So I am finally finished up with watching this Noitamina series. Cannot wait to see what the broadcasting company has in store for Zankyou no Terror and Psycho-Pass season 1 re-edit this week. Nanana isn’t a series I would list in my Top 10 or best action and adventure series, but it correctly followed the light novel’s plot pretty well.

Ok, I can go with this. Thank goodness they didn’t rush this. Judging by how the light novel and this anime were progressing I could tell that there was the element of a harem genre in this as much as this is a mystery series. Only problem is the final 3 episodes turned this into an action/harem series with the puzzles as a backdrop for moving the story forward.

This episode greatly emphasized this fact that this is much less of a mystery series than it had been originally. The fight between Nanana and Juugo was a pretty big indicator of this too. We’ve left the show without a clue as to whom the killer is. On top of that Ikusaba’s absence was half-hearted in its conclusion, and the introduction of the Three Skulls gang and Yurika were just thrown in for the sake of following the light novel’s/manga’s timeline. I can see this show getting a second season that is if it sells well. Really open ended here even though poorly executed at times was a fun series to watch. The cliffhanger at the end there was also another reason why I see this series getting a faithful sequel sometime in the future on Noitamina.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: 6/10

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That fight! The fluid animation there! Why can’t we have more fights like this not just in this series but in others as well? Great work there guys. This had to be one of the more intriguing puzzles to solve for a Nanana treasure than we’ve had previously. Let alone dangerous too with those spikes. Ouch!

This was however cut short with Ikusaba showing up, ruining everything. So the villain was introduced a few episodes ago, and last time he had a lot of development here.  This all looks to be the final setting of the show, but what went wrong here? The animation was awesome as usual, but the music they chose here was off. That is something Keigo Hoashi hasn’t perfected. He composed the music for Dusk Maiden and still I had that same feeling I had with this. Dusk Maiden was a terrible series that Silver Link horribly tried to copy off SHAFT. I do not recommend picking that series up.

The music felt a bit understated for the upcoming fight here. What a fight it was! That is something I will give credit to A-1 Pictures here. They’ve done a tremendous job with this show in terms of animation direction, it’s just everything in between that feels lacking. So we’ve arrived at a cliffhanger with the final episode, and there are a ton of questions left to be answered all of which has been poorly executed throughout this show.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: 5/10

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What has happened with this series? Originally, I was worried that this show would rush the plot after seeing the first 3 episodes quite a bit but that wasn’t the case here. I’ve looked back and forth between the episodes and what the light novel had, and there is not much of a change. I’ve enjoyed the animation, the music, and the characters, but we are left so much in the dark about Juugo’s father, the killer of Nanana, and so many areas of the original club that I have to wonder if they can cram all that in this adaptation. Also, is it just me or have the treasure hunting challenges been a bit lacking?

Here we had a bunch of development of Ikusaba. Plus the writers decided here to hint at Yun being more than what she appears to be. She knows about the ruins, and she seems to have a connection with Ikusaba that came out of the blue. With only 2 episodes left I cannot see this ending well at all. One has to wonder if this series could pick back up sometime next year, considering Noitamina has already announced their lineup for the rest of 2014 and one series going into winter 2015. Let us hope this show can redeem itself if even just a little bit for its final two episodes.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: 4/10

There is not much to say about this episode. This right here is what I was afraid of to have in this series. Even more characters to ask more questions where we still haven’t learned from the previous events that have happened. I feel like this series would have been better off being 22 episodes rather than 11. At least with having more episodes to work with they could have spent more time on finding Nanana’s killer and less time on being a moe series trying to be humorous.

Here is where we were re-introduced to Tsujimi and Yun. If I recall they were the ones on the job that Juugo had to deliver a package to Kurosu Sansa. Oh and where is she at? They weren’t much in terms of the plot here, other than to be for background entertainment. Aside from them we were however introduced to Ikusaba Hiiyo an original member of the previous Adventure Club and the previous roommate to Nanana. This part was great because we are finally getting towards understanding the past Adventure Club and why these hunting adventures are happening.

I’ve noticed the last 2 episodes we have seen a lot more of Nanana and the room, I cannot help but think there may be more to this. Granted, we still have 3 more episodes left, hopefully that is enough length to flush out everything that needs to be told in a not so hasty manner.

With Noitamina airing Psycho-Pass Season 1 Re-edit and Zankyou no Terror in the summer suffice to say those will be better than this series by a long shot. However, I really do hope this series can pull through without running off the tracks.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: 5/10

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STAR DRIVER had a cameo this episode! Awesome! Not only does Nanana like playing videogames but she watches anime series too! Kiraboshi! Haha! This was a neat add in to the show here! I am enjoying Tensai and Juugo’s chemistry together. They seem to be quite the investigative pair. We also finally got a chance to see some more interaction between Juugo and Nanana. She is about the only character with not a lot of screen time in this series so far. Which is strange considering a large portion of the plot revolves around her treasures and the puzzles. I can see Nanana is growing on Juugo caring for him a lot more given that she continually gave him advice this time around instead of insulting him. This was about the only strong point of this episode. Everything else was just fluff with Yukihime’s relationship with Juugo.

One thing this series consistently does well in is its overall theme of being deceptive. We didn’t know Juugo was working for Matsuri for quite awhile and then he ends up betraying them here and there under the big reason that he wants to help Nanana find her killer.  Perhaps there is even more to that the series will throw at us later on. This show likes to hide a ton of background information from us and if the direction were more of a detective series rather than a light-hearted adventure series I would say this would have been a good route to go on. However, this show keeps building on this one fundamental piece to stray away from being boring. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t.

After the wonderfully animated fight they had everything turned into complete cheese. Full of melodrama that probably wasn’t necessary for the sake of the story. The comedy in this can be at times witty, but for most of the time its delivery is poorly executed that strongly indicates bad writing and directing. Kanta Kamei directed Usagi Drop [Bunny Drop] which was a fantastic look into raising children and the effects death, love, friendship has on them. Great character study. Also following up with this Ryuugajou Nanana could be having these issues due to the light novel source material.

I will give this series props for its colorful animation and awesome fight scenes thanks to A-1 Pictures, but please Noitamina bring back the Josei genre. Honey and Clover, Nodame Cantabile, Paradise Kiss hell even Paradise Kiss pulled off better comedic scenes than this show. Those series knew how to create a balance between comedy and drama whereas Nanana throws it in to fill up time. I do like the whole idea behind the puzzles and different groups looking for treasure it’s everything else in between that makes this stale. Anime adaptations of light novels there have been tons of series in the past whether or not they are Noitamina or not that have been horrible and some that are done pretty well to say the least. Please don’t place this show in that ranking. I will admit though the first half of this episode was decently enjoyable.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: 4/10

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This episode was a step up than what we had last week. The tone these previous episodes has been oddly executed but after watching this new episode I can see it may be a diversion to the whole treasure hunting plot for valid reasons. We could do without Yuiga, seriously the guy may have good contacts to finding treasures but he is a bit of an idiot. Especially after his speech on taking over the world in Episode 4.

Tensai is a much better character because she is actually solving these puzzles behind the scenes. Juugo has gotten a lot better too. I like how much the viewer is left in the dark when he works with Matsuri and with the group from last episode too. He didn’t get paid for the job delivering the suitcase yet he was able to pay his utility bill? This was nicely explained that he gave information on the ruins in order to receive any kind of payment. How clever! He is more of an informant than an actual high schooler. I also like the fact that the school isn’t much a focal point to the story in this series. I thought it had been watching the first two episodes but that is not the case here. Let’s hope I do not eat those words later on.

The comedy was well executed here too. Nanana is greatly affected if she doesn’t have pudding. Hahaha! Still the identity of her killer was put to the sidelines this episode but at least we were given some strong development in Juugo which for right now is quite important for such a short series. Keep this up A-1 Pictures! With this episode its slowly turning in a better direction.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: 5/10

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What happened here Noitamina? Last week we had such a nice development from Juugo along with the rest of the cast. We learned about his father a little bit more through their conversation on the phone and how much the story dynamically changed. With this week the tone had completely changed here? This was just as bad as episode 3 if not worse. The only piece of the story that was continued on from the previous episode was that Juugo left Matsuri and his dealings with his father.

The conversation with Yukihime was the only redeeming part of this entire episode. It was not because of the fanservice that was shown other than that it reinstated that Juugo is a pervert, but that both sides were really trying to come up with some sort of resolution behind what happened last week. For the remainder of the episode I felt like this was very separate from the rest of what this show has offered us so far. Really strange.

I think what had ruined this for me was the very beginning. Yuiga inviting everyone out to a hot springs. Daruku provided enough tension for Yuugo but what was with the suspenseful music? Is this all for show or just bad directing there? This series should be about treasure hunting but now it shifted into a slice of life with Yuugo coming up with ways to pay his utility bill off. The job he took was a rather strange one, delivery flour in a suitcase escorted by armed thugs.

Another problem we have here is how many characters we’ve been introduced to so far, and this episode included about three more. Series like this one that have only around 11 episodes can be rather tricky to bring in this much development all the while keeping it refreshing. I’ve seen a few series that have been able to pull this off correctly, and quite a few have trouble with this aspect of a story. Coppelion had 13 episodes and its writing of the characters were horrible, not to mention the pacing of the story. That of which I am beginning to see is happening with this series here. It really showed up in this episode with  how flimsy the writing was and the overall pacing of this!

OVERALL IMPRESSION: 3/10

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Oh Noitamina, I will still hold onto my words when I said earlier about broadcasting adaptation of light novels. Just keep on taking more risks. They should get someone to adapt Ohana Holoholo, talk about an awesome manga. Anyway, this series wasn’t what I was expecting, this episode definitely changed my opinion on it. This is what I was hoping for in this series when it first began airing. It only took 4 episodes to start getting pretty good. Kanta Kamei directed Usagi Drop, giving us a great look at parental figures and the relationships of families, yet this series as it started was so sour. It’s comedy in the first three episodes was horrible, and the story hadn’t even began. This 4th episode still followed that route in that the comedy was pretty bad. This led me to believe that this series wasn’t about treasure hunting adventures at all. That was just background material to play with. Mainly, I was worried this series was going to turn into a harem series for a while, this episode proved that there can be a deep story in this.

Ever since Yuiga was introduced I never thought he was a strong person, and this episode just further proved my notions on this. Taking over the world? He really IS an idiot like Yuugo said. While Juugo on the other hand just keeps on taking hits after hits, but what I didn’t catch on to was his influence over people. Furthermore, Juugo just got a heck of a lot more interesting. The fact he was working for Matsuri at the very beginning allowing the audience to be so left in the dark on this provided the push Juugo needed for this series. We still don’t know a whole lot about him, I wonder where this will lead him?

The theme this episode really played on here was deception and the power it has over people. Juugo tricked the Matsuri group with the Nanana’s collection lying eye, and he also has left much of his past to the majority of the cast in the dark. The phone conversation with his father allowed for some strong drama to develop! One that pulled on the idea that there is much more to Juugo. He was really trying to talk himself up to his father, looking for some kind of unspoken for approval. He did not want to be like him only that he wanted to be acknowledge of who he was, and that he has one big grudge towards his father exiling him to the island. This was great! The father has ultimately pulled this show into direction, hopefully forward into finding out the identity of Nanana’s killer.

The animation was the best out of all the episodes have aired here. The fight between Yu and Yukihime had such fluid animation! Was hoping it would have been longer, but than again maybe we weren’t shown it for a reason. The music left the same impression on me that I had  for M3 Sono Kuroki Hagane. It was different than what the rest of this series has offered so far. This episode was a big step up to what we’ve seen thus far, and I hope it continues on this track. I do wonder who the episode director was here, because they did a pretty good job here.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: 6/10

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After seeing 3 episodes of this series I can finally say that Juugo is not much of an interesting character. I really did not see a whole lot of development from him this episode. All he did here was continue running through the puzzles constantly losing and at the very last second winning at them. Tensai was in the spotlight here. She was able decipher the maze while Juugo nearly died from falling numerous times.

I saw the twist arriving with Isshin coming a mile away. Everything about finding Nanana’s treasures ended up being too perfect there had to be a hinderance somewhere and sometime soon otherwise this would have been very dull. This was an neat change of pace for this show, but it fell off the tracks here. The delivery here was pretty bad. Isshin just took the scepter saying he’s wanted it all along, this resulted in some poor drama on the writers part here. Make these characters slowly develop over time! This episode was terribly executed in the way they brought in a nemesis treasure hunter.

This show is moving more and more into a harem than it is a real adventure, perhaps the bright animation doesn’t work here. Especially in this episode. Take some more risks! This was too cliched in its characters Yuugo and Tensai pairing. The development right there left an overall bad impression of this show so far. Not sure how much longer I will keep blogging this series. Come on Noitamina go back to doing Josei series! Don’t have another disappointing series like Guilty Crown!

OVERALL IMPRESSION: 3/10

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