Tag: Ari Ozawa

School-Live! Review: An Anime You Don’t Want to be Spoiled About.

Before reading this review, I would highly recommend watching the first episode of School-Live! if you have not watched it yet.   
Seriously, you do not want to be spoiled about what this anime’s plot before you see if for yourself.
I had no idea of what was going to happen going in so it made the surprise all the better.
If you have made it this far into the review, I will assume you have either watched it or do not care about spoilers.
Based off the manga written by Norimitsu Kaiho, and directed by Masaomi Ando, School-Live! follows four girls and their dog, Taromaru, who have started the School Living Club, where they strangely stay at the bright and colourful school twenty-four hours a day.
These girls consist of the bright and bubbly Yuki Takeya (Inori Minase), the shovel wielding Kurumi Ebisuzawa (Ari Oazawa), the president of the club Yuuri Wakasa (M.A.O), and new member Miki Naoki (Rie Takahashi).

School-Live! follows the adventures of these four girls and their dog.

There is also their teacher and advisor to the club, Megumi Sakura (Ai Kayano), who is especially helpful to the dim witted Yuki.
However, this is where the twist comes in.
The “bright and colourful school” I mentioned?
Yeah, turns out it’s not so bright and colourful because a zombie apocalypse has taken place, leaving the members of the School Living Club as the only survivors, and all the happy stuff is entirely in Yuki’s mind since she has basically created a fantasy world to cope.
So, we are really seeing this story through two lenses, the first being Yuki’s fantasy world and the second being the harsh reality of the zombie apocalypse.
This made for a fantastic cliffhanger in the first episode, which brought the show from looking like a by the numbers slice of life, to a slice of death with plenty of zombies.

I remember audibly gasping when I saw the zombie twist. I figured there was something weird about what was happening but I next expected that.

From here, the story continues detailing how the girls survive their terrible situation, while constantly trying to keep the fragile Yuki’s fantasy world intact for her betterment.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t really result in anything as interesting as that first initial twist.
This is not to say that School-Live! is bad but I did find it a bit hard to get engaged with the characters and events at times, which was not helped by how convenient and obvious some further twists turned out to be.

While the first twist is genuinely great, others feel too obvious or convenient. Thankfully, some of these twists are not saved for the final episodes and revealed quicker than I expected.

It wasn’t until the final few episodes, which racked up the tension, that I became truly invested in the plot and characters again. 
Although, this was also wrapped up kind of conveniently again by the end.
Despite these issues, I would still say that School-Live! is worth a watch.
It may not exactly live up to how fantastic its initial twist is, yet the interest generated by the twist and the intensity seen in the last few episodes do make it enjoyable.
Just don’t expect anything worthwhile and a bit of a slow pace and you will have fun.  

Hinamatsuri Review: A Yukuza and a Telekinetic Girl Walk into a Bar.

4 stars
Tell me if you have heard this one; a Yukuza and a telekinetic girl walk into a bar and order a drink from an underage bartender.
If you have heard this, well, then you have probably already seen Hinamastusri and know how good it is and don’t need me to tell you that.
For those of you who have not watched it, though, first allow me to give you a little background on my experience.
At the Anime Club of the University I go to, we start each semester off by selecting three out of five animes to watch weekly.
At the beginning of this semester, one of those anime was Hinamatsuri. 
Despite finding the first episode to be quite funny, I did not end up voting for it.
Thankfully, however, many other people did so it ended up being one of the anime we watched.
And, after completing the series this week, I can say that I really regret not voting for it because Hinamatsuri is an absolutely hilarious anime, with great characters and a lot of heart.
Based off the manga by Masao Ōtake,  and directed by Kei Oikawa, the story follows a surprisingly normal Yukuza, named Yoshifumi Nitta (Yoshiki Nakajima), whose life is flipped upside when a telekinetic girl with a craving for Ikura, named Hina (Takako Tanaka), crashes into both his apartment and his head.
Forced to look after Hina, Nitta and many of the characters around him are thrown into hilarious situation after hilarious situation.

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The increasingly absurd events Nitta and Hina find themselves caught up in or, more likely, creating always get a good laugh.

Each episode of Hinamatsuri had at least one moment where the entire Anime Club burst out into fits of laughter.
Along with being funny, the anime also has a lot of heart through the growth and development of its characters.
One of the clearest examples of this is Anzu (Rie Murakawa), another telekenetic girl who starts off as brash and abrasive but, through her struggles, comes to understand the meaning of hard work and caring for others.
Another one of my favourite characters is Hitomi (Kaede Hono), a girl who, for the life of her, cannot say no to anyone.
She takes job after job and, while this does result in many hysterical moments, it also makes you feel incredibly sorry for her as you keep wishing she would grow a backbone and look out for herself for once.

Hitomi.jpg
As well as being sympathetic, Hitomi is also incredibly funny with her common horrified expression.

However, for every sad moment, there is a moment of gut wrenching laughter to be had.
This is most apparent with the growing bond between Nitta and Hina, with their contrasting personalities often clashing in hilarious fashion.
As for criticisms, there is one side character named Mao (Ari Ozawa) whose story does not seem to go anywhere but she is obviously being built up for season two.
Speaking of which, I really hope Hinamatsuri gets a second season because I would be right there watching it.
Hinamatsuri is both a hysterical and heart warming anime, and I recommend you check it out.