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ローゼンメイデン 
December 14, 2008 | 
53 Comments
As usual, I apologize for not posting anything for a while. I have to admit that it's been weird to see my anime watching habit dwindling down to nothing. Maybe I just don't feel like watching them when my life has literally turned into every cliche romance anime or Japanese drama out there. I tried to watch some mecha anime but that requires me to invest some good time staying at home. Maybe that's the real problem here. These days, I keep wanting to go out almost every single day for some reason. I just feel that there are many social interactions that I've missed because I used to always just go home and watch countless anime after work. I went to an outdoor bar yesterday and while I wasn't completely comfortable with the situation, I have to admit that I like it. My social skill is kind of rusty but I do find myself wanting to belong to that kind of scene. Mind you, I'm not talking about being stupid drunk but more like spending my time talking to random strangers while watching the beautiful sight of the harbor.
November 18, 2008 | 32 Comments
First thing first, I should apologize to the readers who still visit the site. I forgot that not everyone subscribe to RSS feeds and therefore they do go here and refresh the site, hoping for an update. Having said that, it's not my plan to abandon writing even though it's hard to find the motivation to do so lately. I will, however, try to churn out something once every three days. I am not planning on giving up on the blog - not when it's close to its 5 years anniversary. I have to admit, however, that I'm not ready to dive into episodic review just yet but I can do a one-off review kind of thing. Right now I am in the middle of reading the English version of Honey and Clover and much to my delight, the story is as good as I remember it. Although the manga lacks the extra jazz that the anime provides (movement, background songs, voice acting), the core of the story and its heart are fully intact. I wish I can say the same thing about any of the live action versions of the story but I've said all I wanted to say about them. Anyway, this series is still as relevant as ever and I can now relate to almost every main character in the series except probably Shuuji and Morita.
For someone who spends the majority of his time discussing anime and animation, I seem to have a difficulty recognizing what is animated and what is real. When I first boot up Metal Gear Solid 4, I wondered why the eggs that a character called Sunny fries look so real. I really thought that the eggs are actually CGI but as it turns out, they are actually a film of real eggs that have been superimposed on top of the CGI. During the intro, I saw a bunch of characters that look like real humans but I wasn't sure if they are real or they are CGI that looks too close to reality until I saw David Hayter (Snake's English voice actor) as one of the character included. The same thing now happens with the new anime, Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto - Natsu no Sora (What's important for a magic user - Summer sky), otherwise known as Someday's Dreamer - Summer Sky. When I first saw the backgrounds, I thought they are real-life pictures. However, due to discussion between several posters, I now wonder if the backgrounds are actually CGIs that simply look life-like.
Air Date: October 2008
As everyone probably already know, there'd be a continuation to Nodame Cantabile anime coming up this October on Fuji TV's Noitamina block. Ttitled「のだめカンタービレ 巴里編」(Nodame Cantabile Paris Hen), the series will hopefully be similar to the drama version in that, it doesn't go beyond the manga storyline since the last time I checked, the manga is not completed yet. I am actually a bit apprehensive about this since it seems like the producers just want to capitalize on the series even though the series is nowhere in completion yet. Moreover, they ended the first season in such a rush that they just showed parts of the stories as static stills that shares space with the ending credit.
At any rate, sequels seem to be popular in the anime industries these days, which understandable since the fans (including myself) lapped it up but at the same time, it does make one wonders about originality. At times like this, I'm glad that Honey and Clover manga is finished. This means there's nothing that greedy producers can do to milk its popularity apart from doing various drama adaptations. Speaking of which, I'm still waiting for the US adaptation of Honey and Clover drama. Just kidding, Japan. Don't even think about it. I think three live-action adaptations are more than enough. Anyway, there are other sequels that we'll see this year or next year, click after the cut for some preview.