This really was a cute look

Bonus 8^th Romance story! Well, I don’t know if it was a bonus, but we did get another romance story this week. Personally, I was expecting something like the Amagami SS OVA featuring Miya, where it was how she liked her brother as a brother only, and couldn’t think of romance with anyone. But instead, we got a full-on “I LIKE-like him / her” story. But they went even farther past where they usually go, and instead of just being cousins, Kazuya and Kanon are actually totally unrelated step-siblings. And while Kazuya was wondering if he should tell Kanon, Kanon was wondering if she should tell Kazuya, since each thought the other didn’t remember (really, even if you’re 5, you remember a big thing like your parents remarrying).

Discussing their memories, and what they mean for their relationship

As always, I’m very pro-Love. And if two people find love, then I’m not going to be one to tell them they can’t. But on top of that, I thought it was pretty well done the way both kids in the show realized how much their relationship could change if they were both acknowledging the truth of their relation. They were each happy with how it was going, but each was curious, and wanted more. I thought it was a pretty deft way to handle it. And even more than that, they had an interesting twist with their ‘waiting period’: Kanon gave Kazuya a love letter, but wanted him to wait to open it for over 2 years, until she’d graduated from high school. Then they’d be adults, and the siblings issue would be completely out the window, as well as giving both a chance to back out. But of course, neither of them do, leading to that touching scene after graduation where Kazuya shows her that he read her letter.

And then she gave him a great big hug. I *said* I liked the hugging scenes.

I think Photo Kano did pretty well as a series. I would say that it’s biggest obstacle was expectations: An Enterbrain VN like Amagami SS, trying to follow up that series with a similar omnibus format. But with only half the episodes, and 2 more girls, it just didn’t have nearly as much time with each girl, and that made it difficult to connect with some of them. I thought it was mostly successful, and had some very nice stories. I’d have to rank the stories this way:

1.  Rina
2. Nonoka
3. Kanon
4. Haruka
5. Aki
6. Tomoe
7. Hikari
8. Mai

Who was your favorite?

I’m probably still the only person who’s got Rina up at the top. I actually thought that Haruka’s story gave up a lot of the advantage she had being the only 2-episode girl, because it felt like there was quite a lot of stalling throughout. Nonoka was fun all around, from the gimmicky fantasy stuff in the story to her Love Challenge. Actually, with that list, the only stories I found disappointing or uninteresting were Hikari’s and Mai’s, Hikari’s because it felt so rushed (and not even the Thriller dance could make up for that) and Mai’s just because I found her uninteresting herself. What order would you all rank these girls?

Not even this shot could make Kanon number 1.

And on a personal writing note, I want to give a big sigh of relief because I think I’ve made it through this WHOLE series without using any photography or filming puns, allusions, or metaphors. Whew!

Tsukihi is not amused at losing an important “first.”

Those body pillows on the right make this final eyecatch.

Well, that ending actually explained things quite nicely. Turns out all the memory confusion issues were kicked off 10 years ago when Youto decided to gift his memories to Tsukushi, for Tsukasa’s sake. Now, the origin of the wish granting stony cats is still a mystery, and I’m not sure why Youto’s memories keep getting lost once they “become” memories, but I guess those details aren’t too important. What I can’t let the show gloss over, though, is Tsukasa’s illness. I don’t need in depth information about its pathology, but when you’re using a disease as a dramatic tool, you need to at least give us something plausible to latch on to. What causes occasional coughs and fainting spells and also prevents riding in planes? You can’t just make up a disease that manifests itself in symptoms convenient for the narrative.

The all-girls-still-have-a-shot ending was pretty much expected, and fairly standard for these types of shows. Tsukiko requesting that kiss was pretty cute, but the show didn’t put enough emphasis on romance to make that scene particularly memorable. In the end, I’m still not sure what Henneko was trying to be. It was an ecchi high school harem comedy with romantic and supernatural elements, along with a pinch of teenage angst, but it was halfhearted in all its different aspects. The chemistry between Youto and Tsukiko just felt out of place – with Azusa or Tsukushi seemed more plausible, though both of those were cut short. The fantasy was interesting at times, but it teased at a lot more than it revealed. Worst of all, there wasn’t a whole lot of ecchi comedy, in favor of more serious drama that went down well worn paths. I had a hard time caring about the events in the last part of the show, which is problematic when there’s such a dearth of laughs. The Hentai Prince and the Stony Cat is a wholly inoffensive show that leaves me with no strong impression one way or another, and I’ll probably barely remember that I watched it in a year’s time.

Muromi and Takkun

Darn steam…

The hot spring wasn’t enough for Levia-san

“Muromi on the Shore” finishes up this week, so I thought I’d give the series a wrap-up. It was a bit of a different series, with half-length episodes, rather than just a 3 or 5 minute short, and this gave them a lot more time to tell a story, but keep it tight and fast-paced. For those who haven’t seen the series, the main gist is that Muromi-san is a mermaid who makes friends with Takurou (Takkun) a boy who fishes her up, but there’s a whole cast of crazy characters, from the other mermaids Levia-san (the sea monster, get it?), Hii-chan (friend of everyone), Fuji-san (has big, er, mountains), and Sumida-san (pretty much the only level-headed one), to Yeti and her pet Harpy, to Wiseman the pervy alien in a metal body, to Kawabata the Kappa and Houman (who I honestly can’t figure out what she is). Oh, and all the mermaids (and most of the characters) are old (like hundreds of thousands of years old), but act like young-to-middle-aged women. Muromi actually helped mammals come up on land, the failure of one leading to a long-standing hatred of all toothed whales.

That’s a cucumber, not Kawabata

This show was a fun mix of zany comedy and varying amounts of ecchi, with Muromi having a bit of a crush on Takkun, and him not being interested in her at all that way. Fuji-san IS interested in her that way, but Muromi just wants to abuse Fuji’s mountains (which Fuji doesn’t entirely dislike). Sometimes the innuendo goes quite a bit past innuendo, such as when Kawabata gives them cucumbers, or when Fuji actually gets Muromi to touch her. There’s also friends and enemies, such as Otohime, the previous manager of the Ryuuguujou Castle, who doesn’t get along at all with the mermaids (she thinks they drove her out of business).

Fuji has popular mountains

There’s no huge plot lines, none that even continue from one episode to another. Usually the episodes have a theme, and friendship and love come up quite a bit (as you’d expect). But mostly, it’s just wacky randomness, and for a 12-minute show that works pretty well. I don’t know if it should get a second season, or anything like that, as I’d be afraid it would get a bit old. But the show worked well for what it did, and was definitely enjoyable throughout. I’d certainly recommend giving it a try!

Tags: Henneko, Namiuchigiwa no Muromi-san, PhotoKano

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