Gourment Girl Graffiti

Ryo has been living by herself since her grandmother died, who taught her how to cook for herself and make wonderful dishes. Whenever she eats them though, they taste bland to her.  Her second cousin Kirin, comes to the city--against her mother's protests--to study at cram school. Ryo offers her to stay with her, and this gives her an opportunity for more cooking practices. To her delightful surprise, Kirin loves her cooking, and when she tries it herself, it IS delicious. After eating more of her cooking, Kirin theorizes that food tastes better when it's shared with others. Ryo now looks forward for more cooking for Kirin and herself. Kirin becomes closer to Ryo like a real family member, though she gets jealous when Ryo's school friend Shiina visits or hangs out with them, who is more chummy with Ryo. The 3 together eventually hang out more at Ryo's place, making wonderful dishes to sample and try. On her own one day, Ryo also realizes her food tastes better when thinking of loved ones, particularly her late grandmother. And so she looks forward to Kirin and others to return and share food with them... 

 

This 4 panel manga inspired anime is pretty straight forward, wholesome entertainment for anime fans that like Japanese food, and what anime fan doesn't (well most of them anyway)? There's no fan service, panty shots, no things bouncing around--you could call it "decent?" Well, I mean that a family could watch it together. It is always more pleasant to have a meal with a friend or family, so perhaps--though I can't confirm it--that it tastes better when in company with others.  Good times call for good food, right? Mostly I think of special occasions when it comes to eating together.  But anyway the series is pretty harmless with really no questionable content. We do get extreme closeups of the characters putting food into their mouths, licking their lips and so on. I'm not sure what they intended with that, but I gather it's about savoring the moment of ingesting the food into your mouth, when you taste it and get pleasure out of it, and nothing really else. This is mostly about friends and family enjoying food together because it's a way to connect and getting to know each other. I guess it could be also an escape from the "real world," when things don't go right, like when Ryo doesn't do well on one of her tests, that she can retreat to food. All that aside the animation is standard above average quality for a tv series, cute character designs and there are some touching and humorous moments besides all that food stuff. Maybe it could have had some more humor here and there. It's great to watch though I thought it was slightly static. I still recommend it of course. Thumbs up.

 

Uta no Prince-sama

 

This anime series, based on a hit visual novel/game, tells the tale of student Haruka who dreams of becoming a great song composer, maybe composing a song for her favorite idol--the chipper and friendly Hayato. She enrolls into the prestigious Saotome academy where all great wannabe composers learn the tricks of the trade. She meets and befriends two handsome students on enrollment day, the friendly Otoya and the seductive Jinguji. After successfully passing the entrance exam, she begins to make herself at home at the academy. A stray black cat leads her to a meeting with someone who resembles Hayato, though he is not very friendly to Haruka. It turns out it's Ichinose, Hayto's twin brother. Haruka faces an early problem as she realizes even though she can play piano, she can't read music. This motivates her to learn to read music in a short amount of time, and rumors spread as how she was able to get into the academy without that musical knowlege. The students pair up as instructed to write a song together, and it's through the comfort and motivation of friendly Otoya that helps her come up with a song for the class. However she freezes up when trying to play piano because of the constant rumors being spread. The serious Masato understands her pain and comes to her aid with his own song. Soon Haruka is touched and moved by several of the male students, which brings out the best in her as well as them...

 

The "otome" visual novel games the anime is based on is similar to like a dating sim game but geared for girls. Remember the Sakura Wars game where the player interacts with the female warriors and based on what you do or say to them the gameplay is different, even getting one to fall in love with you? Uta is similar but the character you play is Haruka, the only lady of the story. But it's less of a game and more of a story that you can change, thus the name visual novel. Anyway the anime adaptation is pretty straightforward as Haruka interacts with most of the guys (and there's a lot of them!) in the series, all with different personalities. Add to that the wild founder of the academy "Shining" who shows up on opening day in costume, bouncing around, to the dismay of some of the veteran students.There's also Haruka's teacher Ringo who always crossdresses and acts female, and very well I must say. Of course there is a lot music as well as songs performed by the characters. This was my main interest in the series as I always like an anime with a music angle. The story itself is nothing to rave about, but works if you understand the origin of the series. Every character has a secret or back story, which is standard in anime like this. No doubt this kind of series will appeal to ladies, guys...maybe or maybe not. I think they would probably go for Love Live or Idolmaster instead! Not that this is a bad series--I think it would be good to sit through once, and it will be enjoyable. ARE YOU READY? Moderate thumbs up from me.