Kurogane’s Anime Blog

Wilhelmina faces off Orgone but later lets Shiro, who reveals his true form to be **The Wings of Rainbow, Merihim**, and one-hit-kills Orgone. Shana in her Flame Haze form squares off with **Tenmoku Ikkou** who reveals he became a Mistess by his own will, to find a worthy owner for his sword, **Nietono no Shana**. Shana wins and gains possesion of it.

Meanwhile, flashbacks reveal that Shiro was one of the **Tomogara** and lost to the previous **Enpatsu no Shakugan no Uchite** in a war who spares his life in return for the protection of her successor. Now that Shana has been turned into a Flame Haze, he squares off with her as a final lesson of sorts. Using his *jizaihou* , he clones himself in to 7 and uses his namesake against Shana, but intentionally losing.

Wilhelmina, patiently waiting for the outcome, is rejoiced to see Shana appearing and they both leave the **Tendoukyuu**, now crumbling into the sea. Wilhelmina takes her leave from Shana, saying it’s alright now and after a tender hug, the time leaps back to the present, where Yuuji (finally appearing, surprisingly I don’t miss him :P) asks Shana why she likes *meronpan* so much. Shana thinks a bit, but decides not to answer, playfully leaving Yuuji :).

Phew, finally reaching the end of the Flashback Arc, this was a fantastic episode and fully describes the origins of Shana’s past.Admitedlly it was confusing at first, but in the end, everything fits into place, leaving me in awe of the writers.

It seems to me that the **Enpatsu Shakugan** before Shana was quite a charismatic figure, even managing to convert Merihim, supposedly one of the strongest Tomogara, to her side. I’d like to see more of her. Wilhelmina was pretty in the garb she wore on the flashback and she seems have some interest in Merihim too ;).

Next up, a new character is introduced, ***Chouritsushi, Merihim***, whom I’m not sure is a Tomogara or Flame Haze, that seems to have some connections with Kazumi later on. Kazumi also learns the truth of the current world, it seems. And something called the Ball Mask is starting too. I’m hoping too for the KOTOKO OP to be in the next episode, which it should be, judging from normal production doctrines :).

**Added Note:** The new KOTOKO OP has been given a name, 「being」.

Continue ->

The girls are taking a bath in their personal hot spring (cue fanservice) when they discover a peeping Tom. Ayumi uses her magic but fails to get him and they discover that their undergarments have been stolen plus something apparently important to Ayumi too (a pendant). They report this to the police, however Ayumi is feeling very very down because she lost it (*ra ra lu~~ ra ra lu~~*). They scheme to lure the thief back to their house and after quite a number of attempts, they still fail.

As a last resort, everyone, including Yuri, busybody as usual, take a bath while Haruo hides outside to try and catch the pervert. However, he stumbles on not one, but a whole group of them and they take him hostage to force the girls to pose naked for them. Ayumi accepts and takes off her towel only to reveal that “**IT’S A TRAP!!!**. She uses a magical bazooka and turns them all into frogs. Later, the police reveal that the thief is not among them and Ayumi’s disappointed. She decides to leave the matter alone, causing the rest to ask what did she lose and she reveals that it’s just a pendant with Haruo’s picture that she’s keeping in her panties to make Haruo fall in love with her. Angered, Maika picks a fight with Ayumi, as usual. Later, the panties thief is revealed to be a girl (?!)……

Another hillarious episode of Magikano and I still love how they really don’t take themselves seriously.Ayumi’s depression overtly reminds me of PPD Kurumi’s little depression hum, which I have abused before in the past. The efforts to lure the thief back also reminded me of Mai HiME’s infamous *shitagi doroubo* episode and the part where Ayumi takes her towel off is made me shout “**IT’S A TRAPP!!!!**”. Yuri also made some impact with her “Methods to safe guard your home”, especially the parts involving full-sized posters of bodyguards inside the house :).

Next episode introduces the *shitagi doroubo* of this episode, a witch hunter named Nijihara Marin, apparently mistaking that Haruo’s under threat of Ayumi, whom she just found out is a mage from this episode. BTW, isn’t that a really perverted way to detect a mage, by testing their panties ^_^;;;?

Continue ->

Arisu is on her night rounds when she spots the library on fire. Rushing on to the scene, she discovers a girl burning Alice books and tries to stop her but fails. The next day, she relates her story to Aruto and the rest, when they interrupted by the appearance of the girl from yesterday. She gets stuck to Aruto, causing jealousy among the girls. Asking her name, she only replies Anderson and won’t say a word after that.

She follows them back home and stays overnight, causing Kiraha to be jealous. She tries to attack her, but fails as she’s too powerful. Arisu, Kirika rush on the scene but are still overpowered by her. Kirika speculates that she might be an Anderson-*nouryokusha* instead of an Alice-*nouryokusha*, and that she might be lost. Kisa arrives later and manages to win against her as she’s a Water element user. Unlocking her heart, Aruto reads out her story and decides not to take it, returning it back to her. The next day, they’re having lunch as usual, and she appears again, this time introducing herself as Akane.

Not exactly a good episode, but it was still fun to watch. A lot of jargon was used this time, making me quite confused, but meh, I’m not watching it for the Alice Game anyways. One thing I have to say is, the production crew really don’t seem like they’re taking this show seriously. Hope the next episode would be better. The loli twins at the end of the episodes really give out a bloody creepy vibe ~_~.

Continue ->

After a short sequence of the meeting between the **Gotei 13** Captains about the state of **Soul Society** after Aizen’s betrayal, the story resumes back to **Karakura City**, where Ichigo and Co. are trying to figure out what happened yesterday night. They break into Inoue’s apartment where they get a phone call from the kidnappers and gets lead around in a city-wide marathon. Later that night, Inoue seemingly returns with no memory of whatsoever happened, but it turns out to be a trap as the three villains of this arc introduce themselves and take Chad too as a parting gift.

Blah blah blah and blah… well, Bleach is slowly descending to filler hell. The events in this episode really make no sense other than to put in some hillarity between Ichigo and Renji. The villains haven’t really been introduced correctly, there’s no purpose introduced other than getting back their kidnapped friends and the whole thing really comes off as a joke more than anything :P.

In fact, the best parts of this episode really come after the show, with the short sequence involving Renji trying to steal some rice as he’s still hungry after being underfed by Urahara’s gang :p. I’m not seeing much hope for this arc and they’re seriously going to face problems trying to integrate this arc with the main arcs later on.

From Gainax’s Top wo Nerae! 2 site, the release date of Top wo Nerae! 2 Vol.5 has been announced to be on the 24th of March. New character descriptions and mecha designs are on the site too.

New characters seem to include a guy who’s a homage to the first Top wo Nerae Excelion’s Captain, a slippery looking Topless and Raraku seems to be restrained. New mecha’s include Buster Machines 35 and 62 \0/. I need more Nono~~~.

Well… sadly, Anime Blog Toshokan will be closed on the 1st of February, which is incidentally my birthday that day, so I’m feeling sad _|-|o”””…………………….. WHY OH WHY!!!! NOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, right! Muahahahah…..(exucse my drama queen-ness)

Actually, (the Almighty) jason has created and coded a new succesor for ABT, blog好き, an upgraded version of ABT, with more features, such as Archives, Popularity indicators(what do they call this new things anyways?) and the all-important Google(darn my inner geek-tionary)… Search function. So change your bookmarks and head on over there to enjoy :).

Sakasama no Chou out, courtesy of the guys over at Nipponsei. Get it while it’s hot, it’s release flood today \0/. I’m still waiting for Jigoku Shoujo’s and Shana’s OST to come out.

**EDIT**: Shana OST GET! I love the way they named the tracks in French. Great OST. Jigoku Shoujo OST next.

**EDIT2**: Jigoku Shoujo OST GET! Yeah, I just love this, all the creepy BGM’s rock.

Sakasama no Chou Torrent
Shana OST
Jigoku Shoujo OST Torrent

I have to say, Akamatsu-sensei’s a real expert in moé-ness. I’d just got the raws of Chapter 122 and 123 and now… I’m having a darn big crush on Ako, Kugimiya AND Chisame. He’s seriously an expert on character development, heck, he’s making me feel moé on MINOR characters. I’m not even gonna mention about major characters like Evangeline-sama and Setsuna-chan.

Now…. if someone would repair the mess that is the Negima anime(which I stopped watching, btw). For the umpteenth time, Akamatsu-sensei….. **PLEASE DON’T LET XEBEC DO YOUR WORKS ANYMORE!!!!**. Hasn’t two ruined series enough for you?

**Spoiler Images**

I sooo want that candy
Insecurity + big scar on back…. I’m sold.
This is Chisame? \*nosebleeds\*
Kugimin slap
The ultimate moé factor - tears

YES!!! IT’S OUT!! Well, not the DVD version, but the pre-release airing over TV, so quality isn’t top-notch, but still, really really good.
The first OVA mainly focuses on events in the first volume of the manga, which is the introduction of the characters, Seras Victoria’s induction into Hellsing and the infamous fight between Alucard and Alexander. Fans of the Hellsing series will no doubt have no need for summaries for this.

First of all, Hellsing Ultimate is more faithful to the manga’s style, with the art closely following Kouta-sensei’s style rather than the earlier TV series.This is most noted by the inclusion of the funny SD sequence in the middle of the episode, closely mirroring Kouta-sensei’s liking for including in SD sequences in non-action parts of the story.The animation is great, as expected and the action sequences are fantastic to behold as well.

However, there are a few down points as well, which is the general feeling of it being rushed. Seras’s induction to Hellsing was cut to only a few short moments and the action then jumps to the first Alucard vs Alexander fight. There wasn’t too much focus on Seras, but this is in accordance to the manga, although I would’ve liked it if they introduced her properly. I suspect there are parts cut off to fit in the TV screening as this episode only ran for 27 minutes rather than the reported 35 minutes. I guess we’ll have to wait for the DVD to come out to compare.
Ok, just read from the Animesuki forums that this is supposed to be a “digest” version of the OVA, whihc pretty much confirms my thoughts :). I’ll cover the DVD as well, when it’s released on the 10th later.

One more disappointment was the new soundtrack. I was hoping for the reuse of the original TV series soundtrack as any decent Hellsing fan worth his salt would tell you that it was the only high point of the Gonzo production. The new soundtrack is OK, but not as impressive as the TV series’ one :(.

I had a field day taking screenshots, so enjoy the 135 I took. It took me quite a while to crop it to that figure from the original 300+ I took :).

Continue ->

Another introduction episode (seriously, I keep forgetting their names :P), with Mamoru’s distant relative, Hattori Yamame, coming over for a visit. Yamame mistakes Mamoru for a useless pervert because of how different(a.k.a how ugly) he is from when he was young. Later, she gets into trouble with the local mafia boss (I pity the guy) who’s employed a new underling, Chim Panji (yes, it rhymes with Chimpanzee), who uses some funny Animal Style and hypnosis on Yamame, turning her into a nekomimi fighter (:rollseyes). In the end, he’s defeated and the next day, Yamame transfers in too.

Well, nothing innovative, but it’s still fun to see Yuuna and Tsubaki, especially Tsubaki’s cameos involving her training with the sword and tennis racket, which really is quite a showstealer :) . Yuuna’s wordplays and action still boggles and humours as usual.

Yamame provides the loli factor in the equation of Mamoru’s harem, and Ai Shimizu does an OK job voicing her, though not as noticable as her other roles. IMO, we need more Tsubaki :).

Next episode is an idol contest (again?) with more hijinks by the rest of the cast. I gleefully await more of Tsubaki, she’s just sooo cute and moé :). With that, this wraps up this week’s backlog, phew.