Triple Threat Anime Review - Inu x Boku, Kanon, and Is this a Zombie?

Triple Anime Review

Carpet, Rabbit, Lesbian, S&M Fetishist, Hunger Demon... its got em all. 

Okay, okay. Apologies... I've been slacking and not reviewing so I've got a backlog.

All is not lost, I'm back on track. Time to get reviewing.

Inu x Boku: Secret Service

He's about 3 feet taller than her. Magic Knight RayEarth flashback.

 This was very weird.

A young girl, who is estranged from her own wealthy family moves into an apartment block that caters to the wealthy. Everyone there gets a personal secret service security agent. BUT, there is a something else odd about the apartment block... all the inhabitants, both resident and agent, are all descended from families where humans interbred with youkai (demons, spirits).


You read that right - this is anime after all.


So our heroine has a body guard, a weird fiance, and other companions (and a rival, of course). Confusion ensues.

Overall the series is passable. It could have been a solid and entertaining series save for one thing: It is too short. You really only get into the characters as the series comes to a close. You can tell immediately that there is a much longer manga series... and this knowledge is what weakens Inu x Boku.

Inu x Boku SS

2.5 Stars

Kanon

Our Five Heroines.

 Now this series was based upon an ero-game that was so popular that it was re-released to the general Japanese gaming public with the erotic scenes removed. The anime removes even more and leaves behind this soul wrenching series.

The basic story revolves around a young man who returns to a perpetually snow enshrouded town he once visited in his youth some seven years prior. When he last visited he lived with his cousin and her mother (and the town was not snowed in then), and he moves back in with them.

Yes. There are sword fights in this too... It's Anime!

Then the series essentially runs the young man through what in the ero-game would have been the five heroines event-paths. Each main female takes several episodes to deal with... and each is path is fraught with tragedy.

I am not exaggerating. We deal with five lovely young girls: the first is slowly losing her memory, the second is cursed by her own power, the third has been diagnosed with a terminal disease, the fourth suffers through her family hardships and a scarred past, and the fifth (the encapsulating story) is [redacted for spoilers].

Every heroine is associated with a certain type of food... weird.

And I mean suffering like I've not seen in anime. I watched this expecting some romantic comedy, what I got was almost a torture fest.

We spend three episodes watching a character die on screen. Three episodes to kill a character we've been getting to understand and really like. Three... that's just cruel. And that's just one character.

This is an emotional torture fest. I'll even admit - I cried. I've chocked up during lots of things, but I can't remember actually crying over a show or movie in a very very long time.

And because of that, this gets a very high rating. It comes with warning and a cautionary tale, but it is good. It is painful, but it gets a strong 9.1 out of 10. Although I'm not sure I'll be able to re-watch this any time in the remotely near future.

Kanon

4.5 Stars

But be ready, its not going to be pleasant.

Is this a Zombie? 

(Season 1)

Here is a series where the Japanese title sounds so much better. Sure Shin Seiki Evangelion has a nice ring to it, but Neon Genesis Evangelion sounds just as good. Kore wa Zombie desu ka? just sounds better to me... than Is this a Zombie?

This scene is two seconds from pain, for our zombie hero.

So. There's this zombie, but he goes to highschool. You see he was murdered and the necromancer he met outside a convience store brought him back as a zombie. Oh, she doesn't speak either. She only communicates by writing. And she wears plate armor.

Then the Zombie runs into a Magical Garment Girl (a word play on Magical Girl; there's lots of Japanese word play puns in this), and accidentally steals her powers. Now he has to fight the monster she was fighting by transforming into a Magical Garment Girl - complete with frills, bows, and panties, oh... and chainsaw. 

I think the meme generator says everything.

Confused yet? Good. That's not even the whole first episode.

Then we've got Vampire-Ninja's, two groups... one fights with a sword, the other with soup. We've got idol singers, another Zombie... school friends and mass murderers. Magical teachers and monstrous whales.

It's hilarious.  

I'm just sad I have to wait until September to get the second season on DVD.


Now the plots not deep, there is no massive emotional scarring, or anything like that. It's just a good lighthearted, wacky, semi-harem comedy (is it, or is it not?). I think those are almost a requirement for the avid otaku.

Yeah, I'll watch it again, and laugh my ass off again.

Is this a Zombie?

4.0 Stars

Did ya think I'd leave you without a bit of fan service?