So, I’m sorry I haven’t been updating as much as i should. I’ll definitely start posting reviews next week, but until then, i’ll give you a quick update on how things are looking this season.
Daily Live -> This is sooo awesome
Mirai Nikki -> Has it finally gotten better?
Mouretsu Pirates -> Still going strong!
Usually, I’d be exited. Oh, boy, I get to review another episode of Future Diary! But, it’s not what I expected. This episode was a disappointment.
I’ll kick off my review the same way Future Diary started. An overly melodramatic expositionary flash back sequence we didn’t need. We get to learn about Seventh’s back story. Now this, at first, may seem like a great thing. Seventh’s hair and their in-general-overall-awesomeness… but it wasn’t there. Seventh’s hair, I mean.
Being a flashback sequence, everyone was younger, both male and female counterparts of the Seventh 
Future Diary holder(s), everyone was younger. But they took away Seventh’s epic hair, and made it a little thing hanging over his forehead. They butchered his hair style.
Why did they have to make Girl Seventh’s back story so… dumb. There are no other words for it. I can’t talk about it on my blog (as I’m trying to keep this blog open for all audiences) but it’s just so stupid. They used it once before as a back story too, so it didn’t even work through shock factor.
That whole thing, and all the overdone melodrama, put me in a bad mood through the rest of the episode.
They didn’t even have the redeeming quality of Ninth in the episode. Darn you Future Diary!
The one thing that this episode did well was make me hate someone. Yukki’s father is a despicable person, and I know they want me to feel that way about him, and they do a spectacular job of it.
Besides that one good point, the rest of the episode was kind of lacking in Future Diary’s greatness that was so prevalent in episodes past.
4/10 Disappointments
Remember how last episode, I was really exited, because something happened? Well this episode, one thing didn’t happen, everything happened. The only problems that pinned this show down before have been alleviated. Exactly what I wanted to happen, happened. My theory that I cooked up about two weeks ago was wrong. That’s not a bad thing either, because it means the story isn’t as predictable as I thought. Oh, and now she’s a pirate.
Yes, you read that previous line correctly, even though you may have read it several times, trying to find where my typo was, but to no avail. She has decided to become a pirate.
This episode of Mouretsu Pirates shows that the writing staff is very talented, and they can do good pacing if they want to.
Our main character chooses to be a pirate at the very end of the episode. Literally 3 minutes before the credits ran. This meant that I thought that, after the Yacht Club Trip arc had been wrapped up, I thought the episode was over, and it was a good episode, so I was content with it, then, she decided to become a pirate, and I was utterly satisfied with this show.
The very fact that she has decided to be a pirate gives me high hopes for this show, because it shows a significant character development, even only 5 episodes in.
I’d also like to take a little time to talk about the music. Not the opening or the ending, because I’ve already said I’m not a fan of those in an earlier review. I want to address the background music. It’s really good. It’s the kind of instruments you’d expect in a traditional Pirate movie or show. I like it, and fits the mood of the show very well.
This was a stellar episode of Mouretsu Pirates. I know I’ve never done this for this show before, but I think it has finally earned a perfect score.
10/10 Spectacular Space Pirate Captains.
This show is good guys, you should watch it.
So, I’ve been having trouble finding this episode of Nichibros. All I was able to get so far was the first skit, with perforated sound. I managed to get through it by muting my computer and sticking to subtitles, and yeah, it was funny. It was of similar style to the first skit in episode 3, where the entire joke is set to a still frame of something. This time, it was the river.
But after that, everything just stopped. This review may take some time to get out fully, but till then, I’ll give you this picture of a cat:
Sorry I haven’t gotten any posts out this week. I have watched the most resent episodes of Mouretsu Pirates and Mirai Nikki. Nichibros has been giving me trouble, so that might not come out for a while. My reviews for the two shows I watched, and for the manga Coppelion Chapter 18 will come out Monday of next week.
Nichibros? What’s Nichibros? It is the nickname for Daily Lives of High School Boys, assigned by Dustin of Bakacast (found on the Project Haruhi blog) because saying and/or writing Daily Lives of High School Boys every time is exhausting.
So it’s Nichibros. Get used to it.
Now, this show has the potential to be really funny (this episode’s first skit?). But sometimes, it gets caught up in one joke, and forgets to make the rest of the skit(s) funny. Now one of the jokes that they did make funny was the rivalry between the Presidents of the all boys and the all girls high schools.
The joke for most of the skits (skits three through six, from a total of seven, not including our bonus last one) was what High School aged boys and girls are usually stereotyped as, through the eyes of high school boys. These being that the boys are very level headed, neat, and have very good manners, while girls are loud, obnoxious, kind of stupid, and overly competitive.
This main joke is really funny. The first skit that shows this (the third skit, High School Boys and the Cultural Festival 1) has a level headed group of “delinquent looking” guys, who are the school officers, teaming up with noisy obnoxious “insane” high school girl officers, and the cultural festival.
The Culture Festival plot line was funny, and all of the gags in all of the skits were funny. There was one especially funny scene where there is a fight going on right before a concert, so the student director asks the rock band to play some back ground music. That kind of stuff is really funny, and all of the jokes poking fun at girls, and eavesdropping, and things like that, are all really funny.
There was another High School Girls are Funky segment at the end, after the hilarious ending sequence. I love this show, even if it had a few weak points.
9/10 Haunted Houses!
I would just like to point out that there is a TERRIBLE continuity error through this and the last episode of this show. Why no one else had pointed this out in the other blogs I read is beyond me, but for the time being, examine closely the two images below.
Notice a problem? I do. Must we go back to kindergarten, dear Production Team? Though, on this subject, Scamp from The Cart Driver gave the best theory so far when he said “Eh, isn’t it just a glass eye she has under that eyepatch? Maybe she just prefers being a pirate to having a glass eye.” I don’t remember this being explained, but if it was and I’m freaking out about nothing, just wait.
On another note, the one thing I really respected from this show was their sense of perfect balance. They had this almost campy feeling that when it needed to be, was really funny. This was to balance this out this really gritty, dark feeling; which in itself was packed full of dramatic dialogue, serious character interaction, and a hefty dose of bloodshed. Its feel was very similar to what many people have equated it to: Death Note.
Why was a good 2/3s of this episode wasted on stupid competitions and a perverted character? Why must Yukki’s dad be a retard, and a perverted guy? Why must the best part of this episode be the thing I’ve been complaining about for two weeks? Why must my favorite character return on the worst episode of this show thus far? Why was Seventh’s hair so epic?
Okay, maybe the last question wasn’t as serious as the other ones, but the point remains, this episode was just loaded with suck.
First complaint first (besides the blatant continuity error), is Yukki’s father. His character is one-dimensional, has the IQ equivalent to that of shoe leather, and totally harasses Ninth. On that last count, I’m surprised he’s not breathing through a tube.
I’ll go on all day about that, so let’s move on. The best part of this episode (the final five minutes) was Yukki trying to stand up for himself, and utterly failing, and having ot rely on Yuno again. This is fine, besides the fact that she tied him up and locked him in a cellar for days on end. You slapped her in the face, she’s a psychotic maniac, and now you’re relying on her to survive? You, Yukki, get the Stupid award for this week.
Yes, Ninth returns! This is one thing that I can forgive the show with (but not by much) and my disappointment mounts, because she returns in the episode I will not only dub as the worst episode this show has had, but the worst episode this season.
With all this hate comes a low score.
4/10 Epic Hair Styles, though this show is showing itself to be less then epic.
On the bright side, something happened. I’m also getting the idea that; if the pacing was fixed in this show, then this would probably only have to be one season instead of two.
Ghost ships, and suddenly everyone knows she’s a pirate, and technobabble, oh my! Almost jam-packed with development towards the plot. So far my theory from Episode 3 is beginning to come together, which only means this show is predictable, in a gratifying sort of way.
And, my god this show is beautiful. The CG work is just amazing for an anime. The graphics of the ship flying through space and the astral bodies are just flawless.
Another thing I like are the characters, especially out main character (who’s name escapes me right now). She’s a very believable character, though I’m still disappointed her decision hasn’t been made yet, she is still a normal person. She has friends, she makes plans she has flaws, she’s not unbelievably stupid and she makes decisions (as long as it isn’t whether or not to become a pirate).
Yes, as I said before, something happens.
All in all, this was actually not a bad episode. It’s pacing might be healing a little bit, though the pacing being fixed is about as fast as the pacing is actually going, but i have high hopes for this show.
8/10 points… just points 
First off, the new Mirai Nikki opening is crap. The music is a degraded version of something previously “good” and the clips either don’t make sense, or doesn’t mesh with the song the way it used to. They changed the primary color from the intense red to a cool blue, so nothing comes across as stressed or tense as it used to.
OP aside, there was another set back here. It was inevitable, as Yukki left Yuno, the only option left for the show is for them to get back together? All of the character development from Yukki taking a stand has been flushed out by the return of the psycho Yuno. So much for forward development.
Besides that though, the rest of the episode was pretty neat. I did enjoy the introduction to Seventh. It was pretty cool, with the Companion Diary, and that hair style, man that was amazing.
The only thing about Seventh that I didn’t like was how they took both Yuno’s and Yukki’s diaries, but yet didn’t break them, though this is the whole point for the games.
I still can’t get over Eigth. Me and a couple guys over on The Cart Driver blog were yelling about her “totally normal proportioned” body. That is so creepy.
And of course, Ninth has returned. That alone makes this episode great, though her screen time totaled about 5 and half seconds, I smiled at her return, and at her entrance, even in her disguise, I knew it was her.
On the whole, Yuno’s return was slightly disappointing not because I don’t like her character, but because it fulfilled the inevitable and backtracked on Yukki’s development. Counteracted by Eighth’s return, the most epic hairstyle of the show, and some great plot movement, this show wasn’t half bad.
9/10 Escape Diaries! 
On a blog related note, I watched this last Tuesday, but didn’t put out a review till now because I was distracted by other shows, and trying to track down the Law of Ueki anime, and stuff like that.
This episode of Daily Lives has shown me just how great this writing is. Only this show has made me laugh this much at a shot of the sky. Why the sky? Because the meta jokes are back!! My favorite kind of joke anything can do is make a meta joke, and not only is the first skit one giant meta joke, but there is another meta joke in one of the middle segments, and one in the final skit “High School Girls are Funky!”
Not only is the fact that two minutes of laughter was one still frame of the sky, but they did the “repeat” joke correctly, twice. What’s the repeat joke? Well, I point to the very first episode of Lucky Star (the only episode I could stand to watch) and it’s infamous “How to Eat a Chocolate Cornett” skit. This is an example of bad pacing, when it takes to long for the punch line to come, and the content of the set up is terrible.
The show is so good.
The only problem with this episode I have (emphasis on “only”) is the Summer Vacation segment when it shows the three main characters are going through summer vacation. It did have a little redemption at the punch line, but overall it felt a little pointless, and generic (without poking fun at anything).
But don’t go away thinking I’m going to take away points just yet! We still have to talk about the best love anime parody I’ve ever seen and High School Girls and their funk.
First thing’s first, the shoujo parody. Our character finds himself on a train everyday, and one of the other train riders is a girl he stares at every day. He’s caught himself in an obsession because of this girl… and her mole with a hair on it. First, he emulates the cliché love anime protagonist, and talks about how scared he is to talk to her, and how she might hate him, or how he’s definitely obsessed with this girl and her mole hair. Then he begins to analyze her entire life and social status from simply looking at the hair. It’s pretty hilarious.
Now to the High School Girls segment. This skit is a self-paradisiacal, meta joke filled, skit, about female versions of the three main characters, and the whole skit is a mockery of the second skit in the first episode (the skirt skit). It also is totally random, and I had to watch it twice because I was laughing so hard the first time I missed half the dialogue.
All in all, though this show had a minor set back, it made up for it 110%
Yet another episode of DLoHSB that gains a perfect score.
10/10 Hot noodles.
