Kurogane’s Anime Blog

“Nandeyanen!”

Kotomi arc, yay! A tennen Noto Mamiko is fine too. KyoAni wastes no time to come back with it’s comedic awesomeness, with this episode of CLANNAD.

Best parts:

• Kyou running over Tomoya again, with her scooter. Oh man, Kyou is so deadly.
• Kotomi and Nagisa’s “conversation” ^^;;;
• Kotomi Friend-making Attempt #1: Kyou; who totally scares Kotomi off.
• Kotomi going “Nandeyanen” in that deadpan voice. Even Osaka would find it hard to match that up.
• Kotomi Friend-making Attempt #2: Ryou; who predicts that Kotomi won’t make friends orz.
• Kotomi Friend-making Attempt #3: Pedo.. I mean, Tomoyo; instant friends due to kigurumi outfit.
• Kyou’s admirable tsukkomi of Tomoya.
• Kotomi’s violin playing is a deadly weapon.

Aside from Kotomi’s story, there’s also hints of Kyou and Ryou’s arc as well this episode, with some of Kyou’s off-hand comments. Looks like they might merge some of Kyou and Ryou’s story together with Kotomi’s one, and resolve it right after Kotomi’s story is done.

Screencaps gallery after the jump.

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Really interesting episode of Ninomiya-kun this week.

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Just acquired the DVD’s for this year’s Animelo 2007. “Wow it was awesome” just begs to be said.

Best parts of the concert has to be, hands down, the three duet performances. The first one, opening up the concert was Rinbu Revolution duet by Masami Okui and Nana Mizuki, coordinated amirably and giving the audience a brief glimpse of the amazingness to come. The next duet, ALI PROJECT and Nana Mizuki singing Seishoujo Ryouiki is the sole reason why I lusted to watch this concert, after watching it thanks to a friend. And the last one was Ushiro-yubi Sasare-gumi duet by Minami Kuribayashi and Halko Momoi… where they both cosplayed in seifuku to add up to it…

On to the individual perfomances, my favourites include JAM Project’s, Nana Mizuki’s and Chihara Minori’s. JAM PROJECT’s performance was definitely as awesome as their songs are, can’t help but to feel really burned up when they were performing. Nana Mizuki needs no further introduction, as she’s definitely the best single performer of the concert in terms of singing and energy level. She’s no newcomer to Budokan (the venue) as well, and she definitely uses up the stage areas fully. Coming close behind her is Chihara Minori, singing out her two songs, Junpaku Sanctuary and Kimi ga Kureta Ano Hi, with a gracefulness that she only she can exude out fully. Ahh… truly like a real lady.

Other good performers include Momoi Halko, with her signature voice, singing Romantic Summer. Takahashi Yoko also participated, singing a medley of Tamashii no Refrain and Cruel Angel Thesis, kinda wanted her to also perform Yoake Umarekuru Shoujo. ALI PROJECT sung Yuukyou Seishunka, Ankoku Tengoku and Hizamazuite Ashi o Oname in their unique way :P. Suara wow’ed me with her live renditions of Musouka and Kimi ga Tame.

Aya Hirano was also guest performing one song for Animelo, Bouken Desho Deshou ~punk version~. Immediately noticeable is her increased confidence in performing live, and she did perform really well, unlike her back in the Haruhi concert. Unfortunately, the song still kinda sucks. Well, let’s just say Aya Hirano’s current image isn’t at all to my taste…*coughahliancough*.

In conclusion, really awesome concert. Really wished I could’ve been there, but too bad :(.

Ooo…Evil Elis.

NIGHT WIZARD’s getting interesting now. I expected a major plot twist because they were collecting the jewels too fast, and NIGHT WIZARD delivers it nicely. Now that Hiiragi and Elis are getting persecuted by both sides, expect quite some emo-ness when they start to face off their own allies. Damn, wanted more Bell Zephyr actually…

Gotta LOL at poor Hiiragi getting thrown down to Earth. Best thing was how Kirihito goes right after that, “It’s just atmosphere reentry…”

Ouch, Saki-san. Ouch.

Next week is gonna be lol, with Ohno’s otaku friends from the US coming to visit. Kawasumi Ayako speaking in English… I wonder how.

The show finally starts to get serious about the ongoing plot threads.

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Angry Kagura :o

Wow, not a bad episode this time.

First half was dedicated to some background history and discussion between (mmm yummy-yummy) Echo and Kisarov about the current state of affairds and such, while the rest of the gang go look around for Priecia. Angry Kagura is <3. Bridget bumps in to Theresa in town and finds out the location of Priecia, so Karin and Hyaweh head over to look for her.

Second half was the awesome part, where Karin faces off with Theresa, who transforms in to Sister Hell. LOL henshin sequence. Karin gets totally pwned, so Priecia and Hyaweh steps in, with Priecia doing most of the fighting, due to Hyaweh still being injured. Priecia has a hard time, but after some encouragement, she executes her deadly attack, Mirage Rush, and manages to blow off Sister Hell’s clothes off (lol).

The fight is interrupted by the Black Knight appearing to kill Hyaweh, who holds the Arc-Gladius, and Priecia tries to stop him but fails, but the sight of the pocket watch worn by Priecia stops the Black Knight for a moment as he recalls some past memories. He regains his senses and tries again to kill Hyaweh, but Hyaweh manages to deal a fatal blow to him, and he retreats, possibly along with Sister Hell.

The next morning, Priecia wakes and the rest of the gang finally manages to find them. Hyaweh passes to Priecia the cross made the orphans under the care of Theresa, telling her that Theresa will accept it someday later from her hand, and Priecia comments that she has another promise to fulfill again.

Impressive episode actually, thanks to the show of fireworks from both Priecia and Sister Hell. Undoubtedly, I did pick up this show for the promise of awesome fights, and I have been consistently let down lately by it, but thankfully they’ve not done so this time. That being said, Sister Hell pole dancing on the cross and her henshin are definitely the most “WTF” moments ever in this show, mainly because I was expecting her to be more serious.

A ton of plot development this episode though, with the revelation of Hyaweh’s origins, Sister Hell’s tragic past, and hints of the Black Knight’s true identity being Priecia’s father. Can’t say they’re in time, but at least they still have 3 more episodes to try and wrap the story up. Hope the production team won’t disappoint me. Well, as long as they put in enough fights like in this episode’s one, I’m happy enough.

Mahou Shoujo Sister Hell

As expected from Lockon.

Whew, after the mess that was episode eight, episode nine redeems my trust in this series a bit.

Celestial Being finally gets in to a pinch of their own, and frankly, seeing the Gundams kick ass out of everyone was beginning to get boring, so this makes for a nice change and most of all, this episode portrays them as more “human” as well too. Wonder how will Sumeragi will fare against Sergei, who seems to be master of sneaky but effective tactics.

Also, it’s revealed that the Gundam Meisters current names are just codenames, quite logical considering the illogical names that some of them have. I appreciated the character development between Lockon, or Neil, his real name is, and Felt. I do hope they’ll be able to handle it better than…uh, Setsuna and Marina’s relationship, which is definitely screwed up.

One part I still don’t get though, is how Saji and Louise fit in to all this. I get they’re trying to show a contrast between the “normal people” and the ones who are fighting… but really, they seem just to be there for the sheer comic relief that Louise provides with her abuse of Saji :P.

Suddenly, my life feels a little bit complete now.

/r/ Nana Mizuki cover versions of Seishoujo Ryouiki and Kinjirareta Asobi. Damn, Nana-chan wins.

End of Margery’s flashback mini-arc. In essence, poor Yuri got sacrificed to allow Margery and Sydonay stop their fight. Quite a weak episode actually, the fights weren’t that wow-inducing as well.

Anyways, it’s now discovered that Yuuji’s flame is silver in color. Expect a confrontation between him and Margery sometime soon, with Shana getting in the mix as well.

Next episode, school festival and Yuuji’s father’s first appearance. Yes, Chigusa still has a husband. This is going to be interesting.

P.S. I have no idea what caused the blog downtime earlier today.