Uta Pri 2000%- Episode 2

The key to enjoying this show in my opinion, is to stop trying to understand what's going on and just enjoy the pretty boys and the crazy.

In this installment, we find out that Cecil...

Is not Nanami's hallucination, but the prince of the land of music and his royal family is smiled upon by the goddesses of music, the muses. So he joins idol college for the only logical reason this show ever offers: to be close to Nanami and take any opportunity to sexually harass her. He gets assigned to sexy Frosty the snow man as his mentor, rejects him saying he can already sing better than all starish members (tsssssss) cause the muses smile at him. So after those battle words we obviously need a showdown right? WRONG, we need to practice our hiragana via card game!

The only dialogue that made sense the whole episode

Of course the foreign kid loses and runs away cause he saw a fish, then takes a nap, then sneaks into Nanami's room in the middle of the night to inform her romantic relationships are not allowed in idol college and that he'll behave.

did any of that make sense? of course it didn't. but look at how cute they all are!

Arata Kangatari 2

The only thing that really happens in this episode is that Arata #1 or Hinohara was caught by the Twelve sexy baddies and unjustly judged by them, but instead of being sentenced to death he is being sent to hell on earth, Gatoya cause the white haired sexy baddie wants to figure out how his sword works. Also I confirmed to myself that I'd rather be watching Arata #2 who we will now just call Arata. Arata is just such a nicer, funner character to watch, he only get two scenes in the whole episode and he's still the best character on the show. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with Hinohara and I'm sure he's gonna be a wonderful, brave main character. but let's just say if I was the rusty sword, I would have picked Arata.

Now I've said Arata too many times to myself and it doesn't make sense anymore.

You said it, Sir!

Anywhoo, they're on their way to gotoya, hell on earth and according to the previews hell on earth includes Lavy from D-gray Man's little brother or something and baths so it can't be that bad right?

Hataraku Maou-sama! 1-4

The Devil and his vessel, Alsiel are stuck in modern day japan after losing a fight for a world called Isla Ente. They need to make a living while they figure out how to restore their powers so they can go back to plotting to dominate the world(s). The show is oddly realistic, pointing out the things they need to function in society, the  devil uses his powers to get them identities as (Maou Sadao and Ashiya Shirou), but most importantly, they need money.
So the devil takes on a job at a McRonalds, while Alsiel investigates how to get their powers back and manages the household. Maou is surprisingly good at his job and it's fun to watch him get all fired up to sell black pepper fries in order to become a full time employee. Everything is going peacefully until we meet Hero  Emilia with her 100 yen switchblade because as it turms out her sacred sword of justice doesn't work out here in the real world. As it turns out she followed them into japan and had to get a job as well at a call center.
I think one of the best part of this show is the relationship and interactions between Maou and Emilia. it accents how unexpected this show can be and how well executed the characters are. Whereas Maou is this goofy easygoing excitable fellow, Emilia is cool, perfectly, logical, and a little scary (though i guess she would qualify as a tsundere). All in all they make as great a comedy pair as he and Alsiel do.

I guess another main character is Chi-Chan, Maou's co-worker at McRonalds, who has a super obvious crush on him. To me she doesn't seem that important (and kind of annoying) but she appears in the op and ed and she can hear voices from Isla Ente so...
 It's not til episode three where we see Maou's real form as a ripped, goat-footed, horned demon which is cool.
In episode 4 we get to know about Emilia's childhood and the hatred she has for Maou, cause it seems like he was kind of a dirtbag back in Isla Ente. He simply apologizes saying he burned villages, killed people, and unleashed untold chaous and misery cause he just didn't understand back then. Fair enough. We also learn she is the child of an angel and that's why she can kill demons. Makes sense. It also seems that Chi-Chan isn't there just to add the bouncing boob factor to the anime, but she actually matters. We meet the real prick in the story: Lucifaaahhh! one of Maou's demon generals who I assume is the one who's behind all the destroying and killing.

he even looks like a tool

Also Alsiel releases the dullahan......

And Alsiel begs for forgiveness.....

And Alsiel makes a screaming face...

Karneval 1

Haru from My Little Monster stars in this action packed series. He plays Gareki, a hard-boiled, fashion-forward house robber (I think). In our first installment he interrupts the sexy time of a spider-zombie lady, rescues a kid that looks like the result of K fanfiction starring Shiro and his cat. Is it hair? are they ears? I kept thinking about it the whole episode

In my defense some old dude in the anime thought they were ears too.

 Apparently Nai (Shiro and cat's son) wandered through  an ocean of blood and ended up in spider-zombie's house when he was looking for some fellow named Kuroku to have lunch or something, with a bracelet as his only clue. So Gareki kicks some spider-zombie butt and they haul ass and become friends along the way. Unfortunately the train they end up taking is hijacked, and that's where they meet Tsukumo, a girl who can kick butt and wear granny panties at the same hat, and some hot guy in a top hat. They are members of the National Defense Organization or Circus (not the NDO, go figure)
They work together to save the train with every one's awesome powers (Gareki can disarm bombs, Nai can see or feel the future or something, Hot Top Hat Man has a whip named vacuum, Tsukumo can move the hostages to a safer place). And they part ways. Hot Top Hat Man says Nai is special, and so does a bad guy, so we know who our damsel in distress is.

This episode is kind of all over the place , I can only guess what it's about and has some awkward transitions, but overall it's pretty effective in getting you hooked. We get snippets of each of the character's back stories and it doesn't feel like the info dump a lot of other first episodes do
.
Will Nai get his lunch with Kuroku? How did Nai really end up as Spider-Zombies hooker? who is the nice lady in Gareki's flashbacks? Will there ever be a circus? how about a Carnival?  I want my questions answered! so I'll most definitely tune in again. And if that wasn't reason enough the ending song promises even more hot men in top hats so I am in.

So in......

Arata Kangatari 1

Ok so you've got Arata, regular kid living in modern day Japan who was apparently a track star but who quit cause of some bullying, his only friend just back stabbed him so he's walking home all mopey and whatnot wishing he would just disappear. Then you've got Arata #2 a charming,spunky take-no-shit type of fellow from some sort of ancient era who has to cross dress and pretend to be the princess heir of whatchamacallit and take part in some sort of ceremony to save his tribe unfortunately, the 12 servant knight people decide to pull a coup-d'etat and they stab the princess and blame Arata #2 for the crime. Arata #2 runs into the forbidden forest. And the forest, with it's mystical foresty magic switches the two Aratas. Arata #1 and all his glorious mopeyness get chased by a silver-haired traitor knight and is saved by Arata #2's pretty handmaid, he is taken into the tribe and meets up with the grandma who explains he can't ever go home and he'll just have to live his whole life as spunky-take-no-shit Arata. When suddenly, silver haired bad guy shows up and kidnaps pretty girl, Arata #1 is hiding, but after hearing handmaid's screams of pain he can't stand by and faces of silver bad guy with a rusty sword. Luckily for him it's not just any rusty sword, it's a magic rusty sword. Thus we find out Arata #1 is the chosen one. Meanwhile Arata #2 will be off in modern Japan living some sports-drama or a harem. 

I'll keep watching and see if I start to care enough to start to remember other character's  names, they are nice to look at and I especially love Arata #2, but by the looks of it Arata #1 will be our main player here.

Pictured: Not the main character

Uta no Prince-Sama 2 ep 1 (are you ready?)

it's back! our favorite music composing, strawberry-lemonade eyed heroine and her band of brother-husband pop- idols are here for another season, and they've still got it! in the first episode's introduction kind of made me feel like I was watching a behind the music special on Starish after Ren had lost his hair, half of them had come out of the closet and Tokiya had brutally murdered the red headed one. but no, it got right back on track with another one of those awe-inspiring performances, and I mean that with absolutely no sarcasm. The animation in these numbers is fantastic, as it's traditionally drawn and CG makes no appearance, as opposed to last seasons love-live where every number looked kind of out of place with the show. and I truly appreciate the effort put into every thrust, shimmy and shake.

 The whole ep is basically just a reintroduction of the guys and what their respective characters are supposed to act like, Nanami, and for some reason Tomoe-chan keeps making random, unjustified appearances for some reason. Now that they have all  graduated from idol high school they do the only thing that makes sense, idol college, duh. Which requires all of them to live under one roof with Nanami and three veteran pop-idols. We also get an appearance from my favorite character: Nanami's hallucination, Indian dude! he was also part of the little dance thing at the beginning so who knows? maybe this was a psychological thriller all along?

The reason why i love this show is because of how absolutely ludicrous everything is. It makes me laugh for all the wrong reasons. It's my guilty pleasure. plus, you know, hip-thrusting boys and all.