#jk no mudazukai

[miss-floral-thief]

[weeblmaodotcom]

THE SoL trio setup [JK no Mudazukai] , Meme by Weeblmao.com

[scottlarouxwrites]

2019 Retrospective

Taking a look back at memorable anime from 2019 and generally being a sappy boy

2019 Retrospective

There are spoilers ahead. If you see a show title you haven’t watched yet, you might want to skip that section until you have.

Another year of anime lived. I was going to begin this post by apologizing for how late it is, but then I realized I’m actually a couple days ahead of last year! So instead, I’m going to act undeservedly proud. I expected nothing less of myself.

This…

[abe-khajur]

Comedy anime where girls are the protagonists who are portrayed for what they are and their age and just in general having the time of their lives is so rare and few! Asobi Asobase and JK no Mudazukai is peak comedy and it's so raw when it's just depicting these girls being dumb, loud, funny, reckless, playful without a care for stereotypes.

It's so fresh! I had tears in my eyes laughing at each episode because good lord I wanted a school life just like that!!!!

Bless the Mangaka and the voice actors and the entire production staff!

[rieshon]

Best of 2019

It wouldn't be a best of the year post if it wasn't hopelessly late.

10: Shinchou Yuusha ~Kono Yuusha ga Ore TUEEE Kuse ni Shinchou Sugiru~ ∥ White Fox ∥ Dir. Sakoi Masayuki: The title makes this sound like it could be terrible but this series has a Konosuba-like aplomb that makes it one of the best comedies of the year. Toyosaki Aki is absolutely brilliant as the shithead damegami Listarte and the animation consistently matches her over-the-top comedic masterclass. The show even has a real ending; opinion is split but I found it surprisingly satisfying.

9: Babylon ∥ Revoroot ∥ Dir. Suzuki Kiyotaka: This is the first Strand-type anime. Babylon is incredibly hard to describe and, having only seen it once, I'm not even fully confident in saying what it's about. It is a wild ride that meditates on some serious themes and seems to come to conclusions that won't be entirely comfortable for a lot of readers. This is one you really have to experience for yourself.

8: Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari ∥ Kinema Citrus ∥ Dir. Abo Takao: The most discoursed-about series of 2019 ends up being a surprisingly mature take on the isekai tensei genre. Like the best entries in the genre it features a protagonist who is deeply flawed and Naofumi's journey to learning to trust and love again is genuinely moving. It definitely does come off a bit like an incel fantasy at first but it is ultimately way more nuanced than that could ever suggest. Also, Raphtalia is best wife.

7: Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai ∥ Gemba ∥ Dir. Mizushima Tsutomu: Tsutomu, you son of a bitch, you did it again. While Kotobuki doesn't reach the rareified air of Garupan (pun not intended) it is very much in the same vein, and offers unending joy to any nerd who loves warplanes or just aviation in general. The script from the always-excellent Yokote Michiko is tight and compelling and gives a genuinely interesting backdrop to the frenetic plane action. Kotobuki is an excellent example of the power of showing rather than telling, something anime is woefully bad at: the fact that Kotobuki's isekai setting is never really expounded on makes it that much more interesting.

6: Hitori Bocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu ∥ C2C ∥ Dir. Anzai Takefumi: If Katsuwo's other work to be adapted into anime, Mitsuboshi Colors, is about being a child, then Bocchi is about the fraught transition from childhood into early adulthood. The titular Hitori Bocchi will be a frighteningly relatable character (my comment for the first episode on my blog was 'We Are All Bocchi') but unlike other series clearly aimed at alienated nerds, the show never feels sorry for Bocchi and most importantly, Bocchi doesn't feel sorry for herself. The show is explicitly about the importance of stepping outside of your comfort zone and although it's hard for Bocchi to do this, with the help of her friends she's able to work up the courage necessary to grow from a scared child into a functioning young adult. Also she's cute as fuck.

5: Machikado Mazoku ∥ J.C. Staff ∥ Dir. Sakurai Hiroaki: This is one of the best Kirara anime in ages. Kohara Konomi and Kitou Akari are a wonderful comedic combination, and Shamiko is probably the cutest girl of the whole year. She's pretty much the definition of the phrase "moe through helplessness" which makes her quest to be an evil demon truly hilarious. Like all the best Kirara anime, Machikado Mazoku slowly becomes a yuri anime as Momo's character develops and it becomes increasingly clear that she's just hard gay for Shamiko. I could watch these two be tsundere for each other forever.

4: Joshikousei no Mudazukai ∥ Passione ∥ Dir. Takahashi Takeo: There were a lot of excellent comedies this year and I always find them hard to review. Where Mudazukai particularly excels is the crassness of its characters: like the title suggests these aren't your typical cutesy anime JKs. They crack dirty jokes, take the piss out of each other, and feel more genuinely like friends than a lot of high school girls in anime. Akasaki Chinatsu in particular is pitch-perfect as 'Baka,'  its like she was born to be stupid. Probably the funniest show of the year, even though I have one comedy ranked above it.

3: Senkizesshou Symphogear XV ∥ Satelight ∥ Dir. Ono Katsumi: The fact that a Symphogear series could end up this high on the rankings is something like a miracle. After years of me shitting all over it for incomprehensible plotlines and disposable characters, they somehow not only fixed it in the last season, but even retroactively redeemed some of the elements from those shitty third and fourth seasons and created some of the most thrilling moments of the year in the process. It even goes as far as to reach back to the first season and address the latent themes of Japanese nationalism that have always hung over the show in resolving Tsubasa's character arc. XV delivers such a satisfying conclusion that it fully justifies the past six years spent on developing the Symphogear series in a way I never thought possible. It's a beautiful thing to behold.

2: Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai ~Tensai-tachi no Ren'ai Zunousen~ ∥ A-1 Pictures ∥ Dir. Hatakeyama Mamoru: The romantic comedy is probably the most prolific genre in late night anime, and Kaguya-sama stands shoulder to shoulder with the greats. Everything from the voice acting (Koga Aoi should be a superstar, and Kohara Konomi is already on her way to being a household name) to the animation to the direction to the writing is superb. Kaguya even delivers in spades in the "romantic" side of "romantic comedy" which isn't something every rabukome can say. The number of series that I can say have made me cry from laughing and from emotion is pretty small, but Kaguya is proudly among them.

1: Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo ∥ Lay-duce ∥ Dir. Andou Masahiro & Tsukada Takurou: After all these years, Okada Mari has finally delivered her magnum opus. There has perhaps never been a more frank discussion of female adolescent sexuality than Araoto, drawing heavily as it does from Okada's own lived experience as a confused and bullied teenager. These girls are fragile people who are walking a knife's edge between childhood and adulthood, and they don't always keep their balance. As someone who didn't grow up as a girl, it's not something I can intrinsically understand, but it's a testament to Okada's writing that Araoto MAKES you understand what it's like to be a teenage girl going through puberty. It's ugly, it's dangerous, it's scary, and... it's something every woman goes through. Araoto deftly tackles themes of discovering ones sexuality, homosexuality, and the pressure put on young women by a society that both sexualizes them against their will but also demands that they remain chaste and pure. It is unlike almost anything else that's ever been made in this medium, and that's why it's my anime of the year.

Honorable mentions... Like I said above, this was a strong year for comedy so some good series didn't make the cut. Ueno-san wa Bukiyou was a great showcase for Serizawa Yuu's comedic chops (which us Pripara fans have known about for years) and featured some of the most memorable gags of the year... Kemurikusa saw Tatsuki triumphantly return to television with his first full length work since Kemono Friends, and I frankly found it to be better than Kemofure; a truly enjoyable work of post-apocalyptic science fiction... Speaking of science fiction, I also feel compelled to mention Kanata no Astra, which seemed underappreciated but ended up being an extremely well-written SF series. Of course, we also have to mention Kono Yo no Hate de Koi wo Utau Shoujo YU-NO if we're talking about science fiction; I didn't particularly like YU-NO's second half that much, but it's worth watching if only to understand where so much of modern anime comes from in the first place.

The awards go to...

Best Actress: Koga Aoi as Shinomiya Kaguya, Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai. I mentioned above that this girl should be a superstar, and it's frankly absurd that she hasn't gotten more leading roles considering the considerable talent she shows off as Kaguya. She's a one-woman wrecking crew in this series, with her ability to effortlessly straddle the range between "cold and detached psychopath" and "petulant 8 year old throwing a tantrum" being the lynchpin of a lot of the series fundamental humor.

(Honorable mention: Akasaki Chinatsu as "Baka," Joshikousei no Mudazukai; Yukino Satsuki as Magase Ai, Babylon)

Newcomer Seiyuu of the Year: Kohara Konomi. It's a sweep for Kaguya-sama, and the voice acting is a big part of the reason that show was so exceptional. It kind of feels like cheating to give this to someone who's already played a Precure, but Toei were just really ahead of the curve on this one. 'Koko-chan' exploded onto the scene in 2019 between her roles as Fujiwara-shoki and Shamiko in Machikado Mazoku, with a distinctive vocal style and a knack for comedic delivery. Several of the most memetic lines of the year, like Fujiwara's "Don da yo!" and Shamiko's "Kore de katta to omou nayo!" come courtesy of her, and I feel like that ability to stick in people's minds is a testament to her level of talent. Though I gave Koga the nod overall for her performance as Kaguya, it's clear that Kohara is the one the industry has earmarked for future success with the level of prominence she's had over the past year or so, so she gets this award.

(Honorable mention: Fairouz Ai. "Fai-chan" made a splash thanks to her unusual background, but she's also proven to be a talented actress after appearing from seemingly out of nowhere to play Hibiki in the Onegai Muscle anime. It's out of the scope of this post, but she really made an impression in Oshibudo as Eripiyo, but her body of work is still too thin for her to win this award outright. She's shown she has a knack for the funny with her brusque and aggressive delivery, but I'd really like to hear her as a dramatic lead sometime soon.)

[recentanimenews]

Wasteful Days of High School Girls Gets TV Drama Adaptation in January 2020

Manga artist BINO announced on her official Twitter today that a live-action TV drama adaptation of her representative work Jyoshi Kousei no Mudazukai / Wasteful Days of High School Girls slice-of-life comedy manga will be aired in January 2020. It was previously adapted into a 12-episode TV anime by Passione in the summer of 2019.

  The manga's original edition was serialized in Nico Nico Seiga. Then its remake edition started posting commercially on KADOKAWA's web comic site Comic Walker from December 2015. It is now running on KADOKAWA's Comic Newtype site and its latest seventh tankobon volume is set to be released January 10, 2020.

  【情報解禁】 なんと、信じられないことにこの度『女子高生の無駄づかい』がTVドラマ化されることになりました。 え…？????ええええええええええええええええええ!?? ど、どーーーーーなるんだこれlえぇええぇ!???? 2020年1月スタートです㊗️㊗️㊗️#女子高生の無駄づかい#女子無駄 pic.twitter.com/Dlyj0PlzCa

— ビーノ (@bambi_no_3) November 27, 2019

   The drama's key station TV Asahi has posted a teaser visual introducing its four main cast:

  Nozomu "Baka" Tanaka: Yui Okada (19/Watshi no Ojisan -WATAOJI-) 

Akane "Wota" Kikuchi: Yuri Tsunematsu (21/Saki, 3D Kanojo Real Girl) 

Shiori "Robo" Saginomiya: Yurika Nakamura (22/Kakegurui) 

Masataka "Waseda" Sawatari: Keita Machida (29/Gekidan EXILE)

  ／ ????情報解禁❗️ ＼ 主演 #岡田結実✨大人気漫画が初ドラマ化???? 2020年1月スタート???? 金曜ナイトドラマ「#女子高生の無駄づかい」 キラキラしていない????…甘酸っぱい恋もない???? 女子高生=#JK たちのハナクソ????みたいな日常を描く 超挑戦的コメディー❗️#岡田結実 #恒松祐里 #中村ゆりか #町田啓太 pic.twitter.com/hkjeOSU3bV

— テレビ朝日宣伝部 (@tv_asahi_PR) November 27, 2019

    Message from the manga author:

  "All of the characters in this manga have some unfortunate side or inferiority complex, but they don't try to overcome them basically. Only low-level everyday life continues in a classroom where low-level girls gather to have low-level conversations. But I think that's why there are points that the readers can be empathized with them, cheered up, and laugh. A live-action drama can convey such an atmosphere more realistically than manga and anime, so I'm so excited to watch it already now." 

  Manga tankobon 1st and 6th volume covers: 

     Source: BINo Twitter, TV Asahi PR Twitter, Cinema Today

  ©BINO/KADOKAWA 

    By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[weeblmaodotcom]

This setup is surprisingly common both for SoL comedies and other shows [JK no Mudazukai] , Meme by Weeblmao.com

[miss-floral-thief]

lol this teacher is a mood

[rieshon]

Summer 2019 Power Rankings

1. Araburu Kisetsu no Otomedomo yo.: The best anime about horny teenagers and Okada Mari's best work this side of mom movie. Have gone back and forth on giving it a five, it's four for now but a truly memorable series. ★★★★☆

2. Joshikousei no Mudazukai: High school girls are shitheads in one of the funniest anime I've seen in a long time. Akasaki Chinatsu was born to play giant dumbasses, fitting that her character here is literally called Baka. ★★★★☆

3. Senkizesshou Symphogear XV: This series somehow redeemed itself and delivered a final season with a hype level higher than it's ever achieved before. Really made suffering through the last couple bad seasons worth it. ★★★★☆

4. Machikado Mazoku: Yet another great Kirara anime, one of the best in recent years in fact. Shamiko is the definition of moe through helplessness and Momo is a big gay cutie. Could almost be upgraded to a four in the future. ★★★☆☆

5. Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru?: This anime is supposed to make you want to work out but it just makes me want to JO. That's why it's good though. Immaculately good animation and Tachibana-sensei is the best girl, but listening to Fairouz Ai yell is a special experience. ★★★☆☆

6. Vinland Saga: The rare dude anime that I actually like thanks to its interesting historical setting and great production values. ★★★☆☆

7. Tejina Senpai: The cutest Hondo Kaede senpai is probably the lewdest girl of the season. The comedy doesn't always land but who cares when there's a big tiddied senpai around. ★★★☆☆

8. Kanata no Astra: This show was the surprise of the season, with a surprisingly well-woven plot, actual character development and a satisfying ending in a nice sci-fi package. ★★☆☆☆

9. Sounan Desu ka?: Still more proof that you can make a show about JKs doing literally anything and it will be good. ★★☆☆☆

10. Granbelm: It's a typical Hanada Jukki anime, which can be good or bad depending on your perspective. This one definitely has his typical melodramatic flair but it's pretty effective at times. Also, Hikasa Youko turns in one of the best single performances of the year as the redheadm, and Yuuki Aoi knocks her role out of the park too. ★★☆☆☆

11. Lord El-Melloi Nisei no Jikenbo: It has lots of good channees, but I didn't find the mystery stuff very interesting throughout. There's also some Fate stuff I guess. If you liked Waver/Rider in Fate/Zero there's some fanservice for that in here too. ★★☆☆☆

12. Tsuujou Kougeki ga Zentai Kougeki de Nikai Kougeki no Okaasan wa Suki desuka?: I love moms and I love Kayano Ai and I LOVE Kayano Ai as a mom, but unfortunately Mamako is not actually a good mom character and it drags this entire enterprise down. Nice animation though. ★★☆☆☆

13. Cop Craft: This started off as one of the best shows of the season, and I still think the writing is great, but then the budget evaporated. ★☆☆☆☆

14. Nakanohito Genome [Jikkyouchuu]: My main man Oonuma Shin comes through again, turning a show that I should have rightly hated into a fun and unique romp. Still not a great show, but with the concept it had, it was way more entertaining than I ever expected. And Roromori was good. ★☆☆☆☆

15. Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka II: They didn't even go in the dungeon the whole time. Lovely JC Staff production values but the entire story feels like a pointless exercise. I liked the brown girls. ★☆☆☆☆