Silver Spoon Ep 1&2 – Review

Before the new episode is released today Tyler and I would like to get caught up with the reviews of the first two episodes!

Silver Spoon is about Yugo who is attending an Agricultural Boarding High school. Yugo is the last person you would see attending a school like this because, unlike his classmates, Yugo knows NOTHING about agriculture.With in his first week he chases a calf all the way off campus and a girl (Aki) on a horse comes and saves him.

How the school works is that they have agricultural labs and then class work, they also must join a club on campus. They also are separated in to groups for their labs, which they will see these people for the rest of their time at the school.  You see how much Yugo doesn’t know during his labs when he finds out where an egg from the chicken comes from. Yugo knows  he will have no problem doing the actual class work, though he isn’t as “agriculturally smart”. His classmates also wonder why he is even there if he doesn’t know anything about agriculture. It is hinted towards that he doesn’t want to be home so he chose the only school that would let him in from his test scores.

Yugo is also faced with the challenges of picking a club to join, and adjusting to this new life style. You meet other characters in the show from him going around wondering what club he can join, since he can’t avoid it. He ends up settling with the equestrian club because Aki (the girl who saved him) persuaded him to join. So, it is seen that there is potential shipping between the two. As he gets on to a horse for the first time by himself he accepts that he could see him self having this career and lifestyle.

The show is deliciously adorable, and a really light watch. It also seems that this is the school the the whole cast from Harvest Moon attends! Anyway Tyler and I are really excited to watch the rest of this show this season.

-Tyler and Gates

Free! Ep 4 – Review

It’s finally happened…Rei learned to swim! It was a slow and embarrassing (albeit entertaining) journey, and it didn’t happen overnight.

As the show kicks off, our fabulous foursome is having their first real swim of the year in the pool at their school. It’s still cold though, and at this point Rei still can’t swim. Nagisa thinks that they should all get matching uniforms. Everyone thinks it’s a good idea except for Gou/Kou, who has come up with a training regimen to get the group ready for the tournament. It includes one particularly daunting task, however: Teaching Rei to swim within a week.

The training is slow going, and it seems like Rei is getting nowhere anytime soon. He thinks that his speedo might be to blame, so everyone heads out to buy new swimsuits. Once they are at the sportswear store, they all begin to try out different swimsuits, and it turns into a giant female fanservice montage.  Haru runs into Rin as they both come out of the fitting room at the same time, and tells him that he wants to talk.

Haru finds out that Rin doesn’t fell that his win against Haru counts, because Rin is in much better shape than Haru is, and wants a rematch. Haru then promises to swim for Rin, but only if Rin promises not to quit swimming if he loses. He agrees, and then storms off. The rest of the group comes out, and then head back to the school to keep teaching Rei how to swim.

After Rei continues to embarrass himself, Haru finally agrees to teach him. After spending all that time learning from him, Rei is disappointed when he still can’t swim. They open up to each other though, when Haru tells him that he isn’t free. Something finally clicks in his head, and the next time the group comes to the pool, they find Rei there already swimming. He was doing the butterfly stroke, which he refused to do because he didn’t see the beauty in it until after his conversation with Haru.

The show was FULL of ab rippling shots, of course, but we have the confrontation and race between Rei and Haru to look forward to. Next week’s episode looks kinda like a filler as the swim club  goes on vacation.

Servant x Service Ep 3 – Review

So, we were right… Servant x Service is going to be about boobs. Lucy’s boobs, specifically. This episode has some building connections, although not much else happens.

Hasebe is the overly flirtatious male in the office, always getting girls emails; even though he never uses them. Then he realizes he never got Lucy’s email, so he starts asking her out to dinner and tries to get closer to her. Surprisingly enough, he never gets her email because he forgets to ask, every time. Potential shipping? In the end Lucy tells Hasebe her breast size to pay him back for his recent kindness, and as she walks away, he realizes he forgot to ask for her email again.

– Tyler and Gates

Free! Ep 3 – Review

Delts, pecs, and six packs: a new episode of Free! must be out! I know we’re a few days late getting this out, but better later than never, right?

Starting out shortly after where Episode 2 left off, Haru has a cold from swimming in the pool in April. His passion for swimming is admirable, but he seems willing to let nothing, even his health, come in the way of him swimming. The trio is working on getting a 4th member so they can do relays, but the task seems to be a little harder than they expected. Nagisa has his heart set on Rei Ryugazaki, a member of the track club who is very intelligent. Rei’s calculations turn into his downfall, however, when the coach praises him on his form, but says that’s all he has, which upsets Rei. He also becomes the main focus of the episode.

Then, Kou/Gou arranges a joint practice with Samezuka, the private school that Rin attends. She says, however, that they need to have at least 4 members in order to do this though. This leads Nagisa to run with Rei in the morning on his way to school, getting to know him better, and trying to convince him to join the swim club, which he agrees to, but only as a trial member.

When they get to Samezuka, they start doing individual time trials. When it’s Rei’s turn, he starts calculating, and when he jumps in, he immediately sinks to the bottom because…wait for it…he can’t swim! The fact embarrassed him so much that, even after getting talked into swimming, he doesn’t tell anybody he can’t swim. After getting rescued from the pool, Rei watches Haru swim, and is suddenly full of admiration for him.Rei finally agrees to join the swim club as a full time member, wanting to be able to swim like Haru.

This episode definitely set up a lot of further plot points, and set up some great storylines. It was fun to watch, and kept me wanting more. Can’t wait to see what happens next week!

– Gates and Tyler

Servant X Service Ep 2- Review

Now, having not watched many “slice of life” anime, we are trying to get use to the fact that there won’t be an overall arcing story, the show is seriously about them working as civil servants. Since the show doesn’t have really any plot arcs, it really has to focus on the interactions of the characters and their back stories.

Something I find really funny and interesting in this episode was the interaction between Megumi and Lucy. Megumi starts asked Lucy why she wears so much black and that dressing more professionally will look better. This leads into anfunny conversation about Lucy’s breasts and how she would look perfect as a character from an anime that Megumi also cosplays from. Yes, Megumi… quiet, gentle, Megumi…cosplays. This is an interesting find, because we never saw it coming, but throughout the show it becomes more apparent as she tries to recruit people to cosplay. HOPEFULLY we will see more of that later on.

Also, in this episode, you meet Toko, Taishi’s younger sister. She is a high school girl that comes by the office to make sure everyone is doing their job, and that they are well educated civil servants. She is seen as an annoying brat, but, once you find out that she is there to learn everything her brother knows cause she loves him and is afraid to lose him, you understand her and her brother’s character. And young Toko IS SOOO FREAKING CUTE!!!

Overall the show is great! It’s a really fun watch, and we’re interested in where the characters are headed!

-Gates and Tyler

Free! Ep 2 – Review

Splashing water, swooning teenage girls, rippling muscles, random stripping, and swimming. We could only be talking about one thing: Free!

Episode 2 begins right where episode 1 left off, the race between Rin and Haru. You are left hanging and not knowing the results of the race. BUT at the beginning of the show it is assumed that Rin lost the race as he says “Does this mean I will never beat him?!” Then it flashes to the scene where Haru and the boys are being scolded by school faculty for breaking in to the school’s pool.

Gou (Rin’s sister that attends that same school as the other boy’s) ends up expressing our feelings when it comes to ALL the fan service for the ladies… We aren’t suppose to look, but we love it… maybe too much.

Later the boy’s come up with the idea of forming a school swimming club to make use of the old pool on the grounds. They get their teacher , Miss Ama, to sponsor for them who use to work for a swimsuit designer. The swimming club is approved under the condition that they clean up the old pool for use. While cleaning up Mako and Gou get in the conversation of why Rin and Haru don’t swim anymore. It is revealed that Rin goes to the academy, but isn’t part of the swim club. Gou suspects that Rin has lost to Haru at the race at the academy, but Mako tells the real story. Rin had won the race against Haru. At this point you realize Rin is competing with the idea of winning while Haru doesn’t see winning as a factor, he just wants to swim.

You end up seeing Mako’s home life between his family and siblings and you also see a flashback to the their childhood when he runs in to an old instructor that tells a story about when Rin came back for the first time from Australia in the winter and ran into Haru and they to their old club to race. Rin is defeated and breaks down, after going to study in Australia he still can’t defeat Haru. this is explained why Haru stopped swimming because he hurt Rin by winning.

At the end of the episode you learn some much about the inner and outer conflicts of the characters, by the end Mako sees that Haru is returning to his “old self”. As they are opening the pool for the first time, even though it’s too cold outside, Haru strips down to test out the pool.

AND NEXT EPISODE WE GET TO MEET PURPLE HAIR GLASSES GUY!

– Tyler and Gates

5 Centimeters per Second – Movie

 

Seeing as we’ve heard a lot of good things about this anime, Tyler and I were excited when we stumbled across the English dub on Crunchyroll. After finishing the movie, we understood the description; hearts were broken, feels were felt, and tears were shed.

5 Centimeters per Second is told in three parts, and takes place over a period of years spanning from elementary school, through high school and into adulthood. The movie starts out with the protagonists, Takaki and Akari, looking at cherry blossoms, promising to see them again together some day. Sadly, the two are forced to separate as Akari moves away. They retain contact through letters, which is what drives the dialogue in part one, Cherry Blossoms.

Years have passed, and Takaki is now in high school. Kanae, a girl in Takaki’s class, is the protagonist of part two, Cosmonaut. She’s developed serious feelings for Takaki, but is afraid of rejection. Similarly, Takaki finds himself unable to send the drafts of texts he writes to Akari, fearing the same. Kanae eventually discovers her feelings won’t be returned, and Takaki won’t express his.

In the final part, 5 Centimeters per Second, features both of our original protagonists, with the communication between them far in the past. Takaki is unhappily unemployed as a computer programmer, while Akari is engaged, with her wedding fast approaching. Takaki realizes he’s unhappy, and quits his job, going out and searching for his purpose and happiness, like the drive he had when he was younger. Akari is happy in the final segment, even after she finds a piece of the past that reminds her of Takaki. Takaki, however, still seems to not be with his life. The end of the movie is an elegant heartbreaking montage of the journey that Takaki and Akari have had through out the movie.  

 

Now ! What we actually LIKED about the movie.

 

The way that the themes of distance are portrayed in several different ways made the movie not only visually pleasing but also emotionally… if you like an abundance of feels bombarding your heart like asteroids. The art and film style is SERIOUSLY the only way this overall story could be told, as every single scene of the movie is just as important as the dialogue. AND THE FREAKING MUSIC! Bah … each part of the movie had its own style of music to portray the chapter of life the characters were in. Music was heavily used at the end of the movie to wrap up it all up, which coats on the feels that much more.

The movie is highly recommended, this post can’t do justice. Go out. Watch it. Cry.  

-Tyler and Gates

Servant x Service ep 1- Review

Servant x Service is a new “slice of life” show in the 2013 Summer Anime line up. Created by Karino Takatsu, Servant x Service is compared to his previous show and manga “Working!”. Being our first show in this genre, we were both presently surprised that we really enjoyed the show!.

The show starts off with three new employees (Lucy Yamagami, Yutaka Hasebe, and  Saya Miyoshi) starting first day at a Civil Service office. They are assigned to their jobs were you are introduce to other characters around the office. There is not a real sign of an overall story arc except the characters back stories, potential ships, and Lucy’s “revenge” on past Civil Service worker, the one who let her parents name her Lucy Kimiko Akie Airi Shiori Rinne Yoshiho Ayano Tomika Chitose Sanae … Yamagami.

The anime also offered so much visually with the art and style of the anime. The voice acting was cute, and definitely wasn’t to the point of annoying. The characters were introduced well and we are looking forward to seeing how even the minor character’s stories develop.Also did anyone else compare this show to “The Office”?  Overall the show is a humorous quirky breath of fresh air, and we are looking forward to talking more in-depth about the show as the series continues this season.

Oh my… guys. That intro…