[WT!] Shirokuma Cafe

Name - Shirokuma CafeType - TV (50 episodes)Genre - Slice of Life, ComedyAired - Apr 5, 2012 to Mar 28, 2013Link - MALMy personal rating - 8/10 (pleasurable)talking animals, yes,TALKING ANIMALS!!!Ah well, many anime now present creatures that can speak - if this doesn't hype you to watch this series then I should make it clear the over 90% of the cast are animals. Humans take side roles and cute animals take the mainstage, how can one not pass this gem?Synopsis "Shirokuma Cafe revolves around a Canadian white bear that quits his boring job and starts a cafeteria near a zoo. He loves telling tall tales and always brags about himself. According to him, he was picked up by a human couple who owns a diner while he was drifting around on an iceberg.Though he has lost all contact with his Canadian family, he has discovered a new home in serving the diners' clientele, thanks to the kind couple. His café is an embodiment of his personality. The place is always packed with many regulars, animals and humans, who are drawn by his charismatic magnetism. " - from MALWhy should I watch this ? ↑↑↑read first paragraph again.↑↑↑I would suggest not to fret over this synopsis because in it's crux the anime is about Daily Lives of High School Boys animals.It's those type of anime where you ask how this'll ever work? But it just does. Animals loiter around the streets, work part-time jobs and go on their apparent daily routine while no human around bats an eye. Plus ironically some animals work in the zoo itself as part time. Excitingly, the show revolves around working class which is fresh change of pace from all the teenage dramas out there.Most humour in anime is energetic. You'll never encounter toilet humour or sexual jokes, it relies on slapstick comedy with some lame puns thrown here and there.Characters - The anime itself present us with a huge cast. Yet, all the characters get their time to present us with their quirks. The characters are probably what kept me coming back to the show so much – the central quartet of Polar Bear, Penguin, Panda and Sasako just have superb chemistry and play off each other brilliantly.Now let's polish up our animal knowledge shall we?Shirokuma - Our leading puntastic white beast series is an all-rounder. He is a polar bear and runs a cafe. He will make you facepalm at time with his out of the place comments. I should also say he is a deceptive liar and loves to create weird stories.Panda - Now we have a self-aware character! Beware the moe, he can crush you any time. The panda does what he does best - lazes around. Best part of this cutie pie is that he is very blunt in all his statements and works.Penguin - Basically, the tsukkomi character. Sounds dull eh? But do not underestimate the penguin! He is basically covered in mysteries unknownhow does he sit on the stool?Sasako - Wait this is not an animal? (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ She is a comic relief character and times acts as a balance between animals and humans in the cafe. She is cheerful ever-smiling lady with healthy humour who works as a part-time at Shirokuma cafe.Now let me just name some side animals which are equally important.From the unpopular lamenting Llama, head-over-heels panda fanatic florist Rin-rin, posing anteater, overposing mandrill, alpaca, panguinders[yes, watch to know more], human panda-Handa, coffee dedicated pupil Masaki, wild Grizzly[who can't catch a break due to the shenanginans of others], tortoise, squirrels and so on . . .Art - There is something satisfying about watching pastel shaded SoL where animals are being cheekily cute. Studio Pierrot does a fine job on keeping the humdrum of the series with smooth art. All the animals are well drawn and their expressions are enhanced by using standard backgrounds. The overall look of the show is quite soft and pastel, and there is creative use of sparkles, bubbles, hearts, flowers and sweat-drops to punctuate gags or emotion. One of the recurring questions is that there is no separate eyes drawn for both Penguin and Panda which I found a bit unusual rest assured the series finds its way to accentuate on that in a skit as well.Remarkably, all experimentation are done on the EDs of the series. We have various EDs sung by the respective VAs and each of them are unique - clearly the staff had a blast on making this series.Sound - I think I'll never come across such a jewel studded voice cast anytime soon. The anime hits all tick marks on OPs, EDs, VA and limited wise use of OSTs. You could just go have a read and the humongous cast it has. All the big names are lined up, Fukuyama, Jun, Kamiya, Hiroshi,Sakurai, Takahiro,Endou, Aya,Konishi, Katsuyuki,Sugita, Tomokazu,Miyano, Mamoru,Kugimiya, Rie,Takeuchi, Junko,Ono, Daisuke to name some. (Sorry I am not really updated on other big names)As I've mentioned earlier the OP+EDs are one the charming points of this series. take a look at all the EDs sung by respective VAs and check how fun they are having to voice an animal.OP#1: "Boku ni Invitation (ボクにインビテーション)" by JP#2: "Rough & Laugh" by Clammbon#3: "You&Me" by Saki & Rie fuED#01: "Bamboo☆Scramble" by Jun Fukuyama#02: "Grizzly-san no G★ROCK (グリズリーさんのG☆ROCK)" by Yuuichi Nakamura#03: "Mizuiro (みずいろ)" by Aya Endo#04: "ZOO tto ne! (ZOOっとねっ！) " by Katsuyuki Konishi#05: "Michinoku Shiiku Blues (みちのく飼育ブルース)" by Wataru Hatano#06: "Zokkon! Penko-san (ぞっこん！ペン子さん)" by Hiroshi Kamiya#07: "Kimama ni Panda Mama♥ (気ままに パンダママ♥)" by Toshiyuki Morikawa#08: "Llama-san no Llama Mambo (ラマさんのラママンボ)" by Daisuke Ono#09: "Largo (ラルゴ)" by Kishou Taniyama#10: "Bamboo rendezvous ♥ (バンブー・ランデヴー♥)" by Kana Hanazawa#11: "PANDAHOLIC!!" by Tokuyoshi Kawashima#12: "My Dear" by Takahiro Sakuraiwew, 12 EDs for a 50 episode anime - never bored me (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧PROSCUTEANIMALSCUTEANIMALSCUTEANIMALSCUTEANIMALSA fun, quirky cast of characters and their amusing banter.The complex characteranimal cast and it's development sprinkled with humuor.It gives a satisfying ending.CONSHit and miss comedy, not everyone will be amused as the story slowly progresses on the Slice of Life over comedy genre over time.Still skeptical? I'll provide some clips from the series then to persuade you all! spoiler warning, might reduce overall enjoyment although as a SoL it doesn't really give out major plot points.Squirrel playing volleyball is much superior than Haikyuu! /sHere is our puntastic panda bear dropping hot rap.Mystery of the century, if anyone knows the answer please contact me.I think the next two clips are going to hurt close to home, be prepared /r/anime!Can someone please praise me? please?!Blunt panda scores 10/10, ouch (ಥ﹏ಥ)To conclude, this anime is fun for enjoying a laid back atmosphere and relax. Oh yeah, I should mention there is a strong feels episode in between and it's your duty to find it :) http://ift.tt/1qrk0xt

[WT!] Eureka 7

Name - Eureka 7Type - TV (50 episodes)Genre - Mecha, Romance, Sci-fiAired - Apr 17, 2005 to Apr 2, 2006Link - MALMy personal rating - 8.5/10 (recommended)Don't beg for it, earn it. Then it will be granted to you.What is Eureka 7? Eureka 7 is an action packed mecha anime interspersed with romance as one of the major theme.Synopsis "Renton Thurston is a 14-year-old boy who lived with his mechanic grandfather in a backwater town. Every day he dreamed of being with the mercenary "Light Finding Operation (LFO)" aircraft pilot group "Gekkostate" and riding "Trapar" particle waves—a sport called "reffing"—with their charismatic leader Holland, especially when faced with his father's acclaimed past or his grandfather's desire to protect him. When a young girl named Eureka riding the original LFO, the "Nirvash typeZERO," asks his grandfather for a tune-up, she inadvertently brings the attention of the military to the garage; as a result, the garage is destroyed and Renton is forced to deliver a new type of interface—the "Amita Drive"—to the Nirvash. After a heated fight in which the Nirvash destroys the military LFOs by unleashing an immense amount of power, Renton is invited into Gekkostate. However, he quickly realizes that behind the facade of a traveling group of mercenaries is a very bitter reality." - from MALWhy should I watch this ? "A seemingly shounen at first hand filled with mature themes which craves the viewer to complete the series in one sitting albeit some plot holes." is how I summarize the whole show.Eureka 7 set up in a dystopian setting.The predominant themes of Eureka 7 are not new concepts by a long shot. Humanity’s maltreatment of that which it doesn’t understand, the inability of people to cope with others’ differences, etc… Regardless of originality, Eureka 7 executes these themes in a very effective and touching manner.You can also interpret the anime as the journey of the male protagonist Renton Thurston as he becomes aware of the world he is born in. From the very first episode, vague spoils As renton, joins the Gekkostate he learns the seamy side of the world. What are the LFOs and what it means to oppose the world. Many dreams and illusions of him are shattered on the way and it's interesting to see how much a single character can evolve.One of the more important part of the anime is that it does not explain most of the Sci-fi terms it uses over the time in the series - yes you read that right ! A single episode of the anime is filled with terms that will make no sense to the viewer so somehow it manages to give flexibility of imagination to interpret them but fails to impress the viewers to some extent.Characters - One of the strongest points in the anime. We are presented with a wide variety of cast in the Gekkostate which are an anti-government faction. Their designs and their names all are unique so you remember them in no time. I'll brush through the main characters but I won't be able to give out every bit of their complexity as I will have to elaborate on spoilers :Renton Thurston : A cut and dried shounen protagonist is how initially people would see him. In the very beginning, he comes with these traits:not really spoiler But after we move on, we see how imperfect this guy is. He puked on his first flight in the LFO. In short he has no knowledge of the world and somehow built castles of allusions of the world.Eureka : A green-haired girl and protagonists main love interest. I can really not say much about her without giving out spoilers.Let me just say, she is the pilot of Nirvash a cool mech.Her name really strikes the most as it as a reference from Archimedes' famous exclamation after a great discovery ! I hope you understand why this girl is a discovery :DHolland Novak : The leader of the faction. He is a pre-millitary man whose ideals were opposite from the government and millitary and goes in his own way of trying to change the world.He acts as the mediator during all banters and is childish as well at time. His personality is cold and harsh especially towards Renton, perhaps of his millitary background he only sees what is in front of him and sometimes is turmoiled by his own emotions.Talho Yuuki : The pilot of Gekkostate and the love interest of Holland. She is as well acts mean towards Renton but later develops a soft corner for him and accepts him in the team. Her past is explained which gives of insight on her relationship with Holland. She is pivotal on controlling Holland during his childish outbursts.I would conclude the character synopsis that the main essence of the anime lies on the cast itself. There are various other characters that get very little screentime but play a BIG time to the story. As the scale of the anime is big, there are tons of characters.Art - Given that this is a Studio Bones production, this show was going to be pretty well animated. This show isn't an exception, the show is animated very, very well. All the character design are pleasing to look and are varied. The thing it nails are the mecha battles. It has lots of missile swarms and wild mecha action. While the action is intense, it is not outstretched. They are also spread out through the series, so while a mech-head might be a little disappointed, the core plot isn't interrupted by having to have yet another battle sequence.Sound - The soundtracks are one of the strongest points in this anime, not much to complaint here. There are nice intense OSTs and will surely make you enjoy the battles with soft and soothing sentimental tracks when required. OP1 || OP2 || OP3 || OP4|| ED1 || ED2|| ED3|| ED4PROSA shounen anime touching mature themes (wars, politics, human curiosity of unknown, love etc) and executing them pretty well.The complex character cast and it's development.Amazing art and mecha battle scenes, it really shines in many parts. There are some scenes which shall get ingrained in your brain.Eureka Seven does several things very well, and the first one of those is relationships. The unfolding love between Renton and Eureka is the heart of the show, but there are several others that add layers of complications onto the proceedings.CONSThe anime cast is somewhat irritating at times Renton crybaby demeanor get on the nerves of anyone watching over the age of about 16...and if he doesn't, the little kids in Eureka's care certainly will.Lack of compelling villains. The only drive of the main antagonist is he shares some different ideals which is fun in it's own way but lacks the power to please.Too big plot holes that cannot be ignored.I'll end this by saying, Eureka 7 was a great ride and somehow with all the flaws it presented it still struck a chord in my heart http://ift.tt/20lhZ2e