Daily Lives of High School Boys – First Impression

Don't worry, this is not some Boy Love, Yaoi series. It is just a group of high school adolescenct boys being stupid.

Episode 01

“Daily Lives of High School Boys” is this season’s “Group of High School Boys” Slice-of-Life series. Being an adaptation of a gag manga series, this show definitely wasn’t what I had expected it to be. Instead of the much expected sentimental flare, we were treated to a few good laughs instead.

After last season’s disappointing start to Kimi to Boku, I was definitely weary of this season’s “high school boys” series. Thankfully, things are looking promising for this series and definitely much more entertaining than the first episode of Kimi to Boku.

Review

With a cast like this, it is no shock that the show heavily depended on the voice actor’s ability to deliver the lines in a comedic manner. If you had thought that some of the voice actors had sounded familiar, you would be right.

Suzumura Kenichi who voices Yoshitake is also voice actor of the character Okita-san from “Gintama”.
Sugita Tomokazu who voices Hidenori in this series, is actually the voice of our beloved Sakata Gintoki from “Gintama”.
As for Irino Miyu, who is the voice of Tadakuni, he was actually the voice of the hyper Chizuru from last season’s “Kimi to Boku” (the most entertaining character out of the lot, but that honestly doesn’t say too much of his abilities).

I am not sure if any of you are the type of people to concern yourself who the voice actors of a series are, but I personally find that certain voice actors have the ability to determine whether a show is worth watching or not (though the downfall is usually mostly due to a poor plot. I mean, if a story is good, its good.). In this case, the VA are definitely the ones who have captured my interest in this series.

Although I haven’t read the manga, this episode has made me certain that the manga is most likely a short-story manga. This really seems to be turning into a season of shorts with the appearance of short-story series like “Recorder to Randoseru”, “Kill me Baby” and now this series. But where the first two had failed, this series had manage to succeed. I am not saying that this show is some hidden gem, all I am saying is that the pacing is actually quite nice in this this show. Although the endings do tend to appear quite abruptly, each short story manages to develop a decent buildup before it’s climax.

Since it is a gag series, the question you are probably wondering about (or not) is whether this show is funny? After all, whats the point of having a star cast if the show is as boring as watching my dog’s attempts at chasing his tail? (Which can actually be quite amusing to watch at times.)

"You can do it!"

Well, to answer that question, there were a few moments that had cracked me up, but the episode was a bunch of hits and misses. The best short in the episode was definitely the last story about the river bank scene. I couldn’t help but laugh at the ridiculousness of things, and honestly, the personalities of the characters definitely cracked me up. Then there were those moments where I was simply waiting for the punchline to be delivered only to be disappointed. In short (no pun intended), not every story is worth the watch, but with each segment being so short, it honestly isn’t that bad to sit through.

As for the structure of the jokes… for the most part of it, it is rather straightforward. The first part of the story tries to build up to a punchline/twist that is meant to be delivered towards the end of the short. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to catch a few laughs here and there before the big punchline, but don’t expect anything profound. Some of the jokes tend to be something that you would’ve spotted a mile away, but then there are those few fun moments that made it feel like it wouldn’t have mattered if the joke were expected simply due to the way the characters had delivered the lines.

Moving onto the characters of the series…, The show has it’s fair share of oddball personalities which ensures us that things will never really get too boring, and if they do, it’ll be over before you know it and they’d have moved onto a new story. The reactions of the characters are definitely the highlight of the series and this is where I refer back to the fact that the choice of voice actors makes a difference. The over the top exaggerated attitude of Sugita Tomokazu is always a delight to listen to, especially when the story is actually decent. However, I am still not sure if I am really loving any of the characters just yet, and this is a worry since the series really banks on the character’s ability to appeal and connect with the audience. After all, jokes are always more interesting when you love the person who’s telling them.

The character designs in this series isn’t the greatest and the animation has this dull tint to it. The background music honestly gets lost and I found myself wishing that there was some sort of “extra” element to help with boosting the mood of the series. Even when the BGM was playing, I felt like it was as good as silence. The biggest problem was probably the animation, just like the jokes, the animation was rather simple and we were constantly shrouded with zooming, panning, and still-frame shots. If you are looking for some creativity in a series, I urge you to look elsewhere. This is definitely not an inspiring series to be watching if you are a budding animator.

Overall, this is a pretty simple comedy series revolving around a bunch of high school boys simply acting like boys. With the way the series is structured, each short will be over before you know it and you’ll be hit with the next one without missing a beat. If you are looking for an on-going plot, I honestly don’t think that this series would be able to deliver one. Each short seems to be unrelated to the previous and it feels more like you are watching a bunch of kids fooling around after school each day (like the title suggests). I am honestly not a huge fan of shorts, but I’m willing to give this series a shot. Hopefully this show will turn out to be a worthy series to watch out for.

Episode Rating: 7/10 (was tempted to give it a 6.5, but the last short was good and the episode wasn’t all that bad as a whole)

-ra

So, did the first episode turn out to be better than what you had thought it’d be? Or was this just another one of the many “rubbish” series that’s out this season?

Like it or hate it? I’d love to hear what you think of the show. =
)

BLACK ROCK SHOOTER 2012

Black Rock Shooter 

Oh my God, don’t make it sound so easy! That’s obviously all the story this series has to offer!

Black Rock Shooter 01 – You Can’t Choose Your Family

So, Black Rock Shooter: Scariest horror-series of the season, I would say. That sister is simply nuts, I’m not surprised if she starts speaking backwards and gets a voice like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Conan The Barbarian. Seriously, I can’t blame Takanashi for wanting to keep people (including her parents) away from her home with that kind of sister. And did I mention that she’s frigging nuts? This creepy sister is a control-freak as well who tries to tell Takanashi how she should live her life. But she doesn’t talk to her sister face-to-face becausethat’s something normal people would do, no, she uses a sort of tin-can telephone. Anything more of this weird stuff and this might turn into Twilight Zone. Well, not like the series already has its own Twilight Zone… sort-of.

Synopsis:
Kuroi meets this girl and wants to be friends with her for some mysterious reason (hint: it has perhaps something to do with fate or whatever…). Takanashi, though, can’t be friends with anyone because she has a creepy sister who’s also a real mean bastard. But secretly Takanashi wants to be friends with Kuroi, too, and she brings Kuroi home. Her sister isn’t happy, not one bit and she scares off Kuroi at first but the fishy Saya who’s the school-counselor tells her someone somewhere else gets hurt for her which is the kind of mysterious explanation that only makes sense to the audience (yeah, meta-fictional humour, very funny…). So Kuroi goes to Takanashi and insists on continuing the friendship. Takanashi starts crying since she actually had no friends up to this point which makes her kinda uncool but her sister is a good excuse for her dull character.
Meanwhile somewhere else a girl gets hurt for doing nothing against a creepy creature looking like the creepy sister.

Considering her… ‘social skills’, that’s actually rather good advice.

Review:
So, most interesting premise ever, right? Kuroi wants to be friends with the anti-social girl who despite that got the whole meganekko-package. No problems there because “ditzy girl” actually already has a friend who offers her substantial advice without ever playing any substantial role in the plot. The real trouble is Takanashi’s sister who is one hell of a mean bastard. Believe me, this series has more horror than any Another-death-scene. This creepy sister is like the epitome of evilness, actually it’s written right on her face or at least the soundtrack gets all creepy every time she’s saying something.
Okay, let’s start from the beginning: It starts with the usual visual action we all knew we would gonna get but we also get one of those pretentious introductions like the one from Ano Natsu (stupid long-winded way of saying that the main-chara likes filming) but BRS’s intro is even worse…
The tiny bird flies in the blue sky.
The sea reflects the blue of the sky.
The blue reflection is the sea of the sky.
The sea of the sky cries blue tears.
Among those blue tears, the tiny bird flies.
As we later find out, this is from a frigging children’s picture book about colours (Well, it certainly sounds like that…). And apparently it’s a big deal because it has multiple editions and people can actually talk about it without feeling stupid. So, colours are also a big deal in this episode. Kuroi can’t seem to shut up about colours and the creepy sister also has a slight problem with colours. So, yeah, this series makes a big deal out of nothing practically. The colours are either used as obvious metaphors for the weird action or to just sort-of hav it in there (like red in The Sixth Sense) to make things sound poetic and important. This series has this pretentious way of trying to sound clever and poetic when it’s not. Black Rock Shooter may want to talk about some lofty ideals and talk about the soap-opera-version of life but that doesn’t mean they can get poetic. The usual moe-tropes of letting Kuroi talk like a member of the K-ON!-cast is more than enough to deliver the message. Black Rock Shooter should try to stay on the ground, lie down and hope that this is low enough for the stuff the series actually can do instead of what it dreams of doing.

Wow, I bet those are the kind of eyes even Jesus must be jealous of. No, seriously, actually it’s just a very dramatic way of telling her that she’s the usual ditzy genki-moe-character. This series should really stop to sound so serious and dramatic all the time, it’s really not that kind of series.

Like the OVA the fights and the slice-of-life-parts are still rather unconnected even though there are some parallels for some inexplicable reason. It’s not quite clear what kind of setting we are talking about here but at least it seems like this time the series will actually try to build a connection between the two worlds – which is more than what the crappy OVA can say of itself. But visually the fights in the OVA were more impressive than in this episode which tried to do the visual allegory stuff but I guess it’s obvious that it’s no Penguindrum or Utena. There was some shock-factor of Kuroi, I mean, the heroine, whatever, being attacked and injured by this… thing. But there was no blood and she stood up after some time unhurt so no idea why anyone would include the scenes in the first place besides showing off how this character gets hurt.
Probably it tried to build a connection to the real world where the real action happens, right? But the slice-of-life is boring. I mean, as far as introducing a story goes this has to be one of the worst episodes of the season. I think it’s all about these battles in the other world in the end but while hinting at the supernatural secrets very obviously there’s no clear world-building. There’s no proper characterization either for that matter. This episode just rushes to the juicy story-moments of making it obvious where the bad guys are, the good guys and who knows more than they let on. This episode’s slice-of-life felt like showing off elements of the story instead of an introduction to it. The plot is also really quite ridiculous. Two girls want to be friends but one of them has a creepy sister – now that’s good drama, right? I believe that makes “You can’t choose your family” the only real poetic message of the episode. But the problem is that it’s obvious, far too obvious. How can this obvious straightforward premise get any interesting development? This story is just so incredibly shallow, I guess, in the end the only reason why we sit through the stupid slice-of-life is to get epic battles in that weird parallel dimension full of unused ideas for Ikea-furniture.

There’s no really interesting story to be told and the characters are generic and one-dimensional. The slice-of-life-parts are plain boring. If you want to sit through this series then it’s because of the battles happening… somewhere else. But those can’t offer much when they try to be smart with useless symbolism. So, not really sure what’s there good to say about this episode… Ah, it’s better than the OVA since this series apparently actually has a story to tell… sort-of. I’m not sure I actually want to talk about that weekly because seriously there’s not much to talk about except that it’s at its best when it aims low and stays in generic territory.

Episode-Rating: 3/10

MIRAII NIKKI REVIEW

I like the reaction of the teacher who’s just like ‘Whatever, just make sure to write something.’, he really doesn’t care that much about his students, does he?

Reviews kukichi kamaro

M0rg0th: Mirai Nikki is one of the series that will receive probably a lot of attention due to the popularity of the original manga series. And the first episode did a good job of introducing the story while also keeping it suspenseful enough to make it entertaining. Mirai Nikki is the dark shounen-series about Yukki, an introvert weirdo, who has an even weirder friend who makes him participate in a deadly contest of survival.

Synopsis:
Mirai Nikki is the dark uncompromising tale of Yukki, the weirdo everyone would try to avoid. He leads the normal life of a ‘homo weirdus’ spending his day making a diary of his surroundings using his mobile phone. He also has friends, ‘imaginary’ friends who spend their time making pointless chit-chat with him. But one day his ‘imaginary’ friend ‘Deus ex’ reveals himself not to be just a giant CG in his mind but being actually a real god of time and space – and he loves watching football. Since he loves contests so much he starts one using the diaries of ten people who each consider their mobile phone a nice 21st century way of keeping a diary. At first Yukki is oblivious to that contest and uses his ‘future diary’ to proof Armstrong right that life is indeed wonderful. But then one of the other contestants appears, a serial killer, who wants to kill Yukki. That’s when his personal stalker appears who reveals herself to be another ‘future diary’-holder. And Yuno’s future-diary is about Yukki and what he’s doing in the future. Helping him using her ‘future diary’ they kill the serial killer.

Something goofy this way comes…

M0rg0th’s Review:

This series won’t be a very happy experience, I can guarantee you that. I have already read the manga and despite my misgivings about the direction it took at the end, I would say it is a shounen-series that tries to be different. And this ‘unusualness’ should be already apparent just by watching this one episode.
First of all, look at Yukki who’s a wimp basically. But where other series would make it their sole job to see him man up, this series makes no compromises as to what this characterization means for the way he’s acting. I don’t know whether everyone will like that decision since he isn’t quite the valiant hero you’d like to see when it’s pure escapism you want to see. But I think the best character of the series is Yuno, the best characterization of a Yandere, I think. Her instable nature linked to her fanatic love for Yukki shows exactly what this series wants to be about.
It’s certainly a gloomy feeling one gets from watching this series. For everything good that happens there’s an evil twist waiting around the corner. Just as Yuno is this perfect girl that loves Yukki, she’s also pretty much a loony. And even when Yukki enjoyed himself using his ‘Future Diary’ this was interrupted by him being attacked by a serial killer.

As if he’s any less creepier with his ‘diary’…

But of course at the heart of it is another one of these games where the characters bash their heads together to get a barbecue-steak or something. What makes this series really distinct and not another cavemen-exercise is the thorough way the plot is developed. The Future Diary’s powers seem to be so all-powerful at first that you might think that the only way a good character can die in this series is by being bored to death since nothing really exciting will happen when you know the future. It’s the thorough plot-development that changes this as each diary has its limits. And the plot shows this in a intelligent way. What I didn’t like about the concept of the diaries was how they basically got stronger with each time a new one got revealed which made the whole contest a rather unbalanced affair that ultimately bowed before shounen-mainstream-tropes. But for now this isn’t really a problem of the anime-series.
But that I can already talk about my impression of the manga at this point shows that the first episode was rather good in showcasing what this series will be about and what kind of ambiance it will have. I think, it would’ve been better if the series would’ve gotten a bit more stylishness into its storytelling since instead it’s just this dark, gloomy, creepy story about this contest and the love between Yuno and Yukki. It’s only in specific moments where Mirai Nikki’s story-elements become stylish and truly horrifying when the storytelling can truly shine and these are mostly Yuno-related. And I think the revelation of her obsession for Yukki was one of these moments. The unconditional love combined with her psychotic craziness is really a very distinct characterization which adds to the ambiance of the series.

It was a good first episode that unlike Persona 4 was able to give a quintessential summary of the story as far as its ambiance is concerned. In terms of characterization this series made some interesting choices that make an otherwise fairly standard shounen-battle-series a distinct series with a story of its own so far.

Episode-Rating: 8/10

–

review 

Disclaimer: I have not read the manga.

The concept of this show is interesting and has the potential to turn into something fun to watch. Perhaps it is because of the way the main characters are, or perhaps it was the choppy manner of the show that prevented me from becoming emotionally attached to any of the characters. Whatever it was, I feel like I would be able to get a good laugh out of this series in a sadistic manner.

Don’t you just like the look of fear on that guy’s face?

I for one can’t seem to take anything that happens in this show seriously. Yukki comes across as being a whiny human being who gets an ego inflation the minute he gets an up on life and once again returns back to being annoyingly whiny when his life is in danger. The fact that he seemed to have become the new toy subject for everyone just made the show that much more interesting for me and it also made me feel like I was not the only one who enjoyed watching the poor boy getting tortured.

Throughout the show I could not help but draw comparisons between Persona 4′s and Mirai Nikki’s first episode. Both episodes were quick and very focused on the main characters. The difference is that at least with Mirai Nikki the main character has a pretty distinct personality(albeit it being a super annoying one) and he sounds like a girl (which makes it that much more funny to me).

The dark and partially sadistic atmosphere of the show where everyone is just toying with the main character comes across through the animation stylistic nature of some of the scenes, but like I had said, due to the choppy and quick nature of the first episode, I felt like I was being strung along the whole episode and before I knew it, everything had ended in an anti climatic manner.

Yeah! Show them how to tango Mr. Killer

For instance, Yukki’s sudden fear of other Diary users is not really explained until after the fact, and that did not really make any sense. Then you have that anti-climatic mood of the kiss in the elevator and the dart that killed No. 3 and ended the scene in such a quick manner. Most of the information were basically stated and told to us and the plot felt pretty undeveloped in that sense.

I did like the way the show had ended as that had opened the show up to the possibility of the series turning out in many ways. On the other hand, it does not make sense to only state the rules of the game after a person has died and after the game had already started.

The animation in this series is pretty mediocre but I do like the shading used to convey the abstract tone of the series. What I did not really like in the series (and this is a personal preference) was the way the buildings and general environment looked. They felt too CGI-ed and I am not such a fan of CGI when done poorly.

Overall, the whole serial killer situation was anti-climatic and drowned out by the introduction of the main characters’ personalities as well as the rules to the game. I don’t see myself being able to really get into the mood of the series and take it seriously but I can see myself enjoying the ride. Like I had said, the first episode had set itself up in such a way that the series can go in multiple directions and nothing is set in stone so I really am looking forward to see what happens next with this.

MIRAII NIKKI

Future Diary (未来日記 Mirai Nikki^?) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated byJapanese manga author Sakae Esuno. The manga was first serialized in the Japaneseshōnen manga magazine Shōnen Ace on January 26, 2006, and is published by Kadokawa Shoten. As of April 26, 2011, eleven tankōbon volumes have been released in Japan. The manga has been licensed by Tokyopop, and ten of the English volumes have been released, with a release for the last two now uncertain due to Tokyopop ceasing publishing in North America. A "pilot anime" DVD was released with the 11th manga volume in December 2010. A TV anime series animated by Asread began airing in Japan on October 10, 2011. Funimation has licensed the anime for distribution in North America. A live action television drama premiered on April 21, 2012.

Esuno has also authored two side-story manga, each one spanning five chapters: firstFuture Diary: Mosaic which focuses on another Diary Holder, Minene Uryu, and tells unrevealed plot points of the main story; and in 2009-2010, Future Diary: Paradox(published in Young Ace), which tells the exploits of Aru Akise and Muru Muru set in an alternate timeline.

                                                    the cover if miraii nikki ..

coution ??? !!!

  to children below 18 please find another anime to watch,this is because this anime got some scenes in sex,horror and included blood scenes...please watch if you are a fan of it ? hahaa...just to remember you all to not to watch it in front of your brother..

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peperiksaan final semesta

peperiksaan final samesta? mmg hangat diperkatakan ..but kini sudah tiba masanya
ia muncul dan menyusahkan kami kaum pelajar disini...mmg susah nak dikatakn final exam
nie menentukan kitaorang masuk sem 2 kew x? but bende yg paling penting adalah berusaha


---sekian--

kerja2 gila saya lagie?

nie adalah gambar yang menunjukkan saya dalam keadaan x tahu nak buat apa..

so snap la gmbar nie buat kenangan

sekolah...

sebenarnya xde apa nak buat saja nak taip..okay bye