Kami-sama no Memo-chou discussion thread

[something]

神様のメモ帳

I hadn't been looking at this one at all but the synopsis is interesting enough. Also, original character designs by Kishida Mel. And the girl is cute! Isn't that reason enough? Also, it has Kayano Ai, recently famous for her role as Menma in AnoHana. Also did a great job as Isana in Yumekui Merry. Eager to hear more of her.

Ogura Yui is in it as well, a young (15!) seiyuu who is also getting a role in Roukyuubu. She gets what appears to be the lead role in this show.

Airs Saturday, July 2 at 23:00 JST on AT-X

Animation studio: JC Staff

ANN Entry (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=12865)

Official Site (http://www.kamimemo.com/)


Note
As usual, please try to follow these three easy forum courtesy habits when replying:
1) If you're the first person to post about an episode in any given week, please respond to the root post (this post) and indicate in the subject line which episode you're posting about.
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3) Don't use the blue "Post Reply" button because it causes your reply not to correctly inherit the subject line of the post you're replying to. Just click "Quote" to the post you want to reply to.[/QUOTE]

[TheGreenMan]

I'm going to get confused with the Brain's Base show, aren't I? I thought I was watching a Brain's Base show at first.
45 minute episodes?
Subsidized dating? Oh no, Ran will have none of that!
A giglio, military otaku, and some other guy.
ALICE! Alice is adorable...and a NEET.......detective?
God's notebook? So that's what the title means.
Nothing gets by Alice. Nothing.
Oh...yes...she has a goth loli outfit.
Alice....you must listen to your waifu. Geez...Ayaka, going straight to ripping Alice's clothes off.

[something]

45 minute episodes?
First episode is an hour (well 45 min) special, it should be normal length after that.

[bear]

Feels like Alice is some descendant of Victorique/Kujo in modern times. Doesn't have the Library so she has to make do with a room above a ramen shop and the internet.

Let's see... leek ramen, hold the noodles, hold the meat... Leek soup? ;)

[strangefour]

-Sometimes you find a girl on this trashheap we call life.
-What the hell just happened?
-Welcome to the underdog club.

-Don't screw with Min-san.
-Cool Air (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_Air).
-You made Alice mess up her chopsticks. Bad boy.
-Knock off Dr Pepper. Okarin does not approve!
-Agoraphobic loli detective. huh.
-That's a jittery and awkward rotating pan. I think his neck broke twice.

-Butterfly yakuza with a sewing master boss?
-Morons. I'm surrounded by morons!

-Shouko is loco.
-Good job Narumi.
-So real detective work involves dressing up like Victorique.
-Alice does not melt when she leaves her ice cold apartment.
-Alice is a hard boiled detective who drives women to tears in her hands.
-Naked loli event in progress.

-Metal ending... in english!?

Here I was wondering what I could fill the void in my anime watching left by Gosick ending. Though Alice is not as cute as Vicky was and no romance seems to be present here. But a tough sexy ramen (ice cream) shop owner is an improvement over a cute but scatter brained school teacher.

[bear]

-Sometimes you find a girl on this trashheap we call life.
-What the hell just happened?

Someone threw away a perfectly good Japanese girl....:bigsmile:

[Fencedude]

Well, I guess gold/silver hair won't survive 3 generations of living in Japan.

Anyway, that was remarkably depressing, I feel really bad for Miku, she got Class-S'd hard, and now she's in jail? ;_;

Alice is wonderful, I love her voice so much, absolutely perfect.

Narumi's kinda meh, but he's not horrible, so I guess I can live with him.

[HitokiriShadow]

Oh wow, a 45 minute first episode.

I was getting Shigofumi vibes from the whole thing, especially the last 5 minutes or so.... and sure enough, the director of this series was involved in Shigofumi, though he was only an episode director in that. Other than both being animated by J.C. Staff, I'm not noticing any other connections between the two shows.

Anyway, it was a very nice first episode. Ayaka is a lot of fun and Alice is just fantastic. She's very cute and she was pretty awesome when she was confronting Miku. And the music during the Alice/Miku scene was an excellent mood piece.

And the martial arts guy worshipping the main guy as a god just because he could operate a computer was pretty funny.

[HitokiriShadow]

Anyway, that was remarkably depressing, I feel really bad for Miku, she got Class-S'd hard, and now she's in jail? ;_;


Er, she is? *rewatches the end* Oh, yeah, I missed that. I didn't notice her surroundings when she got the letter.

[Fencedude]

Since I clearly hate myself, I've been reading the ANN season previews, and one of them raised a good point.

Can people who are acting as freelance detectives truly count as NEETs?

[something]

Episode 1:

- So, like, Alice is the brains behind a group that, um, fights minor crimes and such. I guess. Including subsidized dating. Whatever, Alice is adorable!
- Uhh well that went bad quickly.
- This is quite well animated so far.

- Oh hey Ayaka is Kayano Ai. We're going to be seeing her everywhere going forward.
- Really nice shadows on Ayaka and dude as they walk by the trees to Ayaka's work.
- Hahaha a NEET with a business card. Alice's group might be guy-heavy but they're okay so far.

- Finally... ALICE! And I love her. Seems like a pretty big role for Oogura Yui. Her agency is probably making a big push for her between this and Roukyuubu.
- Not a lot of notes to make about this whole discussion but it's still interesting.

- Oh hey. Narumi has dual monitors. That seems to be pretty rare in anime, outside of insane unrealistic setups like Lain or Alice. Hell, a lot of normal teenage anime characters don't even have computers.
- Alice is sad! Save her bear!
- The sewing dude made em think of the Gintama lead for a second...

- Miku is really adorable with Shouko.
- But, oh Miku, don't pull that "You're my pure perfect senpai, you can't have sex!" crap. That's why she goes on subsidized dates... she's tired of being the good girl. Tired of being an ideal.
- Damn, Shouko snaps.

- Nice backhanded compliment, Alice. :sd:
- Alice is putting on her outside clothes!
- Really odd insert song. Great scene though.
- Ice? ...Ice.... Ooooh shit.
- Ah alright he didn't kill her. He just, well, kept her body in his bath tub...
- And Narumi joins the group. After Ayaka almost strips Alice in front of him.

...Are... are they serious? This is the ED? I just sat here staring at my screen with my right eye twitching the whole time.

Uhhh anyway! Actually a very good episode. Too bad it won't be keeping up the double-length format - I think it worked very well.

[something]

Anyway, that was remarkably depressing, I feel really bad for Miku, she got Class-S'd hard, and now she's in jail? ;_;Er, she is? *rewatches the end* Oh, yeah, I missed that. I didn't notice her surroundings when she got the letter.
I wasn't quite sure either, but the idea did come to mind. Sure didn't look like her room or a hospital...

[Sly05]

Meo's character design hits all the right notes for me. Dark skin, braids, and short shorts is a devastating combination.

Narumi needlessly telling Meo that her father probably abandoned was really reckless and annoying. I know he's channeling his own family situation, but could at least use some tact and have actual proof before he emotionally devastates a little girl.

[Magewolf]

Meo's character design hits all the right notes for me. Dark skin, braids, and short shorts is a devastating combination.

Narumi needlessly telling Meo that her father probably abandoned was really reckless and annoying. I know he's channeling his own family situation, but could at least use some tact and have actual proof before he emotionally devastates a little girl.

Meo is nice.But I think it will turn out that her father was the one setup.He got 200 million to launder and then found out they expected 300 million back.He was being used as a fall guy.

[Suwako Moriya]

Poor Narumi, he's stepped into a dangerous world. Well, at least this world has a cute girl named Alice to compensate for things. Oh, and Alice worries me for some reason. It is interesting that this whole thing is a team effort. Decent start, but it will take a couple more episodes before I can be truly certain.

[Funkatron]

Meo's character design hits all the right notes for me. Dark skin, braids, and short shorts is a devastating combination.

Narumi needlessly telling Meo that her father probably abandoned was really reckless and annoying. I know he's channeling his own family situation, but could at least use some tact and have actual proof before he emotionally devastates a little girl.

Isn't Meo like 12 or something?

[Sly05]

Isn't Meo like 12 or something?
Yeah, I took her to be about middle school age. I'm not quite sure what aspect of my post you're commenting on though.

[Sly05]

He got 200 million to launder and then found out they expected 300 million back.He was being used as a fall guy.
I didn't think of that, but I have a feeling you are probably right. It would explain why he suddenly had to cut all ties with her when by all acounts, he was a loving father.

[Shiroi Hane]

-Knock off Dr Pepper. Okarin does not approve!

Okarin himself drinks a knockoff, Dk Pepper.
And there was Dr Cinnamon in another show this season.

[EmperorBrandon]

Okarin himself drinks a knockoff, Dk Pepper.

Isn't "Dokupe" (from the full name Japanese pronunciation ドクターペッパー) an actually-used shortening in Japanese anyway? Doesn't really strike me as a "knockoff" so much because of that.

[Shiroi Hane]

They are both ways of alluding to a product without flat out advertising it, but they are still essentially KIRF (http://www.engadget.com/tag/kirf/) names.

[Fencedude]

Meo! I love her! Brown girls are the best.

And Alice seems to naturally attract girls as well for some reason. They just love to bathe her.

Narumi seems to have some issues, doesn't he?

[Fencedude]

Oh good, this story had a happy ending.

I hope Meo shows up more, she's wonderful.

Narumi was actually pretty awesome this episode. And can Alice rock a Kimono or what?

[something]

Episode 2:

- Meo - lovely character design. Very very lovely. I don't like denim shorts but I do like her legs. And braids. And everything.
- Oh and yes, her father is about to be killed by yakuza or something...
- Nine years ago? JP Wiki puts her at 14, so clearly she was born of another father. She sounds young, but her speech seems to be more a matter of not being a native speaker. Her seiyuu, who is new, sounds vaguely like Toyosaki Aki doing her young, cutesy voice.
- Haha, Alice calls the gang and playboy has a girl in the shower...

- Oh jeeze, Narumi giving whatshisname the massage is so easily misunderstood and giffale. >_>
- Hahahahah! So the yakuza-types get a computer and within days it's corrupted by a porn site virus. Awesome.
- Oh good job Meo, doing the one thing Alice asked you not to do.

- Meo in a towel! <3 All is forgiven.
- Wow, fuck you Narumi. Fuck you so hard. Way to go tell the poor girl she's been abandoned when you don't even know yet what's going on. What an idiot.

Odds of me ever liking Narumi in this show have not improved at all yet. Quite the opposite. But yay, a second episode for Meo!

[something]

Episode 3:

- "I'm the worst." Yep. You are.
- Hah, nice save by spiky head.
- ...And so Narumi becomes the lamest yakuza ever?

- ALICE IS ENMA AI!! Haha oh man that kimono, totally Ai.
- IPPEN, SHINDE MIRU? Say it, Alice! Say it!!!

- So, uh, Narumi's heroic act during the fight ends up being getting pummeled. Feels appropriate.
- Meo was really cute at the end.

Much as I liked Meo, this arc wasn't as good as the first one. I'll almost definitely like this show enough to finish it but it's going to be one of the lesser shows of the season for me.

[strangefour]

-Sawadee? Well Selemet pagi to you too girl.
-Meo~
-The butterfly yazuka needs better antivirus software.
-Naked Meo!

Meo is cute.

[strangefour]

-Does everyone in this show have bad parents?
-Saved by a car full of butterflies.
-Hehe. I love all the big muscley guys outside the room listening to the sounds of slash fiction being born.
-Aww they just got married. Poor Alice. Always a bridesmaid never a bride.
-Alice has become a little dress up doll.
-Narumi. Human punching bag. He's so good at it even his teammates can't resist hitting him.

Next time naked Mii!

[strangefour]

-Shoryuramen (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uZWArSOmCc&t=42s)!
-Did the director just leave his ramen uneaten? He sure dressed like every director ever to cameo in his own thing. Except Nabeshin, cause Nabeshin is awesome.
-Min-san, is it sexy shower time yet? Oh it's just over time.
-The dark hadou of ramen.
-Hanamaru kindergarten soup?
-Hahaha. Narumi's seiyuu does a good job of sounding dead.
-SPECIAL TOWEL SERVICE!
-So ramen jerk is a sarashi stalker.
-Or not...
-DADDY ISSUES: The Animated Series.
-SHOWER SCENE! *sniffle* It's like 80s anime all over again. I'm so happy.
-Sarashi thief! I choose you!
-Taj Mahal bosom!
-Wait so Min doesn't remember what her father looked like? How old was she when he left?
-Even the Major sees this plot hole. (It feels weird to call someone other than a hot woman the Major.)
-That bra is so not the right size for Alice.

Yay a funny episode! That was nice after the last two were kind of dull. Meo was cute but the story was simple. Ramen and bras are much more fun.

[something]

Episode 4:

- Sponsor screen promises naked wet Min-san.
- Uh, so does Narumi get paid overtime?

- Sakaya: "Better you than me, sucker!"
- Narumi, a strange man was prowling around the shop at night, do you think you could put the generic protagonist response to seeing a woman in a towel on hold and focus on the matter at hand?
- Guy stole her sarashi. o_O

- Hah, Min-san vs Alice.
- Min-san wins!
- But soon after the tables are turned. Hah, Alice has the power now.
- I think my favorite thing about this scene is Ayaka sitting down in the show wondering where everyone is.

- ...So the stalker is a lingerie designer who is pissed she's not wearing a normal bra. :sd:
- And the other dude is Min-san's dad. Er, so does that mean he's coming back if he's revealed who he is?
- Bras make Alice angry.

That was a pretty silly episode.

Next week, uh... a guy with hair straight out of, uh, Yuugiou?

[Fencedude]

Min holding up Alice was hilarious. Alice is way too much fun to tease.

Anyway, the plot was...well, it certainly was.

[HitokiriShadow]

Good god, Narumi, why the hell did you tell Meo that? Weren't you the one trying to insist that it wasn't like that? Even if you think it might be that way, why tell her that when you need her cooperation and something like that is likely to make her far more difficult to deal with?

Anyway, Meo is pretty cute. The downside to the nature of this show, is that we're going to get a lot of fun and interesting characters that we'll never see again after their short little arc. And that's assuming they'll survive, and I think there's a decent chance Meo won't.

[HitokiriShadow]

Well that was a happier ending than I was expecting. I was expecting either Kusakabe or Meo to die.

The whole thing with Narumi sharing the sake was odd. So he's joining them... but not? I'm not entirely sure what was going on there, except that Narumi's motivation was irritating. "I couldn't protect this girl I barely know.... so I'm going to join (kind of) this gang that I only know slightly more" Erm, okay?

[HitokiriShadow]

Eh, didn't really care much for this episode. Especially the annoying lingerie designer guy. Though I was kind of amused at what the NEET guys used him for at the end, and Alice's reaction to it.

Other than that, the best part of the episode was Ayaka. Oh, and Min holding up Alice and teasing her.

[FUNiOP]

It's a pretty strange concept for these people to all brag about being NEETs all the time despite clearly doing detective work. I guess if they don't get paid it doesn't count. It does beg the question of why they'd choose to spend their life doing it if and not do anything to make money, even priding themselves on that fact. This season offers two potential series to fill the whole Gosick left, and I definitely prefer Dantalian so far, but that's not to say this was bad. There's also the fact that I've seen 3 episodes of that and only the first one of this so far, but this episode was double-long anyway, so I've basically seen 2 episodes. That was an interesting choice. There are probably plenty of series that would benefit from beginning with a double-long episode more, but it definitely helped it to tell a full story with all the necessary introductions without having to rush it. Well now I'm off to watch the second episode. It's too bad that's all I'll be able to watch for free. Assuming that episode doesn't go way downhill, I'm sure I'll end up buying this if it gets a dub and Blu-ray.

[FUNiOP]

A different ED, both the song and the visuals? Well, some of the live-action stills from the first one are kept here. I wonder if this will be one of those series in which this happens for each episode. I really like that kind of thing. Unfortunately, I won't be seeing any more of this, at least until it gets released on physical media, in which case I'll buy it given a dub and Blu-ray. The first episode got twice the normal running time to fit a full story in, but this one leaves off with a cliffhanger for the story to conclude in the next episode, or maybe a later one. Too bad. It was pretty interesting.

[something]

Episode 5:

- Oooh, Ayaka, please blow on Alice's neck more.
- Alice almost drowned in a washing machine. That's impressive.

- He's got 99 NEETs. Apparently.

- And here comes the Yuugiou reject!
- ...Yeah not sure if I care about him yet.
- HOLY SHIT what size is Narumi's computer monitor? I've got 24"s but that looks way larger. Obviously not as impressive as Alice's setup but...

- Hahah, big bad yakuza talking sewing tips.
- And totally unable to handle this Yoshiki guy. :sd:

- Alice is sooooo jealous.
- And soooooo adorable. But, I feel like her role in this show has been a lot smaller than I'd like. It just doesn't seem like we get nearly enough of her. Probably because she never leaves her room and so much of the show takes place outside it.

Hopefully when we get her backstory it's something good. Meanwhile, I don't care at all about Narumi's backstory so I'm okay pushing that off.

[Westlo]

Good god, Narumi, why the hell did you tell Meo that? Weren't you the one trying to insist that it wasn't like that? Even if you think it might be that way, why tell her that when you need her cooperation and something like that is likely to make her far more difficult to deal with?

He told her that because most people would think that's the case and combined with his own father issues he snapped. He knows he fucked up, the show itself obviously indicates he was in the wrong, I don't know why people are acting like he did the worst thing ever, he's human, get over it.

[Fencedude]

This show needs far more Alice. Also Yondaime's pretty cool. Still having trouble caring about Narumi.

How about more of that girl band?

*sigh*

[Westlo]

- The sewing dude made em think of the Gintama lead for a second...

I also thought of Gin-san as soon as I saw him.

[Sly05]

Alice being tsundere about Narumi not doing his assistant work for her was cute (though Narumi admittedly hasn't really done anything to make Alice's affection for him particularly believable. Kujo and Victorique they are not). Almost drowning while doing laundry is kind of a feat.

The NEET detective agency is apparently well known at the Ueno Zoo. I wonder how many times Alice has gotten her lackeys to go there and take pictures of the animals for her?

During the bar fight when Narumi meets Renji, Narumi seemingly recognizing his last name made me wonder if I was missing something, but checking his name against the character names on ANN yielded nothing so maybe not.

[strangefour]

-Alice's sweat smells like wildflowers.
-Laundering stuffed animals is strange.
-Alice nearly drown herself doing laundry...
-A wild Yugi Moto appears. It uses Headbutt. It misses.

-Alice is getting cranky because Narumi isn't being a good enough slave.
-If the Fourth dies, Narumi inherits a dozen morons.
-Alice loves capybara.
-I think Narumi is in love with Renji.

Narumi manages to be gayer in this episode than the cast of GetBackers was in 50 episodes. Not that there is anything wrong with that. I just want to see more Alice and Min-san. Capybara are fine too.

[HitokiriShadow]

Alice is in a pinch! She nearly drowns in the greatest crisis of her life, and all the crises she's failed to prevent like the aerial bombings of the middle east and the shrinking habitat of the Emperor Penguin flash before her eyes! She's..... doing laundry.

And Ayaka knows how to turn Alice on.

[something]

Episode 6:

- A full 8 minutes until we first see Alice. Never do that to me again, KamiMemo!
- Stuff.

...Wait this arc is still going into another episode?

This show is starting to lose me. I think the main reason why is that I feel a major disconnect between Alice and the rest of the show. It's like she's not even part of it. And most of the time we do get her, it's to hold vague, boring conversations with our vague, boring protagonist. I mean, we've got this adorable little NEET detective and it's like she's not even being used. When did we last see her go out in her gothiloli outfit and confront the individuals in a case? Episode 1?

I'm having trouble finding enjoyment in this show at present, at least in Yuugiou-boy arc. And for it to go on for three episodes really saps my interest away. There's been good stuff in this show so I don't want to drop it but if this arc continues beyond episode 7, I may have to.

[Fencedude]

I'm really not feeling the Bromance triangle here. The show has not given me a reason why I should care.

Desperately needs more Alice.

[strangefour]

-Did I accidentally start an episode of Gravitation? Why are we on a gay date?
-Narumi is married to Yugioh now too. Fourth is going to be jealous.
-Oh hi Alice. Welcome back to your own show.
-Capybara (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WhjzirWaVg&t=4m1s)~
-Oh he fucked up. Can't you do anything right Narumi?
-Yugioh is the Fourth's ex! Bromance triangle has formed.

-I really do enjoy the Fourth's stupid thugs.
-Narumi won't answer Alice's calls but he will arrange a meeting with Renji while alone in his bed. Kay.
-Oh he does go to see Alice.
-CG soda cans? Eww.
-"Take this stuffed owl with my blessing. May it's plushie feathers protect you."
-Sleeping together separated by a wall of stuffed animals.
-This plot is going to last another episode? Damn it.

I have seem episodes of Gravitation that were less gay than this episode. And they ended in man on man kissing.

[HitokiriShadow]

Man, this is arc is really not working for me. It's not just that they're male characters. I can like male characters. But the lead character is as dull as usual and its incredibly hard to care about his relationship with this new guy that he barely knows. I also really don't care about The Fourth. So this arc is all about the relationship struggles between three characters who's relationships with each other have been poorly developed and/or forced (the main character seems like like swearing brotherhood with people he barely knows). The concept of what's going on with these three is an interesting idea, but the show has failed to develop them or their relationships in any meaningful way, so its just not working.

Meanwhile, the characters I actually like have barely any screen time. And while I love Alice, her relationship with the main guy is no better than his relationship with the other guys. I'm just not feeling anything between them at all. The chemistry is not there at all and its really hard to buy into her feelings for him.

The first episode was really, really good, but the episodes since have failed to come close to living up to it and at this point it feels like episode 1 was a completely different show.

[strangefour]

Man, this is arc is really not working for me. It's not just that they're male characters. I can like male characters. But the lead character is as dull as usual and its incredibly hard to care about his relationship with this new guy that he barely knows. I also really don't care about The Fourth. So this arc is all about the relationship struggles between three characters who's relationships with each other have been poorly developed and/or forced (the main character seems like like swearing brotherhood with people he barely knows). The concept of what's going on with these three is an interesting idea, but the show has failed to develop them or their relationships in any meaningful way, so its just not working.

Narumi is totally the main problem of the show. It's hard to even call him a boring male lead since he has even less personality than any blank slate harem male lead. Can you name even one character trait Narumi has? I sure can't. He's just the guy we follow all the time and occasionally he says stuff.

I kind of like the Fourth. As a side character. This tough bishie guy with an army of moronic thugs and a secret passion for embroidery. As a background guy he's great. As someone of major focus, not so much.

Without his Yugioh hair, Renji is the second most boring antagonist this season. I have no idea why the Fourth used to date him or why he now has the hots for Narumi.

Meanwhile, the characters I actually like have barely any screen time. And while I love Alice, her relationship with the main guy is no better than his relationship with the other guys. I'm just not feeling anything between them at all. The chemistry is not there at all and its really hard to buy into her feelings for him.

The first episode was really, really good, but the episodes since have failed to come close to living up to it and at this point it feels like episode 1 was a completely different show.

FUCKING DAMN IT! The first episode of this was great. It seemed like the perfect show to fill the void left by Gosick ending. A new show about a tiny girl who wears victorian dress and solves mysteries, sign me up! But no. This show is not about her. At all. She is a tiny bit of window dressing we see once an episode for two minutes tops.

Why Narumi is the main character makes no sense to me. Hell I'd rather we spend more time following the NEET gang. The Major, gigolo guy and the boxer tough. Those guys have personality. Though honestly Rin should be the main character helping out loli detective and the NEETs. Or whoever the girl is that introduced Narumi to the NEETs. has she even been in any episodes lately? I barely remember her.

[Sly05]

Narumi is totally the main problem of the show. It's hard to even call him a boring male lead since he has even less personality than any blank slate harem male lead. Can you name even one character trait Narumi has? I sure can't. He's just the guy we follow all the time and occasionally he says stuff.
Yeah, I also can't figure out why everyone seems to like and depend on him so much. They pretty much picked him up off the street. It feels like we've missed a key story arc were he earns everyone trust and the characters slowly begin to rely on him. So far, everyone is ready to declare him a blood brother after barely meeting the guy.

[Sly05]

The current story arc continues on its merry way as we learn the reason behind the fallout between Renji and the fourth. All hints point to Hison either being the twin sister of Yoshiki who was accidentally stabbed in her place or (less likely) she even is Yoshiki and is pretending to be a guy to hide herself.

I'm surprised that they're dragging this out to another episode. At least the next ep preview shows that Alice will be playing a more active role.

[HitokiriShadow]

Though honestly Rin should be the main character helping out loli detective and the NEETs. Or whoever the girl is that introduced Narumi to the NEETs. has she even been in any episodes lately? I barely remember her.

Her name's Ayaka. She was in episode 6 for like 5 seconds.

[strangefour]

-Uh oh. Looks like Yugi's hair is breaking up with Narumi.
-Renji and the Fourth used to live together, and had a female roommate.
-So your roommate vanishes and is seemingly dead. No evidence. Like she never existed. Renji you are a dumbass. I can already see the ending.
-Hi Alice. Bye Alice. Script didn't evn let you turn around this episode. Probably used a body double.
-Aniki! Hello you loveably stupid thugs. You are the best part of this show right now.
-VENHAR!
-Yoshiki is Hison.
-Damn it. Ask Alice for help. Make this episode interesting already. And over.
-ALICE! Please save us from this confusing boring gay lovers quarrel.

-You magnificent NEET bastards. Why can't this show be more about the Major & boys?
-"The Fourth is hiding something." The sigh Alice gives practically shouts, "OBVIOUSLY, you moron."
-Cute schoolgirl who I have forgotten the name of! How did you end up in this show? Blackmail I bet.
-Narumi. Thank you for wearing evidence while going to see Alice. This is the brightest thing you have ever done. By accident.
-AHAHA! Alice even calls him a moron. A moron who drags clues around with him.
-HAH! Now talking down to him for his thinking he's helpful.
-Narumi is "better than nothing"? I don't know if I can agree to that statement Alice.
-Wait. It took you this long to notice the embroidery style Alice? You are slipping ultra detective.

Cliffhanger? Another fucking episode in this fucking arc! It should be over now! I figured otu what the fuck happened. Mother fucker. They have no sense of pacing about how long we should be able to put up with this mystery. Plus gave away the possibility that Hison is still alive in the first five minutes and clues to the fact that Yoshiki is Hison TWICE. Even ALice is slow at picking up the clues once she is on the case.

[strangefour]

Narumi is totally the main problem of the show. It's hard to even call him a boring male lead since he has even less personality than any blank slate harem male lead. Can you name even one character trait Narumi has? I sure can't. He's just the guy we follow all the time and occasionally he says stuff.
Yeah, I also can't figure out why everyone seems to like and depend on him so much. They pretty much picked him up off the street. It feels like we've missed a key story arc were he earns everyone trust and the characters slowly begin to rely on him. So far, everyone is ready to declare him a blood brother after barely meeting the guy.

Yeah. They seem to have skipped over something important before the Fourth drinks sake/gets married to Narumi. It's not totally unbelievable that they could end up like brothers. But as for the character arc progression, there's a few episodes worth of trust missing here. They go from meeting to sewing a teddy bear together to staring lovingly into each others eyes in like an episode.

[strangefour]

Though honestly Rin should be the main character helping out loli detective and the NEETs. Or whoever the girl is that introduced Narumi to the NEETs. has she even been in any episodes lately? I barely remember her.

Her name's Ayaka. She was in episode 6 for like 5 seconds.

Five seconds each episode is about all she ever seems to get. In those five seconds she gets just as much personality as Narumi gets in twenty minutes each episode. Maybe it's supposed to be a joke that she never gets any attention and yet she set this whole show in motion. If so it's not funny.

[HitokiriShadow]

"I thought we were sworn brothers!" This is what you get for doing that with people you've known for a whole 10 minutes.

No, Renji's right, you really don't know anything about The Fourth. Saying you shared sake with him is completely meaningless since your standards for doing that are A) knowing someone for more than 30 seconds and B) they do something kind of cool, and C) they have a penis.

Goddamn Narumi, shut the fuck up. I've seen a lot of baseless crap spouted by bland idealistic male leads, but its rarely felt as empty as it does coming from you.

No Narumi, you're friendship didn't have to crumble because of a misunderstanding. You've known the guy for a few days. It takes more than talking to someone for 20 minutes in your life to forge a friendship of steel.

He finally realizes he knows nothing about this blood brothers or whatever, and Alice tells him as much too, but.... I don't care. Acknowledging a character's dipshit, godawful behavior and making it a character growth point doesn't just magically make that godawful, dumbass behavior and dialogue okay. And the show didn't even do the latter part. It was just "I really don't know anything about him.... okay, let's all get to work now to fix things!"

Jesus Fucking Christ, this arc STILL isn't over? We still have another fucking episode? And the mystery has already been 90% solved and they gave away the big twist when "Yoshiki" revealed he had a stab wound. Yoshiki is obviously Hison after a sex-change operation. Or at least after enough of alterations to pass as a man. Or maybe Hison was always a man to begin with. In any case, its obvious that Yoshiki=Hison, so now the next episode is just going to drag things out until they finally explain the why and how in the last several minutes and subject us to more bullshit for the first 80% of the episode.

[something]

Jesus Fucking Christ, this arc STILL isn't over? We still have another fucking episode?
I almost never read ahead for spoilers but when I skimmed your post and saw this...

I think I'm just gonna drop the show and free up some time for other stuff. Someone please let me know if episodes 9+ suddenly go full-on Alice Alice Alice.

Edit: Hahahah, okay the timing on your PM about this was hilarious.

[something]

FUCKING DAMN IT! The first episode of this was great. It seemed like the perfect show to fill the void left by Gosick ending. A new show about a tiny girl who wears victorian dress and solves mysteries, sign me up! But no. This show is not about her. At all. She is a tiny bit of window dressing we see once an episode for two minutes tops.
You should really, really, really be watching Dantalian no Shoka instead.

[strangefour]

FUCKING DAMN IT! The first episode of this was great. It seemed like the perfect show to fill the void left by Gosick ending. A new show about a tiny girl who wears victorian dress and solves mysteries, sign me up! But no. This show is not about her. At all. She is a tiny bit of window dressing we see once an episode for two minutes tops.
You should really, really, really be watching Dantalian no Shoka instead.

Hmm yeah maybe. I've been planning on starting that and the penguin show sometime. But I think I'll watch one more episode of this trainwreck and hope the fucking arc ends next time.

[HitokiriShadow]

FUCKING DAMN IT! The first episode of this was great. It seemed like the perfect show to fill the void left by Gosick ending. A new show about a tiny girl who wears victorian dress and solves mysteries, sign me up! But no. This show is not about her. At all. She is a tiny bit of window dressing we see once an episode for two minutes tops.
You should really, really, really be watching Dantalian no Shoka instead.

Hmm yeah maybe. I've been planning on starting that and the penguin show sometime. But I think I'll watch one more episode of this trainwreck and hope the fucking arc ends next time.

Penguindrum is awesome, definitely watch that.

I should probably watch more of Dantalion. The first two episodes were okay but didn't really grab me. But they were certainly far better than the last several episodes of this have been

[Suwako Moriya]

Jesus Fucking Christ, this arc STILL isn't over? We still have another fucking episode?
I almost never read ahead for spoilers but when I skimmed your post and saw this...

I think I'm just gonna drop the show and free up some time for other stuff. Someone please let me know if episodes 9+ suddenly go full-on Alice Alice Alice.

Heh, I can't blame you for feeling this way. Honestly, I haven't watched episode 7 myself, but couldn't resist checking to see if this arc was finally over with.

I think my biggest problem with the arc is how much they're dragging it out. I could live with maybe a two episode arc of the story, but the idea of it being dragged out to at least four episodes?

I'm sort of tempted to wait until I read indication of the arc actually being over before even thinking of going back to the show and then just rushing through it.

In any case, I think the most frustrating aspect of the series has been the fact that for a supposed female lead, Alice's presence has been rather lacking.

Which is bad because I'm watching the show for her, I'm not watching it for the male lead.

I should not I don't mind male leads getting some focus. However they should not being getting like 90% of the focus. Especially given the title of the series.

[Sly05]

I should not I don't mind male leads getting some focus. However they should not being getting like 90% of the focus. Especially given the title of the series.
The male lead having some sort of personality and not being a complete blank slate would help too.

[Suwako Moriya]

I should not I don't mind male leads getting some focus. However they should not being getting like 90% of the focus. Especially given the title of the series.
The male lead having some sort of personality and not being a complete blank slate would help too.

Sadly, too many series feel just being branding a character as the "lead" counts as them having a personality. Oh, but sometimes they're daring and have it so the lead wants to be "nice" to everyone.

[something]

Sadly, too many series feel just being branding a character as the "lead" counts as them having a personality. Oh, but sometimes they're daring and have it so the lead wants to be "nice" to everyone.
I wonder what's so darn hard about making male protagonists both endearing and interesting. It's not even like a male character needs to be exotic or atypical to be enjoyable, even if most of the good ones ones are. Daikichi in Usagi Drop, Okarin in Steins;Gate, Shichika in Katanagatari...

Natsume Takashi in Natsume Yuujin-chou is a perfect example. He seems like the typical male lead: Highschooler, check. Wants a peaceful life but can't help but get wrapped up in the story's events anyway, check. Has some typical emotional issues from when he was younger, check. Looks totally average, check. Possesses an ability that makes him important to powerful people but which he himself neevr asked for, check. Archetypal "nice guy", check. Gets embarrassed if his personal space is invaded, check. He could replace the male protagonist in damn near any show and at first glance it wouldn't seem strange at all.

And yet... he's so goddamned enjoyable and likable! Why? I don't know. I don't see anything in him that would make him an inappropriate protagonist for the majority of late night anime, KamiMemo included. I don't see anything that makes him inappropriate for a majority male audience. And yet 90% of male leads in these shows look profoundly pathetic when compared to him. He's one of my favorite male characters, easily.

Like I've said... there's no reason why male protagonists have to be so bland so often. But no effort is put into them because it's assumed the girls will carry the show. And sometimes they do... but sometimes it's just not enough. ...Hell, maybe that's it. Natsume Yuujinchou doesn't have much in the way of female characters, and Takashi actually really matters to the target audience, and if he were bland the show would flop. So the effort is made.

I don't know. But I really wish more care were taken with guys in anime. A likable male lead can be an immeasurably positive asset for a show (see any Key adaptation). It's not a coincidence that every show I've ever given a 10/10 has a male lead (well, the ones that have male leads at all) I find both entertaining and worthy of my respect.

(Except for My Otome, but I think there I was just so glad to have anything better than the HiME equivalent...)

[bear]

I wonder what's so darn hard about making male protagonists both endearing and interesting. It's not even like a male character needs to be exotic or atypical to be enjoyable, even if most of the good ones ones are. Daikichi in Usagi Drop, Okarin in Steins;Gate, Shichika in Katanagatari...

Natsume Takashi in Natsume Yuujin-chou is a perfect example.
Interesting that you mention Natsume. I don't quite understand why I like him as much as I do, either. I think that the one factor I can see is that these male leads aren't pushed around by women. Characters like Narumi are passive in relationship to the female lead. Even when they do things it's because the female lead has pushed them into it, or it's to protect or gain favor with her. Huey and Dalian is another example where the male lead is at least equal to the female. Gosick though much of the story, OTOH, has Kujo acting wimpy and pushed around both by Vicky and circumstances. Kinjirou in Mayo Chiki is another example. Borderline cases might be Kyousuki in Oreimo and Kyon in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. The do get pushed around by the female leads but they do try to stand up to them.

[Sly05]

Natsume Yuujinchou doesn't have much in the way of female characters, and Takashi actually really matters to the target audience, and if he were bland the show would flop. So the effort is made.

Well Natsume Yuujinchou is based off of a shoujo manga so Natsume is intended to be the appeal of the series in order to attract female readers. While we've seen more and more series buck the trend by focusing on all girl characters (like Azumanga Daioh or K-on), I do agree that anime and manga writers still too often rely on inserting generic male leads into their stories either as a crutch or that they for some reason feel they need to. I also totally agree with you that we need more male characters like Kyon, Tomoya, or even Ryuuji. Interesting characters obviously add a lot to a series, regardless of what gender they are.

[something]

Well Natsume Yuujinchou is based off of a shoujo manga so Natsume is intended to be the appeal of the series in order to attract female readers.
Right, that's the point I was making. Effort actually needs to be put into him, and thus he's worth caring about. The way I view and react to him is oddly similar to how I react to my favorite girls in other shows. But at the same time, he's so similar - at a glance - to your generic male lead that we can imply that it's not the archetype that's inherently bad... it's the execution.

You mentioned all-female casts - this is exactly their appeal for me. Take your typical late night otaku show, strip out the character that few people - including the writer - is paying much attention to, and just leave the girls. Pretty much a win-win for me. Especially because it means they have to do something with the girls other than have them fawn over the protagonist. That might not mean deep back-stories and complex plots, sure, but it requires character interaction between them that are a lot rarer or less interesting otherwise.

[Sly05]

For those wondering, the current arc does end this episode. It wasn't interesting enough to warrant 1/3 of the runtime of the anime, but hopefully the series will move onto something better now.

The plot twist regarding Hison is exactly what most people had already guest. I'm not sure about her logic regarding losing her ability to reproduce meaning she has to live as a man, but whatever. It would have also have made sense to tell Renji, who was one of her best friends, that she is okay.

Anyway, baseball next episode. Alice is also able to pull off the baseball cap look very well.

[Suwako Moriya]

For those wondering, the current arc does end this episode.

It's a miracle! I knew those sacrifices were worth the effort. Even if they fought back.

Anyway, baseball next episode. Alice is also able to pull off the baseball cap look very well.

This has potential to be a fun episode. Assuming Narumi doesn't activate frustrating mode and Alice gets to be in a good chunk of it.

[strangefour]

Time to watch the trainwreck finally pull into the station an episode or two behind the audience's patience.

-Aniki!
-Gigolo-san, no body cares if Narumi is okay. At least the audience doesn't Well maybe some fujoshi do.
-The Fourth is incapacitated. Narumi you are now the Aniki of a group of muscle bound morons. If you don't take command of them you will miss the one opportunity you have to be a man.
-Wait, so Renji's goons wreck up the place, beat the shit out of the Fourth, even rip the Ven-Har poster. But leave the computer untouched and on?
-Narumi grows a testicle.
-Uh you don't need to explain things to them. Just shout at them and they will be happy.
-This is the kind of shit that should have happened BEFORE Narumi and the Fourth had their sake drinking wedding ceremony. Narumi stepping up and helping out by reigning in the unruly mob of simple minded thugs. Something to prove that Narumi is useful and can be trusted.
-Narumi grow that other ball, put on Renji's shirt and stand on stage at the concert. Troll Renji hard.

-Well he got the shirt on stage at least. Troll on.
-Alice fuck yeah! Finally she does something else in her own show.
-A shocking twist that was obvious last episode. Thanks Alice for having the only brain cells in this show.
-I think Alice just said these last few episodes have all been bullshit. Damn right.
-SO it all ends with the Fourth and Renji just pounding some flesh. Dude that should have happened three episodes ago.
-So Renji just takes his Yugioh hair and leaves town. And the only person to see him off is Narumi. Gaaaay. I guess Hisou never ever liked him and just faked her death to stop him stalking her.
-Next week a baseball game against Nemos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgABA3qlGjg).

The plot twist regarding Hison is exactly what most people had already guest. I'm not sure about her logic regarding losing her ability to reproduce meaning she has to live as a man, but whatever. It would have also have made sense to tell Renji, who was one of her best friends, that she is okay.

She has to have not liked the attention Renji was giving her. Either she was only in love with the Fourth or truly in love with the Yakuza boss who's baby she was carrying. But there is no logical way she would not have somehow sent a message to Renji that she was still alive unless she didn't like him. It's not like she was on the run from Yakuza and fearing for her life so she was pretending to be a guy for her own safety. No she got cash and a place to live because Yakuza guy's ex-wife was nuts. Not like she's out running around either, she should be in jail for what she did. No reason to hide what she did cause it wasn't related to any illegal business either. Bitch stabbed two people!

So yeah this was a waste of four damn episodes. It was three episodes of story tops. But honestly could have been solved in one by the Fourth not being a dipshit, unless Hisou was more afraid of Renji than some crazy lady with a knife. I guess Narumi did have a few good moments this episode. But the previous three episodes were just yaoi foreplay from him.

[Sly05]

She has to have not liked the attention Renji was giving her. Either she was only in love with the Fourth or truly in love with the Yakuza boss who's baby she was carrying. But there is no logical way she would not have somehow sent a message to Renji that she was still alive unless she didn't like him.

Hehe, that makes sense considering Renji never got to see Hison again even when he learned that she was okay. It wouldn't surprise me if Hison had also gotten pretty tired of the heavy BL undertones between Renji and the fourth. I was half expecting the two of them to kiss when they confronted each other in the sound room.

[strangefour]

She has to have not liked the attention Renji was giving her. Either she was only in love with the Fourth or truly in love with the Yakuza boss who's baby she was carrying. But there is no logical way she would not have somehow sent a message to Renji that she was still alive unless she didn't like him.

Hehe, that makes sense considering Renji never got to see Hison again even when he learned that she was okay. It wouldn't surprise me if Hison had also gotten pretty tired of the heavy BL undertones between Renji and the fourth. I was half expecting the two of them to kiss when they confronted each other in the sound room.

So was I. Even them punching each other was gayly erotic. I can't understand how this show manages to make GetBackers seem totally hetero.

[HitokiriShadow]

Wait, so they trash the Fourth's place and beat him to a pulp.... but don't even touch the computer he was working on when they attacked him?

And because this arc wasn't stupid enough already.... the reason Hison is living as a man now is because she lost her womb and ovaries from the stabbing. Because everyone knows women are only good for making babies, so they might as well be men if they lose that.

"completely lost her function as a woman"
Wow, really? I.... just.... *sigh*

Well, at least this awful arc is finally over. And yeah, this arc really was incredibly gay. Just in the wrong way for my interests and not done remotely well. I don't have a problem with guy/guy undertones or relationships, though its certainly not my cup of tea (but sometimes it can be amusing and there's no reason I can't like a gay male character). But the whole thing was completely worthless because of terrible character development, Narumi being a blank slate, and just a lot of stupid in general.

[Sly05]

A baseball duel this episode as the NEETS challenge the local Yakuza to keep the rent down at the local arcade. Meo returns and Alice is more active this time around so it was actually a pretty fun episode even if Narumi continues to be a ridiculous Mary Sue character. I doubt someone whose training in baseball comes from a video game is going to be able to homerun a pitch thrown by an ace player.

[bear]

A baseball duel this episode as the NEETS challenge the local Yakuza to keep the rent down at the local arcade. Meo returns and Alice is more active this time around so it was actually a pretty fun episode even if Narumi continues to be a ridiculous Mary Sue character. I doubt someone whose training in baseball comes from a video game is going to be able to homerun a pitch thrown by an ace player.
Don't think it was a homerun. He just got a hit that drove in the winning runs.

[Sly05]

Don't think it was a homerun. He just got a hit that drove in the winning runs.
Regardless, it was still pretty silly that he was able to pull off a game winning hit.

[Sly05]

Drama! I suspect that Ayaka has probably been using the gardening club as a cover to grow plants used in the manufacturing of the drug her brother is hooked on and got in over her head.

[Sly05]

The Ayaka storyline plays out just about as expected. Unfortunately, she has largely been a background character so far so the plotline does not have the emotional impact that its aiming for, but it does benefit from at least having some weight to case (something I thought was largely lacking from the Fourth's arc).

I suspect Ayaka's phone will likely play a role in helping Alice track down the Ayaka's brother. The biochemist guy producing the drugs thinks he's smarter than everyone else so Alice has to catch him in a mistake and demonstrate that he's not as clever as he thinks.

[Sly05]

The NEETs use the built in GPS to track down Ayaka's phone, but the drug dealer had at least enough forethought to hand it off to a random pawn so that he could escape in the time it took for them to arrive. After accidentally discovering that Angel Fix enhances the vision of its users and being high on it is the only means to identify distributors, Narumi voluntarily takes the drug so they can track down the source. As people high on drugs are not normally known for retaining much of the mental capacities, I felt they probably could have tricked one of the junkies into helping them or just tailed one for a while, but whatever. I guess it gave Narumi something to do.

More importantly, its revealed that when Ayaka had jumped off the school building, she had been force fed drugs after she threatened to go to the cops. I'm not really sure what the drug dealer guy was trying to do other than create a weird drug as almost all of its users (including himself) ended up dying.

Well that ends it. I enjoyed the Kishida Mel character designs, but the series suffered from focusing on the least interesting characters and a dull four episode arc that would have been better spent developing what should have been a core character, Alice. Indeed, Alice should have been the protagonist instead of Narumi who always came across as a fan-fiction wish fulfillment insert character.

[sandman007]

Not gonna lie...I would have teared up a little as well if I saw what they saw at the end.