Kurogane’s Anime Blog

Current Progess:

• SDF Macross - Completed
• SDF Macross: Do You Remember Love? - Completed
• SDF Macross Flashback 2012 -Completed

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After some persuasion, and superhuman patience on Ozma’s behalf, Ranka finally gets signed on for a production company. Things aren’t looking too good for the others though, as the bad news of Galaxy’s attack by the Vajra arrives on Frontier, made worse by the 5 day delay due fold faults. President Glass decides to make public of the Vajra threat, and decides to launch a search and rescue operation with the S.M.S doing the dirty work.

Sheryl is saddened to hear the news as well, but being the professional she is, she continues on with her concert. Simultaneously, the S.M.S prepares to depart for Galaxy as well. Alto, who has found Sheryl’s missing earrings, decides to return it to her personally before her concert, and before he leaves for Galaxy. Sheryl tells him the story behind the earrings, a keepsake and only memory of her mother and that they’re a good luck charm to her, revealing that she hates Galaxy as she was an orphan. Sheryl lends her earring to Alto, and makes him promise to return it, which Alto gladly accepts before her heads out under the S.M.S mothership.

Good episode, but didn’t really contribute much to the main plot. Quite a ton of homages though. Glass gets assigned to the S.M.S as the combat operations officer, completing the bridge crew requirement. The captain is rather more mischievous though, XD. The S.M.S mother ship bears a lot of resemblance to the original Macross as well. Luckily enough, no pineapple salads were served or mentioned… yet.

Quite some nice development on the Sheryl x Alto front though, with some really cute scenes between those two, sharing some of their private thoughts. Surprised to hear that Sheryl is an orphan though, I guess that explains her strong-willed personality. Dere-dere Alto was cute too and made a nice match for tsun-tsun Sheryl. I can almost see it as yuri. Almost. Especially since they can’t seem to help themselves from jabbing in the fact of Alto’s… androgyny.

The concert part near the end of the episode was really nicely done, with Diamond Crevasse masterfully used to accompany the launching of the S.M.S mothership and also after the development between Sheryl and Alto as well. Looks like the real action will be starting next week though.

Dere~ dere~ Alto-hime~~

Spotted over at Canned Dogs, it seems that Lucky Star OVA will be made by KyoAni (thank god the naysayers saying that Toei was gonna do it are wrong) and it will be airing this summer.

As for Haruhi S2, June’s Newtype has a teaser for it, with further information forthcoming in the July issue next month. Gotta hate it when they do that.

Current Progress: 32 out of 36

• Oh man, Max is awesome, seriously awesome. Meet → Fight → Marriage. If that isn’t awesome, nothing is. I guess this is what you really call “love at first fight”, hahaha.
• Exedol’s peace mission is damn hillarious.

  *passes by bikini ad*
  Exedol: “What is that?! It gave me a real shock.”
  Random General dude: “Um.. that’s um… a military secret”.
  Exedol: “Ahhh… a military secret.”

• primeparadigm: “You have yet to see the best rendition of “My Boyfriend’s a Pilot”, Ranka and Minmay don’t hold a candle to it. I won’t say whose version it is, It’s later in the series, you’ll know it when you see it.”

  Okay, saw it, and I have to say, that was god damn fucking awesome. I laughed so hard, my head hurt.

• The final Zentraedi versus Earth battle is epic. But I sure didn’t expect it to last only 1 episode. Minmay Defense was… rather underwhelming.
• The time jump sure threw me off a bit. But it does show how arbitrarily the plot seems to have been hacked together.
• Dear god, Misa Hayase is such a tsundere~
• Dear god, Zentraedi or not, it’s not a good idea to throw babies around, Milia. That gave me a shock for sure. And Max! You really gotta berate her for it! Also I have to mention that Max is a fucking superman. He can even cook properly.
• Lynn Kaifun is such a self-centered egoistic retard. Not to mention he totally doesn’t appreciate the good things that the military has done, like oh say…RESCUING HIM FROM BEING CRUSHED BY KAMJIN. He’s just as bad, no worse than those retards who want to wage war just for the sake of waging war. I really, REALLY want to punch him. Hard.
• Kamjin: “Culture? We can make culture too!”
  *grabs Laplamiz and kisses her”
  Onlookers: O.O
  Lackey #1: “Boss, we got a emergency call.”
  Laplamiz: “Oh dear, just as the “culture” was getting good.”

  I lol’ed. It’s actually rather cute to see the Zentraedi getting used to Earth’s culture.

• As I reiterated in my last post, the Minmay-Hikaru-Misa love triangle is really a good demonstration of the saying “Passion is a downhill road, while love is an uphill one”. Still, Minmay’s indecisiveness is really irritating. Especially when she continues to stick with the jerk that is Lynn Kaifun.

Well, looks like the next post will be my last one.

Current Progress: 19 out of 36

1. Best prison escape plan ever: “When the guard comes to feed us, we’ll kiss and shock him so we can run out.” Very handy idea to use if I ever get taken captive with a hawt chick.
2. Misa needs to stop styling her hair. She actually looks pretty when her hair is let down. GOD DAMN YOU 1980′S HAIRSTYLES!
3. Meltrandi appear and Milia is a damn fine specimen of her race. I think I know why the Meltrandi are win. They have better hairstyles.
4. Oh those Zentradi spies are kinda LOL. Must be really a trip of their lives sneaking on the ship and experiencing “culture”.
5. Lynn Minmay…. /me facepalms. I’m reminded of Sumire (Renji’s mother) saying in ef; “Passion is a downhill road, while love is an uphill road.” Rather true in Hikaru’s case, don’t you think?
6. Lynn Kaifun… read otou-san’s comment below.
7. Episode 17 “Phantasm”…. wtf was this episode about? Hikaru sure has weird dreams.
8. Roy Focker’s death was…. really wasted, don’t you think? If he had went to the hospital first… sigh, a damn waste.
9. Well, Lynn’s not totally a bimbo it seems. Her little speech at episode 20 was really nice, if I may say so, as not only it shows how celeb power can be used for good, but also that she does have her heart at the right places, even if she may act really stupid at times.

Comment replies (might as well do it here all at once)

Nanatsuya:

100 Rules of Anime: #17 - Law of Transient Romantic Unreliability- Minmei is a bimbo.

Oh yes, the right word to describe here I guess.

Xellos-_^:

DYRL, while a great movie really cut out a lot of Minmay’s character development and if you get a chance got hunt down the Macross 2012 Flashback music video. The music alone is more then worth it not mention a few scenes where it brings closure to the characters.

Don’t worry, I’m getting nearly everything Macross. First balanced comment I’ve heard about DYRL, btw. Everyone else just keeps saying it’s the best movie ever made.

Nemo_N:

I don’t think Lynn Minmay is the ideal woman of that time but rather a portrayal of a girl idealized by fans and guys who fall for her looks. I mean, she LOOKS like the ideal girl of those times, so great and pure and perfect in the outside, while in fact she is, IMO, a bitch.

Mmh, I wonder if this is the root of my bias against Sheryl…

Bitch is a rather strong word to use again her. For me, she’s still a “bimbo”. And Sheryl is totally different from Minmay, really.

otou-san:

And speaking of that and Minmay, “Watashi No Kare Wa Pilot” will get reeeeeally old pretty soon. But I don’t think she’s the bitch that everyone makes her out to be. I think one of the things that made it so revolutionary as a show was the sophistication of the characters — Minmay is young, confused, just wants to sing, etc. etc. Wait till Kaifun shows up. What a hippie a-hole.

All the Minmay haters projecting onto Sheryl should remember how things went down, and take note of who works in a Chinese restaurant in the current series.

You’re right. Barely 5 more episodes in, and I’m bloody sick of it already. Ranka’s version was better. Kaifun was just plain annoying. And yes… Sheryl’s definitely not the one working in a Chinese restaurant this time. Take note of that.

Xellos-_^:

And who is currently a officer in the army and not a idol >_>

Which is.. Catherine Glass. Imagine.. imagine.. hey, it’s actually quite possible, isn’t it? If Alto-hime and her get kidnapped by the Vajra……

Up till episode 11 now.

1. Max is awesome. Man, Takehito Koyasu is EVERYWHERE Wow, Sho Hayami sounds EXACTLY like Takehito Koyasu . On the other hand, Kakizaki is… annoying. I really hate the “talk big” types.
2. Lynn Minmay’s really not what I expected her to be. After the Miss Macross episode, I realize she’s like those girls in American comics where you have to constantly win her with flowers and chocolate. So this was the “ideal woman” during that time. I’m suddenly so glad I’m not born in those times. Hairstyles continue to freak me out as well.
3. Speaking of Miss Macross, I lol’ed at the Zentradi reactions when they were tapping in the the TV broadcast of it. I wonder how much longer until they discover the wonders of self-pleasure? Also, I now realize how much Macross Frontier has been paying homage to the original series.
4. Also, episode 11 totally defines “culture shock” when Lt. Hayase went and kissed Ichijyou in front of their captors. Them Zentradi really have a boring culture eh.
5. Lynn Minmay’s debut performance was okay, but I felt Ranka’s rendition was better. I guess the better production quality edged it out.

Well, thanks to the awesomeness of Macross Frontier, I’m going back to the roots and starting back on the original series. Better 25 years late than never, eh?

Up till episode 6 now. My impressions?

1. OMG, the hairstyles. Seriously. Especially Hayase’s. I can live with the old-school cel animation and jerky camera movements, but the horrible, horrible hairstyles nearly threw me off. Even Lynn Minmay wasn’t spared with that double buns she tied her hair in to when they reopened Nyan Nyan.
2. Hikaru getting cockblocked at the end of episode 4 was damn lol. Especially coming after Minmay went all emo and “Let’s both die in space~!!!!”. Also, TUNA FISHING IN SPACE.
3. Daedalus Attack was pretty O_O. Actually I half-expected Macross to go “ROCKET PUNCHHHH!!!”. The pinpoint barrier control team is LOL too. Can’t they get it under computer control?
4. Lynn Minmay… isn’t what I expected her to be. But so far, she’s pretty okay and being a classic character, this is gonna be interesting to watch. But she really is pretty capricious, heh.

Anyways, back to watching.

Manga creator Arina Tanemura (Full Moon wo Sagashite) will end The Gentlemen’s Alliance Cross manga in the July issue (on sale on June 3) of Shueisha’s Ribon magazine — and start a new manga called Mistress Fortune in the same issue. The announcement was made in the current monthly issue, which was released on May 1. The magazine says this is the first time that an artist has ended a series and started a new one in the same issue. Mistress Fortune will launch with a 52-page installment, including a color insert at the beginning. There will need to be at least 10 volumes to finish The Gentlemen’s Alliance Cross in Japanese, and Viz Media will publish the sixth volume in English next month. Viz Media has also published or licensed Tanemura’s I.O.N., Full Moon wo Sagashite, Short-Tempered Melancholy, and Time Stranger Kyoko, while CMX published Kamikaze Kaitō Jeanne.

Source: Anime News Network

So it’s finally ending. To be honest, I’ve been a big fan of the series ever since I tried reading the first chapter on a whim quite a while back. The combination of awesome art, likable cast of characters and insanely dramatic turns of story have kept me hooked all this while, and the series is one of the rare ones that I actually buy the English releases of.

Honestly speaking, though, reading till the latest chapters, I do feel the ending is gonna be quite the cop-out, being already clear as day as to how it will end. Yet still, it’s been an awesome read, and I hope it will end satisfactorily.

I eagerly await Arina-sensei’s new series, and it seems like she’s going back to her fantasy roots again, with Mistress Fortune.

In the meantime, I still need to collect the rest of Full Moon wo Sagashite… orz.

Rather more serious, BAWWW episode, as the final member of the Kyouran Kazoku cast is finally incorporated in.

Himemiya Senko, Yuka’s real sister, comes back to torment her in to returning home to become their “Solitude Doll” back, as she’s pushed back in to the role. Along the way, we find out that Ginka has met her before as a child, and even promised to “save her” but he didn’t quite manage to do it until Kyouka decides to destroy the Himemiya clan to stop the brutalities.

Of course, the frenzy begins, as the Midarezaki’s totally and utterly destroy the Himemiya manor, Kyouka even putting a hole in a Mona Lisa painting after nicely using it as a deadly weapon, and they cap it off with some “big fireworks”. In the end, Senko is retested for her candidacy as a Child of Enka, and while she isn’t really one, Kyouka decides to cheat a bit, and she’s rechristened as Midarezaki Chika. めでたし～　めでたし～

This show sure keeps throwing me off and I didn’t expect such engaging drama right after the insanity of episode 1. Nevertheless it was rather good, and it managed to engender quite some sympathy in me for Chika, for being a poor victim of such abuse for all this while. I hear she’s gonna be quite awesome in the next episode from Mentar, so I’m eagerly awaiting for it.

Ginka was also pretty awesome this episode, and despite his feminity, this fella’s quite the man. I’m seeing him in a whole new light after this episode. There’s more than meets the eye about Gekka too, with that mysterious mind-invasion ability of hers, plus it’s hinted that she’s really pretty ancient as well. Wonder what’s her backstory?

Speaking of which, kudos to the Eclipse team, for actually translating the rap portions of the OP. This people really do take their jobs seriously. Keep up the good work!

Moetron reports a Lucky Star OVA in the making, courtesy of this month’s Comptiq magazine.

Mmm~~ more Kagamin~~~~ *drool*.

I WA SHOKKU! I WA SHOKKU! I WA SUGOI SHOKKU!

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