Rating: 8.8/10 (because Jun is love!)

Impressions:

JUN TURNS INTO A REAL GIRL! Darkshaunz will flip when he hears about this, though I think he already has…But if you’re after some Jun fanservice, you will be severely disappointed. There is like…none. Almost. I’m not sure about the difference Jun being a girl makes, other than the development of breasts and perhaps the less shame guys will feel for fapping to her. But like I said the OAV has almost no fanservice, so don’t get your hopes up. However, the episode is of course entirely about Jun, so that should be enough to make a lot of fanboys happy!

People complained about the lack of Jun in the anime. Well, this is the answer to that; Jun turning into a girl. The events that lead up to this are rather…dumb, such as four mages of the show, Haruhi, Anri, Ibuki and Shinya all happen to cast spells at once, which all somehow go towards the exact same place and fusing together before hitting Jun, which turns her into a girl. But the crap story doesn’t matter, since it’s all about Jun. She’s probably the favourite character of many fans because of her fun personality, and generally because she’s cuter than the other girls. And also, I’m pretty sure something like this happens in the game…

Basically, after Jun turns into a girl, the whole school falls for her, regardless of the gender. Apparently, the magic that hit her also made her attractiveness over 9000. It must have somehow caused her to radiate some kind of universal pheromone that everyone is attracted to. Except Yuuma that is. Apparently, Yuuma, being near the magic, is also affected. After Jun manages to solve the problem of thousands of horny guys looking for a kiss (and more likely more), we find out that Yuuma has developed breasts, lost his manhood and gained the superior attractiveness that Jun has before him. And yes, that’s the end.

Not only is Jun attractive, her personality makes it really fun to watch her. She is what I would consider the most normal, believe it or not. Out of all the girls I know in real life, I can say not many have the characteristics a lot of anime girls have, such as overt shyness, tsundere-ness, or girls who completely shutdown when they are near the guy they like. Jun is just too easy going, and that’s what makes her great. And yeah I know I’ve been calling Jun a ‘her’ for a while now, but it makes it sound a lot better…Anyway, this OAV greatly makes up for the lack of Jun in the anime. The quality is noticeably higher, but still pretty shit lol.

Rating: 8.3/10

Impressions:

Lol it seems that, according to the extent of blogs I am familiar with, I am the only blogger who has blogged this series from start to finish. And by that I meant from episode 1 to episode 12. Wow…actually no, it’s not something to be proud about or anything, since frankly, this show is pretty mediocre. There’s nothing wrong with the story; heck, it’s actually pretty interesting. Though obviously, with the low quality, it was never in any position to shine. Still, I don’t regret watching this series, and it’s not like I ever had to force myself to watch it. I enjoyed some of it, and this episode, in my opinion, wraps the story up very nicely. The life-goes-on ending is really the only type of ending that would suit any school-based anime. Even so though, will I recommend this show to anyone? No. Will I keep this anime on my harddrive or burn it onto a DVD? No. Will I read the manga? Of course! And you should too. At least I can say I completed another anime series! At this point in my life, increasing my knowledge on anime is one of the more important things, even though this series won’t amount to much.

Is it just me or does does Yuuma just play the same note on his flute for the entire time? It sounded a bit off. Oh well, at least he overcame his reluctance and fought the…big glowing things, which could well have ended things. Well, I guess he probably did it for Haruhi’s sake, since she did kiss me and tell him how it was him who inspired her to become a mage. That gets me thinking though, can anyone be a mage or do they have to be born with special powers? Well anyway, it was nice seeing all the mages in the show have some part in the ending. I only wish Saya was in a costume too like Haruhi, Anri and Takamine. Or…were they actually school uniforms of some sort? I know Takamine’s outfit was the one she uses for fortune telling, or maybe the magic school simply allows students to wear whatever they want. Ahh bleugh, that has no importance at all anyway. The one disappointment would be that Yuuma just didn’t do enough. At least make him fire some crazy spells or something, but blowing a flute? Anyone can do that!

Rating: 8.3/10

Impressions:

~Please nominate for the 2006 Anime Awards.~ And yeah, this message is probably gonna appear on every entry. Anyway, pretty good episode I must say. I know like everyone who still watches this show has probably ranked it second lowest in the fall season, just above Yoake. I dunno though, and I was hoping to get this entry in yesterday before episode 12 came out, but oh well. So, what’s new? Well, we get some random fanservice from some boy who lifts Jun’s skirt up when he…she’s on a date with Yuuma (writing ’she’ gives me peace of mind -_-’) Yuuma continues to sulk/grieve whatever he’s doing, while the magic teacher works on saving Sumomo. I dunno where Haruhi goes but she flies off somewhere, while Takamine and Anri face off against Shinya and Ibuki. I wonder if Yuuma will use his powers again. Certainly doesn’t seem very likely though. And Jun didn’t get an important role in the whole show! Dammit. Oh yeah just remembered; started reading the Happiness! manga yesterday, and it’s FAR better than the anime. Anyone who dropped the anime might want to try it out, for whatever reason such as wanting to see more Jun.

Rating: 8.5/10

Impressions:

Dammit, the Jun scene killed me five times over. What Jun scene you ask? Of course the scene where she strips and tries to get in the shower with Yuuma (and please bear with me; think of her as female!!) but unfortunately gets restrained by Hachi. Goddamit why is she a trap!?? I mean he! No, I mean she! Bah! Anyway, this episode is actually good! Well, it wouldn’t be as good without all the Jun, but still, the flashbacks are so much more interesting than what’s happening at present. I also find Sumomo’s spirit escaping from her body rather stupid, but oh well, it works with the story at least. The quality increases somewhat, though there are still some screwed up drawings every once in a while. All of the relationships have been uncovered now, except for Haruhi. So, Ibuki’s sister saves Yuuma’s real mum and Saya’s dad. But, what’s the deal with Ibuki’s family and Haruhi’s now. Also, does Anri have anything to do with any of this, or is she just another ‘friend of the main character who has no purpose in the show’? I’ll leave that for the next episode. Just two more eps to go! Oh yeah, did I mention there’s *almost* a tentacle-rape hentai scene?

Oh and this is the ‘Jun’ scene…The first screen isn’t actually part of it; I just put it in as well to make an even 12. Plus it’s like such a cute shot of Jun!

And the rest of the screenshots…

Preview:

Next episode – #11
Meh.

Rating: 8.0/10

Impressions:

Well, this episode was certainly a surprise. Pretty well paced with an actual interesting sequence of events, as well as the revelation that Yuuma is a mage! Well, it was pretty obvious from the beginning, though I doubt a lot of people expected his magic to be this powerful. And what irony, Yuuma tries to stop violence between Haruhi and Ibuki by using magic and ends up harming his own sister. That must’ve been painful. And to think Yuuma stopped using magic because it caused violence, and the very first time he uses it again something horrible happens. I’m pretty sure Sumomo isn’t dead though, Happiness doesn’t seem like the show to kill off a character. Especially someone who’s as cute as Sumomo. Speaking of cute, Jun surprised me this episode. I mean, he’s allowed to change in the girl’s changerooms? Wouldn’t that be freaky for the girls? I mean, I doubt no one would notice the bulge…if he has one. >_ > And Jun must be awfully composed if he doesn’t get excited in there…

I’m surprised at how far Ibuki’s character has been taken. It seemed like she would end up becoming friends with everyone after the episode that focused on her bonding with the ‘gang’, though now she’s turning on everyone, holding Yuuma hostage, slapping Saya and fighting Haruhi. And all for what? Well it seems like she’s trying to break some barrier or whatever set up by Haruhi’s mother, and I don’t know anything further than that, so I can’t really comment on the legitimacy of her motives. At least this turns out to be interesting though, and allows for further delving into everyone’s characters. Haruhi still remains very bland, although her relationship with Yuuma is coming along nicely. Er wait, I don’t think so, since Yuuma has just done some serious harm (or so it seems) to his dear sister, so he obviously has no time for his love life now. With a total of 12 episodes and 3 episodes left (if I was up-to-date it would only be one episode left) so let’s see what the producers present us with in that time. And hopefully the quality can improve, even if it’s only a small improvement.

Rating: 7.8/10

Impressions:

So apparently Otoha isn’t Yuuma’s real mum, as pointed out by Hinano (and Sumomo isn’t his real sister). I didn’t know that either, but it does clear up the reason why Yuuma hates magic, and why he disapproves of Haruhi relying on magic too much. Something probably happened to his parents when he was small involving magic; either magic killed them or magic failed to save them. Whatever the case, it’s obvious Yuuma is that boy from Haruhi’s past, so there’s no need to argue about that. Anyway, this episode had quite a bit of character development, focusing on two connections; Haruhi and Yuuma, as well as Haruhi and Ibuki. It seems that the Kamisaka and Shikimori families have some sort of rivalry happening. Ibuki’s already tried to kill Haruhi twice! And since all similar plots place the perpetrator in a position where they are quite capable of accomplishing their secret task, except for a possible setback involving one other character finding out about their plans, Happiness! does the same and makes Takamine discover Ibuki’s intentions. Which means there should be some sort of confrontation coming up! Regardless of that, this episode finally reverted back to the original story involving Haruhi and the boy she met long ago (er-hem, Yuuma!) They get pretty close this episode, with Yuuma rubbing sunscreen on Haruhi’s back, being alone in a pool, and even late at night (but too bad that was spoiled by a pack of wolves). Well, these turn of events have been due for a while now, so it’s about time it happened, with only three episodes left to go.

Preview:

Next episode – #9
Yuuma shows off his magic!

Rating: 7.5/10

Impressions:

This show has just gotten a lot better. I don’t know why, but it’s probably because it was actually quite funny at certain moments, and since a lot of other shows have been gong downhill, Happiness seems to be improving. There were two memorable humorous scenes for me, one involving Ibuki and the other, Takamine. While the overall idea of Ibuki being crap at all the arcade games is generally funny, the biggest moment was of course the racing game. It took only a few seconds into the game before she crashed her car, ended up destroying the simulated world as well as blowing up the racing machine! Even though something like that, a lot of people would’ve seen coming, I had to pause the show to calm down from laughing too hard. Ahh, the stupid little things that crack you up… I was also thinking about how awkward it’d be if Haruhi’s clothe-changing spell backfired and made everyone naked. More specifically, Jun…Anyway, the other scene is when Takamine gets Tama-chan to knock down the pins in bowling. Once again, pure hilarity! I’m not quite sure of the voice in the loudspeaker after that, but I assume it’s some guy telling her that magic isn’t allowed. It’s good to see that the magic isn’t being totally ignored, even though it’s being used in completely irrelevant situations.

Speaking of magic, I think one of the messages being relayed this episode is that you can’t be good at everything. Ibuki is a pretty good mage I assume, though she can’t do anything right when it comes down to actions not involving magic. It goes to show that the series is taking some action into the issue with everyone being fine with each other, despite the obvious difference in their abilities to wield magic. Another thing that is emphasized is the importance of friends, since practically two episodes were devoted to introducing Ibuki and fitting her in with the rest of the group. This is also a reason why I like a show like this better than something like Yoake ~ Crescent Love or Tokimeki Memorial, since it actually isn’t that stupid. Both shows I mentioned just now focus on the love, and do a very shit job of it too. Happiness is slightly more serious which gives it the edge in that department when the time comes to pair a few people up (namely Haruhi and Yuuma), and hopefully that time is soon. I’m also looking forward to the beach episode, unlike ‘your average harem beach episode’ since I’m quite confident Happiness isn’t going to go crazy on the fanservice or come up with anything stupid. The preview looks promising for some Yuuma x Haruhi happening, and possibly even some drama. I’m looking forward to that!

Preview:

Next episode – #8
Some Yuuma x Haruhi action?

Rating: 6.5/10

Impressions:

Ok, so the thing that got me very intrigued this episode was the little upskirt shot of Jun. It looks like he doesn’t have a crotch, so I’m going to just think of him as a girl now. How exactly does everyone know he’s a guy anyway? And what, does he change in the guys’ or girls’ change rooms. Does he go to the male or female toilets? Anyway, this episode the white haired girl is finally introduced. Her name is Shikimori Ibuki, and she’s a pretty good mage. She’s also quite the tsundere and very stubborn. It looks like she’ll be bowling next episode, and hopefully this will loosen her up. I think her voice is far too deep. It’s like Otome’s from Tsuyokiss; her voice was too deep as well. Well, it seems like everyone’s been introduced now. I can’t really remember well the last few episodes, but I know that after this Sumomo-centred episode, there’s still a Jun and Haruhi one, who are both quite important. Yuuma I think also needs one himself, but it’d be fine if his was just merged with Haruhi’s.

Speaking of those two, they haven’t made any progress since ages ago, which means that nothing is actually progressing each episode except a few main characters. This means the progression is taking big block steps and not moving fluidly; developing everyone little by little each episode. Basically, the only thing that happened this episode was the introduction of Ibuki and her slight warming up to Sumomo. Yuuma’s sister tried to become her friend by making her bento’s everyday, but Ibuki rejected them each time. After having a talk with Saya, Sumomo finds out about what Ibuki likes to eat and makes it for her the next day. However, Ibuki knocks it out of her hand when she is presented with it and scolds her. After Saya talks to Ibuki, she feels bad(?) and goes back to fix the spilt lunch with her magic. Then she eats it and exclaims how delicious it is! Well, maybe not ‘exclaim’…So, another useless episode with little Jun and little Haruhi x Yuuma. But it’s not exactly boring, and it’s not stupid, so I’m fine with watching it.

Preview:

Impresisons:

Hmm, Happiness…ka? Well, the last episode was pretty stupid, but this episode sort of redeemed itself with some real plot movement. Two new characters were introduced, one of them being Saya Ichigo, who I have mentioned numerous times. Why? Because her seiyuu is the same as Pumpkin Scissor’s Alice, D.Gray-man’s Linali, Asatte no Houkou’s Shouko and various others which I can’t be bothered naming. I don’t know how important she’ll be but it is likely that there’ll be more episodes about her and Hachisuke. I thought Saya looked younger than the others but oh well, guess not. The main thing though, is the relationship between Haruhi and Yuuma, which hasn’t progressed AT ALL. That’s very bad. I hope the anime doesn’t plan to squeeze all the development between the two in the very end. It should be spread out more. I have no idea what the next episode is about, but I hope we get something to do with Haruhi x Yuuma bonding. Or any couple bonding, I don’t care.

There’s also that mysterious white haired girl, who is also a mage. I want to see more of her and her role in the story. How many episodes has she appeared in now? Her great unveiling has to be soon. I’m still getting used to her deep voice since I had expected it to be high and cute. Speaking of voices, Saya’s brother’s voice sounds abnormally low. That I can get used to though. He seems to be interesting as he knows magic, but this show really screwed up when it came to the magic aspect. The whole mage and non-magician difference should have been explored deeper, and there should be more conflict regarding this. The brother is also the only guy mage in the show right now (and I was thinking that there are only female mages). The magic isn’t very exciting or spectacular either. Since there’s no magic, no romance and very little plot development, I’d say this show isn’t very successful. I don’t mind as much though, since it’s not boring me very much anyway. I can’t even understand all of it so I have to rely on blogs (and the only ones at the moment are TL-Chan’s blog and Hinano’s).

Plot Outline:

- At school during the night, Hachisuke is reading one of his porn magazines
- When he’s leaving the school, he sees a girl on the stairs and thinks she’s a ghost
- Thinking she’s the perfect girl, regardless of her being dead, he goes back at night accompanied by Yuuma and the others to try and find the girl
- After a bit of walking, Hachisuke finds her again, but when he approaches her he gets knocked out
- When the others find him, the girl is gone
- They continue to search, and after finding the black haired magician (can’t remember name), she helps them out by sending her army of Tama-chans to look for the girl
- One of them goes to look on the roof and finds the mysterious white haired girl

- The white haired girl quickly flies away using her magic umbrella
- Meanwhile in the school, Haruhi accidentally creates a giant plant monster, which grabs and holds everyone, including the girl who was just found by Hachisuke
- Luckily, the girl’s brother comes and saves the day by using his magic sword to destroy the plant, freeing everyone (aww, and I thought the tentacles would start……since all the girls were already in that position^^)
- Afterward, everything is cleared up
- The girl turns out to be alive, and an exchange student
- The brother is just very protective and bashes anyone who gets near his sister, Saya
- The next day, Saya introduces herself as she transfers to Hachisuke’s class

Preview:

Next episode – #6
That’s some…nice artwork! xD

Impressions:

I’m completely lost. I need to wait for some people to blog this episode before I write anything as I don’t have an inkling of what happened. Something about Tama-chan, the blog, and how to make him from clay. Then there was the painful separation, happy reunion and even more painful permanent parting of Tama-chan and the black haired girl, but it doesn’t matter since she can just make another Tama! Usually, I can get the gist of the episode after watching it raw, but this time I really don’t get anything (dialogue-wise). I can say that I am pretty surprised Tama-chan is important enough to get a whole episode to himself? Running out of ideas? I hope not, as I want to see more development of the plot and characters. In every show like this, there has to be some good episodes wasted on irrelevant events. Sure, if you watch the show just to see the characters, that’s great! But a lot of the time, the interaction that goes on doesn’t develop the character’s personalities at all, which is really quite a waste of a perfectly good half an hour time slot. The not so good quality isn’t helping either. Although I must say, Anri was pretty cute this episode, dunno why though.

However, the black haired girl (can’t remember name) turned out to be not the character I expected. It seems that she’s not the mature person that I thought (and wanted her to be), as she is stupid enough to go looking for her partner in the worst places. Oh, that doesn’t matter, why am I complaining about such little things? That part was probably just to get a laugh out of the audience. And still no Haruhi! Even though she is depressingly boring and dull, she needs to get more screen time. Right now, she seems to have a pretty good friendship with Yuuma, but the problem is nothing happened to lead them up to this point. A quarter of the series has gone so I hope some more appropriate and relevant things happen. Next episode, we see what’s-his-name looking at porn, as well as some other stuff inside the school at night. Hopefully, there will be a lot of pairing moments in that episode (I really want to see Anri fall in love with someone, doesn’t matter who though). Ooh, one more thing, that mysterious white haired girl with the hat has a really deep voice, totally unexpected! I could be wrong though, as her only line this episode was a mere ‘hmph’.

Preview:

Next episode – #5
At school at night all alone…