Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Number crunching

I looked over the amount of stuff I released over the last two-and-something months and couldn't resist to crunch the numbers in a spreadsheet.

Here's the result:
  • In the short time of less than three months I managed to seed 16 anime series and one manga.
  • The most popular download to day was Serei no Moribito (6,16 gb), which was snatched 548 times and has currently 17 leechers.
  • Least popular was Banner of the Stars (5,65 gb) with 78 snatches and 6 current leechers (this series is really good! Get it now !).
  • When assuming that all current leechers will finish their downloads, we get a total of 4664 completed downloads.
  • This amounts to 18458,67 GB of data - or over 18 terabytes.

That's pretty impressive. Imagine a PC filled with 37 500gb harddrives and you can picture the amount of data we are talking about.

And now I'll show you the reason why the inventor of bittorrent has earned his place in bit-heaven.
  • I'm seeding with 50 kb/s max. This means I need about 5 hours and 30 minutes to upload just 1 GB.
  • Without bittorrent or similiar p2p techniques you'd have to rely on a traditional fileserver.
  • If you'd want to download 18 TB of data (i.e. 18458,37gb) from a 50 kb/s fileserver, you'd have to leech for 102548,14 hours. That's more than 11 years of constant leeching instead of the elapsed two months.

Effective speed advantage:
Bittorrent : Fileserver
70 : 1

And thats not even considering that I don't a) constantly seed and b) I'm leeching (and thus seeding) other stuff myself.

And the punchline ?
Well, I gave you 11 years worth of downloads (ok, i admit the thousands of downloaders helped a little, too), so the least you can do is seed what you leeched !

If you tend to keep the downloaded stuff then please occasionally check the seeding status of my torrents and help seeding when you find an active torrent with zero seeds.

Cheers !

Monday, April 21, 2008

Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl

Download here

Original release by MasterDark, FrothBite, LiveEvil


Synopsis (taken from t.h.e.m. anime reviews):

Inokuma Yawara is a fairly typical girl. Average looking, easy-going, loves boy bands. You know the type. Unfortunately for her, her grandfather, Inokuma Jigoro, wants her to take up the family tradition of judo, and Yawara just happens to be extremely talented at it. So, despite her protestations, Jigoro sets her up as the rising star of the sport, and Yawara must train for her ultimate goal - the Summer Olympics in Barcelona.

---


This is a pretty old series. It looks old and it feels old. Just imagine an anime heroine whose greatest wish is to become a housewife. Very very old. :)

But it has it's charms.

This is basically a sports anime. Sports anime are usually a big turnoff for me unless it's martial arts. Ok, judo is counted among martial arts but it's not as spectacular as Kung-Fu, Tae-Kwon-Do, Boxing (check out Hajime no Ippo) or anything else. And let's face it: The heroine doesn't look like your typical martial arts hero. It's a typical small japanese girl you'll never spot in a crowd of modern girl protagonists.

And if the visuals ain't bad enough, her character is the perfect companion to her unspectacular looks (check the synopsis above). The only thing about her breaking the norms is her talent for judo, which was honed to perfection by her grandfather. She easily throws opponents many times her weight, choke-holds guys with arms larger than her tighs and absentmindedly wins tournaments she didn't even plan on going to.


She does in fact hate judo. This doesn't stop her grandfather from manipulating her and everyone else from into aquiring a rival, making headlines in sports newspapers and going to even more tournaments - all in order to win a gold medal at the olympics to boost is super-sized ego.

And thats the gist of the story. Yawara doesn't want to do judo but her grandfather tricks her into doing it. Yaware quits judo and feels compelled to continue. Then she threatens to quit and relents. Then she really quits and returns. Repeat from start. This pattern follows you throughout the whole series or at least the parts that I watched - but I can make an educated guess for the rest of the episodes.

Another recurring pattern is her petty rival (which was created by Jigoro, her grandfather) who constantly challenges her in competitions Yaware ain't even interested in, her awkward romances with a womanizer (although she manages to be oblivious to that for the whole series, specials included), her other romance with a sports reporter - a romance both vehemently deny and the constant manipulations by Jigoro.

By my estimate the plot is good enough for 26 episodes but they stretched it to a whopping 124. They managed this by NOT doing it the Naruto way (which is recycling 5 minutes of old episodes for flashbacks in every bloody episode). They did it by making tiny little sidestories. Slices of life. Yawara making out, meeting friends, going to highschool, deciding for club activitesm etc. . In short: Soap opera anime style.


Like I said, it has it's charms but it can certainly become boring if you value a more plot driven entertainment. Nevertheless I found myself watching one episode after another on my ipod, even though I had plenty of alternatives. And even now, while I'm writing these lines, I haven't got a clue why I continued watching a visually unappealing, boring, old, repetetive and predictable series to the end. Must be the charm I mentioned before.

Sex & Violence: The show opens with a big fat pantyshot. You'll occasionally see Yawara in her underwear. You'll also see her throwing people around, but they either earned it or are sports opponents. This show ain't about sex or violence and you won't get any apart from what I mentioned.


Conclusion:
Old fashioned sports anime without many merits. Slice-of-life anime, but with so many slices that you'll get the whole pie. Charming, but you have to try for yourself.

Small note: This release has 57 episodes plus two "Special" episodes. The whole series ran over 124 episodes, though, so you might think that you'll miss most of the story. However, from what I've seen from the series it doesn't look like you'll miss too much storywise. What you get is the whole beginning of the series, the early tournaments, the introduction of her main friends / rivals, and a glimpse into Yawara's high school years. You'll also get the conclusion of the series (that's what the special episodes are), so you basically get the whole package.

Trivia: Yawara has a real life counterpart by the name of Ryoko Tani, although Yawara wasn't inspired by her. The manga ran from 1986 to 1993 with the anime in between. 1992 she won olympic silver in Barcelona (although Jigoro wanted the Barcelona gold for Yawara), silver in 1996 Atlanta and gold in every competition she participated in afterwards. She is now and forever stuck with the nickname "Yawara-Chan".

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Ultimate Hentai Kamen [manga]

Download here
or here
or here

First things first: THIS IS NOT HENTAI. THIS ALSO IS NOT YAOI (google it if you don't know what that means. Afterwards wash your eyes with soap) .
Hmm ... sounds familiar.

Despite having the word 'hentai' in the title and having a ... unique cover, this manga is really not hentai. You won't find the business end of our hero get stuck in places where you might expect it to be. And you'll also never see his family jewels breathing fresh air, so all you homophobes relax and enjoy this ridiculous parody on the japanese superhero genre (power rangers and stuff).

Our protagonist Kyousuke is your relatively normal japanese high school student with karate training. But whenever he does what apparently too many japanese men do - sticking his nose into girls panties - he gains SUPERPOWERS !!!
Yeah, once he wears panties on his face, he becomes the invincible superhero Hentai Kamen. Using his superhuman strength and his power over ropes, he effortlessly overpowers his enemies, bondages- er, bonds them and finishes them off with a steel hard attack of his groin.

Needless to say that most criminals are not exactly happy to fall prey to Hentai Kamen.

This sums the main characteristics of the manga up pretty well. Sure, there is story around, too, but you won't remember Ultimate Hentai Kamen for it's touching love story or it's diverse and detailed characters (because they ain't) - no, you'll remember it for the groin attack of justice !


Sex&Violence: What do you think ? No hentai, but if you have kids then this manga is the best way to generate unusual behaviour patterns in them.

Conclusion: This is probably the pinnacle of ridiculeness in japanese mangas, so that alone is worth picking this one up. Don't let yourself get caught reading this in public, though. :D

iComics - The iPhone Manga Reader Installation Guide

Use your iPhone/iPod Touch as portable manga reader.

Normally you'd expect that it should be a piece of cake. After all, the iphone has an excellent picture viewer and transferring pictures to and from the iPhone is supported by iTunes ... but for some arcane reason all pictures get scaled down - optimized - for out favorite handheld device. Good enough for pictures but it's nearly impossible to read anything these converted manga pages.

Happily there are other solutions, all requiring you to jailbreak your iphone. The second method I tried was using the browser application as picture viewer. This worked pretty good, but it's too complicated to realize in a hurry: You'd have to install a webserver on your iphone and write a script to generate html-files for each picture of a manga. After copying them to the iphone's site directory I was able to browse the manga at localhost, which worked pretty well in good quality and quite comfortably.

However, it's simply easier using a dedicated program for just that purpose: iComic

In the following paragraphs I'll steer you through the tedious process of getting that thing to run on your iPhone/iPod touch, which isn't always as unproblematic as one might hope.
I used this method on the following system configuration:

PC
  • Windows XP
  • iTunes 7.6.2.9
  • ZiPhoneWin 3.0
Mobile device
  • iPod Touch 16gb
  • Firmware 1.1.4
  • iComic 0.10

  1. Jailbreak your iPhone.
    To do this, download the best jailbreaker from ZiPhone at his homepage: http://www.ziphone.org/
    Don't worry, it's pretty comfortable these days. See a video on CNET with a live jailbreak: http://www.cnettv.com/9742-1_53-50001833.html
  2. Prepare your jailbroken iPod.
    This means installing software using the newly installed installer application. Enable WiFi, Edge or whatever for Internet connection. Tap on the installer icon. This might take a while, since the installer will scan the net for new programs to install. The first thing we have to do is to enable access to the iPod's file system. If you're afraid of doing so then kiss iComic goodbye.
    Tap 'Install' on the bottom panel. The software repository is organized in categories and i'll just list the categories and applications you'll need:
    • System -> BSD Subsystem
      Unix tools for the iPhone. Needed for ssh.
    • System -> OpenSSH
      Allows remote access
    • Network -> Pure-FTPd
      If you prefer FTP to ssh, then use this app instead of OpenSSH and BSD. I have both, so no worries.
    • Utilities -> BossPrefs
      A system management app. Allows you to enable/disable ssh, ftp and other services. Pretty much a hub for system settings.
    This is pretty much all you need for preparation.
  3. Install iComic.
    There are several ways to do this but I'll only cover the installer version. If you want to do it manually, download the latest version from the author and good luck to you.
    Enter the installer again. This time tap on sources. Then tap on 'Edit' in the top right corner, followed by 'Add' in the top left.
    Enter this string:
    http://hpcgi3.nifty.com/moyashi/ipodtouch/repository.cgi
    Wait for the update. After that you can install iComic:
    • Multimedia -> iComic (1.1.3)
    Ignore the 1.1.2 version unless you have the 1.1.2 firmware installed. iComic 1.1.3 works with both 1.1.3 and 1.1.4 firmware.
  4. Install ssh/ftp file-transfer software .
    Since we provided the iPod with ssh/ftp access, you'll need a program on you PC to actually chuck them over. My recommendation:
    I don't know any good Mac Programs. Drop me a note and I'll add one.
    Download the software and install then start it.
  5. Connect to iPod and Transfer files.
    Start BossPrefs. You should see a SSH or FTP trigger right from the start. If not, enable it in the 'Config' menu in the upper left. Enable SSH/FTP and WiFi.
    Switch to your SSH client (e.g. WinSCP) and create a new connection. Fill in these values:
    • Host name: [your iPod IP] e.g. 192.168.2.150
    • Protocol: SCP
    • Port: 22
    • Username: root
    • Password: alpine
    For some reason, I sometimes have problems connecting with a preset password. If you have the same problem, erase the password and just type it manually when prompted. Save and connect.
  6. Enable english language
    Use WinSCP to navigate to the installation path of the iComic application:
    • /Applications/iComic
    You'll find a few files and a subfolder named "Japanese.lproj". Rename or remove the "Localizable.strings"-file inside that folder and the iComic application will default to english language. Alternatively you can enter the folder and translate the "Localizable.strings" file to your language.
  7. Copy Manga to the correct target folder.
    Emphasis on correct. Depending on the iComic and firmware version the target folder for comics are at different locations.
    For iComic 0.10 (1.1.3) the correct folder is at
    • /var/mobile/Media/Comic
    For older versions the path was
    • /var/root/Media/Comic
    Create the folder if it doesn't exist yet. Enter the folder and then simply copy zip-archives with pictures into it. You can even organize it by creating subfolders.
    Note that all mangas have to be zipped and all pictures inside the zip have to be either jpg, png or gif.
  8. Start iComic
    Everything should work fine now. iComic has many options to tweak, so look inside and experiment. Personally, I prefer flipping pages with the "invisible buttons" although I don't know if they are supposed to be invisible or if that's just a bug.
    Enable "Button Page Slide" in the settings menu and then you'll be able to navigate like shown in the picture.
That's it.
I'll think about releasing iphone ready mangas but most mangas already are. You just have to stuff the images in a zip and you are done.

Cheers !

[update]
I case you encounter difficulties you might want to discuss it in some forums. Try these for help:
* http://www.modmyifone.com/forums/native-iphone-ipod-touch-app-launches/20955-icomic-manga-reader.html
* http://www.ipodtouchfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23759

Mention my site ;)

Saturday, April 12, 2008

The Twelve Kingdoms - Juuni Kokki - 12 Kokuki

Original release by Kick Ass Anime [KAA]
--------

The Twelve Kingdoms is another example of the popular schoolgirl-in-another-world genre, like Fushigi Yuugi, Magic Knight Rayearth or El Hazard - just to name a few examples without even trying. Spirited away is probably the most recent and well known movie in that category. I suppose the japanese really love Alice in Wonderland (which was made into an anime by 1983 under the name of Fushigi no Kuni no Alice, by the way).

Twelve Kingdoms is doubtlessly the best of it's genre by far.

The story starts rather ordinary - for a given amount of ordinary: Youko Nakajima (the schoolgirl) get's a visit from a strange man in the middle of her classroom, asking her to accept his protection. Shortly after some monster attacks (which is rather unusual for modern tokyo), she and some classmates find themselves in another world resembling ancient imperial china. Alone, without resources or guidance, they struggle for survival in a land full of youma (commonly translated as demons, but it's better if you just think of them as youma), hanjou (were-beasts who are regarded as secend class people), and people wanting to kill them just for being Kaikyaku's - people from another world.

The first story - let's call it the Story of Youko - proceeds rather straightforward. Youko explores the world and grows from a terrified crybaby into a frightened girl - which is a greater difference than it sounds like. She learns that the mysterious man who whisked here away was a kirin - a holy 'beast' resembling a unicorn - and the reason she was brought here and learns to accept her destiny and strifes to fulfill it - which is to become emperor of one of the twelve kingdoms.

In later story arcs something quite unusual happens: The story shifts completely away from the main character to explore the life of Taiki, a black kirin, Suzu, another Kaikyaku from Japan 80 years before Youko was even born, and Shoukei, a princess of another kingdom. With the shift of characters, the mood and focus also shifts in a rather dark and oppressive direction, adding more depth to the series than the early schoolgirl episodes might have suggested.


The whole series is 45 episodes long and the Story of Youko is just one of several stories in the land of the twelve kingdoms - even though it's the longest story arc. And the revisit of her story in a later arc is full of twists, intrigue and action enough for a whole season - and yet it spins all the threads and the loose ends of prior storylines together into a finely woven tapestry - minus the Story of Taiki, which was kindly pointed out to me. See the comments.

In terms of character growth you'll be hard pressed to find a finer example than that of Youko. You'll see her develop from a timid little girl into a hardened, awe inspiring woman - and you'll stay with her every step of the way. Likewise, many of the supporting cast do a similar transformation - namely Shoukei and Suzu - making the series more believable than any other you can name (ignoring the fact the demons roam the land, some god appointing emperors via flying unicorns who live in castles on mountains higher than the sky, which is actually a flying ocean. And ignoring the layout of the land that looks like it was made with a level editor for Civilization 4).

The art is decent and the characters are very distinguishable, with detailed and sometimes elaborate clothing. The backgrounds are ok, although they can't compare to the lush scenes found in Serei no Moribito - which is understandable given the age difference.

The music is perfect. The orchestra merges western classical and traditional chinese instruments and performs pieces of a similar stylistic mix. The result fits the series like a glove and rises well above the status of background music. Even the ending theme - a steady guitar piece - is great, sporting a quite uniquely distorted electic guitar and sung with a full, warm voice. And because the music is so great, I included it in this torrent - iphone ready, of course.

Sex & violence: The series starts like a typical action adventure fantasy anime with the usual violence level. It never comes to a point where violence get's out of hand to appeal to the gore-loving audience, but it becomes a bit disturbing, even if most of the violence takes place in your mind (imagine a small girl walked to it's execution with her seeing scores of people beheaded before her until it's her turn to die). However, those afraid of sex can relax, because despite a good batch of cuties the most flesh you'll see will be from guys with sleeveless shirts.

Conclusion: This is the greatest fantasy adventure anime you'll ever watch. The setting is truly original but the action stays down-to-earth inside the fantasy context. The plot is epic and never feels constructed like so many plots do. You'll never get the feeling that someone was just killed so the character is suitably shocked and motivated. It feels like something just happens - and you are there to watch it happen. There is a world out there, and you get to explore it with Youko, Suzu and all the others.


PS: Since the story takes place in another world, you'll stumble upon a whole lot of new words and names that are hard to recognize, so I either recommend taking notes (what was a kirin again?) or have a cheat sheet ready. This site has many background information and a useful "Encyclopedia" without spoilers. Enjoy!


Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Seirei no Moribito - Guardian of the Sacred Spirit

Download now

Original release by Anime-Kraze
-----

Seirei no Moribito takes place in a country resembling ancient korea or china, ruled by an benevolent emperor (as far as ancient emperors go). Balsa - a highly capable spear wielding warrioress - witnessed how the emperor's youngest son fell from a bridge into a raging river and jumped in to save him. Just when it seemed that they would both be crushed by floating debris, a mysterious force surrounds her and the prince, preventing them from being crushed. Whatever this force is, the astrologer-historians of the imperial court determine, that this force comes from a spirit inside the prince and will destroy the empire, unless killed itself. Thus the benevolent emperor orders to have his son killed (but he feels bad about it) while Balsa is hired by the empress to protect his life.

This is a pseudo-earth fantasy series , although without elves, orcs and similar. It features spirits and shamans and "the other world" though, paying homage to asian folklore. Despite the mystical elements, the action moves along pretty realistical lines. The protagonists are human and the combat is within human levels, meaning there are no special moves or other superhuman feats with the exception of some displays of shamanic magic. But despite that, the action scenes are highly captivating due to the smooth animation and convincing choreography.

The characters themselves are detailed, convincing and grow as the story progresses. The character design is a bit unusual for this kind of story, but it's a good thing, really. E.g. Balsa is a beautiful but muscular and battle-scarred woman in her late twenties - as opposed to the usual 16 year old warrior schoolgirls that seem so popular in shonen type animes. Chagum - the young prince - is used to a spoiled palace life, but he is neither arrogant, demeaning nor imperious - he's rather lost without his mama. Neither are the "bad guys" simply evil - but that is nearly a standard feature of many animes.

The visual art is beautiful and detailed, making a feast for the eyes at times. Trees inside a forest, little cracks in cliff walls, dust whirled up by galloping horses - you can see the effort the studio made in creating this. The music accompanies the series well but doesn't stand out, producing no memorable songs.

Sex&Violence: Pornwise, no sane person should be able to find anything objectionable. There are plenty of battles and even though Balsa takes great efforts to not kill anyone, the same doesn't apply to others. Even so, every battle is firmly embedded in the story and not just inside for the sake of action.

Conclusion: Great anime with a captivating story, a couple of plot twists and solid action. It's a bit toned down when compared to your usual action flicks and it probably appeals more to an elder audience - or a more demanding one. If you prefer romance to panty shots and martial arts to big fucking fireballs, then you have found the right series. Highly recommended !

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Vexille 2077


Original release: Dodgy
-----


Vexille 2077 is a CGI science fiction anime of the pessimistic kind. Japan has decided to isolate iself from the world - again - because of disputes over the ethics behind several applications of robotic technology (and probably even more disputes over whale hunting for scientific research). Because Japan didn't want to let ethics stop them from doing what they want - again - they terminated foreign relations and built electronic countermeasures that prevents all kinds of surveilance, barring even satellites from peeking inside.

A hi-tec special-ops called S.W.O.R.D. launches a strike team on behalf of the US government to infiltrate fortress japan because of very well-grounded suspicions, that Japan's secret technologic advances will pose a threat to the world very soon. One of the special agents is a woman named Vexille, which explains the name of the movie - however, no explanation for name of the woman is given, so I'm left to assume that the authors named her for the sound of it, or that the french translation "flag" has a deeper meaning.

Anyway, the movie starts with solid action, moves on into a dystopian nightmare and finishes with more action and a finale that should give japanese the creeps. The art is an eyecatcher, the robots and battlesuits look really good, the battles are nicely done and show off the advantages of CGI animes. The characters are a bit flat but the story is a new twist to an often told story.

Sex & Violence: Plenty of violence but no naughtyness I can remember. The total bodycount effectively reaches millions and the background story is fit to cause depressions. Kinda like Matrix without the funny stuff and the cool characters.

Conclusion: Nice action flick, not more - not less. Entertaining and thrilling and visually astounding.

Friday, April 4, 2008

Moyashimon


Original release by BSS
-------

Another campus comedy, only this time it's not about beautiful music but yucky bacteria. Sawaki is a first year student at an agricultural university on the outskirts of Tokyo, who has a unique ability: He can see microbes with his bare eyes. It's not a mutant power great enough to scare Magneto, but it's valuable nonetheless, something his sempai Hasegawa - a hot goth babe (not loli goth) - readily points out by comparing him to a high-tech electron microscope.

Speaking of hot babes, there are two more female main characters: Aoi, unofficial "Miss Agriculture" and UFO-believer, and Hazuki, a freshman obsessed with cleanliness who tends to receive amourus treatments from directions she doesn't expect. Add somophores obsessed with sake-brewing, loli-goth crossdressers and a professor that enjoys fermented food that reeks worse than rotten cadavers (actually, he even eats those) and you're set up for a truly wacky series. It's a shame it's only 11 episodes long.


You'll also be confronted with lots of microbes of the talking kind. Don't expect them to look like real microbes, though. The things are constantly used to explain all kinds of biological processes - and I admit these weird lessons tend to stick. But I somehow doubt that these easy-to-understand explanations will be included in the latest batch of teaching materials - although with japanese you never know ...

Sex&Violence: Implied, but not shown. No pantyshots or other fanservice apart from the aftermath of a bed scene. You'll also get a good share of implied homosexuality, so everyone can get their fill.
No violent violence - in fact it's even less violent than Nodame Cantabile since no one is beating up girls for laughs.

Conclusion: Funny and lighthearted. I really enjoyed it (just like the creator of Nodame Cantabile, since she drew the moyashimon microbes into a panel of her manga to illustrate how contaminated Nodame's room can get). Recommended if you like it funny.



Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Nodame Cantabile


Original Release by Froth-Bite, Kanjisub
----------------------------------------------------------

Megumi Noda - "Nodame" - is a gifted but rather unorthodox piano student at Momogaoka College of Music. She plays by ear rather than by the score and her mood influences her music strongly. She is messy to the point that fungi grow in her appartment, sucks at cooking but excels at eating. She also has a unique way of speaking - or rather exclaiming - ranging from "Gyabo" over "Pugya" to "Mukyo" and other noises I don't understand. In short, she's weird, but funny.

Her love interest, Shinichi Chiaki, is quite the opposite but equally talented. A top student from a rich family, strict, organized, a master on the piano and the violin, but aiming at becoming a conductor. He also lives in the appartment right next to Nodame, allowing the quirky love story to unfold.

Now, the series could have taken the easy way out, concentrating on the romance and letting the setting provide a background for the story. However, the story nearly takes second place to the true star and protagonist of this show: The Music !

Sometimes the music plays in the background, sometimes it's performed by the characters and sometimes the music is the center of attention, merely accompanied by animated pictures that enhance the audio experience.

I mentioned the good music that came with the "Victorian Romance - Emma" series and it's true, it has some beautiful songs. But with Nodame we are not talking about Songs ... we are talking about true masterpieces. Classical music that counts among the greatest achievements of mankind, performed by excellent soloists and orchestras and recorded in high quality.

Yes, I know, many people find classical music boring (unless it's from a Hollywood movie). And it's true that many pieces are not very memorable, unlike modern songs, which usually focus on one single melody. Classical music is at times hard to ... let's say understand. But this series does it's best to provide everything needed to understand and it manages to bind your attention to a single musical piece for an unusual long amount of time by making the music an important part of the story.

This anime will make you enjoy classical music even beyond the series. And even if it doesn't, you're still left with a funny story of two young people finding each other - even if one desperately tries to avoid his fate. The main characters are detailed, likable and grow noticeably over the episodes. The same is true for the support cast, although the complete lack of true antagonists creates a rather relaxed atmosphere.

Sex&Violence: Nothing objectionable apart from the rather ungentlemanly behaviour Chiaki displays towards Nodame. On the other hand, Nodame doesn't act very ladylike either ... she's rather childlike at times and we all know that children need a good spanking. ^_^


Conclusion: Highly valuable from a pedagogical and cultural point of view. Also highly entertaining of you don't mind the lack of giant robots or half-naked swordswomen. If you're undecided, then I strongly recommend you view at least the first episode, because it's a perfect sample of what awaits you for the rest of the season.

PS: This series probably has the highest amount of OSTs for 23 episodes ever. You will have no problems getting all the music you liked in the series.