The summer-season came with a lot of interesting and unique series. Probably the weirdest of them is Tetsuko no Tabi. Not weird as in an extremely strange setting, but weird as in “how the heck did this get turned into an anime!?” Basically, what we have here is one of the very few non-fiction anime: a manga-writer is asked by her boss to accompany him and a travel-writer on a train-journey. The catch is that it really happened: they really did travel with various trains, and the anime is just an adaptation of the manga which records what happens. Obviously, this is never going to get popular. Still, I’d like to write this review, because this anime is really quite enjoyable.

The main reason behind Tetsuko no Tabi’s enjoyability-factor is the characters, or to be more specific: the chemistry between them. The travel-writer turns out to be a huge train-otaku, Yokomi. While otaku-characters are often annoying to watch, seeing his energy and passion for trains (and sometimes girls) is hilarious, but the character that really shines in this anime is the manga-writer, Kikuchi. She has no interest in trains whatsoever, and she keeps getting freaked out by Yokomi’s antics, but most importantly she’s delightfully witty and sarcastic. While most Japanese are often polite to each other, it made no sense for her to remain so, because Yokomi would read her true opinion anyway in the manga. Because of this, she passes the screen ranting against Yokomi to cool down. Her seiyuu is an unknown one (her only other major role was Kate in Red Garden), but she’s someone to watch out for. It really feels like she puts everything she has into her role, while having great fun doing so, and it works perfectly.

During some episodes, some guests also travel along with our protagonists. These are of course real people, who read the previous volumes of the manga and asked to join, and there are quite a few interesting people among them. The only downside to this is that the later half of the anime doesn’t feature any guests at all, with one exception, but he leaves quite quickly. But then again, that’s not something you can plan with non-fiction, is it?

The main flaw about Tetsuko no Tabi is that there isn’t much else apart from the characters. They’re everything in this anime. ^^; The story is much of the same. The individual episodes do have their own identity (for example, in one a ticket gets lost, in another they travel to Hokkaido, in another the characters are playing with a digital video-camera), but the series keeps consisting out of platforms and trains, and barely any other setting. The graphics are also very simplistic, especially the background art and CG, though at least the character-designs look simple yet good. The background music also consists out of standard but catchy tunes, and especially the OP is really fun to watch after a few times.

Overall, yes, it’s repetitive. But it’s also fun to watch and a great opportunity to learn a bit about the Japanese culture. Some of the sceneries are quite nice to watch. Still, I can imagine that most people won’t pick this up, and if you hate trains this series will be hard to like as well. At this point, only one episode has been subbed yet, and it doesn’t look like the rest of the series will come soon. I’ve just reviewed Potemayo as well, and I have to say that Tetsuko no Tabi definitely delivered more and consistent laughs for me.

At the start of the summer-season, I remember predicting that the title of best comedy of the season would go to either go to Sayonara Zetsumou-Sensei or Potemayo. Well, Sayonara Setzubou-sensei ended up winning it. That’s not to say Potemayo isn’t funny, but a in terms of comedies, there are better choices.

The comedy in Potemayo is basically based on timing. You’ll never know when something funny happens. This would have been perfect if the jokes were awesome, but it turns out that they’re hit-or-miss. You’ll never know when a joke lands, and you’ll never know when it’ll deliver. There are enough cute moments, but I’m afraid to say that the best jokes were in the first two episodes.

Basically, the story is about a strange chibi-girl who comes out of the main character’s fridge and starts living with him, and the anime basically follows their everyday activities along with the main character’s classmates. Again, the characters are a mixed bag. The ideas behind their characters are nice, but some of them just don’t get anywhere and keep repeating the same jokes over and over (Mutan and the ones around him come to mind). Other characters were quite interesting though. My favourites were Yasumi and Guchiko, who seemed to be behind some of the best jokes of the series and had the least amount of misfired ones.

Potemayo also has a few serious scenes, as an attempt to get some sympathy with the viewers, but for me at least, it didn’t work well. Most of the drama is annoying and rather lacklustre, and only the final episode ends up somewhat touching, until the ending turns out to be a disney-ending, at least. Potemayo also seems to think it’s a mystery-series by revealing the major part of the main character’s past in the final episode. I think it would have been better for this to have been revealed in one of the first episodes, so that he could have actually used this bit of much-needed development instead.

I may have been a bit too negative with this review, because I enjoyed watching it. Potemaho has got quite a few cute and genuinely funny moments; though don’t expect a masterful comedy here.

Ah, finally Mononoke is back. I’m glad that I returned to the subs, as it’s much easier to concentrate on the mystery here. I’ve stopped to believe that Mononoke can produce a story that’s better than Bake Neko, because let’s face it: the thing that made Ayakashi ~Japanese Classic Horror~ so great was its shock-value. Bake Neko also was much more aimed at horror, while Mononoke goes more into the intelligent direction with unique and original character-studies. While that’s awesome in its own way, it’s not going to be as tense as Bake Neko.

The main theme of this episode: scents. There are three major characters in this one so far, which is more like the second arc. The female heir of a famous school in the arts of scents has to marry, and there are four guys after her hand. The lucky person will be determined by a game, where everyone needs to smell different scents and try to discern which are the same. The game is called Genjikou.

Basically, the fourth guy didn’t show up, the medicine seller takes his place, and later he ends up killed, along with the heir herself. It then seems that the heir possessed something that the three guys wanted even more than the woman herself: the Toudaiji. The clues we have is a strange dog which walks around, a strange girl, a strange stone carrying a kimono and the fourth guy brutally killing himself in the beginning of the episode.

The scent-game is quite interesting. It’s just like in the second arc, with the fish: a great and original way to develop the characters. Two of the guys are scent experts, and yet they turn out quite differently. Then there’s a samurai who doesn’t know anything about scents, and the best he can make out is the scent of horse dung. He ends up with the conclusion that all scents are the same.

Then there’s the game itself: every possible combination of scents, which refer to a story called the tale of Genji. One chapter tells about a woman with four lovers, though surprisingly the heir decided that all five scents used were the same. Why did she do such a thing? And why did she decide to use the Genjiko to begin with? Also, why did the fourth guy of all people die? Was he special? Did he actually love the heir?

What also should be taken into consideration is the art style: every single colour is washed out, except for when someone smells something and the medicine seller. But not only that: it only happens with scents that move them, and quite possibly make them forget about the Toudaiji. This can be helpful for the next episode: the bright colours simply symbolize something like genuineness or something similar. What should also be noted is that the old servant is also washed-out, just as the heir. The dog however, appears bright.

Another building-up episode, but it really feels like the bomb is about to burst: a person, hugely popular with the commoners has died, people are in unrest, the police are barely able to keep them quiet, Cosette is about to head off to England and Eponine FINALLY makes her move again.

While the thing Eponine did (remove Cosette’s letter in which she explains to Marius where she went) probably won’t have much of an impact (Marius has already accepted the idea that Cosette’s better off in England), something tells me that this is only the tip of the iceberg. Eponine now knows Cosette’s new address, and something tells me that she’ll be using that… will she seek the help of her father?

And interestingly enough: she knows that Gavroche is in Paris. I can’t remember when that happened, though. It’s been too long ago, perhaps. Eponine’s confrontation with Cosette was awesome, though. It would have indeed been the best way to get rid of the pity that she’s been having for Cosette, being in love with Marius and all.