galge handling of these types of situations.  Even so, I don’t mind the tragic or bittersweet sort of endings if they make a little more sense…

Other than that I really enjoyed the series, and really liked the OP/ED songs.  I watched most of birdy while working out and the songs had a nice energy that got my blood goin ^_^

With the next batch of anime just starting, I’m glad to get this one off my plate, but I’m still drowning… probably post about that soon ^^;

見てね～

So I’m out of batteries for my camera at the moment… … アニメ変化発動！[anime transformation engage!]  Week or so ago I finished Kurenai.  Thoroughly enjoyed it, although to be honest, I’m not particularly critical… doesn’t take much to get a passing grade from me ^^;

A little addendum about my watching habits — I usually watch raws to get the maximum japanese practice out of what I watch… but since I’m not entirely fluent, and since I usually watch while working out… i often end up missing lotsa details. ^^; Specially those explanation scenes… you know… everyone’s sitting down, serious music queues up, serious faces all around… yeah, usually need to rewatch those ^^; *ahem* and that’s why lots of my descriptions may be wrong.

それでは！

A bit about the title, skip this paragraph if you have little patience for ramblings about the Japanese language. 紅 [kurenai] means deep red, or crimson. However, there are two other words you could be hearing: 暮れない [kurenai] – not getting dark, not ending; くれない [kurenai] – not giving. (the latter two are negative forms of verbs)

The Players

	紅真九郎 [kurenai shinkurou] – The main character the series is named after.  Your typical atypical high school student with a troubled past making a future for himself.
九鳳院紫 [kuhouin murasaki] – An adorable (well, in her own little way ^^;) little girl that has been saved/kidnapped from her oppressive, rich, and powerful family. She speaks in a very… hmm i’m not sure how to describe it… proud? mmm well, unique manner. Basically using older style words to give a sense of nobility combined with rough informal forms because she’s always speaking to (who would be) subordinates. Having been raised in a household with servants she is very naive about normal (and, in shinkurou’s case, meager) circumstances.
	闇絵 [yamie] – One of shinkurou’s neighbors, heavy in sarcasm and dark humor. She’s awesome. And boy, you should hear her sing.
武藤環 [mutou tamaki] – Another one of shinkurou’s neighbors. College student, flirtatious, perhaps 下品 [vulgar] by Japanese standards. She’s also awesome. Never hesitates to teach murasaki the way things really are.
	柔沢紅香 [jyuuzawa benika] -shinkurou’s employer.  I couldn’t figure out exactly what her work was but it seemed like it was some sort of vigilante mercenary type of work? ^^;
犬塚弥生 [inuzuka yayoi] – Another one of benika’s employees.  Highly skilled fighter, basically overseeing shinkurou to make sure he doesn’t screw up and murasaki remains safe.  Poor girl is always outside in the cold ^^;
	村上銀子 [murakami ginko] – Friend/partner of shinkurou who helps by investigating things.  Doesn’t seem to like yuuno.
崩月夕乃 [houzuki yuuno] – Another friend of shinkurou, also his sparing partner.  AYASHII ONNA DA. ^_^;;
	九鳳院蓮丈 [kuhouin renjyou] -Mursaki’s father.

So why would you watch this?  It has a nice mix of slice of life content, action (mostly hand-to-hand fighting), and drama.

murasaki, shinkurou, yamie and tamaki are generally the focus of these sort of scenes.  yayoi and shinkurou get most of the action in the first part of the series.

As the plot unfolds you learn about the kuhouin family, about murasaki’s parents, about shinkurou’s past and relationships…

In the beginning part of the series you quickly learn shinkurou’s body isn’t quite normal… knowing nothing about the series i thought it was going to have more of a sci-fi element to it, but no, none of that. It acts as an important plot device but this isn’t magical boy lyrical kurenai.

When you get down to it, I suppose there’s not much to the story, but what really drew me into this series was the characters. Really enjoyed all of them, can’t wait to get the light novels, written by Katayama Kentarou, illustrated by Yamamoto Yamato (the source material, it seems. from what i hear, anime didn’t exactly stick to the same content, which is good since i won’t know what’s coming ^^;).  According to wikipedia the novels are ongoing and currently 4 have been published.

Quick plot summary for those wanting spoilers:
murasaki is taken from her family by benika who puts her under the care of shinkurou. shinkurou, murasaki, tamaki and yamie have lots of slice of life sorts of moments. murasaki gets taken back by some crazy kuhouin bodyguard and her brother. benika, yayoi, and shinkurou go to get murasaki back, end up finally defeating the bodyguard and getting to murasaki. murasaki decides to stay with her family, but as a free girl, not as a repressed kuhouin woman. the end.

So yeah, for me, exactly my type of anime.  Short, sweet, great engaging characters.  Also really like the art style.  Don’t know how to describe it, but it has kinduva different feel than lots of the anime out there and I took a liking to it.

mite ne~