So the first of a few weeks of ending shows for the season, and three come to a close this week, AnoHana, X-Men, and A Channel. The chart is also out for this week as well, minus Denpa Otoko and Aria, As Denpa will air 11+12 this week and Aria was a no-show. Moving right along into final reviews:
AnoHana ended exactly as it should have, it ended bittersweet for everyone involved. The age-old secrets and revelations were had, including why Poppo left to travel the world. In the end, all of them were able to see her and it was their differences that disallowed them to see her before where only Jintan could. Her wish was a little interesting, making Jintan feel emotion, something he tried not to show in the wake of his mother’s death.
Overall this show was exactly what I expected it to be, and it was very enjoyable to watch. There was a couple episodes in the middle that didn’t really do much to substantiate the rest of the plot, and I felt that they could have spent somemore time on Poppo’s backstory before telling us why he did, or at least as much time as they spent on Asshole and Jealous Glasses.
Title: Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai (AnoHana, or “We Don’t Know the Flower We Saw That Day”)
Sub Group I Watched: gg
Episodes: 11
Rating (1-10): 7
Favorite Character: Tetsudo “Poppo” Hisakawa
Least Favorite Character: Atsumu “Yukiatsu” Matsuyuki
Favorite Pair: Jintan and Anaru
Favorite Girl: Chiriko “Tsuruko” Tsurumi
What the Fuck Moments with Yukiatsu: All of them. Seriously. I realize the kid was traumatized by Menma’s death and all, but to act like a blatant asshole up until the very end? You got balls to go with that wig son. Balls indeed.
X-Men ends on a very predictable note, Hisako essentially saves the day after that lump-head Professor X didn’t even realize Sasaki Yui was lying to him when she said their son was dead. The world’s most powerful telepath and he can’t solve a simple deduction. Disappoint. We do get to see some cameo shots of other X-Men members in this episode, including Colossus, Nightcrawler, Rogue, and others, so that was a plus. Blah blah Hisako saves the world with THE POWER OF LOVE and there was much rejoicing.
Again, I am not the world’s most knowledgeable or #########11111!!!!!!!! X-MEN FAN but I did not gel well with this series at all. When action happened, it was good, and I could dig it, but it spent a lot of time talking about nothing about something that I honestly felt could have been condensed into half the episodes and hung out to dry. But for a Madhouse adaptation that simply looks to port X-Men over for Japanese folks to watch, they did a good job, and I’ll leave it at that. Still disappoint though.
Title: X-Men
Sub Group I Watched: Commie, Weapon+
Episodes: 12
Rating (1-10): 6
Favorite Character: Wolverine
Least Favorite Character: Hisako
Favorite X-Men of All Time: Rogue/Gambit
Favorite Original Team X-Men: Wolverine
Y U No Liek Hisako? It’s not that I am against her origin, I’m against her concept in the show. She essentially has a Jubilee template with Asian origins, and was just too convenient in a show tht centered around Japan.
A Channel could be best described as a typical four-girl slice-of-life with musical numbers each episode, but not quite K-ON! In fact, I’d say it mixes Lucky Star with K-ON! tries to be funny and humorous, but in a less obvious way, and certainly not relying on popular “otaku” culture to do it ala Lucky Star. There was no real plot to the show, pretty much just short episodes depicting their everyday lives, and it worked out well. It did get rather dull and repeating midway in, but towards the end I think the creators understood that Tooru is really the character we all watch this show for, and ended it on the right note with her, and you can’t ask for more than that.
Title: A Channel
Sub Group I Watched: EveTaku
Episodes: 12
Rating (1-10): 7
Favorite Character: Tooru
Least Favorite Character: Yuuko
Favorite Insert Song: I honestly did not listen to any of them. Sorry.
Favorite Run Moment: Forgetting her underwear
Second Season? I don’t see why not, they certainly can go another round, but much like Lucky Star, even with a full season run there is only so much you can do.
Next week we wrap up Dog Days, Hoshizora, Denpa Otoko, and GOSICK. I assume if Aria does not air this week then it’s ending will happen the week after unless they air both episodes together also.
The same week starting on 7/1, Ro-Kyu-Bu! starts, followed by Kami-sama no Memo-chō, with Baka Test S2, Mayo Chiki, Usagi Drop and Nekogami Yaoyorozu starting the week after, and Dantalian no Shoka the week after that. Summer is here boys and girls, stay out of the burning star and enjoy some animus!
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