Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen Ep. 1 - Curse

The original Utawarerumono caught my attention when it was released, but, unfortunately, I've never watched it. So, I was really happy to find that not just a new season would be released, but also it'll have a new setting, doesn't requiring me to watch the first series to understand this new one.

When I came to, I realized I was standing in the middle of a vast, snowy plain I knew nothing of. I didn't know how I got there. And to add to that, I couldn't remember anything, not even my name. I stood there, dumbfounded at my absurd situation. But then, as if to spite me further, a gigantic monster suddenly appeared, an insect-like creature that began to bear down on me. I tried desperately to run, but it cornered me into a hopeless situation. It was then that the girl appeared. Her name was Kuon. It was this beautiful girl, who bore an animal's ears and tail, that saved my life.

The first thing you notice is that this anime is BEAUTIFUL. I mean, both scenery and character design are gorgeous, as well as the animation per se. Kuon, the main catgirl character is extremely cute, and her reactions are always great to watch, and both Kuon and Haku have nice personalities. While Kuon is kind of bossy, motherly and seems to have a lot of energy, Haku is weak, whiny and lazy, but clever at the same time. As Kuon said, he's better with jobs that use his mind.

This first episode has a slower pace, giving us newbies time to get familiarized with this world, and to enjoy the amazing scenes. I loved watching Utawarerumono and looks like it'll be one of my top 3 anime of this season (if not the favorite). Kuon is the best girl already, and I'm excited to see how the story will develop.

Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen Ep. 1 - Curse

Kuon is the best girl already

Rating: 5 stars and 1 bonus heart

Sakurako-san Ep. 1 - The Princess Who Loves Bones

This one was a great surprise to me. Despite being a big fan of mystery books and TV Shows, I usually don't watch anime with detective stories. Maybe I always thought (and some anime reinforced it) that an anime with this kind of story would be just awkward or strange. But Sakurako-san proved me wrong.

Shoutarou Tatewaki, a high schooler living in Asahikawa City, Hokkaido, meets Sakurako Kujou, a bone-loving young lady who has an ability to analyze specimen. Because of meeting her, he has to accompany her to various cases.

Of course, there's a bit of cliche here: a brilliant and 'weird' detective that doesn't like people at all (Sakurako), and a regular person as a sidekick (Tatewaki Shoutarou). But here the detective have a singular personality trait. She REALLY likes bones, like, she's an osteologist and liked bones since she was a kid. Sakurako fancies dead humans to living ones and, at least on this first episode, this makes a difference, instead of just being used to say that the character is a cold-blooded detective.

On the other side, Shoutarou is just a regular guy (for an anime),  and we still don't know how the couple became acquainted. But I think that was left for later.


One thing that I'm still wondering is what'll be the focus of the show. I don't know if it was because this was the first episode, but I loved the different approach to the usual detective/police procedural drama. Here, Sakurako uses her ability to tell that an apparent double-suicide was, in fact, a double homicide, and how she came to that conclusion. But there was no worry about finding who was the killer. It's strange but awesome at the same time, and I hope that Sakurako-san wouldn't fall into the over repeated detective drama formula.

So, if you like mysteries and detective stories and want something different from the usual formula, give Sakurako-san no Ashimoto ni wa Shitai ga Umatteiru (!) a try. Alongside the great story, it has an older protagonist, a nice change from the so common high school scenario, beautiful visuals, and it's a promising anime overall.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Yuru Yuri S1 Ep. 1 - Middle School Debut!

With its first season premiered in Fall 2011 season, Yuru Yuri has earned some loyal fans. Now, with the premiere of the 3rd season, and having the first on my watchlist for some time, I finally decided to give it a try. After all, I need something easy and relaxing to watch during breakfast.

Based on the slice-of-life manga by Namori, Yuru Yuri is an eccentric comedy about a group of girls who spend their spare time drinking tea and fawning over each other, all while completely failing to even notice the supposed main character Akari amongst them.

On this first episode, we get to know the 4 main characters. Akari Akaza (the main character) decides to join the Amusement Club alongside her friends Kyōko Toshinō and Yui Funami. Later on, one of Akari's classmates, Chinatsu Yoshikawa, joins the club too.

The episode follows the group as they try to decide what to do with their time on the Amusement Club. That's because this club doesn't involve any particular activity. So, they end up trying to improve Akari's presence, because as they say, she doesn't have any presence at all, and people barely notice her.

Well... At least she is special.

I enjoyed this episode, and I'll watch the rest of the season, on the days I don't have any anime of the new season to watch. It's relaxing, easy to watch, but also entertaining and fun, having enough bits of comedy to make my day have a good start.

Rating: 4 stars

One-Punch Man Ep.1 - The Strongest Man

OK, for many fans this might be one of the most expected anime of the season, and after watching it without knowing anything about it, I can say that it delivers what it promises.

In this new action-comedy, everything about a young man named Saitama screams "AVERAGE," from his lifeless expression, to his bald head, to his unimpressive physique. However, this average-looking fellow doesn't have your average problem... He's actually a superhero that's looking for tough opponents! The problem is, every time he finds a promising candidate he beats the snot out of them in one punch. Can Saitama finally find an evil villain strong enough to challenge him? Follow Saitama through his hilarious romps as he searches for new bad guys to challenge!

Living in a world that suffers regularly with monster attacks and have super-heroes to deal with them, Saitama is someone who became a hero for the fun. But unfortunately, he trained so hard and became so powerful, that one punch is all it takes to defeat any opponent. And for him, that's boring.

When you're so strong that you dream about being weak

The premise of this show is remarkably crazy, and the monsters are intentionally ridiculous. It's filled with great gags, and this episode has a nice flashback showing how Saitama decided to turn into a super-hero. I recommend this anime to anyone who wants excellent battle scenes interleaved with really funny ones. For me, One-Punch Man is very welcome anime, and I will definitely follow it.

Rating: 5 stars

Dark Shadows: The House of Despair

I got interested on the original Dark Shadows soap opera while I was reading Caught Dead Handed (A Witch City Mystery #1) by Carol J. Perry. I had already watched the new movie with Johnny Depp and knew about the new comics and all, but didn't know anything about the 60s TV show.

So I decided to give it a try and got addicted for some time. Now, I'm not watching it anymore (I'll be back to it later, I guess), but got really interested on Big Finish's full cast audio dramas. Last week I listened to the first story, House of Despair, and loved it!

The Beauty #2: Things get ugly

The Beauty is surely a very creative series. It's story revolves around two detectives investigating an STD that makes people beautiful. But things are not perfect because as the couple discovers on this second issue, people infected with 'the beauty' may be exploding, and that's not good.

Archie #3: Enters Veronica Lodge

This new series is my first experience with Archie, and as I told you before, I'm loving it. Now, after meeting our 'heroes' and knowing a little about Archie and Betty's relationship, on this 3rd issue we finally got to see Veronica interacting with Archie, Betty and the others.

Veronica is completely egocentric and self-absorbed, turning Archie into her personal puppy-butler. That makes Jughead really worried about his best friend, and he asks Betty to do something. Betty, of course, doesn't want to get involved, but after trying to help Veronica with an incident and getting snubbed, only to watch Archie being treated like a puppet again, now things get personal.

I loved this issue and the end makes me really excited to see what the future reserves for Veronica, Betty, Archie and Jughead. Good luck Veronica, because now Betty wants revenge!

Archie #3 by Archie Comics.
4.5 stars