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Student Council’s Discretion Level 2: The Complete Second Season (anime review)

Posted by :Patches On : May 12, 2015
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Category: Reviews

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Student Council’s Discretion Level 2: The Complete Second Seasonreview provided by Katie

Title: Student Council’s Discretion Level 2: The Complete Second Season

Director: Kenichi Imaizumi

Studio: AIC

Author: Reiko Yoshida

U.S. Distributor: Sentai Filmworks, Section 23

U.S. Release Date: May 26, 2015

Format and Length: Blu-ray / 10 Episodes + 1 OVA / 275 Minutes

Genre: Comedy, Parody, School, Harem

Industry Age Rating: 14 and up

Overall Personal Rating: C+

Similar Series or Titles to Check Out: Student Council’s Discretion

Synopsis:

Sure, sometimes you have to think outside the box, but Hekiyo Academy’s Student Council may go a step further and rewrite their entire universe! At least, that’s what could happen as the second season gets underway and the Council decides that their anime might need a little spicing up. Should they introduce new characters? Add a boy’s-love subplot? Or should they just continue to do what worked previously and spend most of their time chattering between themselves while working towards odd goals that might turn out to have been a little misguided in retrospect?
The answer is “yes” to all of the above and more: class barriers and the fourth wall come tumbling down as a supporting character literally takes up the challenge of moving up to main character status. The plot thickens with the mystery of a missing cake. The boundaries of love between step-siblings get pushed just a few steps beyond what’s socially comfortable and of course there just has to be a hot springs episode. Join 5 student council members in search of an author as the storyline runs amok!

Commentary:

The second season of Student Council’s Discretion continues where the first season left off… No, not really. It’s still a bit crazy and episodic, but that’s about it. In Student Council’s Discretion Level 2: The Complete Second Season, it changes a bit. They still have the standard banter over the white table, in a large room that seems filled with junk. Mafuyu still fantasizes about BL and video games too much. Chizuru is still an evil dominatrix and is overprotective and manipulating of Kurimu, Minatsu still kicks butt, and Kurimu is still the grade school high school girl. And of course Ken Sugisaki is still the pervert who wants a harem. It’s still as random, story less and episodic as ever. What makes this season different? It’s not the same pointlessness of its predecessor, but rather it now focuses more on the developing relationships of everyone else to Sugisaki.

Uncharacteristically, the new season begins on a more serious note, the background story of our male protagonist. This back story was necessary to understand the warped ways of our perverted hero, and how he got to be the hentai loving, harem craving, will do anything for a girl, kind of guy. Mainly the story does focus more on him at this point forwards. Not to say that the other characters are neglected and forgotten. They continue to develop well, and more importantly, their relationships also blossom. Some fans will be happy to see this, others will not. It depends all on the focus you want the story to take. The comedy is there still, but is seemed to fall a little flat at times. A few of the downfalls includes how slow this season starts. When you have so few episodes, it’s not a good thing to take half of them to get back on a roll again, and it never quite reached the level of the first season. Another thing that was missing was the countless number of references and parodies of other animes, found in the original, were very much lacking in the second season. Most of the time they seemed to just parody themselves instead. One of the things that made the first season so endearing was the well played parodies. Also there are a lot more ‘serious moments’, when all joking is cast aside for some serious development. These dramatic interludes are a change from the norm, but I’m not sure yet how well received they will be. I think they had a hard time changing gears from funny to serious, and sometimes the drama just was not executed well. The first season relied more on comedy and character dynamics to entertain, and it worked quite well. Student Council’s Discretion Level 2: The Complete Second Season failed to find this same dynamic, injecting drama into a place that it’s hard to make work right. Even with the addition of new characters, it was unable to recapture its previous glory. That being said, if you are a fan of the first season, this one is worth watching. Just don’t expect the same level of entertainment you got from the first season.

There were some changes for the better. The animation was crisper and more detailed this time around. Yet again though, your scenery is mostly limited to the council room, and school. If you are good at picking up on voice actors, you will notice that a couple of cast changes from the first season. Another thing they did do that caught my interest was the ever changing ending animations. I do get tired of the same old closing credits that recycle thru nearly all series. I often find myself hitting that skip button to get passed it after the second or third time, unless the music was something special, which more time than not, it won’t be. The different ending themes helped to keep my interest enough that I did not skip them.

Extras:

Student Council’s Discretion Level 2: The Complete Second Season includes clean opening and closing animations and Sentai Filmworks trailers as special features. Student Council’s Discretion Level 2: The Complete Second Season has Japanese with English Subtitles as the only language option.

Overall Grade: C+

All in all, Student Council’s Discretion Level 2 is a cute series and if you enjoyed the first season then I recommend this one.

Place to Place (anime review)

Posted by :Patches On : March 23, 2015
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Category: Reviews

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Place to Place Blu-rayreview provided by Katie and Andrew

Title: Place to Place: Blu-Ray Complete Collection

Director: Fumitoshi Oizaki

Studio: AIC

Author: Ishiki

U.S. Distributor: Sentai Filmworks, Section 23

U.S. Release Date: March 24, 2015

Format and Length: Blu-Ray / 13 Episodes / 325 Minutes

Genre: Romance, Comedy, School, Slice of Life

Industry Age Rating: TV-14 14 and up

Overall Personal Rating: A+

Similar Series or Titles to Check Out: Lucky Star, Hidamari Sketch, K-On!, Toradora!

What happens when you are more than just friends, but not quite in a relationship?

Synopsis:

We all had a circle of friends that we hung out with in high school, but within that group, there were smaller groups of friends. Place to Place is about that smaller group of friends, best friends, and even boyfriends and girlfriends. At times, relationships just develop when you least expect them and with the person you want the most. That is the little problem Tsukimi has when it comes to Io.

Io is as tall and laidback, while Tsukimi is short and tsundere. However, Io is completely clueless to Tsukimi’s feelings, yet he is too affectionate and that is just confusing and irritating. The rest of their friends are not much help at all, as it usually gives them another reason to tease Tsukimi. Are Tsukimi and Io just best friends or is it worth risking their friendship for what Tsukimi wants? You will have to watch Place to Place to find out.
Commentary:

Place to Place is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get when the episode begins. The comedy is new and fresh, and the romance is so adorable that you will possibly die from potential blood loss coming out of your nose. Place to Place is a true slice-of-life anime as there is really no plot. You are watching a story that revolves around a group of five high school friends participating in hilarious everyday activities and you also are watching Io’s and Tsukimi’s relationship grow with each episode. Each episode is broken into two parts, Part A and Part B. They may follow the same plot line or the second part could go into a completely different direction. You could watch this series completely out of order and not miss any important plot points. Nevertheless, I would recommend watching in order to get the most cuteness out of Tsukimi.

I must say that the characters are the strongest part of Place to Place. Tsukimi is a small, quiet catlike tsundere. However, she has that cool and collective attitude that the boys go crazy for and that makes her more than the average tsundere. Tsukimi can beat the boys at video games, yet has a feminine side. She actually sprouts cat ears when she was embarrassed or happy! She is in love with the unobservant Io, a boy who is quietly romantic. That makes all the girls crazy for him. The rest of their close group of friends includes Hime, Sakaki, and Mayoi. Hime is a clumsy, whimsical, and shy girl. Her shyness really comes out when she is interested in the opposite sex. Sakaki is the other boy in this group of friends. He usually speaks without thinking and that leads to some painful experiences for him. Mayoi is the final friend and her ideas usually cause trouble for the rest of the group.

The characters were drawn very well and have something special about them. Some of the characters looked really similar to those in Lucky Star. The backgrounds were well drawn and very creative, yet the overall theme of the animation is very simple. That was very refreshing. The arrow themed title cards are too cute and make a great transition between Part A and Part B of the episode. The opening song and closing song are both very fitting for this anime, slightly weird but still catchy.

I would recommend Place to Place if you are looking for a light-hearted anime to watch with a group of friends. I would even recommend this as a good introduction into the slice-of-life genre or even anime in general. Lucky Star, Hidamari Sketch, K-On!, Toradora! are all wonderful Slice of Life animes. I would recommend Place to Place if you have enjoyed any of these animes or if you are just looking to watch a cute anime.

Extras:

The special features for Place to Place include clean opening and closing animations and Sentai trailers.

Overall Grade: A+

I loved Place to Place. It reminds me of Lucky Star but with romance. I would recommend Place to Place to anyone and everyone because it is a light-hearted anime and it is just too fun to watch.

Blessing of the Campanella DVD Collection (anime review)

Posted by :Patches On : March 4, 2014
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Category: Reviews

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Blessing of the CampanellaTitle: Blessing of the Campanella DVD Collection

Director: Shinji Ushiro

Writers: Koujirou Nakamaura and Saharu Amiyami

Studio: AIC

U. S. Distributor: Lucky Penny / Nozomi

U. S. Release Date: Feb. 4th, 2014

Format: DVD / 12 Episodes and 1 OVA / 300 Minutes

Genre: Harem, Romance, Magical Girls

Age Rating: 17+

Overall Personal Rating: B

 

Synopsis:

Leicester Maycraft leads a charmed life. His parents are nobility and he spends his days crafting inventions and questing alongside his friends in Clan Oasis. It also doesn’t hurt that every pretty girl in town is in love with him, including the Duke’s daughter, Carina Verriti. Life couldn’t possibly get any better. Until it does.

Energy from a supernatural meteor shower awakens the adorable automaton, Minette, who imprints on Leicester as her “papa”. Just like that, Leicester’s entourage of beautiful girls goes from flattering to ridiculous. Joined by Sacred Knight Chelsea Arcot and automaton artisan Agnes Boulange, Clan Oasis sets out to discover Minette’s origin.

But all work and no play isn’t exactly what these adventurers have in mind. They’ll get around to solving the mystery – when they’re not performing oddball quests or hanging out at the beach!

Commentary:

There are plenty of anime that started out as dating sims or visual novels and in the case of Blessings of the Campanella there is a big change from the game to the series. This light hearted story has some very adult topics or should I say story lines running through. The heaviest of which is the sexual over and undertones. It is a happy world that makes itself very appealing, but the visual approach of the series would be better suited for the younger female set rather than the indented audience of the 17+ male group. I guess that there are still plenty of guys that will enjoy this simple little harem series where the guy is quiet and the women / girls are all very attracted to him. At least he is able to have some normal guy thoughts rather than being oblivious to what going on around him. Even though the setting is not the same it gives more of an Ai Yori Aoshi approach to the harem where the main male characters really cares about one female. In this case we have Leicester who seems to be most attracted to just one of the young women, but he still is smart enough to let the other think he is up for grabs.

It is very possible that the game is more open to changing things around, in the anime I like it when there is less ambiguity in the lead male character. Blessing of the Campanella is a simple little series that makes you smile because it really doesn’t seem to have a bad bone in it. My only drawback is that because of the nudity it manages to shut out an entire segment of viewers that would probably love this series. That group is the 10 to 15 female age group. I would almost recommend remaking this just for that group.

Overall Grade: B

I enjoyed Blessing of the Campanella for the happy almost blissful stories that flowed and the peaceful animation style that went with it. Being an older man who doesn’t care for much nudity I had to see this aspect of the series as a failing, but I’m sure that the prospective focus group will really enjoy it for what it is. I didn’t find overly disturbing about the series and at the same time can’t say that I found anything really engaging about it either. It is a fun light series that most adults will find pleasing in a simplistic kind of way. Please don’t expect any deep plot lines or philosophical viewpoints here, this one is all about the relationships and how they all get along. So, if you are looking for a less graphic anime version of a dating sims and just want to be entertained then Blessing of the Campanella will be a great fit for you.