HELL YEAH! Even if it took me days, writing this bit by bit through aching muscles after a dozen nine hour days, I was always going to get Sora no Manimani out there! Who the Hell do you think is responsible for pimping this out so much and telling everyone to give it a chance! I am such a fan that I even jumped ahead 30 chapters to check out some raws. I started shipping when I was on page two of the manga. I started shipping halfway through the trailer!

Basically, Sora no Manimani is my kind of anime. It’s the type I don’t get as much with romance a little bit on the backburner but with still steady (but not big) developments almost every episode. That’s where my overactive fangirling comes in and…well it’s just fun.

I would also like to take credit for this anime being so well-liked among the girls. I saw it first! And I pimped it out like no one else! Then I got greedy and told everyone else to KEEP THEIR FILTHY PAWS OFF!

But I was kidding~ (kinda)

It seems like I haven’t seen many boys with interest in this, so I will officially declare this series a successful girl hijack. Boys are the ones that need to keep their filthy paws off. Luckily, I’m not too worried since all of the girls are so pleasant and not the least bit pandering in my eyes. Just cute and pleasant.

But even girls need to keept their hands off of Mihoshi! She is mine~! She’s the Simplicity girl of the season! Now magazines & fanartists start delivering on the pictures. *will immediately buy any Megami that has Mihoshi* Though it’s all so unlikely. With the production values alone on this show, I’m not expecting it to be popular or get a lot of recognition. Especially not in the otaku fandom, because it’s all of the girls that are loving this series.

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Opening & Ending

Opening: “Super Noisy Nova” by Sphere

The opening was cute. Fitting for the series I think. I can’t really think of anything else to say though. The song is typical and so is the animation. Typical school club going about and having fun animation. With proper focus on Mishoshi and Saku of course~ Haha~

Anyway, since it’s typical and there’s nothing I really love about it, I’ll probably skip it most of the time on future watches. After all, there’s stuff in the episodes themselves I find more fun (not a single tackle in the opening! rawr!).

The ending is “Hoshikuzu no Surround” by CooRie and it’s fine. No real opening animation to accompany it, but I don’t think it’ll be like that every week. Or at least I hope it won’t. One of the things I love most about a new season of anime is new openings and endings. Mostly the animation, good songs can fall flat if the animation doesn’t look good.

But neither of these songs are really anything I’ll put on my playlist. Pretty standard. Like I said.

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Fangirl Rundown

Because this is so much more fun that even trying at a serious summary.

Okay, so we have Saku. He’s just moved back to the town where he lived when he was younger. He’s all into and stuff, but who cares. He’s going to be in the astronomy club and like it!

This is Mihoshi. She is ten gigantic buckets of fun and hyperness. Plus she has no fear of physical boundaries which makes her ten more buckets of awesome on the fangirl/shipping side of things.

Mihoshi and Saku were childhood friends, but Saku is all tsundere about Mihoshi. He seems to be afraid of her, but we all know he’s just afraid of love~ (lawl, the untrue corniness, Mihoshi really is scary just running and tackling someone).

Saku finally yells at Mihoshi because of all of the stuff she did when they were younger, but it turns out he was just sad that she’s didn’t say goodbye before he left. D’aww tsundere boy~

But it’s all good because Mihoshi cries and explains that she wanted to say goodbye but she was still in the hospital from that fall or something. I don’t know. Even after reading the manga a dozen times I’ve forgotten, distracted by the cute blushing and tears.

Then from there Saku jons the club and dysfunctional raburabu will ensue. Oh yeah…and there’s two other members with stuff going on and a bitchy class president and next week someone else joins the club, but I don’t carea bout any of that. It’s all about the tackling.

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Thoughts

MUAHAHAHA! I love this anime! Or rather, I love Saku and Mihoshi and all of the surrounding dysfunctional shipping stuff around them. I barely pay attention to anything else in the manga so I doubt it’ll be much different for the anime.

The other stuff is funny though. The whole series has me laughing and smiling almost the whole way through, just…once it’s over all I remember is the tackling and such.

Gawd, right away you have to love Mihoshi. Stealing away her friend’s book so that he’ll follow her since he’s being stubborn and won’t go with her. An adorable girl bully with good (but selfish) intentions~

I think it’s a special joy to see a little girl picking on a little boy, because I got picked on by boys so much when I was little. It’s revenge! And you can actually not feel bad about supporting Mihoshi because it’s not like she really means any trouble…right?

D’aww. It also helps that the boy getting picked on gets to be so cute because of it too.

lol. Upcoming “childhood trauma” ahead. You can easily predict what’s going to happen, but that’s what makes it fun I think.

Because a girl falling out of a tree…

..is treated as comedy. That may be when I figured out that this show would be fun in a way I could fully get behind.

It’s like it has a lot of cliches from more serious works, but by turning it around and making it all stuff that’s fun (and can be made fun of), it all becomes that much more fun.

Plus you got to love a girl whose simple memory can torture a boy years later.

You all have to pay very close attention to Saku’s mom. Piece by piece. The attempted tackle. The manipulative disappointment. The happy “I’m getting my way” dancing about and the DX mini-tantrum.

It’s common knowledge that guys like girls that somewhat resemble their mothers, as long as they like their mothers. No need to talk about how creepy that is, because it’s only natural. After all, you’re already used to that sort of person so even their annoyances can be something you can handle!

Anyway…I’m sure you all get where I’m going with this if you’ve seen the episode. The only thing that’s missing is the manipulative disappointment, but I’m sure we’ll see that next week (or I hope we do) because it’s a moment from chapter two.Too bad they already went a little bit into chapter two…but I still want them to include it!!!

Aww, childhood memories. You know though, either Saku is an incredible drama queen or he’s the best tsundere boy I’ve ever seen. Teenagers usually don’t hold onto unpleasant memories like this from their childhood so much. He’s thinking about Mihoshi an awful lot I think~

It’s also so cute how neither of them has changed from when they were little. like Mihoshi grabbing a frog in the opening and all of Saku’s freakouts caused by Mihoshi. So cute.

Hehehe. *begin ebil fangirl laughter*

God I love Mihoshi. Standing up on roofs and shouting to the whole school with her own dramatic backlighting from the sun. That’s right! The sun works for Mihoshi! It revolves around her.

Ohohohoho~ You know this would make quite a lovely moment. Wind blowing about and such with both of them looking at each other.

That is…if it weren’t followed by Mihoshi chasing after Saku. (Which reminds me…she was up on the roof, how did she catch up to him so fast?)

But that can be the beauty of AMVs. Only using the parts you want. Someone make an AMV when the series is over. An awesome one. Or I’ll have to do it myself. (I already found a tsundere boy song )

But too bad for Saku that Mihoshi has insane hearing. Honestly, hearing that from the roof. She’s an aminal I tell you! AN AMINAL!

And that my friends is the look of a devil. Disguised as an angel! (I bet devils have good hearing too… )

Mihoshi doesn’t go halfway does she? I forget if this was included in the chase but before her successful tackle, she tried for a tackle beforehand too. It’s not like it was even a last resort. She was always aiming for it!

And of course, you have to love the way Mihoshi chases Saku. Arms open wind like a child running…or more likely so that she’ll be prepared for immediate glompage once she gets close. And the raburabu hearts surrounding her while Saku runs for his life are just such a bonus.

YEAH! First successful tackle! The one so great that Fuyu had to show it twice. Because the look (and blush~) on Mihoshi’s face are just so great. And…how did she end up at that angle!? She jumped up high to grab Saku!

Woot! Tackle then “straddling” as the manga scanlation so eloquently put it. Those two combined make this series win.

Guys can’t say that they don’t wish a girl like Mihoshi with absolutely no concept of physical barriers existed.

OhmyfuckinggodAWWWW. So happy to see him again that she’s crying! (This series is the most light-hearted romance awesomeness a seinen series has ever obtained!)

Then she glomp-hugs you with raburabu hearts all around and your response is “Get off!” Where is your manhood Saku!?

Awww, look at how Mihoshi perks up at the idea of her being friends or aquantinces with Saku. She;’s all sparkly-eyed. So cute! *glomptackle*

Booo! Saku’s a meanie though! Why would you pretend not to know Mihoshi! Look at the look on her face!

And that’s what you get! Glomp #3! You better start behaving properly Saku! Behave properly all the way to becoming Mihoshi’s boyfriend!!!

lawl. I love Mihoshi. This girl with no fear of embarrassment and no sense of what’s proper. Watching Saku with binnoculars from her classroom so obviously. Kyaa! This girl is just too much! *more glomptackling*

But it’s all good. Saku needs to be stalked watched in order to keep him in line! We already see him wandering off later in this episode. Bad tsundere boy!

And now the real blatant stalking begins. Though honestly, I think for Mihoshi it’s pretty tame. All she’s trying to do is meet up with Saku at his own classroom.

Though he keeps avoiding her. Ebil, nasty boy. You better be suitably cute later on to make up for it (I expect much blushing)! He’s lucky that Mihoshi is impossible to really hurt or he’d be in trouble!

Polite, Surprised Mihoshi

Worn Out, Disbelief Mihoshi

Adorable Depressed Mihoshi~

So cruel Saku-chan! Running away from Mihoshi so much even when she runs all the way up from gym class! You’re causing problems for her friend Sayo who has to follow her too! BAD!

EVEN BEYOND ADORABLY DEPRESSED! He turned Mihoshi into a zombie! But at least she finally cornered him~

Now go glomp him so he can’t get away again!

Yeah! #4 Glompage, tackling, or straddling! Too bad Saku had to be a moron first! Saying that he was bothering her and stuff! IDIOT!

Though at least it got me an adorable Mihoshi shouting, “Noooo!”

Yeah, you better start feeling guilty. Seeing the always happy-happy Mihoshi crying because you didn’t treasure the memories you made with her. This girl lacks any ill will! I don’t think she’s even capable of it. Jerk. *light slap*

And another touching moment got ruined. Because Saku went off yelling about all of the stuff he’s been keeping in for so long. It seems that Mihoshi used his stolen books as bait to lure him to chase after the moon and to climb up on roofs to catch stars.

But then the truth comes out:

“You would always drag me around like that…and when I moved away, you didn’t even come to see me off.”

XD My exact reaction too. Except with a lot more:

I believe my exact reaction after reading this in the chapter was immediate buckets of love for Saku going, “D’aww, he’s just an adorable tsundere boy. *lovelovelove*”

Then the rest of the truth comes out that Mihoshi couldn’t say goodbye because she was in the hospital, but she really wanted to say goodbye. Once she got out of the hospital though, it was too late.

Saku’s mom tried to explain that to him, but stubborn tsundere boy Saku didn’t want to hear it.

How cute~ And here comes the cutest part~

‘Could it be that I was just lonely all this time?’

Yes! That’s exactly it! So cute though! Holding a stubborn little grudge all these years because Mihoshi didn’t come to say goodbye even though he pretended he didn’t like her because she was always bullying him. And it turned out he was just upset because she didn’t say goodbye. So fucking cute!

And…sorry. Any girl that gets introduced in the future that likes Saku already lost. Pack your bags, go home. This ship has sailed.

And more glompage for the road! NUMBER 5!!!!

And now that I got all of my shipper fangirling out of me I can move onto the side characters of the show. They’re all entertaining as well, but it’s more of that “inside the show” entertainment. I don’t get a lot out of it by talking about it.

First you have Sayo, the girl that’s been filling in as Mihoshi’s toy since sometime after Saku left. She’s almost completely normal, except for the fact that Mihoshi is her friend. She is actually able to have some control over Mihoshi, so I think that makes her something special.

Then you have the president that’s always in danger of dying. Not a new gag, but a fun one just the same. I look forward to seeing all of the places where he might drop dead.

Then there’s the bitch student council president who is a bitch and has no redeeming qualities. Seriously, everything about this girl irks me. Especially her hair. Looks like a dude. Which is why she gets to have bigger boobs than anyone else, just so you know she isn’t.

She picks on Mihoshi and she’s doing stuff with Saku that I don’t like, so she’s evil and we’ll leave it at that. Bitch. Hate her. I don’t care what happens, nothing redeems her in my eyes. Maybe make her look less like a man and we’ll talk.

YEAH SEE! This is what I’m talking about! No fluffy bubbly backgrounds with blushing going on! I don’t care if you have a mutual interest in books!

And Mihoshi doesn’t like it one bit either. God as if I didn’t already love this girl, they keep giving me reasons to love her more. Having the same reactions as me. And jealousy of any sort is definitely a plus.

Of course, being so early in the series Mihoshi just doesn’t want Saku breaking his promise and going to join other clubs. Not right after they’ve been reunited! But later on it can be because Mihoshi doesn’t want Saku liking other girls, right~?

And this is the sort of subtle moment that seems to be popular throughout the series all the way into the raw chapters I read. Saku thinks about Mihoshi and looks at her (usually smiling) and the whole thing has the tendency to turn me into fangirl goo. It’s the small moments that really make a pairing worth shipping to me.

Then in a gag series like this, any serious moment is multiplied quite a bit. So…this is all just wonderful. *is in love*

Then stuff happens with the club’s natural enemy…rain and clouds. They can’t do what they were planning to in order to recruit more members because…well no one can see the sky.

But they end up seeing a starry sky anyway and obviously Saku isn’t regretting joining the club one bit because he loves Mihoshi starry skies are so nice~

Now, the best for last…a Mihoshi love-rant~

I used to think I had a pretty firm dislike for both genki and bossy girls separately. My dislike for bossy girls still stands (I still can’t see Haruhi as anything but a major bitch or a spoiled brat…even if I don’t hate her), but it turns out the genki girl thing was mostly aimed at the sort that seems to show up in shoujo. The ones with no clue on how the world works and stuff…those bitches need a slap.

Anyway, Mihoshi is just plain lovable, even though she drags people around and stuff. She’s just having fun with simple things and wants everyone else to enjoy those simple things as well. Later on in the series you’ll even get to see her doing things for other people’s benefit. She’s just…plain lovable. It’s like she’s got some classic moe (which usually goes along with shy girls) with that confidence and outgoing…ness of a girl I’d normally call bitchy. She’s the best from both worlds with really no bad qualities.

At least, nothing that’s bad for me. I love Mihoshi~ And her smile~

Now then, as for the adaptation I’m overall quite pleased. The voice acting is all…well I feel like saying perfect. Every seiyuu fits every role well and everyone is doing a good job too. I’m so very pleased to have Kanae-san too~ She’s already a great seiyuu if I can’t confuse her roles at all. Which reminds me of something someone said. There were one of those fake “character song” things on youtube with a…well pretty random song for Amu which was song by Yui Makino. It had occurred to me before, but people saying that the singer did sound similar to Amu made me realize my mind wasn’t just playing tricks on me. Yui Makino and Kanae Ito have a similar…tone I guess? There really isn’t much that would make me happier than having the two of them starring opposite each other in an anime someday. Like as sisters or something~

The animation is actually…better than I expected. At all of the important parts everything looks right and they used their extra animation where it counts. There were obviously some small moments where things get funky, but that’s pretty typical for studios outside the big ones. Nothing happened that jerked me out of my enjoyment anyway. So nothing was really that noticable.

Pretty much everything in the anime fits and that’s all I could really ask for.

Now something more important! The anime is 12 episodes. I doubt this is going to be popular enough to warrant a sequel. So, with that being said, I want a Mihoshi hinted ending. Even if it’s completely anime original. I know I can’t get a full conclusion with the manga still running, but I would like an ending that focuses more of Mihoshi and Saku than the rest of the club. Something with a storyline that maybe includes the club, but that really comes down to Saku and Mihoshi, if you know what I mean.

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Preview

The final member of the club arrives. A girl with very obvious feelings for Saku who Fuyu dislikes for that simple reason. When you grab onto a ship like I did so quickly with this anime (and considering only the first two chapters were scanlated when I read it). Any girl who comes along and “interferes” becomes a bitch automatically.

Of course, it doesn’t make sense. This is just how the shippers mind can work. It’s not like I really hate her. Though I will say that in what I’ve read in the manga, nothing’s come about that would make her the sort of character I like. She just needs to succumb to Mihoshi friendship love and I’ll probably fall head over heels for her. *loves the tsundere friends*

In: Sora no Manimani | tags: fangirling, hugglecuddle, kyaa!, overload, ROFL, shipping, tackle, tsundere. | #