Review_02: Fairy Tail 2014 Episode 52 (Ep.227)

This is review_02, an episode review of Hiro Mashima's Fairy Tail! After all of those out-of-the-blue filler episodes, especially Fairy Tail of the Dead Meeeen, we finally settle in the main storyline. The fans are very hyped up with the show's new arc, the Sun Village arc. A lot of great and epic tales are about to be unfolded, as well as brand new characters. But let's just focus on talking about one episode, okay? Ahem...

Fairy Tail 2014: Episode 52, or episode 227 if you'd like to call it, The Morning of a New Adventure!

Firstly, I'd like to comment on the new opening song: great, satisfying as always. Yumeiro Graffiti, the title of the song, is beautifully sang. The video is fantastically assembled, and it gives the viewers a preview of what will happen in the arc. I can sense that different relationships are going to be looked into a little deeper, such as Natsu and Igneel's, Gray and Ur's, Lucy and the celestial spirits, and more. Both of these components go well in harmony together. Good job! ^ - ^

Ah... Nothing like a relaxing bath with your friends is a very hot way to start a Fairy Tail episode, both physically, and mentally, for hentai-minded humans. In the beginning of the episode, Lucy, Cana, Levy, Mirajane and Lisanna are shown taking a nice bath, with a few other Fairy Tail wizards in the other side, also taking a bath. Lisanna states on how the guild has been receiving a ton of job requests just after the Grand Magic Games. Since everybody watched the tournament, people are able to recognize which wizard does which magic, so they could determine who would be well-suited for the tasks. This idea applies to what will happen in the following scenes, when Natsu and Gray are chosen for a job that will represent as the start of the Sun Village arc.

Going back to the bath, there are two moments that made me laugh-out-loud. The first one is Cana and her juicy question for Lucy:

This resulted for an interested chibi-Cana to come scoop all those information out from a blushing Lucy, who blames it for Happy. The others, who had also heard the conversation, started to blush as well, using their own imagination to visualize what happened. 

The second moment was with Freed and Laxus. As Laxus complained about the noise in the bath, Freed humbly asked him to wash his back with such a cute, squishable face! Accepting the offer, the green-haired smiled excitedly and focused on massaging HIS back ONLY. 

I can sense some fluffy Freed x Laxus fanfics coming...

Off we go to the main plot, where Natsu and Gray go on a quest to the Sun Village. But first, they have to meet up with the client, Warrod Seeken, one of the Ten-Wizard Saints. At first thought, he was seemingly frightening to me with Makarov's story. Apparently, it was the opposite. *Sweatdrop* He is a very, very untruthful character. I don't know if he is actually serious or if he is joking around. Whatever the answer is, I refuse to put my 100% trust unto this tree. However, just like Erza said, "He was modest, but an impressive wizard, after all." His magic is manipulating nature in a beautiful way.

After that, Warrod goes into a flashback when the guild, Fairy Tail, was first established more than a hundred years ago. As he and his friends looked up at its finished structure, all of a sudden, Mavis appears in the scene, telling them to take a commemorative photo. 

The episode had a pretty good way to end it. As Warrod stares at the sky, he calls out to Mavis, telling her that her hopes have been lent on to the present generation of Fairy Tail.

Additional Comments (´ฅω•ฅ｀)

+ Positive:

→Very humorous... as always! XD
→A NaLu moment, and a little GaLe moment~!
- Negative:
→Nothi~ng!! (Well, maybe Warrod Seeken; he makes me really confused whether his words are meant to be a joke or not...)

Opening Song?: I'll give it a 9/10 for its epicness
Ending Song?: Pretty illustration of Lucy-chan~! Song is also very good. An 8/10~

Overall Rating: 8/10 (*^ω^*)

Review_01: Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun

This is review_01, the first review I will be discussing in this noveau~ blog. I thought it would be very fun to write, since the anime itself is fun! Ahem... *drumroll* 

 (ﾉ*ФωФ)ﾉ Gekkan Shoujo... Nozaki-kun!!

If you are looking for a nice, shoujo anime that can absolutely tickle your funny bone, then Tsubaki Izumi's Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun, also known as Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun in English, should be on your list! The anime consists of one season: twelve episodes plus 6 short side-episodes. It also has a manga series with currently six volumes.

The story is about Sakura Chiyo, a second year high school girl who has a crush on a fellow student, Nozaki Umetarou. At the beginning of the first episode, Sakura builds up all her courage to confess her love for him. However, everything turns into a giant ball of misunderstanding when Nozaki mistakes the girl as a fan of his and ends up giving her an autograph, with the name Yumeno Sakiko. Soon, Sakura finds out that Umetarou Nozaki is Yumeno Sakiko, the manga artist who created the popular shoujo manga, Let's Fall in Love. As the story progresses, she becomes closer and closer to Nozaki through fulfilling her job as his assistant. Sakura also encounters other schoolmates along the way that are involved in the creation of stories in the manga.

At the first few minutes, the show may seem like a typical romantic shoujo anime, but in fact, Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun is mainly on romantic comedy. Every episode made me smile and laugh so much that I had to struggle from refraining myself to burst out laughing like a mad woman. The settings can range from fangirl-crowded school hallways to a television-lighted bedroom at 3AM. Each character is depicted with their own special personality and appearance. A good example is the lovable Mikoshiba Mikoto. To those who have watched the anime, I know that you're all nodding your heads right now. He is shown to be a confident and attractive person, but in truth, he is a shy, easily-embarrassed tsundere, and has a side of himself being an otaku. Yup! You guessed it! That guy in the picture whose face is almost as red as his hair is Mikoto.

Adding off from the main cast, there is Kashima Yuu, a prince-like female student who can easily let all of the girls fall for her, Seo Yuzuki, Sakura's friend who brutally participates in a lot of extra-curricular activities, Hori Masayuki, president of the school's drama club and holds a violent relationship (not the lovey-dovey one) with Kashima, and Wakamatsu Hirotaka, who is later shown in the series, a freshman student from the basketball club who has hateful feelings towards Seo due to her continuous rampaging in their basketball matches, but also has hidden feelings of love that he does not realize.

These characters play important roles in the development of Nozaki's manga. For assembling, Sakura works as the assistant of embellishing the art, Hori takes charge of drawing the backgrounds, Wakamatsu works on the screentones, and Mikoto does all the pretty flower-enhancing.

Besides that, the cast also serves as inspirations for the manga characters. Mikoto, for instance, is represented after the female protagonist of the manga. Seo, on the other hand, represented a male character from the manga. How interested are you so far?

Oh, and speaking of otaku, the anime had a touch of jocular otakuness. One of my favorite parts in the series is episode 4. In the first segment, Nozaki and Mikoto whole-heartedly play and pour out all their feelings to a dating-simulator game, dedicating their time to it by staying up past midnight just to complete a single route and unfold its emotional epilogue. The shocking-but-hilarious moment is when the two boys witness the the last words of Tomoda, the player's best friend, in the ending. They find him too nice, giving up "three years of his life for a protagonist" without "enjoying his youth", resulting for them to grieve and spend the rest of the night by drawing a Tomoda x protagonist story just for the character's happiness... *sniffs* Tomodaaaaa!

Unlike most animes of this type, Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun does not just center Sakura and Nozaki. It allows a sufficient amount of scenes for each character, enough for the viewers to recognize their own personalities. The story progresses while the episodes build after the other in a way that they also introduce someone or something new. They maintain it and its wackiness up until the last episode of the show.

The last episode had a good choice of a setting: a summer festival. All of the main cast gathered together and enjoyed their pants off eating delicious Japanese food and catching fish with little paper nets. The ending was, I guess you could say, happy, at least for Sakura and the rest. But for me, it made my heart sink. 

To conclude, Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun is one of the best comical animes as of 2014. It absolutely grabs your interest and makes you roll on the floor laughing from the start to the end.

I just really wish they had more time for Tomoda...

Additional Comments (´ฅω•ฅ｀)

+ Positive:
→Very, very hilarious
→Awesome and hysterical characters
→Greatly depicted every comedic scene with fabulous effects
- Negative:
→(A minor thing but,) did not resolve any romantic relationships

Opening Song?: One, funky and catchy song with a colorful video to go along with it
Ending Song?: One, cutesy song with a beautiful half-picture slideshow and half-animation clip
Should there be another season?: DEFINITELY!! >ω<
Would I recommend?: YES!!
To which type of audience?: For me, this show is not targeted just for girls. If you're a guy and it seems enjoying to watch for you, then go for it!
Overall Rating: 9/10 (*✧ω✧*)