[Ended] Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita (Humanity has Declined): LOL

Though this too is like the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya where the broadcast order does not follow the chronological order, it did so in a bit more deceiving fashion--while arcs are out of order, they didn't break the arc and insert some other random episode in the middle as Haruhi did where it blatantly made you aware that the episode orders are not correct. Here it merely rearranged it in a lot less noticeable way but if you have paid attentions to the details, you'd totally notice some referencing inconsistencies. Here is a list of key points that I managed to pick off:

• Arc 1 (ep 1-2): Short hair, immediately after arc 3.
• Arc 2 (ep 3-4): "They are STILL working on the human monument project?", chronologically after arc 3, but with long hair, so it would be after arc 1.
• Arc 3 (ep 5-6): Assistant present, chronologically after arc 4.
• Arc 4 (ep 7-8): First meeting of assistant.
• Arc 5 (ep 9): Um...where does this one go...it looks like a finale of some sort...
• Arc 6 (ep 10): Just graduated, no assistant, immediately after arc 7 but before arc 4.
• Arc 7 (ep 11-12): School, the beginning of everything.

It's basically a logical puzzle where you use clues to try to arrange a correct chronological order. With those clues given, there are some definitive orders can be arranged with exception of episode 9:

11-12-10-7-8-*-5-6-1-2-*-3-4-*

Since there's no clue given for episode 9, as far as I can tell, it really could go on any one of those (*) spots. But since episode 9 looked like a finale, I'd say for now I'd just put it in the end, unless someone could tell me a reason it should go elsewhere. So my final conclusion on the chronological order would be:

11-12-10-7-8-5-6-1-2-3-4-9

Put technical stuff aside, this anime is by far one of the smartest anime I've seen in making hilariously humorous yet direct-to-the-point remarks about the problems that exist in today's society. In addition, it found the most hilarious and creative way I've seen anywhere dealing with time paradox heads on: the time paradog. It is by far the best line I've heard from this anime all season, not the part when the assistant named it, rather, the explanation grandfather gave right afterwards in the background: the universe would produce time paradogs in place of time paradox whenever time paradox is about to occur, which in turn, would prevent time paradox ever from occurring--you'll just end up with a bunch of time paradogs lying around. Brilliant!!

One reason it can afford to make the crude direct-to-the-point criticisms of today's society is the usage of the so called fairy, the smartest creatures in the world who aren't capable of producing sweets and other stuff they like. In my personal opinion, both of them represents human, but at different level: fairies in the story represents today's society at a macro level whereas humans in the story represents today's society at a micro level. So depending on the issues being address, they would use either human or the fairies, because certain issues exist only in micro level and others are better made example at a macro level. 

Final Scoreboard:

Drama: 97 (Hilariously over dramatized)

Comedy: 98 (Plain hilarious)

Action: N/A

Art/Animation: 93 (Strange, flat, colorful, different)

Sound/Music: 95 (Catchy)

Character: 97 (Fun)

Plot: 94 (Cleverly out of order)

Ending: 97 (Very well)

Re-watch value: 80 - Still hilarious, and you can try to pick up more clues on the chronological ordering

Overall: 97 - Blunt and Funny

Recommendation: It's pretty save to say that no other short season series from the summer season could beat this in terms of ... anything. So go pick it up and watch it if you still haven't done so, because it is

Anime of the season for Summer 2012 Season

Moyashimon Returns: Still Amusing, Still No Closure

Moyashimon is one of those series that you try to convince your friends to watch it, but when they ask you what's so great about it, you really couldn't think of exactly why. Come to think of it, it's not that there's a single exceptional element, it's the sum of all that is in this anime made it great. Light and somewhat whacky comedy packed with lots, I mean lots, of knowledge about fermentation. In spirit, it feels very much like Nodame Cantabile series.

Without know the story of the first season, you'd probably be mostly lost. If you haven't seen the original series, I'd highly recommend you to watch the first season before even start this one.

Final Scoreboard:

Drama: 89 (Whackily dramatic)

Comedy: 94 (Whacky)

Action: N/A

Art/Animation: 86 (Weird)

Sound/Music: 89 (Like the music)

Character: 90 (Rather intriguing)

Plot: 83 (Somewhat chaotic)

Ending: -- (To Be Continued)

Re-watch value: 60 - Not really, but might still be amusing

Overall: 88 - StillAmusing

Recommendation: If you have seen and liked first season, you probably want to see what's happening next, since the original series had a somewhat weak ending (not that this one had a much better one...)

[Ended] Natsuyuki Rendezvous: Love Beyond the Boundry of Life and Death

Having seen so many romance animes that are based on immature feeling of love between school boys and girls who are more or less experiencing for the first time in their life, it is quite refreshing to see a love story about grownups like Natsuyuki Rendezvous.

While the main focus is how people deal with their emotions towards the loved ones, what it doesn't have, is the series of misunderstandings that caused by timidness and shyness of characters as we see so often from teenager romance animes that we have all grown to hate (well, not exactly, but close enough), which by the way has been one of the biggest annoyances I have against them. But even if the story is about grown-ups, it really wouldn't make much of a difference if the characters aren't mature. Fortunately, as I see it, the level of characters' maturity does match their age--it is a grown-ups' story about grown-ups' issues. 

Though there really isn't much in common, the pacing and overall feel reminds me much of Ristorante Paradiso which in my opinion is another strangely intriguing story of love.

One thing I feared, before I saw the end of it,  is that it would not bring anything to closure in the end. Now I can can assure you, not only it gives you the closure you expect, but also a lot more.

Final Scoreboard:

Drama: 92 (Dramatic)

Comedy: 90 (Some nice and interesting moments)

Action: N/A

Art/Animation: 93 (Beautiful scenes)

Sound/Music: 91 (Lovely music)

Character: 93 (Mature)

Plot: 93 (Strange but good)

Ending: 94 (Complete closure)

Re-watch value: 70 - Might still be moving

Overall: 92 - Romance for the Grown-ups

Recommendation: The bottom line is that if you're looking for the typical romance of people that just coming into puberty, they you probably wouldn't be too interested about this. Otherwise, it's a very good story of love where both heart wrenching and sudden bursts of laughter moments exists. And this earns my

Romance Anime of the Season for Summer 2012 Season

award.

Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate: The Darker Side

Currently finished: Episode 9

At first, it seems to be "just-another-harem-anime". However, as the plot progresses, it seems there's a much darker side of the story than we originally thought. We got a glimpse of the darker side of the story at the very beginning of episode one, but ever since it's been all happy go lucky. Lately, however, the dark side of the story seems to start to resurface.

At this point, this starts to remind me of an old classic, Shuffle!, which in my opinion remains to be the best harem anime ever made, too, it featured some pretty dark and twisted subplots. If that's any indicator, I think Koi to Senkyou to Chocolate is going to be at least semi-decent in the end. 

Humanity has Declined: Time Paradog, LOL

LOL, Time Paradog...moving on...

p.s. If you still haven't started watching this, you are missing out a lot on one of the most brilliant animes of the year.