Category Archives: Cartoons

Kamisama Kazoku

The Kamiyama Family

Basic premise here is that Samashirou Kamiyama is a regular high school boy who just happens to be the son of God. He isn’t sent to Earth to save everybody’s souls, but rather to simply learn about normal life so he can grow up to be a great God himself.
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Coyote Ragtime Show

Android assassin-maids?

I saw some excited previews, rave reviews, and some detractors of this title, so I gave it a shot. I think I can see why folks liked it: good production quality, sci-fi premise, lots of smart characters, lots of gunplay and explosions, and so forth.

Alas, it also has twelve assassin androids wearing maid costumes parachuting into a prison and shooting up the place. Assassin androids in maid costumes? You’re kidding, right? By the time they showed up on the screen I was already a bit leery of the premise (crack government agent tracking down arch-criminal), but come on! What is this semi-retarded fetish doing in my sci-fi action crime drama? No, it’s not like getting chocolate in my peanut butter.

Add in the lack of a likable main character, and this looks like a high-budget recipe for disaster. I’ll be keeping an eye on some other folks’ reviews of future episodes in case it takes a turn for the better, but right now I think I’m stopping at episode 1.

NHK ni Youkoso Animated

Everybody else is happy, right?

Two years ago I picked up a fan-translated comic called NHK ni Youkoso. I liked it enough that I ended up volunteering my skills, poor as they are, at editing it for the translator. Since then, that person has stopped translating comics, and the title has been sporadically released in English to the tune of some 24 issues. Now it has been transformed into a made-for-television animation by Studio Gonzo, and is being met with some rather positive reviews.
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