Otome Animes: Summer 2016

In this post I'll be covering the 2 Otome Animes which are being showed this season: B-Project, and Tsukiuta. Both of them are Idol-type Otome Animes, and I've been eyeing the both of them, in hope that one day they'd be turned into anime, ever since I found out about them.

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B-PROJECT: Kodou＊Ambitious

B-project follows the point of view from the female led, who is a new employee appointed by the CEO himself for her to manage the group. She holds a very special talent for music, and is able to tell by hearing, despite not having gone through any education in that field.

The grouping follow the current idol trend in Japan - A huge group that is being divided into smaller groups. All together, we have 10 people.

So we have the first group called "MooNs" which consist of 5 of the members.

(from the right to left)

1. Tsuhiro Nome - V.A. Okawa Genki
2. Kzuna Masunaga (leader) - V.A. Uemura Yuto
3. Hikaru Ousari - V.A. Morikubo Showtaro
4. Mikado Sekimura - V.A. Masuda Toshiki
5. Momotarou Onzai - V.A. Kakihara Tetsuya

The 2nd group is a Duo called "Kitakore". (Idk if this was supposed to be a pun...) But I think they just joined the 'kita' from "kitakado" and the 'kore' from "korekuni" (man this is so suggestive).

And we have double 'Daisuke'.

(from the right to left)

1. Tomohisa Kitakado - V.A. Ono Daisuke
2. Ryuuji Korekuni - V.A. Kishio Daisuke

And the last group is a trio called "THRIVE".

(from the right to left)

1. Goushi Kaneshiro - V.A. Toyonaga Toshiyuki
2. Yuuta Ashuu - V.A. Hanae Natsuki
3. Kento Aizome - V.A. Kato Kazuki

There are some that most people would have already known from their pass history in Otome anime / Drama CDs (namely - Morikubo Showtaro, Masuda Toshiki, Kakihara Tetsuya, Ono Daisuke, Kishio Daisuke, Hanae Natsuki).

The one to look out for is definitely the double Daisukes (Kitakore duo), having one of the 2 most popular otome voice actors in a duo is a killer. When I first saw their album cover, it really caught my eye and I was seriously cursing why it wasn't an anime instead; especially because of the visuals. Now that it's an anime... I feel that I can rest is peace.

As for MooNs, most people would probably know Uemura Yuto as the voice actor who played Atsushi from Bungo Stray Dogs. He did a pretty good job in that anime, and I'll definitely be looking forward to his role in this anime, alongside Morikubo-san who will steal all the spot light where ever he is (and who is also in Uta no Prince).

In THRIVE, I definitely favor Goushi, mainly because Tosshi (Toyonaga Toshiyuki) is his voice actor. In most Otome or any anime-related roles, he is more known to play the feminine character due to his high-pitched voice. But as of recent, he has been getting more and more roles for the "rough" and "rebellious" type of characters, and boy does he sound super good in those roles. Definitely opening up my ears for this role.

As for Katto Kazuki, he is known to be as the person who had acted in one of the Kamen Rider series, and specialized more in stage plays, he doesn't have a lot of known anime roles, so I'm definitely curious as to how he would sound like.

I think the plot seems quite similar to Uta no Prince, with the main female lead having some sort of special talent that helps the idol groups in their activities and fame. But unlike Uta no Prince, this anime doesn't really have a proper plot line, and probably just follows the idea of it being a show about 'idols' and fan services.

Though I'd really like it if they went into deeper into the different technical terms and logic in the idol world, I feel that they would only be slightly touching the surface of it. And like all Otome animes, I won't be expecting much from this anime.

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TSUKIUTA. THE ANIMATION

Tsukiuta starts by introducing the characters performing their song, like a TV commercial. Tsukiuta uses 3D animation for their performance scenes.

So basically there are 2 separate groups (although they don't seem to be very separated), namely Six Gravity and Procellarum, and they both have 6 people in their groups.

The first and main group is called "Six Gravity"

(from the top right to bottom left)

1. Hajime Mutsuki (Leader) - V.A. Toriumi Kousuke
2. Haru Yayoi - V.A. Maeno Tomoaki
3. Arata Uzuki - V.A. Hosoya Hoshimasa
4. Aoi Satsuki - V.A. KENN
5. Koi Kisaragi - V.A. Masuda Toshiki
6. Kakeru Shiwasu - V.A. Kaji Yuki

The second group is called "Procellarum".

(from the top right to bottom left)

1. Shun "Demon Lord" Shimotsuki (Leader) - V.A. Kimura Ryouhei
2. Kai Fuzuki - V.A. Hatano Wataru
3. You Hazuki - V.A. Kakihara Tetsuya
4. Yoru Nagatsuki - V.A. Kondou Takashi
5. Iku Kannazuki - V.A. Ono Kensho
6. Rui Minazuki - V.A. Aoi Shouta

Other than Kakihara Tetsuya and Masuda Toshiki who are in both shows, their quite a different set of voice actors. On the whole, Tsukiuta has a more number of popular voice actors (pretty much most of them you would have seen or heard before somewhere).

In Six Gravity, we have Maeno who was in Uta no Prince, similarly to Morikubo, he was also in the "senpai" group in Uta no Prince, along side Aoi Shouta. Though the character he is playing in this show is a totally opposite character from the one he played in Uta no Prince.

We also have Toriumi Kousuke who was also in Uta no Prince's main team (although he only appeared in the 2nd season). This time round he is also projecting a different image.

Other than these 2, we also have Hosoya who is also projecting a very different image from his usual characters. While KENN, Masuda and kaji are about the same type of characters they usually play.

In Procellarum, we also have 2 voice actors who are pretty much the kings in the world of Drama CDs - Hatano Wataru and Kondou Takashi. Very versatile, and can pretty much pull off most characters.

Then we also have the all famous, and all rounder Kimura Ryouhei, who is in charge of the leader role, though I would like to see him in a more childish character some time.

I feel that in both anime, Kakihara plays the more quiet characters, though for B-project, his character is a little more emotionless-type, while in Tsukiuta, he plays the shy-type.

Ono Kensho is also starting to gain more popularity on the Otome-side, and is starting to get more hyper characters. I felt that he has improved a lot since the last time he did an hyper character. Definitely looking forward to his improved voice acting.

Last but not least, the main reason why I had my eyes on this, was because of Aoi Shouta. I really love his voice, and I'm definitely all in for his singing. He also played in Uta no Prince as an emotionless character, which is similar to this character (although this character is human, not robot). I'm probably just biased, but... HIS HAS BEEN REALLY CUTE SINCE THE FIRST SCENE GOD DAMN IT!!!

So this story, unlike most Otome story, doesn't have a female lead role (at least not yet). It starts out when a female fan had her younger brother go to their hand shake event for her, because she was sick in bed. After which he actually bumped into the idols in backstage, where he got lost at. He thought they were staff members, and was helped by them.

The 3 idols later than went to spend some time with him before the hand shake program started. Which only then did the young brother realize that they were idols. After this incident, he began to start liking them.

In terms of story line, even though they both suck (like how all otome animes all do) I feel that Tsukiuta had a lot more impact to it, and it felt like there was a more solid story line compared to B-Project, though I don't really like the 3D animation, Tsukiuta's song had a lot more impact.

First Impressions: Orange

As some of you may know, Orange has been a growing-ly popular series that recently have had a movie adaptation. And although there was a pause in the serialization due to certain problems with the author's mental health, it came back even more stronger than ever. And finally, we have an animation adaptation. 

I've re-read the series a couple of times: a few times in English and once in Japanese, and I've also watched the movie, so you can say that I have many expectations and already have many assumptions for this work.

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The story first starts out with a "future" scene of the group of friends, digging up the time capsule they had made during their high school days. Then moving forward, we have the scene where Naho receives a letter from her future self.

All these follow closely to the manga's story line.

And they introduced Kakeru into the anime. At this point I was already feeling that there was just something a lot different about this as compared to the manga. 

For one, I feel that the scene right before Kakeru was being introduced, was a little bit too unnatural. There have been many 'introducing the new student' scene in many different anime, so there are some 'standards' that frequent anime watchers expect.

In most of the shows, the introducing scenes is either fast forwarded and simply just showing the teacher writing down the student's name on the black board while the new student introduce him/herself. However, because this scene is an important scene, and contributes greatly to the main plot line itself, there is no way they would use this method.

The other 'method' would start from the very beginning where the teacher would introduce that there would be a transfer student, and the students would start buzzing and saying things like "I wonder if it's a girl or boy", or "I hope he is handsome", etc. Which was no different from this scene. However, the little mistake was that they actually took a close up shot of one of the mob characters. So instead of a buzzing effect, it would seem like this mob character have some sort of importance to this scene - but in actual fact, we all know, that he doesn't have any importance at all. And in overall, it just makes this scene, in overall, a lot more dull than it should have been.

If they were going for a bit of that sharf animation's "abstract" type of animation, it would be a lot better if they had many chattering at the back with a selected few lines to emphasis on, while flashing a few mob characters which said those lines. To lower the emphasis on the mob character and the up the tension in the class, they could also just show parts of the mob character instead of their faces, like: their mouth, or them turning to talk to their friends about it.

Another one of the reason, was that I felt that they should have used an OST here. Especially with Naho reading her letter, I felt that it should have a mystery and melody-like OST, or just a tune to pique the watcher's interest and show the importance of the letter when the letter and what Naho was experiencing in reality matched.

After which, it was a scene where Kakeru was told where he would be sitting. I felt that instead of just showing the two main character's faces, they should have dragging the scene from Kakeru's point of view to show where Naho was sitting. Because here, we can't really get a view of where the 2 of them would be sitting. It would also be a good chance to see the layout of the classroom, especially since many scenes would be happening in the classroom.

After which Kakeru walked over to sit, I felt like they spend a little too much time showing Kakeru walking over. But the biggest problem I felt was that; in this scene, Naho was supposed to feel a little shocked, confused and shy (seeing as how her personality is). However, in this scene, she was pretty much emotionless, and it kind of made this whole scene defeat it's purpose. Because in this scene, they were suppose to show that Naho was taking an interest in Kakeru - be it because of what's being said on the letter or be it because she just felt like that the first time she saw him.

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So fast forward time, and it's after school. The group of friends invites Kakeru to hang out with them after school. But we can see that Kakeru was a bit troubled.

I actually really liked how they emphasized on Kakeru's actions, because this scene is a huge key that leads to whatever happens in the rest of the anime. We have him saying stuff like "No... today is kinda..." when Suwa tried to invite him out, and then also "Just let me send one e-mail first" when they kept persisting. This line wasn't in the manga, so I was kinda pleased that they decided to add this in for more emphasis.

And in the next scene, they were doing self introductions, which led to a little joke corner. Honestly, I couldn't really get this scene when I was reading the manga, but I could sort of get that they were just trying to show that Kakeru could mix well with the people around him even though he may not be able to relate to them much when it comes to certain jokes about the city or town itself, because he is from Tokyo.

But in this scene, I didn't get that feeling at all, and it was overall a very weird and strange scene for me (or maybe it's just cause I don't get the jokes?) Either way, what brothers me the most was probably the angle of the camera. Because of the way Azusa said her question (which, to me, sounded kind of serious), and the way Kakeru answered it, it just made the whole scene really weird. In the scene where Kakeru answered "the Azusa limited express", the camera only showed Kakeru's mouth area - and usually this is done only when the character is in an emotionally negative scene, which in this case, shouldn't be happening. So I wasn't really sure what they were trying to do with this scene.

Next scene, when Azusa brought her family's bread for them, they actually made a name and a mascot for her bakery, while in the manga there wasn't much mentioned about any of it (probably because it wasn't the main purpose of this scene). It makes it a lot more memorable, and I felt was a wonderful touch to the story.

While they were handing out the bread, and deciding who takes what, the breads were given out to the rest of them first before Suwa asked Naho which ones she wanted. Naho actually wanted the curry bread, but said she didn't mind whichever she got, so she ended up with all the sweet breads. 

I didn't quite like how they changed the sequence of things here. Because this scene was suppose to place more importance about Naho's personality of 'not wanting to bother others because of herself'.

In the original scene, Suwa first asked Naho which bread she wanted, after which she got the 2 sweet types of breads, and while seeing the rest fight for the curry bread (1 was given to Kakeru), Naho was relieved she didn't picked the curry one. But in the anime, none of that was mentioned.

So I felt like the meaning of this scene changed a little.

After the breads were all sorted out, Naho met Kakeru's eyes when Kakeru was observing her (because he noticed about her 'lie'). In this scene, similar to the classroom scene, they just showed each other's faces individually. 

I felt that it would have been a lot better if it was shown from either Naho's perspective or Kakeru's perspective, and not a 3rd person's perspective. That way, it would have a lot more emotions and sense of noticing that 'something', instead of having a random staring competition with each other.

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The next week, Kakeru didn't come to school at all. And when he came back, the first scene was him and Suwa playing soccer together.

When they asked Kakeru what happened, he just said that he skipped while putting on a smile. In this scene Kakeru was trying to act strong (for those who read the manga, would know why), and despite showing a smiley face - I don't really know if it was intentional - but I liked how they drew more obvious bags under his eyes at a hint that something was wrong.

The next scene shows Naho and Kakeru talking to each other, and also about how Naho's foot hurts because of her shoe. I felt like this scene really lacked emotion, especially because this scene was supposed to be a huge development between the 2 which led to Naho falling for Kakeru. I felt that there was a total lack of emotion from the voice actor.

Kakeru is being voice acted by Yamashita Seiichirou; one of the newer voice actors, whom I don't actually know, and have yet to really take notice of his voice.

Kakeru, to me, is an emotional teenager who is facing a lot of negative emotions during his time in high school, but he tries to cover it by acting that he is happy. But other than that, he is actually a really normal teenager.

So for me Kakeru's voice is that of a teenager - a very rowdy and cheerful person. But because he is trying to cover up his 'sadness', sometimes I feel he goes over the top to pretend to be all right, so in most scenes, his voice should be more exaggerated when it comes to all the happier emotions, to show that he is actually trying to force himself. But of course there are also other scenes where he truly feels happy, so they would actually have to differentiate the scenes.

However, for the whole show, I felt that they were pretty much labeling Kakeru as an 'emo' character, and I barely felt any emotions from him from the beginning of the anime.

In this scene, I really felt that he was really lifeless, and even when he asked Naho about her shoe, it just felt like he was asking for the sake of asking. I felt like there should be more emotions like curiosity and worry within.

And also the part where he was complaining about Hagita being really bad at soccer, it should have sounded a lot more like a complain than a statement (especially because of how much Kakeru likes soccer), and also a lot more like a teasing statement, like how guys always joke around with their friends.

The next huge scene that I thought needed improvement was the last scene where Kakeru went to help Naho with her injured foot.

Somehow in this whole scene, Kakeru just sounded like it was his 'duty' to help her. But I feel that this scene was one of the scenes where Kakeru was doing it because he took an interest to Naho, and he should sound more gentle, kind and also a little playful (because of his personality). It was one of the scene where Kakeru actually put his whole heart into noticing Naho instead of his mother.

Overall, I thought that Yamashita needs a little more improvement with his emotion inputs into Kakeru. Because Kakeru isn't an 'emo' kid, but someone who is actually a cheerful one if it wasn't for what happened. I'll be looking forward to see how he develops and grows Kakeru.

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Suwa is being voiced by Furukawa Makoto, to whom most of you know as the person who voiced Saitama from One Punch Man.

Suwa is the mood maker of the group (and obviously, this anime itself), he acts really playful and cheerful, but he has his kind and manly sides.

Honestly, I was really looking forward to how he would portray Suwa, because I felt that his normal personality is pretty similar to Suna, and that he wouldn't have much problems. But what I found out when I first started watching was that, there just wasn't enough emotions put into his character. It was overall a very dull and unmemorable moment. Suwa is supposed to be the guy who leaves a very deep impression in you despite not having many scenes (at least for the first episode he doesn't have many scenes). But it didn't feel anything like that.

I hope that as his character develops, it will improve overtime.

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The rest of the characters were pretty ok. I especially liked Naho, Hagita and Takako's voices, I felt like they were a match.

When I first heard that Hanazawa Kana was playing Naho, I just couldn't help but think that she was perfect for the role.

As for Takako (voiced by Kinugawa Rika), I was pretty surprised, because it is her first main role, and she actually did a pretty good job.

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As for the art of this anime, it does follows the manga art style to a certain extend, however, it's just not as pretty. I feel that they made it look a little bit to much of a realistic style, and the manga was a lot better.

However, the lighting and the backgrounds were all really pretty, and I really liked it. It really gave off the feeling that the cover page of the manga gave (I don't really know how to describe this feeling...)

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All in all this anime is worth the watch, for this season, and many are already taking a liking to this anime.

Release Date (for eng subs): Every Sunday

Nisekoi

Image from: http://myanimelist.net/anime/18897/Nisekoi

Name: Nisekoi ニセコイ

Status: Completed
Episode: 32 (20 + 12)
Release date (for eng subs): -

Summary:

Raku Ichijou, a first-year student at Bonyari High School, is the sole heir to an intimidating yakuza family. Ten years ago, Raku promised his childhood friend that they would get married when they reunite as teenagers. To seal the deal, the girl had given Raku a closed locket, the key to which she took with her when she left him.

Now, years later, Raku has grown into a typical teenager, and all he wants is to remain as uninvolved in his yakuza background as possible while spending his school days alongside his middle school crush Kosaki Onodera. However, when the American Bee Hive Gang invades his family's turf, Raku's idyllic romantic dreams are sent for a toss as he is dragged into a frustrating conflict: Raku is to pretend that he is in a romantic relationship with Chitoge Kirisaki, the beautiful daughter of the Bee Hive's chief, so as to reduce the friction between the two groups. Unfortunately, reality could not be farther from this whopping lie—Raku and Chitoge fall in hate at first sight, as the girl is convinced he is a pathetic pushover, and in Raku's eyes, Chitoge is about as attractive as a savage gorilla. 

Nisekoi follows the daily antics of this mismatched couple who have been forced to get along for the sake of maintaining the city's peace. With many more girls popping up his life, all involved with Raku's past somehow, his search for the girl who holds his heart and his promise leads him in more unexpected directions than he expects.

Summary by: MAL Rewrite
Summary from: http://myanimelist.net/anime/18897/Nisekoi

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Personal Ratings:  3.2 / 5

Idea:  4 / 5

While the idea of having a "pretend" relationship isn't really all that unique, but in fact pretty common and widely used in the shoujo genre, the way they used a "symbolic" approach to identify his past 'lover' was something different.

I have seen some manga used this kind of approach before, but I have never seen it being used as the main part of the story. Though, I would have to complain about the design of the locket; having a locket that big, I doubt there would be anyone who would wear it.

Having the 2 main characters (and most of the side characters) share the same type of family background is also not one of the mainstream methods. Most of the relationships starts off by being 2 very different beings, or beings that are different from the 'norm' which sparks off the relationships.

Execution:

Development: 3 / 5

As for how the story goes, I actually do feel that it’s not a bad anime as far as harem anime goes. Even though I do think that they could have focused more on some other characters. But I still liked how they stayed focus on the two main girls, on top of that, rather than having all the girls who like Raku (main character) have a key each, I liked how they actually spread it out – some have, and some don’t. I feel that it actually did made the viewers understand the good sides of Raku, instead of the normal harem where the main characters I liked for no reason.

However, as far as how much the main purpose of this story progressed, I feel that it didn't moved much since the beginning. While certain truths and facts were revealed, there wasn't any conclusion made as to who Ichijou's 'fiance' was.

Emotions: 2.5 / 5

For me, I didn't really feel any emotions towards this work. The story was pretty stable and there wasn't much ups or downs in the anime. But I also feel that the characters are pretty hard to related too, especially because their backgrounds are pretty far off from any average normal household (I mean, how many people's family are in relation to the yakuza, gangs and police?) which makes it hard for us to relate back to the characters and how they are feeling.

Planning: 2.5 / 5

I know that this was done to drag on the story more, but, I did feel that there was a lot lesser emphasis put on the main story of this anime, which is the pendant lock and the keys, at the back of the anime. At the beginning it was always mentioned and there was so much emphasis put onto that, to the point that it was really annoying, but towards the end of the 1^st season and the whole of 2^nd season, it was hardly mentioned. I think that they should have spread the emphasis throughout the whole anime to make it more balanced.

Also the past memories which were mentioned a thousand times in the anime kept on getting overlapped with one another as new characters are being introduced into the anime. Some contradictions due to the lack of planning there. 

Main Character Development: 4 / 5

This whole story is basically about Raku, and follows his perspective. As a result the person whom the viewers will know the best at the end of everything is Raku.

That being said, Raku shows quite the development towards each girl, and it's properly showed as to how he feels about each girl in different stages of the anime.

Side Character Development: 3 / 5

Though I think that Shuu (Raku’s friend) did play a huge role in this anime despite being a side character, I did feel that he wasn’t really there in Raku’s private life, even though he has been with Raku ever since. Moreover, I did think that they should have added more emphasis on his character throughout the whole show, even if it’s for a few seconds. I think giving the viewers a better understanding of this character would actually make his love story a lot more engaging, instead of having it felt like it was an extra plot added into the story.

As for the girls, it was nice how they actually prioritize Chitoge and Onodera even though there was an influx in girls in the later part of the story (season 2). Though I felt that the development with Onodera was pretty much at a standstill because nothing has changed since the first episode, you could see a huge development for Chitoge's and the other 2 characters.

Seiyuu:  4 / 4

I think selecting Uchiyama Kouki for Raku’s role was one of the best thing ever in this show. Uchiyama’s voice has a plain feel to it, yet his voice still stands out, which I think was what gave Raku a presence in the anime. It was also really fun to hear Uchiyama’s voice in with all sort of emotions, which was an added bonus for me.

It came to me as a shock when I heard Kaji Yuki was selected for Shuu’s role, and not the main character’s role. But it’s only after watching for a while that I understood that Shuu’s role is probably one of the hardest to act out, mainly because Shuu has many hidden emotions behind his words – so even though it’s being said in the same way, Kaji has to input different emotions behind it. And it’s also hard to understand when Shuu has realise certain “secrets”. But as expected of Kaji Yuki to carry all this out perfectly.

As for the female roles, I feel that all of them were the perfect voice actor for their role. With Hanazawa Kanna carrying out the roles of a quiet, sweet and yet easily embarrassed Onodera; and Komatsu Mikako carrying out another gender bender role.

While I feel that Touyama Nao had carried out Chitoge perfectly (as always), I was most pleasantly pleased with Uchiyama Yumi’s Ruri (Onodera’s friend). Though her character has a very typical “lazy” voice, I feel that the way she expresses Ruri’s emotions through that same type of voice is what makes her perfect for the job.

OST: 0 / 1

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Art Ratings: 4 / 5

Yet another anime done by shaft. And to be truthful I don’t really liked the style of animation done by shaft, yet I still find this anime bearable. So I do think that people who don’t usually like shaft animation can give this anime a try.

The main reason why this anime is more bearable is that they do not enforce their strong “shaft” animation style into the whole anime, but instead it feels like a more subtle form of input. I actually like how they use a more artistic form of approach in the whole anime, but not too over imposing.

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Similar Animes:

Ookami Shoujo to Kuro Ouji:
In this anime, the two main protagonist was also in the "pretend" relationship. Although, not a harem, but a very typical shoujo anime and plot line, I think that this anime and Nisekoi are very similar with their "pretend to be a couple at first and then falling for each other" plot.

However, for Ookmai Shoujo to Kuro Ouji, they did become a real couple after which, unlike Nisekoi, where the relationship status is still unknown.


Toradora:
Toradora doesn't have any of the "pretend" relationship status, but more of a "cheer each other" plot. In Toradora, the 2 protagonist likes 2 other people, in which they agreed to help cheer each other on, but ended up liking each other during the process.

Although in Nisekoi, there wasn't really any "cheering each other" going on, I feel that the plot was kind of similar with their two friends helping Raku and Onodera get together (though they didn't end up having feelings for each other), and the misunderstanding between Onodera's and Chitoge's relationship status with Raku was also similar.

Though, Toradora has a more serious plot compared to Nisekoi with all the comedy in it. But the complexity of the characters feelings for each other and how they came about was about the same (maybe Toradora was a lot more in depth compared to Nisekoi).

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Recommended for:

Gender: Both
Age: 16 and above
My Ratings: PG-13

Anime Goods Unpack 1: Osomatsu-San & Prince of Stride Goods

Finally my package arrived, and I thought I would do a post on the unpacking and products details of what I've bought.

This time, I bought 2 Osomatsu-San keychain and Prince of Stride goods and some other manga, but I'm not going to show that.

Since Jyuushimatsu is my favorite character, I only bought Jyuushimatsu goods. The other matsu brothers also have the same goods. You can go check it out at cdjapan.com

First impressions was that the keychains were really a lot bigger than what I've had expected. Especially the wooden one (left), so I chose to use the Acrylic one (right) on my phone. 

The Acrylic one comes together with the jackpiece, for phones with no place to string your keychains. But since mine is a Sony phone, there was a place at the bottom to string it.

I tried to place it on top, with the earpiece jack to see how it looked like, but I prefer my key chains to be below, so I took out the earpiece jack. By the way, both the string and the earpiece jack can be taken out, so you can choose either one depending on your phone type and your preference. 

Next are my Prince of Stride goods. I bought the Galaxy Standard CD, which comes with a free photo card, and 2 pass case.

For one, I didn't actually know that there would be a free photo card with the CD, So that came to be as a surprise. I guess you get one at random, so I was pretty lucky to get the character I liked (Tasuku).

Well it's kind of like a loose piece of photo card in the same size as you standard photos which you can frame up, but it's loosely cut so there are some whites left over at the sides.

Next are the acrylic cases I bought, there are a total of 4 different designs for each school, but I chose Saise and Honan. 

I bought it because I really liked the designs, but I honestly think that making it your standard plastic casing would have been better than acrylic, because acrylic easily gets scratched, so now I'm going to have to be very careful with my bus pass. But I won't complain about the quality, it's really well made, and can probably last longer than your regular case.

 

So basically you have to take off the chain before you can slide in your pass. The chain acts as a stopper, so it has to be there. And because the backside is transparent, it's convenient to put your identification card.


Except for a few small scratches on the pass case, everything arrived in good condition, and they bubble wrap everything, even your books.

Recommended Anime: Spring 2016

Spring 2016

Shoujo:
*Tanaka-kun wa Itsumo Kedaruge
Sakamoto desu ga?
Super lovers (Yaoi)
Shounen Maid

Shounen:
Bungou Stray Dogs
**Boku no Hero Academia
Joker Game
*Koutetsujou no Kanaberi
Kiznaiver
**Re: Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu


On-going from Winter 2016

Shoujo:
*Nijirou days

Shounen:
Ansatsu Kyoushitsu 2


View List of Recommended animes here: http://strawberryshortcake-reviews.blogspot.com/p/recommened-animes.html

* Highly Recommended for this season (Sequels not included)