Series review – Love Hina

I happen to have a passion for history, and especially history as expressed by fiction. One of the things which I enjoy the most is reading a classic book and through it obtaining both a contemporaneous account of what it was like to live during that time, and also an insight into how and why this particular influential book or author may have affected fiction as we know it today. I mention this as it was a major factor in me choosing to watch Love Hina to start with.

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Ace Attorney 03 – Pink Clothes Appreciation

It’s time for another installment of Ace Attorney. What kind of ‘turnabouts’ will we see this week?

Maya looks super distressed at the start of her trial. I suppose this makes sense though, I’d imagine anyone would be concerned if they were charged with murder, especially if they were innocent. I believe that in this fictional country, the death penalty is a possible sentence for convicted murderers as well, making the trial extra high stakes.

Long Riders – Omake

Owing to the episode delays this week, I don’t have a new episode of Long Riders to write about. I was browsing the Long Riders anime website and found that firstly, the routes ridden by the girls in the anime are based on real locations, and secondly, that there’s a short fictional blog post covering each route written by Ami. You can look at the cycling routes for each episode here. This week I’ve decided to bring you a translation of the websites blog post for episode 1 plus a little general information. I am by no means fluent in Japanese, so my apologies if I get something wrong! I’m never going to learn more kanji if I don’t use more kanji, so this is a learning opportunity for myself.

Series Review – Love Lab

Whilst there are many romantic comedies, Love Lab is something slightly different; a comedy about romance. It follows the adventures of 5 middle school girls who make up the student council at their all girls school as they search for the best ways to understand in order to start a romantic relationship, in spite of their school’s prohibition of dating.

Ace Attorney 02 – Miso ramen and burgers

 

I’m back for the second episode of Ace Attorney. I’m really enjoying seeing the story develop so far despite some of the other problems in the production of this series which seem to continue into this episode.

Right at the start of this episode, we’re introduced to a new character, Mia’s younger sister, Maya. It looks like the clock statuette from the previous episode’s trial has been filled with important evidence and Maya has offered to hold onto it for her sister to keep it safe. I wonder what sort of evidence this is and how it will end up affecting Phoenix?

Long Riders 02 – Getting into gear

And I’m back with another weekly dose of cute girls doing things on bikes! The episode does not fail to deliver either with the cute, or the bikes.

Series Review – Bananya

Series reviews will be sporadic on this blog; whenever I’ve completed watching a series, or want to write about something which I’ve already watched.

Much like the title Bananya is a portmanteau of banana and the noise a cat makes (nya), this series is about creatures who are a portmanteau of bananas and cats. It’s a series of short (3-minute) episodes following the daily lives and adventures of Bananya and his friends.

Ace Attorney 01 – Phoenix …. Naruhodo*

*Naruhodo （なるほど） is both Phoenix’s Japanese name, and also a Japanese expression similar to ‘I see’ or ‘So that’s how it is’. There will probably be more terrible bilingual puns in this blog’s future.

 

I am vaguely familiar with the Ace Attorney franchise and watched the first episode of this show when it aired, but previously hadn’t found the impetus to keep watching. I’ve played Dual Destinies but none of the older Phoenix Wright games. I’m planning to do an episodic review of this series, sharing my thoughts on each episode. I know that the series didn’t have great reviews owing to its somewhat slavish sticking to the original story material, but firstly I feel that it’s important to make up my own mind on anything that I view, as I occasionally find that popular opinion is divergent from my own, and secondly, the fact that the plot sticks so closely to the original source material should hopefully be a great way to familiarise myself with the game’s plot.

Long Riders! 01 – Love at first bike

I’m still trying to figure out the optimal balance of size and quality for images using the WordPress tools, especially as I don’t want to max out my storage capacity too quickly. Sorry if the images don’t look quite right, I may tweak this over time.

I love slice-of-life, and cycling is one of the few sports which interested me, so when I found out there would be a slice-of-life cycling anime, I knew this was going to be a must watch. Long Riders has not disappointed me thus far. I am by no means an expert on bikes and cycling, so if I’ve got any bike facts wrong, please tell me! I’m always willing to learn. I’ve done a few short organised rides, and will occasionally get out on the road or one of the bike paths near my house. My father is very keen on cycling, both riding himself, and also watching competitive cycling, particularly road cycling. I’ve caught just a little of his enthusiasm.

We meet Ami and her friend Aoi. Ami, as typical to this sort of show isn’t really involved in anything but is hoping to find something which she considers meaningful to do.

 

Ami sees a folding bike and is smitten with it, and suddenly decides to try out cycling.

What’s on this season?

The start of this blog coincides with the beginning of the Fall 2016 anime season so I thought I’d do a quick overview of some of the shows on this season. I’m not going to do a complete list and review because I think that there are far better lists out there (livechart.me has comprehensive updated info, and I love the Cart Driver’s season previews though I miss the dumb fake charts). I’m not especially knowledgeable about things like studios and production staff, I just watch what I like to watch and I’m still working on articulating why, plus this preview is kind of a bit late as a few shows have already started airing. I’ll just list some of the things which have caught my attention and say if I’m keen on watching them, or alternatively if I think that they are to be avoided but I noticed them anyway.