K-ON OVA

Just finished rockin' out to the ending theme...
Awwww yeah.

K-ON OVA

Moe has a curious place in fandom. It is a trait that some fans love and some fans hate. That's normal though. The part that makes it interesting is that it seemingly overrides any other aspect of the show. If it's got moe traits, it will be hated by many for those traits and loved by many for those traits.

My personal feelings on moe are slightly different than the usual love/hate relationship. I realize that it's there, I realize that they build the characters to cater to fans and I realize that it's often very similar. Really though, is it that bad? K-ON has been frequently compared to the likes of Hidamari Sketch or Azumanga Daioh because they both follow the classic archetype of x amount of girls in a slice of life/comedy setting doing cute things.

Azumanga Daioh is able to stand out from the shows just a tiny bit because it was one of the first. A pioneer in the manufacturing of characters for the pleasure of the fans. It is for this reason AzuDaioh stands out. Most series now will not get away with simply x girls in a slice of life setting; they need a hook. Lucky Star had otaku culture, Hidamari Sketch had art and K-ON uses music.

This brings me to my point, my justification as to why I love K-ON as I do: I love music.
At the point where I suppose I'd consider myself a musician (the term itself being very loosely defined) music makes up a significant part of what I enjoy. I listen to it, play it and compose it. It is in that respect that I am a complete sucker for a music themed anime. (The incredible animation and moe characters help too)

So go the haters can go ahead and hate the show, I can see why some will hate it.

With that out the way, it's time to talk about the actual episode


The episode begins with Yui, Mugi, Ritsu, Mio and Azusa being invited to play a live show for new years eve by Ritsu's friend - Well I suppose that is just the preview for the episode - The episode really begins with the opening, which happens to be a favorite of mine, augmented by a nifty little guitar riff during the chorus (which is in no version of the song that I've ever heard, perhaps KyoAni just happened to have some people on staff who could play guitar and were also voice acting and felt that the opening needed something a little ... more)

That beginning pretty much lays down the groundwork as to what's coming. No surprises here. The Gang (yes, that's a proper noun now okay?) soon after finds their way to a small club where they will play a new years show along with a few other bands, including one with Ritsu and Mio's friends and one that is so incredibly metal that they probably don't have any friends because they killed them all

Of course, Yui promptly becomes friends with this band and The Gang fits right in. Not long after this, the bands are having tea with each other, courtesy of Mugi.

Fun fact: Sawa's band is named Death Devil.
The show is now infinitely hardcore, which is a contrast to the art style.

This tea is cut short, however by the need to set up and rehearse.
The group decides to play in their school uniforms because Mio is totally not in school of rock, totally not Jack Black and not inspired by AC/DC at all... Well except for the lines of dialogue, they're the same.

After a bit of a false start, The Gang gets their shit together and pulls off a great show, impressing their Yui's teacher, Yui's sister Yui's friend and Yui's sister's friend. This being the point where an average episode would end, the OVA simply scoffs and keeps going. Interestingly enough, that must be some damn good pacing because they made a 23 minute episode that seemed double that.

Afterward, The Gang goes back to Yui's house to celebrate new years. Most likley Yui's house because her parents are Never. Ever. Home. Despite a few of them falling asleep, Ritsu and Mio brave the late, late hours of midnight on what is most likley a break from school.
How will they ever do such a thing. I really do wonder why Yui is not able to stay up past midnight, yet goes till at least 3 in the morning in another episode studying.

it's 12:00, do you know where your children are?
... Oh... Well do they know where you are?
How about why their teacher is sleeping beside them?

Awoken early in the morning by Yui, The Gang goes to watch the first sunrise of the year on what is clearly the same hill from Kimi ga Nozomu Eien.
How's that for a name drop eh?

Also I'm sure it it were the same hill then that imply fun times ahead for the band!

Overall I enjoyed the episode for what it was: A teaser for season two. It did a good job of getting me hyped again just in time to realize that the season has no concrete air date and most likley will not air alongside a certain other slice of life series which is in its third season. I found the animation to be quite impressive, on the same level as the earlier episodes of K-ON and at sometimes maybe even Street Fighter 3 quality.

The soundtrack, though oft extremely background deserves a mention because it really was pretty enjoyable. It's jazzy Latin feeling soundtrack is a nice contrast to the usual piano pieces that slice of life tends to bring to mind.

I would complain that the episode was completely unrelated to the manga, but I really don't care seeing as it was good anyway. Also I'm not one of "those" people.
You know the ones...

See you in season 2!

Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu Purezza episode 12

Wow... you know, I've always been irked by this title... You know... Being long... and hard... to pronounce...

Heh, awfully fitting introduction for an episode like this, don't you think?

Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu Purezza Episode 12:
Does that picture catch your attention?

So before I begin my entry on episode boobs - I mean twelve, I'd like to just say that this seemed like an afterthought. This story's extended arc seemed to reach it's climax at episode 11, where it really pulled out all the stops.

Now read that again to actually take in what I meant to say.

Another thing with the episode was that it was very fan service oriented - much more than usual. I suppose that opening picture may have tipped you off. That being said, excuse the dirty mindset that I'm writing this in!



The episode begins with the crew on route to some hot hot springs where they will spend a few days vacationing.
Sexual tension ensues.

Great! their eyes are closed, now's my chance!

Also, didn't this happen in like the first episode as well?
I call foul on that you can't do two hot springs episodes in one season!

Once the group arrives at the hot springs it's the typical hot springs anime episode fair, show assertive, cheerful girls sexually assaulting other less confident, introverted girls while the guys sit behind a wall and listen.
Despite this being this following the traditional formula (Though give that a thought for a sec, there's a formula!?) I was surprised at how far this show went. This was probably one of the more risque scenes I've seen in anime, nay, one of the more risque episodes what with the direct sex implications and extremely lovingly animated breast fondling.
Now all that fanservice is well and good, but "how long can that last" you ask.
I then leap up onto a rock and answer in a very specific and over dramatic fashion:
SIX MINUTES AND FIFTY-SIX SECONDS!
So there really is more to the episode than just mindless fanservice.
Speaking of events that stop occurring at 6:57 (rather, start occurring) it appears that Shina has finally worked up the courage to confess to Yuuto.
Or that would have been the case if Gento hadn't learned the ability to meta morph into a ball that is at least one third his size and hide under some blankets...

Poor Gento!
Power level jokes ensue

So with that, the episode begins to hurry on with it's plot.
This consists of Haruka going missing because she is looking for a ring that she lost in the snow (possibly while trying to change the show's name to Toradora)
Upon realizing that she has gone missing, the Nogizaka family along with Yuuto spring into action and go wandering through the forest in a blizzard.

Clever.
(though I suppose there really isn't many other options)

Hazuki and Yuuto end up getting separated because Yuuto ends up loosing sight of Hazuki ON A STRAIGHT PATH and Yuuto conveniently finds Haruka seconds after that.

After discovering Haruka's lost ring through the most unlikely event ever Haruka and Yuuto get caught in an avalanche.
See those italics? I'm using those to point out everything here that doesn't make sense.
Now I had no real problem with any of these events... At the same time, I really didn't see much point in them being in the episode. Haruka found the ring a few seconds after it being revealed that she lost it so there's an intense conflict ... That was solved in about five seconds.
As for the avalanche thing, I also don't really find it necessary because they were lost anyway, and they were in no way familiar with their current location.

After getting up from that avalanche (no sweat) they take shelter in a nearby cabin... Which I can't really knock because I've always wanted to be lost in a forest in the middle of a snow storm, only to take refuge in an abandoned cabin.
That was fully sincere by the way, it really would be sweet.

To Sweeten an already pineapple level opportunity, Yuuto is also trapped in said cabin with a vulnerable, impressionable, loving girlfriend.

Who he promptly tells to take her cloths off (no joke!)
He claims this is so she can get beside him and feel his body heat and not catch a cold, and that's all well and good but.... Why does he take his cloths off too?

So then Gento and the maids crash through the window and Gento starts crying blood... Presumably because he is a man and that's how men show emotion.

You win

Shortly after this surprisingly non confrontational encounter, Yuuto and Haruka live happily ever after... Yeah, that's it. No Climactic ending, just another day on the job for Yuuto and Haruka I suppose.
That is if their job is to get into awkward and sexual situations. In which case they have a pretty great job.

All in all, an enjoyable episode bringing to close an enjoyable season. I look forward to season 3. I'm already quite certain that there will be one and am reletivly certain of what to expect.

AHA! I SO FUCKING CALLED IT!

WHO'S CRAZY NOW!?

Shugo Chara 108, summerized

They say a picture is worth 1000 words. This picture is worth 12, but it implies many more.

Despite the picture it's actually "Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu"

You know what? you all suck. I like it. I like it lots.
I like Haruka as a character. Screw all you. I'll watch whatever I feel like and type in ridiculously fragmented sentences whenever I feel like!

Edit: About 24 hours later, the irony of someone watching this and feeling embarrassed about it hits me like a 12 ton block of steel.
(Though it's not like I'm all that embarrassed)

Why?

Now as you may or may not know, I have been following shugo chara since the beginning of civilized culture (see: since code geass finished). Over the course of shugo chara's run, it's gone through a good deal of ups and downs which force me to liken it to sailor moon a good deal more than other magical girl anime.

The first season really sold me on the show. I was astounded at the fast pacing that took a long time to slow down. I seemed like this show was really trying earnestly to get me to watch it. Ultimately, I didn't find myself liking any of the characters as much as some other anime, but they had an alright amount of depth. As well as that, it introduced a few new ideas to a genre that hasn't really got much light shone on it as of late.
When I think back on the first season, I feel like it was really trying to be something new, big, exciting and quite possibly one of those cultural fads that make us in north America (or baka westerners, if you speak weaboonian) look upon the crazy antics of Asia and avert the eyes of our children with hopes that they will not get involved in this strange cult stuff like "anie-may" and "poky-mawn"

The second season was no real issue with me either. It was not near as good as the first season, concentrating much more on style over substance, but it served it's purpose. The one thing that I have to say about season 2 is that it really hearkened back to a rather "old school" approach - A happy go lucky maiden solving problems by defeating a monster of the week that shows up quite often for no apparent reason other then to have lots and lots of sparkles and use up the colossal animation budget. On the plus side, the second season did bring with it a fair amount of refinements to the show. In terms of a plot, it was slightly darker, more coherent, more involved, more emotional and all around more mature. It's just a shame that it was paced in a typical monster of the week fashion: Nothing happens ever, then in the last 4 episodes, EVERYTHING happens. This trend towards a more mature style of storytelling was greatly appreciated by me, the unintended target audience. I was hoping (and expecting) this trend to continue, as it mostly does. However what came next was something of a shock.


If season 1 was a square enix game, it'd be final fantasy 8; with a well done story, it tried new things, had some definite flaws and could have been the next big thing. Keeping on that train of thought, season 2 would be final fantasy 9: It went back to the basics of what makes the genre great and just based itself around those, while taking the good parts of the previous installment. However, season 3 is not like final fantasy 10. In fact, season 3 is not like a final fantasy in general. The only simile that I can use to describe it would be like your 17 year old douchebag brother who just entered collage. Now that he's in and thinks he's hot shit, he's hanging out with the coolest people and has experimented with plenty of new things. Most of this isn't for the better either.

If you can read that subtitle without thinking
anything dirty, then you have the sex drive of a snail.
No, not the normal kind of snail, the kinds that live
in a box and never see light or the outside world.

This is Season 3. Enter Shugo Chara Party! (exclamation mark being a part of the official title)
Now don't get me wrong, there's still a show to be seen here, but it's obscured by an equal amount of what's clearly filler.
For each episode, there is two or three short skits about the shugo chara doing some asinine things that look like they were drawn with windows 7 crayon style, and animated in flash. In addition to the skits, they also have plenty of live action footage, which contrary to what the name implies, does not include a great deal of action....
And nor is it live ...
I wonder why they call it "live action" in the first place?
In these live action skits, we get to see some Japanese girls walk, talk and in general act overly cute.
Yes, I'M calling something overly cute, you know it has to be over the edge for that.

After the fillers, we finally start up a real episode, which lasts about 13 minutes.

My main irk with this is simply because it's lazy writing. I realize that the manga needs time to get ahead, but come on, there DOES exist a group of people who tend to write tv shows for a living.
I'd know, they're quite vocal about it on places like tv shows. Anyway, I'm at least hoping that they will revert back to the 23 minutes of stuff model when the manga gets ahead a fair bit.


Now you may have seen the title of my post and been puzzled by it. "Why?", why indeed. Why could mean plenty of things, why is, why isn't, and why will often never be.
What I'm asking "why" for is partially why they decided to take two seasons of a good running show and completely reverse the attitude, but another "why" is "Why do I still WATCH this!?"
You see- despite my complaining, I still religiously watch the show. The anime sequences are decent, I just wish they were longer.

I think the real reason "Why?" deals with my desire as a male

Not that desire, you dirty fuckwit!

My other masculine desires... To WIN!

I've been watching Shugo Chara on schedule, practically without fail for more than a year now. I've invested a serious amount of time in this. I can't just GIVE UP!
This happened with sailor moon too, which just made me ride it out till it got good again (stars)
I'm either going to watch till it ends or till I can't watch any more. If I stop now then the show wins and has gotten the better of me. My sweet and subtle masochistic desires may also shine through as well. In that respect, the show has got me hooked, but it`s cheating.
Nice job Shugo Chara, and the third season isn`t AS bad as I make it out to be.
Ciao

Shugo Chara 100

Spoiler, the episode goes a little something
like this


(click to enlarge)

Just tossing this out there,,,

lol endless eight...

So I went to kyoto animation and talked about Haruhi Season 2 with them. The conversation went about as well as the last time I talked to my girlfriend... something like this

Nah, just kidding. I don't really have a girlfriend

But I swear... next episode is going to be the last....

Full blog to come when I can't just copy/paste my other endless eight blog.

Haruhi Season 2 Episode 2 NEED I SAy MORE!?

Hey remember when I did blogs? yeah that was fun. Now that it's summer again I'm sure to do more. I'll try to keep a real schedule.
Yup. No sarcasm or cynicism there... none at all.

Haruhi Season 2 episode 2

Alright, lets get two things settled here. One, the particular subs that I watched didn't translate the episode name. Two, despite it not being my ultra favorite anime (if visual novels count, then clannad the VN takes that place... I wasn't big on its anime) I am a rather large Haruhi nerd.

Having watched the anime, I've also read the books (original and english release), the drama CDs, manga and own the dancing game for the wii (it's not very good). Naturally as a result of this I have been a part of the so called "hype machine" for a good long while. If google alerts actually worked well, I would have already known a lot about it. Sadly, google alerts does not work very well on topics that you can't easily click "LOL I'M A BUTTON THAT GIVES YOU NEWS". On that topic, having read the books I already have a pretty good idea of what's going to happen. As well as that, despite not knowing the title, I think that I can be somewhat safe in calling this episode "endless eight" for reasons that are seemingly absent in this episode (kyoani: WHERE IS THE TIME TRAVEL!?)

Basicly this episode, much like in the novel follows the last few days of summer when all of us realize "Holy shit, I've done nothing but sit in the basement and watch anime and play video games!"
The difference is that instead of Haruhi being proud of that and having her eyes burnt out when she goes outside, she decides to do something about it... Like some kind of weird ass strange person... Right?

Come on guys, help me out here! That's not what normal people do, is it!?

Yup, more Haruhi goodness!
Also this location was in the wii game eh?
And yes, I know that.

Events in this episode take off at an innocent trip to the pool. Little did they know that this is the beginning of the "Relentless episode of fanservice"

There was seriously more fanservice in this episode than I've seen in Haruhi. Good service though, not intrusive. It's not like the ridiculous girls high fanservice with "OH NO I FEEL ON THE GROUND FOR SOME REASON AND NOW MY PANTIES ARE STICKING IN THE AIR. HEY EVERYONE SEEN MY PANTIES? NO? WELL I THINK I'LL SHOW THEM FOR A BIT LONGER. SEEM THEM YET? WELL EVEN IF YOU HAVE I'LL SHOW A BIT MORE TO GET THE POINT ACROSS"

The pool scene is very small and consists of them eating a lunch and some music. In fact, the entire episode contains many musical montages. There seriously isn't much to say about this episode.

Yep, all this fanservice description AND a pool scene.
All you get is Kyon and Koizumi's backs.
Look really hard and you can see Mikuru Haruhi and Yuki!

The next day is a O-bon festival. As mentioned before, fanservice, fanservice, fanservice. "Why?" You may ask. Well if you recall, the Japanese have yukata... Exactly. So, it begins with Haruhi, Nagato and Mikuru buying yukata to wear. After that, we have a relatively interesting festival scene. Kyon talks a lot, Nagato buys a mask, Haruhi catches goldfish, Mikuru doesn't catch goldfish and fangirls everywhere draw yaoi pairings of Kyon and Koizumi.

Is it just me, or is the perspective in this really weird?

Fireworks are always fun. I suppose that is an international law, because the day ends with an awesome time with fireworks. I particularly like Kyon's idea.

click to enlarge; he's on a mother fucking BIKE!

The next task that they have is catching bugs. This was also a musical montage. Also not only was it a montage, they reduced it to mostly still frames as well!
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

It's this point that I'm wondering how much was actually spent on this show. Perhaps they're spending it all on K-ON

Next is working. It's very short. Mikuru dresses up as sgt.Frog... yeah the show, I've never seen it nor know the characters so cut me a break, kay?

After that, they go star gazing. Yes, Haruhi, we understand that you are an ironic show. I realize now writing this how short each segment was. To be honest as a blogger, I feel somewhat cheated, because I have to make up random crap to write about to fill space.
That was random crap to fill space. This is also. Though on another hand I'm surprised that they are adapting endless eight at all. I suppose viral marketing be damned, they are addapting endlss eight and NOT dissapearence!

Sophosticated, refined martions eh?
Well I can only reply wit this:
The one on the right is a girl, clearly.

After that, it shows a short baseball skit, then homework, then the end. No time travel at all!
How could this be? that was the whole point of the story in the book!

alt diolouge: "Why does japan like baseball?...,
why does anyone like baseball?)

Overall I'm slightly disappointed with this episode. As opposed to being about a looping eight days and with the objective of getting past that, it was turned into slice of life. All the character development, specifically in Nagato was taken out!
People had gripes with lone island, well I HAVE GRIPES WITH THIS!

Alright, so... yeah...

GIT YER GUNS AN' GO TAKE AWAY THER JERBS AT KY-O-TO ANIMAYTION!
(... all because of one slightly annoyed blogger... come on, it'd be cool)


(Edit, November 22: Well ironically I actually did get off my ass and do something at the end of the summer, and yeah I know, the season did go somewhere, and yeah I know, I stopped blogging it, and yes I too was pissed off at the whole fiasco. Disappearance movie should make up for it though.)

Street fighter Legend of Chun Li

Alright, so technically this isn't an anime. However, its based on a game... with manga esque graphics... and uhh.. yeah
So I guess its close enough ...

A more apt title:
Street fighter and cursed film legacy

So essentially, I'll get to what we all already know. This movie was bad.
I walked into the theater knowing that it was going to be a bad movie. Hell, I walked into the theater knowing it was going to be "so bad that it wasn't so bad its good" (might wanna rap your head around that one before continuing)

While watching the movie I had two main thoughts:

"What?"
and
"NO"

Usually the former was closely followed by the latter. Usually they were exclaimed (dont get all annoyed at me, there was like 3 people there)

Alright so I'm not going to really be spoiler sensitive, as trust me: YOU DONT WANT TO SEE THIS FILM. Alright!? I saw this because a certain podcast said that. And then afterward, it specifically said "DO NOT SEE THIS BECAUSE WE JUST TOLD YOU NOT TO BECAUSE WE ARE BEING SERIOUS"

(see those caps? that's my serious tone; it means I'm shouting. When I'm shouting I'm serious. Shouting is serious business)

needless to say, I did the stupid thing and saw it based on that warning.

I regret it.

More than once during the movie I thought one of two things
"oh my god, is it not OVER yet?" and "what movie is this again?"
I was often baffled by the amount of time that had gone by. In the time span of 40 minutes, I felt like I could have traveled around the world several times. Other then that, it also didn't share much resemblance to the game that it claimed to be based off of.
Hey do you remember that part in street fighter where all those swat team members had that massive shootout with M.Bison's thugs? No? neither do I.
In fact (just a little fun fact here) The ONLY character who was a "Good guy" archtype character that was also from street fighter was Chun-Li.
Oh yeah also Chun-li was not a hardened Interpol cop, rather a professional piano player (???)

So basicly the plot goes like this

One day Chun-li is playin a concert when she gets a cool scroll. She seems unable to read the scroll despite speaking fluent Chinese (the language it is written in). Then her mom dies. Then because of her mom dying, she decides to get someone to translate the scroll (oh this is funny) in China town. Yes thats right. Despite the movie being in china, she goes to china town (in china)

Its like double china!!!

So then the scroll says to "find this dude named Gen in Bangkok" (not Ken, dont get your hopes up... and uh not exactly)
So despite not knowing who sent the scroll, she decides to completely abandon her current life and go life on the streets of Bangkok. Yes that's right. A different country.
Also Bangkok is a PRETTY HUGE PLACE... so like eventually she finds this Gen dude who makes her some kind of hyper 1337 ninja.

And then M.Bison is trying to buy the slums because he's evil.
Oh yeah, M.Bison is one tough character! you see: He's evil because he's evil. The back story provided as to why he's so evil is that "He was an evil child, and then he wanted to be more evil, so he went into a dark cave and sealed his goodness into his unborn child"

Yeah thanks for that, cept it doesn't explain WHY he was evil in the first place.

Maybe he was just one really bad dude (who was angry because some over bad dudes were more bad than him therefore got all the burgers from the president)

So then through a bunch of other shit happening, Chun-li eventually shoots a fireball at him and knocks him off a building in a terribly anti-climactic fight scene.

The end.


Alright now into the other things about the film.

The acting was actually a mixed bag. Some actors actually pulled off their rolls well, and when it counted. Some actors over acted. Mostly however it was just pretty bad.

Fights in this movie were quite badly done. Its a shame too, because they looked like they could have been pretty sweet fights! however instead they had WAY to many cuts and you couldn't really tell what was going on.

Musically this movie was ... umm mostly alright. Forgettable, but alright.
Exept for this one part... this one hilariously badly done part ... in a club. There is a rap about street fighter.
Yeah, a rap about street fighter. Actually I take that back, cause it was mostly juse people repeating the words "street" and "fighter" over and over again.
I found that the piano concerto at the beginning was particularly strange, as it started in the key of F and modulated very far from the original key to B flat, the strangeness was also added to the fact that the whole thing switched between 12/4 time and 7/4 time .... Kidding (but that would be pretty sweet ....)

So combine that with some hilariously bad lines ("bitch! I'll cut you. Bitch!" - vega, "I stand up when its hard to stand up" - Chun-li) and you have an unholy package of evil, not unlike Seth in street fighter 4.
(insert obligatory package joke here)

To sum it up, I give it 0/9999 stars
it earns 0 experience points
it earns 0 magic points
it earns 0 love points
it earns 0 gold
it earns 0 friendship points
it earns 0 apatite points
it earns 0 kindness points
it earns 0 homework score points
and if you recognize how nerdy those previous were, then YOU loose 400$ and go directly to jail, without passing go.

Time to abuse this blog for my own ends

The post title says it all, but hey its a post so what are you complaining about?

OMG BLUE DRAGON PLUS!

So basically mystwalker seems to be very intent on getting this game talked about so around on the internet are several ways of winning a free advance copy of this game. Already having entered ANN's contest to no avail, I found a crunchyroll post about another way to win it!
So basically what I'm doing is promoting it shamelessly to get a very small chance at winning it. Common though its not all that bad, after all I'm actually pretty excited about this game. After all, the DS needs some RPGS that are the quality of square's ports but not the 4th time remaking it like squares ports. On the subject of square re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-releasing a game that they made 15-20 years ago has anyone heard about the new dragon quest remake?
exactly.

Anyway though, this game shouldn't be very hard to get hyped about. After all, its from MYSTWALKER. Yes, the same mystwalker studios that made Blue dragon and Lost GODyssey. (in all seriousness though, they're a decent studio) On top of that, lets face it: A good ol' fashion turn-based-IHateTheTermJrpgButIGeussI'llUseItAnyway game. They seem to be in short supply as of late. Even square seems to be going away from that style and into weirder stuff. Oh well, final fantasy 13 will come soon. And be a letdown And make up for Final Fantasy 12, And cure world hunger, and cure AIDS much like Halo 3 apparently

Also it appears that square seems to be buying Eidos ...
what?

somehow I don't think that will work out very well... unless Laura Croft plans on becoming a white mage.

And just in case you were wondering, no I'm not going to blog girls high. It got waaay to... bad.
... that's bad in a literal sense, I didn't want to dignify it with an intelligent adjective.

And just in case you were also wondering, yes I'm still watching plenty of anime. Right now I'm slowly making my way through cliche loli moe fest Da Capo. Its actually pretty good, despite having E X T R E M E L Y cliche characters.

I've also been playing this cool visual novel called "may sky". Its a Doujin game, originally released in 5 chapters made in flash. However unlike most flash VN games this one is actually very high caliber. (almost soul caliber) I'm guessing that most people are unaware of this game and I simply cannot let that be. Its a very well written VN with strong, emotional characters. So if you like visual novels and are just trying the big huge KEY ones, or are for some reason into fate/stay (hey I wont judge you or anything but...) I recommend you check out the translated version. Its free and its not even illegal for once!

Tell me MOAR ABOUT THIS GAME!

Oh yeah, and Blue dragon plus, defenitly that too. Looks neat.
I'm pretty psyched about it

Exams Be Evil

Ugu... my life...
oh wait, what life?

Sorry anyone who reads this (Steve, I'm looking at you) But I've been kind of busy with school and stuff right now, what with exams and all. I'll be busy for a while "studying" (Read: playing Lost Odyssey) but I've got a break afterwards so I should be able to get back to complaining about the amount of ecchi in girls high.
Also its kind of nice that Crunchyroll's finally got back up to date on Shugo Chara. I wont go criticizing them because I think that its great that they've tried to take a step into making the bigger companies see that online streaming is indeed the way to go (Who am I kidding!? I want my free fansubs)
On another note I've also began watching Gunslinger Girl Teatrino and so far its more of a "meh" on the wow scale of things. I wont say I'm disappointed because its bad by any means, I just preferred how the first season did things


Edit: Gunslinger girl Teatrino is, in fact not "meh"
It's better

Girls high ~ episode 3, or "omigod, omigod can Ayano be anymore fetishy? (I hope)"

heh... cool... consistency...

Also just an FYI here, I'm currently watching gunslinger girl as well. I've finished the first dvd (yeah I BOUGHT it. Take that)
Girls high - Episode 3: Love, Deception and a love hotel?

Alrighty this one was kinda fun (kinda risque!)
The plot for this episode involves the dating party that himeji set up in the previous episode (yeah I'm learning the names kay?). Basically having not watched it all the way through yet (I watch half then blog half) it would appear that Ogawa is gonna get raped. cool.
The episode begins with what almost appears to be a superman parody ... which kind of seemed out of place, considering the subject matter of the show. I'm not entirely sure if it was a superman ripoff but that's the first thing that came to mind. So eventually the dating party gets together and the characters are paired up with *gasp* boyz
It almost seems like in this episode ALL the usual fan service has been channeled into Ayano. Perhaps 3 people read this blog: Me, Steve and Towa Oshima (hey Towa). I'm not really complaining at this, in fact I like it. Having experience in the moe genre, I was more so laughing at the parody of it though.

Ayano, you may have very well achieved the rank
of msn picture or possibly desktop background

so everyone's gathered together waiting for Ayano to show up... foolish Ayano, just dress...


...casually (incidentally, where the HELL did she get those cloths? ... 2164?)

Eventually Ayano does show up ... and (yay more pictures... yes this is very picture heavy because I'm not in the mood for writing)

see- a girl watches that and thinks
"what guy would want someone like that?"
I watch it and think "if only there were
real females were like that..."

So they end up kicking off this supah bitchin karaoke party. Which despite my prior comments about (read: supah, bitchin) it is quite the opposite.
now for more pictures,

Yes, this was a song. for the reference
it was only to 21 decimal places, and it was correct

It would also appear that Ogawa's guy is quite the player and has invited her to a love hotel. UH OH!
and probably Himeji too

Basically the episode:

All the girls are bored out of their mind,
Ogawa's almost get raped
Hime's and her boyfriend are leik SO thru
Ayano's found true love
Lonely otakus are lonely


Hey look, a plot!

... sadly its rather quick to explain: Ogawa owns this dude who's gonna rape her and then gives him some drugs which knock him unconscious because Ogawa is actually a big time dealer (heh...she deals big to make up for her height ... GET IT?)


Did I like the episode?

... yeah I did actually, I genuinely laughed a few times and found other parts funny. I also enjoyed the Ayano/Shimotakatami subplot
but seriously ... SHIMOTAKATAMI!? that's like... one epic tongue twister ...


also, the background music didn't piss me off this time either.

yay

Girls High episode 2

Yeah, thats right. On Christmas day, Ima looser. In all fairness however, it is 2 in the morning of the 26th so its not quite as sad. Anyway what else to do?

episode 2 ~ The scent of a girl's shyness

Okay, its worth noting that I'm in a much different mood then the last time that I wrote one of these. Last time I was in a "who would watch this on TV...? its mindless and dumb" kind of mood. This time I'm in a "OMG ITS LEIK SO HAWT MOAR" kind of mood. As you can imagine I'm enjoying it.

Starting off, the plot of the episode is about a physical that all the girls must take. However this isnt a normal physical, oh no. Its much cooler and consumes a greatly unessisary amount of time. Basicly, all the girls must travel around the school to the 14 different stations while very scantly clothed (paper sheets). At each station they must collect a gem stone which combined will unlock the door to the evil shadow lord Halgreth.... Okay so I lied, but everything prior to the part about the gemstones was true. Personally I think that the shadow lord thing would make a much better plot. Clearly there is a reason why I'm writing about anime and not writing anime.

and to make about half, lets throw in some pictures of mai meganekko

not sure whats going on in her mind
but I want in.

B,A, select, start -
Does anyone else find this
strangely attractive?

Speaking of her, I'm quite surprised they pulled the upskirt wind routine. I didnt think that had been used for about 90 years


Another thing that this episode has is some character development for generic female F-2 (the tall-blond). It would apear she has some sort of friend, specificly of the male variety and is causing generic-anime-feamale A-2 distress. (where letter is the importance of the character and number is the school that said character is from) ... I'm really not sure why I wrote that like I did. I'm also really not sure where that sub plot decided to go - probably to the next episode, actually.

We get some intense fanservice, of course (I figured it was a given, but let me finish, its called writing with flow) More stuff that we get is some insight into the characters personalitys (tailored to rather specific tastes) generic-anime-feamale C-2 gets her height mesured ...
very interesting

Nerd mode activate!

The reason that I say very interesting is because the character in question is 143cm tall, where konata from lucky star (with some simmilar traits) is 142cm tall. Could it be a special height? Have the anime companies really came so far in the science of moe that they have managed to find the perfect height for otaku?

We can only hope...

Edit: I wasn't aware of this at the time, but apparently (much to my amusement) there IS a standard height for short anime energetic anime characters, ranging from 140-150cm. I'm officially freaked out

also we get a hint at the *gasp* devastating consequences of not finishing on time...
the plot is thick as molasses

I'd be more worried about the serious amount of
tears that one girl can cry. can anyone say dehydration?

all in all, not a bad episode, everything seems to wrap itself up nicely... though I was feeling very accepting of the content at the time that I watched it... except for the music, it pisses me off.
Edit: not the openings/endings, they're good. The background music sucks though
at this point there isnt much left about this to say ... geuss I should finally go to sleep or something...

YAY, my dreams will kick ass.

btw: found a nifty screen capture app, very lightweight and lots of features MWswap

Girls high ~ episode 1

Okay, as it turns out I'm in fact NOT dead. The four people who read this must be both surprised and happy to hear that. (did I say six? I meant two... hi Steve)

Girls high - Episode 1 "high school girls are idiots

okay, just to clarify I just noticed that ANN began to stream this and I decided it might be worth a watch, and it supports legal anime streaming. I didn't find this by searching (so don't peg me as weird)
starting things off though, I've wanted to talk about fanservice in anime ever since I watched kite runner liberator.
With some anime they just throw in some fanservice to keep the viewer attentive. You never know what you'll miss if you blink!. I'm fine with that. Hell, I'm even fine with when you throw in a bit more then that amount and go for a Kanon approach to things (moe characters with a good plot). Its when the fanservice takes over the anime that things get problematic - I'm talking about a certain glasses wearing, clumsy, smart, maid, high voiced, one eye red one eye green, assassin, ninja, weapon wielding, shy, killing machine. Yeah, for the reference I'm talking about Monoko from kite liberator. That anime however can be forgiven for its 'service because of its cool action scenes, and surprisingly convincing characters. Girls high on the other hand... is more for the lonley basement dwelling otaku type (that said I think I'll watch it as its streamed)

I'm watching girls high!
of course I'm not thinking!

This is one anime that knows its audience. It reminded me of Azumanga Daioh... but less funny, and more fanservice.
The thing about having lots and lots of fanservice in an anime is that it all just seems to blend together and I just sort of tune out from it. its like comparing the early sailor moon episodes to the later ones - in the early ones it was exiting - you paused your video player, you cursed youtube on the delay, you rewinded it, you tried to catch those few frames (then you switched to crunchyroll) however in the later ones, it was just like "oh look a naked angel, cool"

maybe its for the best that
you cant read that bottom line.

this is essentially my problem with this show. It didn't really attempt to have much of a plot, and it had some pretty weak comedy. A few times it did get a chuckle or two out of me, but for the most part it was pure, brain dead entertainment.

On the plus side there was lots of fanservice

Did I mention that there was a lot of fanservice?

Seriously though, on a real plus side it had some nice art and decent music. The characters were very cute. Which is a good thing considering its genre.

it may not revolutionize anime... in fact, its probably setting anime back about 20 years but its entertaining at least



BTW: its REALLY annoying to get screen caps on the ANN viewer because it shows crap when you pause, and the print screen-paste method is tedious.

Kanon ~ FINAL POST ... the ending :..(

wow... its over... so sad...
"that was a week ago...a week that both filled me with joy and moved me to tears. I wont ever be able to forget that week, and I dont know if would want to if I could. a lot has changed since then, for the better?
I dont know... time will tell"

kanon~ final session

oooooooooooooooookay, thats what I get from too much kanon.
But there is truth in my ramblings, I did indeed finish kanon at about the begining of last week and it indeed moved me to tears (ehe... embarasing, yes)
-this being ayu's path-
It probably would have been a better idea to post when I actually compleated it instead of several days later, but since when did I ever do anything that was a "good idea"

so I'll try to refrain from spoiling it, in case someone ends up reading this and also is playing the game at the time
(chances are aprox. 1 in 4711.3333)

but I will say, I liked it more then clannads ending. One, it was longer, two it was sadder, three it was ... happier (cant explain unless you've played the game)

there was also the H scene, which was ... surprisingly tastefull.
As this was the first game I've played with one, I didnt quite know what to expect, but I needn't fear. I geuss the difference between this and a more western view on it, would be that in a western society its looked upon as a "dirtier" thing, while in this game its more "pure"
for instance, in a western game if it had SEX (hah! just got 20 more hits!) it would be a much bigger part of the game. I'm not saying that western developers are shallow, I'm just saying that if they put it IN they would do it in a shallow way.
And in that western game, the music would probably be the complete opposite too (t'would be funkehhh)
though Im not completely sure, as it was left untransilated and there was just about 30 blank text boxes to click though, but I was fairly sure it was an emotional scene*

well thats it for you people who dont want anything spoiled...
now ON TO THE IMAGES (no H ones, sorry!)

always with the weird angles

LOL PWNT!

*snif* Im sad part one

*sniff* im sad, part two

*sniff* I'm sad part three

now, Im happy but still sad, but I'm happy
so still "sniff" I geuss

likewise, the same as the one above
but now ayu has a cool hat
(but you dont get to see it!)

* Edit 28/07/09: Nah, I've got the new translation now... Turns out that part wasn't written very well at all. That or the translators felt no need for any metaphorical tomfoolery.
In Welcome to the NHK, Satou proclaims that
"My brain simply wasn't equipped with the particular metamorphs used in erotic fiction" Seems like in this case it really didn't matter much
ZING!

Is it alright to love those lolis? ~another half post

Ok let me just state, that lolita kinda freaks me out. they're cute; not hot. I can understand if people look at young anime girls (sometimes boys) when clothed, cause they often have that cuteness factor.

for reasons as to why I lack a picture...
see the above picture

lolicons are still sort of weird in my mind (though... I dono... maybe in about 10 years that could change ... I hope not) but the real question is
SHOULD IT BE illegal? my answer: no.
The reason that I should bring this up now, is ... well I thought about it a while ago when I read about a man being charged for having lolita on his computer. The judge which tried him classified this as child porn.
However lolita is not child porn in my mind. I dont claim to be an expert on the subject, but there are two catagorys that I use to classify child porn (and bear with me, cause they're impossibly complicated)

one: it is porn
two: it is of children

so, lets recap.
Q: is lolita porn?
A: yeah, I geuss a form, though less so because its animated

Q: is lolita of children
A: No idiot they're drawings

threfore if someone consideres lolita child porn, then they must be considering drawings children. Now I know what people will say, "its not children, but its pictures of children"
and to that I say: so what?
Child porn is illegal because its a form of child abuse. I dont think most children have porn of them because they want to. wheras these pictures of children dont care either way... infact... they dont even THINK (screw this whole personification thing)
so In closing, I think that lolita is indeed immoral, however it shouldnt be illegal.

Though Im sure many lolicon do some other stuff that IS illegal.

My love/hate relationship with the magical girl genre

ok, so Im sure most of us watched them at one point, and I too watch them on and off.
At this point Im not sure if I like the magical girl genre or dont like it, but Im leaning further towards liking it then hating it.
So heres my reasons

yeah, NINE reasons. Deal with it.

Love

1. likeable characters
2. decent character development
3. the final few episodes or an arc are worth a watch
4. longjevity
5. the villans get depth
6. the obvious romance
7. music (both background and op/end)
8. nice art
9. many moments worth a chuckle

Hate

1. thin plot
2. repetitive episodes
3. the episodes dont often have much to do with the plot
4. sometimes get to girly for me (though... I suppose...)
5. some of the situations piss me off
6. too much/not enough fanservice (y-yeah... its never the RIGHT amount)
7. cliche
8. underlying morals arent ... underlying enough
9. the episodes generally follow the same patterns ... OVER AND OVER AGAIN!

so there you have it, agree? dissagree? then post.
infact... seeing as I dont even know how many people READ this... COMMENT ANYWAY!

please?

on a side note, it seems as if the only way to add an underline into this blog editor is to to edit the html ... umm ... why?

kanon ~ session three.. me an' my insanity

alright... again, not a good time for me. Friday nights dont tend to be, it would appear. However, as tired as I am, I geuss I'll still make a post. On another note, I was planning on switching computers because my hardrive may/may not be failing... but as it turns out, the other pc's graphics card was intigrated... so screw that ^^

Kanon ~ session three

so about now, Im rather tired and can only vaugly remember even what happend. It was one of those non-eventfull parts of these games, where its more slice of life then anything. Of course - evil asuka (erm... makoto) is still doing annoying stuff at night, but I dont plan on taking her path, so Im not being overly nice to her. Just once in a while.
I have one gripe with the game though: it seems like the artists were making fun of the player or something... Sometimes the arts really great, like this

man, I love this picture

but then sometimes (as I said before) the artists are mocking the game player...
like here:

OMG COULD THAT
SIGN SAY LOLICON!?

yes, Im not kidding. The sign in the background for the shopping center, infact says "lolicon" on it. So were left with two options: the artists look down on the pervs who play this game enjoying being surrounded by girls who you only beleive are legal because it says their ages, though they look and act much younger - or the other option... theres some pretty freaky shops in that shopping center (maybe makoto can get a job THERE!)
And also, I get the idea, each time you go to the shopping center you encounter an Ayu event. It makes sense, yes and it allows "chance meetings" to be decided by the player... only problem is ... Ayu is like ... ALWAYS at the shopping center ...

she then replied "actually, I live here"

Its not that I have any major gripes about this, sure, but gez, what a boring life she must lead if her entire day consists of going to school and eating tayaki in the shopping center for the rest of the day. That said ... I want some tayaki... it sounds goooood... and looks good... like a fish or something... or I could go for that chocolate cornet thing that konata eats... man, am I hungry or what?
So if you're wondering, yes I AM actually playing the game, and not just looking for the smallest subtle mistakes or gaps. I just enjoy pointing out those little things, because opposite to real life, in gameing or anything computer-related I am extreamly observent. Which leads me to another crazy assumption:

SUBLIMINAL MESSAGES!
its totally hinting at something

I suppose I didnt put that in the right context but whatever, if I were to do that then my theory would seem more crazy. Much like this

Hmm just words... You wouldnt happen
to be talking about a certian game would you?

ok, NOW Im just seeing crazy stuff.

So after a fair amount of play, I have to say Im really warming up to this plot (heh... waming up.. get it? ... seriously though. I didnt mean to make a pun and it sucks so ignore it) some of the aspects are really pulling me in. Clannad seemed a bit more emotional, but this really has a lot of mystery that is pulling me in. And of course, theres always the quirky character interaction

however, some options IN the character interaction seem kind of unfair

for reference, I chose option one
... through innie minnie miny moe

sadly, it was followed by this.
Yeah.
It sucks

Another thing that you may have noticed about how I write is that I make large amounts of weird connections. No, I dont just spend hours thinking up obscure stuff, it actually just pops into my head. Which is why this is how I was thinking at this point

...
and of course, followed by

funny thing is, it actually WAS a trap, as evil asuk--- makoto is going to play a trick on you at this point, and then this was obviously followed by

the funny thing is I actually DID use bombs wisley ... if by "using bomgs wisley" you mean "locking makoto in a closet"

... yeah weird eh?


anyway, acording to this firefox add on, its been an hour and a half.. which is FAR too long to take to write something like this, so either I write really damn slow, get side tracked or have had this window open for a long time. Doesnt really matter, as I'll be closing it now anyway.

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