Mahoromatic: Something More Beautiful

Something More Beautiful is basically the sequal series/ second season of Mahoromatic. What we have is basically Mahoromatic with more odd characters, more dirty fantasies from the ever-insane Ms. Shikijou and ever more dramatic storylines with comedy sprinkled all over the place. No big surprises there. The animation quality is just about the same as the first season, so I don't think I really need to say anything more about that. The music in the show is also the same, down to the style of the opening theme and ending theme, except that I liked the season 2 opening tune a lot better, and I really don't like the ending theme to this series at all.

The new character, Minawa, isn't the most interesting of characters. She's just too quiet and soft-spoken and has that typical clumsiness that goes with personalities like that, although I will admit that the sheer amount of mayhem her clumsiness results in are rather amusing at times. I'm happier to see that Ryuga is still around, though, having decided to keep his job as a teacher at the school Suguru attend. As the leading representative of the alien organization Saints, his interactions with Mahoro and her panther sidekick Slash amuse me to no end.

To put it shortly, what's here is pretty much the same stuff going on as what went on in season 1, with this new, mysterious human organization taking over where the Saints left off to keep the suspense at the same level. The comedy is pretty much about the same things, but with Minawa's clumsy actions thrown in. The ecchi levels are about the same, lots of boob-shots and nudity of the not-quite-full-frontal variety. However, the ending really threw me for a loop when it arrived. I won't spoil it for you, but I suggest you brace yourself, because it was really jarring and I certainly didn't see it coming. I'm not saying it is bad, but there might be people who won't appreciate it.

Chibi Vampire: The Novel 5

I read this one almost immediately after I read the fourth novel, but for whatever reason I forgot to cover it. It's probably because the fifth novel is somewhat similar to fourth. The only difference being that last one featured a guy falling for Karin and this one has a girl falling for Kenta. Once again, as with all of these novels, drama and comedy ensues and it all culminates in life threatening situation that involves all of the story's major players. It's all incredibly addictive and engrossing and though these novels started blending together towards the end, I really enjoyed them. The sixth novel came out a little over a month ago and my friend bought it, so it shouldn't be long before I get my hands on it.

Mahoromatic: Automatic Maiden

Mahoromatic is a fun little anime. Nothing too serious, but at the same time it has it's share of drama & sci-fi action. I started watching it because I've enjoyed what I seen from studio Gainax puts out, so I was sure I'd enjoy it, and also because this is something else my friend randomly lent me. The series begins with Mahoro, finished with her duties as a battle android for a secret organization known as Vespa. She is asked by her superiors an important question that will decide her fate. Will she continue to work for Vespa, or will she leave and live her own life how she chooses? The main reason she is posed with this question is because her life span is about to end in less than 300 days. She decides to leave Vespa and go work for a young boy named Suguru, whose mother passed away shortly after his father died, and he has been raising himself for the last 2 years.

Through my group of friends, I seen bits and pieces of a lot of anime shows are centered around a main character being a maid and Mahoromatic is, in my opinion, easily the best "maid anime" out there (it's also so far the only one I've seen all the way through). Mostly because it doesn't follow the standard of most other maid anime. There is the typical "oh master, let me wash your dishes and cook your dinner" and "please take care of yourself, I'd die if anything were to happen to you", that personifies this genre, but that's not what you'll remember when the show ends. This series is hilarious. It features buckets of ecchi humor, and sexual jokes...lots of sexual jokes. The first half of the series is mostly character introduction, but the story picks up in the last few episodes. The first half of the series is also more comedic, while the latter half becomes more serious and action oriented, almost to point that feels like a slightly different show. This series isn't for everyone, but if your in the mood for a really silly, romantic anime, this one is right up your alley.

Chobits (Manga)

There isn't really much of a reason for to talk about the manga version of chobits. The plot and characters are pretty much pound for pound identical to the anime that was adapted from it. This is still the story of the of the relationship between a college bound student and his human shaped computer. The only differences are that the order of certain events occur at different points than they did in animated form, certain things in the anime were just filler to pad time (like the trip to beach) and as such, are completely absent here. Finally, as seems to be opposite of most manga to anime conversions, the manga seems to be a bit more in depth than the anime was. All of the humor and personalities that I loved in the anime are on display here and it didn't take that long at all to plow through the eight volumes that made up this series. I guess that has to do with me watching the show first and not needing any real clarification on the characters and concepts that I normally need when I read a manga. The only downside is that while the manga features the liveliness that the anime showcases it can't compete with the wonders of animation. Either way, the chobits manga is good read and strengthens a great series.

Chibi Vampire: The Novel 4

So the fourth novel is really just more of the same, so there's not much new to say. I'm not going to go into the plot this time except to say that the romance angle is played up for the first time since the first novel. A big plus to this story is there's more of an expanded role for Karin's family, mainly her sister Anju and her Father Henry. Anju has to be my favorite character, with her sarcastic attitude and that supposedly serial killer possessed doll of hers. As with all of these novels, drama and comedy ensues and it all culminates in life threatening situation that involves all of the story's major players. It's all incredibly addictive and engrossing and I'm glad my friend let me read these.

Chobits

Of all the anime my friend has lent me, this might be my favorite thus far or at least on par with Gunslinger Girl. Chobits is the story of Hideki Motosuwa, who moves to the big city to attend cram school in the hopes of getting into the college of his choice. While there, he notices that everyone has a personal computer assistant, or Persocom. Persocoms look, act, and are treated almost as people in their own right. As chance would have it, Hideki finds a "broken" Persocom just lying in the trash. When he starts her up, all she is able to do is mimic Hideki's movements and say, "Chii." So that's what he calls her. Hideki asks around trying to find out everything he can can about Chii and in the process discovers that she may or may not be one of the greatest Persocoms ever made - a truly artificial intelligence known as a Chobit.

Chobits is a charming series which portrays, weirdly enough, a touching relationship between man and his computer. The show is ranges from incredibly hilarious to constantly amusing. This mostly comes from the extremely likable cast of characters. Hideki is a fish out of water character. He is shy around girls, kind and considerate, and lacks common sense...oh and he's a virgin, which everybody won't let him forget. Chii's role in the story is mostly to be adorable as all hell. At first she just does a lot of endearing things like mimic Hideki's actions and act innocent at the most inappropriate times, but eventually, her own will and personality start to come across as she becomes a more of stronger character in her own right. The rest of the cast are all highly memorable and have fantastic backgrounds. They also provide subplots which are not only emotional in their own right, but feed meaningfully into the central plot as well.

Not only is the show funny, but Chobits delivers an interesting social commentary on the relationship between humans and machines. Watching Chii stumble adorably through certain situations with hilarious consequences left me feeling warm and cheerful. However, later, as the series introduced the more serious subplots, I found myself somewhat intrigued as to how the main plot would pan out. I am unsure whether I agree with the possibilities opened up by the story, although I appreciate how important these issues are for the characters. At the least I can take this as a sign of the series complexity. The one weak point is that the show is based adapted from a manga series and while almost everything from the manga is included, some important information is either too simplified or not answered. Overall, Chobits is enjoyable, has characters that are interesting, and it's pretty damn funny.

Magical Meow Meow Taruto

Yeah...a friend of mine has lent me a rather large load of anime and manga to sample, so I've been powering through them in an effort to get them back to him quicker. If there's one thing my friend has a fondness for it's cute anime girls - specifically cute cat anime girls. The oddly titled Magical Meow Meow Taruto is nothing more than cute anime about cat girls that's only purpose is to be cute...and to my surprise it actually is pretty entertaining. I'll give the show this much credit: at least the cat girls here are as much cat as girl. In fact they're even cat-sized and, for the most part, treated as cats. It's a welcome change from the well-known cliche of girls who just happen to have cat ears for no reason other than to appease people with a cat fetish. The story takes place in a seaside town where nothing much ever happens and all but the most minor unpleasantness are omitted: the show makes its stories out of the most agreeable experiences of everyday life.

The "magical" part of the show comes from the show's prologue which tells us of a race of cat people called the Kinka, who lived in another world, and fought a losing war against a similar tribe called the Byoh. Legend has it that the lost princess of the Kinka escaped to our world. From there we meet Taruto, who may or may not be the lost Kinka princess. She apparently has some sort of magical power, but isn't able to control it properly. The results of her spells are more or less random and she spends most the first half of the series just going about helping people. It's all cute and fun to watch. After a while the show finally gets around to addressing that cat war from the prologue and the show starts to take on a slightly more serious tone. At first I thought there was a strange disconnect between it and the light, innocent material that came before it. But by the series end everything had tied together surprisingly well. Everything from the story came together, all the characters introduced along the way get some sort of pay off, and there's even some good action scenes here and there. Overall, it's just a fun simple children's anime. It's easy to watch, has fun characters, and I have no problem recommending it to people who enjoy this type of thing.

Chibi Vampire: The Novel 3

So, I finally got around to borrowing the other Chibi Vampire novels to enjoy. This time, Karin and Kenta are working at the Julian Family Restaurant when Kira Matsumiya, a rich junior high girl, and her butler Shougo Tachikake, come in so Kira can make take an emergency bathroom break. While there, Kira shows an odd attraction to Karin. Kira then offers her and Kenta a job, to spend the weekend with Kira on her family's private island as a maid and as Kira's playmate. There are two other girls who have been hired as maids-Mayumi Oosaki, a young woman who Karin bit the night before leaving, who is quite a flirt and takes an interest in Kenta Usui, and Shouko Seki, another girl just a few years older than Karin. At the island things seem fine at first,until sweet Kira starts displaying a dark personality from time to time and soon Mayumi ends up missing. Soon Karin begins to wonder if Tachikake or Kira has Mayumi locked up, or had her murdered. This actually has to be my favorite of the novels I've read so far. The mystery angle is played off very well and although there isn't a moment in the story that matches the intensity of the climax of the first novel, the suspense is still pretty gripping. This is also the funniest storyline yet with all of the characters introduced here having some funny quirk about them, most notably Kira's breast obsession. Other than that everything I like about the series is intact here and I can't wait to dig into more.

Chibi Vampire: The Novel 2 (Review)

Okay, more Chibi Vampire. This time around a series of mysterious fires have broken out in various parts of town. The police suspect arson. Kenta is on his way to the Julian one day when he comes across China Oriska, a novice nun who is being harassed by a lecherous business man which Kenta chases off, and to which China thanks him and starts watching him adoringly. Karin watches the scene across the street and the events bothers her considerably, even though she still refuses to think of Kenta as anything more than a friend. China seems to be attracted to Kenta, even though her status as a novice nun forbids such a thing. From there the characters have a freakishly high number of misunderstandings and eventually wind up entangled in the arsonist's schemes.

This second novel was an engaging read, though I felt it wasn't as strong as the first. It has some comedy reminiscent of the first novel, especially with all of Karin’s ‘embarrassing’ moments and the story also has a dark side. For a comedy, so far these novels have touched on some somewhat serious subject matters and its a shame that the volume two doesn't go as far as the first one did. The first novel's plot entailed the kidnappings of young girls, molestation, sexual assault and murder and it all played out more like a suspenseful detective story at times. The second novel features some kidnappings and attempted murders but it didn't keep me on the edge of my seat in suspense like the first one did.

What amazes me about both of the novels I've read so far is that the trouble Karin finds herself in is dead serious and somehow this manages to mesh fairly well with the lighter and quirky vampire/romance comedy this series depends more heavily on. The mystery and adventure and the new love triangle that brews between Karin, China and Kenta all have their intriguing and enjoyable aspects and manage to keep thing from getting stale. My only major gripe with this book is that much like the first novel, this book takes place between volumes of the manga. Apparently, a pretty big event occurred in manga that changed a bit of the relationship between Karin and Kenta. It's only passingly mentioned here and some of the misunderstandings from Kenta's prospective stem from this and all it managed to do was make me wish they would have covered this event in depth in the novel in well, but I guess I'll just have read the manga. Anyway, the second volume of the Chibi Vampire is enjoyable and it will be intriguing to see what the future novels develop.

Chibi Vampire: The Novel 1 (Review)

My friend lent me this. The same friend that lent me Gunslinger Girl and after reading this I have to admit that man has good taste. Chibi Vampire is the Americanized name of Karin, a manga/anime series and the novels take place between certain issues of the manga. Thankfully the novel explains things for those (like myself) who haven't read the manga. The series is about Karin Maaka, a teenage vampire, but whereas most vampires drink blood from their victims, she injects it into her victims. Her body produces too much blood, especially when she is under stress. Things that stress her out are negative emotions and feelings. One of her classmates, Kenta Usui, is a boy who fits that description perfectly and a new rich boy named Youichiro who also fits that description well and is also searching for Karin.

The story in the first novel progresses with some pretty funny and surprising dark situations. While there are some semi-serious notes here, the comedy is really the focus and its what makes the book much fun and engrossing. I was instantly able to sympathise with the adorable Karin, as I think we've all had overreactions that make certain situations more embarrassing than it should have been. Another standout aspect of the novel are the characters and their interactions...and the comedy that ensues from said interactions. It's surprisingly easy to laugh and cringe at Karin's antics, simply because they're so familiar to anyone who was ever embarrassed as a teenager. Overall, this is a great story about a girl who doesn't quite know who she is yet. It has a very appealing atmosphere, and I can't wait to borrow the other novels.