Only in a Japanese anime could a 14-year old kid be accused of brutally slaughtering his entire classroom and be sent to prison on death row for it. And only in a Japanese anime would said prison also be an amusement park where the inmates risk their lives in all sorts of bizarre games just so they could earn currency to not only feed themselves in the prison, but to buy an antidote for a poison administered by the prison officials that will kill them in 3 days. And only in a Japanese anime would the audience be dumb enough to think that the prisoners getting ripped to shreds right in front of their eyes are only putting on a show and it’s all done by special effects.

Welcome to Deadman Wonderland.

I enjoyed this series even if it didn’t really bring anything new to the genre. I guess my only complaint is that the main kid, Joey, looks and sounds too much like a girl. They also never really explained how he got his hyperspeed. Wouldn’t hurt to at least explain it was from the powerglove that controls Heroman? And Heroman can obviously think for himself, but just waits for Joey’s commands. Weird but true.

I definitely recommend this series if your into mecha shows.

On the other hand, another series I decided to jump on and watch is Heroman. I like giant robot series, and this one seems to have every super robot cliche going for it.

Stay tuned.

Chu Bra! – It’s cute, but I wish there was more comedy and less seriousness.

Baka to Test to Shokanjuu – 2 episodes in, and so far so good. Interesting how they went straight to the main event in the second episode, but came up short as expected.

Ladies vs. Butlers – I liked the first episode with the wild chase around school to introduce us to all the characters, but the follow up episodes so far weren’t as fun.

Weiss Survive R – I watched the first few episodes of this before going back to check out the 1st season. At two and a half minutes per episode, they do a good job of getting the point across and bringing some good laughs as well.

Now your probably wondering why I’m not checking out any of the heavy hitters of the season that most other bloggers fawn over like Durara, Dance in the Vampire Bund, So-Ra-No-Wo-To, etc. I’ll just say what excites others doesn’t necessarily excite me. If I read something on other blogs, I might consider checking them out.

If I find anything that interests me enough, I might even blog about it.

On a final note, my MAL account for anyone who’s interested:

http://myanimelist.net/animelist/6six6

The final episode of K-ON! felt more like a DVD extra episode, since it was just a day in the life of the girls episode and really didn’t amount to anything. Yui wants to make nabe for the girls, but none of them can make it since they have prior engagements. Mio wants to go write new songs, Ritsu has to bring her brother to the movies, Mugi is trying her hand at an actual job, and Azusa is babysitting her classmate’s pet kitten.

The only actual story to this episode was Ritsu thinking she had an admirer when she receives what she believes to be a love letter, but all it turns out to be was a draft of lyrics Mio left in her mailbox.

Also should be noted this episode had the most MALE characters with speaking parts compared to the entire series up till this point.

And nope, no jamming what so ever this episode either with the excuse that it was too cold to practice.

The Verdict: Would I watch this show again on my own time? Not really. I’d watch it if they aired it on Animax, but I probably wouldn’t be bothered to pick up the DVD to watch this all again. This show has the same fatal flaw Maria+Holic had, which is that the story drifted away from it’s gimmick. Instead of seeing a bunch of cute girls get together to play music, we see a bunch of cute girls get together and goof off, and only play the music because the had too. Sure they already established that they are good, but I would have preferred actually seeing them put the songs together and develop their sound, instead of Ritsu doing a countdown and in the next shot the song it done.

Playing with your guitar….your doing it wrong…

Episode 11 is split into 2 parts; first, after a year of playing, it turns out Yui hasn’t been taking care of her guitar, so they bring it to get serviced.

The second half is Ritsu getting jealous of Mio’s growing relationship with her classmate Nadoka, and it’s after Ritsu gets sick that they manage to settle their problems and keep the band together.

Episode 12 is the big one where they get to play the school festival for the second time, unfortunately, Yui caught Ritsu’s cold and it’s doubtful she will be able to make it for the show. It gets to the point the Ui even dresses up like her and impersonates her so as not to disappoint the rest of the band, but they see through her disguise when it turns out she might be better than Yui!
Yui does get better in time, but on the big day she forgets her guitar, and runs all the way home to get it and back to school as well, all while reflecting on how much she has changed from the way she used to be. Sawako stands in for her on the opening number and Yui makes it in time for the 2nd number and encore. Alls well, ends well.

But they toss the fanboys a bone with one more episode coming up.

Episode 10 sees the girls going on their second training camp trip, with Azusa in tow. Of course, while Mio and Azusa want to practice more, the other girls just want to have fun. So we get the usual beach antics before the actual practice session, which they of course we don’t actually get to see.

The plus side is that we actually see Yui learn something in this episode when Asuza discovers her practicing by herself late into the night, and subsequently joining her. More scenes like this wouldn’t hurt ya know.

Episode 8 is the beginning of the new school term. And Yui’s sister Ui manages to get into the same school as the girls. It’s also time that the school clubs recruit new members, including the light music club, who decide to throw a mini concert to convince would be members to join. They do the gig, and out of the hundreds of new students in attendance, they only get ONE new member.

Breaks my heart to know kids in Japan aren’t interested in learning to play instruments and are probably more interested in being in boybands and girl groups.