One of my favourite manga series of all time.




Title: げんしけん, Genshiken - The Society for Study of Modern Visual Culture
Author: Kio Shimoku
Genre: Seinen, Comedy, Drama, Romance, Slice of Life
Serialized in: Kodansha Afternoon
Licensed by: Del Rey (complete)
Total Volume Count: 9

Series Summary from MangaUpdates:

College freshman and ACG lover Kanji Sasahara settled down his extracurricular activity in Genshiken (The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture) in order to become a true and thorough otaku. Meanwhile, Saki Kasukabe, the girlfriend of another freshman Genshiken member (also a bishounen) Makoto Kohsaka, was dragged into Genshiken's otaku-ish activities reluctantly, yet her resentful attitude towards otakus is changing without her notice.

Kenn's Comment: I never watched the anime, but I've been following the manga for a long time. I'd put it up with my favourites, like GTO and Keroro Gunsou. I've read a couple of reviews and comments and people haven't really liked the series. I can see why.

Anywho, the art is nice and the characters range from the annoying (Kuchii) to the loveable (Ohno, Kusakabe, Oguie), though the amount of characters seems to bug people. The 'main character' shifts quite a bit. In the beginning Sasahara and Kusakabe are the main characters, and as time goes by, their role is decreased and the main characters change. I don't see why people don't like this. Time goes by, and the main characters are governed by who is the president of the club. The beginning had that odd president from god knows when. Sasahara, Kousaka and Kusakabe were all freshmen, so it served as an introductory. Once Madrame became the president he got more of a role. Sasahara's role increased when he became president, and by the time Ohno rolled into the position she shared the spotlight with Oguie, who remained a main character for the rest of the series.

Story wise, things are a bit convenient, but it works like that in fictional stories. Couples form within the Genshiken because they have similar interests (excluding Kousaka and Saki since they technically were formed before entering the club), and it's really not too much different from Nodame getting with Shinichi. The circumstances are quite different, but the general idea is the same.

I love the series and I'm following the sequel げんしけん二代目 (Genshiken - Nidaime)

I told you. Today is Rin's day. Hopefully I didn't promise that it was OSTERproject, because I couldn't find that song.






Title: シンデレラシンドローム, Cinderella Syndrome
Producer: カラスヤサボウ
Illustration: ひなのすけ様
Genre: Pop
Vocaloid: 鏡音リンAPPEND (warm & sweet)

Kenn's Comment: I know it's probably hard to tell that this is Rin Append, but trust me it is. Rin's APPEND makes her sound a little more life-like and less robotic (not that she sounded robotic in the first place), and also gives her a second upgrade. I think Rin and Ren were the only ones to get an Act2 program.

That aside, the song is pretty catchy and sounds good too.

Edit: I posted this and found that I still had the OSTERproject one tabbed in another window. Fail. I'll link to it here.

Ugh. Blogger isn't working with Imageshack anymore apparently. That just made me not want to do this anymore. Google, work a wee bit harder on Blogger, will ya?

Image heavy post.




I'm using min.us for the time being. They don't seem to resize however, so you'll have to deal with these big images. Funny because all my previous ones were hosted on Imageshack and they still show up.
Anywho, enough complaining. The fitfth review is Kore ha Zombie desu ka? An action-rom-com kind of thing. It's one of the series I look forward to every week, along with Madoka, Level E, and Index (not a winter series).
Story wise, it's clear that the series is separated into arcs. The first arc ended only recently, so I think it's safe to say that the series will have two large, overarching arcs, with the smaller sub-arcs and whatnots occuring within them. 

The first arc was the big set up. Introduced the cast, went into the backstory of the main character, showed off a few of everybody's abilities and revealed who the big enemy is. By the second episode, the main cast is already all together, so the rest of the first arc (the next four episodes) develop the main enemy of the arc.
I've had zero problems with the art of this series. In fact, I quite like it. Refer to image above. The use of colour is great, in my opinion. More dreary scenes are usually almost all shades of gray and black, while everyday life tends to feature more vibrant colours, namely blue skies.

Blue skies

Shades of gray

Vibrant colours

The characters are all entertaining. I can't get enough of Ayumu's Eu fantasies, and with all of Haruna's insane antics, I find myself chuckling while going through the funnier scenes. It is a comedy after all. Ayumu's transformation scenes were funny, but they started to get a bit old. Hopefully he becomes a vampire-ninja in addition to the abilities he already has.

Yuki has a brief appearance in the first episode.*

Unlike a lot of harem leads (looking at you Ichika), Ayumu isn't all that bad. He's essentially got two vampire ninjas, one magiclad girl and an extremely powerful necromancer in his harem. Unlike in IS, these girls aren't quite as obvious...well maybe except Haruna (Yuki is a different situation), and the guy isn't quite as oblivious.

Santa's coming to town...on Tanabata

All in all, this is one of my favourite series this season. I've said that with Madoka and Level E, but KoreZom packs great comedy along with a good action and story along with fun characters.

Should also note that the series is streamed on Crunchyroll.

And now, for fanservice.

Fantasy Eu

Not Saturday, but I didn't have a song for today. Double Vocaloid!






Title: Sweets & Bitters
Producer: ゆう十　(Yuuto)
Illustration and Video: CAxis
Genre: ...Pop..ish?
Vocaloid: 巡音ルカ，神威がくぽ

Kenn's Comment: One of the more popular duos, Luka and Gakupo sing in this sweet and adorable song. Not sure what genre you'd actually call this.

Anywho, I'm quite fond of the song. The video really suits the song too. Can't explain why, but I just really do like the song. The voicing of the two is really great too. Often, you hear Luka up high to the point she just sounds like Miku, or Gakupo up high to where he doesn't sound good at all.

Anywho, if I'm correct, much of the popularity of this shipping comes from ggrks, a song I put up for the Vocaloid week many, many moons ago.

Tomorrow: Rin append...hopefully.

The series that was quite hyped up. Does it live up to the claims? Jump the jump to find out.




Why couldn't they use this design in the anime? The current design is far too reminiscent of K-ON!! and ソラノヲト. My griping aside, we'll get into the details of the series now.


Aside from the character design, I think the rest of the art is really quite good. I've learned over the years that coming into an anime with high expectations because of promo art isn't a good idea, as the final product usually tends to be different from the promotion.


I feel that the story is the strongest part of the series. It's highly intruiging, but is not without it's problems. The futuristic story is similar some of the more prolific dystopian novel, like Nineteen-Eighty Four (Orwell) and Brave New World (Huxley), where life is seemingly a paradise. They've made the Priests look like the bad guys, but I believe that the writer was aiming for something less polar and more gray. It does however feel a wee bit staccato at times. Those who don't know what means, staccato is an italian musical term meaning 'separated' notes, and is the opposite of legato, or smoothly. I know it's in bad taste to drag something on, and most people realize that we're not going to say the every day life of the crew. This isn't Dickens' David Copperfield after all.  But having a funeral and having your base/ town attacked and then going to happy happy fun times the next episode without reference is a bit jarring.


Character wise, I'm finding it hard to really get attached to any of the characters. I can sympathize with Clain (main character), as he's only ever interacted with doppels, but his naïvety sometimes gets the better of me. Nessa really is the sunlight in the series. Always at her own tempo, she really is the brightest (not intelligence wise) character in the series. It's always fun watching her prance around, even if she does sound like Yui (K-ON!!).


The character development is really quite good in the series. Clain has grown, albeit rather slowly, through the episodes. From despising the Granitz family to almost coming to terms with how they deal with things. His naïvety is still a glaringly obvious flaw of his, but he's young, and comes from an upbringing in which he didn't develop any street sense. Not too many of the other characters have been developed too much, however. Phyrne has had a wee bit, but we still don't know too much about her, and we know even less about Nessa. We learn a tad bit about Lost Millenium and the Ganitz family in episode 6, along with the Granitz elder warming up to Clain.


The one problem I do have with Clain, aside from his character flaws, is his voice. I've more or less become used to it, but it still really does bug me. I know he's supposed to be a young boy, but Kobayashi Yuu's voicing of him is a bit off-setting. I realize that having a voice like that is part of his character, but it takes a bit of getting used to. If you don't think that female voice actors can do male characters, I suggest you take a look at Kuroshitsuji. Mizuki Nana plays Ciel Phantomhive.


I know it sounds like I'm really just complaining about this series and that it's pretty bad, but please, don't walk away from reading this like that. The series really does have it's good points. Like I've said, the story is really one of the best parts of the series. It does occasionally have problems with reeling viewers into the story, but all in all I think that it's a pretty good series.


For those of you in America, the series is streamed on Funimation's site. Why they limit it only to Ameria baffles me though. They're practically shooting themselves in the foot. Sure, they're based in the U.S. and that's their target market, but they're essentially limiting the availability of legitimate means to watch the series outside of Japan. And they wonder why the series is pirated so. That doesn't mean I'm condoning piracy, it is illegal after all. Just a whimsical musing by Kenn.

Title: 巫女の誘いにご用心, Beware of the Shrine Maiden's Invitation
Artist: Makino
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Characters: Hakurei Reimu, Kochiya Sanae, Shameimaru Aya, Etc. (xD)

Series Description from Danbooru:

Reimu and Sanae go out on a date.

Kenn's Comment:
Well. Hm. Super descriptive, huh? What more do you need to know though? Anything with red and green is great! Sanae's a good girl after all.

That aside, think of the series something like Level E where Aya is the Prince. Haven't read my review? Here's a link. That aside, it's a nice and sweet romantic comedy between the two 巫女 (shrine maiden) of Gensoukyo.

Give it a read over at Danbooru. Can't find the other links for some reason.

In other news, today's anime review is slated for release later today...or early..very early tomorrow morning.

Story wise, you can't really get much more generic than this. Ichika happens to be the only known man capable of using an IS unit, and is thusly transferred into a school that trains IS pilots (his sister works there). Inevitably, he's the only guy in the school, and soon begins unknowingly amassing a throng of girls who like him, from childhood friends to former students of his older sister. Now I know it sounds like I'm bad-mouthing the series, but the story is about as revolutionary as finding a weed in your garden which you've neglected for months.

I watch IS for the story.

There have been times when the episode made little sense. I usually do reading up on the forums after I finish an episode to see what other people thought of it, and what scenes from the light novel the studio cut out. Episode 4 is a great example as there's no explanation as to why Ichika does the things he does. How did Cecelia get out? We're left to assume the tech team got the doors open. Why'd Ichika ask Rin to fire a full power blast at his back side? I actually have no clue. Maybe he's a masochist. The episode was doing fine until those scenes came up. I know the studio has money and time to worry about, but a wee bit more elaboration might've helped in that episode.

I watch IS for the story.

Animation wise, I think it does fine. There haven't been any major quality drops, and the CG IS units look fine. Characters look fine and the few battle scenes are done well in my opinion. Ichika has looked a wee bit odd at times though.

Ichika getting his 'sexy' on.

'Course my main gripe about the series is Ichika. Clueless leads are fun every now and then, but when harem leads are always clueless, it really gets on your nerve. Not to mention when you're that kind of guy in real life. It doesn't make you feel much better. Excuse me while I go make myself taller in the next room.


That being said, it's by no means a bad series, it just means that it's not a great series. I remember reading on the forums that the IS novels under a certain label that hasn't produced anything great in a while, and Kampfer was part of it. Oh, Kampfer. Well, it's a series worth checking out if you have the time. If harem, dense male leads, and lots and lots of girls aren't your thing, then maybe check the previous two review out?

I watch IS for Charlotte.

Should also mention that the series is licensed by Sentai Filmworks and is simulcasted on The Anime Network (not to be confused with the ANN).