Love, Chunibyo, and Other Delusions – Heart Throb
Directed by: Tatsuya Ishihara
Produced by: Eharu Oohashi, Shigeru Saitō, Shinichi Nakamura
Voice cast: Jun Fukuyama, Maaya Uchida, Azumi Asakura, Chinatsu Akasaki, Eri Sendai, Kaori Fukuhara, Kikuko Inoue, Mami Shitara, Souichiro Hoshi, Sumire Uesaka, Yuri Amano.
Publisher: TBS
Air dates: Streaming Thursdays at 11PM CST on Crunchyroll

Did you ever wonder what it is that makes us geeks? Just what is it that makes us different from the madding crowds, the “silent majority” who think of our obsessions with everything from fantasy and science fiction to cosplay and anime as weird, juvenile, immature, or downright evil? Perhaps it’s that child-like sense of wonder and imagination that we’ve never lost, that ability to put ourselves into the shoes of the heroes and heroines we read about or see in our favorite films and shows that sets us apart.

In the series Love, Chunibyo, and Other Delusions, also known as Chuunibyou demo koi ga Shitai, directed by Tatsuya Ishihara, we meet a group of Japanese students trying to come to grips with their essential geekiness and the embarrassment and social stigma often associated with geekdom in Japanese society.

Wooser’s Hand-to-Mouth Life
Directed by Sayo Yamamoto, Toyonori Yamada
Produced by Akira Sasaki, Takehiro Yoshida, Yoshiki Usa
Voice cast: Haruka Nagamune, Mamoru Miyano, Minori Ozawa, Tia, Yuri Sato
Air dates: Streaming Tuesdays at 1 PM CST on Crunchyroll

You have to have a love of the truly absurd to appreciate Wooser’s Hand-to-Mouth Life. If you haven’t the stomach for non-sequitur humor, rapid-fire stream-of-consciousness storytelling, or tongue-in-cheek references to all sorts of anime and cultural memes, you’ll be lost in the first three-to-four-minute episode, and you won’t have enough breadcrumbs to get home. So you’ve been warned. Leave while you can.

Still there? Then read on. Wooser is a cute animal thing with button eyes, a button nose and big floppy ears who is known for such rhetorical gems as “There’s nothing as good as food someone else is paying for,” and “my favorite things are meat, money, and girls.” He’s stuck on the couch, is a lout, a pervert, a ne’er-do-well, and yet, he somehow enjoys the constant company of four cute girls along with a darker version of himself known as Darth Wooser, a raccoon, and some birdlike creature that has no name, but is often spotted in Wooser’s company. Weird enough for you, yet?

February is here and along with it there are a slew of great movies and television shows being added to Netflix’s instant watch options for your viewing pleasure. Once again, there is something for everyone as Netflix adds streaming movies available for the first time and brings back a few classics from Airplane and A Fistful of Dollars to The Usual Suspects.

Of particular note are the return of House of Cards and Kevin Spacey when season two of the political drama premieres mid-month, and the final eight episodes of Breaking Bad coming at the end of the month. This is going to be a great month for television bingeing!

With Netflix’s streaming functionality being a bit difficult to navigate, especially when trying to locate newly added movies to watch, I’m cutting through the dreck and highlighting some great titles to add to your queue that are now available.

Pupa
Directed by Tomomi Mochizuki
Voice cast: Ibuki Kido, Nobunaga Shimazaki, Koji Yusa, Kyoko Narumi, Kenjiro Tsuda, Mamiko Noto, Mariya Ise, Shiori Mikami, Yurika Kurosawa
Studio DEEN, Earth Star Entertainment
Air dates: Streaming Thursdays at 2:30 PM CST on Crunchyroll

Japanese horror is a unique genre that touches on themes of possession, haunting, and psychological terror. Another recent phenomenon I’ve seen, particularly in the ONA, or Original Net Animation genre, is the under-five-minute format. The best series that are in this format have the ability to tell a compelling story in less time than it takes for the first act of a 24-minute show.

The series Pupa, now streaming on Crunchyroll as part of its new winter lineup, takes the horror/gore genre and combines it with the under-five-minute format, creating one hell of a mash-up.

Oneechan ga Kita
Produced by C2C
Directed by Yoshihide Yuuzumi
Cast: Aimi Terakawa, Juri Nagatsuma, Fumi Morisawa, Ibuki Kido, Kenji Hamada, Kouji Takahashi, Marina Inoue, Misuzu Togashi, Omi Minami, Yu Kobayashi.
Streaming on Crunchyroll

Oneechan ga Kita, or My Big Sister Arrived, is a light-hearted slice-of-life anime about the stresses of adolescence, parental re-marriage, and what can be the sometimes awkward relationship between newly-introduced step-siblings.

Based on the 4-panel manga created by Riko Anzai, Oneechan ga Kita is told mainly from the viewpoint of 13-year-old protagonist Tomoya Mizuhara. The series begins with Tomoya’s father getting remarried, and his new stepsister, 17-year-old Ichika, is madly in love with him. The usual array of madcap hi-jinx and fast-paced tropes follow in rapid succession, including Ichika’s insistence that she’s going to move into Tomoya’s room permanently and her otaku-like obsessions with her new stepbrother, which include plastering the walls of her room with photos of him and even having large stuffed toy versions of him lying around.