Giant Killing - Episode 19 & 20

I was about to write my notes for episode 20 when I realized I hadn't written anything for episode 19. Then I realized I hadn't even watched episode 19. I skipped an entire episode and didn't even notice. *sigh*

Episode 19: They practice, show up for the game. Coaches talk. Weeee.

Episode 20: They start the game and do well for a while, until one of the guys falls for a trick and the other team scores a goal.

Isn't it sad that it only took that much to sum up both episodes?

Giant Killing - Episode 18

They lose a game. Their opponents for their next game just won their last game 8-0. They're a bit afraid of the next game. Wee. I'm bored now.

Giant Killing - Episode 17

Sera episode #3. It was only a minor sprain, but he's out of the game for a week. Sera is all defeated about this, but then he gets a lecture from Sakai. Natsuki gets put in during the next game. I find him rather annoying, but that's beside the point. The other team scores as soon as he is subbed in, but then he scores a goal right away. The game ends in a draw. This makes 3 wins and 2 draws for the last 5 games. Everyone's talking about things going well, but it doesn't look like Tatsumi is satisfied. I hope something interesting happens soon because I'm getting a bit bored with this anime.

Giant Killing - Episode 16

Sera is afraid that his spot in the lineup is in jeopardy. He's made one goal in eight games. He resolves to score, but when he's given the best chance, he injures himself. The whole episode is basically Sera whining. Meh.

Giant Killing - Episode 15

Sera misses a goal in the game at the beginning of the episode. They win anyway, but he's upset since forwards are supposed to score goals. He wants to do backflips after a goal with sparkles around him. ^_^

Natsuki is a forward who had to back out during the last season due to injury. He's very happy to be back and he's very obviously a danger to Sera's spot in the lineup. 

There were a few rather amusing scenes in this episode. Something that impresses me about this series is the level of detail on the wide shots. I wouldn't expect them to spend so much effort worrying about the fans in the stands and such. Sometimes the switch between the incredibly detailed shots and the more plain shots is jarring, though.

Tono no Issho - Episode 1

Crunchyroll decided to simulcast. About 2 minutes long, taken directly from the OVA. Not funny, waste of time. Full sentences, images not needed.

Giant Killing

The East Tokyo United football team was a raging success, until the star player, Takeshi Tatsumi, took a job overseas and left. The top players in the club left one after another and, before long, the team was relegated to the 2nd division. With a lot of struggle, ETU managed to make it back into the 1st division, but are in danger of falling back down. Ten years after he left, Tatsumi is brought back to ETU as its coach. He was able to bring a team of amateurs in England to the point where they were winning matches against pros. Can he do the same thing with East Tokyo United?

Okay, enough with the summary. I watched the first episode on a whim. The fansub group I get Kaichou wa Maid-sama from also subs Giant Killing. I saw that it was also on Crunchyroll, so I thought I'd check it out. It's a bit slow sometimes, the art isn't really my style (huge honkers!), and it's about soccer.  Somehow I still like it. ^_^

Working!! - Episode 13

Takanashi and Inami go on their date. Poplar and company trick Takanashi into cross-dressing, though. He does get to obsess over cute things without looking so creepy, though. Inami manages to make it through the date without hitting him and he starts thinking good things about her and even calls her cute. Of course, he calls her a dog too .... Ah well. Inami doesn't get incredibly upset about it anyway.

Well, apparently this is the end of the season. It would be great if there is a second season, but I'm not counting on it. I hope that more scanlations of the manga are released. It's funny and the characters are great! This is one I'd buy.

Working!! - Episode 12

This one was absolutely hilarious!! First, Poplar finds out who Takanashi's sisters are and is depressed that he hid that information from her. In order to make up for it, Poplar wants Takanashi to go out with Inami on a date.

Inami is adamantly opposed to the idea, but it ends up being arranged anyway. Takanashi agrees, knowing that he'll probably be beat to hell during the date.

They try to do some emergency desensitizing by tying Inami up, but the cooks will only get close enough to poke her with chopsticks. That part had me laughing so hard I was snorting up a storm!!! When Takanashi tries to touch her, she kicks him. However, they still keep the plans to go on a date. The date will be the next episode!

Working!! - Episode 11

Poplar was so enthralled by Takanashi's cross-dressing during the last episode that she begs him to do it again. He refuses, of course. I love the faces they make, though.

Yamada tells some ghost stories, but ends up scaring herself and Inami to the point where they can't stand being alone. Takanashi invites them to stay at his house with the ulterior motive of keeping his older sister busy. The older sister finds out that Inami likes Takanashi and pushes her in his room to try to move things along in the relationship. When she thinks some hanky-panky is going on, she opens the door to find them playing a card game. Tee hee! ^_^

Working!! - Episode 10

There were two story lines going on in this episode. The main story line is about Iname's realization that she likes Takanashi. She gets embarassed, punches him, gets upset, punches him, fears that he will leave, punches him ... you get the idea. Takanashi's little sister makes an excuse to visit the restaurant to see what the deal is with them. She asks Iname if Takanashi likes getting punched. Flustered, Iname hears the questions as whether she likes Takanashi. She answers yes, but now Takanashi's sister thinks that he's a masochist. Hehehe.

The other, rather amusing, story line is about Yachiyo and Satou. The manager goes on a business trip, so Yachiyo is rather depressed. Souma suggests that Yachiyo should serve Satou in place of the manager. This leads to her asking him to call her by her first name and visa versa. Satou is somehow able to hold it all in. When the manager returns, although she doesn't know anything, she feels a killing aura coming from him. Poor Satou!

Working!! - Manga

After watching some episodes of the anime, I decided to read the manga. It's the first four-panel format manga that I've read. It has a unique structure which breaks the plot up into very small pieces. The scans I found on mangafox.com were from the tankobon, so they included the extras. That was cool. There are 7 volumes, but I was only able to find volumes 1 and 2. I'll have to keep looking. I'm intrigued.

The anime is following the manga veeerry closely as far as I can tell.

Working!! - Episode 9

Takanashi gets to cross-dress in this one. Inami's dad is massively overprotective. He began and encouraged her androphobia when she was young so she wouldn't get near any guys. When he hears that Inami received a gift on White Day, he was upset. In order to keep Takanashi safe, Inami lies and says that Takanashi is actually a girl. So when Inami's dad has a day off and comes in to the restaurant, Takanashi gets to play dress-up. He's not very girly though. When it's all done with, Inami has fallen for Takanashi. This'll be interesting :) I have to read the manga and see where this is going.

Working!! - Anime

FFFpeeps is a fansub group who release Kaichou wa Maid-sama around a day after it airs in Japan. I was watching it streaming, but I found their website so I could download the files instead. You get higher quality video that way.

One of their other projects is Working!! (The exclamation points are part of the title.) I thought it looked cute, so I downloaded the first episode. I think I'm going to like it :)

Bland summary from ANN: "Set in a family restaurant in Hokkaido, the northern prefecture of Japan, 16 year old high school student Takanashi Souta works part-time along with his strange co-workers: Taneshima Popura, a high school girl who's a year older than Souta who's easily mistaken for a elementary/middle schooler, and Shirafuji Kyoko the 28-year old store manager who doesn't bother to do any work at all."

It's actually quite amusing so far. I'm looking forward to it.

Edit: Just finished episode 8, the most recent release. It's very funny! The blonde cook reminds me of a certain chef in One Piece :)