Diving straight into the reviews again, I kicked off last week with Free! Eternal Summer – Collector’s Edition. You might have heard of the ‘cute girls doing cute things’ genre of anime. Well this is the ‘cute guys doing cute things’ version, and it’s made by the masters of ‘both’ genres, Kyoto Animation. This one’s all about a high school swimming club, which allows for plenty of swimsuit-clad, muscled males on screen, all with infantilised cute personalities as is standard for the genre. The problem at this time is that we get straight into Season 2 without Season 1 having had a UK release. See if that makes a difference by clicking on the review.
Next up it was the turn of Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun, although this time it was Stuart McLean who gave it the once over. It’s a romantic situation comedy, which sees a high school girl named Chiyo confess her love to the tall, quiet handsome guy, only for him to mistake her for a fan. He’s actually a manga author, and Nozaki winds up enlisting Chiyo’s help in creating his stories, as while he writes romantic manga, he’s a little short on experience. Awkward romantic shenanigans ensue, coupled with a revelatory look at the business of manga creation. Click on Stuart’s review to see if it’s any good.
It was then my turn to take a look at The Kawai Complex Guide to Manors and Hostel Behavior, a pun-tastic mouthful of a title, but another romantic comedy. This one sees a boy named Usa get to live in the same dormitory as the girl of his dreams, Ritsu, the first time he has a chance to live independently. It could be paradise were it not for the rest of his housemates, a total bunch of weirdoes and sadists. But Ritsu’s a shy, bookish, introverted girl, and it might be that the often painful and embarrassing intervention of their housemates is the only thing that can help them communicate.
Finally for the week, it was One Piece Collection 13, and it turns out that absence does make the heart grow fonder. I might have been complaining about filler and lengthy recaps in Collection 12, but having had to wait almost a year for the next instalment made me a lot more forgiving of Collection 13. Besides, this is where the rescue Robin storyline comes to an end, and where the Straw Hats embark on the next leg of their adventure, with a new crewmate, and a new ship as well.
This Week I’ve Been Mostly Rewatching...
Gilgamesh. It helps to be in the right mood to watch some anime to get the best out of them. Some shows are great no matter what, but sometimes it helps to be in a daft mood to enjoy a harem comedy, you might want to be hyped up to watch a long running shonen action show, and as mentioned a few weeks ago, a festive end of year viewing best suits shows like Kanon. For Gilgamesh, you need to be in a Radiohead mood. If introspective depression is your milieu than you will be best served by the post-apocalyptic end-days storyline of Gilgamesh, animated in a style I like to call Gothic Ugly. It’s a show that makes Texhnolyze look peppy. A terrorist attack has decimated technological society, and blanketed the world under a shimmering mirror known as the Sheltering Sky. It follows a brother and sister, trying to survive in the ruins of society, both of whom become the focus of powerful forces in the world. Gilgamesh is a mysterious, terrifying group who want to finish what began in that terror attack, while Orga are looking to prevent that. Orga is run by a woman who has recruited children with power to her cause to counter Gilgamesh. And it all ties into the siblings’ past.
They don’t make anime like this anymore, and I’m not just talking about the animation. It’s a strongly written piece that concentrates on the characters and the relationships between them, unveiling a story that becomes compulsive viewing, gut wrenching to watch. And it’s a show that gets better with each re-visit, as I find that I appreciate it more now than when I reviewed the ADV Collection back in 2011. As you might guess, ADV’s releases are out of print, although a few stray volumes do circulate, and the collection is available second-hand. The Region 1 US ADV Collection is still available new from some e-tailers although it is out of print, and it’s also had all the extras stripped.
Anime Limited released Free! Eternal Summer as a Collector’s Edition Blu-ray and a standard DVD last Monday. MVM’s Collector’s Edition BD/DVD combo of Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun with CD soundtrack came out on September 26th, while the standard Blu-rays and DVD came out last Monday. The Kawai Complex Guide to Manors and Hostel Behavior was released in the US on DVD by Sentai Filmworks last year. In the coming months they will release a Region A locked Blu-ray of the show. Finally, Manga Entertainment released One Piece Collection 13 on DVD last Monday.
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