Berserk, Boku no Futatsu no Tsubasa, Otomen, She and Her Cat

Playing catch-up with this post :x for the record the Berserk in question is the anime. Each discussion will contain SPOILERS for that particular series.

Berserk
This one was very enjoyable. It sort of reminded me of a medieval epic, something like Braveheart, or even Gladiator. It seems to take place in that era of time, but there's also a strong mythical element to it, with monsters and such, though the series doesn't really touch on that except for one particular fight in the middle and then the ending. There are basically five or six central characters, with the main ones being Guts, Casca and Griffith of those five. They're all pretty well developed, but especially the three I just mentioned. Since the anime has a lot of story scenes (going into it, I admit I expected mostly just a bunch of hacking and slashing) it's important that the characters are interesting, and Berserk's characters are definitely interesting.

The ending I found was quite powerful, though if it weren't so bizarre it could've had a stronger impact. It was crazy that basically every character we've followed throughout the series died in that one episode, with the exception of Guts and Griffith. It was pretty sick what happened, especially to Caska who did not at all deserve the death she got. It paints Griffith as quite the antagonist, and it sets up the series well for more story with present-time Guts, out to destroy the God Hand. It's unfortunate that the anime ends here, with so much more manga material to cover, but apparently when the anime was made this is how far the manga was so it couldn't be helped. It definitely makes me want to check out the manga.

Overall, a great watch.

Boku no Futatsu no Tsubasa
I've always just called this one "the hermaphrodite manga". Basically it's about this girl's cousin who moves in with her, and while she thought her cousin was a boy, it turns out she's actually a girl... or rather, a hermaphrodite as developments would reveal. The bulk of the story is spent following the hermaphrodite as she (he? it?) goes through school life in the city while trying to conceal the fact that she isn't *actually* a she. As it happens, she also doesn't know anything about sex and this leads to quite a few funny scenes as her cousin introduces her to various things that she now has to deal with, being in a school environment where she desires to have a boyfriend or girlfriend.

So most of the manga is just light-hearted fun with the idea of a hermaphrodite protagonist, but there's also another side to it that isn't very enjoyable. At random intervals throughout the series the group would be attacked by mysterioud men in black, and these sections felt very out of place and for most of the series weren't explained. Then, about 3/4ths into the manga they give an explanation and it's all downhill from there. Making it so that the hermaphrodite is actually an alien was just stupid, and then the plot with the men in black being to capture her for testing or some such nonsense. On top of that, the ending was awful, with her going back into space with her father then coming back to Earth like a couple pages later to have sex with her cousin. Right. Totally random and just a horrible way to end the manga.

It's unfortunate that it took such a dip in quality, but most of the manga was enjoyable.

Otomen (vol. 4)
(copypasta from a topic on GameFAQs)

Best volume so far, by a long shot. I think I laughed more times throughout this one volume than I have over the other three volumes combined. Otomen vols 1-3 I'd rank like 7, vol 4 bumps it up to 8 at least no question. Whereas a lot of the humour in the first three volumes was hit or miss (imo), vol 4 just hits the bullseye every time. The first chapter kicked so much ass too. Ryo's dad is a great character, so to do a chapter on him experiencing girly things was the greatest thing ever, and his reactions are hilarious. Almost even better is that new flower obsessed character. How he'll randomly pop up in frames after he's introduced just putting flowers in people's hair, it's just so funny to read :D

Very very pleased with volume 4. Perhaps the best part of all was the total lack of complicated, bizarre plots that last for all of a chapter and don't seem to accomplish anything other than having Asuka get into a bit of trouble. Chapters like the forced marriage one in volume 2 I think it was, were just very very meh. Doing away with them, and just keeping up the comedy the whole way through is great. It totally overshadows the fact that Asuka still hasn't pushed to develop a relationship with Ryo, that doesn't even matter if it continues just as a laughs manga like this :)

She and Her Cat
I actually finished this one a while ago. It was a short film by the Voices of a Distant Star guy, basically about a cat and its life with its owner, a single woman. It was cute but there really wasn't much to it. There really isn't much to discuss about it. I don't regret watching it, and the animation was impressive being the work of one man but there really isn't anything else about it that's particularly interesting or great that stands out. It's just a short film about a cat :x worth watching since it's so short.

Next up on my list of animu to tackle is either Shuffle or Paranoia Agent, depending on what I wind up in the mood for. On the manga front, Strawberry 100% and Flowers of Evil.