Scarborough Renaissance Faire!

So the time is here when Scarborough Renaissance Faire in Waxahachie, TX is upon us for the Months of April and May you too can experience some medieval festivities!

I'll be going with a group on May 2nd, feel free to meet up and say hi to us during the festival, we don't bite!

Looking forward to all the delicious noms, horses, gypsies, knights, and awesomeness.

Check out our meetup group on facebook events here or just say hi if you see a bunch of Otaku just hanging out! 

Hanami 2015

Hi All, its Gaby with a little springtime factoid!
Spring is blooming everywhere! And here at PLEASE! Anime headquarters in Dallas, Texas we have cherry blossoms!!!
Yes, recently we got to celebrate the awesome Hanami practice, the centuries old practice of having a picnic under the Sakura (Cherry blossoms).
Hanami has gotten so big now that the Japanese have a type of weather forecast for the blooming of the Sakura. The blossoming begins in Okinawa at the beginning of the year and typically reaches Kyoto and Tokyo at the end of March or early April.
Sakura have been used as a symbol of Japan since early days, even as propaganda during war times to symbolize "Japanese Spirit", the government would encourage that during war souls that were lost were reincarnated as these flowers.
Oh and did you know they are edible? Yes! They can be used in a variety of culinary dishes.

Here are a few shots I took of Hanami in Dallas.

With my parasol in front of the Sakura

The lovely trees blooming in the distance

Closeup of the blossoms

Thoughts on BONJOUR♪Sweet Love Patisserie

So the anime has concluded on March 22, 2015. I must say, it was a fun ride for those who enjoy cutesy shows like this. The ending was wrapped up with a nice little bow.

If you want a refresher on the storyline behind this series, click this link: http://pleaseanime.blogspot.com/2015/03/bonjour-sweet-love-patisserie.html

BONJOUR♪Sweet Love Patisserie 
Unlike other dating-sim-based anime that I've encountered, there is a more casual atmosphere within the characters as the story goes along. After a while it feels like you're watching a slice of life anime. There is definitely enough funny moments to keep the anime fresh. Unfortunately there tends to be some cheesiness in the anime. (Most likely part of the humor.) It's kinda like how the newest Godzilla movie had enough cliches to be noticeable, but the film was still great.

One thing that was enjoyable was the competitive attitude among the male protagonists. The aggressive playing led to sunburns, colds, etc. They remind me of arch rivals in most shonen anime. There was a bit of a rivalry between Sayuri and Tsubaki, even if it was mostly one-sided. Glad it worked out in the end though.

The final episodes went to a... unique direction. Who knew that cooking competitions can involve imaginary super powers? I'm guessing that they were going for a metaphorical battle of confectionery style. (It would have been nice if they at least let us see the whole creation that helped them win the tournament. Boo. *3*)
Like all school related anime, the last episode involved the character's graduation ceremony with the hope of seeing each other again in the near future. I always enjoy dating-sim anime that let the audience decide who the character ends up with. The school year may be over, but that doesn't mean the potential romances are gone. ;)

Bonjour Sweet Love Patisserie

BONJOUR♪Sweet Love Patisserie

Director: Noriaki Akitaya

Studio: Connect, Silver Link

Licensed by: Crunchyroll

Video Game Platforms: iOS, Android

Sayuri Haruno is a lucky student who entered Fleurir Confectionery Academy through a scholarship. She dreams of becoming a pastry chef and gives 120% to develop her skills. On the first day she is already making friends (and maybe some enemies too). During the ceremony, Haruno thinks about what her friend Mochizuki told her: rumor has it that it is forbidden to have any romantic relationships between students and instructors. Despite this warning, some relationships may begin to bloom.

BONJOUR♪Sweet Love Patisserie aired since October 11, 2014. The episodes are about 5 minutes each, which is great for those who can only take sappy moments in small doses. They can also be enjoyed by those who are experiencing poor internet due to bad weather. The cheesy romcom moments will surely warm you up.

This anime is still running but will conclude on episode 24. I hope to give some opinions about the anime as a whole and hope to hear from some of you about what you thought of the anime.

Watch it now on Crunchyroll.com  <3 

Our Top 10 Romcom Anime!

Tis the season for love so since romance is in the air we decided to list our favorite romantic comedy anime! Here are the recommendations from the PLEASE! Anime crew to you!

Toradora

 Ryuji Takasu has always been seen as a scary dude because of his eyes. At school he bumps into Taiga Aisaka, a scary girl in school who happens to be the friend of Ryuji's crush. Ryuji and Taiga later discover that they have crushes on each other's friends, and so they agree to help each other catch their love interests. What they don't realize is that as they work together, a slow relationship starts to form between them.

Ano Hana (The Flower We Saw That Day)

A group of friends fall apart after Menma, one of the girls in the group, passes away. After 10 years go by, Jinta, the leader of the group, stays at home playing video games. A grown up version of his old friend suddenly appears as if she was never gone. He ignores her at first, assuming that she is a result of his stress over her death. Menma claims that she needs a wish to be granted in order to be able to move on. Unfortunately, she can't remember what the wish was. Jinta gets the group back together in the hopes of finding a solution together. As they try to figure things out, secrets are revealed and it seems that Menma isn't the only one who needs to move on.

Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun (My Little Monster)  

Mizutani Shizuku is the type of person who only cares for her own grades. But when she accidentally delivers lesson notes to Yoshida Haru, he becomes convinced they are friends. Haru turns out to have a very innocent personality, but who would've thought that Haru would actually confess to Shizuku?

Kaichou Wa Maid Sama 

Misaki Ayuzawa is the first female student council president at a once-all-boys-turned-co-ed school. She rules the school with a strict discipline demeanor, but she has a secret: she works at a maid cafe due to her family's circumstances. One day, the popular A-student and notorious heart-breaker Takumi Usui finds out her secret and makes a deal with her to keep it hush from the school in exchange for spending some time with him.

B. Gata H. Kei (Yamada's First Time)

Yamada wants her cherry popped so that she can achieve having 100 sex friends, she sets her eye on young Kosuda to be the one to pop it, hilarity ensues when inexperienced Yamada starts to try to seduce Kosuda, this later leads to something that may be a romance between the two.

Golden Time

 Banri finds himself completely lost after the opening ceremony and tries to find his way to the freshman orientation. Along the way, he runs into another lost freshman from the same school, Mitsuo Yanagisawa, and they immediately hit it off. Somehow arriving at their intended goal just in time, there appears in front of them a beautiful girl holding a bouquet of roses, who congratulates Mitsuo on getting into the school then hits him across the face with them before tossing the bouquet into his lap and leaving. This stylish, well dressed, and obsessive woman is his childhood friend, Kōko Kaga. As children, they had promised to marry each other one day, something she has taken to heart this entire time. Mitsuo had gone out secretly and taken the examination for this private college in order to escape from her, but she used her connections to find out about it, took the law school entrance examination, and enrolled in the college herself in order to be with him.

Full Moon O Sagashite

Twelve year old Mitsuki wants to be a singer so that she can achieve the dream that she promised her beloved Echi-Kun back when they were kids in an orphanage. There is just one problem, she has a life threatening throat illness.  Two Shinigami show up one night and end up helping her to achieve her dream by transforming her into a 16 year old with a healthy throat to sing with. Mitsuki can now audition and become a singer so that her childhood love can hear her voice on the radio and they can find each other.  This series is beautiful and make sure you have plenty of tissues when you watch this.

Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-Kun

 

High school student Chiyo Sakura has a crush on schoolmate Umetarou Nozaki, but when she confesses her love to him, he mistakes her for a fan and gives her an autograph. When she says that she always wants to be with him, he invites her to his house and has her help on some drawings. Chiyo discovers that Nozaki is actually a renowned shoujo manga artist named Sakiko Yumeno. She then agrees to be his assistant in order to get closer to him. As they work on his manga, they encounter other schoolmates who assist them or serve as inspirations for characters in the stories.

Bokura Ga Ita

 Nanami Takahashi welcomes the start of her high school life with great expectations of making as many friends as possible. There is much talk among the girls about a popular boy, Motoharu Yano, who has 2/3 of the girls in his middle school liking him. When Nanami asks Yuri Yamamoto, the girl sitting next to her, about Yano, the latter curtly replies that she dislikes him. Nanami is clueless of who Yano is until the day of the class nomination when she made a fool of herself by calling the name of her new friend wrongly. It turns out that she has actually met Yano along the corridors (unaware of his true identity) and he tricked her by providing a random name, resulting in the embarrassing incident in class. Nanami was initially mad at Yano but after a few encounters with him, she begins to find herself liking him.

Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou (Kare Kano)(His and Her Circumstances) 

Miyazawa Yukino is the perfect student. Kind, intelligent, pretty and modest, it's unbelievable that such a person could exist. Little did everyone know Yukino's perfection was just a facade. An act to fulfill her desire for praise and admiration. Her life took a turn however, as a newcomer to their school Arima Soichiro topped the exam rankings. Arima is more then just intelligent, he's also kind, handsome and modest, an unbelievable person who can actually exist. Even worse luck, Arima found out Yukino's secret, blackmailing her to help him out. Their odd relationship soon develops into friendship and eventually into love. But can their love prevail through the many problems that come their way.

Isuca - First Impression

Isuca - First Impression

Director: Akira Iwanaga

Original Work: Osamu Takahashi

Studio: Arms

Licensed by: Madman Entertainment

Asuna goes down a road on the way home. He's suddenly approached by a very lusty woman who wants to offer him "pleasure" in exchange for life force. (It's not as sexy as I'm making it sound.) Thankfully he's rescued by a mysterious girl who is skilled in Spirit Archery. Asuna later finds out that Sakuya, his rescuer from the previous night, goes to his same school. Due to Asuna's hidden power and Sakuya's duty to seal away monsters, their fates soon become intertwined.

This is an anime that was previously a manga. The storyline is slightly altered but the sequence of events still makes sense. Although one big difference in the anime is immediate exposure to super ecchi scenes. I'm sure there will be censored and uncut versions of this anime as the season progresses. This anime also involves a harem so... hopefully there will be a season 2. 

The manga does a better job of blending ecchi and action into the storyline. However, that does not mean that the anime is terrible. If you are a lover of Ikki Tousen and So I Can't Play H, then this anime will be right up your alley. 

Crunchyroll will be streaming the English sub so keep an eye out. 

Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE! - First Impression

Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE! - First Impression

Director: Shinji Takamatsu

Studio: Diomedéa

Licensed by: Madman Entertainment & Funimation

Atsushi and En enjoy a relaxing soak in a bathhouse. As they chatted about chikuwabu (*see notes*) together, a talking wombat suddenly appears! To make things weirder this pink sidekick is suddenly glomped by Yumoto, the bathhouse owner's son. The next day Atsushi and En meet with their club members Io and Ryu to try to figure out what to do about their "do nothing" club. By a certain chain of events, the club members and Yumoto find themselves transformed into the Battle Lovers. Together they must fight for love as members of the Earth's Defense Club.


*note* Chikuwabu is a wheat-based Japanese food found in oden. (Oden is a type of soup by the way.) The steamed ingredient is a thick cylindrical shape with a hollow tube in the middle.

This anime takes a happier ironic twist to the magical boy/girl genre when compared to Madoka Magica. (I still can't wrap my head around the fact that this anime was directed by the same guy who has helped direct the Gundam series.) I would define this anime as bishounen to the 10th power. It's so ridiculously funny and adorable that you tend to forget that these boys are victims of a very.... unique situation. Can't wait to watch the next episode. :3


The protagonists are very self-aware and bring up some good points that even some magical girls haven't thought of. For example, in their epic fighting scene the guys just start yelling random battle cries because they know their powers will work regardless. So... does that mean Sailor Moon never had to say "Moon Tiara Magic"? Could it be that the line was used just for it's convenience? Could she have said "Flying Fiddlesticks" and have the same desired effect? :P It's something to think about.


The first episode was aired in Japan on January 6, and the next episode will show on the 13th.

 A manga spin off was released in 2014 (Binan Kokou Chikyuu Seifuku-bu Love!), which is being serialized in Pony Canyon's online magazine. There is also a light novel available and a video game will be released in February. 

IKKICON! Cosplay pics!

We want to thank our awesome contributor Shoal S. for sending us some awesome cosplay pics from Ikkicon in Austin, TX over the New Year weekend!
Check out the images below!

Real Life Cosplay! The Peter Griffin everyone is talking about!

There's a big buzz on the real life Peter Griffin cosplayer, here's the video, check it out for yourself! He definitively describes what a lot of cosplayers feel when they go to con, it feels like you're a star!

Happy New Year!

We hope you have a happy new year! Trying to get a lot of things in order with what stuff we will be reviewing for you this year. Hang tight and keep checking our facebook page for the latest updates!

Facebook.com/PleaseAnime