Some individuals have already decided on the best show of fall* 2008. Now, unlike some people I usually don’t express opinions about shows that I haven’t watched. I’m not making any accusations. It’s just that, contrary to popular belief, 38% of people are actually not entitle to their opinion.

I’m calling it here and now: Toradora! is the best show of 2008, and postemptively of all time.  Come on, you absolutely cannot disagree with me on this one. I mean, the name rhymes and, as if that wasn’t enough to tell you this show is new and original, it has a freak’n exclamation point tacked on. Yeah, you read that right, a freak-in-ex-clam-a-tion-point!

! – there, ’cause I like ya’.

Besides, Taiga is probably the cutest character since Zero Louise.

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* It was noted that the author of the link attributing a certain show to being “the best of 2008″ was actually declaring it as “the best show of fall 2008.” far away no where offers apologies for any inconvenience or violent beatings on the way home from school this may have caused. This statement does not represent an admission of liability or acknowledgment of good taste in anime.

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Rie Kugimiya’s wiki entry notes that she has been “typecasted to tsundere roles.” I thought I was the only one that had noticed…

Hikari quickly became one of my favorite characters simply because of her amazing ability to not get what was going on, despite her apparent academic aptitude. Specifically, she seemed to be totally ignorant of Kei’s feelings, even when it was readily apparent that Kei was infatuated with her.

I kept on telling myself that this story was going to be one of those standard plots where the girl is just being aloof or “playing hard to get.” We learn, near the end of the series, that is not the case. For the majority of the show she is not cognizant of any romantic feelings she harbors for Kei. When she finally becomes aware of those feelings, she associates them with losing to Kei.

The “rival” mantra Hikari repeats in every single episode played through to the very end.  She was only able to express her love for Kei in terms of that rivalry. It was supposed to show that she greatly respected and admired him, as well as loved him.  I felt it went a little too far, but I also realize that it fits in with the plot.

As much as I wanted these two to get together, I was a bit disappointed in the ending. I expected more from the final disclosure of their affection for one another. The show ends as expected, we receive a bit of closure with a short embrace. Then as quickly as that happens, it’s over, and we are back at the greenhouse. Everything has returned to normal, nothing has changed, and everybody is happy again.

…if only life were so easy.

After three seasons of Zero no Tsukaima, one would think that the show’s main gag would have gotten old by now.  Well, after much thought and deliberation, I have come to the conclusion that it will absolutely never get old…never!

When taken to its most basic storyline, ZnT is about the dysfunctional relationship between Louise and her boyfriend/familiar Saito. When we take that, put in some domestic abuse, breast sizes that span the entire spectrum of breast sizes, not-abnormally horny Saito, then what have we got? Gold Jerry, gold!

It’s a classic formula Boobs + Beatings = WIN. This is not to be confused with the Rosario + Vampire Lemma, which basically shows that female anime Vampires are a mixture of panties and boobs.

If you watched all of Kanokon, congratulations…you’re a perv.

There isn’t much you can say to defend yourself. In hindsight, this show was rather forward about where it was going.  I mean, we had shota-rape in the first episode. Of course, that was preceeded by an opening scene of girl wraps boobs around main character’s head. How about the body rub with “toad oil,” which was actually frog oil. Then there was the bare-bottom spankings, for bad girls.  Also, who could forget the magic bunny suit?

Of course, the all time perviest moment had to be during the breast rubbing episodes. I can understand the reasoning behind the rubbing. Basically, it was rub boobs and they get bigger. The interesting (and pervie) thing being that they managed to get ass-licking in there as well. Nozomu eloquently put it as eating the “delicious cake.” If there were ever a time that one could say a show put gratuitous ass-licking into the plot, then this would be it. That was totally and fully ass-licking without cause or reason.

Good peoples of the internets, you are indeed less pure for having watched this show.

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I briefly considered adding a “delicious cake” category for this show =)

I find Nozomu far more tolerable than Chizuru. These two characters are polar opposites; therefore, one is forced to choose between them. It’s entirely possible to like both characters (or dislike), but more than likely one will form a preference.

On the one hand, we have loud, big breasted, dark long haired, fox demon Chizuru. On the other, there is soft spoken, flat chested, silver short haired, wolf demon, Nozomu. One would think that mathematically they should cancel each other out. Obviously, the two characters are necessary for the plot, what plot there is. Love rivals are among the most common plot devices in these types of shows.

What type of show am I speaking of? I could do some work and try to figure out exactly what genre this show falls into. I’m guessing slice-of-life or school comedy. Maybe, slice-of-scomedy? Not that it really matters. Basically, what we have here is a show about two girls trying their hardest to bed Kouta, the male lead, where the end result is a lot of fanservicing.

So, basically, it’s about fanservice.

Also, Asahina is growing on me. It’s the hairpins.