Fall Impressions: Tonari no Kaibutsu-Kun

If I remember correctly, I believe this was the first shoujo of the season to air, and boy did it make a splash (and it’s not because of the chicken). Now, I’m not going to linger on this for long because, honestly, this issue has been beaten to death. Therefore, I’ll keep this quick.

Way back when the first episode came out, there was a poor choice of joke that involved our male protagonist, Haru, pulling his female love interest, Shizuka, into an alley and threatening her with rape if she made noise…only to, seconds afterwards, go off and show her a dog he found. Doubtless Haru’s threat was inappropriate and his actions throughout the rest of the episode didn’t do much to make him much of an endearing and likable character, from him violent outbursts to his treatment of Shizuka. Looking at the episode in retrospect, I don’t think it handled Haru particularly well since it mainly served to give people reasons to dislike him. However, I think it’s a shame that so many people have dropped the series as a result of that one scene because I think that the episodes since that disastrous debut  do a much better job of presenting Haru as a more likable person.

Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun is a romantic comedy whose initial premise isn’t terribly original, but whose characters manage to set it apart and make it interesting. Tonari‘s story involves your classic bad boy falling for the nerdy girl whose social life isn’t the most active. Girl then falls in love with said boy and drama and slice of life hijinks ensue, leading up to the eventual get together. What I like about Tonari‘s story so far is probably the pacing.

Like All the Cool Kids (Fall Preview)

*Insert Pretty Picture to Draw People In*

As the curtain begins to fall on the summer season, the time has come to eagerly await  the upcoming fall season.

Since I’ve always admired them from afar, now that I have my own blow I thought I’d try out those cool looking “Season Preview” posts that I’ve seen other bloggers diligently put together. Even though it was a lot of work and took me forever, putting this together was pretty fun and I enjoyed doing it. Even though I was planning to put these in some sort of order, getting this out as soon as possibly trumps that, so everything’s pretty jumbled up. To be honest, though, since I have a pretty hopeful outlook regarding most shows a ranking probably would have been a pain in the butt. I tried my hardest to include all the shows on the season preview chart and to give some thoughts on each.

As for this upcoming fall season in general, I think it has a lot of potential. There are a few shows that have potential to set themselves a part from the rest, and few that look like they’ll by, at the least, an entertaining watch. Personally, though, I’m pretty excited for the shoujo adaptations coming out because I don’t think that enough good ones have been adapted. Overall, I have pretty high hopes for this season and I think it could possibly churn out a a few gems…and perhaps a few train wrecks.

While it may not be the best preview ever, I hope you enjoy skimming  reading through it.