Tag Archives: media blasters

Anime Review: Midori Days

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High school delinquent Seiji Sawamura is desperate to have a girlfriend, especially after being rejected by 20 girls as of late. He’s afraid that he will end his life with his right hand as his only companion. Apparently, that doesn’t change when one day when he wakes up and discovers that his right hand has become a girl named Midori Kasugano, who confesses that she has had a crush on him for the last three years.

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Plot:

If the plot synopsis above sounds creepy, do not panic.  The story is not as creepy as it may sound.  It would seem easy to make a story about a girl who becomes a dude’s right hand perverted and sleazy, but Midori Days take a different approach to the scenario above.  Instead of going the ecchi route, we get a touching if not humorous story about a misunderstood male student who everyone seems to be fearful of, but only because they do not understand that he is not like what he may be seen as.

While the show is part of the romance genre, I would be remiss if I did not mention that this is a harem show.  While this is a harem show, Midori Days is in some ways a bit different from most shows in the harem genre out there today.  One of the big differences from most of the harem shows out there is that unlike most male lead that show up in the harem genre.  Seji is not milquetoast and actually has a backbone.  Seji is a misunderstood delinquent who while most people assume that he fights because he enjoys to, he only fights to protect those who cannot defend themselves from others.  Seji is quite the nice person but is feared because of his fighting.  The fact that Seji has some personality, the way he does things explains why he does have several females who like him and want to be with him.  Of course, one trait Seji does share one big trait that most harem leads have and that is pretty obvious to the fact that most of the girls are in love with him.

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2011 Spring Cleaning Anime Challenge Review: Queen’s Blade

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In 4 years’ time the competition that will decide who the next Queen shall be will start. The strongest warrior will continue to rule the country according to tradition and expand it. The contestants need only be older than 12 years. They need not be human, intelligent or even of that country. The rules for the tournament are simple: murder is allowed. Any weapon can be chosen. The winner is decided when one of the participants flees or can’t move anymore. Such event is broadcasted trough a crystal sphere by the court’s magic teacher to all population to see and enjoy.

Plot:

So the overall plot is straight forward: there is a tournament to determine who will rule the land every four years.  The winner becomes the new queen and will rule the land as she sees fit.  In the first half of the series, we are given the run down about this tournament but is never fully explained why it happens.  In the second half, it is explained as to why the tournament was created in the first place, though this should have been sooner rather than later.

As a character driven show, the cast needs to be developed and not one-dimensional.  Queen’s Blade for the most part does a good job of developing the cast.  With Leina being the main character, she gets the most development throughout the show going from the, “I am not sure what I am doing this for,” character to the name that she is called in the show.  While not everyone does get developed in Season 1 of Queen’s Blade the other members that do get some development do round out nicely and make the cast more likeable.  Since this is a fighting tournament, everyone has a reason for taking part.  With that in mind, those reasons are not above what you would expect from a fighting show.  The standard clichéd reasons are there such as fighting to protect the nation, fighting for the ones I love, etc.  We have heard these before, but they are not eye rolling bad.  In a way, they do feel enjoyable to watch because you really do want to see them succeed.

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Anime Review: Moribito – Guardian of the Spirit Part 1 & 2 (Episodes 1-13)

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I’ve heard a few times that Kenji Kamiyama is a pretty good director, and when I hear a director is good I like to seek out their work to see for myself. Kamiyama’s most well known work, the one he gets most of his attention for, would be Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Unfortunately I’m just not into sci-fi so I’ve only seen a small part of it. It seemed like I would never really get a chance to see Kamiyama’s work, but then I caught wind of a series called Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit, a fantasy series directed by Kamiyama. I don’t think it’s a particularly well known series because I’ve never really heard anyone talking about it, but nonetheless it would be my first real exposure to Kenji Kamiyama’s directorial abilities.

Moribito is based on the first book in a series of novels and tells the story of a bodyguard named Balsa, who has tasked herself with saving eight lives to atone for eight people who were killed because of her, and the young prince Chagum whom she was hired to protect. The young prince has been possessed by a water spirit, and his father, the Mikado, plots to have him killed. In a final desperate attempt to save her son, Chagum’s mother hires Balsa, and she sets out to protect him from the Mikado’s forces.

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