Kurogane’s Anime Blog

After the events of the last episode, Fumihiko is depressed as he feels like he’d just asked her to sleep with him.Going to work, he’s all fired up until he’s called by his boss. Expecting the worst, he finds out it’s just only that his boss is assigning him some work on a CM involving a new product with a mascot called Nekokino(Cat Tree) and he’s involved in the *seiyuu* auditions for it.

He meets Aka at the audition, who’s here with her manager. She does a fine job and later Fumihiko pesters his boss on who was selected and is overjoyed when he finds out Aka was chosen. Feeling happy, he returns home with groceries and is surprised to find Aka sitting outside his door. Both of them then have dinner and Fumihiko turns into a dickhead, expecting the same treatment like yesterday, only to be dealt a killing blow by Aka, saying that yesterday was only a one time incident.

Second episode of REC, and I see some people have been turned off by the first episode. For me, it’s not so bad, and REC is slowly shaping to be a sweet and short story. I do hope they continue on with this pace. Besides, Aka’s quite cute too ;).

Ah… Sunrise seems to be back in their best form with this episode. I greatly enjoyed this episode for the noticeble lack of Arika, thank god.

Highlights:

- Nao-sama!!!!!
- Natsuki with the snake.
- Haruka and Yukino. To Yukino: Nice one !!! :thumbsup:
- Miyu’s appearance. Her coin throwing techniqure reminded me of Tatsumiya Mana from Negima.

Service aside, this episode was quite a shocker as well, for Aoi-chan (assumed) death. I didn’t expected her to be given the death treatment, and it was quite poignant as well, with her death well fitting in her character and I highly respected her for being loyal to the end. I guess this kinda makes Aoi the new Akane :p. We need more of her >.<.

Mashiro has also quite suffered in this episode and I’m starting to like and feel sorry for her. Meanwhile, Arika seems to be as darn carefree as usual with the little cameo she had at the end. I sure hope they don’t go use the “big-impact-caused-loss-of-memory” plot line.

Next episode seems to have quite a lot of things going on, but we’ll see. I’m still waiting for Mai to make her appearance and kick Arinko’s ass. Oh, and the new black uniform seems pretty cool.

Yasuna finally reveals her secret of not being able to see boys in this episode and it culminates to the kiss sequence that was in the first episode. This should probably revise some opinions on Yasuna hating.

I don’t really feel like going into the drama of this episode, but I have to say it’s done pretty good, with the build-up paced well. The impact of the kiss is also felt, and Yui Horie is strutting some serious muscle here with her Yasuna too. It’s been such a long time (first time,maybe?) that I’ve seen in this roles.

Personally for me, I’m pretty happy with the pace the show is progressing, and after this part, there should be quite some funny and more lighthearted parts to come, if they follow the manga, which coincidentally at the latest chapter I’m reading (Ch. 17) has taken a turn for the serious.

Asuta is really at the short end of the stick here though, but I really can’t blame him. If I’d were him, I’d be hitting on Hazumu too ;). The usual humour providers are doing their jobs well too, though I’m really seriously disturbed by Hazumu’s perverted father =.= .

The gang is doing research on Takion when an invitation drops out from a book asking them to the library. Accepting it, they’re lured apart and separated into two worlds, with Kiraha, Kisa and Kirika in a surreal world populated by crayon animals that chase them, while Arisu and Aruto are in a Forest of Alphabets, with both apparently settings from the Alice story.

Aruto is trapped in a vine cage and can’t be released unless they both kiss from the bottom of their hearts, as in the story. Their first kiss doesn’t work as both are equally embarassed and they try again later, finally breaking the vine cage. The gang find themselves in a room full of mementos and stuff from Alternate L.Takion and are fascinated by it until they’re interrupted by the librarian. She brings them to see the guy who’s supposedly Takion, but he introduces himself as Alice Master, overseeing the affairs of the Alice-nouryokusha battles. He asks for Aruto’s help with the third Alice book, the Endless Alice, which he gladly accepts.Back home, each of them recount their experiences and Kiraha learns about the kiss. Meanwhile, the librarian questions her Master about his purpose of doing that, to which he replies that Aruto’s power has some worth to be used.

Finally, some development, but it’s still kinda boring. It was kinda fun to see the surreal crayon world though, and some of the settings in this episode kinda reminded me of those in the old fairytales. The best part about the show is still it’s background music, sadly though.

I think I’ll just finish through this anyways, it’s not that hateble yet. Next episode would probably deal with Aruto and Arisu’s growing feelings and Kiraha’s jealousy.

God… another ass-crazy episode of Magikano. Nogawa Sakura is in her top form with this episode, with her hillarious voice acting. Other highlights:

- HazukiNekomimi ghost kicking the crap out of everyone until Fuyuno deals her critical damage in the form of multiple*sukuru mizugi*.
- Maika freaking out on discovering that Haruo only has his skin left.
- Hajime now has chicken sounds when he appears and talks.

Next episode, another new character is intro’d, which is another *meido* that really reminds me of Tachibana from Mahoraba.

Got these off danbooru recently. It’s apparently a outline for an alternate reality bishoujo dating game based on the Rozen Maiden characters. I find it pretty interesting and quite good too. I so hope they can turn it into a game or even better, an anime as a spinoff :P.

*(Continue on for the lowdown)*

Continue ->

Kazumi decides to use the eyepiece on Yuuji the next day to confirm if he’s either a Torch or not, while Shana is excited on the upcoming festival and her plans to surprise Yuuji with her *yukata*. Eita and Satou meanwhile, are training hard to persuade Marjery to take them with her when she leaves town and Marjery pulls out a big sword, sticking it into the ground as a test for them.

In school, Sakai confirms with Kazumi and sets a time for them to go for the festival, while Khamsim is planting rods around the city to tune the city back in balance, while he comments that there’s something not right with the town. At home, Shana and Chigusa are getting ready for the festival, only waiting for Yuuji to come back home.

Meanwhile, Sakai is waiting for Kazumi and thinking about how hard it’s going to be when he leaves the town that has been his home. Kazumi arrives and they both head off to the festival, while Shana is still waiting futilely for Yuuji’s return.Chigusa then suggests that Sakai might’ve headed off somewhere with his friends and suggests to Shana that they head to the festival first and try to find Yuuji there.

At the festival, Yuuji is buying some candy apples for Kazumi and Kazumi decides to use the opportunity to use the eyepiece on him.Nervously holding up the eyepiece to her eyes, she finally finds out that Yuuji is a Torch and receives the shock of her life. In the background, however, the mad scientist Tomogara has launched his *jizaishiki* from the numerous bird statues around town, enveloping the whole city in it.

This immediately makes the “aware of the Tomogara” group (for the lack of a better term, sorry) to take action, with Shana asking Chigusa to return home then finding Yuuji while Tanaka and Satou are going to find the location of the Tomogara using Friagne’s *Hougu*. Shana finds Yuuji and Kazumi together and stops Yuuji from chasing after Kazumi when she runs off, saying it’s more important to deal with the impending situation first and Kazumi is not important. This angers Yuuji and he scolds Shana, leaving her in tears, while Yuuji chases after Kazumi. Crying, Shana runs off too and bumps in to Khamsim.

After some time crying, Shana calms down. Khamsim explains that to stop the *jizaishiki*, he only needs to start the tuning process as he’s done setting it up, only needing Kazumi to start the spell. Shana is startled to hear Kazumi’s name and decides to find her and bring her to Khamsim, reassuring Alastor that she’ll perform her Flame Haze duties, but remarks it’s painful in her heart.

The mad scientist starts his second phase of his plan, starting up the bird statues around town to attack the Flame Haze and any obstacles. Seeing that happen, Marjery immediately summons a *fuuzetsu* and starts destroying the birds. Yuuji bumps into Satou who’s getting attacked by the birds, surprised to see him able to move but saves him in the nick of time. Kazumi is also getting attacked by the birds but Shana saves her, surprising Kazumi.

Again, a great episode of Shana and I’m starting to really get attached to the fine balance of action and development they’re having right now, with everyone getting their screentime.Quite a few skeletons in the closet are revealed today, as the “aware of the Tomogara group” finally meet each other, with Kazumi knowing now that Yuuji is a Torch and Shana is a Flame Haze, while Yuuji meets up with Satou.

There’s also quite some service to us fanboys for this episode, as we get to see almost everyone in a *yukata*, especially Shana herself in the awesomely cool red *yukata* which fits her Flame Haze hair perfectly, I was touched. Kazumi’s shocked expressions this episode was quite good as well, instantly conveying her feelings to us.

Most of all, it was great to see Shana this episode, as she expressed a wide range of different emotions in this episode, ranging from her girlish excitement in the beginning, to her tears after Yuuji’s scolding and then down to her serious look when she performs her Flame Haze duties. Shana is both showing maturity beyond her age (not her Flame Haze age, mind you) and yet retains a touch of childishness which she had discarded early on and reemerged recently with her life with Yuuji.

Shana is proving itself to be a wholly great series now and I just can’t wait for the next episode, for the aftermath of the fight and how all the intricate webs of relationships that have been spun to resolve themselves. Meanwhile, I’ll just content myself with listening to Aka no Seijaku over and over again.

Thank god I have good friends.

At least for now, I’m not going to have SIDS anymore as my friend lent me his laptop, after the failures outlined in my earlier post.

Of course, restrictions apply, both direct (no abuse of BT on his laptop, minimal downloads allowed) and indirect(limited disk space, screwed up Japanese support) but it should serve well for me until my PC’s back. At the least, I still can catch Shana, Hazumu and Rin ;).

A really big thanks of appreciation from me goes to him for his help to me and his patience with dealing a loli-tsunderekko-boyturnedgirl fanboy :).

Not as irritating as the last episode, mostly due to the comedy involved. The whole setup of disappearing schoolmates was also much more easier to stomach than last week’s infinite looping rooms, with a (phew!) notable lack of melodrama.

Highlights include:

- Ichigo and Renji’s little *”shounen-ai”* hints.
- Ishida’s uber 1337 sewing skills.
- Lack of Ririn’s incredibly annoying giggles and more of her seiyuu’s talent out.

The little cameo by Soi Fong and Yoruichi was a bit illogical though.

\*Edited for truth after about erm… 347254895838 times listening to it.\*

The single just came out, switching on my fanboy mode, since Aka no Seijaku has been the only song on my playlist that has reached heights never before seen on the play count.

I have mixed feelings on the single itself though, it’s totally different in feel and beat compared to the TV version, yet by it’s own it still sounds excellent. I guess I’m just a bit disappointed the TV version feel isn’t there :P.

In all,pretty great one of the best singles , get it here.