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ファイト／ステイナイト 
Opening Theme: 「ふがいないや」- Fugainaiya by Yuki (11.6MB for PSP/Quicktime)
After watching it the second time through, this episode does not feel as bad for some reason. I still don't like that the writers used the majority of the first episode to recap the first season. However, I'm happy to see that they went through the trouble of giving us new animation at the start and the end of the episode. And while I'm still not impressed with the opening song, the ending theme is actually quite good upon repeats. I am also glad to see the trailer for the live action movie included with the episode. Anyway, the insert song of the week is by Spitz and titled 「仲良し」- Nakayashi (close friend). As a side note, the official site reports that the official animation guide for the series are on sale now for 740 Yen.
I'm sorry that I haven't been able to update the site in the past few days but I've just arrived in Japan and I'm a bit exhausted. I'll try to catch up with other series as soon as possible. Anyway, this turns out to be very different from the original manga story with only a little hint of the later towards the end of the story. The story seems a lot similar to the original Alice in Wonderland and not as funny as the acid trip that was the manga version. This is a problem for me because I'm one of the few people who never like Alice in Wonderland as a kid. I think the tale is annoying and don't really like the freaks acting pretentious and talking nonsense. This is why I like what the manga's take of the tale because Hatori Bisco made the story a lot more enjoyable.
Okay, I'll have to go in 5 minutes but I figure I'll have the time to post this since I've done most of it a few days ago and all I have to do is just to write the intro paragraph. Next week marks the beginning of Summer Anime season. The season will begin next Thursday with the second season of Honey and Clover. This is definitely one of the few series that I've been looking to watch ever this season. I realise that I already have quite a lot of series on my plate at the moment and I'll try to keep up with them. Thankfully, unlike last season, there are only around 30 series for the season. As usual, however, things will change depending on my schedule and the series themselves. Series that I'd like to watch could turn out to be really bad while there might be some quality ones amongst those that I originally ignore. Anyway, I'm interested to know what everyone else would like to watch this season and why you choose those series.
This is probably the last entry that I can write before I go to the airport. I'm going on a one month leave to Japan but I have my laptop and an internet connection while I'm there so I think I'll be able to continue blogging. This also means that I'll update Kongetsu from time to time. Anyway, this episode finally gives a little bit of explanation to Haruhi's eccentric personality. I also like the part where a surprising element of the episode begins to show and a gregorian chant/song begins to play in the background.
This episode explains why the anime writers decided to alter Himawari's horror story from Episode 10. It seems they simply wanted to use that story as an original anime episode. Although if you think about it, can you actually call this an original story? In essence, the anime writers simply modified the story from the manga and turned it into a stand alone episode. In addition to this, you would think that for an original episode like this one they'll actually increase the animation quality but nope, it's still as crappy as ever. Thankfully the storyline is quite good and creepy but that's not really hard to do given the fact that they simply had to modify the original storyline, which was already creepy to begin with.
Suga Shikao - Manatasu no Yoru no Yume (19.7MB for PSP/Quicktime)
The first Suga Shikao's song that I heard was actually Yuudachi, which is the OP theme for Boogiepop Phantom. After that, I never heard about him at all until I saw Honey and Clover. Ever since then, however, I suddenly become really aware of him. Most of it has to do with the way Honey and Clover used almost every single piece of his music. But I also think he gets more and more involved in the anime industry lately. His latest works include songs for xxxHOLiC, Honey and Clover movie and the anime's second season, and now the live action version of Death Note. I have actually seen the PV a month ago on YouTube but the quality wasn't as good. I really like this song and it helps that the PV is not bad either. The imageries are not as provocative as 19 Sai but actually work rather well to suggest the sombre and morbid atmosphere of the film.
I think that theory about this series being at its best when it focuses the story amongst its member is true. This episode is a lot better than last week's episode mostly because the writers know how to exploit every single characteristics of each host. The addition of Renge and a bunch of fangirls into the story also adds to the hilarity of the story. I am mostly interested to know what people think about the slightly altered storyline towards the end. I think it's necessary since the episode is no longer about Valentine's day and moreoever, it's actually rather hilarious. It's a proof that Renge is a very dangerous fangirl who can infect her enthusiasm to other girls in Ouran High.
This week's NANA is full-on recap episode with Junko, Kyousuke, and Shouji as the narrators. It doesn't even have a proper Junko's Room omake in it since Junko, Kyousuke, and Shouji simply talk about past events in a rather dull manner. There is, however, a new musical score which I never noticed beforehand playing during Yasu/Nana's last meeting. But even with the addition, I find it hard to believe that we already have 2 recap episodes after only 11 episodes. I wonder if they purposely do this so that they can have the upcoming major storyline as episode number 13 but that sounds rather silly to me. However, maybe the writers think they can relax since they have 50 episodes to burn.
On another matter, I haven't been able to obtain the raw for xxxHOLiC 12 since the raw providers for that series have been rather scarce this time around. I'll try again after I go back from work tonight. In an entirely unrelated note, the website for Honey and Clover Movie has been updated with a flash based content. There are some wallpaper if you want them. The site also reveals that Mario and Luigi will actually be in the film . I wonder if this means that Nomiya, Miwako, and Yamazaki will be in it as well. I doubt it at the moment since there is no mention of their name in the cast list. Moreover, I think it'll be hard to include every single characters in that series on a 2 hour movie.
Teshima Aoi - Teru no Uta | Mirror (24.1MB, for PSP/Quicktime)
This is the song that currently sits in at number 7 on the Oricon Weekly Top 30. The song, which is titled Teru no Uta is the main theme for the upcoming Ghibli's feature film, Gedo Senki. I have to admit that I didn't really like the song when it was used within the trailer. Back then I thought the song feels a bit depressing at times. Thankfully the full version of the song is a lot better and the PV gives the impression of a grand adventure. Maybe it's just me but this is actually the first time I've heard about this singer. I also get the impression that Ghibli tends to use singers who usually are not that popular within the animation industry. In a way, it helps to distinguish their film from other animated features. Ghibli's theme song usually lends out a folklore kind of atmosphere to the movie.
If I didn't know any better I would have thought that Aliens have abducted the real Haruhi and replaced her with someone else until the last few minutes of this episode. This Haruhi is so strangely modest and polite. The insert songs in this episode are also awesome. They are both performed by Hirano Aya and titled 「God Knows…」and「Lost my music」. The high-res version of the images are here in case you want them.
ENOZ feat. Suzumiya Haruhi - God Knows (22.3MB, for PSP/Quicktime)
For those who use Macintosh and can't download the file in the comment area.
ENOZ feat. Suzumiya Haruhi - Lost my music (9.9MB, for PSP/Quicktime)
It's kind of brief but also small in file size. I hope the DVD will include the full version of the performance. That will be really nice.
This is another decent episode for the series. The first story is quite funny and features some interesting interaction between the characters. It also has food as a theme so it brings back memory of Yakitate!! Japan, which I have to revisit one of these days. Unfortunately, the second and the third stories are not that good. I am starting to wonder now if supporting characters like Nishimoto is funny enough to be featured seperately from the main characters. They're just not funny enough in my opinion. Having said that, I'm starting to get used to Imadori, Tougou, and Lala now. Well, it's mostly just Imadori and his silliness but since the writers need someone to go against his obnoxious personality, Tougou and Lala are often featured alongside him.
Dear Kei-chan,
The next time you plan to murder someone, please make sure that you have contingency plans in case something goes wrong. There's nothing more embarassing than a murder done half-heartedly. If you hadn't been lucky like in this one, your target would have been able to escape. That's a big "No-no" in murder. Before you know it, you'll be prosecuted and the only thing you can say in your defense is "Oyashiro-sama forced me to do it!!". To begin with, do not leave your finger prints all over the place. Get intimate with latex gloves. They're your best friends in murder. Second of all, never ever use your own belonging to clean up the mess. If the authorities suspect you, you'll be busted in no time. Finally, do not leave your belonging near the scene of the crime no matter what anyone else says to you. You'll just incriminate yourself.
Sonozaki Mion
PS: No, I never murdered anyone. That incident never happened - no one saw it and you can't prove it. No, I don't have multiple personality disorder. Please don't interrupt me while I'm writing a letter to Kei-chan, that's just rude!!
As far as last episode goes, this is definitely a good conclusion to the series. The animation is a sight to behold and the story ends on a solemn and bittersweet note. Overall, however, the series has been rather disappointing in both pacing and story development. The series spent too much time repeating information about the grail over the course of the series to the detriment of the pacing. This also means that the writers lost the chance to give the character some background information so that their own story are a lot easier to understand. If a person has not seen the game or at least read some spoilers about it, the likelihood is that he/she won't understand some of the unexplained storylines featured in the series. This includes Archer's background, Rin/Sakura connection, and Illya getting sick all of a sudden.
This is a good episode that basically improvised and changed the original storyline a little bit. There is even an appearance from another character which we've already seen from a previous episode. This episode also looks a lot better for some reason. The character design is a lot more consistent and there are some nice effects in some of the scenes. Having said that the character design in this anime always bothers me for some reason and I couldn't figure out the reason for this until yesterday when I saw an illustration at an anime magazine. The thing that is missing for the character design is the usual shading that one normally finds in a character's hair. As a result the hair of the characters often look a bit like a wig. It doesn't seem to be much of a problem in the manga but in the anime, where everything has colours, this is more noticeable.
This is a rather good episode that mostly focuses on Hachi's unexpected life changes. Not surprisingly, she barely capable of supporting herself in a crisis like this. On the other hand, it's rather nice to see her friends turn out to be quite supportive after all. They are also clever enough to figure out how to help Hachi without making life easy for her. Animation-wise, this episode starts to show some inconsistencies here and there. Thankfully it's not enough to detract the show in its entirety and the animators are still motivated to show some unusual angles and animation style from time to time. One of particular note is Hachi's crying face reflected on a jar of pickled plums.
This one feels a little bit off the mark for some reason. I actually think Satoko's story is quite good. However, the constant changes from the abuse story to the paranormal one was rather abrupt. I also think there are too many repetitions from the previous arc included here. For example, the scene where Keiichi meets with Tomitake and Takano should have been shortened because it doesn't have that much of an effect on the overall storyline. Besides, one can guess easily what Takano said to Keiichi from his conversation with Mion later on. I am also rather surprised to see the blood-thirst nature of a character in the story. I hope that this will tie in to the overall story because at the moment, it seems as if the storyline treats murder as if it's just a part of one's daily routine.
Nekozawa sounds a lot like Morita from Honey and Clover in this one for some reason. I wonder if it's because Ueda Yuuji already starts his role as Morita in the other show. It's actually unusual for him to sound similar from one character to the next because if I didn't look at his past work, I wouldn't know that he also voices Adashino-sensei in Mushishi. This makes me wonder how many viewers actually pay attention to the voice actor who plays the character or if most viewers generally don't care about the voice. I am also curious if the majority of the manga readers have actually assigned a different kind of voice in their head for the characters in the series and if there is any that disappoint them. I personally am surprised to hear Maaya Sakamoto as Haruhi because I never expected her to possess the range of voices that Haruhi supposed to have from being cute to being bored and annoyed. Hunny, on the other hand, sounds very similar to Momiji from Fruits Basket.
I was wondering how the animators are going to represent the computer game battle in the series. The descriptions of the battle in the novel for some reason sounds a lot similar to Atari-styled games instead of something from the current generation games. Thankfully that's not the case here. And wow, I can't stop laughing looking at Yuki being enthusiastic or at least she finally shows something resembling excitement. And there is this one disturbing shot of Kyon where he strangely looks a bit like Haruhi when she's being a megalomaniac. Note: High-res images are out.
Revised timeline
Featurette to promote "The Adventures of Asahina Mikuru" DVD and CD Single
The Adventures of Asahina Mikuru CD TVCM
Bouken Desho Desho PV (Short version)
The Adventures of Asahina-Mikuru DVD Covers
This is a rather funny episodes which moves quickly from one storyline to the next. Overall, it's rather enjoyable although there is nothing particularly important about any of the stories. I'm also still not sure what to make of the additional characters from class 2-D. I think some of them are rather interesting while others are quite annoying. I think the interesting about these characters, especially the male ones, is that they are tend to be the alpha type characters. As a result, they are more likely to be in direct conflict with Harima and Hanai as opposed to someone like Asou, Nara or the rest of the males from class 2-C. However, because of the addition of these characters, several characters from class 2-C now rarely makes appearance. Even Karasuma seems to have been relegated to a supporting character now. I admit it surprises me a little bit since he was featured prominently during the first season.
Poor Keiichi. In almost every arc, there's always a reason as to why he gets killed. I hope I'm wrong about this but Keiichi being dead in an arc is what Yuuko from xxxHOLiC usually refers to as "Hitsuzen". It's inevitable that he'll get killed in every arc. He's like Kenny from South Park only more tragic. And judging from the way this episode unfolds, I suspect that this time around he's going to get killed for trying to protect someone. As unfortunate as that might be, I'm glad to see this arc because it marks the return of Psychotic Rena to the series. As far as horror factor goes, I think her facial contortion beats Shion. It helps that Nakahara Mai's voice also sounds terrifying when she is in her "Oyashiro-sama" mode. Unfortunately, the rest of the episode is kind of boring this time around so I hope the pace will pick up a little bit on the next episode.
Since the 2nd season of Honey and Clover is coming on the 29th of this month, I think it's time to heat up the interest in the series. Before I talk about the DVD, however, I'll mention several news which some of you are probably already aware of. The official site for the 2nd series has announced a while ago that the OP and ED theme for the 2nd season has been decided. Yuki will sing the OP, which is titled 「ふがいないや」(Fugai nai ya), while Suneohair will sing the ED, titled 「スプリット」(Split). Suga Shikao, Depapepe, and Hayashi Yuzo & Salon 68 will provide some background music. If you go to Depapepe's Discography section, you should be able to listen to some examples of their songs, which are pretty good. It's nice to know that at the very least, the producer got the BGM right. The website for the film also announced that there'll be some kind of Hachikuro fair between the 10th of July to the 23rd of July. However, details of the fair has not appeared yet. As a side note, those who asked me for that Hagu paper scan, you can find it in the Volume 6 DVD entry.
Slipcase Box with attachment
DVD cover, Front side
DVD cover, Back side
Stickers
For a penultimate episode, this one surely doesn't feel like it. I mean, the animation is certainly gorgeous. I think I actually saw every glimmer in both Saber's and Gilgamesh's armour. But the fight scenes themselves lack tension. I am not sure if it's a pacing issue or if it's because as far as villain goes, Kotomine and Gilgamesh are not that exciting to watch. Oh well, I'm quite amused with the whole 'Oyashiro-sama' expression that is going on in this episode. I guess Studio DEEN can't resist self-refencing themselves since they actually responsible for animating this and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Although that makes me wonder why Higurashi can't look a like Fate/stay night animation-wise? I think if that series has animation similar to Fate/stay night, it'll easily become the best series that was released this Spring.
This story sure brings back memory of the time when I was camping with a bunch of friends and we ended up telling horror stories to freak each other out. Unfortunately, I'm not really good at this but I decide to jot down what I was telling my friends back then in the entry below. If you have some scary contribution then I'd definitely like to read it too. The episode itself looks surprisingly good this time around. The muted colour pallete that characterises the series seem to work quite well in delivering the Ghost Story part of the episode. I also wonder if the animators have been holding off telling this story so that it'll coincide with the arrival of Summer in Japan. Technically though, it's still rainy season over there right now.
It's weird to arrive at this point in the story after watching the live action version. This story makes me wonder if a certain character is a lot more tolerable here because we know more about his story or because being an animated character makes him a bit more difficult to hate. What I meant by the later is that in comparison to an animated character, an actor on the screen tend to remind the viewer of a real life person. As a result, when the character exhibits some unpleasant personality, the association to a real life person with similar personality is likely to be more immediate. Anyway, as as side note, a commenter have informed me that there's a full Kanji lyric for the opening theme of NANA, Rose. I've updated that entry with full romaji lyric so check it out. And if you're looking for the ED theme, you can find it in this entry.
It's amazing how many chapters the writers manage to squeeze into this episode. They even manage to include the Omake about Haruhi's father. Despite this, the episode somehow manages to retain the majority of its comedic scenes. Animation-wise, this is still quite consistent with last week's quality although admittedly there are some inconsistencies here and there. I really hope that this series will be able to maintain the quality of the animation until the end of its run. I just realised, however, that there are several chapters which have been ignored by the anime writers. I really hope that they'll revisit these chapters one day.
This episode is just awesome. While last week's episode is enjoyable due to its slice-of-life feel, this one will probably satisfy those who dislike last week episode's slow pace. In terms of timeline, this story actually happens before after Mikuru and Itsuki's revelation in episode 5 and before the baseball game in episode 4. Yes, I realise that it's confusing but at this point in time, I don't see the point of complaining about it since the scheduling is pretty much set in stone by Kyoto Animation. Anyway, next week's episode will be episode 13 (Haruhi's timeline), Day of Sagittarius. I've added the new episode into the timeline below if you'd like to see it and the larger screenshots are now available. Last but not least, I've encoded Nagato vs. Asakura fight scene into a PSP format for those of you who want to carry this cool scene on your PSP.
Nagato Yuki vs. Asakura Ryouko smackdown! (50MB, for PSP/Quicktime)
Revised timeline
Wow, it's hard to believe that we're finally up to this point in this series. Two more episodes and that will be it. It's probably hard for some newcomers to join the bandwagon at this point in time but in case you insist on catching up, I must recomend some of these 'quick guides' to Fate/stay night episodes. Behond: episode 11, episode 14, episode 15 (they forgot the dragon!!), episode 19 and episode 21 quick summary.
ANNA inspi’ NANA (BLACK STONES) - rose | Mirror (28MB, for PSP/Quicktime)
I suspect if I had been in the actual rock concert, I'd probably enjoy this a lot more. However, this is just a PV and I have a hard time seeing what's going on in it because the camera keeps moving left and right. Between this and a little pain, I prefer a little pain mostly because I'm not really into rock music. The PV itself simply shows Tsuchiya Anna acting just like a rocker. There's no particular narrative or story that holds the sequence together although one of the band members actually look a little bit like Shin. Update:. Thanks to Mizu, I've managed to obtain the full lyric to the song. The romaji version can be found below the cut as usual. Although after hearing the song again, there was one line after Kareochiru kanashimi my soul which I'm still not sure if it's correct or not.
OLIVIA inspi' REIRA (TRAPNEST) - a little pain | Mirror (31.4MB, for PSP/Quicktime)
This is basically the ending theme for NANA anime. I find it weird that the singer is willing to use that strange stage name in order to perform this song but I guess she gets paid to maintain the illusion that she is actually Reira from Trapnest. The PV itself is one of those narrative-less type. It only shows Reira performing the song while wearing a period dress. In some scenes, she actually looks a bit scary due to the makeup in her face and the way the scene was lit. Thankfully the song itself is quite good and represents the longing that both Nana probably feel for their respective loved ones. It makes one wonder, especially in Oosaki Nana's case, if she was actually waiting for Ren while she got seperated from him.
