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ファイト／ステイナイト 
OMG, this is so awesome. More than I thought possible. Remember how I previously mentioned that I have difficulty connecting with the character? Well, this will sound heartless but that little problem turns out to be pure joy for me right now because it means I can enjoy the carnage without feeling depressed about it. After all, unlike series like Evangelion, I have no favourite character here so I can just relax and marvel at the destruction and mayhem. And what carnage this one turns out to be. I have to give it to the writers for having the courage to wipe out characters left and right like this. By the time the episode ends, almost everyone is either powned, completely messed up, or will get unpleasant surprise in the future. The only thing bad about this episode is that we have to wait until summer to watch the last 2 episodes, which I think will wrap up the Lelouch's rebellion part of the story.
Sorry for the late review. I'm just too tired this week and haven’t had the chance to do anything beyond work. I also have some kanji test tomorrow so unfortunately this is the only series I can cover today. As for the episode itself, this one covers a lot of ground as I expected. It's not really up to the point where the first arc ends but we're really close to it and judging from the preview, next week's episode should be that episode. That means after next week's episode, there are only 12 episodes left to cover the reminder 5 volumes of the manga. I think there will be a lot of cuts and edits made in order to compress all 5 volumes into 12 episodes. To give you a comparison, Nodame Cantabile anime omitted at least 3 chapters so that it can cover 4 volumes in 10 episodes. Unlike Death Note, however, that series don't have that much dialogue.
All Hell finally break loose thanks to the residents of Lovely Hills. This is the first time I see people sending others to Hell left and right in this series. If these characters were real, this event would have been one of the lowest point in human history. If one think about it, this is like a miniature version of genocide and world war. The worst thing about these residents is that not only they sent people to Hell without second thought, they also do not hesitate putting the blame on an innocent kid. I suppose from their POV, they're going to get burned by Hell fire so they may as well drag someone else down. Anyway, if this is not exciting enough, the episode also brings back Tsubata Hajime and Tsubata Tsugumi in limited guest roles. With only two episodes left, I think we're up for some interesting revelation in the next two weeks. I'm glad that two series from the last two seasons (this and Code Geass) will end with a bang.
I can't believe how fast time flies. It's not that long ago that Winter season started and suddenly it's Spring. In 1 week time, 2007 Spring Anime season will start. To be honest, there aren't that many series that I'm interested in. I just list most of them here in case they turn out to be interesting. In fact, the only two anime series that I'm anticipating for this year are just the theatrical release of the new Evangelion movies and the 2nd season of Suzumiya Haruhi. Anyway, please note that this list is not a representative of the entire series that will be released this Spring. For more info, click on the link I provided above or if you can read Japanese, you're free to browse Moonphase. Last but not least, I'd like to know what everyone else would like to watch this season and why you choose those series.
What's going on here? All of a sudden the concert scene looks really good and is actually animated. It's not completely animated but at least this time around I get the impression that I'm watching a concert instead of static stills after static stills. Oh well, I hope this continues right through the end, especially when R☆S Orchestra starts to perform. Anyway, I still remember how a few people complained about the Rachmaninoff that Chiaki in live-action version played. It was deemed too slow. Unfortunately this seems to be a choice that the author has made since the anime's version of Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No.2 is also equally slow at the start. The difference between this one and the live-action is that the anime features the entire score instead of jumping from the first to the last act.
Wow. Just wow. Now this is what I was talking about. A show which doesn't show black/white characters but instead characters who are borderline grey due to the circumstances they get thrusted in. I am glad that the writers decided not to make Lelouch a simple villain like Light in Death Note but instead put him in a situation in which he has little control. In the end, the circumstances which happened around him was not really his doing. The same can be said about Euphemia. I'm glad the writers finally decide to take her out of her goodie two-shoes role and put her in a situation which complicates her well-meaning intention. With only 3 more episodes before the end of the season, I hope the series goes out with a bang before returning for a second season later on this year.
Well, this is it: the end of the Yotsuba arc. That means everything will be back to status quo next week. What comes after that is inevitable whether one likes it or not. I think I finally understand why people are upset with the upcoming story development. Prior to following the series religiously, thanks to the anime, I have little to no attachment to the characters. As a result, I just enjoy the story based on its own merit. However, things get really complicated once you start liking a character. Even when the story demands it, it's really hard to let go your favorite character. The problem is, I think the author of Death Note considers the story to be more important than the characters. As a result, character death is simply inevitable part of the storyline. I really want to see what anime-only watchers think after the dreaded episode goes on air.
As it turns out this is not a complete filler. There are actually some parts which are similar to the manga. Due to the mix and match style, the story is kind of mysterious and comedic at the same time. I do wonder why they skipped one chapter in the manga. I should not have been surprised though since these are the same writers who re-arranged Allen's earlier encounter and put it in a later episode so that Lenalee can join in the action. At any rate, I wonder how much longer this series is going to be. For some reason I don't think it'll go on and on like Naruto. On the other hand, the story is not conclusive yet and that means the anime will have to come up with more fillers so that they don't run out of manga material.
Trust it to the writers of this series to leave the exciting stuff in the last few episodes. Having said that, I think we're officially in the major arc for the season: the Lovely Hills. Judging from the way the arc has been developing, I'd be surprised if there is no major massacre happening anytime soon. This episode also proves that there is something inherently wrong with the Jigoku Tsuushin system. Humans are already vengeful by nature but providing a 'weapon' which allows them to channel their vengeance would lead to this kind of situation. It never fails to puzzle me how the vengeance seekers tend to ignore the "hontou ni" part of Ai's drill when she comes to bring a straw doll for them. At any rate, Ai would probably have to recruit some more helpers now because demand for those elusive straw dolls will skyrocket very soon.
I wish I can pretend that the last 5 or so minute of this episode never happened because then this would have been a good episode. Unfortunately Sunrise has the subtlety of a sledgehammer when it comes to plot and character development so we ended up with that last 5 minutes, which throws all of Lelouch's character development out of the window. If the writers want this series to be Death Note's clone, then I think they've effectively set the tone for this with that last 5 minutes. Now that this happens, I'm not sure which character to root for anymore. I do like Euphemia's plan but unfortunately she has little to no idea of what she has unleashed with her announcement. Why would anyone want to root for a leader who has no idea of the consequence of her action? Or maybe I can just watch and stop caring about the characters.
I'm slightly disappointed with the pacing of this final episode. I just think it's a little bit abrupt. It feels as if they didn't bother to explain how the situations goes from seemingly bad in last week's episode to really good, which is this episode. Oh well, apart from that, this is actually a good episode. I think whether or not one likes the final pairing, the series did a good job in conveying the devastation that a person might feel when he/she is on the verge of losing a loved one. It's unfortunate that Yuuichi doesn't have much chemistry with Ayu although Ayu did look a lot better with a longer hair. Overall, this is actually a much better series than some people are willing to give credit for. I think the trick is to get pass the first 6 episodes because the real meat of the story doesn't begin until around that episode.
Well, this is a rather enjoyable episode much to my surprise. The comedy is actually spot on and there are several scenes which were not covered in the live action version of the series. I'm just hoping that the writers won't exclude more stories from the manga. I think at this point in time, they are on track to finish the rest of 5 volumes + 1 chapter in the constraint of 13 episodes. Animation-wise, there's nothing outstanding about the episode. However, character design is clean and consistent. The music, on the other hand, is quite interesting. Chiaki's Rachmaninoff is considerably faster in this version. In fact, it's actually very fast and almost similar to Nodame's version in the live action version. One thing that bothers me about this score is how depressing it seems despite the fast tempo that accompanies it.
What's with all of the food scenes in this episode? Is this what L does when he's stressed out? Pigging out like there's no tomorrow? Judging from the amount of foods that he consumes, he either has a really fast metabolism or he's actually an alien. Anyway, this is definitely a precursor to the ending of the series' first half. If my estimation is correct, next week should wrap up the Yotsuba arc. However, this means that the dreaded plotline will come soon. As usual, due to my short attention span, I haven't actually read beyond the shocking revelation. So while I know what would happen in general, I miss out the in-between stories between the end of this arc and the series finale.
I really like the artistic decision that the animators made in this episode. There are several frames which clearly an attempt to present the episode in an experimental manner, something which I never thought I'll see from a Shounen series. I guess they're trying to make the series look slightly different from other Shounen series. This, however, also causes a slight inconsistency in the style of the series. As a result, unlike series like Death Note, the art style in this series is not as memorable. Death Note anime tends to use blue, red, and yellow as its primary colours in most of its episode. As a result, there's an immediate sense of familiarity the minute you watch a new episode. On the other hand, D.Gray-man is a lot harder to identify due to its lack of consistent art style.
This is not as good as the episode that comes before it but it's not a bad episode either. It's kind of nice to see Takuma again, whose lousy fate was featured back in episode 14. The good news is that his situation is actually a lot better here than the way it was shown back at the end of episode 14. I wondered if viewers protested about his fate or if the animators felt that they were being too cruel to someone as innocent and nice as Takuma. Either way, he seems better off in this one although if one thinks about it, his fate is still kind of lousy. At any rate, it seems the animators want to do some kind of small arc with his character. One thing that I hope will materialise out of this is some kind of character development for Kikuri.
Yeah, I know it's a bit late but I'll write up the next episode after this. As far as background stories go, this is probably the best one that has been shown thus far. Unlike Ren and Wanyuudou's story, this one doesn't come across as an afterthought. about Hone-Onna as opposed to simply attaching the story to the plot of the week. If anything the plot of the week is just a supplementary element to Hone-Onna's background story. Unfortunately, the rise in the quality of the writing is not accompanied by the rise in animation and character design. If anything, the character design takes a rather nasty nosedive this time around. Hone-Onna, for example, look different everytime she appears on the scene. This is slightly problematic because without the visual cue, it's hard to know if a character is actually Hone-Onna or someone else.
Before watching this episode, I was wondering if the beach story would be cut out of the broadcast version. Well, my guess turns out to be correct. At this point, however, I've resigned to the fact that all of the fun chapters will probably be excluded from the broadcast version so I'm a lot more prepared now. From the way the story has progressed, it appears to me that the writers want to ensure that the first 5 volumes of the manga will end around episode 12, leaving around 11 episodes to deal with the last 4 volumes + 1 chapter from volume 10. Oh well, I'm just glad they animate the Nagano music festival since it's completely skipped over in the live action version. This is because one important character, Miki Kiyora, was already introduced in the live action version as Momogaoka music student.
What an impressive episode. It's hard not to be moved by this one especially if you remember what has transpired thus far. Having said that, there are several downsides about the episode. The first thing that comes into my mind is the amount of flashbacks included in this episode. I feel that the animator try to pad out the series so that there are 24 episodes in total. Oh well, in general Kyoto Animation has done a good job in condensing the story into 24 episodes. I guess it's inevitable that they have to resort to some flashback at some point in the series. I am just hoping that this is because they've got everythign neat and tidy in episode 24. I would hate to see what has been an enjoyable and neat series to be messed up by incomplete plot holes.
This is probably one of the most cheese-tastic episode ever and it doesn't have anything to do with the amount of product advertising that Pizza Hut placed in the series. I just don't think Zero and Suzaku are at a point where they can work together yet and here they are doing exactly this. Plus that background music that they use during the collaboration scene is really bad. Add to this a confession scene that comes out of nowhere. I realise that this series has just received a second season but this feels needlessly filler-ish to me. At any rate, I'm hoping that the 2nd season will feature more C.C than this Britannia vs. Black Knights stuff. I just think it will be a lot more compelling to see C.C's background and the rest of her 'people'.
Little Big Planet Gameplay (Quicktime, Game Trailers)
Enviromental creation (Quicktime, Game Trailers)
I don't usually go out of my way to promote games but this one is so cute and looks really fun to play. Little Big Planet is basically a 1-4 player platformer. You can make the platform yourself or use the one that others have posted online. You can even do a co-op platform making with your friends at home. It looks really fun to play and the basic character that you get, SackBoy, is the cutest thing I've ever seen lately. The gameplay also looks kind of fun and seems to rely on co-operation of other players although I've heard you can play as a single player as well. The graphic is impressive with good-looking textures. Although Home was equally impressive, I think this game is the highlight of this year's Game Developer's Conference.
This turns out to be a rather long arc after all. I really thought that this episode will be the end of the story but that doesn't seem to be the case. At any rate, this is one hell of an interesting episode because not only it offers the usual arc-based storyline but also because it develops the mystery behind Allen's cursed eye. I now feel like catching up with the manga because I have no idea what's the implication of this plot development. I have heard rumblings about bad things happening to Allen but I never know if I should take it seriously or not. After watching this episode, however, I wonder if there is some truth to the rumour. Anyway, the animation in this episode is not bad at all and I'm glad that the character design remains consistent most of the time.
I'm sorry for the late review. I'll cover D.Gray-man and Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori as soon as possible after this. I've just been really busy and not in the mood to write any review. Plus, Heroes has been distracting me in the past few days. That last episode was awesome. I want to talk about it but I can't even keep up with my daily blogging task as it is now. Anyway, this is a decent episode as far as animation goes. I think the majority of the time the character design remains consistent. I guess they've recovered their budget after spending so much of it in the new opening/ending on last week's episode. Another thing that impressed me about the technical detail is how quick the pace has been in the past few weeks. At this rate, the writers will really end the first season either in episode 24 or 26.
Yeah, the animation really does look a lot better here although I still think the character design is still not as good as the first season. In addition to this, since the OVA would only have 3 episodes, they should have used this episode to feature the comifes part of the story. I just think it's a lot more interesting and than the story they ended up using here. Besides, I kind of want to see Kousaka as a trap scene animated in its full glory. Don't give me that funny look. I thought trap is all the rage these days. That scene is worth it just to hear/see Madarame and Kugapii's reaction. Plus, who can forget Saki's reaction afterwards. At any rate, instead of fun Kousaka trap, we have Madarame being metrosexual here and while the concept is funny, the execution is not that amusing in my opinion. Certainly not on the same level as the first episode.
Let's get the good things out of the way. I really like the soundtrack which seems to be middle-eastern inspired. The track that plays while the Otome Delta team are about to attack the bus is a good example of this. The same thing can be said about the ED theme. As far as technical aspect goes, the animation and character design are pretty good and look consistent. But Sunrise rarely do a bad job in animation and character design, unless they're really strapped for money. What Sunrise never seems to have in spades is decent script writer. This OVA, just like the one that preceeded it, is pretty sparse in plot and has a slow pacing. The action itself is decent but it doesn't really get exciting until the last 5 minutes of the episode. It's quite clear now that the writers will just cram everything in the last 2 OVAs.
OP Theme: 「青春として」- Seishun Toshite by MANZO - PSP version (16.3MB)
Well, here's an attempt by me to catch up with the OVAs. It's been a bit hard for me to do this due to the limited amount of time that I have for blogging these days. It doesn't help that my interest in anime is kind of going up and down in the past few months. Anyway, Genshiken is definitely one of those series where you have to see it first in order to be excited about it. Because everytime I imagine that I'd be watching an anime about a group of Otaku, the idea seems less entertaining than the actual episode itself. However, it is actually a lot more interesting once you sit down and watch the episode because the character's interaction and the things that they do within it are a lot more hilarious than the show's description. Unfortunately the animation and character design for this OVA are pretty bad. I can't remember who did the animation for the 1st season but I know it's a lot better than this.
One impressive thing about this series is the fact that Sunrise somehow manages to keep a rather consistent quality in most episodes. Most shounen series tend to go down in both the character design and animation after a couple of episodes. With this series, however, there have only been one or two episodes where the character design or animation were downgraded. The burning scene in this episode is a good example of how good-looking this series can be. The fire that the animators drawn in this episode is unusually high in quality. Another thing that impresses me is the quality of the voice-acting. Without the right VA, I doubt that the series would have been this entertaining. This is especially true in Yoshimori, Madarao, and Hakubi, each of whom has a unique way of tonal range and line delivery.
Hmm, the animation in this one is quite a downgrade in comparison to the last few episodes. There were even few minutes which takes place in the darkness. Plot-wise, there isn't much of a development until the last few minutes where the writers decide to unleash the revelation about Ayu as well as a rather shocking re-appearance by another character. At any rate, it seems I was completely wrong about Ayu. Although now that I know her condition, I can't help but wonder how she'll be able to be the default girl for Yuuichi. Anyway, as I mentioned before, next week's episode will be titled Finale, so I can't help but wonder if this will indeed be 26 episodes instead of 24. As a side note, I can't get over how cute Piroshiki looks. I've been smitten by the cat ever since I saw it but its cuteness completely won me over in this one.
This is a rather pleasant episode which basically explains Stresemann's motivation. He also seems a bit more generous than usual this time around, as evidenced by the present he gave to Nodame. Animation-wise, I feel that this episode is actually a lot more fluid in comparison to last week's episode. I know that people have been comparing the art style to Honey and Clover but it really doesn't come across that way to me until this episode. This particular shot reminds me of a similar shot where Morita chomps a bread out of Hagu's hand. At any rate, I'm just glad that it looks like the anime will be covering the Nagano part of the story. I was afraid that part will get a skip as well but thankfully that's not the case here.
What a surprisingly pleasant episode this one turns out to be. I always like it when a series goes through a character development, showing what this character would be like if the circumstance is changed a little bit. Interestingly enough, the more they know each other, the less hostile they tend to be. I guess it's a lot harder to shoot someone when that someone happens to be someone that you actually know very well. There are also several surprising revelation which makes me wonder about the murder of Marianne, Lelouch's mother. At this point, it seems the main suspect would be either Schneizel or the Emperor himself. It would be ironic if all of these times Lelouch was blaming his siblings only to find that it's just his father was responsible.
