Haiyore! Nyaruko-san review season 1

Just a heads up, you may need to look up some of the Japanese words that have been used.  The honorifics after each name mean different things.

The anime starts off with a young boy running through the night, multiple moons with a reddish color which seems to signify an alternate dimension where normal people cannot see inside, and he ends up running down an alley into a dead-end.   The monster, a Nightguant, has him cornered in the alley and the boy screams for help.  Nyarlathotep shows up to save him by killing the monster with her bare hands.  Nyarlathotep takes on the form of a young girl roughly the same age as the boy in appearance.  The boy is named Mahiro Yasaka and knows of the Cthulhu Mythos and Nyarlathotep.  She tells him that Space Defense Agency sent her to Earth to protect him.  He takes her to his house to clean up.  Nyarlathotep enrolls at Mahiro-san's high school and introduces herself as such, but shortens the name to Nyaruko-san.

She is making him breakfast, using her pet's eggs, a shantak.  Cthugha shows up in a similar guise and Mahiro-san calls her Kuko.  She is apparently the arch-nemesis of Nyarlathotep and all Nyarlathotepians.  Kuko displays a love for fire and as a Cthughan her battle form displays red flames covering her body.  She is completely bonkers for Nyaruko just as much as Nyaruko is bonkers for Mahiro-san and just like his denial for Nyaruko, she has the same denial for Kuko.  Kuko enrolls herself in Mahiro-san's high school to stay close to Nyaruko-san.

Hastur-kun shows up as a little boy, who looks like a girl, and accidentally bumps into Mahiro-san while searching for Mahiro-san's mother, Yorika Yasaka.  Hastur-kun than with the aid of Kuko gets the idea of and starts falling in love with Mahiro-san.

You do meet Mahiro-san's friend in school named Takehiko Yoichi and Tamao Kurei, usually called Yoichi-san and Kurei-san formally.  They somehow get taken over by the Greater Race of Yith who wants to destroy the people of Earth and used both of their bodies and transported alien intelligence inside their minds to take control of their bodies.  Yoichi built the machine, under false pretenses, and Kurei was suppose to stop him.  However, somehow, the weapon she uses accidentally switched Mahiro's and Nyaruko's minds so as to say Mahiro-san was in Nyaruko's body and vice-versa.

Along the way, they face a few villains, the first being Nodens, a space smuggler who sent the nightguant after Mahiro-san to kidnap him and feature him in yaoi films.  The second bad guy was Nyaruko-san's brother, a Nyarlathotepian who has a lot of hatred towards his sister.  He killed all the gods in the Dreamlands that defend it as a spiteful thing towards his sister.  However, Nyaruko doesn't even formally recognize him as her brother, instead calling him the "wild Nyarlathotepian."

And using Dagon to travel to R'lyeh, the city that rose up from the sea, which is where Nyaruko defeated Nodens.  Now, since R'lyeh is the town where the Cthulhu Corporation is based, a final character is introduced working for the Cthulhu Corp.  Her name is Luhy Distone, who looks like a human, but is actually a star-spawn of Cthulhu.  She ends up coming to Mahiro-san's house after his mother gets back and takes Kuko and Yoriko with her back to R'lyeh in what appears to be the  1981 DeLorean DMC-12 from "Back to the Future" fame.  Turns out that she asked them to come help her on the next generation gaming console, since Yoriko is a gaming console fanatic and Kuko is known as the "Queen" in certain video game communities.  Kuko actually ends up destroying the Xoth after Yoriko tells that usually the better gaming console fails because there are no games for people to play on it and the CEO of the Cthulhu Corp calls Luhy and tells her that the project that she's working on has been cancelled.

After these two "villains" are finished, defeated, or abolished, another deity gets added the party.  Mahiro-san kind of looks after this fourth deity, as she has the guise of a young little girl, as a little sister to him.  The fourth deity is named Ghutatan and she has a butler named Roy Fooger, a Lloigor.

Roy turns out to be the third bad guy, who wants to take all of Earth's "adult games" to space.  Nyaruko, Hastur, and Kuko defeat him.  The first season ends while waiting for Ghtatan's parents to pick her up on Earth and take her home.

There is a second season, which I will view and write a review on soon and if any of this didn't make sense or piqued your interest, watch the anime to find out for yourself.  I would give this anime a rating of probably 4 out of 5.  I like the idea to the anime, and though some of the ideas are adult-like, some of the characters are really high-school-ish and immature, especially when they are deities, it doesn't make much sense unless you think about it as when they take on their human form, they can't fit all their brain into their body.  Who knows, anyway, Until next time, don't watch T.V.; watch anime instead.

Demonbane

Demonbane is an anime that has reference towards the Cthulhu Mythos made popular by H. P. Lovecraft.  Each episode gives a listing of the terms used and a background of what is meant by each term.

The anime itself centers around the leading character named Kurou Daijuuji, a former student of Miskatonic University where he studied to become a sorcerer, but dropped out due to financial problems.  Now he is a poor private investigator hired by the Hadou Financial Group which is run by Ruri Hadou to find a book of power.  By fate or destiny, or just plain dumb luck, he encounters a book store owner whose store appears out of a fine mist and she knows more than she should, however, her name is given as Nya who becomes a minor reoccurring character until the last episode where her true identity is given.  Low and behold, Kurou leaves the book store after Nya tells him that what he's looking for isn't at the store, on the way to his car, a girl literally falls in his lap, and tells him that her name is Al and she wants to know if he's a sorcerer.  So she is the book of power he's looking for and in order to save his life and hers, she makes a contract with him and he's just like a lost little puppy and doesn't know what's going on.  Anyway, Al is short for Al-Azif, which is the name of the Necronomicon, the book of power.  Al detects a Deus Machina, basically a God Machine, which allows them to fight evil, but the Deus Machina is name Demonbane, hence the name of the anime, and is sorta maintained by the Hadou Financial Group.  It's a giant Mech.  Anyway, the background info is useful since it gives spelling and details that fill you in on what's going on so you're not completely going insane, but that's what Cthulhu is all about, anyway, if you can get past the giant mechanized robots in the 1920's, then its a fairly decent anime with a good story.

The first episode, 'I Am Providence' was a great episode that made you want to find out what the hell was going on.  You can Wikipedia the name of the anime to get a listing of episodes, there is only twelve, and a plot description more in depth than what I've said here, but all in all, I would recommend this anime, especially if you're just starting out reading or playing with H. P. Lovecraft or Call of Cthulhu or really into the Cthulhu Mythos.  Its entertaining, not really a horror anime, but the way they portray normal people when shit hits the fan is great, everyone screaming and running, its realistic on certain things, but extremely PG rated, again, this is anime targeted children, so its kind of campy.  So if you don't mind all the negative, give it look, you may find something that they put a different spin on, especially the artifacts in the Mythos, I enjoyed the anime immensely.

I would rate the anime overall as a solid 4.5 out of 5, with high repeat viewing capability.  I would buy this if I could find the complete season on DVD or Blu-ray.  Leave a comment and let me know how enjoyed it.  Until next time, watch anime, not TV.

Demonbane review imminent

I will be writing a Demonbane review in the near future.  I finally finished watching it this week, but don't have the time for a full review.  Just letting know it is on its way.

--Don't watch TV, read manga and watch anime, its healthier.--

Reviews in the near future

In the near future, I am planning on writing some reviews for two anime.  Demonbane and Haiyore! Nyaruko-san.   They are supposedly both involved with the Cthulhu Mythos.  I look forward to seeing them.

Nodame Cantabile with Paris and Finale

STRONGLY RECOMMENDED FOR THE CLASSICAL MUSIC FAN!

I started watching this anime because I read it in an online quiz on "how much do you know anime" and because of that quiz I wrote down all the anime that I had never heard about.  That's why I started watching, but the reason I kept watching is something different.  I kept watching this anime because of the character development in the story and my interest in classical music.  Within the show, which starts in Japan, you have two main characters -- Nodame and Chiaki -- who are complete opposites and somehow fall in love.  Chiaki is great with piano and the violin, but becomes a great composer.  Nodame is a great pianist and an Otaku (nerd) to boot.  They are not head over heels from the beginning and it doesn't really get there until the end of the Nodame Cantabile:Finale season, but for all those hopeless romantics, this anime is for you.  Also, if you are a music major and/or love classical music this is an anime for you.   Since I like anime, classical music, and really good storyline, this anime was pretty freaking good.  I would give it a solid four out of five stars.  Some of the music is fun and original in the anime.

FYI:  Some of the music played in this anime are: Liszt, Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, and Schumann, plus others.

High School DxD evaluated

WARNING!!!!! NUDITY IN THIS ANIME.

High School DxD is a great anime if your a guy.  Lots of boobs and hot chicks in lingerie, but there are two catches.  One, the girls are akuma (devils) and two, the girls seem to be in high school which would probably mean that the girls are minors; however, the storyline is intriguing and the list of episodes number twelve with one special that I viewed.  I would have liked to see more of the story enfold before the show ended, but due to what I just described I can see why.  There are also different viewings I found.  One viewing had everything censored out and the other had only below the waistline censored out, so basically one showed nipples and the other didn't.  Because of the story and the drawing involved with this anime I am giving it a rating of four out of five stars.

Shugo Chara & Shugo Chara Doki

This anime has interesting characters and you get tied into it quite early on, but this anime is for kids in fourth or fifth grade; roughly ten to twelve years old or older.  Since the main character is in grade school and most of the show is featuring the school and what happens to the kids there.  Well, that's Shugo Chara in a nutshell.  The main character is a girl, but she's in a group of others including boys and the group is centered around being guardians (kind of like class presidents) of the school.  They also have Shugo Charas ( their would-be selves that hatch from their heart-eggs; since every child has an egg inside them (basically their dreams of what they want to be or could be)).  Yeah, its kind of complicated, so the easiest way to understand what I'm saying is to watch the anime.  Sure, its kinda cheesy, but young kids will like it and they might learn something useful too.

Doki is the second part, mainly the continuation, of the story.  The guardians face new difficulties and a new nemesis or two.  It definitely gets interesting.  Still for kids.  There is a third anime called Shugo Chara Party (I think that's what it is, but I could be wrong).  It is next on my watch list.  After I watch it, I'll post a review here.   Overall, Shugo Chara and Shugo Chara Doki are excellent anime for young kids in the age range I noted above and should be watched accordingly.  I rate these two as a solid four out of five stars.

ADULT WARNING:  One character plays a girl in the first part and is a boy in the second part.  The character is a boy in the first part pretending to be a girl because of family tradition and nothing else.  Take this into consideration if letting kids watch this.