Kanamemo

Title: Kanamemo
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Slice-of-Life, Ecchi
Premier: July 5, 2009
Director: Shigehito Takayanagi
Animation Studio: Feel
Original Creator: Shoko Iwami
Series Composition: Rika Nakase
Character Design: Shinichi Tatsuta

This anime is set to be 13 episodes

Cast:

Aki Toyosaki as Kana Nakamachi
Aya Endo as Yuuki Minami
Eri Kitamura as Hinata Azuma
Kaoru Mizuhara as Saki Amano
Rie Kugimiya as Mika Kujiin
Ryou Hirohashi as Yume Kitaoka
Yui Horie as Haruka Nishida

Covers:

Nakamachi Kana is a junior high school girl. Her grandmother passed away and she was left all alone. She finds a newspaper carrier station and starts working as a live-in carrier. Her room has a hole on the wall. Other female workers living next door comes in through the hole and start a wild merrymaking.

The story centers on Kana Nakamichi, a middle-school girl who had already lost her parents and just recently lost her only remaining relative, her grandmother. As a result, she ends up living and working at a newspaper delivery office. Everyone else living at the office are all charming, self-assertive bishōjo. The manga follows Kana’s daily life in the fast-paced yet joyous environment.

Watch Kanamemo

Umineko no Naku Koro ni

Opening Theme: “片翼の鳥 (One-Winged Bird)” by Akiko Shikata

Originally I was wishing that they’d stick with the novel’s opening, but after listening to this, I applaud Akiko Shikata for another excellent opening theme. The sequence was also rather fitting, though sometimes I felt that something more unique would have made it amazing (Higurashi’s OP comes into mind, that was one of the best sequences I’ve seen in an anime). Bits of Episode I and II of the sound novels are featured. My favourite part was definitely Maria in the Halloween scene and her ’smile’.  Who am I kidding? I love the whole OP, even lost track of how many times I rewatched it.

One night, Kinzo Ushiromiya cries the name Beatrice in agony, wanting to see her smile once more before his life comes to an end. 4th October, 1986, the Ushiromiya family gather on Rokkenjima (technically it’s Rokken Island, but I’ll stick with Rokkenjima because that’s how its romanized in the novels) for their annual gathering/family conference. Battler, having not seen his family in 6 years, reunites with his cousins George, Jessica and Maria, as well as the rest of the family: Rudolph & Kyrie (Battler’s parents), Eva & Hideyoshi (George’s parents), Krauss(left) & Natsuhi (Jessica’s parents) and Rosa (Maria’s mother) and servants: Shannon, Kanon, Genji(right), Kumasawa & Gohda (Dr. Nanjo is also shown, but for some reason he never gets his introduction. Anyway, he’s the plump old man in the shot with Krauss & Genji). George notes the absence of seagulls around the island, which Jessica says may be due to the reported typhoon that was approaching. Maria points out the missing shrine on the nearby rocks, which she trates as a sign of bad luck. As they walk to the mansion, Maria sees an unhealthy rose in the garden, which George marks with a candy wrapper so that she could take care of it till they leave. In the mansion, Battler notices a large portrait that was absent in his memories. It is the witch, Beatrice, and Kinzo had her portrait painted 2 years ago.

After lunch, the parents get right to their objective. Rudolph, Eva and Hideyoshi gang up on Krauss, accusing him of embezzling their father’s money for his business. Unhappy with such accusations towards her husband, Natsuhi tells Eva to leave immediately. Eva puts Natsuhi in her place, telling her that a mere “borrowed womb”, who does not even have the One-Winged Eagle, symbol of the Ushiromiya family, on her body does not have such right to speak like that. Natsuhi leaves the room in tears when Krauss does not back her up. Meanwhile, Battler & the cousins look at the epitapth engraved next to Beatrice’s portrait, which is said to lead to Kinzo’s hidden gold, all 10 tonnes of it. The other siblings propose that Krauss accept a set of terms they made in exchange for allowing him to handle the distribution of assets, all of which lead to Krauss having to pay them each a portion of the hidden gold. Krauss turns the tables on his siblings by revealing their problems which involve them needing money. To spite them, he suggests that they instead work together to solve Kinzo’s epitaph. At the beach, the cousins discuss the epitaph, which gets rather gruesome as they read on. Battler and Jessica laugh off the existence of witches and the gold, which infuriates Maria who strongly believes in them. She gives Battler and Jessica scorpion charms said to ward off bad magic.

On their way back, Maria notices that her rose with the candy wrapper is missing. Despite searching, no one seems to be able to find it, but Maria keeps insisting that it is there. Rosa joins the search, and loses her temper with Maria and her “U-uu” noises and slaps her to shut her up. Battler, George and Jessica decide to not meddle in ther family problems, and Rosa tells Maria to keep searching and walks away, regretting her actions. Rain begins to pour, as Kinzo announces the beginning of his banquet with Beatrice, and tosses his ring out of the window. Later, Maria is found with a white umbrella, whom she says was lent to her by none other than…

“Beatrice!”

Ending Theme: “la divina tragedia～魔曲～” by Jimang

No complaints here, I actually find the song to be rather Kinzo-esque, so its all good. The sequence started with a really awesome chess theme which accompanied the chaotic start of the song, the rest were mostly background scenes with effects matching the song.

Watch Umineko no Naku Koro ni