Anime Review: Yano-kun's Ordinary Days

 

Did you watch Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie and think to yourself, "man, they really underutilized the whole clumsy boy trope," then do I have the show for you.

Yano-kun's Ordinary Days is an anime adaptation of the manga of the same name by Tamura Yui. I'd probably label it a shojo (and then be beaten to death by shojo elitists). The story centers around the female MC Kiyoko, the class president, who's concern over her classmate Yano grows into affection, then into full fledged romance.

Yano is a very clumsy, accident prone boy, who seems to draw misfortune to himself; he always comes to school injured heavily, wearing an eye-patch. Kiyoko's determination to keep him from harm ultimately proves largely ineffectual, but charming and to Yano, very endearing.

Yuka Nukui, the actress who plays Kiyoko, does a fantastic job. Her reactions, panic, and emotion all come across so honest and believable that I really grew to like Kiyoko as a character. In comparison again to Shikimori, who's more of a badass, guardian angel type, Kiyoko comes across less powerful, and more concerned.

I think both are very good characters and I appreciate the different ways of approaching the clumsy-boy trope.

Yano, very much like Izumi of Shikimori, is a beacon of calamity. Misfortune seems to follow him around constantly. I found myself calling him cursed in episode 1, which may became a plot point later on... When episode 11 rolls around though and a character is introduced from Yano's past, I felt like they kind of rushed through the traumatic backstory in order to find resolution, and the new cast member's presence wasn't really well executed.

Yano's pretty pathetic, but his positivity and unwillingness to break in the face of all the bullshit he constantly dealt with left me wanting to be inspired; to what end? Not sure.

I would happily watch another season of this series and buy the manga if they decided to license and print it in the US.

8/10

Manga Review: Might as Well Cheat

"Might as Well Cheat: I Got Transported to Another World Where I Can Live My Wildest Dreams!" is a series cooperatively created with story (based on the LN of the same name) written by Munmun combined with the art of Butcha-U.

So, if you're not one of the more cultured readers of this blog, perhaps you're unfamiliar with the name Butcha-U. Butcha-U draws porn. This dude is a legendarily famous and prolific hentai artist, responsible for the series Pooters, which just so happens to have an English license by Fakku, including a deluxe edition box set! [remember this when your favorite series doesn't get picked up for an English license]

I'm not familiar with any other works by Munmun and it would seem MAL doesn't know any either.

The series is softcore erotica: hentai light.

In standard isekai fashion, the hero of the books gets transported to another world, where they spend most of their time and money traveling around to brothels having sex with beautifully drawn fantasy women (and sometimes elves). The MC is a bit of a healer-specialist, and uses his skills to relieve the women of their stress and illness. He earns the nickname Dr. Slime and becomes somewhat of an urban brothel legends. The sex scenes are way more comedic than explicit, often using visual metaphor in place of actual sex, like depicting the battles in the bedroom as real world battles, with naval vessels, tanks, etc. The hero has to conquer the ladies in the bedroom sense in order to emerge victorious.

Shota's ruin everything

It's all very sexy and funny, with plenty of gorgeously drawn women courtesy of Butcha-U.

Until suddenly...

GIANT ROBOTS!!!!!

This whole arc was peak. Hilarious degeneracy. The secret techniques and special moves were epic

Around the beginning of volume 3, the protagonist is introduced to this world's fantasy equivalent of Gundam: Knights! These are giant magical golems which are piloted from an internal cockpit. Dr. Slime's always fantasized about giant robots since he was a kid, and now here in this fantasy world, he can finally live out his real dream of becoming a giant robot pilot (not sleeping with fantasy women - though he'll still do lots of that).

The Knight subplot in this series becomes more and more the main focus as things go on... to the point that by volume 10, it's really the only thing going on at all. Volume 10 featured zero tantalizing escapades, favoring mecha combat entirely. It actually had me wondering if maybe this was the final volume so they wanted to go out strong, or maybe the book changed publisher hands, and now it was in a different demographic magazine, no longer able to show boobs. But, no. I couldn't find anything like that. There is a bit of a twist introduced in vol. 10 which may bring the sexy back... the elves seem to pilot their mechs in tandem, very much in the style of Darling in the Franx, but while actually mid-coitus. And the various positions they use allow the mech to also transform. This certainly opens up some funny, sexy potential I feel, but we have yet to see any payoff in vol. 10.

Overall, I feel like the series had potential, but may have fallen off.

Extremely cursed cover once you have the context...

The characters are really good for the most part, with especially well-drawn, gorgeous women, thanks to Butcha-U's mad hentai skills. The story though has gone stale and is a bit all over the place, especially when it comes to the mecha-focused Knight battles, which I think aren't really all that interesting. I guess we'll see how things play out and reserve judgement until the end for the series as a whole. Individual volumes are so vastly different in tone and quality, that it's really hard to give this an aggregated rating.

Boring-ass Elves in the Franx

High for the series: tournament arc. 10/10 - hilarious, crude, and sexy.

Low for the series: vol. 10's mecha-only battle volume 1/10 - boring

Volume 11 is coming out on July 14th! MAL still shows the series ongoing so I don't think it will be the last volume.

You can find a link to the full series, with all current volumes: MERRY MANGA COMPANY

Pre-Orders for vol. 11: BARNES & NOBLE  //  AMAZON

Anime Review: My Awkward Senpai

 

I went in really wanting to love "My Awkward Senpai", but came out very lukewarm on it. Office romance is such a rare genre as far as anime goes, so I hoped this one could be added to my list of faves. However, outside the titular senpai, I found the cast to be very bland and the episodic stories were extremely tropey and unoriginal, while also not really capturing just how marvelously cute, charming, and awkward the senpai mc girl is. It could be in part because the animation quality, or the directing, but the series just felt super underwhelming. The most offensive thing to me though was that the male MC was just extremely boring and I couldn't for the life of me think of why the Senpai ever became attracted to him in the first place, outside of him just being a hard worker??; I read the first few chapters of this manga, and I feel like he was more devilish there, teasing Senpai and trying to monopolize her cuteness to himself. That just didn't come across at all in the anime, and now looking back, I question whether or not he was that kind of character in the manga to begin with. Was I reading a different series??? Maybe I only read the original web version? Did I read the right one...?? They got her eyes right in at least a couple of shots, but in the manga, everything is black and white, but her eyes are full color, and full of life - this didn't really come across well in the anime, especially with everything else in color too. She just looked like another anime girl with weirdly colored eyes. They got her accent done really well though!

I'd give this a 5/10 I think... might look into reading the manga, since I do want to see more of her.

Manga Library Update: New Shelves!!

Added two more shelves in the back on either side of the windows. Repositioned the lamps and picked up a new rug. Also moved in more of my green stuff, and all the LEGO plants. Reorganized things a lot to tidy stuff up and not have so many rogue volumes lying arund.

Glare might be a bit annoying...

Autographs from HaneAme and Jun from AX 2024

Japanese Volumes

Yuri / GL

Still would like to eventually repaint and put in new flooring, but that's a project for when the economy isn't in the shitter. Settling for the $100 Target Rug and making do.

Manga Review: Betrayed by the Hero, I Formed a Milf Party with His Mom

 NEWS!

Isekai Teen Sleeps with All 4 of His Bullies Moms to Assert Dominance

It feels so strange that I'm actually giving this series a review, because let me be clear. This series is trash. Hot garbage. Very little redeeming content, but good lord the premise is funny, the women are sexy, and I'm dying to see the actual revenge come to fruition...

The title really fully encapsulates the plot of the book. Ceres, the MC, is the backbone of the Hero's Party, in that he does all their laundry, takes care of the paperwork, and makes sure they don't violate any local laws while they're on their quest to kill the demon king. The Hero steals Cere's girlfriend and kicks him out of the party.

Sorry Ceres. Nice guys finish last.... or so you'd think!!

Ceres, then heads off on his own, and finds that the Hero's mom has been sold into slavery by debt-ridden piece of shit husband, so he buys her outright (but doesn't free her.... odd) and turns her into his new girlfriend. She's incredibly happy to be rescued and flattered that he sees her as a proper sexy woman, but she's not happy that all of her former friends are in similar situations: loveless, sexless marriages, with good-for-nothing husbands who don't appreciate or value them.

Thus, with the encouragement of his new Milf/Wife, Ceres begins a new quest to reunite the legendary party of adventurers who gave birth to the current generation's Hero's party, then have sweaty, harem-orgies with all four of them.

The lewd bits are uncensored, but strictly top half only; still this is a manga so echi you won't believe it's not Hentai since they're boning in just about every other chapter after the setup is complete.

As far as critical analysis: Setting is extremely generic, in that isekai-adjacent fantasy way. Art isn't great. Characters are very, very tropey (though I'm a big fan of the warrior mom with glasses and the shredded abs). There's not particularly any deep world building, unique magic systems, or fantasy plot for that matter. Really, if you're reading this, you're here for the meme-factor, and eventually getting to see the reaction of the Hero when he realizes that his former party-mate gone and stole his mom.

This series should probably be like a 2 out of 10 on a critical scale, but I'm giving it a 9/10 after finishing volume 4 (the encounter with the Dark Dragon, powering up Ceres's bedroom stats had me actually dying of laughter). This series is so bad, but I just can't put it down.

Anime Review: mono

 

From the creator of Yuru Camp, comes another work of tourism propaganda. "mono" features an entirely new cast of characters (with some familiar cameos), taking trips together, exploring Yamanshi, Shizuoka, and the surrounding environs. They eat lots of food and get involved with the occult (what...). I loved this series, but as far as story goes... was there one? It felt like they completed lost the plot pretty early on. It was supposed to be about a couple girls taking on their senpai's legacy to continue the cinematography club, but it pretty much just devolved into a travel anime where the characters visit a bunch of real world locations and showcase the local cuisine and scenery. 

And what the hell was all that occult stuff about?? There's a specific character who's got a mysterious background connected to shrines and exorcism. They encounter ghosts, and characters get haunted. How does this have anything to do with film making... or travel??? It seems maybe like just the personal interest of the author. It worked though, and provided for some funny setups.

Am I complaining? Nope. But then again, I lived in Yamanashi for half a decade and the nostalgia I have for the area is crazy. I visited quite a few of the real world locations they visited like Katsunuma, and the wineries, but never got to explore a lot of the others (can't believe I never actually got to go to the wine tunnel when I lived like 30 minutes away) - and now I want to book a vacation to go back and continue where I left off. So, did this anime achieve exactly what it was aiming for? Probably!!

9/10 from a very biased former Yamanashi JET.

Twitter Reactions to News of Seven Seas Acquisition by Media Do and the threat of AI Slop

 What do we think of the Seven Seas acquisition by Japanese company Media Do...

FUCK AI

This only took about 15 minutes to grab these. There were so many more. Nobody's going to buy books translated by AI.