Kore Wa Zombie Desu Ka? Of the Dead! - Ep02

Characters

Aikawa Ayumu - He is the series protagonist, in the previous series he was murder by a serial killer. Then latter on brought back to life by Yuu, who is a silent necromancer. Which later on he had the unfortunate luck of meeting Haruna, which latter leaded to him becoming a Masou Shojou (Magical Girl). This all makes him a very complicated and troubled young man, when all he wants is a normal life. That is a little difficult when everything about his life is anything but normal.

Haruna – She is the Mahou Shojou that had her powers stolen by Ayumu when she tried to erase his memories after she chopped him in half in the process of trying to kill a meglo. That currently she is a freeloader that is living in Ayumu's house while waiting for her powers to return, and while she is waiting she has Ayumu work as a substitute Masou Shojou.

Eucliwood Hellsythe - “yuu” - Is the person that resurrected Ayumu, also she is unusual because she doesn't speak or to be more precious she choose not to speak. The reason being is that her very words influence the universe, that if she told someone to die they would. There is also the fact that even after she dies her magic will never fade. This is way her only way of communication is through pen and paper.

Seraphim - “Sera” - Is part of a clan of Vampire-Ninjas, she can to Yuu because she wants her to resurrect their leader. That to this ends she is willing to be Yuu's servant, however Yuu doesn't want her because she already has Ayumu. This leads to her being Ayumu's servant in name only, and decided to live in Ayumu's house until she is able to convince Yuu to resurrect her ninja's clan leader.

Mael Strom - “Yoshida Yuki” - Is from a Ninja clan, that are rival with the Sera's clan. That by an unfortunate accident she ended up kiss Ayumu. That according to Sera Vampire-Ninja's consider kissing someone as being married to them and it doesn't matter if it was intend or not. This makes her association with Ayumu a bit complicated because Sera lives with him and is technical his servant.

Sarasvati – She is from the same Ninja clan as Sera, and what make her interesting is her view on Ayumu. The reason for this is Sera hates him, while Sarasvati is in love with him or more preciously his ass. Which I would think would make for a particular uncomfortable conversation. Also what makes things a bit more interesting is that she is Sera's superior.

Orito – He is Ayumu's friend and classmate, and is mostly regard by others as being generally creepy. While Ayumu tries to take great care to keep him out of his magical life because Ayumu wants to preserve some degree of normalcy in his life.

Taeko Hiramatsu – Is Yuki's friend and Ayumu's classmate, although currently Ayumu doesn't know about her feelings for him. However it would be interesting to see how Ayumu would react if he knew how she felt.

Summary

It seems like Ayumu is cursed to bare this humiliation. What is kind of interesting about all this is that I don't understand why Yuu doesn't fix the magical chain-saw, then that would allow Ayumu to erase everyone's memories. Although I guess if she did do that it would take all the fun out of the current season, because there seems to be a focus on either fixing the chain-saw or find a new way to live with thing they are now. This leads to Ayumu current predicament, which is that he is now famous and strangely not in a bad way. Although it doesn't make any sense to him at all, however the straw that broke the camels back. Is when Hiramatsu tells him he had beautiful legs, no man that I can imagine would want to be call beautiful. When Ayumu tires to escape his fans, he runs into Yuki. She suggest that they go away on a trip together so that he can get away from all of his trouble, this seeming like a very good idea to Ayumu he readily agrees.

However this trip into the mountains to star gaze didn't turn out the way that Yuki had planned because the rest of the woman that live with Ayumu decide to come along. Although once they explain that they are not here because they are interested in Ayumu and want to get in-between the two, it just that it might be more fun if they are all together. They are a bit peaceful for awhile until Haruna decides to look for a bathroom in the woods, which leads to Ayumu thinking she got into some trouble. This cause Yuki and Ayumu to go look for her, however when they find her she is being chased by a swarm of bees. This cause Haruna to use Ayumu as a human sacrifice to save herself from the bees, then through a strange chain of events leads to Ayumu being attack by a bear after being cover head-to-toe in bees. Then with the craziness resolved the finally reach their destination to watch the stars, then while here Ayumu finds the resolve to continue on with his live despite how messed up it may be. What also resulted from the trip is that he progress a bit further with his relationship with Yuki.

Then with his new resolve to face his current situation, he feels that he ultimately just has to accept his fame. This leads to him signing autograph after autograph, however because of everything that has been happening to him he is unaware of the newest threat that is creeping up on him. That threat is that Sarasvati has fallen in love with him, and this leads to her giving him a blank piece of paper which leads him to believe that she wants him to sign it. This assumption is incorrect because she wants him to poor water on it, this of-course reveals that it is a love letter write with invisible ink. What else would you expect from a ninja. However although Ayumu isn't pleased about this at all, for some reason Sarasvati is vary pleased with his reaction. Things end with us finding out that the major person involved with the spread of his humiliation was Sarasvati because she want the world to know the glory of her darlings ass. It will be interesting to see Ayumu's reaction if and when he finds this out.

Haiyore! Nyaruko-San - Ep01

Characters

Nyaruko – She is a nyarlathotep, like the one from H.P. Lovecraft stories. Although the interesting thing is she tells Mahiro she is part of the planetary defense force. However if her true nature is like the ones from Lovecraft's stories, than all of this is a lie and anythings she says can't be taken too seriously.

Mahiro – Is a 17 year-old boy that is currently living alone because his parents are away on their 17^th honeymoon to celebrate their 17^th anniversary. However his life got extremely complicate from the moment that Nyaruko save his life, and start to live with him.

Yoichi – Is Friends with Mahiro, and is very kind. Although he has yet to learn of the insanity that is surrounding his friend. Currently there just isn't enough information to make any real conclusion on his character.

Kurei – Appears to be another one of Mahiro friends, although he regards her as an annoyance by giving her the nickname “The Walking Speaker”. However it is difficult to say what sort of impact she will have on the story, since we have really only been introduce to her character.

Summary

The interesting thing about this series is that it is based on the mythical world that H.P. Lovecraft created, where all the creatures that appeared in his stories were in reality aliens. The series gets started with Mahiro getting chased down by some monster, and the very moment that he asks for someone to save him. Nyaruko appears and kills it. This leads us to the next morning where he is having breakfast with his savior, although it appears that she has no intent in answering any of his questions until he tries to stab her with a fork. This leads to her explaining that all of the things that Lovecraft wrote about are real it just that they are aliens rather than gods. The her purpose of being here is to protect the earth as part of the Planetary Defense Force, and the creature that he encountered last night is part of want to sell him as part of their slave trade. That she is assigned to protect him.

Although Later as she take Mahiro out with her to shop, she ends up explaining the reason the Planetary Defense Force is so interested in the earth. It turns out that our planet makes some of the best entertainment in the entire universe, that anything that posses a threat to that is view as a serious threat. Although it seems that a very limit amount manages to get off planet so this is where you get criminal organization trying to do things illegally. Then that ends up getting the Planetary Defense Force involved this is part of the reason that Nyaruko begged her superior for this job, the other reason appears to be that she fell in love with Mahiro when she found out that he was the person that she was to protect. Although Mahiro is finding it hard to believe her with how violently she is dealing with her enemies.

Then following day Mahiro has go back to school, and ask Nyaruko if he will be alright since he is going to be away from her. Although Nyaruko makes seem like it be alright in an half-ass-ed manner. The reason for this become clear when she later appears as a transfer student. Later in PE when Yoichi ask if everything is alright because he is looking troubled, but before he can answer someone named Kurei intrudes upon the conversation. Her reason is she wants to interview him on how he feel about the new transfer student, also considering since she is living with him. Then with the unclear manner that he response in leads her to believe that he is may fall in love with Nyaruko, all though this question seems to just be a front to ask this question.

After they have returned to class, he wakes Nyaruko up because he notice another one of the monsters/aliens flying around outside. This leads to Nyaruko making some poor excuse to get out of class and dragging Mahiro along for the ride. Then when she see that it is the same type as before, she doesn't want to fight it because she gotten tired of them. This means that she is going to have her pet fight it, however even-though it looks impressive. In true it appears that it is hopelessly weak with 99 loses and 1 draw. This ends up with Nyaruko having to fight anyways, but it is getting hard to believe what she says is true because it looks more like she belongs with the criminal organization than with the Planetary Defense Force. This brings up the question even-though she is capable of protecting him, can the same be said for his sanity. The reason for this is that the nyarlathotep or “crawling chaos” created by Lovecraft is known for being more interested in causing insanity than destroying the world. Although what this implication will mean for the series can't really be said, however it might be that she is a greater threat to him than what she is suppose to be protecting him from.

Tasogare Otome X Amnesia - Ep01

Characters

Niiya Teiichi – Is the main character in the story, after meeting Yuuko he wants to find out the reason for her death, and why her corpse was hidden in the old school building. In the desire to find these answers he looks into various ghost stories that seem to be connected to Yuuko in some way.

Yuuko – Is the ghost that inhabits Teiichi's school, and for some reason Teiichi is the one of the few people that can actually see her. It also appears for some reason she has forgotten how she died, although see really doesn't care about finding out. The only thing she wants is for Teiichi to pay attention to her.

Okonogi – Is a journalist that works for the school paper, and she ends up helping Teiichi a lot by digging up various ghost stories that end up floating around school. Also for her own reason she wants to help Teiichi out in his investigation of ghost stories.

Kirie – Is one of the few people that are able to see Yuuko other than Teiichi, other because of this it cause a great deal of stress for her. The reason being is that she can see Yuuko feeling Teiichi up while everyone else can't see her.

Summary

What I find interesting is how they decide to start the series in about the middle of the manga. It is clear that they did this just so that they could give a clear introduction to all the major characters in the story. Also from the preview of next episode they will go back to they very beginning of the manga before all these people meet. The other thing that is interesting is that for the first half of the episode we saw Yuuko's interaction with those around her while we couldn't see or hear Yuuko. This element of the series will be interesting to see how they will use it in the future. Although I'm not sure if I would like them to play every episode out the way they did this one, where you had to watch almost everything twice. If it was just this once I guess it would be alright.

The interesting thing is how the moved on to the story about the ghost elevator. I guess it might be a little scary if an elevator that was no-long in use suddenly started to move. Also it kind of funny how it turns out that Yuuko has been using it has a convent short-cut. However it wasn't as scary for Teiichi as it was for Okonogi Since he could actually see Yuuko press the button on the elevator. It was amusing how Yuuko slowly moved behind Teiichi, just to knock him into the small elevator. Only to climb in behind him as the elevator descends, but all this was merely done so that she could get some alone time with Teiichi.

Although the episode ends with them heading to Yuuko's supposed grave that Okonogi found. Although Yuuko's corpse is back in the club-room where the door is all boarded up. This allows for them to define that things are not going to be a pleasant as they have been portrayed so far. That there is a dark-side to the story that we have yet to see. However with the way things are going, I think they are trying to go a bit a different direction than then manga is going. It should be interesting to see how things play out with it being an anime, because the same events that exist in the manga will be portrayed differently in the anime. I'm eagerly waiting to see how things will play out in the series.

Sankarea - Ep01

Characters

Furuya Chihiro – He is a strange young man who is obsessed with zombies, he himself can't explain his love for them. However when his pet cat Babu get run-over, he tries to resurrect him with the potion that is written in this old book he found in his temple. Although he couldn't anticipate the effects that his actions would have on those around him.

Sanka Rea – She is from a wealthy family, and goes to an all-girls school across the river from Chihiro's all-boys school. Ultimately, she ends up meeting Chihiro by him over-hearing her screaming into a dry-well at the abandon building that Chihiro is working to resurrecting Babu. This leads them into entering into some sort of friendship.

Furuya Doun – He is Chihiro's Father, and also the head-priest at the temple that Furuya family manage. He doesn't play a particular big part in the manga so it likely that he is even less important in the anime.

Furuya Jogoro – He is Chihiro's Grandfather, and he is not all there. In truth there is a deeper reason for that, but the reality of that will be revealed in time.

Furuya Mero – She is Chihiro's little sister. Also for some reason she feels that she can't show any weakness.

Babu – He is a stray cat that chihiro has taken in and see as his own. Also when the cat dies, it fills Chihiro with the desire to bring it back to life because he can't accept the injustice that has been brought upon his cat.

Saouji Ranko – She is Chihiro's cousin, and they are fairly close to one another. In the manga there is a bit of a romantic relationship between her and Chihiro. The series even goes as far as mention some law about it is legal for cousins to marry one another. Whether they choose to go that direction in the anime is another question entirely.

Summary

In the begging they focus on Chihiro's life before Babu died, while in the manga he was already trying to bring Babu back to life. They use the beginning to focus on Chihiro obsession with zombies. Also if he had a girlfriend she would have to be a zombie, that nothing else would do. In psychology we would call this condition necrophilia, it is one of the sicker mental disorders. Anyway putting all strangeness aside, he has a fairly happy family life with his father, little sister, grandfather, and cat. Although his mother is dead and his grandfather can't remember anything past five second. He still fairly happy, although with all stories there must be some form of conflict.

This conflict is created by Babu's death, with him getting run-over. This leads to them holding an impromptu ceremony because some of the more old-fashion people that visit the temple would find it offensive to hold a formal ceremony for the death of someones pet. Even after the funeral for Babu, Chihiro just can't accept the injustice that he suffered. This cause him to remember about a note-book at a relatives place that he picked-up because they deemed it worthless. It turns out in this old book there are notes on how to make a resurrection potion. This leads to Chihiro digging up Babu, and trying to resurrected him in secret. Where he decides that the best place to do this is at this abandon building that no-one goes.

Although that is what he believed until Sanka Rea start showing up while he was working. The reason she was coming was to get her problem off her chest by shouting into the dry-well at this abandon building. However she finds out that Chihiro has been watching her, when he drops his drink from the shock that her father has been taking nude pictures on her birthday. I think most anyone would be shock from hearing about that. This leads to her coming up to talk to Chihiro about keeping quiet about what he heard tonight, that she will do anything he asks if he just remains silent.

However, he response by saying that it is alright if he tells them what he heard Rea say last night. He tells her that it is alright, that it must be very hard on her where every moment of her life is monitored. That it is understandable that you would need to do something to let all the stress go. This leads Rea to believe that Chihiro might be here for the same reason as her. Although he corrects her by stating that the reason he is here is to have privacy while he tries to resurrect Babu. This amazes Rea, and it she believes it would make Babu happy to be reunited with Chihiro.

This leads to Chihiro going on about how innocent and vulnerable that she is, that she isn't aware of how evil men are. That she would go out with the first person that asked her, this cause her to question Chihiro if he has a girlfriend. He answers no, this makes her feel that he has no right to judge her if he doesn't have one. The reason he gives for not having one is that he isn't interested in living woman, that he is only interested in dead ones. He partly does this to scare her away but things end with Rea turning the tables on him by saying, that if she died he would bring her back to life.

In this series, I think the people that would be most interested in it are people that have already read the manga. The reason being is that the series moves at very slow pace for an anime, and is not able to create the same high level of tension that the manga creates. Where you are left waiting for things to make a turn for the worst. Although it is interesting to see Chihiro's life before Babu died, and the build-up to his decision to resurrect his cat. However it is hard to say if they are going for an original ending or a faithful recreation of the manga. It could at this point go either way, it will be an interesting ride none the less.

Kore Wa Zombie Desu Ka? Of the Dead! - Ep01

Characters

Aikawa Ayumu - He is the series protagonist, in the previous series he was murder by a serial killer. Then latter on brought back to life by Yuu, who is a silent necromancer. Which later on he had the unfortunate luck of meeting Haruna, which latter leaded to him becoming a Masou Shojou (Magical Girl). This all makes him a very complicated and troubled young man, when all he wants is a normal life. That is a little difficult when everything about his life is anything but normal.

Haruna – She is the Mahou Shojou that had her powers stolen by Ayumu when she tried to erase his memories after she chopped him in half in the process of trying to kill a meglo. That currently she is a freeloader that is living in Ayumu's house while waiting for her powers to return, and while she is waiting she has Ayumu work as a substitute Masou Shojou.

Eucliwood Hellsythe  “yuu” - Is the person that resurrected Ayumu, also she is unusual because she doesn't speak or to be more precious she choose not to speak. The reason being is that her very words influence the universe, that if she told someone to die they would. There is also the fact that even after she dies her magic will never fade. This is way her only way of communication is through pen and paper.

Seraphim  “Sera” - Is part of a clan of Vampire-Ninjas, she can to Yuu because she wants her to resurrect their leader. That to this ends she is willing to be Yuu's servant, however Yuu doesn't want her because she already has Ayumu. This leads to her being Ayumu's servant in name only, and decided to live in Ayumu's house until she is able to convince Yuu to resurrect her ninja's clan leader.

Mael Strom  “Yoshida Yuki” - Is from a Ninja clan, that are rival with the Sera's clan. That by an unfortunate accident she ended up kiss Ayumu. That according to Sera Vampire-Ninja's consider kissing someone as being married to them and it doesn't matter if it was intend or not. This makes her association with Ayumu a bit complicated because Sera lives with him and is technical his servant.

Sarasvati – She is from the same Ninja clan as Sera, and what make her interesting is her view on Ayumu. The reason for this is Sera hates him, while Sarasvati is in love with him or more preciously his ass. Which I would think would make for a particular uncomfortable conversation. Also what makes things a bit more interesting is that she is Sera's supperior.

Orito – He is Ayumu's friend and classmate, and is mostly regard by others as being generally creepy. While Ayumu tries to take great care to keep him out of his magical life because Ayumu wants to preserve some degree of normalcy in his life.

Taeko Hiramatsu – Is Yuki's friend and Ayumu's classmate, although currently Ayumu doesn't know about her feelings for him. However it would be interesting to see how Ayumu would react if he knew how she felt.

Summary

In way this first episode pays homage to the first episode of the first season of the series. In the beginning there is mostly a focus on Ayumu return to his normal daily life after all the insanity that happened in the previous season, this is mostly a set-up for an introduction to all the old characters from the first season. This is done by having him pass-out in class by being dried out by the sun, this cause him to be brought to the infirmary by his classmates. Then while there he see this mysterious girl that is looking for an alcohol lamp, this for some reason lead to him to believe that she was a ghost. When he explains this to the girls living in his home to see if it could be possible, they don't believe that ghost exist. Although Ayumu finds this strange because if a necromancer, vampire-ninja, zombie, and masou shojou are real then why can't a ghost be real too. This brief introduction into the main characters end with them telling him it just his imagination.

The next day passes mostly uneventful, until he is preparing to go home after waiting for the sun to go down. While he is making his way out of the school he goes by the infirmary and smells something strange so he goes in to check it out, expecting it to be a megalo or a serial killer. However it turns out to be the girl from the other day, and the reason she was looking for the lamp was to use it to cook a squid on. This leads to them having a conversation, while getting drunk but Ayumu drink water and still manages to get drunk. However the unusual thing is one moment she was there but the next she was gone, and goes home believe that all the things that have happen has caused him to create an imaginary friend. He goes home to tell this to the woman living with him, and it seems like they don't really care either which way. Although we don't really know for certain if she really was created by his imagination or if it is something else entirely.

The next day Orito is talking to the class during break about some-sort of cross-dressing chainsaw wielding pervert, and in this magazine this person look speciously like Ayumu. That Ayumu realizes that the photo must have been taken when he was fighting the serial killer in the graveyard, and while he tries to denies the fact that it could be him. Hiramitsu stands up in his defense, that there is no-way Ayumu would do something like that. Then with his innocence acquire secured he leaves to try and get some comfort from his imaginary friend by going to the deserted science room.

However when he gets there it turns out a triple A-class megalo is there looking for him, and it uses the same creepy line about wanting him that was used in the first series. Then Haruna shows up believing that she can got her powers back and tries to transform, and it is initially believed that she was successful however Ayumu who is behind her knows better because she was only successful with the front not the back. This causes Haruna to once again force her job on Ayumu, which leads to him transforming and fighting this monster in-front of his whole school. Which normal wouldn't be a problem because he can just erase there memories latter but when the fight is finished the chainsaw breaks. Then with the breaking of the chainsaw everyone going to remember what he looked like as a masou shojou.

The other problem was since his armor/clothes were created by the chainsaw, that means now he is naked. The interesting question is how will things progress with him being unable to defeat megalos also the fact that he can no-long force people to un-see what they have seen. The thing that makes this series so great is how everything, is always so messed-up that you don't know what to expect.  

Anime Season of Spring 2012

In this coming season there are some good shows that I might want to start watching after the season has gotten started but there are only a few that I like enough to blog on. Since I'm a big fan of horror movies, it going to be interesting how shows like Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka, Sankarea, and Tasogare Otome X Amnesia are going to turn out. Although the only one that doesn't fit in the horror genre that I'm going to be blogging on is Haiyoru. However things being as they are I'm looking forward to the Spring Season that is going to be starting in the first week of April.

Sankarea

Is an interesting twist on the Zombie Genre, where it is a bit of a dark-love story between a Human-boy and a Zombie-girl. This to me doesn't seem like it going to end well because zombies eat people. One of the interesting things about it. Is how the Zombie girl tries to keep her humanity as she become more zombie like as the series goes on. One of the interesting things is because it is base on the manga. What direction the series is going to go, because the manga it is based on isn't even finished. The thing with these manga based series they sometimes try to write an original anime ending to them. In the end I'm looking forward to where they will go with it.

Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka? Of the Dead

The reason I'm looking for to this second Zombie series is it the second season in the series. The first season was interesting because it was so over the top in everything it did. Also it was extremely funny even-though the vary thing it is base upon come from the horror genre. Where you have a zombie magical-girl who is a boy, who laments the fact that he has to be a transvestite to get a power-up. Then you have two different clans of vampire-ninja that are at war with each other. The funny things is there also no reason or justification for the next thing they throw in. That the series does what anime is best at randomly throwing in WTF moments. This second season is probably going to be better than the first.

Tasogare Otome X Amnesia

The third horror genre type series that I'm blogging this season, in some ways it going to be like Sankarea. Although it a love type story with a ghost instead of a zombie. In this manga series the love element isn't as highlight here as it is going to be in Sankarea. The story is about a ghost girl named Yuuko, and trying to find out how she died. The things is Niiya can see and touch her, this ends up making things a bit interesting when a woman that no-one by you can see is felling you up, this make things a bit uncomfrotable. Although there is also a darker side to the story because the reason behind her death is related to here Amnesia. It going to be interesting where they take this manga based series.

Haiyouru! Nyaruko-San

Is a series that is based on a light-novel. Although this series is being redone, because they did this series before about a year-ago. When they did the series each episode was only a couple minutes long, with things done in a style that would be similar to flash animation. Even though the little anime series was funny, there was almost no plot at all. The interesting thing is to see what they will do with this light-novel series when they have a proper budget to do full-length anime episodes.