I tend to write about anime that I really enjoyed watching. So, if you see a review on this blog, it usually means I have high praise for it. Today I am going to share my brief thoughts on a couple series that I have watched in their entirety but would not give my top notch rating. This isn't to say that these shows are absolutely terrible; you might actually enjoy watching them. They simply didn't resonate with me the same way as others that you have already read about on this blog.
Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun
School Rumble is one of my favorite if not my absolute favorite anime. The mix of humor, romance, and action combined with interesting and compelling characters immediately hooked me into the series. I was hoping that Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun would do the same. The premise appeared similar enough: high school romance, a character who looks to real life for inspiration for his manga, comedy--everything is there.
Consider me somewhat disappointed. First, let's deal with the romance. Sixteen year old Chiyo Sakura is hopelessly in love with Umetaro Nozaki. One day when she finds the courage to confess her feelings to him, Nozaki interprets this as her desire to become his assistant. Nozaki is a popular shojo manga artist outside of school, and brings Chiyo to his apartment to ink some of his stories. Once with Nozaki, Chiyo makes numerous advances on him, but they end up completely going over his head. It's not like Chiyo is being subtle either. Nozaki has to be the densest guy on the face of the earth to not realize how badly Chiyo is crushing on him. Or is he? For one thing, the heroine of Nozaki's manga looks exactly like Chiyo. In fact, the manga explains that her design is based on Nozaki's first meeting with Chiyo where she gave him one of the ribbons in her hair. In the final episode of the anime, Chiyo and Nozaki almost recreate their first encounter, which nearly seems to make Nozaki finally understand Chiyo's feelings as well as his own. Unfortunately a series of fireworks interrupts them before either can make a confession.
The comedy is okay. Most of it revolves around misunderstandings and failures of characters to confess their romantic feelings. In this regard, it is quite similar to School Rumble, but whereas School Rumble's comedy feels natural, some of the characters' antics here seem just plain annoying at times. Through Nozaki, Chiyo meets Mikoto Mikoshiba who draws artistic effects, and is unknowingly the inspiration behind Nozaki's heroine character. She also gets to know Masayuki Hori who designs the backgrounds for Nozaki's stories in exchange for Nozaki writing him scripts to be used in his drama club. Other characters include Chiyo's friend, Yuzuki Seo; Mikoshiba's friend, Yu Kashima; and Hirotaka Wakamatsu, who is a skilled basketball player and eventually helps Nozaki by doing screentones. Most of the humor stems from Mikoshiba who despite being very flirtatious is actually painfully shy and insecure. He immediately regrets any embarrassing things he says. Kashima is considered to be the top prince of the school despite being a girl. She is also incredibly dense and annoys Hori to the point where he physically beats her. Seo is brash, and belligerent, and is incapable of reading situations. Nozaki ends up observing her and Kashima for ideas for his stories.
My favorite part of the series is how it shows, albeit in a roundabout way, the processes involved in creating a manga. The audience follows Nozaki as he tries to come up with new story ideas. Then we actually see him, Chiyo, and the others work on individual components of the piece. We also see interaction between Nozaki and his editor which some writers may find relatable to some degree.
Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun got a few chuckles out of me, but I'd give this show a higher rating if something noteworthy actually happened. The short run of 12 episodes ends with little development among the main characters. It's good for a quick laugh, and provides insight into the manga creation process aspiring authors may find useful, but nothing about it begs you to watch it again and again.
Rosario + Vampire
Harem series are difficult to do well. On one extreme, you can lose the audience in the romantic rivalry between the suitors and forget to tell an actual story. On the other, you can tell a story, but fill it with such forgettable characters that viewers simply don't care. Rosario + Vampire is not great, and that's a shame considering its premise. Tsukune Aono is the averagest of average high school boys. He accidentally gets enrolled in a school called Yokai Academy where all the other students and faculty are monsters. Any human who is caught on the school grounds shall be immediately killed. The only thing keeping Tsukune from going completely insane is a female classmate named Moka Akashiya. Moka crashes into Tsukune on her bike as they both arrive at the school, and she reveals that she is a vampire. At first, Tsukune is horrified, but warms to Moka's sweet personality.
During an encounter with a bully, Tsukune removes the rosary around Moka's neck which releases her aloof and aggressive inner personality. The series continues with Tsukune and Moka making new friends including the succubus, Kurumu; the snow fairy, Mizore; and the witch, Yukari. All of the girls fall in love with Tsukune due to the kindness he shows them while helping them with their problems. Despite their constant advances on him, Moka remains Tsukune's primary love interest.
The whole ghoul school gimmick is nothing new. However, there are several directions that idea can run, which, if handled correctly, can produce solid results. You could have something like the X-Men, where young monsters go to school to master their abilities. Yokai Academy takes a different route. Rather than encourage monsters to show their true nature, the school teaches peaceful coexistence with humans and wants its students to act as human as possible. Nevertheless, prejudices toward humans remain, making the idea of coexistence difficult. The overall storyline of the first season sees Tsukune try to keep his human nature secret, even from his friends. Moka is the only one who knows Tsukune is a human. Each episode deals with an antagonistic student or teacher who Tsukune and his friends have to defeat. It's fairly repetitive, but gives some quick facts about monsters from different cultures.
The season cumulates in an intense showdown with the Yokai Academy Security Committee who put Tsukune on trial for being a human. His friends learn the truth about Tsukune's identity, yet put aside their prejudices to save him from being burned alive.
The more I think about it, the first season is pretty decent. It's the second season where everything falls apart. It offers literally nothing new to the universe. The story threads are stupid and lead nowhere. That being said, the manga of Rosario + Vampire is much better, and I encourage people who have seen the first season of the anime to give the manga a look. You'll find some interesting stories and genuine story arcs with rewarding outcomes.
There are a couple other anime that I could add to this list. But I thought I would include these two since they have some redeeming qualities. Look for other reviews in the future. I have a few in the pipeline that I think you will like.
