Recently in high school anime Category

That's not the case with "Toradora" which is a show I actually look forward to seeing every week. It's set in a high school and deals with the lives and loves of several students. The lead characters are Ryuji Takasu who is unfortunate enough to be born with his father's mean eyes so people think he's a juvenile delinquent and Taiga Aisaka, the short petite girl with a horrible temper who lives alone and is called the "Palm top Tiger." Taiga sounds like tiger, get it? Anyway, she's vicious enough for the nickname to stick.

The show is a play on their names. Ryu is dragon and tora is tiger in Japanese. And if you try to say "dragon" in Japanese, one would say doragon. Or so Wikipedia says.

Taiga has a huge crush on Ryuji's friend, Yusaku Kitamura, who once upon a time confessed his affection to her. And Ryuji harbors this big crush on Taiga's bubbly friend, Minori Kushieda.

Their paths cross when Ryuji accidentally gets the lover letter Taiga wrote for Yusaku. She comes to Ryuji's house at night intending to beat the crap out of him. They end up agreeing to help each other win their respective crushes.

Despite his beady eyes, Ryuji is really a sweetheart who can cook well and is obsessed with cleaning, He ends up being Taiga's caretaker of sorts when he finds out she lives alone in this big messy apartment next to his small house and subsists on takeout, She can't stand her father and stepmother.

But "Toradora" is not just your run of the mill high school anime revolving around romance. Most of the characters have depth to them and some of the episodes make you reach for a tissue.

Ryuji learned to be cook and housekeeper since his widowed mother works nights as a hostess at a bar. He is perceptive and kind but finds it hard to tell Minori how he feels. Lately though, he's become a little braver asking her to the Christmas party, And when she said she wouldn't come, he yelled that he would wait for her. Aaaaw.

At the same time, Ryuji's feelings for the little terror who eats and hangs around his house is changing. It bothers him that their fellow classmates are rooting for Taiga and Yusaku to be a couple.

Taiga, who is used to being on her own, doesn't think twice about Ryuji cooking her meals, packing her lunch or cleaning her apartment for free. She calls him her "dog" but feels comfortable enough around him to tell him the reason why she really likes Christmas. At his insistence, she gave her father another chance to be a parent. Now instead of just Minori, she also has him on her side.

You don't have to be a psychic to know the two will end up liking each other as more than friends, But the show sure makes the trip to this likely path enjoyable.

With the new year just around the corner, I find myself mulling over anime I saw this year. Some were horrible, a few were excellent but most were entertaining enough.

I noticed many of the shows I watched had a supernatural or magical theme. I don't even remember seeing anything mecha-related. Sorry but giant robots leave me cold.

I have to feed the artsy fartsy side of moi now and then so I gravitate toward shows that look unique, tackle an unusual subject matter or tell a tale in a way I haven't seen before. "Mononoke", which deals with the adventures of an unusual medicine peddler, fit that bill. You should check out the show when you have the chance. I suppose you could say "Mononoke" was a spinoff of "Ayakashi" since the peddler was a character in one of the featured tales there.


Yes, I also saw my share of shonen anime from "Naruto Shippudden" to "D. Grayman" this year. The latter ended recently and was a letdown. Since the manga isn't finished, the animators decided to end the show just after the Black Order's headquarters get attacked. Lame. I hope they later come out with movies.

Do stay away from the mess that is "Le Chevalier D'eon". It is loosely based on a historical figure who was a spy for the king of France and who had a fondness for wearing women's clothing. In the anime, he dons dresses when the ghost of his murdered sister possesses him. The show is a mishmash of historical figures involved in conspiracies, secret societies and other arcane stuff. While the animation is beautiful, the plot is too convoluted and unbelievable. And anyone who loves history better steer clear of this anime which plays fast and loose with the facts.

Everyone has a list of their favorite anime shows. That's a given. But do you have a list of the anime you consider so pedestrian, lame or terrible you wouldn't show them to you ex ever?

Lemme share my lame list. It's not in any order by the way.

1. "Bartender" - Show about a mixologist who can ease your troubles with a drink. Each episode comes with a history or story behind the cocktail du jour. Employs fourth wall techniques. Verdict: bleah and just plain boring

2. "Boys Be" - Tales of boys at school and the way they drool, pine for and leer at girls and women. Contains fanservice which means scenes where female characters inadvertently end up showing their underwear. Verdict: sexist and dumb

3. "Diamond Daydreams" - Show about the lives and loves of several women who reside or work in the nothern part of Japan. At times seems like an ad for certain locations. The character designs are among the ugliest I have ever seen. Memo to the show's animators: Go back to art school and learn how to draw. Then smack yourself for producing what amounts to nothing more than a disguised travel brochure.

4."Haunted Junction" - Kids from different religious backgrounds attend a haunted school with well-known ghosts from Japanese popular culture. Well they focus mostly on spectres Japanese school kids yak about such as the girl who haunts toilets. Verdict: A big mess. Supposed to be funny but is excruciating to watch. Has disturbing characters like a teen-aged girl overly fond of little boys. Gag.

5. "Gregory Horror Show" - MIni episodes about a mouse the unseen protagonist encounters in a place full of "scary" characters. The segments are too short and choppy. The characters are NOT scary at all since they are drawn simply. Think of wooden blocks then imagine them with faces and stubby appendages. The premise isn't bad but the animators faltered in the execution.

6. "Oh My Goddess" OVA - The first installment in a series that should have been buried long long ago. Geek meets one of the Nordic goddesses of fate. She ends up keeping house for him and falling for this very common guy. This show is nothing more than wish fulfillment for the guy who cannot get a date and still lives in his mom's basement. This tripe is an insult to any woman who can think for herself.

7. "Onegai Teacher" or "Please Teacher" - Half-human/half-alien lands on Earth and pretends to be a teacher to gather data on humans. Circumstances force her to marry one of her students. She looks like a well-endowed woman in her mid-20s. He is actually 18 but looks 15 because he was in a coma-like state for several years. They keep their marriage a secret and eventually fall in love.

Skip this so-called romantic show. If you have the DVDs, burn them and fumigate the room where these were kept. I found the relationship between the main characters disturbing and just wrong. The creator of this show should be ashamed for producing this putrid excuse for an anime. He or she deserves a flogging.

8. "Rahxephon" - Show where giant statues ( actually just prettier looking giant robots) wreak havoc in a walled-off world. Hero is a teen with a murky past. There is also a mysterious girl and a woman who is more than what she seems. Great animation, nice CGIs and compelling storyline at first. But I found the plot too convoluted for my taste and the pace of the show can be glacial at times. I couldn't finish this out of frustration and boredom.

9. "School Rumble" - HIgh school anime about a clueless girl, the guy she likes, the bad boy who loves her and their classmates. Typical show where someone can't tell the object of their affection how they feel because of certain reasons and circumstances. (e.g. the person they love just doesn't get it). Some people like this show. I don't. I got tired of the main characters' inability to confess their love.

10. "R.O.D." the TV series - Three sisters with the unusual ability to manipulate paper. They solve cases and are called paper masters for a good reason. One can create paper animals that do her bidding while another can fashion weapons out of paper. This is the tv spinoff of the popular "Read or Die" OVA about a bookworm who is really a special agent for the British.

The television show buchers certain characters in the original movie much to its detriment. The plot is more complex and folks double cross each other out of the blue. The series also runs too long and gets bogged down by the different subplots. This is one sorry spinoff to a decent, original movie.

I liked "Shakugan no Shana" and looked forward to the second season. But now I think I was too optimistic.

After watching six episodes of "Shakugan no Shana II" I want to claw my eyes out.

Shana the red-eyed Flame Haze with the flaming sword and fiery master, Alastor, is back with Yuji the Mystes and the rest of the gang. The opening and ending songs are passable cute Jpop tunes. One could even say the opening song is Jrockish.

To recap, the world is a hunting ground for the denizens of the Crimson Realm who steal a person's flame of existence. These denizens are the bad guys and the good guys are lords like Alastor and their Flame Hazes who try to maintain the balance of this world. (Cue pompous-sounding music.) A torch is a replica of a person whose flame of existence has been snuffed out. Torches are temporary and fade away when the flame inside their chest goes out.

Yuji Sakai is a Torch but a special one called a Mystes since he carries a treasure inside him. In his case it is called the "Midnight Lost Child" which reignites his flame at midnight. Technically, Yuji can live for a long, long time thanks to this. So everyone wants this treasure especially those baddies which include the Bel Masque group.

This season has disappointed me a lot. I wanted to see action but all I got so far was stale fare.

"Shakugan no Shana II" has degenerated into a high school love drama. Yeah yeah, the love triangle and pairings were visible in the first season but at least there was a more action-oriented bent to the show then. Now the viewer is subjected to episode upon episode of Shana or that boring girl who can cook (I think her name is Yoshida) getting jealous of Yuji and the latest transfer student.

The fact the transfer student looks remarkably like Hecate, one of the villains last season hints there might still be a plot that will compensate me for the hours I wasted watching this wanna be-Jdorama. Someone puhleez irk Shana so she can slash them with her sword. Anyone? Anyone?

Before anyone goes on a warpath and tries lopping off my head for liking this show, let me set something straight.

"Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei" which translates to "Farewell Despair Teacher" or "Farewell Mr. Despair" is a comedy definitely not meant for the kids or anyone pure. We are dealing with gallows humor here folks. The main character, Nozomu Itoshiki, is a pessimist of the first order who thinks nothing of hanging himself whenever life gets him down. In this case, pretty much every day.

The first episode begins with a high school girl waxing rhapsodic about spring. She is surrounded by cherry trees in full bloom and soon spies a young man intent on hanging himself. She somehow "saves" him and her too cheerful outlook on life makes him leery of her. She pooh poohs his suicide attempt, declaring that he was just trying to make himself taller. She tells him her father tried to make himself taller when he got laid off, when the company closed and when the debt collectors came calling at the family home. She even calls a trash can "a treasure chest for the homeless."

The gal is called Kafuka Fura although that is not her real name. The moniker comes from Frank Kafka. We find out that she is one of Itoshiki's students.

Yep ya got that right. The man who is a walking black hole of despair is currently a homeroom teacher to high school students who definitely deserve someone more cheerful.

Since this is also a harem anime (gasp, did I just admit to liking another harem anime?) Nozomu becomes the object of affection for several of his female students which include the stalker Matoi Tsunetsuki. According to the Wikipedia entry on the show, her name is a pun on the phrase "always following about."

Matoi needs to know what her current love is doing every minute of the day so she bugs his room and stalks him. When she switches her affection to Nozomu, she dresses in a kimono and follows him everywhere even to the men's restroom. Kafuka thinks stalking is just "deep love."

"Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei" had me laughing out loud and I've only seen seven episodes. The show, which has 12 episodes, also pokes fun at other shows be it American or Japanese. While it's not essential, a bit of anime know how helps too. It would explain why the blonde-haired student often ends up in situations where one can see her panties. She's the character destined to appease the fan boys.

I repeat, this is NOT for the under 16 crowd or for anyone who doesn't get sarcasm. You have been warned.

The show just finished airing in Japan and isn't licensed yet for distribution in America. I've only seen fansubs so far.

Pity poor Yuji Sakai. The high school student is just minding his own business when his surroundings turn all weird. Time stops. Everyone around him is frozen then burst into blue flames which is being consumed by a giant baby doll.

When this reject from a toy factory tries to go after Yuji, it is soon dispatched by a girl with flaming hair and red fiery eyes. And yeah, her sword is fiery too. When the girl finally spots our hero, she tells him something that turns his world upside down.

Yuji is already dead. He's just a "torch", a temporary replacement put in this world that will soon flicker out and be forgotten by everyone. As proof, he carries a small blue flame in his chest. When that goes out, so does he. She is dismissive of him.

The girl is a "Flame Haze" and has a contract with Alastor, one of the Lords of the Crimson Realm. The jargon of the show, "Shakugan No Shana", sometimes gets in the way of things. To put it simply, think of Shana and other Flame Hazes as police and Alastor and the other Lords as their bosses. They're the good guys. The bad guys are called "Denizens" and their sidekicks/servants are dubbed "Rinne".

Shana's job is to maintain the balance of this world which means she'll kick the butt of Denizens who are killing people to steal their "powers of existence". The Denizens prey on humans which to them are akin to walking batteries. So if a Denizen gets a bunch of "powers of existence", he or she can use this mass of power to fuel whatever evil plan they hatched. Muwahahaha. You get the point.

Yuji resigns himself to fading out of existence and doesn't blubber about it. He is even nice to the girl he later christens Shana after her sword. He also doesn't blow her cover when she takes over the identity of a classmate who turned out to be a torch like him.

But how can you have a show where the hero is already dead and about to go bye bye in the first episode? Calm down. This is the world of anime where everything is possible from having blue hair to never gaining weight even if you eat like a pig.

Our hero is no ordinary torch. He turns out to be a "Mystes", a special torch that carries a treasure inside him. And he carries what every Denizen would give their right eye and a limb for. Inside Yuji is the "Reiji Maigo" or "Midnight Lost Child" which restarts his blue flame at midnight. So he could technically live forever since the Reiji Maigo keeps recharging him at midnight.

A minor quibble I have about "Shakugan No Shana" is how the main characters look like they're kids. They're supposed to be high school students for Pete's sake.

Shana, who was raised for battle by another Flame Haze, is blunt, rude sometimes and not that sociable. She is a terror to the teachers and a tough taskmaster to Yuji. She also doesn't understand (but we do) that she is falling in love with him. It's an emotion alien to her.

But she's not the only one who likes Yuji. Another classmate, Kazumi Yoshida, is crushing madly on our hero but is too shy to confess. Yuji is kind and doesn't turn down her invitations which annoys Shana to no end. Yoshida was useful in one episode but she primarily exists so Shana could have a rival. I could do without her presence in the show, to be honest. She bogs down the action so we could have angst and a teenage love triangle.

"Shakugan No Shana" is uber popular in Japan. It began as a series of light novels then became a manga and an anime show. A movie which retells the first season is supposed to be out this year. And a second season of the anime has been confirmed this fall. There's a horrible OVA (original video animation) that I saw months ago and was more about the love interaction between Yuji's other classmates. It was set during the class' trip to a hot springs which is cliche in anime and a poor excuse to have the female characters show skin. Gag. Don't bother with this OVA which came out last year.

The first season has been licensed in America and readily available on DVDs.

My inner fangirl would like to show some more of the reasons why she likes "La Corda D'Oro". Five reasons actually and they all wear pants. Sigh. Please excuse me while I throttle her into silence.

Here's an animated music video created by Tsukimorifanatic and posted on YouTube. The song used is "Trouble with Boys" by Loreta.

Attention fangirls. Let the squealing commence. I will now die of embarassment.