So Nazo no Kanojo X OVA (Mysterious Girl X) was released today and I have to say, even by this anime's standards it was weird. The premise of the OVA is basically, Tsubaki, Ueno, Oka, and Urabe go to their town's Summer Festival wearing their own yukatas in order to impress their significant other. Of course, this isn't all that they're aiming for since this is an anime detailing these couples' desperate and clumsy attempts to do things that normal couples would do despite never actually being a normal couple, Tsubaki and Urabe in particular. In the OVA Ueno wants to hug Oka and Tsubaki wants to get a love charm. I found it very odd that Ueno was obsessing over a hug after already having kissed Oka near the beginning of the actual series. Maybe it's just a cultural difference but hug < kiss in terms of what to get excited and aim for. Anyway, Oka seems to anticipate this and "gets lost" with Ueno, effectively leaving Tsubaki and Urabe alone. But their time alone is quickly interrupted by a crowd of people rushing over to see the fireworks. Urabe ends up tied up and suspended in some kind of weird string game reminiscent of that bad puzzle anime, Phi Brain, just with love bonds instead of brain power, and Tsubaki has to pull on the right one otherwise she'll fall to her death...or get hurt badly, not totally sure. Anyway, Urabe does some crazy crap as usual involving her drool and Tsubaki follows suit, sucking on her spaceship, not a metaphor, and he finds the correct string and saves her. After finding the correct string they find themselves at the top of the shrine and with the love charm and happy ever after. The weirdest part of the episode though was the end of it where a ghost couple does something similar to Urabe and Tsubaki's "routine" and the guy tastes the girl's tears. Weird shit as always Nazo no Kanojo. The episode overall was pretty meh though. It felt like it really added nothing to the actual series and there wasn't even any real fan service (in both senses of the word). I gave it a 6 on MAL but that might've been generous. Stay forever weird Nazo no Kanojo
Persona 4 (True Ending OVA)
For those who haven't played the true end and care about viewing it for yourself in the game, do NOT read on. Major spoilers are to follow. Aside from the random fight with Margaret, the OVA picks up from where the true end basically starts in the game- you are at a going away party one day before you leave to go home. From here you basically go into some endless eight crap with Narukami breaking down unable to leave his friends behind and leave Inaba. Somewhere in the middle it cuts to the fight between you and Izanami who you discover is the gas attendant you shook hands with. Eventually it cuts back to his fight with Margaret and at this point all of his social links (some that I don't even remember being mentioned in the anime) speak to him and give him motivation to keep going on and not give up. At the very end of all his social links, he faces his own shadow who states Narukami's inner thoughts that he doesn't want to be alone again- that he wants to stay with everyone. Narukami accepts his other self and regains Izanagi and beats Margaret. Seemingly expecting it, Margaret walks over to Narukami, congratulates him and gives him a jewel that can see through the fog of lies and shine light on the truth, which he needs to beat Izanami. She tries to employ some attacks on him but to no avail, Narukami jacks up his swag by throwing away his glasses and showing her human potential, upgrading Izanagi and promptly beating her. After this everything is the same as the game, you get to see what the TV world looks like without the fog and you have a happy parting with everyone.
I honestly don't know how to feel about this OVA. It was done in a different way than the game most likely to fill time, but even so it felt too random and rushed. The alterations they did to the story felt mostly acceptable except for the random endless eight and fighting Margaret. I really did not understand why he had to fight her for the jewel and why all his social links spoke to him then rather than during the battle with Izanami. Overall, I think the OVA could have definitely been handled better than this, but even in the end, it was still fairly entertaining.
Accel World
So this series is...ok now except for that random 2 episode arc they decided to stick in between their potentially best arc. Apparently in Accel World, nothing is impossible as long as you believe enough, which in their technical jargon is called the Incarnate system. In a typical hentai fashion, Chiyu has been made into some kind of slave, Haruyuki is made into the most hated person in the school once again, and Snow Black gets a yuri friend. Unlike in most animes where the main character is made out to be the bad man even though he actually has good intentions and the walls are slowly closing around him, I do not feel the same desperateness that would make this arc better. Accel World is now a decent shounen anime so far but nothing really above that. It had some potential but it overall just takes safe routes along the way not risking anything besides character design.
Arcana Famiglia
So...this anime is still going on. For anyone who's curious about it, you shouldn't be. If you still want to know what it's about, I'll explain it. So on this island, there's a group of people who can use Arcana powers, like the tarrot cards ex The Fool, Chariot, Death, called the Arcana Famiglia- because they're Italian. Suddenly one day, the leader of the group called Papa, real name Mondo, announces that he wants to choose his successor through a battle royale, Arcana Duello, and the winner will receive the title of "Papa" as well as the right to marry his lovely daughter, Felicita. Of course, Felicita wants nothing to do with this and tries to rebel only to be beaten very thoroughly by Mondo. Felicita is later reassured by her friends, Nova and Liberta, that they will win the Arcana duello and free her.
This anime is animated fairly decently but the plot is pretty retarded. It's mainly about the characters growing up and learning to use their Arcana powers, but just every character's back story is so boring and sometimes generic that it's very hard to bond with any of them.
Now up to episode 9, we learn much about the truth behind the family alchemist, and possessor of the Moon Arcana, Jolly's shenanigans in the basement and some other things about Felicita's background. I still don't really care...this anime isn't bad enough to drop but certainly not good enough to recommend
Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon II
This show...I still have no clue what's going on though it's a bit more coherent now. Basically in this show there are only two types of girls- those with boobs and those without- I kid you not. If you thought things like Bleach were bad, this takes it to a whole new level, there just is no in between. It's kinda similar to what the anime is like- either it makes absolutely no sense or it actually makes some. Recently it's been leaning more towards the latter which is good, but still there's nothing really to compliment Horizon on since I can't really understand it. Horizon suffers from the same problems that its first season did, incomprehensible setting, plot, and characters. They literally just throw you into a very complicated futuristic world with no prior background knowledge and scarcely explain anything on the way.
Luckily, the second season basically picks up from wherever the last season left off and uses whatever little knowledge about their universe that you gleaned again so now you feel just a bit more in the loop. I certainly understand more about what's going on now, but I still have no clue what's going on.
Horizon's only redeeming points are its animation and its VERY unique characters. Fights are always very interesting due to these two things. Fluid animation with original characters that you've never seen the like of before makes for some good fights, though sometimes very retarded. Horizon is a show that seemingly had potential but just kind of lost its steam somewhere in translation or in Horizon's case forgot to bring it.
Joshiraku
Still not sure if this show is not very funny because of the cultural difference/language barrier, or if it's just not funny. Joshiraku as an anime is similar to one room comedies such as Seitokai no Ichizon in that it can take a topic and stretch it out for longer periods of time than most anime ever do and still be generally interesting, but the content in between just isn't that great for Joshiraku. I feel like I should be laughing, but the most I've ever mustered up is a smile. Joshiraku is still one of the better animes this season, but as is the general theme for Summer 2012, mediocre is the new good.
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