mDuo13.com - The Amorphously Collected Thoughts and Works of Rome Reginelli

The following are (more-or-less spoiler-free) patch notes for K-ON!!, the recently-finished follow-up to Kyoto Animation's wildly popular series K-ON! about high school girls who usually don't play music. Those looking for advice on the series should first ask themselves the question, "Does a series need to have a plot for me to watch it?" If the answer is no, then familiarize yourself with the first season before upgrading.

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I was thinking of reposting some old reviews that I had written back on Anime Remix some time ago, but in the end I decided to write a new review, for something a little more recent and a little less exceptional: Ookami-san and 7 Companions (or just Okamisan as Funimation calls it), a 12-episode series that just finished airing. Following on the heels of Toaru Kagaku no Railgun, Ookami-san is yet another J.C. Staff adaptation of a light-novel series, like Railgun's predecessor Toaru Majutsu no Index as well as the ToraDora! and Shakugan no Shana franchises.

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This comes very belated, since ソ・ラ・ノ・ヲ・ト, also known as Sora no Woto or Sound of the Skies, is a show I watched as it aired several seasons ago, but since I can't get it out of my head, I'm reviewing it now. 12 episodes long, Sora no Woto kicked off A-1 Pictures' "Anime no Chikara" project with TV Tokyo to create original anime. The show is widely dismissed as "Military K-ON!" and there are superficial similarities between the two, but at their heart the two series are worlds apart.

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(Whoops... typed this review up last night and forgot to post it. Don't mind!) I've been looking forward to Literature Girl The Movie since a friend pointed me at the OVA episode and short special that had been released a little while back. Technically, the movie was released earlier, but it only recently came to DVD and got translated; both are based on a series of light novels. It's made by Production I.G. and clocks in at just over an hour and 40 minutes including the end credits. (By the way, there's a little something after the credits, so don't stop there if you watch it.)

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Ah, where shall I begin? Certainly not with a trite apology for not updating my blog in so long; the only one who suffers from that is me anyway. Doesn't matter whether it's because I got roped into that Twitter thing or that I've been working too much, the truth is that I made something of a fool of myself by not updating (after promising to review Saki soon, among other things) and I have to move on. So I'll spare you the details of why I felt like writing this entry (I'm not sure anyway) or the context in which I started writing it, by hand in a notebook waiting for the train to depart for work. You aren't here for those details, or at least I hope not because they're rather mundane, and I expect more from my readers. Actually, no, that's a lie, because it assumes I have readers. In any case, before I go breaking more promises, let me forewarn you that, while this is a review of Strawberry Panic, it doesn't follow the structured review format I've been using for the past several years. I won't explain what prompted me to experiment this way, but I should explain what prompted me to watch Strawberry Panic, although it is also somewhat mundane. Simply put, my friend David recommended it, and eventually I hit upon the mood and circumstances to start watching.

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For the next installment in my (perhaps poorly-named) End of Season Review Flood, I visit the OVA third season of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, titled Rei. Technically it's not a part of this season (having started some time ago) but being as the last episode finally came out around the same time, I'm gonna throw it in anyway. Oh, and as an aside, I just realized that I forgot to include "viewing considerations" sections in the previous reviews of this batch, so I've gone back to add those.

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