General Statistics:
Up till now, I’ve made 3019 posts, regularly blogged 108 different television series and 13 movies and OVAs.
The site has been received 3020186 unique visitors, which consist out of 1942846 first time visitors and 1257340 returning ones. (Basically, in the past year I received nearly the same amount of visitors as in the entire first three years combined).
18085 comments have been posted (many thanks to everyone who posted one)

Top-10 Most Accessed Series:
(note that this list is from the past year only, otherwise it’d just look too much like the list I made a year ago)
10. Michiko e Hatchin
9. Guin Saga
8. Bonen no Xamdou
7. Mushishi
6. Jigoku Shoujo
5. Pandora Hearts
4. Phantom
3. Casshern Sins
2. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
1. Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood

Top-10 Most Accessed Posts: (a bit one-sided this time)
10. Hajime no Ippo - New Challenger Review
9. Which Autumn Series do you want me to blog?
8. Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood - 23
7. Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood - 26
6. Mahou Shoujotai Review (for a series that had such an enormous impact on me, I surely did write a crappy review of it).
5. Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood - 27 (the internet is weird… this post is barely a month old… and it’s about a bloody recap…)
4. Bonen no Xamdou - 02
3. Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood - 19
2. Darker than Black Review
1. Top 10 Anime (the old version)

Top-10 Google Keywords: (aside from the obvious ones as “psgels”, “star crossed” and variations of “top 10 anime”)
10. Umineko no Naku Koro ni
9. Pandora Hearts Blog
8. Saiunkoku Monogatari Season 3
7. Genji Monogatari Sennenki
6. Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood 23
5. Guin Saga
4. Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood 27
3. Mouryou no Hako
2. Aoi Bungaku
1. Darker than Black Review
(Especially number 2 and 3 surprise me: those were the last two series I expected to generate lots of hits O.o)

Amusing search-terms (I can’t believe how many screwed up ones I managed to find this year…)
anime girl with 5 different personalities - Schizophrenia, anyone?

crazy person claiming to be the real neo trinity forum - I don’t know what’s worse: a person claiming such a thing, or people actually searching for this guy…

dress up kurenai sense but first she has to be naked - What the heck did this guy have in mind? O.o

hi me anime - Hi… um, me psgels

porfy is a stupid name. say it. porfy. - It’s short for Porphyras, a greek name. Obviously it’s going to sound wierd in English.

anime in which a star turns into a skateboard? - Oh god, please no!

anime were can i buy paprika - at the local supermarket?

how to blog anime - Go to wordpress.com, register and start writing

how to make an anime with you as the star - You really don’t want that to happen.

sky bolg of nice girl - Even though this is a typo, I have no idea what this guy was trying to find with this term…

what does 3 year anniversary mean - That something is three years old, idiot.

what season is august in - You seriously needed to search for this?

26 + 74 = one hundred - Erm… thank you for this piece of information…

japan, producing of the worlds weirdest shit since 1952 - Certainly!

a 13 to 15 line paragraph on how i betrayed my best friend - Write it yourself, how should I know about that friend of yours?

a anime where you can see girls - You’re going to have to be a bit more specific than that. ;)

who blogs star crossed anime - I do.

humanity calls out for a hero… can a child of ruin be the savior of mankind? anime - Oh no, not another one!

i can’t understand your blogs cuz of your bad english - Um… sorry. I’ll try to type more clearly from now on.

i will force that reasoning aside with my unreasonableness” - I like this one.

when did june start 09 - Um… on June 1st, 2009?

when some when apologize and i dont want .. nicknames - Why?

a letter to have good first impression from a nice girl - Again, write one yourself.

at the beginning, to begin with, afterwards, finally, after a while - Get on with it!

i have a great idea for an anime but don’t know what to do with it - Here’s my advice: just go sit in a corner, and wait until the idea goes away.

i’m not fully understood - Who is?

i’ve been a princess - Who isn’t?

interesting metallic thing - I really wonder what this guy was hoping to find when he typed this in…

what’s the weird anime that anne is not telling me about - … no comment.

“parents are still alive”, anime - That’s rare…

what would kaiba say - “Screw the rules I have money” (only the ones who watched the Abridged Yugioh will get this reference, but ah well).

is that a motha-fuckin’ rpg?! is that a motha-fuckin’ rpg in a backpack?! - This one’s my favourite. ^^;

IRC-Channel
Oh and if I recall correctly, a few months some people requested an irc-channel. So, why not:

#starcrossed @ irc.chatspike.net

This is pretty much an experiment, but if it catches on I’ll post a link to it somewhere on the main page.

Looking rather UNCLE there, Hei.

Pretty much bridge-filler episode focusing on Suou and July’s unspoken, developing bond… much akin to Hei’s first season bonding with Yin. I kinda LOL’ed at hearing Nabatame Hitomi as the treacherous ‘transporter’ Hei hires to get them out from Hokkaido to Tokyo. Too bad she’s just a one-shot character killed terribly by the end of this episode. Speaking of which…. Suou was pretty nifty at throwing those glass shards.

Major revelation this week is that Suou’s father is still pretty much alive, under Shion’s thumb and probably had a cloned body prepared to masquerade as his corpse for the Russian authorities, prompting Tanya’s return to fray… not that it’s unwelcome since she looks hawt as hell in those uniforms.

I’m just glad the show’s getting back on the serious track for now. Hopefully that’ll be the last we see of dreadlocks boy.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

To be blunt, this episode was not one of the best that Umineko has to offer. I think it was a needed evil to set up the fifth arc, but still…

Sakutaro is a pimp~

Go Mammoth, go!

We open with wrapping up with Ange, and seeing what caused her to snap and give up her magic. She seriously pissed me off in this scene. She didn’t even try to stand up for herself, or tell them to back off. She just starts sobbing and demanding the stakes to kill them. Great conflict resolution there. At least Mammoth tells her off and tries to talk sense into her.

Maria's outfit is really cute. 5 stars.

Then we wrap up Maria’s backstory, where we see all of Rosa’s violence against Maria is really nothing compared to this scene. It was very sad, and made me feel uncomfortable to watch Maria have to go through that. She doesn’t even have a village to go try to save her…

;_;

At least in the end of the episode, Ange actually has a bit of character development, and does something that makes her actually LIKABLE. Call the presses. She reconciles with the stakes, and even summons Sakutaro to try to reunite him with Maria.

GREAT facial expression.

Just…more magic next episode? Kthx. I think that this ends the backstory, so let’s move foreword with the actual story.

This again shows that the contractors with the biggest powers are often the easiest ones to die: they get cocky, and think that their powers will protect them, even when they’re not paying attention. I really was fooled in this episode: I thought that that extremely powerful contractor would pose a serious threat for Hei and Suou, the way he just walked in and pwned everyone easily. But yeah: he forgot to prevent July calling Hei, and in the end simply got strangled. Hei on the other hand may also have powers of instant death, but that whip looks very hard to control: he must have practiced a lot to perfect this technique. Suou’s powers too have a major disadvantage: as soon as enemies get close to her, she’s screwed. And that’s another reason why I like Darker than Black: the lead characters kick ass, not because they have unlimited godmode powers, but rather because they spent a lot of time to fill in for their weaknesses.

Now that we’re seven episodes in, it’s about time that the climax of this show is getting in sight. At this point I have no clue at how the creators are planning to end this. All we got from this episode is that Suou’s father is still alive. It makes sense in a way: if he spent so much effort into hiding Shion, it’s not surprising that he also prepared some sort of fake body to throw the enemy off. The question also remains where Yin fits into all of this: she feels like a bit of a random element in the whole story at this point.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Fate unleashes a mysterious power in his fight against Rakan!

That’s a lot of spikes….

Rakan wins…. or?

Classy as usual, eh Fate.

Whoa… what!

Wait what—? Reality manipulation?!

Oh fuck… the Mage of the Beginning guy again?

So… who the heck is actually Fate working for and what is exactly the Lifemaker or Mage of the Beginning entity? The power it has is truly HAX if judging from the small demonstration Fate showed us this chapter. This is gonna make it hard to counterattack if anything…..

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Aw man, I’m not sure if I’m jealous of or if I feel sorry for Shotataru. Mmm, let’s go with jealousy for now. But the way the Seven Stakes moved in unison was more creepy than anything. And then when Ange joins in the orgy of fun, it results in her skimping on her studies and getting picked on by her classmates due to her horrendously low test score.

Eventually the prodding goes too far and Ange summons the seven stakes and orders them to kill her classmates. But a strange thing happens on the way to a mass murder. The Seven Stakes don’t do it. They don’t necessarily refuse. But instead they try to talk Ange down from the ledge. Ange though will have none of it and begins killing off each of the seven stakes by denying them and the existence of magic. Mammon leaves with some stinging words though, accusing Ange of relying on her delusions to do the dirty work that she refuses to do herself. But what exactly does that mean? Does Ange need to pick up an axe and go Ryugu Rena on her classmates? Does she need to start the bloodletting? Or was Mammon questioning whether Ange really, truly wanted to go through with it? But once

Once the Stakes are destroyed, Ange turns her anger towards Shotataro. I thought Maria’s reaction to Shotataro’s imminent destruction was particularly well animated. Then for a second I wondered how good this show would look if Bones or Gainax produced it. But anyway, as she’s about to kill Shotataro, Ange has a flashback to an earlier time when she called Maria an idiot for believing in walking, talking stuffed animals (not quite, but more or less). Interestingly, 6 year old Ange had a lot more sense and seemed much more mature than 9 year old Maria (or maybe they were even younger). I wonder how much of Maria’s stunted growth was due to Rosa’s stellar parenting skills. Snap back to reality, and Ange collapses in tears.

Next, cut to a Maria memory. The transition here was very abrupt and totally discombobulated me. Where are we now? Last thing I remember was Lambda trolling Ange. Did Lambda then leave before the start of this episode allowing Ange and Maria to start talking again? I am going to assume yes. Because now we see the continuation of Maria’s story, except it shows another instance where Maria was left alone while Rosa went off to shack up with her boyfriend. This time Maria’s got some new rabbit poet musician friends in addition to Sakutaro. But a late night trip to the convenience store goes awry when she ends up losing her house key.

One thing leads to another and the next thing we see is Detective Oishii’s reincarnate trying to get in contact with Rosa, who gets outed by her workers for having gone on vacation. Maria wonders if she’s a poor little girl? Sakutaro disagrees, but based on the beating she’s going to get when her mom returns, I’d say yes. Maria is a very sympathetic, poor, little girl.

And yeah, cue the child abuse. Right in front of the social worker. I wonder if Ryukishi07 has a relatively low opinion of social workers or the child welfare system. They’re always so ineffective in his stories. I’m glad the social worker tried to stop Rosa’s abuse, but there’s only so much you can do when you get kicked out of the house.

Noooo! Rabbit Musician! With the pesky social worker out of the way. Rosa goes on a rampage that would make Satoko’s uncle proud. Throwing Maria down to the floor. Smashing her rabbit mariachi band. And then the coup de grace – brutally decapitating Sakutaro – to Maria’s horrid dismay. Again, I thought DEEN did a nice job animating Maria’s expression during this scene. It was the perfect mix of horror, anguish, helplessness and anger. Also kudos to Yui Horie and Ami Koshimizu during this scene, because they did a great job pulling all the emotion through this scene. I don’t condone Rosa and I certainly won’t justify her, but to some degree I could understand her anger. It’s frustration, it’s exasperation, and I think more than anything Rosa was taking the anger at herself out on Maria, unfortunately. Poor girl.

Still too bright with the tint DEEN. With Sakutaro dead, Maria turns to Beatrice and asks her to revive Sakutaro. But Beatrice just informs her that it isn’t possible, because the one who created Sakutaro – Rosa – has denied him. This is a recurring theme during this episode. If one believes in something, it exist. Once one does not believe in that thing, it ceases to exist. The Seven Stakes. Sakutaro. In response, Maria asks Beatrice to teach her the magic to kill her mom – nay, the bad witch possessing her mom (harkens back to arc 1). Beatrice, who seems very concerned about Maria throughout, agrees to do so.

Now, what I wonder is whether this version of the story is what’s actually written in the grimoire (assuming it came from there), or whether it’s Ange’s negatively interpreted version. Because Maria goes to lengths in the previous episode to communicate her optimistic view of what’s written. This seems more in line with how Ange would interpret events written in the grimoire.

Ok, back to reality again. This time in 1998. Ange and her bodyguard are riding the Hanyuu Maru ship to Rokkenjima. And Ange comes to the realization of what i mentioned above. (Magic’s) existence is dependent not on other’s beliefs, but what one believes. And with this new revelation, she calls back the Seven Stakes and Shotataro, vowing to take on Beatrice to learn the truth.

Meanwhile, we meet Kyrie’s younger sister, Kasumi, the one who’s out for Ange’s head. First Ange had to live with Eva, who was miserable. Now she gets pawned off to Kasumi, who immediately tries to kill her. If Battler was looking for a good luck charm, I don’t think Ange’s the one. Also, is the fact that both Kyrie and Kasumi are voiced by the same seiyuu important? I’d be very disappointed if Kyrie somehow turned out to be a villain.

So what’s next? Ostensibly there’s going to be three "games" going on once the action starts. The game between Battler, Ange and Beatrice in the meta-world. The 1986 murder mystery. And then the ensuing game of cat and mouse between Ange and Kasumi. I’m glad. Because I’m getting antsy. Five episodes to go. Let the games begin.

Kobato episode 5 was surprisingly dark, and rather well-done. After that, episode 6 was a bit of a letdown.

Hehe

The interesting part of the episode was the side story that focuses on Iorogyi, where we learn a little about his past life, and the rather interesting characters involved in it, as he searches to find what’s going with the nursery.

But the Kobato half of the story, while cute, was rather dull. Kobato can’t play hide and seek, and then a kid disappears for all of three minutes. Yawn.

Also, her new dress is pretty darn ugly. The fashion handcuffs go to Kobato.

Chibi Kobato is too cute.

One fourth of the show down, three fourths to go. And no, I don’t know why my screenshots are so tiny.

My problem with the past three episodes is simple: who the heck is Ange? Why the heck should I care about her? And why the heck does she have more background than nearly all of the other characters so far? This backstory of the past three episodes could easily have been squeezed in one episode, just like what the creators did with the first arcs. That would actually have left plenty of room for background on some of the other characters who deserved this, instead of this rather one-sided mini-arc that’s just there to show that Ange feels lonely and gets bullied by really, really, really stereotypical evil classmates.

The fun in Umineko comes from creating the theories and the crazy out of control plot in which you really have to guess what’s going on, and you can trust nobody. This episode… I just can’t make anything from it.
Rating: - (Disappointing)

This series tells about the lives of two thugs called Brandon Heat and Harry MacDowell, and chronicles their lives. And boy, it really takes the extra mile to develop these two! The majority of this series is just one huge flashback, which takes a look at the many, many events in their lives that made them into the characters that they are at the beginning of the story. Throughout the series, we get to see the two of them, and the people around them, during all kinds of different ages, ranging from when the two are about 10 years old, until they’re in the middle of their forties. Now that’s some awesome character-development right there!

On top of being a character-study, this also is an action-show. Quite a few of the fights are beautifully animated (courtesy of Madhouse) despite the rather sloppy drawings at times. The fights are varied, ranging from simple duels to huge shoot-outs, although during the second half, I do admit that they turn in this series’ weakness. Especially the fights against the big overpowered monsters are a bit dull, because these monsters have no personality nor free will at all. It’d be just like fighting your way out of a bunch of paper bags. I also didn’t quite like the concept of the so-called “Superior”-monsters: to me, they seemed a bit of a convenient excuse to give the important characters some cheap superpowers.

Nevertheless, this series ends with a very strong finale. All of the important characters get enough of a chance to close off their stories (and considering the development they’ve gotten, this really is a great thing) and that makes the entire finale just bittersweet. This series explores themes like trust and betrayal, family and loyalty, and it does this so well. This definitely is a series to look out for, with its deep characters and in-depth look at large mafia-organizations. Despite the few humps in the middle I really give my thumbs up for this one.

You guys have fun with stalking Danny Choo then. /shrug.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

There’s nothing like taking a trip to Kyoto while smuggling a cat in your luggage. I can’t remember that cat’s name, and I’m not going to bother to check since we’re never going to see him again. That cat shall be known as "Tama’s friend" from henceforth. Anyway, kudos to Junpei’s sacrifice, because I bet Tama’s friend left enough cat hair in that suitcase to last for weeks. On another note, I feel like all the Kyoto jokes went over my head.

Like for example, the tour guide woman. Was her look and mannerisms a Kyoto in-joke? I bet she had a funny accent too. The montage of her popping up in between Junpei having to help random cats was pretty funny and well paced. I bet he helped like 10 cats during this trip. He’s up to around 30 or so by my count…which means he has 5 episodes left to save the other 69 cats. Yeah, good luck with that buddy. Junpei may want to leave an offering for neko-Jizou to get him a second season to work with.

Unfortunately, we had a lack of twins this episode. But their scene was strnagely cute. Maybe it’s the sound of Hauka Tomatsu whining and shushing herself at the same time. And lol at the random humor. The boys love reading bus driver, Junpei’s happy thumb, and the "girls are not baby-makers" quote from Junpei plays-cool-but-really-is-a-perv friend. Nyan Koi does do that well.

For an onsen episode, I thought it was pretty light on the fanservice (and thankfully free of the black hole censorship), but we did get some nice angles of Kaede. I approve.

The quick visual gags of Kanako being a third wheel were great. I especially loved the picture of her being the horse. But the gags where Kanako beating the crap out of Junpei… has sort of worn itself out. I really wish AIC would explore some of Kanako’s more deredere moments from the manga, because her one-sided bitchiness is making her a magnet for fan hate. And to be fair, that fan hate is justified. I mean, when all she does is beat up Junpei, get in the way of his moments with Kaede, and then hypocritically blame him for not being honest with his feelings, you can pretty much expect people to hate her.

No those cats above are not starring in some weird doujinshi. In a twist of fate, Tama stumbles along a small kitten who just happens to be the son of Tama’s friend. This small kitten shall be dubbed, "Neko-chan" from henceforth. Little Neko-chan may want to invest in some therapy. Because it turns out he may have some half brothers out there, because his dad’s a sleaze and apparently cheated on his mom while she was pregnant with him. The site of Neko-chan’s mom smacking her husband silly and strangling him was too hilarious. Especially in contrast to Josephine and his wife, Cindia’s very blissful marriage. Who said you couldn’t learn family values from cats?

What’s Nagi’s cat Josephine doing in Kyoto in the first place? Well, it turns out Kyoto is Nagi’s family’s true home, and it just so happens that they were gathering for the yearly family meeting – which basically consisted of Nagi turning down all her henchmen for marriage. Nagi’s family is doing it all wrong. She can’t marry her own henchmen. What they need to do is find another clan and match her with the head male there. Seriously, the Ichinose clan needs to be a little more on the ball. However, seeing Junpei in Kyoto has sparked the destiny card for Nagi. And it looks like ExecutiveOtaku was right and Nagi might throw her hat back into the ring. Man, I did not expect that. Seriously. What the heck happened to hoes before bros? Tsk tsk tsk.

Josephine’s got the right idea. You gotta stop chasing after the hares and go after the grade A chicks. Hares barely have any meat on them, and chickens are much more delicious. Oh wait. What’s that? These hares were what? Metaphorical? Whoops. My bad. *Makes sheepish face. Cue laughtrack.* That’s all folks! I’m here all week. Thank you! Thank you!

it’s a surprisingly well written episode in which Sawako gets more and more used to her new friends, and even ends up calling Kazehaya to join her, Yano and Yoshida at Ryuu’s house, which also is a ramen bar. We got to know the middle school versions of some of the characters (Kazehaya apparently played baseball), and the creators had enough inspiration to keep the rest of the episode going without getting boring.

My big worry right now is that call that Yano made to her mysterious “boyfriend”. While I like this subtle of an introduction, I still don’t quite trust this show for drama. This show is good at slice of life and dialogue, but the drama hasn’t caught me yet. Still, at this point Kimi ni Todoke is interesting enough to keep blogging, despite its flaws. Thankfully it’s not such a chore to watch and blog like other series I’ve dropped, like Valkyria Chronicles, Allison to Lillia and Soul Eater.
Rating: * (Good)

In a few weeks, I’m planning to write the first of my 2-part “Decade Summary”. Unfortunately it’s going to be filled with major spoilers, so I’m experimenting right now with a simple spoiler-tag. Let me know if you can read this text without highlighting it.

Last weekend, my awesome boyfriend came up, and we marathoned all 13 episodes of thes second season of Nanoha together.

I had previously watched the first season of Nanoha, and enjoyed it immensely, although I did have a few gripes. It took a little while to get started, and there was some really annoying filler. Luckily, the second season of Nanoha seemed to bring foreword all the positives of the first season, and leaves behind all the negatives. The series hits the ground running, and introduces us to whole new cast of new characters, and develops them very well while still focusing on the characters of the first season of Nanoha.

Nanoha, especially the second season, is one of those animes that I feels offers anything you could want in an anime. Cute girls. Cute boys. A complex, interesting storyline. Character development. Awesome fights fought with awesome weapons. Emotional depth, and the just right amount of cheesy and genuine emotions.

Overall, I feel Nanoha is one of those animes that fans should really give a try. While it does offer a lot, Nanoha is also different from the typical anime. Halfway through the fourth episode of the first season, this anime stops feeling like someone you’ve watched before, and starts to feel like something unique.

GJ, Sakuya.

Anyways, pretty serious chapter this time, as outlined below, after the last 5-6 battle-filled ones.

So, Hayate will have to choose either to save Athena or Nagi, with serious consequences for whom he doesn’t choose. A choice between the past and the status quo…. now that’s a hard one there. And all in all, it looks like Mikado’s the one behind it all (and he’s the Santa guy too?!). I wonder what’s his true objective in all this.

Sure is hard to believe that HnG is a comedy manga (supposedly).

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Honey Hunt is done by the same person who did Tokyo Boys and Girl and Hot Gimmick. It has been released up to volume 3 in the USA.

Truthfully, I’m a total sucker for shojuo manga in all shapes and forms, from ridiculously fluffy to overly dramatic, and this manga is no exception.

Yura is the daughter of a world-famous musician, and a beautiful and talented actress. However, both of them really suck in the parenting department, with an absent father, and the mother being an absolutely manipulative and selfish bitch. Furthermore, she got passed over in the genetics category, being a fairly ordinary girl with no noticeable talents.

Crap really hits the fan when Yura’s parents decide to get divorced, and Yura find her uprooted from her old life. Then she discovers her mom has been having an affair with her childhood friend that she’s had a crush on. Yura snaps, and attempts to trash her mother’s career with a public outburst about how much she hates her. This fails, but reveals to her father’s agent her possible talent as an actress.

With the agent, Keiichi’s support, and her burning desire for revenge, Yura decides to become an actress better then her mother. So the journey begins.

Oh yes. There are boys. Two in particular, Q-ta, a overly friendly famous musician who gets off on the wrong foot by admitting that he wants to marry her to be the son-in-law of her father, but seems to honestly care about, and her surely brother. I wonder which one I ship.

I know this series sounds like a total rip-off off Skip Beat, but it’s not. I actually find it a better series, as I had a lot of issues with Skip Beat as a manga. But the characters are well-developed and interesting, and the drama doesn’t feel petty and weak, although it’s a little over the top. Even more so, this series doesn’t fall into the lull of boring, but stays lovely dramariffic.

This is Janette for Manga Monday, signing off.

It took me a couple minutes to realize that they’d started the episode off with Matsuda and not Chiaki. For a moment there, I thought they had fast-forwarded the show several years and given Chiaki a new look. Instead we see the story about Yukihisa Matsuda, the professional conductor who also took Chiaki’s place as conductor of Rising Star Orchestra.

One of the things I loved about Nodame Cantabile was hearing Chiaki or Stresseman or in this case Matsuda talk about the music their conducting. I think the difficult part about listening to classical music for the first time is that there’s no words to hang your hat on. Songs and movements run into each other to the point where it’s difficult to tell them apart. But when the characters talk about the song, and some of the background behind it, it really helped me understand what to listen for, and the feelings behind it. Hopefully now that Chiaki’s competitions are done, they’ll do provide more of the musical background in season 3, because it was sorely lacking in season 2.

Lol @ the "unexpectedly delicious" liquid cheesecake, and Matsuda’s confirmation of such. Judging by Matsuda’s love for women, Stresseman probably would’ve had a lot more time hanging with him than Chiaki.

We only got a few minutes of Nodame, but they were hilarious moments indeed. Evil blank eyed Nodame was great. And if she never gets to perform with Chiaki, I hear Celestial Being has a spot open for their sniper.

I had never really thought much of Ayako Kawasumi until I heard her as Nodame. All of the roles that I’d heard her in before were either underwhelming (Zero no Tsukaima, Shakugan no Shana) or not very memorable (Fate/Stay Night, Genshiken, Kanon), but it’s hard to imagine anyone else doing Nodame as well as she does. Although Ueno Juri does a fantastic live version of Nodame. Actually, that was part of my confusion in watching this OVA. I initially watched all the anime episodes in a row, then I watched all the live action episodes in a row, so I kept seeing the live action actors in my head. In case the third animated season isn’t enough Nodame (and who could say that there’s such a thing as "enough Nodame"), there’s actually going to be 2 live action movies airing in Japan in December this year, and in the spring of next year. Both are excellent and definitely worth watching if you’re a rom-com fan (although the live action has an asian comedy hammyness to it that you need to get used to).

I was also glad to see Mine and the gang back in the picture. They were completely ignored in the 2nd season of the anime, so here’s hoping that Chiaki Kon does a better job throwing them a bone in the final season.

Lol @ con-mas raep. I bet Matsuda didn’t write that one into his future diary.

All in all, a nice lighthearted romp into the Nodame Cantabile universe. There wasn’t exactly a whole lot of depth, but these OVAs are really just to have some fun. Definitely worth the 20 minutes of my time, and it has me psyched back up again for the return of Nodame, Chiaki and co.

And this mostly comes courtesy of Tessa, who turned out to be a really genuine character throughout this episode. She’s so incredibly innocent and yet none of it is overdone or shallow like with the Randolf or Mildred episodes. I especially liked how she desperately tried to make up with Anne, knowing the things she did.

The point at which the headmistress called the entire class together also really hit home with me. The nostalgia! When I was a kid, we also had these points at which someone did something, yet refused to come clean, and so the teacher put the entire class on these long-winded lectures that at the time never seemed to end.

This actually provides hope for the rest of this series. Tessa now has enough depth and there’s no reason for the creators to develop her even more. The big question that’s going to make or break the finale of this series is of course going to be the rest of Anne’s classmates, with most importantly the bookworm and the tomboy. The rest of the series will be fine. It’s those two that the creators really need to pay attention at in order to prevent falling into past pitfalls. If they can get that duo right, then there’s not much else that can go wrong at this point.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

This episode was just crazy. But when I say crazy, I mean that in a Madhouse sort of way. This ranged from those small jokes as the cow people enslaving the humans and the old lady who thought she smelled her old husband, to the lead character cutting off even more heads, so that the lead female could play with them like dolls. What the hell?1 the final scene, in which the lead character runs into his feared cherry blossoms, freaks out and strangles her to death was incredibly intense. No Longer Human was very subtle in showing the mental decay of the lead character, but here it’s totally different. The mental delusions of this guy are in your face, but also absolutely beautiful and full of eye-candy.

This story really strikes me as a very critical look at the traditional roles of the male and females. It’s overblown of course, but the lead character just keeps killing people for the woman he loves, until the past finally gets the chance to bite back. It portrays these values as utterly ridiculous.

What also makes this series pretty unique is that the longest stories aren’t saved for last. If this already was a mindfuck, then I really don’t know what the creators have in store for the final two episodes, which if I’m not mistaken are going to be two stories of just 20 minutes.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

The only highlight of this chapter. Eva-sama! It’s been a while!

Otherwise, it was more revelations about Negi inheriting some SUPAH-POWAFURU ancient magic thanks to being Arika’s son and such. Yue’s Artifact is a informations-dealer desire come true. Also, Rakan and Fate still sparring in the pocket dimension made by catgirl. Looks like Rakan’s about to lose though.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Anyway, there’s lots of interesting stuff going on in this episode that introduces even more side-plots. We finally get our fist glimpse of the strange blond-haired woman we’ve been seeing in the OP. She’s the head of the Armstrong family. One particular filler episode from the first season suddenly gets an entirely different dimension. ^^;

Kimbley also waste no time to go after Scar, although his subordinates desperately need a lesson in the art of ambushing (seriously, did they really think that it was a good idea to corner Scar, a man who is known to fight back, on a bridge, from two sides? It’s like saying; “go ahead; escape. We’ll just shoot ourselves.”). The creators are also hinting a bit too much that Scar is travelling with that moustached guy that’s been hanging around him. they’re trying way too hard to hide his face.

In the meantime, Ed and Al also meet Bradley’s son and Grumman has taken up cross-dressing. A very eventful episode overall, I’d say.
Rating: * (Good)

This episode also ended with a baseball match, but unfortunately Akane didn’t manage to give that one an extra spark. As usual, everything around the match was awesome: Aoba getting angry, the way the creators made it seem at first that Aoba poisoned Azuma, it all rocked. But the match itself… it gave me deja vus. I’m not exactly sure where, but I could have sworn that the creators have ended a match in the EXACT SAME WAY once before.

In any case, with this Akane also demonstrates how she’s a very keen observer: she has a great eye for detail in her sketches, but she also critically looks at her environment (in the way she asked who the “Wakaba” on Aoba’s door was. This episode never showed how she reacted when she found out that she looked like Wakaba, but I suspect that there’s a whole lot going on inside her head that the creators haven’t shown us yet.
Rating: ** (Good)

This series is full of things that are bound to happen: in this episode, Damya finally threatens Erin with the safety of the students and teachers at the academy. It’s something that was bound to happen, the moment Erin started to take care of Lilan. And yet this episode showed her as she comes with a solution that I never even thought of: what if the Grand Duke became king? That would mean that the Beast Kings would lose their function as war machines. We’ve seen people claim before that the country would fall apart when its two half get unbalanced, but I realize that we’re also supposed to take that with a grain of salt: I mean, with Damya at the head, the country is bound for destruction anyways.

The only thing that I dislike about this series is the great amount of flashbacks in this series. This series just keeps recycling the same frames under these flashbacks, when a character is talking, and it’s about to get a bit overused. Ah well, at least it’s not the worst way to save budget. The drawings still look as solid as ever.

I think that at this point, I still consider Seirei no Moribito as superior to Kemono no Souja Erin. While Erin has better developed characters and a longer length, it still beats Erin for me in terms of the awesome production-values and its huge attention to detail in just about everything. Still, I do have to say that Erin is getting closer and closer to the height of SnM.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

I’ve heard so many good things about Haibane Renmei that I’ve been angling to watch it for a while now. I didn’t know much about it though, so I didn’t know exactly what to expect. But it was indeed as great as I’ve heard.

Haibane Renmei is a tough show to classify. The show has a very slow-paced, slice-of-life feel to it. But its dramatic moments are extremely powerful. The best comparison that comes to mind is Aria (in a similar, but totally different sort of way). They both touch upon similar feelings, but come at it from completely different angles. Whereas Aria’s bright and ever optimistic nature helped me to appreciate the joy in all the little things in life, the subdued, grungy world of Haibane Renmei showed the preciousness of each moment through the fleetingness of existence. It’s both saddening and uplifting at the same time. Somewhat similar to the experience of throwing a goodbye party for a good friend. You enjoy the good times of that moment, but with a tinge of sadness knowing that you won’t see them again. All the while, you realize life will continue to move on.

I was less compelled by the imagery and symbolism as I was by the relationships and the very personal struggles of both Rakka and Reki. Not that the symbolism wasn’t interesting, but I was just stunned by how very real the relationships felt – the highs and the lows. I couldn’t help but be bemused at the somber thought of how people have such a penchant for self-destruction. From those that know they need to ask for help and refuse to ask for it, to those that reject the very helping hand they’ve been praying and wishing so much for. The emotions in this show are raw and honest. When the show picks up, your heart will pound in response to the developments and out of concern for the characters. And although there weren’t any traditional cliffhangers per se, there were several episodes where I said #%$%!!! and watched the next episode, because I had to know what happened.

I wish they would have explained a little more about the Togas, their background and function, and the role of the Haibane Renmei. I would’ve also loved to have learned a little bit more about how the Haibane and the town of Glie came about. But that mystery is part of the charm, and adds to the unsettling atmosphere. It’s hard to predict where the story will go, because so much about the world and its characters is unknown.

I wonder how much I’d want to rewatch Haibane Renmei in the future, because while it’s somewhat uplifting, it is still a sad show (although if you’re watching for the symbolism, you could probably watch it endlessly). But if you haven’t watched it yet, I wholeheartedly recommend it. It takes a little bit of patience, but it’s shows like this that make me believe in the power of anime as a unique and powerful storytelling medium.

Yes, it returns! I will be updating with this every other week to try to keep up better with my output this time. So without further to do, we present my representation of season 2 and the OVA.

I have a confession to make. I have not finished either, although I’m very close to finishing Kai. I’m watching it with my sister, so it has to be when we’re together. Still, I wanted to make sure I made a patch for them, and I felt the wheel of fate from the Rei theme song fit Kai perfectly. Kai is such a different and superior show to the first season of Higurashi, although it needs to first season to come together. The character development in every main character especially Satoko, Keiichi, Rika and Shion is downright beautiful, and how they all come together to save Satoko and then even solve the mystery, albit they were too late in that arc. I feel like season 2 in an anime that truly deserves to be remembered as epic.

The OVA is just good fun, a little something more for the Higurashi fan.

Oh, and MionxKeiichi all the way.

This is a filler done right guys. Nadeshiko makes her reappearance to Amu and there’s cute Rimahiko-ness going on too. No filler characters. It’s just three of the main cast, with the emphasis not even on the two secondary ones of the trio. This is what fillers can be good for. Giving development to secondary main characters and giving the fans what they want. Like when we got to see Kairi again.

Now, I couldn’t help but fangirl for this episode because it’s fun, but I suggest you watch the episode before reading, because hype can kill your enjoyment in something. Fall for it yourself.

I had trouble with hype myself. The bigger a fandom is, the more that I dislike it. I had to sit through tweets (which was fine) and even an e-mail or two before I was able to sit down and watch this episode. If I hadn’t closed comments on old posts due to spam, I’m sure I would have gotten comments on old posts telling me I had to watch this episode.

You think me stopping blogging with a dramatic statement about how people need to have more interests would put a stop to this sort of thing.

Anyway, the episode was good overall, even longer than usual and everything. It was the best filler I’ve seen in a long time. The fact that all characters seemed to be in character was just great. Watching Nagi panic, watching Amu be oblivious, and of course…the best thing of all…

Watching Rima rub it in Nagi’s face when she knows full well what’s going on. If your main reason for loving Rimahiko isn’t because of how Rima is always suspicious and judgmental of Nagi then, you’re not a Rimahiko fan! (It sounds messed up, but it really works).

Rima devil smirk ftw!

Which really just goes to show that Rima is another sort of tsundere like all the other girls. She’s actually a lot like Utau’s mild tsuntsun for Kukai (in fillers) except where Utau actively makes Kukai do stuff for her (lol Utau) Rima just sits back and watched Nagi squirm all on his own.

And you better believe she enjoys it.

Except when poor Rima is being jealous. Even when Rima and Nagi go out someday (which they totally will), you better believe Rima still won’t be letting him near her Amu.

Of course, it’s really more about Nagi lying to Amu, but I still say Rima is going to be the same and it will all be revealed to actually just be Rima being jealous. Like we all know it is.

The episode was, of course, also good for Amuhiko…though I’d say more of the “fun” sort (like how I enjoy seeing the two together and such also). Because Amu’s first best friend was Nadeshiko…she’s even used Nagi to help her communicate with Nadeshiko. So yeah…for romantic purposes that ship sunk a long time ago. Doesn’t stop Amu and Nadeshiko’s reuinion from being adorable though.

Makes you wonder who should really have the Devil/Angel charas.

Fear the Rima-tan.

Of course, like I said…what makes the episode shine is Rima. It’s been a long time since we’ve gotten to see Rima in her element. She’s just brutal this week. Taking any shot at Nagi that she can get while still keeping his secret. Putting him in as many difficult situations as possible.

Then how Nagi manages to get through it and such. Making the whole big thing a competition between Rima and Nagi. The whole thing is just hilarious when all Rima has to say is “Nadeshiko” or “Nagihiko” to make Nagi run off again though. The end of the back and forth with “Nagihiko…or rather Nadeshiko” was the best. Oh yes, this episode made me love Rima that much more.

Nagi held up like a champ the whole way through though. Until Rima threw him a bone. Which of course leads to a giggly moment for fangirls in the form of “d’aww…she really does care…” (Watching Nagi smile at Rima after is great~)

I think the whole reason we actually got this filler is so that Yamato Maihime and Temari could appear before Nagihiko tells Amu the truth (which certainly won’t be happening in this filler series). Of course, being a general mahou shoujo fan I loved this too. Especially with the Nadehiko character single coming into the anime. Finally.

…Makes me want a full blown Rimahiko filler where we can hear Rima’s character single actually. (How great would that be guys?)

But the whole episode I couldn’t wait for Nagihiko and Rima to be left alone because that was when any shipping development would happen. Of course, this is my fun couple, but I want to see real progress to you know! And I got some fun lines (twisted i

Since I think Rima kind of bends that way after all of my jokes about her and Amu, I couldn’t help but think Rima likes that idea.

Seriously, in my fan mind I can’t help but think that Rima is the only one for Nagi because she probably bends that way a little if you know what I mean. She even gets along better with “Nadeshiko”. That can also be owed to the fact that Rima treated guys like servants a lot though. If I think about it…that’s exactly what she does with Nagi too.

Oh Rima~ You wonderfully sweet tease~

Like this scene which made the whole episode. As many fans caught on…it’s a lot like Rima just asked ordered Nagi to go out on a date with her. Oh Rima you tsundere you~

Of course, this date thing is what got me thinking about the Rima character song thing. Rimahiko filler at an amusement park! Who’s with me!?

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(I just had to get this reaction shot in at the end~)

This whole episode did a lot to get me back in my normal shipping mode~ Where recently I’ve just been enjoying various anime for more legitimate purposes. But it takes the cute twelve-year-old couples to always bring me back. They’re the cute ones without complications that you can just watch and sigh at.

Which makes me pissed off that immature fans are hijacking this pairing and getting as annoying as they get with everything else. Is nothing sacred? Not even the cute, fun side pairing? (Yeah…I’m taking this opportunity to tell everyone I’m deleting any comments that bug me here…)

So overall, this was a good filler. Featured things we can’t get in the manga that we actually want (Nadeshiko, Yamato Maihime, etc) along with the fangirl favorite of some shippy-ness…without moving the couple ahead of where they’re supposed to be in the manga. Good job team. Now return to your usual suckage.

Whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Yin kawaii yo Yin!

WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. Hei and Yin being…. intimate.

I can’t wait for this OVA now.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Yiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!!!!!!!!!!

So she IS still around, and she’s even packing quite the punch now, since she can do this….

(feel sorry for the mom though) …. and even this.

Yeah. Is she almost becoming some form of Super Doll now? Clearly this are powers way beyond what we’ve seen so far.

This random encounter was hillarious LOL. Mom’s like “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” LOL.

I…. wonder how the hell he can do that. Looks soooo unnatural.

Ooohhh, Suou in school uniform. Something to look forward to next week! Too bad there’s no more loli abuse, eh.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

There was very little progress in the game, in fact it hasn’t even begun. However, we got a little more background on Maria’s newfound magical powers, her formerly stuffed, now surprisingly shota buddy, Sakutaro, and Ange’s history with magic. As the game is about to begin, Ange takes off on her own, perhaps into her own meta world to have a talk with Maria. It certainly was a very odd time for Ange to split, and start talking to Maria about her unhappiness. I mean, she’s right in the middle of a game. Where is she going off to? If Battler didn’t completely trust her before, he doesn’t have much reason to trust her any more now. Maria’s story, though, and by extension her explanations for her story should be helpful for Ange when she returns to the game.

Wow, I thought Rosa was a below average mom before, but I underestimated her. Unfortunately, we don’t have much info on Rosa’s troubles, or what happened to Maria’s dad, but leaving your 9 year old daughter for a weekend, while you go off doing "moms gone wild?" Damn, Rosa is a terrible mom. Maria talking to Sakutaro about her mom’s forgotten promise felt like one of the more "adult" conversations I’ve heard her engage in so far. It also helps give her character some depth. It doesn’t explain the crazy, occult-obsessed freak Maria from earlier in the show. But it makes her into a much more sympathetic character.

Sakutaro was much cooler (and cuter), before Beatrice inexplicably transformed him into a shota. I mean look at him. Mixing cocktails, getting drunk and getting gifts like it’s nobody’s business. Stuffed Sakutaro is pimp.

While Maria focuses on telling Ange about how happy she was. Ange continues to take the more "realistic" view. Calling Rosa abandonment for what it was. Meanwhile, Maria chides Ange for reading things in between the lines that don’t exist, and then selectively picking up the unhappy pieces to deduce her truths. Maria explains that she’s able to do this, because she has a power that Ange doesn’t: the power of magic. The talk between the two was particularly interesting, simply because it’s an allegory for the larger game at play, and started making me think about what possible things I was reading in between the lines from previous games that didn’t exist.

The transition to Maria hanging with Beatrice and Virgilia felt a bit abrupt. Apparently, Maria developed a power that goes beyond the powers of even Beatrice and Virgilia: the power of Geass Zero. The ability to create something out of nothing. How exactly did she develop this power? Something that was just passed down the Ushiromiya bloodline? But they congratulate Maria by shotafying Sakutaro, then giving Maria the title of the Apprentice Witch of Origins.

Maria then tells Ange that she was once an apprentice witch as well. Something Ange remembered only after being told. At one point in time, Maria gave Ange the ability to summon the Seven Stakes of Purgatory, specifically Mammon at Ange’s current power level. That is after Mammon and co. went all shotakon on Sakutaro. However, after a particular incident at school she appears to have lost the ability.

Cut next to the "present day" and we see Ange consulting with an occultist and an expert on the Ushiromiya murder mystery. He informs Ange that two bottles were indeed found explaining the murders at Rokkenjima. Both with the same handwriting, but both telling completely differently stories. Although they’re signed by Maria, when compared to Maria’s handwriting the styles don’t match. However, Ange then shows him Maria’s grimoire, at which he’s glaring tell gives away that the handwriting in the grimoire is indeed the same as the handwriting of the notes in the bottles.

A few things to think about here. One is that there seems to be a multitude of realities existing simultaneously:

• 1986, the multiple realities on Rokkenjima, with 6 year old Angie living on her own.
• 1998, following the path of the 3rd game, in which Ange grows up with Eva, meets Bernkastel, at which point her existence seems to split:
  • One version is whisked away by Bernkastel and now exists in the meta-world, and is battling Beatrice with Battler
  • The other version jumped from the roof for kicks, but is now on the run from the Sumadara family. This Ange seems to be taking a more conventional route at figuring out what happened.

However, we only meet the Ange that was a result of the 3rd game. But what about the versions of Ange that would have resulted in the 1st and 2nd games?

Meanwhile, we see two versions of the bottles, explaining the accounts from 2 different games – game 1 and game 2. Has the bottle from game 3 not been found yet? Or was the note never written because it was the one game in which Maria was killed early?

Also, if the handwriting wasn’t Maria’s, whose could it have been? Beatrice seems like the most likely suspect, considering she was writing in the book before transforming Sakutaro, but it doesn’t make much sense for her to be sending out notes in bottles.

I keep thinking back to Higurashi, trying to think if there are any parallels between the multiple realities in that show, and the multiple realities in this show. But I haven’t come to any conclusions yet. Opening up the mystery to the outside world though has really put an interesting twist on the Rokkenjima murders.

Finally, Beatrice calls Ange back to the game. But before returning, Lambdadelta shows up to troll with Ange, explaining that Bernkastel merely made Ange a pawn in the game. If she wins, Battler returns to her in 1986 not in 1998 (presumably erasing the existence of 1998 and meta-world Anges). But Lambda offers a deal. Play the game forever, so that she can stay with Battler forever.

Zugzwang is a term in chess that basically means "damned if you do and damned if you don’t." Whatever move you make will weaken your position. If Ange decides to "win" the game, current Ange loses herself. If Ange decides to "lose" the game, current Ange gets to play forever with Battler. To be honest, it doesn’t seem like a particularly difficult decision to me. I’d guess it’s not easy to have to erase your current self, no matter how screwed up it is. But considering Ange’s awful childhood, perhaps re-doing her childhood wouldn’t hurt. And the other option of playing the game forever seems like a terrible idea. I hope Ange realizes her goal was to save Battler, not be stuck in a psychotic game with him through eternity (a.k.a. hell).

I don’t know how long this arc was in the VN, but with 6 more episodes it seems like they should be able to take their time… hopefully next episode won’t be as blinding.

I’m still liking the current season of anime. So people who thought I was weird for getting excited about it, nyeh-nyeh and all that immature stuff. Like I said, it was looking perfect for me. And it is~

This season I’m watching more anime than I usually do and I’m not really losing interest in anything. Usually I love a season in a preview and hopefully at the beginning before it kind of wears out. Series can start out good and then just run out of steam.

The anime I picked up this season at any point are attacked/praised in alphabetical order. Though I really didn’t have much to say that was bad. Shocking even if I do particularly like this season.

Ah, what’s happened to me? I want to be overly critical and pick on everything again! (Really though, it seems like lately I’ve become such an optimist. Right around when fans stopped bothering me about blogging because they stopped caring about a certain series because of its spin-off. I wonder if that would have anything to do with it…)

I also just flat out got lazy and didn’t include screencaps for a couple of anime because I didn’t talk about them much. I don’t think it’s a big deal. Even so, I keep feeling like something is horrible wrong with this post. I’ll owe it to my obsession with images, but it’s overall a sort of throwaway post. I wanted to make up for not getting to a First Impressions collected post, so Mid-Season post instead!

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11eyes

Episodes Aired: 6
Episodes Watched: 5

Yeah. Five episodes in. About time. Training = Boring.

Yeah, I really don’t think the fanservice was that bad after everyone was going on about it. The first episode was certainly bad and Yuka still seems to get camera angles and sitting positions purely to show off her underwear. But really, it’s a decent anime. It has exactly what I was hoping for based on any reviews I saw of the game.

I mean the constant “I’ll protect Yuka” gets kind of annoying, but now that Kakeru can back it up I guess it’s okay. Still, despite all of the adorable situations Yuka and Kakeru end up in that get my fangirling going, they still leave a lot to be desired as a couple. Bring on the drama!!! (Though apparently episode 6 is taking care of that…)

At this point I am kind of liking the cast of side characters better, though like I said, Kakeru being able to back up his declaration to protect Yuka gives him bonus points. Also, now that we’re heading into the second half of the story, all those hints I saw about Yuka should be leading her to become a very interesting character. A come from behind favorite. As of right now she should be my favorite since I have no others and I find her generally adorable, but knowing the hints about her combined with her not having much to do with the story just makes me feel unsatisfied with her current state.

So, as I said in my preview, I’m watching this to the end. Because I have to know Yuka’s secret. I expect to be disappointed with my own hype though. Though I have the basic idea of it and that basic outcome is nice.

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Fairy Tail

Episodes Aired: 6
Episodes Watched: 6

Sweet. Got a group shot without the “main character” (in shounen main = lame)

This actually became one of my favorites of the season. The fact that a bunch of fans of the manga hated it just confirmed to me that I had to watch. It lead me to believe that it would be the classic shounen anime adaptation because shounen fans never like their anime adaptations at first. Especially the seiyuu choices. Memories of Soul Eater occur to me…

Really though, I don’t like Kugi-san as the cat thing or Hirano-san either. But at least I got used to them.

Overall it’s a fun anime and I never get bored while watching it. Though my attention was certainly completely fixed in place in the second episode when a certain character appeared and became an instant favorite.

And if you can’t guess which one then you don’t know me well enough! Actually…since it’s a guy this time I think that distinction deserves a mention. Usually I’m a fan of the girls~ …Wait that didn’t come out right.

But yeah, Yuuichi Nakamura voiced character ftw. Obviously. I have a theory that any character with even one good line will become an incredibly awesome force to be reckoned when they’re voiced by Yuichi Nakamura. Because seriously you guys, seriously. (Yes, that does sell my point.) Also, bonus points if their hair is blue. (Seriously! There are four roles someone can easily connect to Yuuichi Nakamura and three of them have blue hair! Now it’s four! It’s gotten to the point where I see blue hair and I think anyone but Yuuichi Nakamura is a miscast! Even for women!)

That said, Gray would have been a cool character anyway (random loss of clothes does that), but you know, Rule of Yuuichi Nakamura makes him that much better. Seriously. (Erza is second favorite even after just one episode though. Secondary Characters > Main Characters…like almost every other shounen out there.)

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InuYasha Kanketsu-Hen

Episodes Aired: 6
Episodes Watched: 6

This screencap is relevant for having the two main characters! And that’s it.

Nostalgia~ Nostalgia~ So far this season though I’ve liked the first two episodes best. The recent episode too for having a scene with real interactions between all three women/girls of the show. Overall this season is good for that stuff, having characters interact that normally don’t (they tried some bullshit fillers like that near the end of the last series which were all thoroughly lame).

I also always enjoy it whenever there’s adventures in Kagome’s world, which there really aren’t many of in this season (except fluffy shippy interludes…ohoho~). I really like Rumiko Takahashi doing romantic comedy better than doing big long stories.

Generally though, right now I’m not enjoying the series as much because we’re in the basic shounen upgrade BS and still tying up some loose threads. Apparently after all of that is done, they’re going to slow down the pace because that’s when the important stuff is coming up.

I’m really looking forward to the arc with Kagome and Kikyou (which is now coming up next). Plus that mini-arc about Kagome’s powers. And then the last two chapters being adapted. Plus the shippy stuff I mentioned. So basically anything involving Kagome who still manages to be my favorite character again now that it’s animated. Bonus points for a Kagome and Kikyou combination. Triple super special bonus points for Kagome x InuYasha shippy times.

Ah~ Once you hit a certain age, you just embrace your past fandom loves that much more I think. (Though enjoying this series so much has a negative side effect of making me feel old-ish when so many young fans don’t even know it. Terrifying!)

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Kobato.

Episodes Aired: 5
Episodes Watched: 4

Shame on you if you don’t know how I feel about this. The episode 2-4 post explains in full detail me getting used to it being an adaptation but basically deciding that it’s doing a good adaptation. Some things don’t really live up to expectations, but it’s impossible to do everything right.

Especially when this fangirl is a shipping fangirl and adapting the short manga into a 24 episode series requires you to mess with events of said fangirl’s shipping.

Anyway, as you can see by the episode counts, there’s an episode I would have posted about before now, but my brother got in the way. The post should be coming on Saturday unless I continue to be derailed by…other things. *been watching a game’s videos to “tehe~” at cutscenes*

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Miracle Train

Episodes Aired: 6
Episodes Watched: 4

These guys dressed up way too much. Not even mentioning that other outfit from episode 4.

I don’t care what other fangirls say, I’m on the side of those who are highly amused by this series.

Some girls are pointing at it and saying it’s sexist, but I just don’t connect to that at all. Growing up in a very liberal equal part of the US I just don’t experience that sort of bullshit ever. So I see fiction as just harmless fiction…though there are certain tipping points that offend me as a girl. Miracle Train just isn’t one.

That said, I still don’t think Miracle Train should be at all sexist, even to the most sensitive girl. The reason the bishies help out girls instead of guys is quite simple you see. If they helped out guys, they’d be gay. And being a man harem with no lead female they already have all the signs of being a gay gathering of gay men. If you just have them go out and help guys then there’d be no doubt. It would turn into the anime edition of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” which is literally gay. So there.

Really, it’s a series that knows it’s bad. It’s kind of pointless to take it serious in any way. And by not taking it seriously, I find it highly amusing.

Now with all that said, of course being a bad episodic series, it really does wear thin. I only pick it up and watch it when I’m really bored. And if it wasn’t streaming I wouldn’t bother at all.

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Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu Purezza

Episodes Aired: 6
Episodes Watched: 2

I’m actually behind with this one. When I come back to it I’ll post on it, so you’ll just hear about it later.

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Nyan Koi!

Episodes Aired: 6
Episodes Watched: 2

I kind of dropped this for the moment even though I found it quite simply entertaining. It just didn’t really have anything new to offer me that I want at this point in time. It looks like things have gotten cuter, but I don’t know…I just don’t get my usual motivation for that stuff.

It seems these days I like romance on the side. Or…thinking about Nogizaka Haruka…I’m just not willing to have two series like that in one season. Haruka gets the love because it’s a sequel to a series I already liked.

Still…I miss the kitties. But time is valuable and if I just don’t fell satisfied by each episode, it’s time to give it up. If I get even more bored this season though, I’ll definitely go back to this one. I cycle through my bonus anime pretty easily anyway.

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Seiken no Blacksmith

Episodes Aired: 6
Episodes Watched: 6

At least if this loli ojou-sama bitch was voiced by Rie Kugimiya someone would like her.

I still enjoy this anime, though my enjoyment noticeably fell during the Lisa filler. So damn boring. Then I just went “wtf?” when the next episode started with Aria and Cecily being chased. Overall, a dislikable episode because we introduced a loli princess. Entirely unnecessary because we already have more than enough loli than the world could ask for in an Aki Toyosaki voiced Lisa.

I still get interested again whenever Luke and Cecily interact for any period of time because these interactions entertain me in numerous ways, especially when Aria and Lisa are around too. (I don’t know why, but the “Cecily’s boobs” jokes just aren’t wearing on me like they should especially considering I’m a girl)

The mood whiplash is kind of annoying though. I didn’t mind when it was the original four so much, but with the addition of the loli-princess and her three guards, it’s annoying.

At least Cecily’s gotten to be a better fighter with Aria as her sword. Even if Cecily is still pretty average without her, they can at least justify her being good with Aria because of their bond of friendship and all that stuff. She’s improving, but she’s still not improving too fast. So you have to give the anime credit for that.

It’s decent for what it is. The plot is fairly decent for a fantasy anime. It just isn’t really noticable with all of the other bullshit going on. Even so, I like that bullshit when it’s the four main characters. The addition of new characters made it cross that thin line between fun and annoying for me though.

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Seitokai no Ichizon

Episodes Aired: 7
Episodes Watched: 5

Favorite girl based on a one-scene hairstyle. I think that’s rational.

I have nothing to say here. It is what it is and that’s all there is to it. (Lies. I always have something to say. Especially about anything that should be labeled as crap.)

I am liking it more than I thought I would though. It was my seasonly “pick up a crap anime” anime and…while it’s still not good, it is pretty legitimately funny. It actually gets funnier the more it goes on because you become more familiar with the characters and thus character-based humor becomes an option. Episode four I believe (the one with all of the light novel delusions) was especially great for this. Combining the parody elements with the character humor.

Also the overall pacing works excellently for a comedy anime. Being fast (and occasionally loud) makes things funnier. I’m wondering how well that works in the light novels of this series, because as I know, humor becomes a lot harder to specifically write out and keep a good pacing or timing to it. Plus a lot of the humor in this anime is visual.

I could point out some obvious flaws in the show, but since the flaws are there for other people to enjoy the show, there’s not much point to it. Plus, shows that poke fun at themselves and seem to acknowledge being what they are always just seem exempt from criticism for me. Because what’s really the point, right? It’s not something they have to improve, because it’s part of their joke and what makes the show work.

Also…I’m routing for Sugisaki to get his harem end. I think he deserves it if he can earn it in the face of so much outright disdain. As for a favorite girl…gee I wonder…

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Shakugan no Shana S

First OAV was funny. Bring on the next one. What? No I don’t care if it’s related to the plot. There’s plenty of time for JC Staff to screw that up in the third season!

Of course, I kid. I’m always willing to give animation studios some slack, even if I really think Shana would have been better off as 12-13 episode seasons to reduce the boring filler bullshit.

So in the meantime, shut up the fanboys crying about how the anime hasn’t been as good as the novels and therefore the third season will suck as well. Did it ever occur to them the reason for the OAV was to stall for time so the novel can finish? Which it’s actually pretty close to doing. Yashichiro Takahashi does things quick and he follows his schedule. Truly something to be admired by writers everywhere.

Truly, this a decent series. Doesn’t deserve too much praise, but it doesn’t really deserve all the bashing either. I think it just gets that for being the true birth of the Kugi’s tsundere loli.

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Shugo Chara! Party!

Episodes Aired: 6
Episodes Watched: 4

So this scene I’ll take…I’ll leave the babysitting adventures thanks.

I still stand by the idea that it’s not as bad as most of the fandom makes it out to be because nothing is as bad as this idiotic fandom makes things out to be.

Still, the novelty of it has worn off and I really don’t feel like watching it anymore. Rikka just doesn’t make a very compelling protagonist and she shouldn’t, since she’s not the real protagonist of the show. I enjoyed the Utau episode, which got a lot of flack for introducing the fact that Ikuto left off-screen, sadly taking attention away from it actually being a good episode. I liked the secretive smiles Amu and Utau shared over their own past together and Ikuto.

Especially after that episode and seeing the sort of titles since then, I want to stop watching and have someone else tell me when to watch it. But since I gave myself that job for the other fans, it seems that I’ll keep watching it just the same. The fact that unlike other fangirls, I still like the manga helps a bit I guess. Still planning a post on that by the way. And now an official closer for the last season of the anime too.

However, I do enjoy Party! sucking because it means I get to watch all of the one-interest fangirls that piss me off writhe in pain.

The rest of you smart girls, watch Yumeiro Patissiere. It has all of the cute charm of Shugo Chara!, just without the awesomer characters and broad appeal..and instead replaced with even more cuteness. But if the characters aren’t as awesome you don’t have to worry about them being ruined for fillers! It’s like right now they’re perfectly designed for fillers! (Wow, YumePati fangirling is the new invading force for me)

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Yumeiro Patissiere

Episodes Aired: 6
Episodes Watched: 6

We already did the six-episodes in impression (though it was actually written after five episodes, but still published after six where I still felt the same) and my opinion on it hasn’t changed a bit. It’s the best shoujo for the younger age group on TV right now.

Granted, I don’t watch Mecha Mote Iinchou, but that show got disqualified when they started off with 3D bullshit. It still makes me sad since every time I do see something about it, it looks so cute.

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And that’s it!

There’s a noticeable absence of Kimi ni Todoke, but that’s quite simply because I haven’t watched it yet. Before anyone thinks they should throw something as me, I’ll explain why. Every time I start thinking about giving it a go, the hype on it starts right up again and I just can’t bring myself to watch it.

See, I don’t watch things with hype when I think said hype will lead me to becoming disappointed. I want to find my own love for the series, thank you very much.

When I do watch it though, expect a post of some sort to make up for the delay. Unless, you know, I just don’t have anything special to say.

Seriously, I am shocked. Gintama’s production staff seriously have the balls. They even parodied YOU WA SHOCK!

Also, MS Paint Gintama.

I was actually bracing myself for a full episode of that. It would’ve been marginally more interesting to watch than the background-only shots.

Popularity Poll arc is going to go down as a legend.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

She did. Really. I wasn’t entirely sure she was capable of anything but a cynical grin.

PROOF!

The more Maria develops, the more I like her as a character. She changed a lot from that really creepy girl in the first arch. I now feel like I can relate to her. Seeing the backstory on Maria was also very interesting, and her journey into becoming a Witch of Orgins. While the anime doesn’t explain that very well, a Witch of Orgins is akin to a white mage.

Umpfth! I think Sakutaro is the cutest mascot ever. In Umineko of all things.

Maria definitely a member of Team Beato though. However, I’ve been struck by a moment of insanity and can’t help but wonder if there’s a lot more dimensions to this then Beatrice good, Battler bad. It’s just…when Beato wants to be nice, she’s so dang nice.

He just gets cuter as the episode progresses.

Especially as the world of witches seems much better then the real world. At the very least, it’s thanks to witches that neither Maria nor Ange end up completely alone. Of course, you could argue that it’s thanks to witches Ange’s alone in the first place. Maria’s situation is definitely a sad one though, especially as she’s so willing to overlook what Rosa is doing.

Maria makes a good point.

Another character, or rather set of characters, that I’m getting more attached to as they develop are the Stakes of Purgatory. What were merely killing machines have become actual characters with personality.

Apparently the stakes are suckers for anything cute.

I really like Sakutaro’s voice actor. Usually, I don’t really care about voice actors, but this one’s voice is so adorable.

The episode ends with a deal with the devil. Say no Ange! These always end badly, and you don’t want to damn your brother to an eternity with Beato.

When Robyn over at AnimeBlips contacted me about being a featured blog, I thought, "whoa, no way!" (in more of a Keanu Reeves-like incredulous tone, then a negative tone). When I started this blog, I never even expected to write on a regular basis, much less be profiled by one of the largest anime news/blog aggregator. But I figured what the heck, when else am I ever going to get this chance. And voila, Rabbit Poets is now the featured blog of the week.

So I won’t say any more about it. Go check out the article, read what I have to say, and log-in and click the triangle vote button so I don’t feel like the only loser who clicked the button. And then go root around AnimeBlips to show your support. Much thanks to Robyn and AnimeBlips for giving me my 5 minutes in the spotlight! And thanks to all those who’ve visited, left comments and made this fun along the way!

(Oh, and thank goodness for backups, because I just realized all my images from June were broken, because the folder was missing for some strange reason.)

While I don’t blog Cross Game too terribly often, I still watch it. For awhile I’ve just let it build up for a few weeks and then watch it in one go, but ever since episode 29 it’s been too interesting for me to bear the wait, on top of the fact that there hasn’t been too much else worth watching.

Cross Game threw me a curve ball(pun unintended) with the introduction of Akane, the Wakaba lookalike. Talking about episode 31 is hard; it was just too beautiful to even begin to put into words. I hope it suffices to say that a) that episode made watching the series worth it for me and b) will be remembered as one of my all time favorite anime episodes.

Episode 32 brought us back to the slice of life atmosphere, now with Akane in the mix. I do really like the addition of her, as I felt that the dragged out tension between Aoba and Kou was starting to get stale, and it’s nice to have someone to spice things up. Also, Akane is cute as a button, especially in her plaid school uniform.

I wonder if we’ll see a slip-up where the characters start expecting her to be just like Wakaba then encounter an un-Wakaba like action. It seems unlikely as the characters are being rather smart about the whole situation, but you never know.

Akane also seems to have the worst luck.

Despite her addition, I’m still thinking we’re going to have an AobaxKou ending.

Trapeze is an interesting show in that it’s pretty much an episodic story, but if you remove episode 2 from the mix, all the episodes have parallels between each other—as psgels of Starcrossed Blog pointed out. It leads that the feel that while it’s an episodic, it’s also an on-going story, and that the series is trying to give out a message that goes beyond one episode.

Being mostly episodic though, there’s not too much to say about the series, it’s pretty compact. I worry about this format though, it’s working for now, but will it be able to last the whole series or will it get stale and repetitive?

I’m really looking foreword to the next episode featuring an OCD character. As I’m personally OCD, I also look foreword to seeing how it’s portrayed.

My namesake season of anime is coming up! And what does it bring me…? Almost nothing of interest. Damn.

Summer and Winter are always about half the size of Spring and Fall so I guess it can’t be helped. Still, this is probably the most disappointing season of anime for me personally since I’ve been blogging. I only found one new series I have any real interest in picking up.

Though it’s all for the best. I’ll be busy in Winter. Plus less anime = easier preview = earlier post!

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Last time I finally found a preview format that I liked, so I’m sticking with it. This time just making the images smaller to make things look neater and making the title more noticeable.

Same format though. Continuing Series, Sequels of Interest (none this time), New Series, OVA & Movies, and…the rest. There’s a lot of “the rest.” You won’t even get much enthusiasm from me on the new stuff I go in-depth for.

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Continuing Series

Continuing from the last season.

• Shugo Chara! Party!
• Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
• Fairy Tail
• Yumeiro Patissiere
• InuYasha Kanketsu-hen
• Kobato.

They go in order of what I think will not end first. Shugo Chara! places first because it’s never going to end. Kobato. places last because…it has 24 episodes which is mathematically the least amount of episodes. Fairy Tail places above Yumeiro Patissiere which we now know will probably have at least 52 episodes just based on most shounen stats. YumePati is already confirmed for just 52. Fullmetal Alchemist? Well it has at least a half a year to go I think.

Of course things always change. To make it simple: Only InuYasha and Kobato. are ending in Winter.

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New Series

New anime for the season.

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OokamiKakushi

Series: Ookami Kakushi
Adaptation: Game by Ryushiki07
Studio: AIC
Airdate: 01/??
Episodes: ?
Website: http://www.tbs.co.jp/anime/okami/
(ANN) (Wikipedia) (MAL)

Seiyuu: Yu Kobayashi, Emiri Katou, Mai Fuchigami, Mariya Ise, Saki Fujita, Yuko Goto

Videos: show

A secret law in the old part of town brings together dread and mystery. It is the summer of 1983. 10 stories, intertwined by the idle thoughts of people caught in repeating nightmares. What could possibly be the truth therein!?

Always wanted to watch Higurashi, but I wanted to get it on DVD so it just hasn’t happened yet. Probably for Christmas (lol nice Christmas present). Didn’t watch Umineko because I just felt like I wanted to watch Higurashi first. But now we have a new anime based on a Ryukishi07 game and its character designs were done by Peach-Pit. So…Oh hell yes.

Watching? Yes.
Blogging? Doubt it.

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Durarara!!

Series: Durarara!!
Adaptation: Light Novels by Ryohogo Narita
Studio: Brain’s Base
Airdate: 01/07
Episodes: ?
Website: http://www.durarara.com/
(ANN) (Wikipedia) (MAL)

Seiyuu: Toshiyuki Toyonaga, Ayahi Takagaki, Daisuke Ono, Hiroshi Kamiya, Jun Fukuyama, Kana Hanazawa, Mamoru Miyano, Sanae Kobayashi, Yuuichi Nakamura

Videos: show

Ryuugamine Mikado is a normal high school boy who seeks peculiar beings. he moves to Tokyo’s rowdy Ikebukuro neighborhood, where teenage punks gang up and fight against each other. There is an urban legend “Dullahan” headless rider, who rides a black motorcycle without head lights nor sounds of engine. A mad scramble for Dullahan’s missing head breaks out.

It looks like it could be good. Legitimately good. It has all the signs of being good. There’s only one downside. I usually don’t like things that are considered good. Or rather, I like them, but I don’t get excited for them. Strange. But I’ll still be watching this, even if it isn’t really my sort of thing. But the cast…the cast, I’d watch this even if I thought it was going to be crap.

Watching? Maybe.
Blogging? No.

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So•Ra•No•Wo•To

Series: So•Ra•No•Wo•To
Adaptation: Original Work?
Studio: A-1 Pictures
Airdate: 01/??
Episodes: ?
Website: http://www.sorawoto.com/
(ANN) (Wikipedia) (MAL)

Seiyuu: Juri Aikawa, Aoi Yuki, Aya Endo, Eri Kitamura, Mayuno Yasokawa, Misato Fukuen, Unshou Ishizuka, Yu Kobayashi

Videos: show

In the future there is a land that, after being marred by long-lasting wars, has settled into quiet decline. A 15-year-old girl named Kanata fulfills her dream of enlisting in the army and joins a unit of five girls who protect a fortress. The girls play music that reverberate across the skies over towns without people and seas without fish.

“K-On! Joins the Army” I guess (I was going to leave the character resemblance alone until I found out about the music). I’m willing to give it a chance if it’s just the art though and not the overall moemoemoe tone. Now I’m supposed to love shows with girls, but I’m worried about the moe-blobbery that’s been getting to me lately. So I’ll just keep a little tally going. It gets five “too stupid to live” moments in the first episode and then it gets dropped. Any yuri subtext that isn’t really subtext and is just there because it’s a series full of girls for the sake of fanservice gets it immediately dropped.

Watching? Maybe.
Blogging? No.

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Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu

Series: Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu
Adaptation: Light Novels by Kenji Inoue
Studio: SILVER LINK
Airdate: 01/??
Episodes: ?
Website: http://www.bakatest.com/
(ANN) (Wikipedia) (MAL)

Seiyuu: Hiro Shimono, Hitomi Harada, Emiri Katou, Kaori Mizuhashi, Kouki Miyata, Tatsuhisa Suzuki

Videos: show

There is an academy rigidly divides up the student body into classes based on the results of tests. Prodigies are in the heavenly A class, but our “baka” Akihisa is in F Class, the lowest rung of the school ladder which is as bad as A class is good. Mizuki Himeji is also in F class, but is actually one of the smartest girls in Akihisa’s sophomore year. Besides Mizuki (who Akihisa secretly adores), the F class also has class president, Yuji Sakamoto, who has been Akihisa’s friend and since freshman year. So they…start a revolution…with mascot characters…

My seasonal “pick up something that looks bad so I can watch it when I’m bored” pick. I have one every season. These picks I usually choose based on character designs and the potential for some romance in the plot, but lately I’ve been picking them out for ridiculousness that may make me laugh. Of course, it’s worth noting that excessive fanservice just gets kicked out and I pick up something else that’s idiotic instead.

Watching? Maybe. -_-
Blogging? No.

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OVAs, Movies, & Etc.

Released without first airing on television.

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Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha The Movie 1st

Series: Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha The MOVIE 1st (Film)
Adaptation: Redone of a Series that was a Spin-Off of an Eroge!
Related Series: Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha (+ A’s & StrikerS)
Studio: Seven Arcs
Release Date: 01/23
Website: http://www.nanoha.com/
(ANN) (Wikipedia) (MAL)

Seiyuu: Yukari Tamura, Nana Mizuki

Videos: show

Nanoha Vs. Fate -> Nanoha & Fate Team-Up in all of its big screen GLORY!!! Plus their non-mahou shoujo clothes are cuter this time around I think.

Nanoha!!! Ass-kicking loli befriending magic on the BIG SCREEN! The original befriended story! Damn I wish I was in Japan. At least I’ll enjoy the build-up and the merchandising like I’m in Japan. (Got a pre-order in for my Nanoha nendoroid!)

Really though, this is one series that having a recap movie beats having a new storyline. The first season could use some tweaking to make the action and story work better. So I’m very excited.

Watching? YEAH!!!…on DVD.
Blogging? Maybe when I actually watch it.

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Other Anime for the Season

TV series I probably won’t be watching.

Chu-Bra!!: If the title isn’t obvious why I won’t watch this than the website certainly is. I don’t seem to be the intended audience.

Dance in the Vampire Bund: I just don’t like vampires guys. I think they’re the most overrated…thing ever. The only vampire story I ever liked was Karin which put a unique spin on it and had the plus of being a comedy…and the manga being just plain good. But if the promo art for a vampire story looks vampire-y I generally stay away.

Hanamaru Kindergarten: When I saw this I originally thought it seemed cute. Then I realized that my tastes have changed and that stuff like this bores me nowadays and pisses me off if I don’t realize it bores me. Go figure.

Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 3: Owari Naki Unmei: Stupid long name, I’m glad I’m staying well away from you. Anyway, this reeks of fantasy otome game adaptation or something resembling that so I’m just staying away.

Hidamari Sketch×☆☆☆: Haven’t watched it yet. Don’t know why I’d start now.

Katanagatari: I may miss out on a lot of good stories this way, but I have the opposite reaction that most have to something that looks unique and possible interesting. At least for anime. If it looks weird at all I just want to stay away.

Ladies vs. Butlers: The title sounded interesting, but then any further research into it ruined it all with its horribly generic…everything.

Nodame Cantabile Finale: Even though I really do want to watch this I can’t catch up in time. I will take this opportunity to actually watch it though. The promo art did me in.

Omamori Himari: Those evil bastards try to lure me in with their cute big riboned-girls and their romantic comedy summaries. Luckily this time I was able to scroll down and I decided it wasn’t for me.

Seikon no Qwaser: You almost had me with your mildly pretty art. But I saw those unnatural looking boobs and I ran. Even so I don’t think it looks very interesting anyway.

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All information was gathered in other places and all I did was simply collect them into one post. Resources include The Fansub Wiki, Wikipedia, Anime News Network, and the anime sites themselves.

As a warning, if my resource was wrong, then I’m wrong. But I try my best to collect information I believe is correct.

The adorable Rin image up top was brought to you here. (Image itself is also clickable)

As always, when information changes or becomes available, this post will change accordingly.

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Thoughts

…I totally want to skip over this season, just grab Ookami Kakushi along for the ride and go to spring. There’s four anime that I was interested in enough to get the full information. Four. But on the other hand…there’s just 14 total in this post.

For once I can’t really see myself picking up anything this season that I didn’t preview and that’s just disappointing.

Of course I don’t have much to complain about when I have Spring resembling Fall in being perfect for my tastes. And they’re the big seasons that really matter.

Angel Beats! will be watched and almost guaranteed to be loved by this fangirl. Black Rock Shooter…which everyone is watching (and screw you if you’re not). Likely Kaichou wa Maid-sama! which…should need no explanation.

Plus Iron Man which actually gets a bigger FUCK YEAH than the rest from me. I secretly love comic book superheroes, but I just don’t read them because of their convoluted intertwined stories. Plus I don’t like different writers working on the same thing. It irks me because the trouble I know it can lead to. But movies and anime? That’s just fine with me.

And this is how boring I find Winter. All I can talk about is Spring. I’m not going to blog anything, am I? Only one “doubt it” and the rest are flat-out no. More time for Project R and school then.

Personally, I hardly read any manga at all, I prefer my pictures to move around with flashy effects whilst making noise. So, the majority of what I’ve read are things that were thrust in my face by one person or another. Heart no Kuni no Alice is no exception, and it came recommended to me by my friend Alex.

If you guessed that this manga is yet another adaptation of the Alice in Wonderland story, you would be right. It’s also a bishonen adaptation, just to make it clear what you’re getting yourself into. Alice lives in a world where she feels utterly unloved, while her sister seems to get all the attention. She wishes beyond all else that she could be loved too. Cue the appearance of Peter, the bishonenized white rabbit, who merrily whisks her away to Wonderland, where her dream can come true.

On the other side of the coin, being loved by everyone is definitely not all it’s cracked up to be. Everyone wants her, and they are all cheerfully willing to kill to have her or die trying to keep her. This doesn’t sit well with Alice at all. This is where the author takes a sharp 90 degree turn. Rather than being helpless and constantly bemoaning her situation, as most girls of this nature are wont to do, Alice thrusts into action. She’s written as a relatively bright girl who is determined to keep herself (and everyone else) alive while trying to figure out how to get home and what exactly is plaguing this world. She’s also definitely not above using others to her advantage, given her rather lofty position.

A lot of the charm so far has been watching the author slowly reveal the reimagined Wonderland and the characters within. For example, the white rabbit is now a manipulative, conniving, and somewhat creepy chief advisor. The Mad Hatter has received a proper gothic bishie name, Blood Dupre, and is now the boss of the mafia, and I can venture to guess what he traffics. And really, who wouldn’t want to read a version of Wonderland with a mafia?

There are currently only 9 chapters translated, and while this is by no means the greatest manga in the world, so far it has been enjoyable. It mixes parts of comedy, action, romance, and mystery, and while it does not excel in any area so far it’s achieved a balance, which is more than a lot of works can say. If you want a bit of a change of pace for Lewis Carroll’s classic, give it a shot.

Since I was bumming around Japan when the current anime season first began, I’m a little behind the curve. However, I’m making an effort to catch up with what’s currently airing now that we’re entering the cold and dark part of the year and I have nothing better to do. Might as well watch some anime! Note that I still need to check out Sasameki Koto and To Aru Kagaku no Railgun, so no comment on those two shows as of yet.

Anyway, you know the drill…

Nyan Koi - Easily my favorite show of the season thus far, despite my initial low expectations. It plays the harem card effectively without getting too bogged down in harem conventions - almost to the extent I feel like I’m mischaracterizing the show by mentioning the “H” word in the first place. The show’s true charm, however, is its humor, which gets surprisingly wild at times. Some of the recent episodes have had me roaring with laughter.

Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu - Purezza - I enjoyed the first season more than I should probably admit (there’s a podcast out there with record of that, so I guess I’m screwed as is), but I’m having a difficult time with this second season. Some episodes have been fairly enjoyable - the opener and the Hayate no Gotoku homage, for example - but others, such as the Christmas episode, have been tough to stomach. Not only have the two leads misplaced the better parts of their personalities, but the show as a whole has misplaced the plot. Hello, writers? See the show’s title? Perhaps you should try doing something with that. It worked last time, you know.

Kimi no Todoke - This show feels an awful lot like the second coming of Bokura ga Ita both in presentation and premise. I really enjoyed that show, so it stands to reason I should enjoy this one as well. And I do… for the most part. Sasaki Nozomi for teh Mamiko is a fair enough trade (both voices make me think dirty thoughts, I admit) and the lighter tone is a nice counter to Bokura ga Ita’s propensity to wallow. On the other hand, a lot of the drama in the initial episodes has felt manufactured enough that I can’t help but feel uneasy. Good shoujo can go sour in an instant.

White Album - More of the same, but with twice the budget! Or three times, maybe. Kind of difficult to multiply by zero, I guess. I half wonder if Seven Arcs kept production going full steam during the show’s six month intermission in an effort to stay ahead of schedule. Anyway, it’s more of the same silly soap opera drama and opaque writing that has no business being as enjoyable as it is. Touya is still every bit a spectacular douchebag. Legendary, really.

Kobato - So, I found this time machine in the coat closet the other day, and I thought, “what the hell,” and punched in 1998, and when I got there, I was totally in Japan (a bonus feature, I guess), and Cardcaptor Sakura was totally on TV, and so I totally watched it, and then I woke up, and I was back in 2009, and I got to feeling sad, because Sakura was surely some old lady by now, and the only decent CLAMP anime adaptation in the past ten years had been fucking Chobits (of all things), but then this Kobato show totally came on TV, and the birds started singing and the clouds started dancing and then I started thinking I shouldn’t have eaten those brownies after all.

Seitokai no Ichizon - I almost gave up on this show after the second episode, but I’m glad I stuck with it. There’s a certain low budget, taking-a-piss charm to the entire production, and the humor, while unbalanced, leans more to the “funny” side than the “not-so-funny” side. And, for a show that relies heavily on referential inside jokes, it doesn’t pull any punches. None of this, “we can only make fun of our own properties,” crap (I’m looking at you, Lucky Star).

Junpei quickly makes a run for it after meeting the twin-tailed with knowledge of his curse, cutting short any conversation. Meanwhile, that gives Kaede some time to stew about what she had seen. Unfortunately, her preoccupation with Junpei’s mysterious encounter leads her to pack some dog treats in her "cat cat" bento box.

While Kaede leaves to buy some real food, Kanako and Nagi overhear Junpei’s otaku friend mention his new twin-tailed flame. Nice try Kanako, but Nagi’s got yakuza spirit guiding her shakedown efforts. Either way, these are two girls you don’t want to make angry. Kaede, on the other hand, is a bundle of cute.

I sort of wish that a.) they wouldn’t have spilled the beans on the twins and b.) AIC wouldn’t have colored their uniforms differently. It sort of took away from the joke. But even though the setup was weak, it was still worthy of a laugh, if only because of Junpei’s reaction at getting confessed to, then being rejected in a span of 2 seconds. Oh, and I say this everytime, but I’ll say it again Haruka Tomatsu is love. I like her tsuntsun voice, but her deredere voice is cute enough to die for.

Junpei later meets Akari (the tsuntsun twin) at the shrine, where he learns that there’s actually two of them. Akari is laying the smackdown and throwing cats around like confetti, in order to keep her sister Kotone and Junpei apart. Akari also introduces Junpei to Kotone’s "delusion diary" which chronicles all her Junpei stalking exploits (denpakei? that’s a new word for me). There’s nothing like a little craziness to spicy up the attractiveness. But Kotone catches Akari in the act, and also finds out why guys she likes tend to avoid her (as if the stalking craziness wasn’t enough).

Akari runs away, after telling Kotone that she doesn’t want to lose her like she lost Tama, but ends up falling down the stairs. Don’t worry, it’s not because of the curse, she’s just clumsy. Somehow, Junpei goes on warp drive and ends up breaking her fall. Which leads to a round of apologies for everyone. Kotone even agrees to stop her delusion diary, although she asks to continue her stalking ways. Akari’s your pretty standard obstinate tsundere twin-tail, but I like Kotone a lot. She’s a bit more unique. Not exactly yandere crazy. But obviously not very normal either. The closest character to her that I can remember seeing is Machi from Nagasarate Airantou – although she’s a bit more of a sadist. Needless to say, I liked Machi a lot too.

Introductions out of the way, we can now get to the cat part of the story, with Tama’s former flame Noir. There’s a bit of jealousy on Noir’s part, because a.) Tama became the priest’s pride and joy (ka-ching!), after he was discovered to be a male character and b.) Noir ended up getting dumped by Tama for the middle-aged Nyamsus. I guess Tama just likes big cats. Noir is definitely cuter than Nyamsus.

Their reconciliation efforts continue to go poorly, even after Tama "saves" Noir from a tongue-lashing from Kaede’s dogs. Their bickering continues to get worse and worse until it drives Junpei off the edge into an angry rage.

Heh, self-control isn’t exactly one of Junpei’s strong suits. But seeing Kaede’s dogs with bug-eyed expressions was hands down the funniest part of the episode. As well as seeing her high-tailing it out of there.

When in distress, eat some ice creams with twin-tailed twins, lol. There’s something about that tranquil scene that’s bizarrely comical. Sort of like if a hero had decided have dinner with his mortal enemy, while they were waiting for the next episode to air. Of course, you can’t have an episode without having the mailgirl say something that she shouldn’t be saying. Hooray for misunderstandings.

In the end, all’s well with the harem world. Junpei explains to Kaede that he was just talking to the cats, and he gets a beating from both Nagi and Kanako, while the denpakei adores Junpei’s continued misfortune. Nagi also pulls her best Death the Kid routine by admiring the twins beautiful symmetry (what in the world was she talking about pineapples for though?).

Anyway, I didn’t really have much to see, but it was a good episode. Twins = good. Denpakei twin = more good. Haruka Tomatsu = most good.

Lawl. Corny post title. But this is just what this anime does to. It really does make me want to eat my favorite treats too. Not just because all of the delicious looking food that makes this anime so dangerous to watch while I’m trying to diet (but seriously, that food). It’s just damn cute and that makes want all sorts of sugary evilness all on its own. I don’t know why cute things affect me this way, they just do. I bought a whole box of munchkins to be prepared to watch the first episode of Kobato. (And no, I didn’t eat them all.)

The point is this series needed another little fangirling post because I just love it so. Why? I don’t know. My interests seem to change arbitrarily. I want to say that super cutesy anime is a constant, but it’s just not. Sometimes it will piss me off right off the bat. So why does this series succeed where so many others fail? I don’t know, but I think it’s proportionate to the amount of sugar damage it does me. The fact that it’s a perfect amount.

After watching this anime and realizing I want to eat something deliciously bad for me five minutes into each episode I started to think about why. So I could put a stop to it if possible (it’s not).

Really, it turned out to be quite simple. Shoujo poisons us with all of its sugary-ness anyway. Have you looked at some furoku that comes in Nakayoshi? I swear I have a donut eraser somewhere for a series that is not at all related to donuts. So it’s not my fault if my mind automatically connects delicious frosted goodness with cute shoujo anime.

So, to me it just connects automatically. Somehow. I think on a personal level its made worse by the fact that I smell like all sorts of delicious smells from work every day. (Why can’t I spill the hazelnut for once, the smell of that in high concentration makes me sick!)

But not every anime that’s supposed to be cute and adorable has this effect. Some have the opposite effect in fact. Why? Because the anime already overdoes itself in cuteness and it’s just…it’s horrible. Or there’s something awkward about it that doesn’t make it work. Or there’s too much story and romance and…not enough cuteness!

There’s a lot of factors that go into it, but the point is that Yumeiro Patissiere is just right.

Somehow.

Really, by looking at it, it should fall in the too cute to be legal category. But somehow…it just manages to be downright charming.

Of course, the wanting to eat something sweet is just my own personal quirk. Caused by the brainwashing of shoujo manga often being funded by the Evil Sweets Coalition. You know, the ones to blame for Halloween and Valentine’s Day. Watch! You’ll find out I’m right someday.

The point that I’m trying to get across using this personal defect (yup, downgraded from quirk to defect already) is that Yumeiro Patissiere is just right.

It should be noted that I didn’t read the manga so I can’t judge it based on its original content. I can’t raise my eyebrow at anything extra that feels off or get impatient about the scenes I want to see. I can just enjoy the ride and enjoy it for what it is. And what it is is darn cute. We’re still early in the series that’s supposed to be 52 episodes (which I would have seen myself getting bored with until I found it was being streamed and I can handle anything being streamed) so there may be more random filler along the way. It may get more boring. Lots of fans like cute ultra shoujo like this until it starts becoming repetitive.

But it still has the feeling of being just right. It fits its audience perfectly. There’s a downside to reaching beyond the regular audience, they’re more likely to get tired of the little elements that don’t work. And of course if you cut down the series and replace it with even more random cutesy-ness and just plain plot-less-ness there will be a mutiny.

Yumeiro Patissiere? It’s just right.

Now, there’s been cute series in the past. Like everyone points out the Full Moon anime and especially Kirarin Revolution when we’re talking about Ultra Shoujo (I still haven’t decided if that term should be capitalized or not…). But this is what my teensy problem with them was. Too much romance. Romance is the instigating factor in both series. So when the fillers usually don’t involve progressing that beloved fangirl element, they get crazy. Heck, I got crazy too. (Watched less than half of the Full Moon fillers on my first time through and Kirarin Revolution got dropped like a rock)

Yumeiro Patissiere’s premise doesn’t involve romance. At all. Unless you count when the three bishies get mentioned…I don’t. Not to say that there’s not shipping (oh there is. There always is.) it’s just not necessary for the enjoyment.

It’s a good old fashioned shoujo where you get to cheer on the girl who is going to be amazing, but sucks at life right now, but you can’t dislike her because she gets an unfair amount of punishment from her peers for her suckage and you want to cheer her on so those idiots have to eat their words! It’s an element like that which made Itazura na Kiss work at all. It’s employed by many shoujo series. Especially those at fancy schools. Some level of bullying.

But even that gets tiring if it’s too over the top. Kitchen Princess suffered from too much bitchiness I think (as well as a shallow love interest who only got real development after he died, but I digress). So Yumeiro Patissiere balances any teasing with a cast of people who are all supportive of Ichigo (I love her roommate). Not everyone besides the bishies has to be someone she wins over (and often including bishies). Some are just functional human beings who are capable of empathy.

Also, the fillers even come in handy in this series. Ichigo sucks at cooking at first! So it’s more believable for her to make small steps each episode. The fillers work! zomg!

There are probably more examples I can come up with. The bishes being bishies, but that getting lampshaded by Andou being a narcissist too (I love that trait in bishies). Kashino being a jerk, but not too much. Among others. But the point is what I’ve just been saying. It’s perfect…for what it is.

And I love it. Because I love what it is. And it’s been so long since I’ve had something like this that…excuse the corniness considering the premise, but that does the recipe right. (I said it, see what this anime does to me? Puts me in a good mood to say corny things.)

Now that it’s officially being subbed by CrunchyRoll (which means everyone gets to see it the whole time it’s running, because if you don’t get it on the site, you’ll just get it through HorribleSubs) there are just two downsides.

One is that we still don’t get many images of this on the internet. This is why I will at least shallowly like Shugo Chara! no matter what it does and secretly was happy about it continuing, images everywhere. I used every image that is possible to find for this post. Anything I’d have to do in the future will have screencaps which because of the nature of the show has the time stamped on it. Oh god memories of Full Moon again. (Another major plus for a series like this for a nostalgia-loving girl like me is the amount of times I am reminded of past beloved Ultra Shoujo.)

The other…just goes along with the genre. It won’t be popular, or if it is, any popularity goes along with an increase in stupidity amongst the fandom.

So that’s actually something made worse by CrunchyRoll. Damn it.

It’s also the answer to why, even though the series gives me the inspiration to write so easily like this, I will never blog it regularly. Never. Never, ever, ever. Not again. Never a series from Nakayoshi or Ribon.

…Probably.

And I guess there’s a third. After writing this post I just want to go out and buy something sweet. Damn it. You win again Evil Sweets Coalition.

This episode was just a general, look we’re friends now! Although it got really weird halfway through…I mean, this show is usually weird, but this just went over the top.

LOL, Whut?

I just hope someone cleans that kitchen.

Very cute. I want to come home and having someone to serve me dinner...um, wait.

Not one of the best, it was pretty filler esque. Here’s to better next week.

Although the angelic choir here was perfect.

~Pu ku ku, Ronove that mischievous kidder. His description of a despondent, nearly comatose Battler perks the concerns of Moetrice, who turns out to be better at dishing it out than being on the receiving end.

Unfortunately for Moetrice, Battler has moved onto his rebound relationship, fondling Beelzebub, right in front of Moetrice, to grab some delicious biscuits. This leads to Moetrice going back into hiding, with the Beatrice personality taking front row center for the rest of the episode. It also probably didn’t help that Ange has now come to play the game along with Battler – ostensibly without the ulterior motives that his former partner, Virgilia had. Anyway, with the relationship fun out of the way, onto the episode.

Seeing Bern in cat form seemed too fitting. I like the purple eyes and little tail ribbon, just to make sure we knew it was her. Whether you’re a witch or a cat, make sure you always travel in style. On the game board, Battler runs into Ange and apologizes, but shows no signs of recognizing who she is. However, Ange tells Bernkastel how happy she is to see her family happy again. Rather than Hanyuu, I wonder if Ange will play more the Maebara role – the X factor that allows change to occur.

Battler recognizes Ange from the last game, but there’s no guarantee that she isn’t another trap set by Beatrice. Battler recognizes this, but Ange (or Gretel, as she introduces herself to Battler) seems to strike a chord, when she reminds him that there’s someone outside waiting for him to return.

Elsewhere, we see a bit of Ange’s life growing up with Eva, who may or may not have had some enhancement surgeries to keep up her looks (although her sickness causes her to take a drastic dive in looks and health). Eva is still distraught over the loss of George, and she takes her resentment out on Ange. We also see that Ange’s life at school (Saint Lucia, the same school that Shion went to in Higurashi) is probably just as disfunctional as her life at home. She’s isolated from her classmates, as jealousy and envy seems to reek from them. It also doesn’t help that Ange herself isn’t the most affable person.

Ange shuffles off on her own to read a diary that Maria had left behind talking about magic and witches. We then see a flashback with Maria pulling off a pretty mean Kobato, talking stuffed animal and all. The ~uryu is much more cuter sounding than the seagull-esque ~uu. Rosa meanwhile shows off her super mom skills by creating that said talking stuffed animal for Maria, then leaving the little 9 year old girl alone while she goes on overnight rendezvous work trips. It’s a good thing this story didn’t take place in the US, because child services would’ve been all over Rosa and Maria. Who knows whether Maria’s diary would’ve ever reached Ange, if Maria ended up being deported to some foster home.

Ange meanwhile doesn’t seem to quite understand what power the magic holds, beyond creating talking stuffed animals, but a short conversation with ghost Maria helps her realize that if she had more magical power, she could talk with Maria at any time. Now, is ghost Maria an apparition from the dead, a magical projection, or simply Ange’s insanity?

Apparently, Okonogi started working for the Ushiromiyas after running the Yamainu for a while. I’m guessing there’s not a whole lot of significance behind his presence, and it’s one of those random meaningless crossovers you see CLAMP do all the time. However, he appears to be serving as some sort of caretaker (and executioner) for Ange. The discussion between him and Ange about people viewing things differently, because of love, was a good one though. Okonogi believes that Eva wasn’t the culprit, because he feels her tears for George and Hideyoshi couldn’t have been fake, while Ange believes the opposite. Both come to separate conclusions with the same evidence, because of their feelings towards Eva. Both may be right and wrong here. I do think Eva cares for her family, I don’t know that it extends beyond her immediate family – Hideyoshi and George. Although I believe she’s still the most likely culprit based on the evidence to date, I feel like it’s too obvious for me to believe that she’s the true culprit in the end though.

I’m not exactly sure what happened next, but apparently, Ange’s aunt from the Sumadara family wants Ange iced. But Okonogi, who’s taken a shine to Ange’s boldness, gives her a head start, and later provides her a bodyguard and driver to get her out of the pinch. For a second, I thought Tomitake might show up as her driver, but alas we get some bishonen.

Flashback over, we return to the gameboard, where we see that the adults are not getting along as well as they did in the previous arc. Kraus refuses to let the others see Kinzo (or more accurately, tells them Kinzo doesn’t want to see him), at which point, Kyrie theorizes that Kinzo’s already dead and proposes a deal to Krauss, forcing him to clarify whether Kinzo is still alive and whether Krauss is worthy of the inheritance.

Kinzo being dead or not present on the island when the murders begin is something I’ve postulated for a while now. There’s something a bit odd about him either being completely missing or showing up as an unidentifiable charred corpse in each game. Rather than him being dead though, I’m more apt to believe that he leaves the island when the family arrives and before the twilight murders begin, opening up a spot for that 18th person being the culprit. When Battler tells Beatrice to verify that Kinzo is among the 18 in red, she refuses and introduces another rule change.

So now Battler has to make a hypothesis in blue, to warrant Beatrice’s response in red. The catch is that the blue text has to deny witches as a possible explanation. Meanwhile Gretel instructs Battler to stop using a pistol and start using a shotgun with his explanations. And while Battler claims he’s figured how to fight, I really doubt that, considering he doesn’t seem to have remembered any of the instructions Virgilia gave him previously. But Battler asks the question that I’ve wanted to ask, although the way he asks it, still seems too restricted. I wouldn’t have said that Kinzo was dead, and instead would’ve said that he wasn’t on the island when the murders began, as I mentioned above. Still, it’s a step in the right direction. I’m looking forward to seeing how Beatrice shatters that text.

Back on the game board, Krauss agrees to try to convince Kinzo to meet the family. Kinzo meanwhile apparently has been working out, because he tosses Krauss like a rag doll, while bemoaning Krauss’ weakness. Kinzo vows to clear up the family quarrel himself. Now this seems like clear evidence that Kinzo is alive (and I actually do think he’s alive), but if we go back to the third game, we’ve already learned that we can’t trust anything we see on the game board. Is this Kinzo really Kinzo? Or is it a Beatrice/Lambdadelta creation like EvaBeatrice? Simply seeing him doesn’t prove that he’s alive or still on the island. Hopefully, Battler asks some good follow up questions in the next episode.

The introduction of the blue text at first glance seems like it should help Battler, because if he’s able to ask the questions the right way, he can force Beatrice to reveal truths with red. But it’s doubtful Beatrice introduced the blue text as a way to help Battler. And the title of the next episode "Zugzwang" (one of my favorite chess terms actually), suggests that she may be painting Battler into a corner again.

FUCK YEAH, NAGI.

Jumping in to a valley full of man-eating beasts where magic can’t be used to save the woman he loves…. if this isn’t a Crowning Moment of Awesome, nothing is.

Fuck yeah Rakan and co., kick those bastard’s asses!

Haha, nice headbutt, Nagi.

He finally said it.

Crowning Moment of Awesome #2

Oh Arika, still so damn tsundere.

Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.

Whoa, immediately proposing marriage. Great timing, Nagi :thumbsup:.

D’awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww ;_;.

I just realised I posted nearly the whole damn chapter up here LOL.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Gintama 182 is probably the best fourth wall break of any anime series so far. The only other time a character killed the original author is Excel Saga, and that didn’t even come close to the level of LOL seen in this episode. Popularity polls are scary. Now I’m not surprised why there wasn’t any other for Gintama apart for the one in the ninth volume of the manga. LOL

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

By circumstance Junpei ends up at the amusement park with Mizuno, Kanako and Nagi. Well, actually, it was Nagi’s challenge for Junpei to pick between her and Mizuno at the park, but somehow Kanako ended up tagging along as well.

Kudos to Junpei for being so decisive between Nagi and Mizuno. In fact, waist-breakingly, head-damagingly so. In response, Nagi vows to help bring Junpei and Mizuno together… WITH a catch. That being if Junpei doesn’t hook up with Mizuno by the end of the day, he has to marry Nagi. It seems Nagi still needs a few lessons in love, but turns out she’s a good sport. Between her erraticness, and Yuu Kobayashi’s hilarious screeches and voice changes, I think she’s been a great addition to the cast. You need at least one crazy person in a good harem. And she’s crazy in a unique way.

While, Nagi does everything she can to bring Mizuno and Junpei together (as well as embarrass them), it quickly becomes apparent to her that Kanako has fallen for Junpei as well, and will play the role of cockblocker for the day. And while Nagi appreciates Ms. D-cup tits beauty (lol – so direct), she doesn’t compare to her cuter junior, Mizuno. Thus, the wing-woman was born. Wing-women are probably a lot more effective in real life then wingmen. Just because there’s more trust off the bat. Anyway, lucky for Junpei, it turns out Tokiwadai Land is owned by Nagi’s clan. Yup. You can’t go wrong with an entrepreneurial yakuza clan that owns everything. Not nearly as hilarious or unique as the Seto-clan infiltrating Nagasumi’s school, but it’s not bad.

I grabbed these scenes simply for the cute factor. Mizuno flicking her tongue out to lick the ice cream was knee bucklingly cute. And frightened puppy Mizuno is sure to make any harem lead’s heart jump. Luckily, I must say Junpei’s as likeable as any harem lead I’ve seen so far. Admittedly, the competition is few and far between though.

Romantic moment leads to an ass kicking from Kanako. Who, I’m gathering a lot of people aren’t really liking right now. Actually, there’s a chapter in the manga that went in between this episode and the last, that showed off a softer side of Kanako, which I’m a little disappointed they chose not to animate. I can understand it, since animating that would’ve meant two consecutive episodes light on catty goodness, but it becomes a little more difficult to empathize with Kanako without it. Now she just seems like a hypocritical, rampaging bitch, when she’s really not.

It’s hard to make a move when Godzilla and the paparazzi are directly across from you staring at you. But by a trip of the foot, Junpei almost ends up giving Mizuno some unexpected mouth-to-mouth. That is until Kanako breaks it up by calling Mizuno’s cell phone (doh!).

There’s something hilarious about Mizuno still wondering about playing with Nyamses. I want to see Mizuno go nuts with her. Yeah, consider this flag triggered. I’m not sure Mizuno would’ve gotten it without Nagi spilling the beans to her, but we have a bonafide flag. Hmm, where’s Junpei’s otaku friend? When Kanako admits (violently) that she’s not going out with Junpei, Mizuno starts wondering about the mailwoman who was giving Junpei a choice fanservice hug.

However, there are some questions that you just shouldn’t ask. Plus, random girl could be completely misinterpreted. That girl could’ve been Junpei’s sister or cousin for all she knows. When her question raises the ire of both Nagi and Kanako (now there’s a threesome I wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of), she tries to alleviate the situation by dishing out some treats. Dog treats that is. Whoops. Nagi and Kanako both gladly accept, and promptly give to Junpei to eat.

After school Mizuno tries to track down Junpei to warn him about the dog treats. This leads to a random, but hilarious scene in which she helps a random old dude find the pharmacy, and the two finish the conversation in engrish. Having had a chance to flash her multilingual pedigree, Mizuno continues to search for Junpei and finds him… only to see him being confronted by another girl. And this one seems to know a dark secret about Junpei. Yep, next episode welcome the spicy twin-tailed uh… twins. Voiced by Haruka Tomatsu no less!

I’m looking forward to seeing the twins… and MOAR CATS!

Random because once a week is just too much. I’m keeping it called Weekly Extra because that will take over again once I head to school.

Anyway, I just wanted to get a post out explaining the status of my blog and all that good stuff. Right after I brought the blog back I got distracted. Then I…well a lot of stuff has been happening. Some of it good! So I figured with this stuff and anything else that comes to mind I could make a post.

I’m not going to really run this the way I run my Weekly Extra so I’ll just basically go with whatever comes to mind.

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New Project

First of all, the important thing that I actually wanted to get news out there was an idea for a little big story that’s been buzzing around my head for a while. Not the one I posted part of a prologue for. That one is bugging the heck out of me because it feels like writing isn’t coming as naturally as it should for a story like that. So I want to work on this more light-hearted easy story so I can ease back into writing more.

I don’t know whether I should blame blogging for destroying my writing style or credit it for making sure it didn’t deteriorate into nothing.

The reason why I want to mention it is because I want to make it a whole little project that is connected to this blog. Yes, it’s going to be a story that is related to anime. In that the characters are all anime fans. It’s not a parody. I don’t really like parodies, so I can’t imagine writing one.

I’ll save the premise for another day when the project officially launches…or whatever. Right now I just wanted to announce it so I can possibly get some helpers.

For one, since I have a compulsion for images in all of my posts, I’d like for someone to draw for my story. Basically, you draw whatever you want. I give you the description of the character’s personality and stuff and you get to design them. Then for a drawing that goes with a chapter/story release I’ll send you the release first and you get to draw whatever scene you want. I just want pretty pictures to go along with my story.

So if anyone is interested in helping out with drawing, they should e-mail me. The only requirement would be I guess…that you have a reasonable amount of skill to be useful for illustrations. Like…not just drawing characters, but “scenes” like I said. EDIT: Thank you to anyone who volunteered. I was lucky enough to find someone quite quickly.

Anyone who thinks they can help edit chapters (reading them over and pointing out some awkward points and obvious mistakes) would be really helpful too.

But there’s still going to be at least a full month before I can sit down and really work on this seriously (the next section is the reason why) so there’s plenty of time for people to figure out if they can or want to help.

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NaNoWriMo

National Novel Writing Month. It’s passed by so many times without me really paying attention. Though I swore I’d do my best to try if I found out with enough notice. I figured it out on the first so…that’s enough time I guess. I really just want to participate for once, and try my best. I don’t have to win on my first try.

At least I have to keep telling myself that. I’d like to say that I over-dramatize my competitive-ness on this blog for laughs and stuff, but I probably don’t. It’s probably worse. In a bad way. Only because I’m so easily stressed out or something…though I say I’m easily stressed because I’m competitive so it’s one big circle.

Anyway, since I want to make an attempt at that I probably won’t be blogging much November. I’ll be doing those shorter posts I said I’d be doing for Kobato and Haruka anyway. For Haruka I think I’ll just skip the episodes I missed instead of doing a catch-up post like with Kobato. I like Haruka, but she hasn’t earned the sort of devotion I give Kobato. Kobato~<3

So basically NaNoWriMo is my priority since I am really trying to get back to my proper writing mindset. Getting a smaller idea out of the way so I can work on the story I’m really serious about. Along with making everything easier so I can blog properly…yay!

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Previous Absence

Well, for part of my recent absence I had a big brainstorm for that first writing project…we’re going to start calling that “Project R” so we have something to call it. Because it’s easy to remember since the characters themselves use that in the story.

But before that I was just being lazy. I have no excuses that aren’t exceedingly embarrassing. So we leave it at that.

Then right now I’m sick and ended up with more hours suddenly. Every time that happens I feel like going into work and just shouting, “What the hell! No! I told you I get sick this time of year and to give me less hours!” and then just storming out. I don’t, but I did tell my boss, “I said to give me less hours because I get sick more often.” when I called in sick the other day and he complained.

So that’s basically all there is to that. Work and being sick. The usual stuff.

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Randomly Random

All the other stuff that isn’t important and just wanted to say.

First up…Nanoha nendoroid!

Damn you fanboys, you win this round. For now.

I was going to pre-order Nendo-Nanoha right away, but the usual dance with getting the credit card from my parents prevented it and now preorders are closed most places. Damn the allure of a chibi-loli!

Though I don’t doubt I’ll get it in the long run. It’s a nendoroid. And not a limited one. It can be almost impossible to miss those no matter how cute they are. Even if it turns out to be impossible, I’m really not that fussed. Nendo-Nanoha did not live up to my expectations. Her hair looks too detailed and too dark. Among other small complaints. Hope I like Fate better.

I guess the reason I’m not too fussed is also because I have a Rin plushie and that just makes the whole world a brighter place.

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Next…Megami Magazine leaving me in despair. Basically amounting to like…no posters I’ve wanted in the past who knows how many issues. I know I’m not their target audience, but usually there’s at least one thing that’s cute that gets a squee out of me. This most recent issue didn’t have anything.

Why is it that my disinterest in their posters had to coincide with the same time I had money? At least I’ve been able to get figures and stuff (Ranka is coming soon~) but I miss my posters.

So…hurry the fuck up Angel Beats! and then Little Busters! because I want my posters! Actually Angel Beats! is already airing in Spring so I just have to suffer a few more months at most. In the meantime…give me at least one Kobato poster…please?

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Oh and this also happened. I was the Featured Blog on anime blips so I answered some questions and I figured my readers might as well…you know, read those. So there you go. I have to say I like answering questions. It’s easier to write if someone else gives me a topic.

So you hear that? Ask me questions and I’ll post more often. I’ll do a whole post just for whatever random questions people want to ask me.

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And lastly, in more blog-related news again. I’m working on the Winter Preview right now so it should be out early this time. Probably around halfway through the month. I wouldn’t look forward to mine too much because I’m not thrilled about the upcoming season. I’m sure there’s some good anime in there, but they don’t match up with my tastes.

Plus with its bookends being this season (which had Kobato.!!! Among other things) and next season which has Angel Beats! (Key anime~!) among other things…like 3/6 things currently on Fansub Wiki I am incredibly excited for. Half! HALF! More than half if we’re right about Kaichou wa Maid-sama! too. Of course the percentage will go down, but still. Like 3-4 anime I’m guaranteed to watch already has Spring almost as good (for me) as Fall has been (also for me).

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And uh…that’s it. Insert epic ending for the lame post here.

I guess all that’s left to say is that I’ll be working on the next Kobato. post tomorrow and I’ll probably get a Haruka post done today or tomorrow. Whenever. Both of them in the next 2-3 of days though. But of course after this post, I’d say you shouldn’t necessarily take my word for it.

(Didn’t read over this post because I have stuff I want to get done…as noted in the post, so ignore any failings you may see…please.)

The newly reformed Moetrice helps Jessica, by reviving a phantom version of Kanon, who acts as Jessica’s eyes to lead her to "safety" (or another closed room actually), and then gives them time to speak together. However, EvaBeatrice strikes immediately, having the Siestas shoot Moetrice through the heart.

Repeated shots and Siesta bazookas turn Moetrice into a husk of a heart, but fail to kill her. This freaks out the Siestas, who most likely didn’t get the irony in them calling Moetrice a "monster" and then running away. Ronove appears to tell EvaBeatrice that she lacks the power to kill Moetrice… even if she is nothing but a beating heart now.

Before EvaBeatrice tries to step on Moetrice’s heart though, Battler cuts in and gives Moeto a backhanded compliment before bringing EvaBeatrice into the metaworld to do battle.

EvaBeatrice, who seems startled by the change of scenery, takes the thug route and tries to off Battler. However, his endless nine power (Haruhi to thank?) easily wards off the Siestas attack and he scares them away. Battler then sticks up for Moetrice and vows to show EvaBeatrice the true meaning of being a Golden Witch. In turn, Moetrice graces us with a knee jellifyingly moe blush and tears. And thus begins the more mental battle between Battler and EvaBeatrice.

I wonder if it’s even worth recounting the events, because the story gets so messed up (in a good way), but I’ll recount it briefly. Essentially, Battler tries to use Maria and Rosa’s deaths in the second twilight to trap EvaBeatrice, telling her to repeat in red: Aunt Eva never took a step out of the room while the crime was going on. EvaBeatrice doesn’t. In fact, she doesn’t even counter this, and instead conjures up the events in the 4th to 6th twilight. Battler was sloppy here, letting her slide. I don’t know if the VN goes into it more, but he let her skate free on the 2nd twilight. But him and Moetrice are able to corner EvaBeatrice again in her scenario. She claims that the reason why Kyrie suggested that she, Rudolf and Hideyoshi leave to get food, when before she said it was safer in the guesthouse was because EvaBeatrice controlled her with magic. While Battler’s getting flustered (still much too easily, he should be getting better at this), Moetrice asks Virgilia to reconstruct the death scenes of Hideyoshi, Kyrie and Rudolf. Although, she’s unable to figure out a solution, she finds a smoked cigarette amongst Kyrie’s belongings. Battler recognizes this as a message from Kyrie, and that the reason she brought Hideyoshi out there was to ask him about the truth. He tells EvaBeatrice to repeat in red that Eva was in the room where the cigarette butt was crushed. EvaBeatrice refuses again. And again Battler lets her slide as she takes the offensive again. This is getting embarrassing for Battler.

EvaBeatrice goes on the offensive by firing some rapid-fire red text about how Battler was with Eva the whole time Nanjo got killed. And how none of the three survivors killed Nanjo, although he was indeed killed. At this point Battler becomes unhinged and accuses EvaBeatrice of lying with the red text. Failing to come up with a good answer, Battler collapses into a despondent heap. I like Battler. But I want to like him a lot. I want to give him a chance to make my top 10 list of characters. But every time he gets a chance, he fails. Why didn’t he continue to press EvaBeatrice on the prior twilights? Solve the 2nd and 4th-6th twilights, before thinking about Nanjo’s death. Maybe answers will arise from figuring them out. And if your first guess to the Nanjo murder is wrong, step back and think about it. But Battler is so easy to fall into mess of despair, that it’s a wonder that he hasn’t been blown off the game board already. Thankfully, Moetrice is going to come to Battler’s rescue.

By sacrificing herself. She vows to use the red text to deny that witches exist, eliminating everyone but Battler on the game board. Battler asks Moeto not to sacrifice herself, but eventually relents. In return, she asks Battler to cover his ears.

The sacrifice occurs. Eva reveals herself as the killer, kills Battler, and then… Battler and Moetrice find themselves invited to come to the Golden Land (Battler and Moetrice sure look like a nice couple in that screenshot). But wait. Hmm… this seems like a strange thing to be happening if witches don’t exist.

I thought you said no prenuptials? Wa-wait a second. This contract seems a little off. This is totally different from what we talked about.

Wait. W-w-what the heck is up with these strong-arm tactics?!?! Yo, don’t touch me demon goat!

Moetrice? Virgilia? What are you guys doing? Strange red haired girl kicking demon goat ass? What the heck?

A trick? No. No way. You lie! Moetrice, she’s lying isn’t she? You wouldn’t do that, would you? Right? RIGHT?

…no… not the tsundere trojan horse… no… how could you? I thought we had something special… no…

I won’t blame Battler for falling for Moetrice’s tricks. Since I fell for it hook, line and sinker too. In retrospect, there were signs. It was too easy. I knew I shouldn’t believe my eyes. If Moetrice could fake the fight between her and Virgilia, she could fake Virgilia’s and EvaBeatrice’s existences as well. But I wanted to believe. Like Battler, I wanted to believe in Moetrice’s redemption. Were we too gullible? In retrospect, obviously yes. But in the same way we wanted to believe in the innocence of the Ushiromiya servants and family members, we wanted to believe in the goodness of Moetrice. And she completely exploited our weakness.

Moetrice. Her name was Moetrice. Her name was Moetrice. Her name was Moetrice.

Battler and I both fell for her. But sadly, it seems she is no more. All hail the return of the Golden Witch, the Endless Witch, the one and only, Beatrice.

What a great scene. What a freaking great scene. I was stunned. This was the first time during this show where I felt a twist and turn was perfectly setup, and where I felt there was a more grandiose plan in mind versus nitpicking about the feasibility of a closed room.

I suppose the chances of Beatrice having a soft spot is probably zero, but I continue to hold on hope. Maybe that’s why I noticed her hesitate in answering Lambdadelta’s question about whether she was even trying. Sometimes, you become deredere, no matter how hard you try not too. Regardless, Beatrice is back. And Moetrice is gone. Interestingly, Lambda seems to hold some sort of power over Beatrice. I had thought they were on equal ground, but perhaps not?

Twelve years later. Battler’s sister Ange has grown up. And Eva still holds onto her hate, even as her shockingly quick decline into sickness and hate lead to her death. With the last connection to her family gone, Ange seems ready to throw her life away. That is until she meets Bernkastel, who informs her that she has a chance to break her family out of the cycle of death she’s been stuck in. The few quick minutes that Ange had screen time gives me a lot of hope that she’ll be able to provide the necessary cool focus necessary to help Battler solve the mystery. Meanwhile, I’m glomming completely to Bernkastel. Maybe because it was because I was hurt by Moetrice. Maybe it’s a rebound thing. But I think it’s more than that. I know I can trust Bernkastel. We have history. We have Yukari Tamura. I knew Bern was working somewhere behind the shadows. She will deliver.

As most Kobato. fans know, the anime was technically going to adapt their other manga Wish, which actually connects to Kobato. anyway. Kobato. includes many crossovers, but like Tsubasa (and Holic) actually connected to the CCS story, it seems that Kobato. does the same with Wish.

Not that I ever read Wish. I hope no fellow CLAMP fans get on my case when I say this, but CLAMP works can be hit and miss with me. Wish is a miss…for me. Great CLAMP-ish work I’m sure, but not for me. So I’ve been meh on the whole wish adaptation all along. Not against it, just…don’t really care about it.

So I’m probably going to ignore all the Wish stuff because I didn’t read it and therefore get none of the fangirly giggly pleasure the rest of you Wish fans probably do. And I just don’t want to bring any of you down. So I’ll leave it at that.

Tastes can be a strange thing. Even with that similar fluffy CLAMP tone, some things just hit you and some things just might not.

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Episode 02 – Kobato Broke My Logic

Everyone has their point where they can’t even shrug stuff and say, “Well it’s fiction” because it just reminds them too much of real life. Personally for me all of Kobato’s wild…logic-lacking (the whole series, not just Kobato herself) hit my brick wall of nuh-uh.

Simply put, having actual circumstances and a whole conversation where Kobato is officially volunteering for the daycare puts me very much standing beside Fujimoto going, “Yeah wtf Sayaka-san?”

Lots of people can pretend to be sweet. Lots of people that are genuinely sweet and clueless can actually be dangerous too. Especially to kids. So uh…yeah. Don’t trust kids that aren’t even yours with someone you don’t know.

Enjoy the unrelated adorableness of Kobato while I complain.

The reason why this hits me so hard is for the very same reason why I love the daycare portions of Kobato. I volunteered at a daycare twice before. And you know what? Had to fill out five pages of forms and I did so happily. Normally they seem quite realistic to me, so when it…just plain isn’t it bothers me.

So yeah. This worked in the manga where it’s kind of glossed over, but having Kobato just being around the kids and being left alone with them not five minutes after Sayaka lets her in bugs the crap out of me. It kind of ruins me feeling bad for Sayaka’s daycare going down. I mean if I was a mother and found out about this sort of thing I’d have my kid pulled out of there so fast.

Overall, it’s just something that couldn’t be avoided, but it still irks me. It’s the difference in pacing so they fill in the obvious gaps but…I don’t know. Sometimes the gaps made the story work better.

Oh and the first person to complain, “But it’s fiction~” gets a slap right through the internet. I know that. But it’s still a legitimate complaint of mine when one of the things I adore about this series is its balance between naivety and realism.

In this episode, the only one with any sense of realism is Fujimoto. So that makes it hard to see him as the guy who’s too harsh because everyone else is taking things too lightly.

And speaking of Fujimoto…didn’t like Kobato seeing him as wounded so soon. We’re in episode two, don’t turn Kobato into the girl who instinctively knows everything about feelings yet guys. I don’t think there was any context for her to even assume that.

I also felt like the new bits of Kobato being…cute kind of feel like they’re trying too hard. The dance Kobato did made me feel more uncomfortable than the usual, “D’aww~ Kobato is so cute~” Maybe from me still being stuck on the “Why the heck is she around the kids?” combined with some fangirl annoyance of “Why doesn’t she hold more of a grudge against Fujimoto?” (I love sweet Kobato getting angry~). But I really think the moment was just more awkward than cute. But that’s just my opinion.

Now aren’t you fans who were still full in love with the series glad I didn’t blog it on time? I just don’t feel motivated to blog when something bugs me so early one.

Of course, none of that is to say that it made me love the series any less. I am always fully prepared to accept an adaptation as a new work and separate it. But knowing what you know, you’re going to have expectations, even if unintentionally, and you’ll get disappointed when things don’t quite match-up.

Now on the positives.

This is absolutely one of my favorite moments in the manga. There are quite a few moments that stand out in this series as good moments. Pretty much any healing moment qualifies. Pretty much every time Kobato shows off her trademark smile. But even among those Kobato’s first healing really stood out. She was trying so hard and then, when she didn’t even realize there was a problem

Also, I think a lot of people can identify with the child. Even if you were never in a similar situation, if you know your mom (or dad) is a good parent you don’t want people saying bad things about them. Especially when you’re that age and you don’t know to ignore it or how to set them straight.

It actually reminds me of something that came up in Fruits Basket a lot. Adults talking around children or about children because they “don’t understand” when of course, they do.

Anyway, the anime did a lovely job adapting this scene and the music (familiar from Kobato’s song in the first episode of course) very much helped. I was wondering if it would be an ongoing thing in scenes like this and I don’t think I’d mind if it was. It’s a nice thing to carry on…as long as they don’t wedge it in where it doesnR