Myself; Yourself

Title:Myself; Yourself
Overall:Watch
Keywords: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Notables: KOSHIMIZU Ami
KOYASU Takehito
Hikada Sana returns to his hometown after 5 years away living in Tokyo. Although there are some changes to the town, most has remained the same. On a detour to his apartments, he notices a girl in a shrine maiden outfit watching him when he visits the shrine. The next day at school he finds out that this girl is actually Yatsushiro Nanaka, his old childhood friend whom he gave a bracelet to before he left; a bracelet which she still wears, even to this day.

(Synopsis courtesy of Anime News Network)

[TV series, 2007, 13 episodes, 23 min]

Characters left to right: Oribe Aoi (the helium-voiced meganekko), Yatsushiro Nanaka (the violinist miko), Yuzuki-sensei (the "candy lady"), Wakatsuki Shuuri (the strong-willed twin), Mochida Hinako (the 11-year-old insisting on being an adult), and Hoshino Asami (the cute competitor).

2:38min Promo/Advert - YouTube Video
1:28min Opening song (the "rock concert") - YouTube Video
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Watch 8 8 7 8 8 8 Dreamer [series:1690#2279]
This one's a strange one. We've got a deranged sick grandma, a vindictive lesbian, incestuous undertones and suicidal tendencies. Sounds like a winner? Read on.

Art, Animation & Character Designs
Artwork seemed a bit below par. Although it wasn't bad, it just wasn't up to snuff. Animation was nothing out of the ordinary. Character designs on the other had, were not up to the norm. I mean, they seemed cheaply drawn. It was still bearable nevertheless.

Music
The OP was a nice pop-alternative piece that actually was sorta catchy. I actually sat through a few times and listened. Not bad at all. The rest of the soundtrack were nice piano & string pieces and softer tunes that would portray a sense of sorrow or emotional pain... though not to the extent of EF, but similar. The ED was an alternative piece with female vocals. It wasn't too bad either.... and catchy. The violin piece in the last episode (where Nanaka is playing), was beautiful piece, but much too short).

Series and Episode Story
Let me first complain about Aoi-chan's voice. I HATED IT!! My God, it was such a high-pitched, annoying and irritating voice! Watch it subbed, and not dubbed and you'll see what I'm refering to. Now that that's out of the way, this series is about strong bonds amongst childhood friends.... a common theme in anime. The plot revolves around our close friends and their relationships amongst each other. However, it doesn't start getting interesting until around episode 9, and there's where shit hits the fan. Things start getting revealed and secrets come out. It definitely caught my interests from that point. By the end of the last episodes, things get wrapped up and all the secrets are revealed and there's a bit of a bittersweet feel, but not quite.

Overall, it was an ok series but didn't really do anything until the last few episodes. The end seemed rushed but somewhat satisfying.

Last updated Thursday, December 24 2009. Created Thursday, December 24 2009.
Buy 7 7 8 4 8 8 Xenoknight [series:1690#2967]
A story about 5 teenagers and how they all handle the reality of the tragic situations in their lives while never forgetting the bond that keeps them together.

This is one for the record books. The 5 characters (except for one) go through hell in their own lives, while never forgetting the friendship they all had when they were little.

It was certainly a story to behold in its own right, though it was heavily compared to that of School Days (TV). They both had advantages and disadvantages if they were to be compared to each other. For instance, while school days had only one major subject or theme as its foundation and everything sprout from there, this title had many different subjects to grasp and comprehend as they all were connected deep into the flow of the story. While school days had its one subject continue to spiral out of control and tragically worsen as the series continued, this title had many small "breaks" in the story arcs. As if to say: a problem arises - drama ensues - characters find a way to beat the problem (successfully or unsuccessfully - depending on the issue). It was like that for about 2/3 of the series until the highly dramatic final string of episodes.

All in all, this is one that left me a suprised face the entire way through the series. Never losing its edge, I was constantly reminded that something could happen at any time and to focus on the plethora of clues that were shown to fully understand and appreciate the shockers as they appeared later on in the series. Truly one anime title someone could put up on the shelf and have a smile from ear to ear when they walk by. LOL

Never forget Xenosaga.

Last updated Thursday, October 09 2008. Created Wednesday, September 10 2008.
Watch 8 6 7 7 6 5 Ggultra2764 [series:1690#1552]
Next to Ai Yori Aoshi, Myself, Yourself stands as one of the biggest disappointments of a potentially fresh title that I've seen. In the case of Ai Yori Aoshi, a fluffy romantic drama is suddenly turned into a harem comedy by the show's fifth episode. For this series, this slice-of-life high school anime later tries to pass itself off as the next School Days by adding in more shocking plot developments per episode in the show's second half without providing any depth to the issues.

As it starts off, this series has believable circumstances in which Sana becomes reunited with his friends and becoming accustomed to the changes that developed with the town he had used to call home in his younger days. The friends hang out together and Sana wonders over the change in personality with Nanaka. Sure this foreshadowed that there were some personal issues that Nanaka had. But, the 13-episode format would have given a decent amount of time to resolve the issues and possibly create some romantic development with the two while the other members of their circle of friends played support to the relationship.

Unfortunately, this anime had to throw in dramatic situations out of nowhere by the second half which crippled any chance of additional depth or slow development that occured in Sana and Nanaka's relationship development. The series has to toss in as many shocking plot elements as possible to try making this series as daunting as possible. The problem with throwing in these additional plot elements is that it makes the plot to the series a big mess. There isn't enough time to devote a great amount of time to these sudden developments thanks to the 13-episode format of the series and some of the situations felt so over-the-top that they wouldn't even seem too believable (like the murdering old lady). Had this series ran at double the episode length then the additional character situations would have a reasonable amount of time to be resolved in a solid foundation and there wouldn't be any need to adding in shock value.

May I also mention that it was hard for me to take Aoi seriously throughout much of the series because I had visions of Azumanga Daioh's Chiyo-chan dancing through my head whenever I heard her voice considering both are voiced by the same seiyuu.

As it is, Myself, Yourself was one of the most disappointing titles I came across since Ai Yori Aoshi since the direction of the series had to suddenly shift as events in the main character relationship started developing.

Last updated Saturday, May 31 2008. Created Saturday, May 31 2008.
Watch Anonymous #2800 [series:1690#2800]
(All episodes watched):

This is seemed like a down-to-Earth type anime at first, but starts to heat up during the second half. It shows a lot of things that happen in high school life that aren't in many other anime I've seen. Though they could've added one more extra episode just to wrap everything up a little better. The ending was dissapointing to me since they just cram everthing together and try to make it all fit. Nothing really happens at the end, you just have to assume that they all meet each other again and live happily.

And to add to Jan-Chan's little list. This series also adds a bit of homosexuality in the midst of all things when Hoshino confesses that she loves Shuuri.

Last updated Wednesday, January 16 2008. Created Wednesday, January 16 2008.
Watch Jan-Chan [series:1690#967]
Wow! What started off with the tone and tenor of a lighthearted high school romance story, just somehow melts down into sordid and nasty mess.

And it left me wondering, just what am I supposed to feel or garner from this story.

Unlike the series School Days (TV), which tells a progressively more troubling tale of a group of teenagers, this series just twists the last four episodes, taking a dark 90-degree turn and dives into the abyss, but to what end?

WARNING SEVERE PLOT SPOILING INFO

And just how many social taboos and nasty people can be woven into a desperate story line? (And I had to add several more items at the behest of DD and A2800)

  • Infidelity – The mother of the twins gets ripped (drunk) and runs off to a hotel a man.
  • Parental Neglect - Hinako's mother does not bother to remember her daughter's birthday.
  • A taste of Lolicon - Hinako and Sana sleep in the same bed, with Aoi imagining nasty details about them.
  • Animals Abuse - An old woman kills a dog which Sana and Asami bury in the forest.
  • Violence - Shuuri is attacked by a senile lady, intent on killing her as a sacrifice.
  • Lesbian love - Asami proclaims her feelings for Shuri.
  • Betrayal – One of the characters starts a nasty rumor about the twins.
  • More Parental Neglect – When the twin's father hears about the rumor about his kids, he worries more his reputation as a politician than about trusting his kids and the truth.
  • A hint of Incest – The nasty rumor about the twins drives them to run off together.
  • Spousal abuse – Nanaka watches her mother being beaten up by her father when he finds out that he is not the father of their child.
  • Murder & Suicide – Nanaka then sees her father standing over the body of her mother, as he pours gasoline over himself and strikes a match ….
  • Teenage Suicide – Mournful at the memory of her parents, Nanaka attempts suicide.
  • Teenage Suicide (again) – It turns out that Sana attempted suicide during middle school.
And in an attempt to make some closure on the story, the last five minutes of the final episode skips forward 10-years and feebly tries wrap up the loose ends.

Bah. The whole series just left me with an unhappy and unsatisfied feeling. I almost feel as if I wasted my time with series.

And oh! The opening sequence hints at all of the main characters playing together in a rock-band on a stage, which never happened in this series.

Last updated Wednesday, September 10 2008. Created Wednesday, December 26 2007.
Watch 8 8 6 8 5 9 Devil Doll [series:1690#752]
[Score: 69%]
  • Drama: High (skyrocketing during the second half; I added "Tragedy" to the category list)
  • Comedy: Low (Aoi-chan occasionally serves as comical relief vehicle)
  • Action: Low (a more or less peaceful friendship reunion, the violent parts are only hinted at)
  • SciFi: None (plain old earth, normal people)
  • Ecchi: Low (such as accidentally lifting a skirt or poking a breast with chopsticks, and only in the first half of this series)

Whatever fluffy school romance show you may believe this anime to be at first, you'll learn soon enough how little this series has to do with comedy. Narutaru might come closest to this show (despite all its fantasy stuff).

At first the scenario looks familiar: A boy returning to his group of friends - the air-headed buddy and his level-headed twin sister, the clumsy onee-san, and the lonesome denial mode queen. This is the right dose of many ingredients I like, giving this series almost my favorite position within the five-dimensional "Forbin cube" - even more so with those dark secrets in several characters' past that need to be dealt with...

I watched this show with great hopes, and the development was interesting enough to let Episode Story get the highest mark of the work's attributes. Aoi-chan's voice does remind me of a visit at the dentist but most everything else works just fine: Both Characters and Series Story had a lot of potential, Nanaka is great tsundere material, fan-service and comedy are hardly there, the girl of the twins glues the group of friends together (and she does that for a reason), and the potential competitor appears to be a really nice girl. Art and Animation are what you'd expect for a school romance anime, and I like both songs, peppy J-Pop with rattling guitars and sonorous female vocals (not sounding like a choir of mice for once ;-), and the ED using interesting rhythmic patterns.

While you still believe this show to be a romance triangle (episode 5 lets the 'competition' begin) and the 10-year-old brat gets a lot of air time during the first half, episode 7 starts resolving the foreshadowing of the earlier parts about family issues of those friends. From here the drama is going through the rooftop - but the fundamental mistake of the story writer is the assumption that adding more nasty stuff would make the drama any better. Actually it's the opposite: Not a single one of the characters gets a reasonable development, the explanation for a number of severe issues is coming from the left field during the final episode. The whole thing is a mess, and unnecessarily so: Had they limited the story to half the number of issues but developed story and characters in a credible way this might indeed have worked. But so this series fails as miserably as School Days (TV) failed, just for very different reasons: School Days overdid the repetition of the same where Myself;Yourself added too many ingredients to the nasty meal.
So the best thing of this anime is the OP sequence with that rock concert because it doesn't have anything to do with this series' story... sigh.

Last updated Friday, March 14 2008. Created Saturday, October 13 2007.
Rent 8 8 9 8 6 7 chibi [series:1690#2380]
Hah! I knew there was more to Nanaka's "non-linear response" in the first episode than just Sana's lack of recognition.

While Myself; Yourself appears at the start to be a school romance, it ends up being more of a troubled teen story. The ending was definitely ham-handed and tried to tie up too much too quickly -- it seems to me there was at least an episode's worth of fluff in the season they could have gotten rid of to make time for a decent closure. But I will give the series an A for effort, since it at least had sympathetic characters trying to do the right thing with bad situations, unlike too many others series that dealt with the subject (School Days, KGNE). I may have felt a bit misled at the end, but not disappointed, so I'm giving it a 'Rent' rating -- just watch out for the curves.

Last updated Thursday, December 27 2007. Created Thursday, October 11 2007.
Unevaluated Forbin [series:1690#1573]
Analysis : 1 Fansub Watched

  • Drama : Med
  • Action : None
  • Comedy : Med
  • SciFi : None
  • Ecchi : Low
Ok who decided to cross Suzuka with Tokimeki Memorial.

Main character has insulted the main girl but it appears that 2 other girls are interested in him. And some kind of secret between them. Lets see if I stay with it.

Note : Aoi-Chan (The MegaNekko) has got a voice that was made from Nails on the Chalkboard. Yes it makes my ears bleed.

Last updated Wednesday, October 10 2007. Created Wednesday, October 10 2007.
Watch Stretch [series:1690#628]
(All episodes watched):

The first of my first impressions was that the very first line being spoken by a ditzy, helium-voiced girl was a little disquieting. Character designs seem relatively simple; I read that this series is based on yet another dating simulation, which might account for that. In fact, the roots of this show in a dating sim seemed evident what with the compartmentalized feeling which the events had to them, possibly indicative that they could have easily been directly lifted from just such a program. OP and ED songs were adequate but unremarkable; I felt no particular urge to rip them and add them to my anime music collection, but if I need some "padding" for a CD they will do. Jokes were mildly funny; I got two or three significant laughs out of the episode. Some seemed predictable and uninspired. All-in-all, I didn't detect anything particularly unique or gripping about this show; I would continue watching but I was guessing it would end up as just that, a "Watch". Basically, everything in the synopsis has happened at the end of this initial episode (which concludes with what I thought was a strangely inappropriate gesture by a female character); so much for the basic premise, where would it go from here?

I was assuming this would be another stereotypical high school romance series, which paints an idyllic picture of life in Japan and about the worst thing which can happen to you is flunking an exam or getting turned down when you confess your love. Instead, it got increasingly serious and disturbingly realistic, to the point of including elements like betrayal, infidelity, insanity and murder, to name a few. Sana and Nanaka eventually reveal their sorry and sordid pasts, which was mildly startling. Their problems are more or less resolved in a fairly pleasing manner, but what about the twins? Even with all this daring and shocking stuff, I can't help continuing to think of Myself; Yourself as another typical teen romance which tried to get unusual towards the end. Perhaps it's indicative of the confusion I experienced that my favorite character was the elementary-school girl who developed a crush on Sana's best friend. In the end, instead of being thrilled or moved by the radical changes, my reactions were more like "what was that all about?"

Last updated Saturday, January 05 2008. Created Friday, October 05 2007.

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