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ファイト／ステイナイト 
January 31, 2007 | 
31 Comments
Episodes like this one is one of the reasons as to why I love this series. I was practically grinning throughout the episode because the twist presented in this episode is unbelievably good. It's also strange to see the characters behaving in this manner at this point in the story. I was pretty sure that I dislike Light prior to this episode but after seeing him in this episode, I can't help but thinking about his true personality. If one thinks about it, even without the actual Death Note, there are many people in this world who are similar to Light. I don't mean in the sense that these people are murderer with God complex. I'm referring to decent individuals who because of a circumstance, turns into a ruthless and cruel people. If these people turn such way, was it because their experiences turn them bitter or are people just malicious to begin with.
January 30, 2007 | 10 Comments
Props to those who recognised it earlier but it's not until this episode that I noticed how Vittorio's costume design is a combination of Man-Faye's and Pippi Longstocking's style. It's probably unintentional but needless to say it became a good source of laughter throughout this episode. The problem with this is that it takes away the serious nature of the story, especially during the last few minutes of the episode. Animation-wise, it holds up quite well although I did notice a lot of static stills being used in some parts of the episodes. I'm just glad that after this episode, we're only 1 episode away from returning to the manga's arc. Here's hoping that the reason the animation hasn't been good in the past few weeks is because the animators are saving the budget to animate the fight between the Exorcists and the Noah Family.
I am glad to see that this week's episode is actually a lot better than the last 2 or 3 which preceded it. A part of it is because the episode reveals Hone-Onna's background a little bit. The strength of the story, however, relies on Hone-Onna's friendship with the client of the week. Unfortunately there is a slight inconsistency between this episode and last week's episode. In this episode, Hone-Onna is reminded that they can't interfere with their client's fate but last week Wanyuudou actually helped a potential client from getting raped. Is there a difference between a client and a potential client? Or is it because Wanyuudou wasn't offering information to the client? In that case, would it be okay for Hone-Onna to interfere if she doesn't tell the client about what would happen? Anyway, I find it interesting that this episode has several cool shots for Ai and her helpers. This one in particular reminds me of a typical movie poster.
Well, it looks like the subtitle version manages to get quite close to the on-air version. I think up to episode 9 has been translated now. Hopefully that means more people will be more enthusiastic in following the series. I also have to step up a little bit since I'm 2 episodes behind at the moment. Anyway, I find this episode to be a lot more enjoyable than the one that came before it. This is strange since there is nothing out of the ordinary in this episode. Having said that, the comedy makes up for the lack of plot. It also helps that the animation and character design looks a lot better this time around. There's just one thing that bothers me and that's the unpleasant OP theme. I'm starting to appreciate the ED but no matter how many times I listen to the OP theme, I don't like it. It's unfortunate because it gets awesome animation to go with it. Although it will be strange, I hope we'll get a new OP in episode 13.
January 26, 2007 | 39 Comments
This is a bit disappointing after last week's episode. I think the result of the mindwipe is a bit unrealistic. I mean what's the point of doing this if it actually puts Lelouch in even bigger problem? In addition to this, there aren't that much plot going on apart from Mao and C.C's story. I am glad that this particular arc seems to be over for now. Mao is probably the worst character on this series. He's way too over the top and ridiculous. His character design is also a disappointment especially compared to the other characters. I think the only subplot that interest me at the moment is the possibility of Ougi/Villetta pairing. There's so much conflict to be mined out of this. On the other hand, what happened to her and Shirley reminds me a bit too much of Death Note, so I wonder if the writers unintentionally use Death Note's plot points in this series.
January 25, 2007 | 18 Comments
Well, this is more of what I had in mind with the first two episodes. I just think that this is generally funnier than the first and second episodes. I am still not used to the voices especially Nodame's but I'm slowly getting used to them. Masumi's voice sounds a lot like Madarao (of Kekkaishi) to me but I'm not sure if they share similar VA or not. Animation-wise, this is also a lot more vibrant and consistent much to my surprise. Especially considering that this is already the third episode in the series. In other series, this is where things usually start to fall apart. But then again I remember that apart from Kyoto Animation, J.C Staff is also quite good at spreading their budget evenly throughout the entire run of a series. Because of this, I can't recall a particular episode that looks really bad.
January 25, 2007 | 19 Comments
Technically the episode is awesome. The animation and design for the episode is probably amongst the best the series has seen so far. However, story-wise this one feels a bit flat. There aren't that much comedy to be found and the plot doesn't seem to be moving at all. My guess is the episode is meant to show Shiori enjoying her life with Yuuichi prior to her demise but I don't feel that it's as strong as when Yuuichi did it with Makoto. On the plus side, it was a good idea on the writer's part to connect Shiori's current plight with Yuuichi's memory of Makoto. Although this apparently doesn't happen in the game, it would have been strange in this version if Yuuichi doesn't feel a sense of deja vu when he heard about Shiori's condition. I also like that instrumental piece that always gets to be on the background everytime someone has a sad or tragic revelation. I hope that will be included in the soundtrack.
January 25, 2007 | 91 Comments
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya ED Theme: 「ハレ晴れユカイ」 - Hare Hare Yukai
AVI version (43.8MB, XViD) | AVI mirror (43.8MB, XViD) | PSP version (12.6MB) | PSP mirror (12.6MB) | YouTube version
I remember saying how it would have been awesome if one of the extras in the last DVD is the full dance version of Hare Hare Yukai. What I meant by this is instead of static stills in between, I want to see Haruhi, Mikuru, Yuki, Kyon, and Itsuki doing their silly dance from start to finish. Imagine my surprise when I went to the official site and finds out that one of the extras in the last DVD is indeed the full dance version of Hare Hare Yukai. With that in mind, here is the full version. I think it's really nice to see the animators going out of their way to animate the rest of the dance sequence. I wonder if they had done this right from the beginning and intended to put the full version only on DVD. I suspect, however, that this is just a reaction to all of those dance moves that people upload on YouTube.
January 24, 2007 | 26 Comments
When it comes to reading the manga version of this story, I've actually been very erratic about it. While I'm aware of the upcoming twist in the story, I am not aware what lead up to it up until this episode. It's the same thing with the ending. Although I know what happens at the end, I still have no idea about what transpired beforehand. The strange thing about this is that I don't mind it at all. I do admit that it's pretty weird that I am spoiled for some parts of the story and yet not in others. But I always like this kind of narrative device in a film so I don't mind it either in real life. A good example of this was that film called Memento* (yeah, I'm aware of the self-reference nature of the name). In that film, the viewers already know the ending right from the very beginning but how it transpires is the main attraction of the story.
January 23, 2007 | 16 Comments
This is totally filler Hell. I want to get out of here but it looks like there are 2 more episodes to endure before the series get back on track. I don't understand why the producers decide to insert fillers so early in the series. If I remember correctly, there are more than enough volumes to at least make 24 episodes. Anyway, the only plus to this episode is that they manage to include the resolution to Lenalee and Allen's conflict that happened during their encounter with Road. I think the worst thing about the episode has to be the character design for the gladiator. I'd think that something from old Rome would look more like those characters in Gladiator or Spartacus not a cross between Spike Spiegel's hair from Cowboy Bebop, the body of a gladiator type, and a huge sword from one of those Final Fantasy male characters.
January 22, 2007 | 10 Comments
It's episode like this that makes episode-by-episode blogging a bit annoying sometimes. There's nothing about this episode that feels special or out of the ordinary. At this point, I'm really ready for an arc because at least the story will be about the main characters, who I already know quite a lot by now. I think they can do so many things with Ren's, Hone-Onna's, and Wanyuudou's background if they want to. And after that, they can cover Kikuri and her real purpose in the story. I wonder if it has anything to do with Ai or if she's just there to balance Jigoku Shoujo's work. The strange thing about Kikuri is that despite her brattiness, she seems to respect Ai. I'm not sure how long this will last but at the moment Ai seems very capable of controlling her childish behaviour.
Nakashima Mika - Mienai Hoshi (33MB, for PSP/Quicktime) | YouTube version
I think it's been a while since I last wrote a non-episode reviews entry so I think one is overdue by now. With that in mind, I should start with something small. Nakashima Mika's Mienai Hoshi is her latest single. Apparently the song is used for a Japanese drama called Haken no Hinkaku. Unfortunately I haven't seen the drama and has no intention to do so, I have no idea if this is true or not. The wiki points out that the drama is basically a story about an OL (office lady) so I assume it's similar to Hataraki-man. Anyway, the last Nakashima Mika song which I like was Sakurairo Mau Koro. This one is not as memorable or heart-wrenching as that one but I think I prefer this a lot more than her NANA songs. The PV itself looks expensive but doesn't show anything apart from Nakashima Mika in various costumes and poses.
January 19, 2007 | 29 Comments
Well, this is slightly disappointing after last week's episode. I think the animation dips slightly down in this one. Mine's face, for example, is rarely consistent in this series. Prior to watching the live action, I always thought that Mine's hair in the manga is a lot better than Eita's hair in the live-action. Now, however, it's kind of strange to see Mine with short, cropped hair. I also kind of suspected that the animators won't animate much of the hand movement but the result is a bit disappointing. They often rely on visual tricks such as shadow or static still but I don't think it works as well. I hope this won't be a big problem when the series reaches the part where everyone gets to perform on stage. On the positive side, I like the drawing style, which I don't think is that similar to Honey and Clover. If anything, the character design reminds me a bit of The Adventures of TinTin, with its rounded shapes and small eyes.
January 19, 2007 | 30 Comments
I'm sorry for the late entry for everything today. I've had one hell of a busy day at the office and probably won't get much done until 2-3 hours later. Sometimes I get lucky and can find the time to screencap things but not today unfortunately. Anyway, this is probably the first time the series really feel like a dating sim game. All of the scenes where Yuuichi goes out with Shiori for some reason feels more in-game than Yuuichi's scenes with the other girls. By the way, if you play the game, can you still date the other girls and still get the girl that you want towards the end? Because that's the impression that I get from this anime. Although it's clear which girl Yuuichi will choose, that doesn't stop him from interacting and flirting with other girls like Shiori.
January 18, 2007 | 47 Comments
Eh? What the hell? My copy of this week's Code Geass uses COLORS as its opening theme again. Can anyone else check if you get the same thing? I wonder if Sunrise got a lot of bad feedback about the 3rd opening that they end up changing it back to the 2nd opening. But that's ridiculous considering they've paid a lot of money for it. So my second guess is that they made a mistake when making this episode and ended up attaching the second OP for the episode. Strangely enough, the ending theme is still Mozaic Kakera and the sponsor's music still uses Kaidoku Funou on the background. But never mind that. OMG, this episode is a shocker in all sort of aspects. I never thought the event to last week's episode will be resolve in this matter. It's unfortunate the ending seems to backpedal on everything that has happened. Having said that, there are some repercussions to this and this episode also proves that Zero has a conscience when it comes down to his friends.
January 17, 2007 | 28 Comments
What a beautifully drawn episode this one turns out to be. I really admire how Light's and Misa's face look entirely like two people I've never seen before. I think this is a clever decision on the part of the animators to revitalise interest in the series. By making the characters look different, the viewers will feel like they're watching brand new characters instead of the same old boring Light and Misa. It's also equally important to do show's Misa's Shinigami eyes from different angle. This way, no matter how many times the shot is repeated, it will feel fresh all over again. Seriously though, the animation in this episode is really bad. Upon seeing this episode, I have the shivers that I had while I was watching the worst episodes NHK ni Youkoso. It feels as if Gonzo animated this episode. *shudders*
January 16, 2007 | 19 Comments
This is a rather predictable episode. I was actually hoping to see some kind of tragedy emerging out of the story. I think the potential for it was great but unfortunately the writers decide to go for the safe route. Come to think of it, I haven't seen a filler episode which ends in some kind of tragedy. It's probably because most fillers are one-off stories which supposed to showcase the ability of the main characters so it's rare to see them fail in these kind of missions. I do appreciate that the writers still remember that there could be potential tragedy in the future should the situation with Elda and her father continue as it is now. Anyway, the preview for next week's episode indicates that we're still in filler Hell. I wonder how much longer will this be. I was hoping this will be the end of the filler but that doesn't seem to be the case now.
It's getting harder and harder to be excited about this series lately, which is unfortunate since the first few episodes were quite good. But now they're back to the usual pattern of having an innocent person getting the blame. While it makes a dark story, it doesn't make it as entertaining. I can only hope that this leads to an explanation about Kikuri whose action has been inconsistent to say the least. Last week she seems to behave nicely while this week she acts as if she is the one who's indirectly responsible for causing problem for one of the characters. And it's already episode 14 and yet they still haven't got any kind of arc. Last year, we're already into the Hajime/Tsugumi plot and gets to see Ai's past through the old man who's about to die. This season, however, there's not much known about Kikuri and despite the initial potential of seeing the helpers' past, they seem rather superficial (ie. Wanyuudou's past).
Well, the new episode will come out this week so I better write something about this episode since I never got the chance to do it back during its original air time. Unfortunately upon rewatch, I remember why I wasn't excited about the episode. It feels a bit boring in comparison to the other episodes in the series (the patisserie chef episode, for example). It doesn't help that the animation is a bit sub-par this time around and the comedy is barely around. There's not much they can do with the comedy but I hope the lack of decent animation is because the animators are saving the budget for the Shishio Gen arc. Although we won't see it for a while, that arc has some of the most interesting Ayakashi and complex fights.
January 12, 2007 | 26 Comments
What an impressive episode. I think the ending for Mai's arc feels very satisfying in different kind of ways from the ending for Makoto's arc. I think the most pleasant part of this episode was when I found out the revelation behind the ghost/apparition. At a time like this I'm glad that I haven't seen the series before because I don't think I'd be as surprised if I had seen the series beforehand. The only annoying thing about the episode is that the ending feels abrupt. I think the writers should have shown what happened to Sayuri but I suspect this will continue right through next week's episode. This means, however, that there are only 11 episodes left. I wonder how many episodes the writer will use to cover Shiori's arc. Would there be enough episode for both Nayuki and Ayu once her arc is over?
January 11, 2007 | 66 Comments
Opening Theme: 「Allegro Cantabile」
Performed by Suemitsu and the Suemith - AVI format (24MB) | PSP format (13MB)
This turns out to be a good adaptation of the manga. In fact, I think the drawing is a lot better than the manga, especially in comparison to the first few volumes of the book. The story is surprisingly similar to the first episode of the live action version although I think it's a lot closer to the manga since Chiaki didn't present Nodame with his cooking in this episode. The OP theme is quite nice although the ED is not that good and the images are not that attractive but it's in the same style to the Honey and Clover ending which means that the preview is embedded in it. Voice-acting wise, I really have big problem getting used to Kawasumi Ayako and Seki Tomokazu's voice as Nodame and Chiaki. I think I'm so used to Ueno Juri's and Tamaki Hiroshi's voice that I think it'll take me a while before I get used to their voice.
January 11, 2007 | 52 Comments
Opening Theme: 「解読不能」- Kaidoku Funou
Performed by Jin - AVI version (31.8MB) | PSP version (14MB)
I like this better than last week's episode mostly because there is more urgency to the storyline. This episode, however, makes me really annoyed with Suzaku's self righteous attitude. He acts as if he's someone who is not aware of the idea that there will be casualties in a battle. Thankfully that is offset by some interesting moments in the story especially the ones involving Shirley. Moving along, the new OP is not as bad as I thought it would be but it's not as good as Colors so I don't see the point of changing it since the imagery are almost similar anyway. The new ED, on the other hand, is quite good. Although I like ALI PROJECT's song, this one is equally good and features some new stills to go with it.
January 10, 2007 | 35 Comments
For some reason this episode feels really entertaining but I can't pintpoint it to a specific reason. Maybe it's the nostalgic feeling that I get when Kudou Haruka suddenly burst into Hagu-esque voice while playing Saya. It was also amusing to hear Misa referring to Yagami Light as "Yagami Tsuki" due to the kanji on Light's name. The reason for this is because kanji often comes with more than one way of reading it. The problem is, it's hard to memorise every single variation. I usually only remember the major ones. Having said that, I don't think the word 'Light' (Raito) can turned into the kanji for moon「月」unless it's a very liberal use of the Kanji. What I mean by this is that there was no Kanji in Light's first name but because this is Japan, his family has to come up with a kanji equivalent to 'Light'. My guess is instead of going for the direct meaning of Light, which is「光」- Hikari, they decide to use 'moon'.
I hate fillers. Most of the time they add nothing to the original plot and the individual storylines usually are not interesting or special either. Unfortunately, this one is no exception. I think if it's not for the ED theme, I might not have downloaded this but now that I have, I may as well cover it. As far as new characters go, the female Akuma freaked me out a little bit. But then the writers had to ruin the mood by showing the same Akuma shooting projectiles from her breasts. The award for worst original Akuma design in this episode, however, goes to be the Godzilla wannabe. I think the only good thing about this episode is the humour which shows Lavi braiding Kanda's hair. Speaking of Lavi, fangirls would probably be happy to know that this episode features a line where Lavi tells Allen that they should hug each other to keep their bodies warm. This is the first time I see an episode where the writers intentionally give fanfic fodder to the fans.
I almost forgot that this series returns on air this week. Unfortunately, this is a rather disappointing episode and is quite ridiculous as well in terms of the grudge. I'm not sure which one is worse this one or the one where someone sent another person to hell just for spilling coffee. At this rate, someone is really going to send another person to Hell just because that person took the toilet paper that the first person wants. I think the interesting thing about this episode is actually the revelation of Kikuri's power. It's kind of strange to know that her power can be used for good but when I think about it, it's debatable whether or not what she did it with good or bad intention. If none of those interest you, this episode also features a completely irrelevant but amusing scenes of Ai and Kikuri stuffing their stomach with Oden.
Hmm, for some reason I'm starting to lose interest in this series. At first I thought it's because of post-holiday fatigue but now that I think about it, it's because there's a lack of characters that I like. Lelouch is an interesting character but I find it hard rooting for him. Suzaku is the complete opposite but there is nothing special about him which makes me want to root for him either. The only one I find mildly interesting is C.C but the series rarely gives her enough focus. I also have a little bit of issue with the storyline which seems to be stalled heavily to open up the possibility for the series to continue after the first 24/26 episodes. Oh well, I hope the series will improve soon or at least shows some important progression for the characters since there is a lack of this at this point in the story.
I can never understand why some people want to use Pachebel's Kanon as theme song to their wedding. I always think the song is a bit depressing and sad even though it's also very classy and sounds very good. This image gets reinforced even more after I started watching anime, especially Neon Genesis Evangelion. Watching Shinji, Asuka, and Touji falling into their depression while the song was playing felt like I got dragged into their depression as well. The same thing can be said here with its use as a background for Sayuri's past. Although one can say that the song celebrates life, I feel that the song also symbolises death. As much as I love the song, I feel that I need to hear something a little bit more upbeat after hearing this piece or else I'd be feeling down the whole day.
Happy New Year, everyone!! I hope you had a great time last night or the night before, whichever applies to you. Moving on to the actual entry, there are a lot of crying in this final episode to the point that I'm not sure which ones are acting and which ones are real. This is especially true for Ueno Juri, Tamaki Hiroshi, Eita, and Saeko. At some point, I actually wondered if the actors actually cried for real since some of them look like they've been attending someone's funeral as opposed to listening to a concert. Although it's unlikely, it's also not far-fetch to believe that some of the actors might have had difficulty filming that last scene since they seem very close to each other. In fact, one of the side pleasures of watching this series was seeing them working together or involved in variety shows like Waratte Iitomo! or Bistro SMAP. I hope I'll get to see them working together again one day either in the sequel or in another drama.