Anime Watcher / Manga Reader

The Haruhi series is an icon among anime.  Mystery, drama, comedy, dimension jumping, the series has it all.  On top of all that, it also has decent characters.  Yuki Nagato is one of them.  This is The Disappearance Of Nagato Yuki-chan. Of all the characters in the Haruhi series, Yuki is my favorite, so it's nice to see a series focused on her.  In the original Haruhi series, Yuki is a robot/alien disguised as a bookworm teenage girl.  In this spinoff, however, she's a normal teenage girl. Yuki's back and cuter than ever. So, what does Yuki do as a normal girl?  Normal girl stuff like having crushes, worrying about grades, and going to hot springs, among other things.  She even has an identity crisis at some point, just like all teenagers do. That looks like an identity crisis if I ever saw one. Being a normal girl also means that Yuki will finally display a full range of emotions.  No longer a deadpan, monotone alien/ro...

A super-exclusive school that occupies an entire island by itself.  An bored protagonist that has more to him that you initially see.  This is Classroom Of The Elite. At first glance, Classroom Of The Elite looks like a typical high school drama.  However, you quickly see that it is not (at least initially).  The story follows Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, a seemingly average teenager who has trouble fitting in and making the cut.  Obviously, there's more to him than meet the eye, as his classmates figure out fairly quickly.  But how much more? Kiyotaka is just your average "more than average" teenager. Speaking of his classmates, there's no shortage of assholes and waifus.  You have a generic tough guy, the smoking hot underachiever, the teacher you wish you had in school, and the fake bitch who pretends to be cute, among other tropey characters.  That's not necessarily a bad thing, though, because at least they're doing good stuff. You h...

For those who have read early entries here at Anime Watcher/Manga Reader, it's no mystery that I'm a fan of the Mary Saotome character from the Kakegurui series.  I was absolutely thrilled when I walked into the bookstore one day and saw that Mary, in fact, had her own series, Kakegurui Twin.  I can safely say that Mary is my favorite of the Kakegurui characters. So, what's to like about Mary?  On top of seemingly being the most sane girl in the series, she's resourceful, hard-working, driven, and yes, she's quite cute.  She the polar opposite of protagonist Yumeko, who's insane, privileged, and...also very cute.  Mary is also the source some of the laughs I get from the series.  While she doesn't have anything that quite stands up to this barb Yumeko puts on Yuriko... She may be insulting her, but at least she has proper posture. She has hilarious moments of her own.  We start off with this gem, after becoming Yumeko's first victim. Thi...

Food Wars is an anime/manga I like quite a bit.  There's very little about it I don't like.  I like the characters, the recipes, and yes, I like the fan service, too.  One thing I especially like, though, are the character facial expressions where they don't have pupils. Are they competitors or teammates. This is so cute, it's funny. I wonder if this girl can see through all the tears. Soma is impressed by Alice's lack of pupils. Soma and Alice love having no pupils. Soma also enjoys losing his pupils with another boy. Nobody can lose their pupils like Soma. It's especially funny when a character is show ire. That's the last time Soma will touch her like that. It's kind of hard to take Alice seriously when she's like this. And just check out this guy's face as Soma gets in touch with his inner Steven Seagal. If only you could hear the sound effects here. And Tadokoro's misery is my joy. ...

High school.  A time of fun and learning for some.  A time of dread and loathing for others.  Some people on both sides probably wish they could do it over while others would never want to go through it again.  Two people will.  This is Again!! Again!! is a tale that follows an outcast called Kinichiro Imamura.  He's an extreme loser with no friends, no girlfriend, no...anything high schoolers in Japan care about.  Basically, he's the biggest loser to ever exist in the history of mankind.  This is despite the fact that everyone around him is also a loser, but whatever. Our protagonist and biggest loser in history, Kinichiro. Anyway, he decides to break into an abandoned club room for some reason, when he is seen by a popular girl, who then runs away because she afraid he'll...kill her, I guess.  He gives chase and she falls down some stairs to what seems to be her death.  Then, he attempts to check on her but falls down the ...

Well, it's happened.  Kakegurui has a spinoff/prequel.  Even better, it stars an intriguing character.  This is Kakegurui Twin. Kakegurui Twin is, as mentioned before, a prequel to the main series.  That means we get to see the state of the school before Yumeko comes in and screws with the student council.  Yep, Yumeko isn't the main character.  Instead, it's the other main girl, Mary Saotome.  So we're already off to a good start. Sigh...Mary... So, what does Ms. Mary do.  Gamble.  What else?  Prequel or not, it's still Kakegurui.  Mary takes her lumps, gets her revenge, makes friends, and looks hot doing it. The main series has taught us that asshole can look innocent. Mary suffers the agony of "defeet". Who is she?  Read and find out. Kakegurui Twin looks interesting.  Mary is my favorite character, so it's nice to see her branch out.  I look forward to seeing what kind of assholes she...