Tsukimi Kurashita's been obsessed with jellyfish ever since her mother took her to an aquarium when she was a little kid - the filaments of the jellyfish looked like the frills on a princess's dress, and that was enough to get her hooked. No she's in Tokyo, trying to make a living as an illustrator, and somehow she's ended up living with a bunch of otaku, each as obsessed with their own interests as she is with jellyfish. In a wry observation on their communal lack of a love life, they've become known as The Sisterhood, and their home as The Nunnery - none of which seems to stop her enjoying life, at least. But a chance meeting with a Stylish Princess is about to turn her world upside down... A slightly late addition to this year's simulcast schedule, and one that's not officially available in the UK (but if you haven't worked out the workarounds by now, Google is your friend - and I'm not talking about teh torrents...), it's time to meet Princess Jellyfish, who was settling into otaku life just fine until her new Stylish friend turned up. The Stylish are Kryptonite to the otaku of this show - they freeze and enter full-on denial-of-existence mode within three metres of their trendy opposite numbers, and to make matters worse, the one that Tsukimi has picked up is a) actually a male cross-dresser, and b) seems to quickly develop a thing for her. Whether this is love or a sense of playfulness, still isn't clear - what it is, though, is a complete hoot to watch, as two worlds collide creating plenty of fireworks and a storyline with enough subtle humour in it to keep me chuckling all the way through the two episodes that FUNimation released this week. Impressed? You betcha. The Good: Understated yet fun, with a very likeable lead in the form of Tsukimi and a cast of weird and wonderful otaku to back her up. The Bad: Don't like the art style - the series is, I believe, based on a josei manga and has quite an ugly look to it that takes some getting used to. The supporting cast haven't been developed past their otaku stereotypes yet - although there's plenty of time for that to happen yet. Thursday was my one stream-free night of the week, but at one stroke Kuragehime has brightened it immensely. Some shows this season feel like a chore to watch, but this isn't one of them.
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