I’ve said this before, but Soredemo is a series that elevated itself in my esteem as much as any I’ve watched for a while. It was on the edge for me whether I’d blog it after the first couple of episodes, but somewhere roundabout the third episode my resistance wore […] Read more
What started out as a pretty typical chronicling of a Hotori misadventure developed into something quite a bit more in the final episode of Soredemo. I found this one hitting pretty much all the right notes for me, as the series itself did for most of its run. For starters, […] Read more
At long last – Mr. Poorman! It would be pretty hard to capture in words why this episode of Soredemo was so great, but it’s obvious enough when you watch it. In hindsight, this property was a perfect fit for Shinbo and SHAFT – the comedic style is in sync […] Read more
Soredemo continues to evade the trap of predictability through 10 episodes. While last week featured time travel and a focus on a minor character, this week showcased space aliens, ghosts and starred a character who wasn’t a character at all until this week. While the episode did in fact feature […] Read more
That was a pretty major change of course for Soredemo this week. By far the most serious ep so far, it featured Shizuka (the antiques shop lady) as the major character, time travel, and the craziest ping-pong match since Mayoi Neko Overrun‘s onsen episode. For starters, we had a pretty […] Read more
Udon vending machine – sugoi! “Careful – you’ll piss off the hipsters!” This series is pure Shinbo – in a good way – while maintaining the spirit of the original manga. In that sense it’s a worthy successor to Natsu no Arashi, with which I still feel it shares something […] Read more
Episode 7 of Soredemo is all sorts of win. This is a series that has continued to grow in my esteem after a fairly slow start, to the point where it’s now one of the shows I most look forward to every week. Sanada (heretofore known as “Eroyuki”) proves that […] Read more
I think I’ve figured out Arashiyama. She’s an idiot savant – OK, the focus is on the idiot, I admit. She’s incredibly dense about lots of things, guitars and computers being two prime examples this week. But she’s not a straight-up baka, either – she’s actually quite clever about detective […] Read more
Soredemo is like the Goldilocks porridge of Shinbo shows – it’s just right. In that sense it still reminds me of the first season of Natsu no Arashi, which struck that balance off creativity and restraint better than any other Shinbo show for me. I don’t quite put this one […] Read more
The 4th episode of Sordemo was pretty much all Moriaki-sensei, all the time. That comes as a bit of a surprise based on the first three, but he proved himself to be sufficiently eccentric to hold his own with Arashiyama. We learned a lot about Moriaki this week. He’s a […] Read more