Quotation sources:
http://www.omonomono.com/2010/05/09/this-is-why-angel-beats-gets-my-attention/
http://www.omonomono.com/2010/04/28/open-the-minorigate
http://www.omonomono.com/2010/04/19/the-curse-of-choice/

I was at home, dusting off my Haruhi figures, when there was a knock at the door.

“Who could it be at this hour of the night?” I wondered.

Opening the door, I first thought no one was there. But looking down, I saw that three Dango had come to see me. Sitting there was a pink dango and a green dango, flanking a large red dango wearing a kind of ceremonial sash.

“Congratulations!” the dangos cried out in unison.

“Congratulations for what?” I asked.

“You’ve won the Anime Blog Tournament!!!” declared Red Dango, with much excitement.

“B-b-but I didn’t,” I stammered, “I was eliminated in the first round.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” said Red, “we represent the Dango AniBlog Tournament.”

“Oh,” said I, “but I win that every year. And I’m usually the only contestant!”

Green Dango suddenly piped up, “But this year is special. You actually had an opponent!”

I was surprised. “Who was it?”

Now it was Pink’s turn to speak. “It was the Dango Squashing Blog that you beat. What a horrible blog!! The writer took pics of himself squashing dangos!!!!”

I was shocked. “How horrible!!!” I cried out.

“Agreed,” said Red Dango, “We have already hacked his site, so no one has to worry about him anymore. Now he has a site where he melts down K-On figures in his oven. We find this a more acceptable pastime.”

“Well, thank you again for the award this year, dangos!”

“Good night,” said Red Dango.

The sound of a shower curtain being pulled aside could be heard from inside my house.

“Oh, and how is your wife?” asked Red Dango.

“Oh, Satty’s OK, she’s just always in the shower!”

“Oh well, good night then.” And with that, the dango departed.

“It’s always nice to get a visit from them,” I thought, as I returned to my work. “As long as the dango love me, I know all is well!”

I’m not as negative about Ookamikakushi as Taiyaki, who can’t tell what genre it was. As a mystery it was fairly straightforward and easy to figure out in advance. But there was still a degree of suspense, as you see what happens to the characters and how they react to things. Ultimately, I think it’s about enjoying the spooky mood, as long as you aren’t expecting Higurashi. Certainly there are similar elements to the same author’s Higurashi (a town with secrets, an important festival), but the plot is much simpler and without the multiple variations on the story.

The characters were certainly not very developed. The younger sister in a wheelchair was not really used much, except to get some violin lessons. She was cute but her attitude was often bad, so I felt a disconnect between her appearance and her voice. The male lead was typically boring. The weight of the drama fell on the two central girls, Nemuru and Isuzu (Kaname was there simply to play the Nancy Drew part). Isuzu reminded me of Hikaru from Kimagure Orange Road, except her obsessive attachment to the main guy enters into the supernatural. Nemuru is the more mature and mysterious type, who also comes to like the main guy. Perhaps we could have had more of her psychological development, as she moves towards rebellion. Perhaps we could have also been given greater insights into what allowed her to resist an overpowering temptation, where other characters failed.

The strangest thing about this show were the Peach-Pit character designs. Perhaps they were a bit too cute for this particular plot line. They also seemed to lack life, being static a lot of the time. The father, Kuzumi Masaaki, for instance, not only looked weird, but seemed like a strange frozen mannequin when he was talking–very off-putting indeed! In the end, it had a lot of recycled elements and unconvincing character designs, but the plot was OK for a series that was, after all, only eleven episodes.

Something is disturbing in these Anime schools. For instance, in the above scene at Hanamaru Youchien, the large-breasted teacher tells a story to the kids and, can you believe it, the princess in the story needs to be rescued! She is teaching gender stereotyping! omg. And its one of the kids who suggests that a PRINCE should come to the rescue! As everyone knows, Dangos are the best rescuers!

Yes. Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu features a school where students who do do poorly on exams are forced to have the worst classroom facilities. They can challenge other classes and if they win they get to trade classrooms with the losers, but the strength of the summoned being combatants are based on their test scores. I don’t know how this concept would go over in Japan, but imagine if the series was set in America. Clearly, disadvantaged minority groups, who score lowest on tests, would be relegated to substandard conditions in a mirror of the separation of expensive middle and upper class prep school vs. failing inner-city schools. A system, such as the the one depicted in the anime, would ensure that the disadvantaged stayed disadvantaged and would enforce this disparity through humiliating defeats in summoned being battles. What a disgrace! :( And the students in the poorest class, would not even have enough money to eat properly (as depicted in ep. 3).

As for the anime itself, it’s very pretty to look at, although the goings-on are silly (merely silly and not offensive, if you can ignore the points made above).

And the yuri girl is a big fail so far, being just a nuisance compared to the multifaceted glory of Kuroko.

It looks like Kuroko from Railgun is not alone in her yuri desires. Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu has one of “them” as well. Do you think these types of girls really expect their lust to be returned? Do they have enough self awareness to realize how ridiculous they appear to others? Guys who act this way would get slapped and worse. Since they are girls, do they expect to escape retribution? Kuroko does get zapped. this new girl in Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu may get away with more, we’ll have to wait and see.