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by Jacob Chapman,⏎Squid Girl ⏎ Rating: 4 ⏎ Weird does not automatically equal funny. It does not, it does not, stop trying to convince us it does with awkward dreck like Cromartie High and Pani Poni Dash because it hurts and anime does not need encouragement to be weird. That's why we love it and we don't want it to try so hard. ⏎ …Like Squid Girl. This show is weird AND it's funny. Oh, it is hilarious. I certainly didn't think it was going to be. I heard the premise and recoiled in horror as images of K-ON and Sgt. Frog getting some terrible Nabeshin-esque treatment pleading for attention assaulted my brain.* (Nothing against Watanabe, he's very talented, but someone really should have said something when it came to Puni Puni Poemy.) ⏎ Squid Girl is the story of a disgruntled cephalopod who takes on human form to conquer the littering shore-goers who have soiled her sea. Her weapons: regenerative tentacle-hair, ink-vomit, and staunch resolve. (Yes, that's all.) Unfortunately she had no idea the world above was so incredibly populated. Lacking the squid-power to take down 6.4 billion humans, she resigns herself to working at the beachside restaurant until she figures out a way to teach those litterbugs a lesson. ⏎ There is so much going on in this show, but it still feels lackadaisical, maintaining the gag show atmosphere of Azumanga Daioh or Setokai Yakuindomo but adorably clever rather than simple and dopey. (I can't bear to ruin any of these jokes, but it's laudable how well this stupid idea was handled.) Squid Girl's tentacles are always keeping the animators busy, and Squid Girl's tic of inserting “geso” into everything she says is probably a lot funnier with a language barrier in place. Most importantly, however, all the characters are lovable and diverse, as seen in their hilariously split reactions to discovering Squid Girl spits oodles of ink. Good characters can keep a comedy going on forever. (I'd cite Ranma ½, but whether it SHOULD go on forever is a little different.) ⏎ I feel silly being so giggly about this show, but it's true. Few things are as genuinely cute and easy to enjoy as this pilot. ⏎ * Endless self-indulgent references cited to give you a vague idea of where my sense of humor lies. ⏎ Squid Girl is available streaming on Crunchyroll. ⏎ Yumeiro Patisserie Professional episode 2 ⏎ Rating: 3.5 ⏎ How can you not love Johnny McBeal? He has no respect for personal boundaries, never listens to other people's opinions, specializes in fried sweets, and just in case the impressionable little girls watching didn't QUITE get it completely, he has a thing for throwing Old Glory up behind him when he walks into a room. ⏎ What DO Japanese children think of Americans?! This isn't the first gaudy stereotype of the U.S.A. in kids’ anime by a long shot, but it's some of the best unintentional comedy for the western hemisphere I've seen in a while. In this episode we meet Johnny's sweets spirit, Maize, who adores Japanese culture (but doesn't particularly understand it) and is always a hair trigger between polite and demure and deep-frying her loudmouthed partner when he's not being cordial to his new friends. ⏎ The group of both old friends and new decide to have a contest to see who will lead the team and decide the format of their new shop. (Johnny wants to make it an enormous amusement park, what a surprise.) At the same time, a greater contest is being held in Marie's Garden that will cut any shop with the lowest sales at the end of the week. Well, yikes! Double trouble! This sounds like a lot of fun, and there are laughs to be had, but the only problem is there hasn't actually been any dessert-making yet in all the ruckus and establishment of the new rules. It's a compliment to Yumeiro Patisserie that it can be charming regardless but it's still better off in the kitchen. ⏎ This show is worth a peek for Johnny alone, and it's good that it's so welcoming to those unfamiliar with the first season, but the immersion into the world of baking that its predecessor thrived on is sorely missed too. Professional needs to get on with the dough, er, show. ⏎ Yumeiro Patisserie Professional is available streaming on Crunchyroll. ⏎ Sora no Otoshimono Forte episode 2 ⏎ Rating: 2.5 ⏎ First, there was a flock of flying panties, and now with season two, SnO gives us a festival of dancing porno magazines. I guess if only for that novelty I can see why there's a season two at all. (It's a remarkably well-produced fanservice fest at that…kind of depressing how pretty it can be considering there's nothing underneath there.) ⏎ Needless to say, the entire episode is focused on something trivial: Tomoki's quest to stave off arousal by the Angeloids. He even goes to a Buddhist temple and meditates under pounding waterfalls…which only make him think of soaking wet girls. Oh well. What about that menacing goddess of pain and misery we saw rocket to earth at the end of episode one, you ask? She's a clutzy dum-dum who seems to have enough trouble standing in heels that her mission to kill Tomoki is left a complete non-starter. ⏎ We return to that mystery of Ikaros’ dream at the end once again, but who are we kidding? We've covered no ground in that “story” and we won't until around three episodes from the season's end, with a new Angeloid suddenly added to the panty party. It's sort of like Chobits, except it isn't funny, isn't charming, and whatever plot we're delaying probably won't have any cute, subversive social commentary at the end. Shows like this really do make you appreciate CLAMP more… ⏎ Sora no Otoshimono Forte is available streaming on Crunchyroll. ⏎ The World God Only Knows ⏎ Rating: 4....
... on Ichigo's pursuit of her dream. ⏎Yumeiro Patisserie Professional is available streaming on Crunchyroll. ⏎ Bakuman ⏎ Rating: 3.5 ⏎ A writer...
... to the Love Hina dub all over again! ⏎Sora no Otoshimono Forte is available streaming on Crunchyroll. ⏎ Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt ⏎ Rating: 2 (...
... can talk about shit and jizz with no punchline.⏎ Panty & Stocking is available streaming on Crunchyroll.