ひきこもりちゃん: Otaku-ness

Otaku Culture is not for everyone.

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 17:52:12 GMT

The Anime News Network reported today that "No manga in USA Today's list of top 150 best-selling books this past week."

Seriously, I'm stunned. Because there are people who keeps tabs on this. Anime and manga are not exactly mainstream stuff that people are just dying to get their hands on. Most people who are into these stuff would actually be able to recall on time in their lives when relatives, peers and friends would react in such a way as, "Anime? Those weirdo characters with huge eyes from Japan???" And I live in the Philippines which is generally a two-hour plane ride. Really! In marketing terms, things like manga, anime, plamos, etc. are being sold to a niche market not to the masses. To the ineducated, a niche market is kinda like a speciality store against a supermarket. A supermarket has everything a consumer needs and wants, while the specialty store on sells certain items because they are not something typically needed by the masses. Seriously, they report it if they find a manga on the list, not when they're not there.

のだめカンタービレ: The Show That Made Aisee-imoto-chan an Otaku

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 05:46:45 GMT

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaah! My cousin Aisee has taken the road to otakuness.

My cousin Aisee and I grew up together in the same house. The typical Filipino home where everyone lived with grandparents and a lot of add-ins have been made in to the home. Generally, my house is one giant hodge-podge of add-ins. The two of us (and I think her sister Winnie got dragged along with it) are video addicts so to speak. We would watch our little beta tapes and VHS tapes in an obssessive manner. We would end up memorizing The Chipmunk Adventure, Cinderella, Aladdin, The Sound of Music and a whole bunch of other movies. As we grew up, she moved a couple of block away and we stopped hanging out with each other. The first time the two of started our video obsession was when I picked up the anime, Ouran Koukou Host Club, once I have reverted back to my otaku lifestyle. She liked it and I started picking up nice slice-of-life anime for us to watch, as was her preference, or I would be searching the deepest bowels of Greenhills for unknown, hard-to-find anime that she'd tell me to watch. By December, we've already ranked our favorite anime. For our joint sessions, we love love love Hachimitsu to Kuroba (Honey and Clover) - but somehow, we were kind of frustrated about what happened to Yamada-san and Nomiya-san because it was never explained how the two of them ended up with each other. Then I picked up and recommended and anime called Nodame Cantabile.

Nodame Cantabile is an anime that was released early 2007 by J.C. Staff and is based off the manga of the same title by Tomoko Ninomiya. I've heard that this was a really good anime, but I never got around picking it up. But one Saturday during the Hataw Hanep Hero 3 convention last December, I was finally able to get a copy. In the words of Hard Gay, woo-foo! So going back, Nodame Cantabile is about Chiaki Shinichi, a piano student in music college. He was rich, good-looking, popular, chased after women, and a perfectionist. When he was a boy, he played violin and piano in Praha (Prague) where he lived. There, he met his idol, a conductor named Viera-sensei. When his parent divorced, he moved back to Japan where a near fatal plane crash left him fearing flying for a very long time. But he dreamed of going back to Europe to become Viera-sensei's pupil as a conductor. His only hinderance was his fear of flying. He could take a boat, but he also nearly drowned when he was also a kid -- of course, this lead to a fear of water and drowning. He was highly dissatisfied with his life in Japan, until he met a gifted pianist named Noda Megumi. Nodame was from a rural aura of Ohkawa where she was nurtured with the gift of being able to play something on the piano upon listening to it. Unlike Chiaki, she has a gusto for life and is fairly happy-go-lucky, but she was an enormous slob. Thus started their misadventures together through music univerisity.

So Aisee and I went on our usual Saturday afternoon watch session with Saiunkoku Monogatari (Colourcloud Palace) - but there was something wrong with my copy and i totally recommended it. She was pretty frustrated (she liked Saiunkoku Monogatari very much), but she agreed. We watched and she's been obsessed ever since. Good lord, I know that the two of us liked classical music, but I didn't know that she would be a full-blown obsession maniac to the anime... or the manga... or the j-drama... or the Shinshun Special in Europe. God... this was a girl obsessed. Oh well, actually, her obsessive nature was put to good use when the Europe special was relaeased since she read the manga and let me the copies. Since SARS-Fansub took too long, we resorted to watching the raws. Apart from the actual things that were being said, we knew the flow of the story. Cool. Rabu~ Rabu~ Noda~

Hachimitsu to Kuroba - BANZAI!

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 13:47:19 GMT

Well, I totally had to write about this.

Honey and Clover has always been on top of my fave animes of all time list - though as much as I thought that the second season was incredible, I hated the fact that they used Episode 1 as a trackback episode and I never really found out what happened to Nomiya-san and Yamada-san. So it's only natural that when they released the movie and the J-drama, I had to get my hands on them. Thank God for SARS-Fansubs! The Honey and Clover is now available in J-Drama format for the Japanese-language-impaired such as myself. So anyway, SARS-Fansub released the first episode last week. Lord DL-ing takes forever!

For Hachimitsu to Kuroba fans (i.e. Gracie), do not expect the same stuff that you saw in the anime. Like the movie, they strayed from the storyline followed by the anime from the manga. (Although, we cannot really blame the movie poeple since it was released it after the first season. Though I'm not sure at what point the manga was by then.) Anywho, the series also took some artistic license liberties and changed the flow of the story. In this rendition, Takemoto-kun (Gasp! Gasp! Gasp! Ikuto Toma is waaaaaaaaaaay hot!!! I will never look at Takemoto-kun the same way ever again!), Morita-san and Mayama-san are currently third years students in art college. Hagu-chan was a first year. They haven't mentioned yet what year Yamada-san was in. The actual story was not bad. I kinda like it. I actually expected something like Nodame Cantabile where they were faithful to the manga just as much as the anime was faithful to the J-drama. But the initial storyline is still yet to be judged... I never read the manga and has been hard-pressed for the last couple of months looking for them in vain. Maybe these storylines were part of the manga, I will never know. But their twist is a refreshing change.

There are still the common elements -- Takemoto falling in love with Hagumi at first sight, Hagu being Hanamoto's distant cousin, and Loehmeyer-sempai still supplying the boys with meat. I am definitely gonna be watching out for this!

Image stolen from dramawiki

Motteke! Seera Fuku... らき☆すた The Last Episode (24)

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 16:32:50 GMT

Aww... marks the end of another era. After School Days and Claymore. Another excellent anime has ended... This time, it's the ultimate Moe Slice-of-Life Comedy, Lucky Star らき☆すた. Well... the anime never really had a story per se. Well, it's something one would expect since it's base on a 4-koma strip. But it has incredible random thoughts that you would usually think about but never really think about making anime about it. According to my friend Robert, the ultimate desciption of this anime is "eavesdropping on a conversation of a bunch of girls", which pretty much what it was. But everyone knew that because Konata is the ultimate otaku, a big fan of Haruhi and that the same animation company made it, and a dance was featured on the OP, of course, the ultimate highlight and the expectation of every fan of this anime is the complete dance of it's OP, Motteke! Seera Fuku (translated means "Take It! Sailor Uniform") I enjoyed the anime. I will miss it... I hope that there will be a second season!

The Nice Boat Conspiracy on School Days

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 12:39:21 GMT

Well... I was wrong. Despite the controversial news about some girl whacking her father with an axe, the TV stations that show School Days TV released their twelfth and last epsiode. Mixed reviews have been placed up about the proper ending of School Days TV. Some people are even claiming that that wasn't the real ending!!!

Hence, the episode that School Days fans and viewers will forever and ever know as: School Days 12 - Nice Boat. Nah... I'm kidding. Partly. The title of episode 12 is School Days.

So this is basically the gist of the last episode [SPOLIER WARNING]: emo, emo, emo, emo, emo, Sekai kills Makoto, viewer squeals with gladness and joy, Kotonaha kills Sekai, Kotonaha cut open Sekai saying "You're lying. There's nothing in there." when she didn't find a baby inside Sekai, viewer cringes and gets goosebumps, Kotonaha sails off into the sunset with Makoto's head in a real nice boat.

Squeals of delight from School Days TV viewers as they celebrate the death of a douchebag.

Now, those were token elements of the game. The weird part was that the last part about Kotonaha getting away on her family's yacht with Makoto's head is never part of any of the possible ending of the h-game. So... a conspiracy theory has been formulated that since the fan uproar of the "Nice Boat" show became such a buzz word in the School Days fandom (if such a thing existed), the people who produced the show made a quickie change in the ending to actually feature a "nice boat". So instead of Kotonaha jumping off the balcony as part of the h-game went, she just went away in her family yacht. This would actually explain the dodgy animation that most fans have commented as compared to the animation quality of the last eleven epsiodes. Personally, conspiracy or not. Whether it has deliberably done or whether it was School Days and/or the scenery show were planned or not. I love the irony. I had such a laugh. I guess the only thing to do is to wait for the DVD version to prove if this conspiracy theory is true or not.

Yes, that's Makoto's head she's hugging. She's alive. Psychotic but alive.

Anyway, Ex-Fansubber placed out this poll question:

Personally, I voted for the first, second and third. It's just too much of a coincidence that something like this would happen.

So to sum it all up. I am so glad that I watched this anime. Otherwise, the boat joke will not make any sense. Maybe someone who didn't watch the anime realtime will never ever get the joke. But there many people who actually went through thirteen weeks for this, it will always be ironically funny.

Review: School Days

Sun, 23 Sep 2007 09:32:20 GMT

Well... it's already Sunday and it's becoming quite obvious that they are no longer going to show the School Days... which is a damn shame since it's the LAST episode. As reports would have it, the day before the last episode was going to air, a girl in Japan got dressed in black and hacked her father up using a knife. If you've been watching the show or have played the game, you will know that a knife and someone getting slashed with it is a possible ending. And with the final episode will now be known to everyone who has watched it for the last eleven weeks as "NICE BOAT" -- this is in reference to the scenery show that they replaced School Days with when the axe hacking daughter news came out.

So loyal followers of this anime will now have to wait another long period of time for the DVD to be released.

To sum it all up, the aniticipation build-up has kept fans at the edge of their seats for one week only to have the plugged pulled pre-maturely. It's quite poetic. I literally shouted at my monitor when I read about School Days' cancellation on the very last episode.

For the uneducated, School Days is an h-game (hentai game) where the meain character named Ito Makoto has to go through a lot of going around, aspiring to end up with either Katsura Kotonaha and Saionji Sekai. Of course, she can end up with no one, someone else or all of them.

I've never heard of the series when I saw this when I was considering my summer season list. I thought it would be a cute, high school romance-type of anime so I picked it. Of course, you will abandon that concept by the second episode, where it starts becoming obvious that this show is all about Makoto getting laid. By that time, School Days forums all over the net has dubbed Makoto as one of the most hated douchebags in the history of anime. --- Personally, I think so too and I woudl like to add that this is the very first anime that I've seen where the main character has less than 1% fan support and whose death is being looked forward too. The reason why you would watch this and not drop it, is that it's a lot like passing through a train wreck... You don't want to see it, but can't help take a peek. So it's established, Makoto is a sex-crazed maniac, but I would think that boys would look at him as some kind of hero... I think he slept with about seven or eight girls in a span of one semester.

But then again, that pretty much gives a giant clue about what the ending will be like. A violent one. No doubt about it, this is what the viewers are looking for, aspiring for, and wishing for. With this cancellation, it's obvious someone met the edge of a knife. It's just a question of who wielded the knife and who got stabbed.

Based on the circumstances in the anime and the possible endings (some incorporated with the anime), I'm looking at Sekai whacking Makoto... Um, actually, I'll never be satisfied unless it will involve Makoto getting killed. Not simply dying. Everyone wants him killed!!!

I think it'll be quite a while before I watch an anime like this again.

PS. If anyone will have any updates on episode 12 status, please let me know. Arigatou.

ウミショー 06

Sat, 18 Aug 2007 06:54:22 GMT

So Amuro and her father managed to finish their house using various items that they picked up from the previous episode, including a Furby doll that they placed on top, instead of the traditional shiisa. Anyway, they went on their way to school and Amuro encountered a girl named Maaya on the bridge. She introduces herself as model and a swimmer that excels in backstoke.

When Kaname was able to catch up with Amuro at the bridge, it is revealed that Maaya is Kaname's childhood friend. Maaya remembers him as her constant companion who always took care of her. Kaname, unfortunately, remembers her a little differently. When Maaya finds out that Amuro was also in the swimming team and that she was wearing her bathing suit under her school uniform, she also takes it off (yes, right there on the bridge with spectators ogling... who wouldn't ogle at two girls taking off their dresses in the middle of the street???) Anyway, Maaya got pissed when she finds that Amuro had really big brests whilst she looked like she had an A-cup.

At swimming practice, Maaya impresses everyone with her speed on a 100M backstroke. But proceeds to insult Orizuka. Kaname apologizes on her behalf since they were childhood friends. Then Maaya stated to smitten the boys in the team and jumped on Kaname. Kaname accidentally drops her to the floor in surprise and the other boys came to her aid. She hugs one of the boys, purposefully squishing her chest against the guy... I don't know what his name is. Anyway, Shizouka sees this and started thinking about wanting to do that too.

After practice, the girls were changing and playing around in the upstairs locker room of the swim team's clubhouse. When the boys finished, they got out of the locker room (which is actually the first floor storage room), they found Maaya sitting outside claiming that the girls were mean to her and wouldn't let her in the locker room with them. Kaname seems to know that she was bullshitting. Then the captain finally shows up, claiming that he spent practice time to research ways to improve his technique.

Maaya uses her charms to ask the captain for a separate changing room for her since the girls were being mean to her. The captain called her an idiot because if there isn't any place to change, she can always do it outside. Then, in his nature, proceded to remove his pants and underwear. As it turns out, he and Kaname were immune to it.

This actually leaves Maaya with no other choice but to use the three of them to make her own private changing room. At first, they gave reasons, like the lack of space, as to why they can't built a private changing room to her. That kinda left her no choice than to use her power (apparently, a geass) to brainwash them. It worked... on the three boys. Kaname still remains oblivious. I wonder if the parody of Code Geass will be a regular thing in this series... Because the way they did it was excellent! Ahahaha... But that was good for a one-time joke. I think it will start to become annoying after a couple of times.

So the three boys cleaned out the storage room/boy's changing room and made it into Maaya's changing room. I can honestly say that for a bunch of boys, they have excellent taste. Kaname was fretting over the mess the boys made outside. And when Orizuka and the other girls arrived to the pool area, they discovered the converted changing room. Amuro, Shizouka and Makio tried out the changing booth and they did the shadow game. Of course, it started out with Amuro and Shizouka getting naked and changing into their bathing suits. Then amuro found a flat beach ball and a bicycle pump. The loli-looking Makio held the ball to her chest and Amuro started pumping the beach ball giivng off the illusion to the boys watching the shadow show the impression that Makio's growing breasts. Well... Amuro also found some of those magic mushrooms from two episodes ago and held it out giving the impression that Shizouka had a .. aherm, magic mushroom on her crotch area.

Maaya arrived and got pissed commenting how can Shizouka have such large breasts if she was a guy. She hit the doorframe hard and the clubhouse started to crumble. Well, the fact that the captain sawed a hole through the wall to make a window and the clubhouse crumbled.

Since the captain disappeared, Orizuka was called to the office to be scolded on the distruction of the first floor of the clubhouse. Only the second floor remained, which was the girls' changing room.

During practive, one of the boys challenged the girls to the rights to the changing room. The girls volunteered Shizouka. Then the captain shows up once again saying that if he wins, everyone will get naked in the pool area. Some old guy who jumped in the pool at the last minute.

Thoughts: Maaya is an unlikeable character. Well, I didn't like her. She was annoying. Well... aside from Kaname and Orizuka, everyone in this series are pretty annoying. But so far, I found all of them likeable. Maaya is not. I'm not saying this based on things that she did on this episode. There are a lot of characters who are much more over the top than she is, but I liked them. The only thing I like about Maaya was her hair. It's hawt!

Obsessin': Angel Sanctuary

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 13:09:45 GMT

Well... because of the xxxHoLiC and Tsubasa Reservior Chronicles short three week vacation from the respective magazines that serialize them (Young and Weekly Shonen Magazine), I pretty much had nothing to read... and to top it off, fansubs are running slow for the last couple of weeks. (Sayonara Zatsubou Sensei only came out today. Episode 5 was two weeks ago and last weekend, they already showed episode 6.) So I have been in agony looking for something better to do with my time on the internet. Anyway, I was randomly looking through Wikipedia when I remembered that Cosplay Magazine featured Angel Sanctuary 天使禁猟区 and since the characters there -- androgynus as they are -- are effin hot! What I read in wiki piqued my curiousity and I searched it on my regular manga site and surprise, suprise... they have all twenty volumes of it. I'm only in the process of downloading volume 3... But honestly, this one has got me hooked!

OBLIGATORY SPOILER WARNING... STAY BACK! SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Demographic: Shoujo

Genre: Romance, Fantasy

Rating: R-18 (Actually, I could give a shit about this. If you can handle things like this, you can handle things like this no matter how old you are.)

So anyway, Angel Sanctuary is about a juvenile delinquent named Mudo Setsuna 無道刹那 who is in love with his twin sister, Sara 紗羅. He is also a reincarnation of the fallen angel Alexiel who led a rebellion against God. Because of that, she was given the harshest punishment of getting her body and soul separated with her body locked up in the fourth circle of heaven and her soul to reincarnate but is always doomed to a life of misery and a death in violence. (By the way, if you are incredibly slow, ---> are Setsuna and Sara.) Oh... Sara's in love with him and they have forsaken their strict Christian mother to be with each other. Oh! And she is the reincarnation of Jibril (Gabriel) who was rendered to a state of comatose in heaven and her soul forced into reincarnation as Sara so that Sevonthtarte can properly rule heaven. Anyway, there's a whole bunch of other angels there. Most of them have very very very sad stories. Well, I read it in Wiki... My favorites are the stories of LailaXNidHegg (Well yeah, she falsely accused him of raping her, but the ending was touching) and SheatielXRaziel (which was just plain out sad!) Oh! and the whole gang's there... Lucifer, the seven Satans, Michael, Raphael... Well, wiki was kind enough to not talk about how everything ended. Everyone seems to die a lot though. So I still have that to look forward to when I finish downloading til volume 20.

Well... ok, the first sentence I wrote was really like, yuck. But it's a story dangit! And anyway, from what I undestand so far... angels are androgynus (like Ken and Barbie) and cannot have sex and have children (like Ken and Barbie). They just show manifestations of gender when they get older. And yeah... I know, they reincarnated to humans so it still seem unnatural. But you just cannot keep a good story down. I love the way that they obscure the existence of God. I'm actually surprise Darth Sidious, I mean... Pope Benedict (what is it??? XVI???) hasn't condemned it yet. Haha! Harry Potter has nothing on this one --- that little money making machine. Well, once you get over the fact that they're brother and sister, it's an incredible read. (... Afterthought: I remember saying this to JP when I recommended Kyo Kara Maou to him. "Once you get over the fact that they're both dude and that they're engaged, it's a very good story.")

credit: icon from http://idoll_famine.livejournal.com

I cried again!

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:36:56 GMT

Dangit!!! I will swear off Full Metal Alchemist for a while. I first watched Full Metal Alchemist on Animax over the summer. Hughes is my most favorite character. And I told my friend Gracie that. Then she said, "Then I won't tell you." And right on the next episode the next day, Hughes died. Waaaaaaaaaaaah! I cried... Then I didn't know if it was my schedule or not, but I didn't watch FMA for about eight episodes. When I got the DVDs, I watched it again, stopped for two weeks after the episode Maes Hughes dies in. Then picked it up. Well, now they're showing it again on Animax daily. I watch the 10:00 PM showing and today, they showed the episode where Maes Hughes died again. I still cried... Love Hughes. :( I wonder if I'm going to watch FMA tomorrow. I know... I have the DVDs, but it's too much effort to watch it from the living room (I don't have a DVD player in my room). Besides, it's the only other anime (other than Ranma 1/2) where I can tolerate the dubs.

Sick as a dog...

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 12:57:41 GMT

OBLIGATORY WARNING. SPOILERS AND SHIT. Anyway, this video that ius embedded on this entry is one of the sickest and scariest things I have ever seen on anime. I was browsing through YouTube on a suicide mission to watch raws of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (because I will never get jokes because its beauty, genius and humor is in the words and dialogue and I can only understand so much Japanese... stupid me and my language defiencies) when I came across this clip from the fourth episode. I remembered that I was laughing my ass off when I first saw it because it's so... I don't know... a range of emotions from hilarity to creepola-ness came through me. But it was sooooooooooooooooooooooooo funny! If this SHAFT's idea of fanservice for women... *shudder...*

Enjoy... or not... You have been warned. Presenting: Jinrok's Boot Camp.

icon credit: http://jackpirate13.livejournal.com

どうか fansubbers

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 12:42:09 GMT

Monday started... Weekend incomplete... Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!

OK, I know that fansubbers (the gods of the non-Japanese-speaking otpopulous) sub for free and in their own free time so it's actually a kindness that they do us language-deficient folk. This must have been a very busy week... *sob* By Sunday afternoon, I usually have watched all the animes on my summer list... But not this week... *sob*

The only animes I got to watch were Hayate no Gotoku 19 and School Days 06. No Doujin Work or Moetan or Nanatsuiro Drops or Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei or Baccano!. :( Raws are ok... but if you're watching things like Sayonara and you can speak very very very basic Japanese and can read the kanji but don't know what they mean when put together (me!)... they don't make sense and the jokes are lost...

どうか fansubbers of afk... please come to life...

credit: http://equivalency.livejournal.com

Looking forward to...

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 12:16:43 GMT

OBLIGATORY SPOILER WARNING: You've been warned.

There are a lot of animes that I like watching and I'd like to have a second/third season or even an OVA. And of course, there are tons and tons of reports from all over the net that there is when there really isn't and the other way around. Anyway, I'm just plain happy happy content right now because by three most favorite animes (a percentage of my other most favorite animes ever) have come out with various reports on upcoming OVAs... Well, the other one is a second season.

So happy to wake up the news that xxxHoLiC, one of most favorite anime (because it's based on my most favorite manga) is about to have a second season!!! Oh yessss!!! And here I thought that -HoLiC wsn't so popular enough not to warrant a second season. It's about a year since the first season finished. So after fretting that such an excellent series will not get a second season due to poor ratings is just crap. But then they announced it and I'm suddenly filled with hope to see another Watanuki X Zashiki-Warashi moments. The two are just too cute.

Here are the details I was able to pull off the net because the TBS Anime Festa site was in Japanese...

Premier: TBA - people speculate April 2008... after the Tsubasa Chronicles ツバサ・クロニクル OVA and the start of the rumored third season so they can work alongside each other again.
Animation Studio: Production I.G. - if these are the same guys who did the first season... I guess I'm ok with it. I'm not that happy with the animation because compared to the Movie, it was kind of bleh...
Original creator: CLAMP
Production: Ayakashi Research Society
Character Design: Kazuchika Kise

It must be because of the impending release of Tsubasa Chronicles ツバサ・クロニクル's three-part OVA this coming November, January and March. The Tokyo Arc is one of the most important arcs in the entire TRC series. And considering the impending alcoholism and violence in this arc, the Tokyo Arc will be released in the form of an OVA. Though honestly, I really cannot see the difference because they're announced to be thirty minutes each.... But it has me excited nontheless... Fake Syaoran is about to be unveiled and the real Syaoran will finally get out that aquarium that Fei Wang Reed kept him in for the last two seasons. Anyway, after the last of the OVAs are released, people are talking about how a third season would come out so it will work side by side with xxx-HoLiC. Of course, there's the hope. Hahaha.... But right now, there are the three to look forward to...

The Magician's Message - Nov 21, 2007
The Boy's Right Eye - Jan 17, 2008
The Dream the Princess Saw - out Mar 17, 2008

Director: Shunsuke Tada (director of Prince of Tennis OVA) - never saw Prince of Tennis so I'm not really sure if this is good or bad.
Script: Ageha Ohkawa (CLAMP)
Character Design: Yoko Kikuchi (Tsubasa The Movie)
Animation Work: PRODUCTION IG

Anyway, enough talk of CLAMP series. The very excellent Kyo Kara Maou 今日からマ王 is also going to have an OVA up for release October 26, 2007. I know very little about the OVA since the novels were not licensed to be translated to English and I don't think there's a scanlation group who did anything beyong Chapter 5. And they announced that the anime will be based on one of the novels. Anyway, this will focus on Yuri (of course) and the king of Shimaron Saraleigu... I'm not sure if this has anything to do with Big or Small Shimaron as canon of the anime, but that's all I know about it. Plus the fact that Yuri has once again commented on the bishonen-ness of the king. So... if that blond dude on the picture to your right (--->) is actually a dude, I may wanna have to kill myself.

And of course... there is the finally! confirmed second season of Suzumiya Haruhi 涼宮ハルヒ. Of course, I'm not sure if they're still gonna call it Melancholy since they finished the melancholy part of the novels. Oh well... only have to wait til January for it... I so so so love this series and I am so looking forward to this... The only thing that I am worried about is that the first season's popularity gets into the production team's heads and totally ruin the excellence of the show. Suzumiya Haruhi's popularity is generally word-of-mouth based so the popularity exploded around mid-first season. If it comes out with too much (everything... merchandise -- like that hasn't happened yet, media, and all that) I will be seriously, seriously pissed. Grr...

Oh well... it will be months before any of these come out. Right now, I am contenting myself with catching up with episodes of Claymore. (Apparently, three people who are not connected with one another have highly recommended this to me -- one even offered to three first borns as ritual sacrifice to guarantee it. Well, Robert's girlfriend was passionate in its promotion. I don't think I will be disappointed by it because I trust her taste.) Tscha...

credits: http://silverserenade.livejournal.com for the icon, Fansub.tv for most of my info and pictures for -HoLiC and TRC, KKM pic ripped off that site that was pre-selling them. Haruhi pic off Animeph site.

Anime Review: Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei さよなら絶望先生

Sat, 11 Aug 2007 05:59:16 GMT

OBLIGATORY WARNING AND PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:

OK, this article may (actually does) contain elemts of yuri, bondage, licking and all that other stuff that people would classify under sexual deviance or just plain out sick. I figured that since they show this one television in Japan, it would be ok. Anyway, if you would like at much more clearly, it would look like some instructional manual so it would be educational. So there, you've been notified and warned, now I don't want to hear any bullshit about causing psychological trauma to your children. One, if you're reading this, you should be telling yourself, "I should go back to work." Two, I never ever stated anywhere in my blog that material posted here are appropriate for easily traumatized children. Now go away. Your personal well-being is none of my concern.

I've been raving about Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei さよなら絶望先生 since... well, since I started blogging again. (I have a very limited social circle and most of the people that I interact with on a daily basis wouldn't watch anime to save their lives.) It's dark, sarcastically funny and has excellent production quality. It's still an on-going series in Japan and only has four episoodes out as far as the fansub world is concerned. (By the way, you plan to watch this anime, you should really look for the afk subs... specifically for this anime, they sub it the best.) Episode 5 is due out this weekend. I sincerely hope... sooner than later.

Anyway, episode 4 is a totally funny episode. "Meru, meru" keeps popping into my head everytime I attempt to use my cellphone now which is totally flip. But another highlight of this episode is the new OP. Now they still used the same opening theme, Hito Toshite Jiku Ga Bureteiru 人として軸がぶれている - excellent song by the way - but they totally changed the sequence from this totally cool plain randomness (but ultimately cool) to this total whacked OP that involves a Kama Sutra-esque yuri scene with the students and Itoshiki are like whoa! Fetishes galore. But they're not really like this in the anime which makes the OP so much cooler because they act nothing like this. (Or maybe they will... they just haven't shown it yet. :D)

So anyway, Itoshiki Nozomu 糸色望 is the ever depressed, always-in-despair man who - of all things, became a teacher in school. In the first epsiode, he explains that his name, when spelled horizontally and the first two characters would be written too closely to one another would show the kanji for the word "depair" See the kanji beside his name, nimrod. So there... He's not usually, this evil looking... he usually have the look of paranoia and disbelief on his face. The anime usually takes place with him in the classroom with his students - teaching them about the despair that is their lives, the guidance counsellor's room - ranting and raving about the weirdness of his life despite being told by Arai Chie 新井智惠-san that the guidance counsellor's being for students not teachers, and/or walking around going to students' homes learning about their lives... and reasons why and why not they are attending school. He has the tendency to look at things in the most negative light possible.

The bald guy in the Buddha pose the background over there (--->) has always been a great mystery to the anime's non-Japanese fans. I feel like it is significant to mention this because he pops up a lot in the anime to cover random items and most breasts, asses and paper fans. Forums all over the anime world often speculate who or what this guy is. Most hit the mark by saying that he's the mangaka (it was "confirmed" in Wikipedia recently). I got it wrong... :D I thought that considering that this anime parodizes a lot fo stuff, I thought this guy was some Japanese pop culture icon. Hey... it could've been possible.

Every week, they feature on students in his class. Their names are almost always puns on their attitudes and behaviors.

Episode 1 featured Itoshiki Nozumu 糸色望 and his fateful meeting with Fuura Kafuka 風浦可符香 - the student looks at everything in the most positive light to the point where her explanations are absurb.
Episode 2 introduces Komori Kiri 小森霧 - a hikikomori with Zashiki-warashi qualities and Tsunetsuki Matoi 常月まとい - the eternal stalker who leads one of the most hilarious chains of stalkers I have ever seen on telivi. There is also Kitsu Chiri 木津千里 and her obsessive to have things done equally.
Episode 3 was hilarious. This features two types of foreigners... Kimura Kaere 木村カエレ - actually a Japanese girl who has lived abroad so much that she adapted the culture. She constantly threatens to sue but turns schizo and becomes the typical shy and demure Japanese girl. Another is Sekiutsu Maria Tarou 関内マリア太郎, who I suspect of the name is Filipino, is an illegal immigrant who bought the birth certificate and identity of a male student so she can live in Japan.
Episode 4 is by far... the funniest episode yet. This Kobushi Abiru 小節あびる the girl thought to be abused by her father but is actually always being mauled by animals because of her obsession of pulling on their tails. But the best student met so far is Otonashi Meru 音無芽留 who is a meek girl who never speaks and only communicates via e-mail thru text. And when she does, she becomes the most foul-mouthed, offensive and abusive person in the world.

So far, there are only four episodes out. Episode five subs are ue out tonight or tomorrow morning (I hope, I hope, I hope). Sadly, there are only twelve episodes so it's gonna be pretty short. Most speculate because Shaft (the studio who made this anime) had a bomb with the second season of Negima?!

toshiki's school.

As I mentioned before in a previous article, this is anime is generally not for everyone. I think this anime will only appeal to people who are into Japanese culture. The humor and the puns that they throw to you will generally be for people who are into irony, puns and sarcastic humor.

Anyway, click on the embedded video at the bottom for the full OP! It's the weirdest, coolest OP I've ever watched. Ever.

credit: http;//sasara.livejournal.com for the icon

Anime Review: Bokura ga Ita 僕等がいた

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 12:15:56 GMT

I actually got this anime a month ago, but the last two epsiodes were not playing back well so I had to have it exchange. But then I became so engrossed with catching up Hayate no Gotoku epsiodes I totally forgot about this one. Anyway, this was just finished and I have to say... this is one of the most painful animes I have ever seen.

(According to doctors,) I'm a girl. And like any other girl, I love a good love story. This anime is generally about a girl named Nana who fell in love with a guy named Yano (who also fell in love with her) -- who just recently lost his girlfriend in a car crash with her ex-boyfriend. (The ex-girlfriend's name is also Nana.) Anyway, I really, really liked the first few episodes. And it looked very very promising. I figured it was a cute high school love story. Then Yano finally told Nana that he was in love with her. It was sweet. I almost let out a girlish squeal. Almost. Then the two tried to have sex and it all went downhill from there.

Of course, any great love story has its conflict and what is the conflict between this young couple??? Each other. Itemizing it...

Nana can't get over the fact that Yano was very, very, very, very, VERY in love with the dead Nana. Paranoid.
Yano can't get over that the dead Nana was... well, dead. Necrophile.
Nana keeps saying that she understands that the dead Nana was very important to Yano. But she's the first to boil with jealousy when Yano mentions anything about the dead Nana. Hypocrite.
Also the fact that in some episodes, Yano is an abusive boyfriend. I mean, physically. Asshole.

Then let's throw in Yano's best friend Take, who has this absurd habit of falling in love with the girls that Yano falls in love with. Then there's the dead Nana's sister Yamamoto who just can't take a hint. Hell... it was spelled out to her and she still didn't get it.

Now, this anime does have its points. As I mentioned, the first couple of episodes until Nana and Yano tried to have sex were good. After the failed attempt, it was like... mmm... you know it is when you are in the car or something and the annoying child would say "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" over and over. It was painful. EMO much??? Why did I finish it??? Well, because I spent money on it damnit. Anyway, it's good for one watching. If you still insist on watching this, DO NOT - under any circumstances - watch it marathon-style like what I tend to do.

Finalized Anime Summer Season Line-Up

Sat, 04 Aug 2007 04:42:07 GMT

OK... it's been a while since I really became engrossed in anime. Prior to 2007 (and not counting my freak obsession with Fushigi Yuugi ふしぎ遊戯), the last time I engrossed myself in otaku-ism was back as to when I was in high school. probably because I didn't have that much friends when I was in college who was also interested in anime -- I mean, these people's interest in anime consists of watching Dragonball ドラゴンボールＺ (and they didn't even know the difference between Z and GT) and Rourin Kenshin Well. well, yeah I had Robert as friend and confidant, but I see him what? Once a year??? (Well, it's improving now... we're seeing each other once a quarter.) Anyway, circumstances back in late 2006 left me physically incapacitated to leave bed. Considering it was the holidays, I refused to watch any of that feel-good crap so I turned to a channel that guaranteed that someone will die - Animax.

Anyway, after months of watching series after series (which I will be writing about in the future), here is my quasi-finalized list of animes that I will be watching and recommending for those who will be asking. Generally, they revolve around comedy and the lovey-dovey stuff so... :P

School Days スクールデイズ

If you have never heard of the game (like I did), you would think that this is another lovey-dovey, drama, school life, slice of life anime about two girls and a guy who can't decide who he likes better. Anyway, this anime generally revolves around a love tirangle between a guy named Ito Makoto 伊藤誠 and two girls the ultimately demure Katsura Kotonoha 桂言葉 and the outgoing Saionji Sekai 西園寺世界. At face value, it looks a lot like a shoujo anime. Well, yeah... there's that and there's also a lot of ecchi scenes. It's not the regular love story anime where they just seat uncomfortably sit beside each other contemplating whether they should confess their love. It's actually quite fast-paced. But the appeal of the show does not revolve around the triangle itself. Most fans are at the edge of their seats wondering which ending will be featured. But OK... I get it... It's based on an h-game and it's not like most guys are not like Makoto. But this is the one anime I have ever seen EVER wherein I and a lot of it's fans wish for the bloody and violent death of it's main lead character, Makoto. (See any anime forums that feature this anime) I sure as hell rooting for the ending where Makoto dies.

School Days will have 12 episodes and aired in Japan Tuesdays. Fansubs are usually out by Thursday at the latest.

Umisho ウミショー

Umisho is an anime that I picked out randomly just to have something to watch. I started liking it for some reason because... I'm not really sure since the quality of the animation is not nearly as good as some of the other animes that are out right now. This anime is about the adventures of a high school swimming team since a strange girl named Ninagawa Amuro 蜷川あむろ from Okinawa moved in. The story is being told through the perception of their hydrophobic team manager Okiura Kaname 沖浦要. I really don't know the whole premise of the story because I have never heard of it before nor have I read the manga, but it has their funny moments. Considering that they are a swimming team give a lot of fan service to a lot of people who like fan service and can be quite ecchi.

Umisho is aired in Japan on Tuesdays. Fansubs are usually available by Thursday at the latest.

Hayate no Gotoku ハヤテのごとく！

Hayate no Gotoku is not exactly part of the summer season since it's already on it's 18th episode and premiered at the beginning of Spring. I myself didn't pick this anime up until June-ish til I caught up with it. This anime is a comedy about a boy named 綾崎ハヤテ Ayasaki Hayate who was sold by his gambling parents (who he has been supporting since he was 8 years old) to the yakuza for his organs. Escaping them, he ended up plotting to kidnap a young super-duper rich girl named 三千院ナギ Sanzen'in Nagi who, when he told her that he was going to take her away, thought that he was confessing his love. Anyway, he ended up saying him anyway and as thanks, she granted his request to find him a job -- which he ended up Nagi's butler. According to a lot of people, the censors pop up because it is being aired by TV Tokyo. Despite the story, characters - totally at random make remarks about the anime being an anime. The anime is funny just as it is, but you will not likely to fully appreciate this unless you know much about the otaku culture.

Hayate ni Gotoku is scheduled to have 52 episodes and air Sundays in Japan. Fansubs are usually out by wednesday at the latest.

Sayonara Zetsoubo Sensei さよなら絶望先生

This is one of the greatest anime I have ever seen. OK, considering that they are only currently in episode 3 and the fansubbers still haevn't released epsiode 4, it's still a little too early to make a statement like that. But the sarcastic and ironic humor that it presents me with. It is generally about Itoshiki Nozomu 糸色望, a mega-depressed and suicidal guy who happens to be - of all things, a teacher. It's generally a lot like Negima!? with a lot of parodies and none of the cheese factor. From what I've been watching, he will be dealing with a different student every week. Like Hayate no Gotoku, there are a lot of the stuff they will say that you may not understand if you haven't been into anime since... well, forever. Fortunately, this anime may never be licensed for other countries considering that the humor it gives its audience is too specific to the Japanese cultures that the puns may fall short. Like Hayate no Gotoku, it makes a lot of references to a lot of popular animes in Japan and in the otaku world.

This anime is shown on Saturdays so subs are usually out by Monday at the latest.

Doujin Work ドージンワーク

Doujin Work is a really great series for people who are into mangas and doujinshi. To the unfamiliar, a doujinishi is a published work with stories based on hit mangas or animes usually sold in Comikets. They are not part of the canon (obviously) and are considered to be -- in the world of non-otakus, fan fiction. Anyway, this short series (because episodes last only about 15 minutes each) is generally about 長菜なじみ Osana Najimi who wanted to become a dounjinshi because of the money it brings her. The people who work with her to achieve her dream are fellow doujinshis - one who make a lot of rape-hentai (Tsuyuri 露理), the other who has a loli-complex (Justice ジャスティス), and... well, I'm not really sure what Kitano Sōra 北野ソーラ does. In every episode, she encounters a guy who seems to appreciate the work that she does even though she is sublimely embarrassed that she is working on hentai doujin.

Doujin Works airs Tuesday and subs are out by Wednesdays at the latest.

Lucky Star らき☆すた

Like Hayate, Lucky Star started during the spring season and is currently at episode 17. Like how Robert describes it, watching this anime is a lot like eavesdropping on conversations between four teenage high school girls. As it being being cased on a 4-panel comic strip and not on a manga, it has no particular story. It's enjoyable to watch because you cease all of you thinking and will be able to relax.

Lucky Star airs in Japan Sundays so fansubs are usually out by Tuesday at the latest.

Nanatsuiro Drops ななついろ★ドロップス

OK, I'm not so much into mahou soujo. The best I could do as being a fan is of Cardcaptor Sakura. Why am I watching this??? Because the rendering of the animation is gorgeous. This anime is about a guy who ended up drinking a drink that turned him into to stuffed sheep. A mysterious teacher told him that the only way for him to permanently turn back into a guy is with the help of a magical girl - who hasn't been awakened yet so he will have to help her start picking up stardrops every night. This is also based on a game, but I don't know much about it. In fact if you wiki this, you will find nearly zilch on the topic. Like everyone who has never played the game, I'm picking it all up as I go along.

Nanatsuiro Drops air Mondays in Japan and subbed by Wednesday.

Moetan もえたん

Like I said with Nanatsuiro Drops, I'm not into mahou shoujo unless it's very very good anime. Well... Moetan is generally an anime for people with a lolita complex. I just watched it becuase it's based on a game that teaches English to Japanese speakers. I thought it may work the other way around... I don't think so. But I'm enjoying the anime. For some strange reason, I'm enjoying the anime. Of course, from the title itself, you cannot not expect to see loli-ecchi sights - specifically on transformation sequences likened to Sailormoon where they get naked. Especially with Ah-kun and Ka-kun... perverted animal familiars I can liken to dirty old men.

Moetan airs in Japan Sundays and subs are out by Wednesday at the latest.

Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch コードギアス反逆のルルーシュ Ep 24 & 25

This is the one of my most highly-anticipated two episodes of the season. The first 23 episodes were aired late last year and concluded early this year. This kinda give the fans time to speculate a lot of things before 24 & 25 were released. I just think that because of the anime's success, Sunrise whipped up the story to make it extendable to the second season. OK, I am not a big fan of mecha. The only mecha series that I watched from start to end was The Vision of Escaflowne and this one. Probably because Lelouch is so damn hot. Well, after looking forward to these two episodes, it kinda feels like watching a hanging and just watching the guy swing -- waiting in anticipation until he dies. OK, bad analogy. But hell...it's gonna be a long three months. By the way, this anime takes place seven years after Britannia (who has conquered most of the world) invaded Japan and renamed it as Area 11. So the main premise of the story is about the Japanese people trying to gain their freedom with the help of a mysterious, diposed Britannian prince name Lelouch vi Britannia.

Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch Season 1 was concluded last July 28. Season 2 will not start til October.

Baccano! バッカーノ！

This anime is still under review if I will still watch all of it's episodes. It just premiered this week and the first episode was a bombardment of characters it got me all confused who was who. I didn't really plan on watching this, but when I saw an into in one of my forums, it said "death, alchemy, immortality" or something like that, it piqued my curiousity. The story -- from the looks of it, revolves around a group of mobsters during The Great Depression in America. But it appears that the real story stated in the 1700s during the Spanish Galleon explorations. And its many characters are connected by a single train ride that met an unfortunate accident.

Baccano! airs in Japan Thursday and subs are available by Saturday at the latest.