Yamada and the Seven Witches / 山田くんと7人の魔女

山田くんと7人の魔女 (Yamada and the Seven Witches) is a single-cour live-action television series that ran on Fuji Television in mid-2013. Adapted from a popular manga by Yoshikawa Miki (吉河 美希), serialised in Kodansha’s Weekly Shounen Magazine (週刊少年マガジン), the live series forms a complete story (in contrast to many manga-adaptions, which often do not form a complete story).

The episodes are a little shorter than standard live-action television fare, at just 36 minutes, comprising a total of roughly 4 and three-quarter for the whole 8-episode series.

山田くんと7人の魔女 features comedy, drama, romance, mystery, some great physical comic performances, and oodles of attractive people kissing.

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Another / アナザー

アナザー (Another) is an anime adaption of a light-novel written by Ayatsuji Yukito (綾辻 行人), award-winning Japanese Mystery/Horror author. The anime was produced by Progressive Animation Works (株式会社ピーエーワークス) as a single-cour of 12 episodes (25 minutes each, for a total run of five hours), and provides a fine example of Japanese horror.

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Biblia Koshodou no Jiken Techou / ビブリア古書堂の事件手帖 – 1

Biblia Used Books, interior

ビブリア古書堂の事件手帖 is a single-cour live-action television series that ran on Fuji Television in early 2013, totalling 12 episodes of 45 minutes, adapted from a series of light novels written by Mikami En (三上延).

Undeniably an entry in the overall ‘Great Detective’ genre, it sees a small number of characters solving very human mysteries, with a savant genius’ knowledge of books, magazines, publishing and literature.

The stories (and mysteries) are very personal, very human tales, with some deep emotive performances, and more than a touch of wit and humour.

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