Archive for the 'Otome wa Boku ni Koi Shiteru' Category

Mid to late season review: Part 2

Published by
kimagure
at December 16, 2006 in Otome wa Boku ni Koi Shiteru and Hataraki Man. Closed

Continuing with the reviews:

Otome wa Boku ni Koi Shiteru

chibi mizuho

Hello chibi Mizuho-chan. How are you today? I hope you’re well, and that school is going well for you.

School couldn’t be going better for our little trap. She/he is the elder of the school, everyone looks up to him/her, a hyper little ghost is following him/her around. And with his/her sweltering good looks, and excellent sense of femininity, she/he’s managed to even melt the school ice queen’s armor.

Mizuho’s settled into her role at school so well that may bloggers have forgotten she’s a guy. Secrets be damned, this is flat out denial. I can’t watch this show and forget that. It’s too easy to animate a guy acting like a girl, if this were live action, it’d be a tougher sell, but who am I kidding. A live OtoBoku? Too much Asahi tonight. I wish there were more awkward moments of Mizuho doing guy things that a proper young lady wouldn’t be doing. I think that would bring up the entertainment a bit, but from what I’ve read about upcoming shows, they replace awkwardness with admissions and truths that will likely force Mizuho to re-evaluate her position. Awkward always brings the comedy, but the drama would not be missed either.

This show is not my favorite this fall, but it still does a good job of entertaining, so I’m not complaining.

Hataraki Man

Pissed, in the British sense of the word

Just when Megadere was rescued from fansub neglect, Hataraki Man has taken its place. I’m saddened to say that I really want to see more of this show, but cannot. From the three episodes I’ve seen, I appreciate Hiro’s troubles in balancing her work and social life, because I’ve been there before. But alas that is all I can say at this time.

I still like the art style, I still enjoy the music, and the stories are engaging. Even if they did spend an episode talking mostly about ramen.

Others I’ve shown this to have commented on the “chauvinistic” nature of the show. How in order to be productive, she has to turn on the “man” switch. Personally, nothing really offends me, but I can see how this could offend the modern feminist movement. I think it’s rather equal, as Mayu says she gains all of the habits of men, which include things like becoming unkempt. So taking on these negative traits may not be a good thing after all, and what does that say about men. I think it’s a jab that could fly both ways.

Whatever, I’m not sure I like this whole political correctness thing anyway.

Oh and, I’m practically obligated to say this now…needs more subs.

Otome wa Boku ni Koi Shiteru (traps part 2)

Published by
kimagure
at October 21, 2006 in Otome wa Boku ni Koi Shiteru. Closed

Lifelike texture!

Welcome to the second post on traps in this fall’s anime selections. Otome wa Boku ni Koi Shiteru is a lovely story about a young man with a nutty grandfather. See, grandpa just died and in his will, along with the family estate, he willed that his grandson would have to go to a specific high school to finish up his schooling. Oh, by the way, your grandma went there, and it’s an all girls school. Whoops, you’re not a girl. I’m putting my money that ojii-san was either a sick sick man, or senile. Unfortunately for us, they haven’t said either way.

What ensues is something I really like. Traps aside, Mizuho makes a very convincing girl. Now, it’s anime, so it’s easy to make anyone look like a girl. Usually it’s just the standard character design with longer hair. What’s not convincing is her mannerisms and boyish obsessions with things like boobs, and other boyish charms like peeing standing up. It’s the little things, like staring at his teacher’s boobs, checking out the chicks in gym class, that make this interesting.

Things I noticed:

Mizuho is voiced by Horie Yui. This is cool, but kinda hard to swallow. I doubt our man would have a voice as feminine as that. It’s a little like all of the men in Simoun being voiced by female seiyuu.
Animation so far is decent.
It’s quite pretty.
Character designs are nice
The chibi modes of the characters are awesome. I love that design and get all giddy everytime they use it. I haven’t been this excited by chibi mode characters since ARIA.

I’m enjoying this after two episodes. Being my first foray into the all girls school world of elders and the kohai that dote on the senpai, I’m not sure what to expect. I’ll just have to wait and see.

So seeing that this is part two of traps. What do I really have to say on this subject. It’s odd. Jun in Happiness is likely gay, Mizuho is not. While Jun will be good comic relief from people that don’t know what he/she is, Mizuho is in an all girls school wrestling with the fact that he has to sit down to pee. I don’t really know what else to say on this, but I think I’m going to enjoy OtoBoku more. No offense Jun, but Mizuho is winning the battle of the traps at least in the arena that I find interesting. Jun, you will be surprising someone soon, I hope it’s good.