Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun is an anime…that is flat out hilarious.
The story stars Chiyo, a girl that attempts to confess her love to her classmate Nozaki…and ends up helping her serious, tall, forbidding looking classmate write fluffy romantic shojou manga.

Most of the story focuses on the ridiculous situations that Nozaki, Chiyo, and the rest of the cast with all their weird quirks end up getting themselves involved in. Due to that, the characters are what drive a lot of the story and the humour.
While my favorite character is Waka, because he’s somewhat innocent nice guy routine is the sort of thing I really enjoy, all the characters are really well done, and quite a few of them are plays on anime cliches.
For instance, the school Prince, who’s a top student, flirts with all the girls, good looking, athletic, and the star of the drama club…is a girl herself, and is frequently bad at reading people, and has her main motivator for doing things be getting attention and affection from the drama club president Hori, who is one of the few sensible characters in the show, and often plays straight man to the gags.

And even if some of the gags are not my style (usually the school Prince actually being a girl is not the sort of thing that amuses me) they are usually so well executed, I enjoy them anyway. I also thinks that it helps that I am a writer and an artist, so a lot of the jokes based around drawing or creating story plots are extra amusing to me since I can relate, but they are also in such a form that those who can’t relate, can still enjoy.
On a note about the comedy aspect, I was watching one reviewer who said that it was a lot funnier if you were watching a dub, because the dub does better comedic timing. I do agree, but since the sub is what I found up on Crunchyroll, I’ve been watching that and it’s still good, just not as good. The English voice actors did a great job on this one. The characters are well portrayed, the voices are not annoying, and there is even a bit more nuance added to a few of the characters by the acting that is really best understood in one’s fluent language.

A fair warning though, this is a romantic comedy, and there are multiple couples in it, the romances do not actually get canonized, and for the most part, just don’t go anywhere.
Now, I’ve read ahead and the manga, and in the manga, the couple’s do start progressing…just kind of slowly. Since the shows main appeal is the gags, the actual romance tends to often take second place to the gags, they tend to progress very slowly, and the anime doesn’t really get far enough to get to any of the progression.
Despite this, I actually do prefer the anime to the manga. While I tend to prefer manage, because generally I think they have better story lines, in this particularly case the gags are the important thing. The manga is written in the four panel gag comic format, and I find that that format does not really give the jokes the proper comedic timing that the anime does so well. Not only that, but the music, sound effects and animation were all done to maximize the effects of the joke, and they do a great job of it. While I would not consider the animation and soundtrack to be amazing by their own merit, they fit the show perfectly, which in my opinion is much more important.

The advantage of this show really is how silly and light hearted it is. It’s great light watching when you are tired or upset and just need something to laugh at, and it’s great for watching with close friends and family, assuming that said close friends are already into anime. Since a lot of the gags are about anime and the cliches from anime, it’s not a great introduction show to the medium. Also, you may want to watch at least a bit of it beforehand because it will only appeal to certain types of people, and the best way to determine which of your friends will like it is to watch it.

Anime Summary:
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Series Length: 12 episodes
Style and Feel: Silly, and light-hearted
Suggested Audience: People who are already fans of anime

The Dungeon Pets expansion does a very good job of what most expansions do; add more stuff. The more stuff including new ways to use imps that stayed at home, a black market that allows new ways to get stuff, fortune telling that allows predictions on future buyers and contest, and charms that add extra needs.
The problem with this, is that Dungeon Petz, the main game already has a lot of stuff and a lot of options. So, the expansion actually adds a lot to the problem the original game had. Explaining all the rules with it takes even longer and there are more of them to keep tract of. Because of this, some of my older siblings refuse to play with the expansion because they don’t want to deal with even more rules. My eldest brother though likes the expansion though because it allows everyone to get a pet first turn, because he considers not getting a pet the first turn to be a major disadvantage.
So, this expansion tends to be very hit or miss. I personally don’t like it very much, because I consider it to be just a few too many things to keep track of, but I still enjoyed it.
If you have never played the original game, do not tree it with the expansion first. It is too much to learn at once for the vast majority of people. But if you already know and like the original game, and don’t mind the more rules, then it does offer some new strategies and ways of getting things that you may enjoy.

Dungeon Petz is one of the few board games I personally own. Most of the ones I play are owned by the family at large, but this one was given to me because it was one of my favorites. It was own of my favorites for two simple reasons:
1. It was really cute looking
2. It was a resource management game, which is one of my favorite board game types, right under tile placing games.
Despite its rather cute appearance though, it is actually a really complicated game, and not exactly light gaming material. In it, you play as a family of imps, who after the dungeon lord they used to work for is vanquished decide to open a pet shop for other dungeon lords…Which happened to be the same idea the other imps in the area had, so now they are all competing on who can make the most famous pet shop.
I won’t get too much into the rules of the game, partly because this is a review, not a game explanation, and partly because there’s a lot of rules. The basic set-up is not too hard to grasp; you  put your imps into teams, send teams out to get pets and stuff for pets, and then use stuff for pets to take care of their nerds. Which needs are taken care determine how well they will do in the contest and buyers eyes, which determine how much fame you get. Whoever has the most fame at the end of the game, wins. Simple enough, right?
But going over what all the different needs are, and how the different things take care of them tends to make newbies head. It’s not hard-core heavy gamer, this will take 6+ hours, or anything, but it’s not light gaming either, which the cute appearance tends to make it seem. I mean, just look at these pets. They’re so cute!

The entire art form and set-up of the game is adorable. (By the way, a few of these creatures in the picture are from the expansion, so you won’t get them in the regular game set). The rule book makes jokes and puns. It’s all very silly and light in mood and feeling, it’s the actual gameplay that’s not.
There is a certain amount of convenience though to this disconnect. Since I tend to like games that are cute and light in feeling, the general mood of the game lets me get into the game, despite me being a mostly light to light-moderate gamer, while the game still appeals to my more heavy gaming older siblings and parents.
 The board itself.

These are the cards that determine what needs need to be fulfilled. Different colors have different percentages of how many of what need is on the card. The pets themselves determine how many of what color needs to be fulfilled.

 
Summary of the game:
Type: Resource management. Mid to heavy-medium in difficulty and complexity.
Players: 2-4, but best with 4.
Style and Feel of the Game: Cute and Silly
My Recommended Audience: People who are already gamers, as this is not a great introduction game. I’d suggest families who are gamers, but really just anyone who is already familiar with gaming, and likes the style.
 
Please note that this review is based entirely around my own opinions and does not represent anyone else’s. Thank you for reading.