#Hozuki&039;s Coolheadedness

[drink-n-watch]

Top 5 Anime Bunnies

It’s a little early for an Easter post but you know what, it’s never too early or too late for anime bunnies. Admittedly these are mostly anime Bunny girls but depending on your point of view, that might actually be better. I’m not sure what made me think of putting this list together. You know, maybe thinking is not what’s required here… (more…) “”

[theannypetite]

Hoozuki no Reitetsu 2

Get your insight of what Hell is going to be like in Hoozuki no Reitetsu 2. Or how it would be if you were Japanese.

You know that you can trust Hoozuki (CV: Hiroki Yasumoto) to place you were you belong in Hell, and we get to follow him, King Enma (CV: Takeshi Nagasako) and the minions’ daily life in Japanese Hell. This second season introduces us to new characters as well as let us see old ones return. (more…)

[joseinextdoor]

Glancing Upstream: Fall 2017 Retrospective and Review

Who doesn’t love a few surprise twists at the end? To say this season didn’t play out as I expected is a major understatement. Shows I was hyped about early on fizzled out at the end, series I wanted to love didn’t quite win me over, and a show that didn’t even get mentioned in my midseason review came out of nowhere to become one of my favorites of the year. And through it all, there were rocks…

[ljaesch]

HIDIVE to Simulcast the Second Half of the Hozuki's Coolheadedness 2 Anime

HIDIVE to Simulcast the Second Half of the Hozuki’s Coolheadedness 2 Anime

HIDIVE will begin simulcast the second half of the Hozuki’s Coolheadedness 2 anime on April 7, 2018 at 17:30 UTC in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Central America, South America, Netherlands, Scandanavia, and Turkey. Keeping hell operating smoothly is no easy task, but thankfully, the Great King Enma (who is more of a loafer…

[amazingstories]

Anime roundup 11/16/2017: Child's Play

Anime roundup 11/16/2017: Child’s Play

Land of the Lustrous #6 – Phos’s new legs are such a wonder that e begins to entertain thoughts of actually being useful fighting the Lunarians. First, though, e has to overcome a few smaller hurdles, like learning to stop. And the fact that the rest of eir body is still so weak that e can barely hold a sword. Assigning em to work with the only gems who are even more out to lunch than e is was…

[atozanimepodcast]

Episode 32: I Can Tell This is Deep

Episode 32: I Can Tell This is Deep

https://atozanimedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/podcast-episode-32-3-7-17.m4a This week on the A to Z Anime Podcast… Zack starts off with News about Tekkaman Blade and Horizon Zero Dawn. Air finishes it up with current goings-on in Gundam Wing. Then it’s time for New Release Tuesday! (36:20) **Warning: discussion of Metal Bat on the cover of One Punch Man 11 inspired a spontaneous stack…

[operationrainfall]

Section23 Films Reveals June 2019 Release Schedule

Section23 Films Reveals June 2019 Release Schedule

In an official press release from earlier today, Section23 Films announced its lineup of home video releases for the month of June 2019. These releases will be staggered throughout the month and include Godannar, Royal Space Force ~ Wings of Honneamise, Hozuki’s Coolheadedness 2, Basquash!, Kanamemo, and He is My Master. A brief description of each along with format and pricing information can be…

[graphicpolicy]

Kodansha Releases New Digital Sports Manga on March 7

Kodansha Releases New Digital Sports Manga on March 7 #comics

During its panel at Emerald City Comicon in Seattle today, Kodansha Comics announced the digital publication of the holy trinity of fan-requested sports manga: Ace of the Diamond, All-Rounder Meguru, and Giant Killing. Volume 1s of all 3 titles will go on sale March 7 on all of Kodansha’s digital retail channels. Yuji Terajima’s Ace of the Diamond, a hot-blooded, epic-length bestseller in Japan…

[drink-n-watch]

Top 5 Anime Characters with a Blog

Top 5 Anime Characters with a Blog

So this post has been a long, long, LONG time coming. I have this little notebook I keep post ideas in. Whenever I fill it up, I just tear out the pages with any ideas I haven’t used yet and fold them in my next notebook.

The idea of doing a post about anime characters with a blog dates back from my very first notebook. One of the first pages as well. It literally took me years to put this list…

[joseinextdoor]

Panning the Stream: Fall 2017 Midseason Review

I may have chipped away a few series, but this season still rocks. Unsurprisingly, given the strength of this season, I’m watching way too many shows. I also wrote way too many words about them. So let’s skip the preamble and dive right in, shall we? Away we go, to mages and musicians and MMOs! (more…)

[amazingstories]

Anime roundup 10/19/2017: Keeping the Wheels Turning

Anime roundup 10/19/2017: Keeping the Wheels Turning

Code: Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ premiere – Cardia Beckford’s body exudes a deadly poison, so she spends her days alone, sitting in a dark room, wearing an overdesigned dress, brooding on her fate. Then one day, she’s kidnapped twice in under an hour, and finds herself in the company of Arsène Lupin, Impey Barbicane (of From the Earth to the Moon), and Victor Frankenstein. Because apparently…

[ljaesch]

Three New Cast Members Announced for the Hozuki's Coolheadedness Season 2 Anime

Three New Cast Members Announced for the Hozuki’s Coolheadedness Season 2 Anime

Three new cast members have been announced for the Hozuki’s Coolheadedness Season 2 anime: Kousuke Toriumi is Uzu Takahiro Mizushima is Yomogi Sakura Tange is Chun Uzu and Yomogi will debut in the seventh episode on November 18, 2017 and Chun will debut in the eighth episode. Hozuki’s Coolheadedness Season 2 premiered on October 7, 2017 and Sentai Filmworks is streaming the series on HIDIVE as it…

[ljaesch]

HIDIVE Announces More Simulcasts

HIDIVE Announces More Simulcasts

HIDIVE has announced the following simulcasts for the Fall 2017 season: Hozuki’s Coolheadedness Second Season – The series will premiere on October 7, 2017 at 1:30 p.m. EDT. It will stream in the United States, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Central America, South America, Netherlands, Scandanavia, and Turkey. ClassicaLoid Second Season – The series…

[ljaesch]

Sentai Filmworks Licenses Hozuki's Coolheadedness Season 2

Sentai Filmworks Licenses Hozuki’s Coolheadedness Season 2

Sentai Filmworks has announced that it has licensed the second season of the Hozuki’s Coolheadedness (Hōzuki no Reitetsu) anime. The company plans to stream the series on select digital outlets for the Fall 2017 simulcast season, and later plans to release it on home video. The second season of Hozuki’s Coolheadedness is scheduled to premiere on Japanese television on

[ljaesch]

Kodansha USA to Release Hozuki's Coolheadedness, Altair, Museum, and Blame! Academy Manga Digitally

Kodansha USA to Release Hozuki’s Coolheadedness, Altair, Museum, and Blame! Academy Manga Digitally

Kodansha Comics’ digital content distributor Kodansha Advanced Media will release the first volumes of Natsumi Eguchi’s Hozuki’s Coolheadedness, Kotono Katō’s Altair: A Record of Battles, and Ryosuke Tomoe’s Museum manga digitally on March 21, 2017. The company will also release Tsutomu Nihei’s single-volume manga Blame! Academy and So On digitally on the same day. The company says the titles are…

[drink-n-watch]

  Genre : Slice of Life, Comedy, Supernatural

Episodes: 26

Studio:

  If you think your job is tough, imagine having to make sure Hell runs smoothly. It’s not exactly a place full of the most dependable people, after all. Keeping everything smooth and on schedule is an impressive feat and you don’t have the courtesy of putting it off. Only the most impressive bureaucracy can survive under those circumstances. But it’s all good. As long as you have the right administration in place, anything is possible. From delicate PR relations to the daily grind of dealing out the appropriate punishment to fit every imaginable crime, to the mundane bookkeeping and manual labor required to keep such a gargantuan operation running, all you need is someone devilishly organized and wickedly rigorous. Luckily Hozuki is here to show us how cooler heads can prevail.

As some of you may know, I have a particular fondness of Japanese mythology (or in fact mythology of all types) which really attracted me to the first season of this series. Because of the episodic structure of the show, it was easy to take a break between seasons without losing track of the story. Now I’m back to see if the second season lived up to the first.

favourite depiction of eternal torment ever!

Hozuki has always been a very interesting looking show. Backgrounds are rendered in classical ink wash painting style, which look like traditional paintings, while character designs are bright and crisp adaptations of folklore creatures. For me, I think everything is really brought together by the beautiful rainbow of colors that contrast hell’s stark panoramas with the surprisingly joyful looking bureaucratic and diplomatic offices that keep the place running.

Basically, it’s fun to look at. Even paring down the screencaps as much as possible, I ended up with a completely unreasonable number of pictures I just liked too much to trash. Don’t worry, I’m not going to dump them all in this post and freeze your computer. OK, I’m going to dump a lot in this post. I’m a simple soul, I like pictures.

I like the little skull, it’s cute

Once again, I want to point out how fantastic Hozuki’s voice actor is. For the record that would be Yasumoto, Hiroki I really think this is one of his greatest performances and it goes a long way towards creating a memorable character. The voice cast in general is really good, but he stands out, alongside Tanezaki, Atsumi as Mustard and Matsuyama, Takashi as the pheasant. Hearing the interaction between these three actors really highlights how important performances are. Although in a vacuum I don’t notice Yusa, Kouji performance as Hakutaku all that much, the interplay between him and Hozuki is also delightful. They make for a very charming comedy duo and I wish they would have shared more scenes this season. Finally, newcomers, the Zashiki Warashi twins have a distinct expressionless delivery which is likely either going to annoy or charm viewers. I was solidly in the latter camp; however, it does take some getting use to.

I rarely go on this much about voice acting. However, as an essentially talkative comedy, voice delivery is particularly important to the enjoyment of a series like Hozuki’s Coolheadedness and I’m happy to report the actors really came through.

As for the story (stories) such as it is, Hozuki continues to be a slice of death anime with very loosely connected vignettes portraying the often mundane daily tasks of an official in hell, and it’s absolutely divine. Ok, that’s an exaggeration. I just wanted to make the pun.

Fact is, whether the writing and cast just found their footing or whether I was just better disposed to the show, I ended up enjoying the second season considerably more than the first. Episodes regularly left me grinning from ear to ear and I found the ritual of watching a couple (or 6) at the end of a long day to be a genuinely comforting experience.

The mix of Japanese mythology and modern sensibilities is still there but the supporting characters are better integrated and somehow the pacing seems more fluid and natural. A lot of irreverent and referential jokes have been added to the mix for quick punchlines, mixed in with the more general humor that comes from the silly treatment of grim situations and old timey theology.

what a pleasant looking river of blood

Basically, it is in many ways just charming. The experience feels tailored to a Japanophile like myself, but is still presented in such a clearly accessible way that you do not feel like your sitting through a lesson of any kind.

I wanted to compare Hozuki to a more popular show to give those who have not seen it an idea of what they would be in for and I’m afraid I’m drawing a blank. If any of my readers have seen another series like this, please let me know in the comments.

In a way, this feels very much like a western workplace sitcom. Realization just dawned on me; this is the adult workplace comedy anime I was looking for. Once you strip away the layers of mysticism and esotericism of the setting (i.e. classical “Japanese” hell, as it is referred to in the series – as opposed to European heel which is also referenced), the actual meat of the show is really just a series of zany interactions and silly situation set in hell. Not unlike The Office if it was full of demons and damned souls. Guys, I’m really happy with this description. I think it’s quite apt.

complete with quirky pretty girl

Do I recommend this show, yes I do! Unless you openly dislike situational workplace comedies, I think you will find something to enjoy in Hozuki’s Coolheadedness.

Favorite character: Hozuki

What this anime taught me:  Taoism is surprisingly close to Voodoo

Carrots could improve your vision but alcohol can double it!

Suggested drink: Gates of Hell

Every time we see goldfish in any form – take a sip

Every time we see peaches or physalis  – take a sip

Every time we see a rabbit – squee

Every time Hozuki wears his hair in a Chinese bun – take a sip

Every time Ichiko and Niko laugh – question your conflicting feelings

Every time anything meows – take a sip

Every time you spot a Ghibli reference – take a sip

Every time anyone sings – clap

Every time there’s a mention or image of pooh – get a snack

Every time Hozuki’s solution is violence – nod

I didn’t know where to add this but I loved the second OP. I couldn’t find the show version,. The closest I managed to dig up was this full version:

I tried to pick out some of my favourite screen captures and as usual, I will be uploading the rest to pinterest.

The second season surprised me in many ways. Hozuki’s Coolheadedness II – Hell is Other People Genre : Slice of Life, Comedy, Supernatural Episodes: 26 Studio: If you think your job is tough, imagine having to make sure Hell runs smoothly.