Tonari no Seki-kun
The series follows a girl named Rumi Yokoi who is constantly distracted by her neighboring classmate, Toshinari Seki, as he indulges in elaborate hobbies and somehow never gets caught in the process.

-- This is a series of shorts - very short, being only seven minutes long per episode. You're entirely in Yokoi's head in this series as she tries valiantly to make sense of what Seki is doing, which seems to often be right on.

Alice and Zoroku
The existence of humans with supernatural powers is kept a dark secret, hidden from the outside world save a research facility created to understand the principles behind these people, known as 'Dreams of Alice'. The story centers around Sana, an orphan girl belonging to the research facility as an experimental test subject, and nicknamed "Red Queen" due to her immense power despite her youth and childlike demeanour. After a narrow escape from the research facility, she wanders to the city of Shinjuku and meets an old man named Zouroku Kashimura, who kindly takes her in after sympathising with her story. Soon, he adopts her as his granddaughter as they grow close during their time together, be it during dangerous situations when trying to evade the research facility and everyday troubles of Sana growing to know the outside world better.

--This should have probably been in the fantasy section alongside Mob Psycho. It's been a little bit, but I remember enjoying this show...I can't remember much of it though, which suggests it didn't really have a strong impact on me...Of course, it could also just mean my memory is garbage, which I know is definitely true. I have a whole post of series I forgot, with some series that I absolutely adore after all.

Interviews with Monster Girls
The story takes place in an age where demi-humans, more casually known as "demis", have slowly started to become accepted into human society. Tetsuo Takahashi is a biology teacher who ends up teaching three such demis, hoping to understand more about them while also managing to catch their attention.

--This show is quite refreshing, while the wikipedia excerpt suggests otherwise, while the girls may have crushes on the teacher, he has - to my memory - no interest in them in that way. Aside from the obvious Dullahan girl, there's a vampire, a yuki-onna(snow woman), and one of his fellow teachers is a Succubus.

A Centaur's Life
The series takes place in a world that took a different path of evolution from the world we know resulting in mythological creatures, such as centaurs, satyrs, mermaids, and demons, taking the place of humans in today's society. The story largely focuses around a centaur girl named Himeno Kimihara, as she goes about her daily life with her friends and family.

--A slice of life show with no humans, this show, much like Interviews with Monster Girls, goes into a lot about how a world filled with such diverse creatures as angels, demons, centaurs, merpeople, and bipedal snakes from Antarctica would work, with occasional forays into the geopolitics of the world, and it's prejudices - while claiming for everybody to be fully equal - and it's hypocritical and zealously enforced majority rule democracy. This one's a little bit all over the place, but that's kinda what life is like. Everything just keeps happening. ....Makes for a bit of an uneven story though.

Dagashi Kashi
Shikada Dagashi, a countryside shop selling cheap candy and snacks ("dagashi") has been run by the Shikada family for nine generations, but Kokonotsu does not want to take over the shop from his father, Yō, instead aiming to become a manga artist. Hotaru Shidare visits the shop one day hoping to recruit Yō to her family's company, the sweets manufacturer Shidare Corporation, but Yō refuses unless Hotaru first can convince Kokonotsu to take over Shikada Dagashi.

--This one is incredibly informative about Japanese snacks - which are either real products, or are changed just enough that anybody who lives in Japan would know exactly what is being talked about in much the same way a show based on American snacks would over here. Also, just because I think it's cute, have the ending credits.

Hidamari Sketch
Hidamari Sketch centers around a young girl named Yuno who finally is able to get accepted into Yamabuki Art High School, which she has longed for. To attend the school, Yuno moves and starts to live in a small apartment building named the Hidamari Apartments located across the street from the school. Once there, she quickly becomes friends with three other occupants at the apartments, including her classmate Miyako and two second-year students: Hiro and Sae. The events of the characters' everyday lives are shown as they attend the school together and get to know each other better. After a year has passed, the girls move up a year and two freshmen, Nazuna and Nori, arrive at Hidamari Apartments. After another year passes, Hiro and Sae graduate while another freshman, Matsuri, moves into the apartments.

--Not a lot to say about this one, it's a Cute Girls Doing Cute Things show, in this case art in it's various forms. There's five series/seasons and an OAV it looks like.

Gatchaman Crowds
Early summer of 2015 in the city of Tachikawa, Japan. A "second metropolis" of Tokyo, Tachikawa is protected by the Gatchaman, warriors who fight in special reinforced suits called NOTE powered by the manifestation of their spiritual powers. After the introduction of their newest member, the energetic and cheerful Hajime Ichinose, the Gatchaman must deal with Berg Katze, an enigmatic alien creature who, having destroyed several planets, has turned his attention to Earth.

-- Gatchaman Crowds is vaguely related to the original Gatchaman (Of Science Ninja Team/Battle of the Planets/G-Force fame) and is considered part of the franchise, but this incarnation is extremely different in a great many ways. There's almost nothing else I can say about it that isn't in some way some sort of spoiler, though I will say that it feels like this (and it's sequel) are a series that would fit into UF in some manner.

Denki-gai no Honya San
(Have to go to TVTropes for this writeup)
Denki-gai no Honya-san!, or The Electric Town's Bookstore, is a Slice of Life comedy series revolving around the daily misadventures of the employees of the Umanohone Bookstore, a parody of real-life doujin stores in areas such as Akihabara.
The employees of Umanohone include the clumsy Hio-tan, aspiring mangaka Sensei, shutterbug Kameko, zombie fangirl Fu Girl, the quiet Sommelier, anime and dating sim Otaku Umio and their store manager, Director.

--This show is an adorable, somewhat horny yet also somehow wholesome, metaphorical and topical counterpart of sorts to Skull-faced Bookseller Honda-san. While none of this is biographical, as suggested by the writeup above, it does still handle some of the issues of running a bookstore as well as the various types of otaku who frequent (and run) it.

This Art Club Has A Problem
Focusing on the adventures of the members of Tsukimori Middle School's art club, where only Usami Mizuki cares about art at all. The president is always sleeping, while Uchimaki Subaru is only interested in painting his perfect 2D wife, frustrating Usami.

--Wikipedia doesn't have much of a writeup on this, but this is a fun little semiromantic comedy.

Himouto! Umaru-chan
Umaru Doma is a high school girl living with her older brother Taihei. At school, Umaru appears to be the ideal student with good looks, top grades and many talents. However, she transforms into a kid-sized layabout and spends time at home feeding her video game and food addiction, much to Taihei's dismay. Throughout the series, Umaru uses her alternative personality to make friends with others, while at home she throws tantrums about Taihei not buying her things.

--A quite fun comedy series that also kinda sorta explores a little bit of how people hide parts of themselves from others. It's not...entirely clear how literal that transformation from school diva to gremlin is, which I honestly kinda like.

Kaleido Star
Sora Naegino is a young Japanese girl with great acrobatic talent who travels to Cape Mery (a mix of Los Angeles and San Francisco), California in hopes of auditioning for the Kaleido Stage, a world-famous circus which has mesmerized her since childhood. However, she runs into difficulties as soon as she arrives. She gets lost on her way to the Stage, is leered at by a mysterious stranger, and has her bag stolen by a thief. Employing her acrobatic skills, Sora chases down the criminal.

A kind police officer gives her a ride to Kaleido Stage only to discover she had missed her audition, an event upon which her idol, Layla Hamilton, advises her to return to Japan. However, after a performer is injured, the owner of the circus, Kalos offers her a chance to perform. Sora, humiliated by her failed efforts decides to return to Japan. Kalos, having seen her earlier chase, reconsiders and informs Layla that Sora's performance will eventually be the main act at the circus, earning her reluctant respect.

--This one is kind of a sports drama, or at least as close as I've ever really gotten to one (Save maybe Megalobox) and kind of...defies simple explanation. I really enjoyed it, though a couple of points infuriated me (Of course she's going to have trust issues after THAT, you dipstick, UGH.)

That's about everything, I think. Aside from some additions to the stuff I forgot post, that should be if for this flood. Remember, if you have anything you'd like to suggest, please speak up! C'mon, I know there's more of you anime nerds around here. :D

Well, not entirely in Yokoi's head. We get a view of Yokoi and Seki from one of their classmates later on. She completely misunderstands the dynamic between them, which adds another layer of comedy on top of Yokoi's frustration.

Peter Eng
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Insert humorous comment here.

-- From the creator of Cowboy Bebop. Lots of fun rock history references. On Netflix in the US.

World Trigger

Parallel worlds exist, drifting closer and farther by some unknown physics. When they're close enough, it's possible to open a gate between them, and four years back, a gate opened over Mikado City. The so-called Neighbors invaded, but were repelled by the organization known as Border. Since then, Border has maintained a watch over the area, recruiting people who have strong Trion to help defend the area from the Neighbors.

Osamu Mikumo is one of the recent recruits. Now, in the typical anime way of things, he'd be one of the strongest recruits ever. This is not a typical anime; he has so little Trion that he was initially rejected.

When we meet him, he's just entered high school, and he's been given the task of helping a new transfer student, Yūma Kuga. Yūma does fit the typical role of a transfer student in at least one way; he's incredibly powerful, and that's a problem - because he's also a Neighbor.

The series to this point is a mix of battles against Neighbors, and a Tournament Arc, as Osamu works to find a way keep his promise to protect Chika Amatori. (Also, one filler arc which could easily be skipped.)

I like this series for two reasons. First, Osamu isn't the protagonist because he's powerful; he's the protagonist because he's smart. He's a natural strategist and tactician, and one of his team's early losses was due to him not playing to that strength. I'm a low-level tactics geek, so I enjoy watching somebody win a fight with intelligent teamwork.

Second, the animators don't cheat. Every time that Osamu pulls a surprise on somebody, it's possible to back up and find a clue that the surprise was coming.

Heroines Run the Show

Hiyori Suzumi has moved to Tokyo to chase her dream; her rural high school doesn't have a track team, so her middle school coach used his contacts to get her a place at Sakuragaoka High. (That name gets used a lot, doesn't it?) Unfortunately, her father injures his back, and can't work as a fisherman until that heals. To make budgeting easier for her family, which includes a mess of younger siblings, she goes looking for a part-time job. What she gets pays well, doesn't take up so much of her time that it gets in the way of track meets, and only has one problem.

She's going to be the assistant manager for LIPxLIP, an up-and-coming pair of idols who are also in her class, and she isn't allowed to tell anybody.

This one grabbed me because Hiyori is just that engaging a character. As the series goes on, we learn more about everybody, and at the end, while I didn't agree with everything everybody did, I understood why they did it, and it all made sense from their viewpoints.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

I mean, I'm not gonna say Hikari is my favorite vampire, because that would get me in a lot of trouble, but she's pretty awesome.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
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