Kurogane’s Anime Blog

… is quite a pretty awesome experience, more especially when you rent a whole cinema hall for it and watch it with one of the biggest weaboo gatherings locally. No offense, AS’ers :).

Operation Yashima on the big screen is definitely pretty darn awesome, as well as pretty much seeing all the new CG pimpage by Anno. Sadly enough, they censored TEH REI, but I guess it was kinda expected. I’m still surprised the censored the plugsuit changing scene though. Also, FAIL FOR NO MISATO “SABI~SU, SAA~BISU!!”

Also went to Bon Odori at Matsushita Stadium. Pretty much the same old, same old, but I did get to meet a very good friend and catch up on times with him, so it made up for it I guess. Sorry for the lack of pictures though, I still don’t have my own camera. If anyone would like to donate $1 to Kuro’s Camera Fund, you can send it to my Paypal, lol.

Yes, a pretty entertaining first episode. This is one of the shows I’ve been more interested in this season, mainly because Noto-sama is playing the lead heroine role, and god knows how long it’s been since she has had one (okay, Kanokon does count as one, but she was doing a male character) (oh crap, I forgot about Mnemosyne too, but it’s largely forgettable) . A big plus as well is that she’s playing a much more talkative character than what she usually does.

Anyways, I was pretty worried I wouldn’t like the show, mainly because incongruity of Nogizaka Haruka’s character, whose supposed to be an elegant ojou-sama admired by the whole school but she’s actually quite the airhead and, the selling point of the show, an otaku as well. I was worried that the awkward combination would prove to be rather offputting for me, but thankfully, it seems the production team and Noto-sama have struck quite a fine balance of the various aspects of Haruka’s character, so that no one trait actually overwhelms the other. Granted, the first 10 mins of the show wasn’t really that good, but the second half of it when Haruka asks Yuuto’s help and their subsequent interaction pretty much redeemed it nicely, especially with Haruka’s “you’re a strange guy” banter, which is pretty ironic coming from her. Also, Haruka’s “awawawawa~” nearly knocked me off my cuteness scale.

On other aspects, the show is pretty much your standard rom-com fare, with all the pre-requisite characters in place, such as Yuto’s hot but constantly drunk older sister, the weird friend, a general lack of parents around and even a sekuhara teacher as well, wonderfully played by Miyu Matsuki again (oh god Yoshinoya-sensei is hawt). There’s even gonna be a harem of meido’s from Haruka’s side as well, so there should be no shortage of moé-moé exposure to relish on in this show. The “show-in-a-show” they’re doing for Nogizaka Haruka sounds kinda boring and clichéd though… I wonder why they always use mahou-shoujo shows for those. In the real world… it’s more likely to be something from Shounen Jump.

The OP was pretty much swimsuit pimping, and that white bikini piece that Haruka wears fits her so well, it’s kinda scary.The song sounded quite serious for a show in this genre, but it’s okay I guess. The ED was pretty cute too, with dancing meidos and Haruka, and some weird filler animation. Strangely enough, the chorus of Kana Ueda, Mai Goto, Rina Satou, Kaori Shimizu, Mamiko Noto sounded like Yuka Goto’s voice to me.

Uh, no screencaps or whatever this time round because I’m crazily busy in real life this few days. In fact, I had to steal some time out to watch this episode.

Anyways, this episode was pretty much the mecha fighting episode to make sure it remains a Macross series, and oh boy, there was quite some homage going on around here. I think I spotted a Diamond Force in the MacF fleet and Alto went all crazy on the missile spammage, made even more epic with the nuke warheads. Alto also got seriously powered up, mostly due to worrying about Ranka, and he sports some slick moves in the fights this week.

That said, there was almost no plot development at all this episode, and frankly, I feel like they’re getting lost about it as well. They’re still introducing a lot of questions concerning the background of Macross F world, whatnot with the Vajra, the sudden revelation of the “SDF-class ships” (that look exactly like the original, although they never did say anything about the existence of this class before) and also the connections back to Zero. Even the secret of Aimo is still up in the air, even though wiki said it was gonna be revealed this week. Then there’s also Brera and Grace….

At the least, Sheryl had some limited screentime, and thankfully, her character is now more endearing to me since they’ve chosen to not make her dwell so much about her budding crush on Alto being ruined by jealousy. I especially liked it when she took control of the VF-25 when Michel got knocked out, preferring to make a dash for it than becoming sitting ducks. Thankfully, Alto made a nice appearance, saving her, although I wonder did Michel got rescued as well?

Anyways, next week seems to be a more lighter episode, and I am very glad for that, because that’s one thing I believe that MacF is still good at. I think at this point, we all would seriously love some new songs from the show and Sheryl, and the announced 2nd OP and ED are already quite overdue for a 2-cour show, don’tcha think? Maa~ I’m gonna cross my fingers and hope for the best.

“It’s been a while since we had some “skinship”, Master”

Continue ->

Oh god. No. NO. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

WHY SUNRISE? WHY?!!!! IS THIS HOW YOU MAKE UP FOR THE CRAPPY PAST FEW EPISODES? WHY SHIRLEY?!!! WHY?!!!!!!!!!!

Continue ->

Wow, I’m really slow, but I just knew about the Nia Portraits artbook. God damn, I’m really tempted to buy it now. Niaaaaa!!!!!!!!!

I really hope someone (maybe Ningen, XD) makes some nice wallpapers out of the pictures in the book, especially the one with the adult and loli Nia together :). Man, that portrait is really awesome.

Intense episode this week.

Continue ->

Much “BAWWWWWWW!!!!” in this episode. Poor Yume T.T

Bye bye, Yoshiyuki, for a week or so.

I’ll be so glad once this show is over.

Chibi Kou and Chibi Kuu are kinda fine too.

School uniform Kuu was kinda cute as well, not to mention Kuu knows really well how to capitalize on it. Free food all round woot!

Tama-chan’s appearance was kinda random too. Tooru’s nicknaming skills are kinda cutely funny.

Also, oh wow, Itou Shizuka singing!

“Shit, I’m gonna need a whole ton of Viagra for that.”

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Dear god, Geass is slowly becoming a comedy. God damn it, Ninja Sayoko made me die laughing and I had to use a Phoenix Down to continue the episode past the 3rd minute. “Assuming three hours of sleep, I’ve made appointments with 108 girls. There’s a six month waiting list for dates as well.”… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Poor, poor Lelouch. Sayoko sure has a “fine grasp” on his character, LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL.

Okay, calming down now, there was also the “Cupid Party” event held by Millay, and it was rather LULZ too, especially when Anya came out WITH her Mordred to capture Lelouch. Dear god, these people don’t have anything called common sense. I’m starting to think that the show is slowly jumping the shark here, which is not really a good thing in the long run. But for now, the epic LULZ was kinda enjoyable, despite the sheer incongruity of the whole episode.

Well, on the serious side of things (a lame attempt to not waste this episode), we got glimpses of the Brittanian royalty, with some of the hitherto-unknown princes and princesses and the Knight of One introduced, over a talk of declaring war on the Chinese Federation as a payback for the humiliation Odysseus received.

Cornelia also makes her much awaited appearance as well, and she’s shown to be investigating the “Order” that researches Geass users, making her way to the site in China where Jeremiah was brought to by V.V., meeting up with the bald guy who keeps saying something about “committing the greatest crime against humanity”. Orange-kun himself has also gained quite the upgrade as well, as he now has the Geass Canceller ability.

In short, they’re continuing to make a mess of the overall plot, while resorting to cheap thrills and LULZ to keep the audience watching. Sure it does kinda work in the short run, but in the end, the story isn’t gonna make any real sense at all. It’s like the production team doesn’t have a real plan for the series now at all, which is really kinda sad.