When animators go to create unique new characters, they generally start from certain basic archetypes. A fiery tsundere who’s four feet tall yet could defeat any opponent with a single punch. A clumsy glasses-wearing quiet girl whose family lives in a 1000-year-old Buddhist temple. A cute imouto with a brother complex that makes her turn yandere against other girls. Still, it must be hard for them to come up with truly original elements to roll into their characters every season. One totally new character type is Megumi Jinno from Eromanga Sensei, a genki class representative who wants to help Sagiri start attending school again. When we first meet her, she boasts about how much she loves o-chinchin (er, dicks), pretending to be worldly and sexually experienced. We later learn that Megumi Jinno actually a “fashion bitch,” which means a girl who acts like a bitch (which corresponds to “slut” in Japanese) because she thinks it’s fashionable to do so, when in reality she’s a virgin.
The current anime season is wrapping up and as usual I’m rushing to finish the shows I’ve been following before new ones descend on us. One show I’ve enjoyed is Little Witch Academia, the Trigger anime that sort of blends Harry Potter with Kill la Kill, not to be confused with our excellent ecchi raising game, Littlewitch Romanesque. I find I tend to be quite loyal when it comes to animation studios who have made great works in the past, and whenever a new series from Kyoani, Shaft, Sunrise or Trigger/Khara/Gainax comes along, I’ll usually make sure to watch it.
One reason I watched Little Witch Academia is that it features one of my favorite seiyu. Hidaka Noriko is a versatile voice actress who’s had many roles, including Noriko from Aim for the Top, Satsuki from Totoro, Akane from Ranma 1/2, Kikyo from Inuyasha plus Professor Ursula. The role of hers I feel closest to is Asakura Minami from Touch, a popular baseball anime from the 1980s about twins Kazuya and Tatsuya, who both love the girl next door, Minami. After pretty much learning Japanese from this show (and manga), by chance I happened to come live in the city where Touch creator Adachi Mitsuru was born and marry a girl from there, though the original Minami’s house ran a coffee shop while my in-laws run a liquor shop. Most amazingly, my wife shares a birthday with Adachi-sensei, which makes me believe that there’s more going on in the universe than is dreamt of in my philosophy.
In just a week, Anime Expo will be upon us. J-List will have a huge booth this year, filled with wonderful things for you to browse and buy in our “cave of hentai” (so make sure you bring your ID proving you’re 18 or older). We decided to start the festivities early, with a new flash contest plus a J-List Coupon that gives you 300 points for every $20 you order, good through the end of AX. There are no limitations on how much you buy, but only one coupon can be used per customer. So make a big order now!
