I don't know if I'm going to make this a regular feature, and in any case I don't expect to outdo J.P.'s famous column. Still, the situation looks suspiciously similar: I am made to watch things I would otherwise miss, and I love it. After the horrors of the last week (Black Cat is horror — in more ways than one), my clubmates fed me Lucky Star OVA, Fumoffu, and Nodame Cantabile, as well as revisiting Gurren-Lagann and Sketchbook.

Not much is there to say about the extra-long OVA, just visit Random Curiosity. Nodame was a surprise, however.

I always was a little miffed about the term "romcom" ("Romantic Comedy"). In most cases, it has the romantic part, but very little comedy (e.g. ef, unless you laugh when a girl dinks her cellphone in a nervous breakdown). In Nodame, it's comedy all the way, and a strong comedy it is. Honestly, after seeing the first episode I was certain they would not be able to keep it up. Then I saw two, and again it seems inconveivable for it to stay that good, but this time I'm ready to be pleasantly surprised. And I like the look of the show too. Animated in Japan, baby.

On the other hand, Fumoffu was a total loss, just as I thought. Slapstick all the way. Others liked it, I think.

Of the rewatches, Sketchbook was even more iyashikei than I remembered it. It's not unbearable, but not exciting either. If it were the last show, I'd bug off. But Gurren-Lagann was last. Rewaching a strong show was in some ways a usual experience (saw more than before), and in some ways not: I had an entirely different appreciation for some people, for example Kinon.