Join me as I desperately look for a replacement for Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi. One of these shows must have blogging potential, right? 

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Holmes of Kyoto Ep. 1

Another Aoi… oh boy.

Opposite of Aoi is Holmes. His name is actually Yagashira Kiyotaka, but he’s not undeserving of his nickname. Y’see, he works as an appraiser of antique goods, and despite his young age and relative lack of experience, he excels at his job. He also has a talent for reading people, using his sharp deductive abilities to sniff out counterfeits and fraudsters. Unfortunately, the world of antiques is not a topic that sets my passions aflame. Honestly, I feel a bit letdown by this show, because I thought Holmes and Aoi would be solving cool mysteries in and around Kyoto. Unfortunately, they’re mostly concerned with the antiques that people bring to his family’s shop. That’s my fault for having the wrong expectations, though.

Anyways, the girl came into his shop one day, because she wanted to sell two of her late grandfather’s precious antiques. She needed money, and she needed money bad. Why?

Because her boyfriend cheated on her with one of her friends. She wanted to buy a ticket just to go and tell both of them off. Yep. That’s it.

Girl, c’mon… were you really going to sell something so priceless just to yell at your dirtbag ex? Holmes then used a history lesson on Hakuin to convince the girl to let go of her anger and bitterness. Afterwards, he offered her a job. If she still wants to yell at her ex once she’s saved enough money, she can do so without any guilt. Since then, the girl has been working part-time at the antique shop. How do I even react to that? A job just fell out of the sky and right into her lap. Talk about lucky. Sure, she lost her boyfriend, but boys are a dime a dozen. Jobs, on the other hand, are truly precious.

Anyways, the girl probably already has a crush on Holmes. Just look at the way she beams as she walks home from work. C’mon, nobody’s that happy after a job unless they just spent all day with someone they like. The problem here, however, is that Holmes is about to head off to graduate school. Meanwhile, Aoi’s just a second year in high school. He sure does like to tease her, though:

I dunno, if you’re in college and you’re flirting with a high schooler, that’s pretty pathetic.

Of course, it looks like the fruit didn’t fall very far from the tree. But enough about that. At the moment, the show’s tone and atmosphere feels very subdued. This is an anime you might enjoy if you like to take it slow as you sip your tea or coffee. There’s nothing with that, per se. I personally just prefer a little more excitement in my life. I’ll give Holmes of Kyoto another shot next week, but I’m not going to get my hopes up.

It looks like we have a villainous monk in next week’s episode, so who knows? Maybe the anime will be a little more fun to watch once this troublemaker starts mucking things up.

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Asobi Asobase Ep. 1

I don’t have much to say other than that I really enjoyed the first episode. I found it pretty funny, and the girls all have amusing personalities. They also feel authentic if that makes any sense. Honestly, I could imagine meeting a less exaggerated version of these girls in real life. Anyways, if the rest of the episodes can hold up, this will probably be my favorite comedy of the season. Unfortunately, I don’t normally blog about comedies.

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Jashin-chan Dropkick Ep. 1

This show, however, was no good. It was no good at all, and the girls all seem kinda dumb. I didn’t crack a single smile during the entire episode.

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Phantom in the Twilight Ep. 1

Usually, reverse harems bore me, but if one of the bishies is going to whip out a giant gatling gun, then I might be able to survive this one.

Our heroine Ton is studying abroad in London with her best friend whose name I can’t recall at the moment. I guess that means we’re sick and tired of Paris, so we’ve chosen yet another ironic Western European city.

Unfortunately, she and her friend don’t get very far before an invisible goblin steals their luggage. You can sorta see it in the screencap above. No, really. After a short and fruitless chase, the girl turns to magic to lead the way.

Yep, magic. By drawing an insignia onto a piece of notebook paper, then folding it into the shape of an airplane, it can lead her to where she needs to go…

…which is a cafe full of hot guys. You’ll often find that cafes full of hot guys can solve all of your problems.

It turns out that Ton’s great grandmother Sha Rijan used to own the joint. Oooh, obachan, what were you up to back in the day? The fact that these boys know all about her great grandmother implies that they must be over a hundred years old. But hey, girls at her age tend to like dating older dudes, right? Anyways, the guys decide that the best thing they could do for the descendant of their precious Sha Rijan is to retrieve the girl’s luggage. This takes them to the goblin’s hideout in, well, Hyde Park. No pun intended, I’m sure.

The goblin, however, has lots of buddies on its side, so it’s an all-out fight between the bishies and the uglies.

On her way to the park, Ton bumps into a mysterious man. Earlier in the episode, he had swiped a ring from the goblin as it was running by. This ring just happens to belong to Ton. When she puts it on, she attains a magical red glow, which somehow goes completely unnoticed by the girl. The mysterious man then takes a keen interest in our heroine as she runs to catch up to the boys.

When Ton finally gets to her destination, she finds Vlad, one of the bishies, in trouble. She then awakens to her great grandmother’s unique weapon. Apparently, the old woman fought with chains. A cafe full of hot guys and now chains? What else are we going to find out about our obachan?

The chains help to immobilize a giant spriggan, and Vlad uses this opportunity to straight up vaporize the creature. I guess we don’t need to worry if we just committed murder or not. They’re thieves, so they deserve to die…? Meanwhile, Ton is in shock, because she can’t quite comprehend what she has just experienced. I mean, yeah, seeing a huge fight between magical bishies and goblins must be quite a shock to her system. But at the same time, she literally used magic just earlier in the episode. Magic.

Vlad doesn’t want to involve Ton any further in this world of… well, whatever it is. All we know so far is that he and his buddies are “Phantoms,” but the story has yet to explain to us what this label means. Still, the dude’s name is Vlad, so it’s hard not to imagine what his gimmick would be. He proceeds to erase Ton’s memories and implant fake ones. She now believes that the police had gotten involved and helped her get her luggage back. The next thing she knows, it’s already morning. Finally, Ton goes to meet up with her best friend. Unfortunately, the latter is immediately kidnapped so here we go again. Poor Ton hasn’t even had a bite to eat since she arrived in London. C’mon, give her a break.

All in all, the first episode is alright. I’ll watch the show again next week. As a side note, Sugita Tomokazu’s voice is way too recognizable. The show is full of big names in the world of Japanese voice acting, but still, that guy sticks out like a sore thumb.