Kanamemo: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.0

Kanamemo: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

A disappointing and uneven series lessened by its poor taste in humor

Kanamemo is a yuri slice-of-life anime production adapted from the original manga series created by Shoko Iwami (Suzunari!) and which debuted in Japan from TV Tokyo in 2009. Featuring a production by animation studio Feel Studios (My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU TOO!, Listen to Me, Girls, I Am Your Father!), the series focuses on a peculiar group of young girls who publish their own local newspaper, the Fuhshin Gazette.

The series begins by introducing the young protagonist of the storyline, 13 year old Kana Nakamachi. Having recently lost her grandmother (who passed away) and having already lost both of her parents, the young girl roams the streets homeless and attempts to find a way to take shelter and find a job to make ends meet. Stumbling upon a job posting advertisement on the door of a workplace promoting free lodging for workers as stay-in employees, Kana decides to apply for the position. Upon entering into the site, she finds that it's a local newspaper being run by a group of young, feisty girls who are writing their own columns for the publication. Run by the ultra short Saki, who acts as editor of the newspaper, Kana is quickly hired and put to work.

Surrounded by a strange group of quirky girls at her new place of employment, Kana meets a number of the other staff members working at the newspaper. There is the energetic and kind hearted lesbian couple Yume and Yuuki, both of whom show Kana around the workplace location and its various ins and outs related to the business. Then there's the ultra creepy Haruka, who acts as a voyeuristic and disturbed girl who constantly dots on Kana and acts as a creepy nightmarish co-worker obsessed with young girls.

A newspaper anime series which doesn't ever discuss the news...

The series concept was altogether interesting and I would have liked to see more done to explore the newspaper publication and how the characters approached working on the news coverage. I think the series would have benefited greatly from actually focusing on this story-line more but instead each episode focuses on typical anime hi-jinks and situations such as a day of festivities and the characters simply goofing off together. Occasionally the series would showcase the characters delivering the paper to subscribers or trying to go door-to-door to get people to sign up for the publication but the story isn't really about them “working” on the paper but rather just the absurdities of the staff.

The worst thing about this series is how ultra-creepy it becomes at times because of the supporting character, Haruka. The show would have been so much better if the production simply completely removed her character from the equation. The second half of the series luckily tones down the amount of time given to this supporting character but unfortunately I constantly found myself cringing at how gross the show would become with its objectionable scenes. This type of anime humor always bothers me and really gives the anime medium and fandom a bad wrap. Ick.

There are aspects of the series which are effective though: the animation quality (while never standing out as something extraordinary) was decent enough with a good amount of detail in the background artwork and location settings. Certain episodes have a definite slice-of-life charm to them when the storyline is allowed to actually focus on character-development for Kana and her struggles. Yet on the whole, Kanamemo is decidedly average and not something which even remotely stands out from the vast sea of anime productions out there. For those viewers who are looking for a quality slice-of-life anime one would do far better with outstanding gems like Mitsuboshi Colors, Kids on the Slope, and One Week Friends (which is a personal favorite of mine that is well worth discovering). Anime fans would be better off skipping the weird and generally average Kanamemo.

Kanamemo: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented on Blu-ray from distributor Maiden Japan, Kanamemo arrives with a 1:78:1 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded presentation. Unlike many modern anime productions with crystal clear definition and sparkling animation, Kanamemo lacks the same kind of visual finesse which is typically found on a modern production. The image is uniformly soft in appearance and lacks the level of clarity and detail one might be expecting to find. It's as if the anime appears to be in a soft haze with the definition being merely average. Line detail is also disappointing with the image appearing soft. Colors are also merely decent and are not as robust. In typical style, the distributor has given this release a fine encode quality. I do not feel the drawbacks of this presentation are a fault of the encoding but rather the average quality of this presentation is source-related and it is due to how the anime was produced.

Kanamemo: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The audio is presented with a Japanese 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio presentation with English subtitles. Please note that the English subtitles on this release are non-removable and that there is no English dub available on this subbed-only title. The Japanese audio track has excellent dialogue-reproduction and is quite clear throughout the presentation. The dynamics are effective and pleasing with the highs being capably reproduced. There is certainly a quality boost present from the lossless audio encoding.

If there is any drawback to this stereo audio presentation it's that the sound design presents a rather flat sound that isn't too engaging. The sound-stage simply didn't seem all that creative. It felt like an auto-pilot sound design and as though there wasn't much thought being given to separation of sound effects. It's not a terrible mix but it's also nothing special that stands out in any way.

The English subtitles are exceptional and are free from spelling or grammatical errors so there is no issue with that aspect of the release. The exclusion of any dub option for the anime will frustrate a certain segment of anime viewers who insist on English audio options. Those who prefer original language tracks won't find any fault in that regard.

Kanamemo: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Clean Opening Animation (HD, 1 min. 32 sec.)

Clean Closing Animation (HD, 1 min. 32 sec.)

Lastly, the release also includes trailers promoting other releases available from Maiden Japan: Basquash! (HD, :50 sec.), Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise (HD, 1 min. 38 sec.), Den-noh Coil (HD, 1 min. 24 sec.), and Armored Trooper VOTOMS (HD, 1 min. 35 sec.)

Kanamemo: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Kanamemo is a frustrating series to watch unfold. Though the anime has a fantastic concept which surrounds the daily hijinks of the staff of a newspaper publication that it could have built upon, the series instead feels repetitive and derivative of way too many other anime series. The series is also downright creepy with its gross humor involving young girls in inappropriate situations. This makes the release difficult to recommend. It's a shame that the series sense of humor was so gross and that the storyline was so repetitive. If not for those major detractors, Kanamemo almost feels like it would make for a decent family-friendly series. Instead, it's the total opposite and I definitely don't think Kanamemo is kid-friendly or worth checking out. Skip it.