Giant Killing

Never have been a fan of the genre and I don't think i ever will be. its just one of those genre's that consist of powerlevel rising again and again. Even so, i stumbled upon the series one day when i was bored and was looking for something new to read. The artstyle looked unique, thought why not and gave it a shot.

Tsunamata seems to have put together just the right things from various series and has made the best of them. The act of Giant Killing in football isn't exactly a new one, and it is done regularly. Combining this with the amount of suspense that gets played through rarely throughout sports anime, it works fantastically. What's better than a series that concentrates on what makes sports series good? The main club, ETU is notorious for being a low ranked team, they only have few skilled players however with the help of the infamous manager Takeshi Tatsumi, they are able to beat one of the strongest teams in the league.

The main thing i liked about this series was that its explained to you that these guys aren't miracle workers. You're told the limits of their abilities from the start, there's none of this "i'm so skilled i learnt this in a week" or phenomenal growth spurts as players. There is also a large focus on building the team, how ETU as a team grow and progress is shown throughout.

While the series had started animation while the manga is stil ongoing, it covered enough to not have any material made up with the exception of the last episode. which i found to be pointless, but a fun enough watch in the end. Its a series i'd recommend to anyone, its good, nothing great. but absolutely worth a watch.

Seitokai Yakuin Domo

This series went way under my radar, i was expecting a substandard highschool life series with love triangles flying left right and center until i was presented with a screenshot from a friend.

Ok.... what

So instead i was greeted with a subpar series with loads of crude and sexualised jokes that were somehow ridiculously funny at times.

The beginning starts off with Tsuda Takatoshi entering his first year of highschool, thing was the school used to be an all girls school until that year. alright, what first comes to mind is harem. But of course the title poses Seitokai, so he has to have some relation to the student council. Turns out he was chosen as the vice president and the male representative in a female-dominated highschool. so pretty standard stuff so far.

Instead of going into all the "oh emm gee its a boy" you'd expect from an all girls school, sexually related jokes fly out straight off the bat. Having spent my highschool life right next to an allgirls school, i found this hilarious and somewhat true to what they are really like. So we meet the rest of the student council,  Amakusa Shino and Aria Shichijou, the president and secretary respectively. Both have pre-adolescent minds and for some reason overly sexual objects seem to be the norm. The accountant is Suzu Hagimura, a Genius (IQ of 180) loli who is sensitive about her body.

The series follows the 4-koma format, so skits galore but it somehow manages to keep a somewhat connected timeline. What i found good about this show was that, instead of going into a incredibly stupid drama arc towards the end, it kept the comedy throughout.

Overall, the show isn't a great or even good one for that matter. But if you're looking for a quick laugh with crude jokes. definitely up your alley.

Hanamaru Kindergarden

This was another series i only picked up on recommendation, generally i'm not one for loli and overly "cute" shows. But in the end i found this to be pretty enjoyable.

As you can guess, the show is about a kindergarden, particularly Hanamaru kindergarden. It follows the life of Naozumi Tsuchida, who is starting a job as a male teacher at the kindergarden. This was an unusual one for me, as most of the slice of life slash comedy i watch are based in middleschools or highschools. Though it was an interesting insight into how kindergardens run, or at least portrayed in this series, for example a statistic is presented where only 1 in 50 kindergarden teachers are male. which obviously leads to Tsuchida being the only male teacher and the school.

So the shows follows the antics of Anzu, Hiiragi and Koume basically bothering (as kids rightfully do) Tsuchida. With the slight twist that Anzu has decided that she'll be Tsuchida's wife. As usual, the series portrays the kids to be much more mature than they are, but nothing wrong with that, just a nitpick. of course rivals show up, with one of the other teachers being the main rival - whom Tsuchida (or likened to Tsuchii by one of his upperclassmen) is completely head over heels for.

This another enjoyable series, but not exactly for everyone. If you feel you're too masculine for something like this then you probably are, but it is fairly enjoyable and i'd reccomend if you were curious, or just looking for something light hearted to watch.

Nyan Koi!

Generally i don't go for such a generic looking series but i was told that it was enjoyable, despite being a cookie cut highschool harem. And for the most part, i'm a sucker for enjoyable highschool centric shows.

The show presents some pleasant but generic designs and art direction, with a cats being a strong theme throughout. Heck even the main character has cat eyes. So it starts with the main character, Kosaka Junpei, knocking over a statue of a cat. Getting cursed and being able to understand cats, the curse only gets lifted when Kosaka has performed enough deeds to please the overall deity cat of the area. Its pretty loosely based around some japanese lore (surely you've heard of the 100 ghost stories game?).

So Kosaka has to help enough cats while keeping the curse a secret. obviously shenanigans follow with characters and cats, which end up presenting a fairly straightforward harem. You've got the tsundere (who happens to lose the tsun and gets the dere very quickly), the lead and an overly eccentric, masculine daughter of the yakuza. For the most part i enjoyed them apart from the last, even though i usually love eccentric characters, its one of those cases where they came out looking retarded than eccentric.As for the cats, the show has actually a fairly wide cast of them, from a fatass, loser cat named mitch to a yakuza owned male cat named Josephine.

As a show, it presents nothing great or new, but it is fairly enjoyable. No one's said generic is bad right?. If you're looking for a break from plot or drama heavy series, Nyan Koi! is an absolutely perfect candidate. Apart from timid fanservice, its a great show for all ages.