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ローゼンメイデン 
Please be aware that reading this recap prior to watching the episode will ruin your enjoyment of the story
OMG!! This is the best Monster episode thus far. In fact, I better stop with the excitement there otherwise I'll sound like an incoherent idiot who has just watched anime for the first time. Having said that, the climax to this arc has to be one of the best things I've had the pleasure to watch. I can't believe that for a moment I forgot that this is an animated show. Anyway, I don't think I can say anything else about the episode without spoiling the story. I also have decided not to show the images on the index page again so that it won't spoil anyone unless they deliberately click on the 'Read the Rest' link. If you really desperate to know about it, then I'd actually recommend that you watch this episode first even if you haven't seen the first 37 episodes.
I'm sorry for almost missing this one. I thought I've done episode 15 but as it turns out I made a mistake last week. I actually named episode 14 as episode 15, thus the confusion. Anyway, this week's episode is quite hilarious thanks to the never ending supply of comedy courtesy of Kuroyan. I also never realised this before but this series always ends up making me hungry thanks to the never ending display of foods. This episode itself, for example, shows at least 3 different type of foods for one to drool on: Yakisoba bread, Okonomiyaki, and Panini (grilled bread). Okonomiyaki is actually a favourite Japanese food of mine along with Takoyaki. Unfortunately there is no Okonomiyaki restaurant where you can cook the pancake yourself in my area. If I want one, I have to go either to a normal Japanese restaurant where they'll cook it for you. Either way, if you haven't had one before, I'd recommend it.
January 29, 2005 | 
13 Comments
I can't believe that the series already reached the 12th episode by now. It certainly hasn't felt that way. But sure enough, next week will be the end of the first half of the series. I think so far I've been happy with the anime except for a few minor things here and there. This is mostly has to do with the fact that the anime writers have re-arranged scenes that I thought were already perfect in the manga. But if I really think about it from the anime writers' POV, I think the re-arrangements do make sense. Anyway, I'm just relieved that the anime has now included the dark elements from the manga. I think as long as the anime keeps up the balance between the comedy and the dark elements, this series should become one of the best anime series of Autumn 2004.
January 29, 2005 | 27 Comments
Are you playing chess? Episode 17 clearly reminded me of a very typical scene from a chess evening: The last match is over (episode 15), you have gleefully celebrated your victory, and suddenly your opponent tells you "Not so fast, one more match. Loser picks up the tab" (episode 16). What happens in this episode describes the aftermath of Nagi's HiMElander revelation, and how our heroines deal with the implications. The chessboard is cleared and all pieces are set up again, preparing for the upcoming conflict.
For normal anime viewers, this episode is unspectacular, therefore I can't give more than a so-so (o) rating. For Mai HiME fans who know the series pretty well and like to speculate what's going to happen now, this episode is a treasure chest, warranting a (+) verdict. I wouldn't want to watch it RAW without good Japanese knowledge however, since there's very little action you could deduce the contents from.
Mai HiME Rating: +
Absolute Rating: o
RAW complexity: Difficult
Well, this is much better than the last one. While there are some boring bits, this episode also has its share of funny scenes. I think this the sort of episode that I like from this series. One that shows the various aspect of otakudom instead of the social life of its members. Animation-wise, this episode seems to be okay although there is nothing exceptionally outstanding about it. Anyway, with one more episode to go, this episode seems to be intentionally geared to provide some kind of closure for the season finale. But considering the nature of the series, I think it's possible that there won't be any real conclusion in the upcoming final episode.
Wow, what is going on here? All of a sudden the animation quality goes up a notch. The look is now crisp and clear with some drool-worthy sakura petal scenes to spice up the episode. It's like Pierrot suddenly fired the former animation team and hired CLAMP to direct and animate this episode. There are some wonderful camera angles used in this episode as well. I really hope this new, much, much better style continues in the future. I'd hate to see the animation quality drops again to the earlier version of the series. Now, if only they'd fix those early episodes to match the quality of this one, I'd buy the R2 right away. As it is now, however, I'd much rather wait for the R1 since there's no point paying extra for better encoding when there isn't much to be seen to begin with.
Yakitate!! Japan OP Theme
Performed by Rythem
Kanji/Kana version
どこか遠くで 耳を澄ましている人がいる
あらゆる場所で 空を見上げているひとがいる
夜空の下で 口笛ふいてる僕たちは
言葉もないまま 指でただ星座をなぞってる
寒がりやの夢 冷たい君の手
あたためる魔法は １つの道を信じること
彗雲の向コウに 見つけた 一粒の星は
輝く星でも かすかな星でも
君だけの光
胸の雲の向コウに 見えないままの道しるべ
さあ この手をひらいて 今 何を信じますか？
眠れむ夜に 一人で鳴いてる人がいる
朝を迎えた地球のどこかで笑う人がいる
途方に暮れてる 迷い続けてる
踏み出す魔法は 明日の自分信じること
空は越えた向コウに 探してたあの日の星は
どこに忘れたの だれか見つけたの
君だけの光
胸の置くの暗闇 目蓋を閉じてきり開く
さあ 扉よ開いた 今 何が見えてますか？
本の少しの風が吹きました
最後の魔法は弱い心も信じること
彗雲の向コウに 見つけた 一粒の星は
輝く星でも かすかな星でも
君だけの光
胸の雲の向コウに 見えないままの道しるべ
さあ この手をひらいて 今 何を信じますか？
目を閉じて いや
目を開けて 今
何が聞こえるの 何が見えてるの
君だけの光
青い屋根に上って産まれた夜空に見下ろした
叶わないことなんてない
開くのそろの君の手
I'm sorry for the lack of update lately. I've had a rather lousy week. First, there was the bandwidth thing, and then yesterday, I lost my house+office keys. I spent at least one day searching for it. :( Thankfully the security at my office found it. Anyway, I figure, I should just catch up with an older title first before I do any recap of new episodes. So I'll start with this series' two-parts arc involving a new doll. Unfortunately, the new doll is rather bland, personality-wise. So what could have been a spotlight on the character ends up becoming something else entirely. It's not a complete lost though because that 'something else' turns out to be good character development for both Jun and Suiseiseki.
I'm sorry if you find the sidebar navigation only works in limited capacity. There is nothing wrong with the code or anything like that. I simply have to limit access to the blog until next month because the blog's bandwidth has decreased rapidly due to an increase in the number of visitors this month. The other solution is to pay for additional bandwidth but I already pay for an additional of 10GB bandwidth as it is now. So unfortunately, this is the only best solution that I can think of at the moment.
In the future, I'm thinking of switching to Dreamhost since they seem to provide more bandwidth (120GB as opposed to my measly 20GB/month) and I think I may do that. The problem, however, is that I don't know how to transfer this blog to another server. Do I export? Or do I just copy the entire blog using FTP and then dump it into the new server? I would love suggestions from those of you who have done this in the past. Thank you for any suggestion and I'm sorry for this inconvenience.
January 24, 2005 | 14 Comments
Please be aware that reading this recap prior to watching the episode will ruin your enjoyment of the story
Once upon a time, there lived a nameless monster.
The monster was dying to have a name so badly.
So the monster decided to set out on a journey to find itself a name.
But the world was such a large place.
So the monster split into two and went on to two seperate journeys.
One went to the East and the other went to the west.
The monster that went to the east found a village.
January 22, 2005 | 12 Comments
Well, now I know that I can still download stuff even though my download limit has already been used to its last byte. However, the consequences of doing such is that I actually have to wait for 9 hours to complete a download of any file that is bigger than 150MB. Sheesh. Oh well, beggar can't be chooser. Anyway, back to this series itself, the anime finally decides to incorporate some of the darker elements of the manga. I wish that it had done it earlier though because as it is now, the shifts between the light episodes to this one feels so abrupt. Having said that, it's better to be late than never. Every single darker element from the manga suddenly make an appearance in this episode and what a stark changes it does to the show. The school which has always seem safe has now becomes foreboding.
January 22, 2005 | 10 Comments
Well, it looks like the Italian-American Spencer Henry Hokou has finally appeared in the series now. In fact, there'll be some more new characters coming up in the next couple of weeks. Some of them can be seen in the picture above. This is basically the result of the character popularity poll held in Shounen Sunday Magazine quite a while ago. This image is also included inside Vol.13 of the manga, albeit in black and white form. Seeing this image makes me wonder how much of the manga's stories will be incorporated into the anime. Especially now that I know the series will only have 47 episodes. I hope that at the very least the anime will reach the end of the 'Monaco cup' arc. I'm a bit worried though since there are a lot of stories to cover within that arc.
January 21, 2005 | 20 Comments
The preview of the last episode already made perfectly clear that the action-loaded serious drama would take a day off. Instead, we got a decent wrap-up of the aftermath of the battle with some more character development, lots of Midori antics, a karaoke party of the "unforgettable" kind and Nagi at his scariest, ending the episode with a shock due some very unpleasant news.
Compared to other Mai HiME episodes, this one is okay, but unspectacular, hence the (o) rating. Unless you've developed an aversion against over-the-top comedy, you'll still enjoy the contents quite a bit, and Midori pushes the overall rating to (+) level. Since most of the episode is dialogue-based which does not easily indicate the current topic (especially in the final revelation scene with Nagi), you will need a good vocabularly to follow the episode raw.
Mai HiME Rating: o
Absolute Rating: +
RAW complexity: Difficult
January 20, 2005 | 25 Comments
OMG!!! A Bleach episode without the requisite crappy washed-out filter? Sign me in!! I'll be happy if this is the end of that stupid effect on this show. Having said that, it looks like the next episode is the start of the 'Soul Society' arc and I'm not exactly a fan of this arc. It actually started out really good but once the arc gets into the endless battle scenes, it feels a bit repetitive to me. Maybe I just don't like this kind of routine fight scenes since I also have the same problem with the current Sasuke vs Naruto arc. Anyway, this episode seems to function as a bridge between the previous 'Quincy Archer' arc and 'Soul Society' arc. I actually like this because it makes the transition less abrupt in comparison to the manga version.
January 19, 2005 | 12 Comments
Yakitate!! Japan 2nd ED Theme
Performed by Soul'd Out
Note: Thank you to nanashisan for correcting some of the mistakes in the romaji version below.
Kanji/Kana version
Now everybody move
Can you get a little somethin'
Got to do
So better believe in, better believe in yourself
Everybody move
Can you get a little somethin'
Got to do
So better believe in, better believe in yourself
"D-r-e-a-m"
"Dream" この胸にでっかく強く
光り輝いて負けない眼差し
手さぐりで探した風ん中
答えなんかまだ Un...
今はまだ Chance うかがって待つ I got したたかさ
叫んでるだけのPrisonerじゃダメだ
Just follow me! 時に肩貸すから
Yo got
"D-i-g-g-y"
ア アラララァ ア アァ!
"Step into tha game"
It ain't nothin' nobody can say
'Cuz I neva can let my Dream get away un
決して儚い夢じゃない
この想い届けよう Heart to heart Soul to soul
めぐる季節 Spring stormのように豪快
Win Big がモットー
Some say "Nothin' lasts forever"
永遠のものは果たしてあるのだろうか
だから俺たちは...
そうさ俺たちはキラめく瞬間をフリに生きていたいんだ
With all tha love
1-2, S.O cru
Stay true to you
So, what you gonna do? c'mon!
ア アラララァ ア アァ!
Now everybody move
Can you get a little somethin'
Got to do
So better believe in, better believe in yourself
追い風利用して今日と闘え all tha soldiers
Better believe in, better believe in yourself
Yeah, I know it's relatively late review but I don't feel like switching to the non-widescreen version and the widescreen version has just became available very recently. Besides, some people have only started to watch this recently so I hope it's not completely late to write this now. Anyway, there's not much story in this episode but the episode gives further glimpse into the source of Jun's Hikikomori problem. So far it seems Jun has been getting a rather good character development. It's unfortunate, however, that this is only a 12 episode series because while Jun's problem can probably be solved by the end of the series, I doubt other mysteries within the show can be completely dealt with in a satisfactory manner. Oh well, as long as it has a decent conclusion, I think I'll be happy with this series as a whole.
January 17, 2005 | 12 Comments
I've been asked which second series I was planning to blog for Memento. And I've been a bit hesitant to answer this, because I wasn't sure which one to pick, for a long while. In general, I was looking for this kind of series profile:
1) The series should be relatively unknown and not receive much coverage elsewhere
2) The series should have some serious content with plot and character development
3) I don't want to know this show in advance (That ruled out alot series this season)
4) Watching it should raise my interest
For quite a while I thought that I might come up empty this time and simply stick with Mai HiME. And then I came across this neat little show, which I learned to like pretty quickly, and which fits my wish profile perfectly. After watching the second episode I was sold. Here we go!
I don't really feel like making two separate entries for 1 and 2, so I took the liberty to combine them to a single initial entry. The subbed version for ep1 is out already and ep2 won't take much longer.
From now on, I'll assign up to three verdicts to my reviews. The one I won't use for this series is "Relative Rating", which will show how good this episode was compared to the other ones. This requires at least 4-5 eps to measure against, so it's out. The next one is the Absolute Rating, which measures against the average anime series out there. The levels will be -- (horrible), - (disappointing), o (so-so), + (good) and ++ (excellent). Also, I will give a hint how easily this show can be followed watching the Raw with only minimal or no Japanese language skills. This should give people an idea if downloading the Raw would make sense for them - or not. So, here's the rating for episodes 1 and 2 of Starship Operators:
Absolute Rating: +
RAW difficulty: Very difficult
January 16, 2005 | 11 Comments
As indicated on an advert that appeared inside Newtype Japan this month, Bleach R2 DVD will be on sale on the 2nd of February. The special edition version comes with an audio drama CD and costs 3333 Yen (32.83 US Dollars). There's a possibility that the picture above will be the box cover of the first DVD. Now, why can't the show looks as nice as that image?
Various anime magazine have also shown preliminary sketches for Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle anime. Personally I think they look quite bad. Kurogane looks like a stick figure that can be blown away easily by the wind. Characters' faces are also not detailed enough. Maybe it's because they're not colored yet but I think Sakura's face looks really bad in comparison to the manga. Let me know if you agree or disagree.
Finally, Gakuen Alice R2 DVD will be on sale on the 23rd February this year. Just like Bleach, it'll come in two version. The normal version costs 5000 Yen (48.98 US Dollars) and includes a Mikan figurine. The barebones version is only 4000 Yen (39.18 US Dollars). Both includes episode 1 and 2 of the series. Hmm, I'm not sure if it's worth paying extra $10 for the figurine.
Mai Hime Battle Theme
Performed by Minami Kurabayashi
Kanji/Kana version
身体中あなたで満たされた時に
小さな星降りたの
私の腕の中へ...
どこにあるの？
真実を探している
深い夜
孤独な 宇宙（そら）彷徨う
あなたに出逢えますように...
初めての涙とても暑い
壊れそうなほど 切なくて
透きとおる瞳は命の輝き
そっと抱いているから
寂しくないよ
誇らしく微笑む月を見つめてる
神秘の力で
今、私を目覚めさせて...
闇の向こう
愛しいあなたが泣いてる
手を伸ばし 迎えにいく
待ってて
もうすぐ生まれる光
想い重なってひとつになる
守り続ける 永遠に...
この世界がいつか消える日が来ても
ずっとそばに居るから
恐くはないよ
身体中あなたで満たされた時に
小さな星降りたの
私の腕の中へ...
透きとおる瞳は命の輝き
そっと抱いているから
寂しくないよ
誇らしく微笑む月を見つめてる
神秘の力で
今、私を目覚めさせて...
January 15, 2005 | 27 Comments
I really like it when a boarding school-based stories like this one features its own little town. It reminds me a lot of classic English fictions from Enid Blyton as well as the recent Harry Potter series. Another interesting part of this episode is the use of "The Little Match Girl" fairy tale. This is the famous Hans Christian Anderson tale where a poor little girl is ordered by her cruel father (or mother depending on which version you read) to sell some matches on a cold winter day and therefore the poor girl ends up frozen dead the next day. Yup, charming stuff. The kind of fairy tales that will traumatise kids for a long, long time. Other examples of this are the non-disney version of Hansel and Gretel and The Little Mermaid. Warning: this entire entry + comments contain future anime/manga spoilers. Consider yourself warned.
January 14, 2005 | 26 Comments
Sometimes business trips are unavoidable, but this time I felt doubly punished. Not only did I have to go, but it also caused me to see Episode 15 one day late - exactly the one episode which I was certain would be exciting. Boy, was I right.
StaticSubs is starting to lag with Mai HiME a bit (they've certainly been busy with the first episodes of the new season, which are always extra time-intensive), but this means that more and more people will probably have to start watching Mai HiME raw, and they will need some explanations. Therefore I have decided to extend the number of screenshots a bit, to make the episode a bit easier to follow.
However: MAJOR SPOILER WARNING! Do _not_ read the extended entry unless you've watched the raw before. I repeat, do _not_ spoil this episode for yourself. You would utterly regret it. And you can understand it pretty well just by watching, even if you don't understand a single word of japanese.
Well, here I am with a recap of Texhnolyze instead of doing a brand new Winter series. I wish I can do otherwise but I do have a lot of older titles backlog which I must complete sooner or later and I already promised someone that I'll do at least 2 episodes of this series now. Upon watching the episodes, however, I realised that it'll be better if I cover ep.8-10 since these 3 episodes formed the final half of the Yoshii arc. With that in mind, here's the 3 episodes that everyone's been waiting for. :P Oh all right, so it may not be the most exciting series out there. In fact, watching the series feel like watching a group of people living their daily life in hell. But if you're interested to see a series that has a social commentary or two, then this maybe what you're looking for. If that's not enough reason, there's always Yoshitoshi Abe's awesome character design to see.
January 12, 2005 | 11 Comments
Well, well. It looks like Sunrise Animation has changed the ED Theme for Yakitate!! Japan as well. This one looks really cool and appropriate for the series. The new ED theme, To All Tha Dreamers (Quicktime, 8.8MB) is a swinging rap/boogie music accompanied with a pimp-looking 3D animation of Ken "Daddy" Matsushiro. :D Now, why can't Mai Hime get a new OP as well? That series' OP seems misplaced in the context of current storyline. Anyway, back to this series itself, it's Sushi, Melon, and Melon Bread time for this episode. Personally, these 3 are some of my favourite foods so I really like this episode. For those of you who didn't know, Melon bread is a specialty at Asian bakery. It's a sweet bread with a crunchy cookie crumbs on top of it. Some bakeries actually take the name quite literally and place Melon crumbs instead of cookie crumbs on top of the bread. And if you're in Japan, you can get the Yakitate!! Japan brand from Lawson retail chains. :)
It's nice to know that this is another good episode. It's mostly action-oriented and yet the writers manage to insert some good character development and history for Ishida Uryuu. There's also a rather disturbing development in regards to Soul Society but then again, this should be expected by now. Before I forget, this series for some reason decide to change the ending theme after only 13 episodes. This is unfortunate in my opinion because Life is Like a Boat is a much much better song to illustrate the upcoming Soul Society arc. The new ending theme, Thank You is not exactly a bad song but it feels misplaced here. When I first heard it and saw Rukia in her white robe, I was expecting her to reggae/boogie her way down to a seaside swimming pool. The tune is so upbeat that it's weird to see some of the characters looking angsty in the ending animation.
Wow! I still can't believe how tense this entire episode turned out to be. And this seems to be just the precursor to the actual climax. I think I need to see more soon or else I'll be tempted to read the manga. At a time like this, I'm also glad that I blog the entire series from its beginning. It makes it easier to cross-referenced a particular event, character, or line from previous episodes. For example, remember this line? "Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?". That line is rephrased by Schuwald in this episode and it practically sent chills down my spine because I remembered it being similar to the passage from the Book of Revelation that was quoted at the start of the first episode. This kind of constant reference to previous events, characters, and lines is one of the things that I love about the show. By doing this, the series basically rewards the viewers who are patient enough to stick around for the long haul.
Well, here's the first original episode created specifically for the anime. In my opinion, this is not bad effort but at the same time, it's not impressive either. The focus here is mostly on Amanatsu, a Mikan-lookalike robot that has been created by Hotaru. The episode has some funny moments in it but overall, if this is a taste of future fillers, I think I'd prefer it if they stick with the original storyline. The problem with this particular episode is that it doesn't advance the story whatsoever. Admittedly, this is supposed to be a filler episode so advancing the storyline may not be at the writers' top priority list. But considering the fact that there are enough material from the manga to go around for 26 episodes, I don't understand why they need a filler episode.
This is a funny episode but I find it to be a tad on the generalisation side. I feel that the series is much better when it doesn't talk about what an Otaku is like but rather discussing their hobbies. Unfortunately, this one seems trying too hard to generalise all Otaku into one pigeonhole that in the end I can't help but feel a little bit annoyed by it. Thankfully, the animation seems to be improving now. The humour is also a bit better than the last 2 episodes, especially episode 8. It still hasn't go back to the brilliance of the first 5 episodes though. I guess I just want to see more of anime-related activities instead of getting an incorrect assessment on what makes Otaku ticks. And unfortunately for me, this episode does not deliver on that front.
