<Akari’s Diary Day1>

Today in the club room, we found some stuff that look like a camping gears in the closet. Kyouko-chan proposed the idea of going on a camping out in the nature. With this kind of hot weather, I agree that camping would be great. Ah, the natures and animal adventure with friends. We also invite Ayano-chan. I hope we can go together with everyone.

<Day2>

While I was waiting for Chinatsu-chan to discuss about the camping trip, Sakurako-chan and Himawari-chan happened to stop by.   We sit down and chat together. Sakurako-chan is sure a funny girl. She tried to show me how to elegantly drink a coffee, but fail misery. The first sip burns her tongue and she would give it up only after a few attempts to cool it down.

And get this! She also play a prank on me by typing embarrassing text to Chinatsu-chan! Geez, she’s such a prankster! Mou~

<Day3>

The trip began today! It was hot today. I wake up early but ends up late as I was helping grandma finding her granddaughter’s house. I hope they have a nice weekend together.

The train that we got on had a Mikrakurun’s pictures all over. I think they’re running promotion of the anime. Kyouko-chan got so excited about it. She had Chinatsu-chan wear a hat and posed as Mirakurun.

Mirakurun got on Mirakurun. Nanchatte~!

We got off the train and walk off to the camp site. It’s so beautiful here, I’m glad I’m with my best friends. I’m really really happy. 😀

Ok, that’s enough playing around. As you might have guess it, Yuru Yuri is one of my favorite show to watch. I have watch the previous two seasons over dozen times. These girls are funny, cute, and have great relationship together. Each character has her role in the comedy routine. And while the jokes get repeat a couple of times, they’re still funny.

You can consider this movie as a long special ep like the one at the end of each series where every cast got together and do something fun. It doesn’t feel like a typical anime’s movie because they didn’t travel to other county or have any new character for the movie. It’s just the usual group. Amusement club and Student council.

Everyone is the same just how we want them to be. Kyouko-chan still eccentric as ever. One time she tried to fan the cooking fire with a recorder. Why did she bring a recorder to the camping trip anyway?

Chitose still has nosebleed during wet dream between Kyouko-chan and Ayano. This time however, she got blush trying to explain her predicament to Akari. I think that’s the first time we ever see her in embarrassing mode.

Other character who didn’t go to the camping trip got at least a line. One good scene is when Sakurako’s lil sister says that she can’t concentrate without her noisy sister being around. Awww… she misses her.

The camping is nothing special. They just set up tents in the woods. I’m not sure if it was in a camping area, but later, they walk to take a bath in the bathing house.

BATHING HOUSE YOU SAY!? Fan-service time! They get completely naked. But as you know by now, the show has no nudity. So yea, they just having fun, playing pranks, and chatting together.

While there is no plot whatsoever. They add a little bit of new funny conversations with different couples or different pairs that you would never see before. Not too bad.

The anime follows up the bath time fanservice with another fanservice with pajama party with animal’s costumes. Remember those tomato, cat, dog, rabbit and other animal costumes? Yea, those are back. Ayano look so cute in hers.

They save the best for last when they climb up the hill to see the scenic view. The panoramic view was ok, but what make it memorable was Akari’s priceless face. It happens after she messes up her sentimental last words. As she turns around, she had this cute embarrassing face on, and then giggling – eheh e.  it was so so so cute. XD

It was an Akari’s classic moment and a perfect way to end a trip. I was smiling and laughing with everyone on the show.

And so, the movie ends. It was nothing spectacular, but it was your usual Yuru Yuri, maybe a tad slower than normal. Nontherless, I’m very thankful they made this movie. And I also read that there is another season in the future. Keep them coming please!

Person A: You haven’t watch Attack of Titan? What’s wrong with you?
Person B: It’s totally crap, don’t even bother. It’s like Claymore, except shitier like Bleach.

Me: *Say something generic like* I’m going to watch it later.

…

A year later.

I FUCKING LOVE IT! Now, I’m not going become a fanboi or whatever people do these days.  And it’s not even going be on my top 10 list. But I really genuinely like the show. It was riveting, motivating, emotional, and most importantly entertaining. From the second I turn it on to the last min of the show, it was great. I was the edge of my seat for every surprised attacked, I was fascinate by the giants and their movements, I was emotional during army’s speeches, and I never once get bored.

I’m not going talk what’s the show is about because I assume everybody know what it is by now. So let me get to the point why I like the show.

First, it doesn’t waste any time.  Each ep is filled up with either great thriller action, or great emotional background stories. It never leaves me hanging. Each conversation has a meaning and each encounter has a place in the anime. Everything and everyone you’ve met will come around and play a role in the story. Just look at the last arc, it was something that brew up from the beginning. I just appreciate a show that bring character around to a full circle.

Second, giant human is so FREAKING COOL! I mean, just look at those Colossal Titan, and armored Titan. That’s like a giant human body figure you’ve seen in science room except this one can bash your head off. HELL YEA! I admit that the reason sounds childish, but it was so damn cool! And to make it better, there are so many variety of the monsters. I never get bored looking at these freak of nature.

Third is the fight scenes.  Obviously this is the bread and butter of the show.  Mostly the fight will be between human and giants.  To me the fight looks like a bunch of ninjas fighting a dinosaur.  And who doesn’t love ninja and dinosaur.  In each fight, you can expect good camera fx like slo-mo and 360 circle.  The swordsmanship itself isn’t spectacular but it was enough for entertaining.  Most of the hype were generated from fighter’s emotional war cry and thrilling soundtrack.  Later battles involve a calculated plan and intelligence tactics.  Human use brain, monster use power.

What make these fight scenes so good is that these fighting scenes never stop moving.  It just keep on going until someone won.  No stagger scene, no staring contest, no prolonging fight.

Giant vs. Giant is a whole another story though.  This one feel like Godzilla vs. naked Ultraman.  That shet was epic!  You could feel the whole place shaking.  Right now they’re using basic close quarter combats which I love, but I can see them advance to using special attack and whatnot.  No ridiculous attack please.

Directing is a mixed bag at times, but I think I’m ok with it. The first half was truly addicting and exhilarating to watch. The moment that Colossal giant appeared, your jaw dropped and stayed in an awe for a while. Throughout the anime, they create a very good atmosphere of fears, panics, and devastation. You could feel their emotions. And you can clearly see why they are so afraid of these creatures.

Next is the element of surprise, you never know what’s going happen in this anime. Something always suddenly show up or change its direction. Once you thought the fight is over, think again.  Anyone can get killed at any time. It’s not your carebare shonen show.

They also make it very dramatic for every time they had to make a life or death decision. You could feel their level of will and their determination. Soliders in the show often feel shaken and desperate when encounter tragedy. But after a motivational speech, their spirit raise up and took on the challenge. These ‘harsh reality’ speeches are well written and make you think twice.

I also like how they did flashback for each character. It added depth and meaning to character’s decision. Sadly, it’s becoming a formula. Key moment > flashback > tragedy in flashback > convincing audience to accept decision > rationalize the decision > act upon it. Good thing they kept these flashbacks short.

The bad part is when the show start to have a larger cast. Sometime the tragedy or the plot twist are not so clear thus decreasing the effectiveness of certain scenes. Take Marco character for example. I don’t even remember when he dies lol. But for some reason, his death has a role in the bigger plot. Another example is the end plot with Annie. Although I didn’t see it coming, it wasn’t surprising at all. I think that’s because she doesn’t leave enough impression. Oh well, now I’m just nit-picking.

The world setting feels pretty good consider the actual town is not really interesting. They try hard to make it epic. Think about it, it’s simply a big ass town with a bunch of walls between. And what else do they do? FARM? Ok, how about their weapon? CANNON? You’ve got to be joking. They have been fighting these giants for over a hundred years and all you come up with is cannon? SMH Just imagine this, had they got any type of flying mechanics, they would have won the war by now. OH SNAP! Now now, the reason I find it ‘pretty good’ because they did a good job covering these flaws. Like how they keep showing you the bird view of the town because it looks epic. Or that boat that can only travel in one direction. Or the railroad that move cannon on the wall. These gimmicks work wonder. It creates an illusion of a grander and detailed world. And if you don’t think about it too much, you can accept their primitive society and their world setting.

Characters. The main group is decent. We finally got a girl who can actually do something in shonen show. The problem is, if you think it hard enough, she doesn’t make any impact AT ALL. It’s either Eren, Armin, or Levi flying in to save the day. Mikasa have nice personality though. And I’m glad that she can go into psycho mode when cornered. I just hope they’ll do an arc for her. Finger crossed.

Other characters that worth mentioning are Levi and …, just Levi. The guy is such a badass, so badass that they have to keep him away from fights. Just think, if they kept this guy as a wall protector, no giant could have gotten in for sure.

Oh! Sasha and Krista got interesting voice actresses. Kobayashi Yuu has this crazy voices and when Sasha is panicing, it’s just sound otherworldly. Krista was voiced by Mikami Shiori who also voiced Akari in Yuriyuri. Their character kinda have same personality which is honest and kind to the point of being revered. One time there was a scene where her character shines like a Buddha just like in Yuriyuri. It was funny as hell. AKARI WAS HERE baby!

All these would be nothing without an amazing animation. I don’t usually talk much about this category because I believe that if you have MONEY, the animation will come. And obviously they got boatload of money to do this anime. Still, it deserved the loved for not taking shortcut and for put the effort into the right places. What I’m saying is, NO CHEAP 3-D. And fight scenes are fast and fluid. The animation never miss a beat.

Lastly,while the story wasn’t anything special and some could even argue that it wasn’t original, it was way better than you could ask for in a shonen show.  The story never stuck, reset, or deus ex machina.  And although it is stepping dangerously close into being a cheap shonen show by having human control the giant, it hasn’t gone over the edge just yet.  Hopefully the show will not turn into stupid battles between human controlled giants for all the marbles.  Ugh, I don’t even want to think about it.

One thing I like though is when they solve population problem by sending them to fight giants. It was a nice trick to introduce the real villain, human. Because I think that will be the true boss. Once again the plot is not new, but I like how they are setting it up.

As for the op/ed.  I don’t think I like any of them. Gonna have to check each song individually because I skip them most of the times.  I’m past the age where I listen to each op/ed and sing it along.  Now I just skipping chapter to save time.

I just love this show, lot of good comedy and romantic comedy, feel-good characters and solid fantasy world.

First off, the comedy.  Inari herself is a walking comedy routine machine.  Her clumsiness while being an idiot always draw funny situations.  And her honesty and easy to read faces usually prompt other to make fun of her.  She’s your usual energetic, klutz, non-sexy, and unpopular.  Almost like a shoujo type char but she has friends and able to make new friend pretty easily.  Personally, I love genki girl, so she’s my type. ❤  The rest of comedy is also good and fresh. Their amusing reactions are hilarious.  I laugh my lung out every ep.

Second, the romantic comedy.  This anime has two couples, Inari x Kouji and Touka x Uka.  Inari x Kouji is almost like shoujo cliche story with Inari, the unpopular girl who has heart of gold, happens to like the most popular and handsome guy in the class.  As in shoujo, you also get jealously element from other girls which is pretty good drama.  But since the anime is seinen, the guy didn’t like her from the start and require some good event to trigger the flag.  I think I like it; nothing new, but the love was there.  Her romance stories come and go so it doesn’t get drag out.

Then there is most interesting couple in the history of anime, Touka x Uka.  Touka is 2D guy who haven’t outgrown the chuunibyou, while Uka is a goddess who like to play bishonen dating sim.  LOL  Just the premise itself is hilarious.  Not to mention this couple often fights each other giving us plenty of different sides of their personalities.  Especially with Uka, her bashfulness is shown only when dealing with Touka(otherwise play a cool&calm role). To see a full-grown goddess blushes with a HS guy is pure gold.  I think Uka character is the most unusual and probably the most popular.

Thirdly, the girl friendship.  Inari’s relationship with her friends are in full display.  They got plenty of meaningful flashbacks to build good memories, and new encounters to make new friend.  I thought the whole thing was very cute and touching.  Also YURI COUPLE INCOMING!

Fourthly, the mahou shoujo.  The whole story revolves around Inari’s power to transform herself into other people.  This power is kinda bit too anime-crap like so I didn’t like it that much.  However, they didn’t overused it, and it can be funny when she changes to male(or old male) character.  And most of the time, Inari use it to help other people. It also help her char develops maturity, to realized that she can tell her true feeling even without using the power. The god’s power also play a big role for the ending which is kinda cliche and I don’t really care.  The ending kinda ruins it for me since it’s too short!  but what else is news.

Fifthly, the spirit’s world.  It creates a very well made world, I never see this version before so it was refreshing.  Other gods and creatures often play the comedy roles so it’s pretty light-heart stuff.  But they also keep it real with overall entity of god.  That their being is on a different world apart from human, and their encounter should not be taken lightly.  I love this part of the show, keeping the anime grounded, limiting the god’s power and making the encounter between Inari and Uka even more special.  The hug between them looks so cuddly warm.

Lastly is the directing.  This anime utilizes the ‘sudden’ quick jokes with unexpected timing making them very funny.  The story also keep you on edge with all the unpredictable weird stuff that you would not expect a god would do.  The dialogs are thoughtful and funny, even more fitting with kansai accent.  Also, they draw a lot of different cute outfits for these girls.  The cast is influenced by otaku culture like Uka’s drooling when playing reverse harem game(Orimo) or Touka’s Chuunibuu syndrom.  Man I laugh so hard when I saw Uka playing dating sim on KSIII(PS3).  And Uka’s huhuhu laugh is pretty much a copycat from Kirino’s.

Sadly the series is only 10 eps.  And they have yet get to the juicy parts: Uka x Touka and YURI couple. I need MOAR!

– Love OST and all VAs.

=- OVA(06-2014) -=

OVA is still funny.
Kid: I want to see mommy
Inari: Where is she working?
Kid: …no clue. But I’ll find her.
Aww.. the family part is heartwarming.  Damn I really like this show.