Kurogane’s Anime Blog

Yes, the official airing isn’t till tomorrow morning, but there was a Nico special airing earlier.

AkaSaka is your standard VN-anime adapatation, centering on romance and girls, and it clearly shows in the episode. Long story short, boy meets girl, does something stupid to said girl making her angry, and now boy has to live with girl. Simple is always best, amirite? I must point out that the episode starts off rather unexpectedly with guns and explosions before going in to the real deal though. I have no idea what was that about though.

Eh.. impressions wise, this looks like a nice romance show if they pull it off wisely. Pacing was quite good, no abrupt introductions or crazy scenes until the part where guy makes said girl mad. Our lead, Nagase Junichi (Junichi again?!) is quite the badass, even having a “Genokiller” legend attributed to him during his middle school days. He seems to be a bit impulsive when dealing with girls though.

On to the girls, we have quite a pantheon here. Main girl, Katagiri Yuuhi, is a full ojou-sama, and played with Rie Kugimiya. Kinda awesome hearing a polite Rie Kugimiya. She’s done so many tsundere roles, I got rather surprised when I didn’t hear her raise her voice nearly the whole episode, instead speaking in a really soft and polite tones. Of course, it isn’t Kugyuu if it ain’t tsun-tsun, so the inevitable happens near the end. I just hope it’s not gonna end up like Shana, Nagi or Louise type tsun though. We already have Toradora for that this season.

Then we have imouto Nagase Minato, who looks exceedingly like Nanoha with that one-sided pigtail hairstyle.

It was sure weird to hear Hirano’s voice from her though, even more so when I suspect Aaya’s trying to imitate a bit of Yukarin in her voicing has Minato… or maybe I’m just overlapping the images of Nanoha and her together a bit too much. She’s the serious type, doing all the housework and chastising her brother.

Another one introduced is Ayanokouji Karen, voiced by (surprise!) Emiri Katou. She’s the stuck-up ojou-sama. Tsukasa Kiryuu(Inoue Marina) is the active classmate, while Shiina Mitsuki(Rie Tanaka) is the student council leader. Not much screentime for the three of them. Mitsuki’s hairstyle is… interesting though.

Fresh off the presses, the first show of Fall is a shoujo show. It’s actually interesting enough for me to talk about it. I won’t be reinventing the wheel, so summary + screencaps can be found here.

First and foremost, this is a shoujo show, and takes itself seriously at that, which actually makes it pretty damned funny whenever the “sparklies” and eye-closeups happen. In fact, there is one scene of our lead guy punching a thug WITH THE SPARKLIES EFFECT used (screencap no.14 in above-mentioned link). God, I haven’t been able to stomach those very well, most especially when they actually take themselves seriously while doing that.

So why am I liking it? Two things, Lydia, our main heroine, pretty character design and also her seiyuu, Nana Mizuki, who is sounding like her Kotoko role in ItaKiss, only less stupid and more ojousama-ish. C’mon, Nana + ojou-sama = win, amirite guys (actually, girls).

Story-wise, it seems interesting enough, what with the bad boy hero kidnapping coercing our innocent heroine to help him on his quest because of her special powers. Based on the predicted episode count of 12/13, this sounds just right enough for character development and 1-2 fillers before ending the plot with a premonition of a second season (since the series has like 15 novel volumes under it) which they will do assuming the DVD sales reach target. Oh wait, rambling off topic here a bit already.

Verdict: Interesting enough, and Nana sounds really awesome on this, so giving it a try. Hopefully they don’t go overboard with the sparklies. It’s bad enough trying to tolerate Hikaru Midorikawa’s voice.

( ﾟдﾟ)

Lelouch!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;AAAAAAAAAAAA;

Oh god, he meant to commit suicide all along. Shit I’ve gotta admit I shed a tear for him.

R2’s ending just redeemed most of the stupidity of the past few episodes well enough for me.

Finally, a small little troll by Sunrise.

Orange in an orange farm!

Also he ends up with Anya. WTFUX?!

P.S. : As for the others…

• Kallen lives back with her mom and pulls a Rei on the way to school
• Milly is still a newscaster.
• Nunnally is now the Empress. Suzaku becomes Zero. Ougi I guess becomes the Sec-Gen of the UFN.
• Everyone blames Lelouch (Maou Lelouch LOL) for everything, so the world is peaceful now.
• Tamaki runs a bar. A BAR! Bartender Tamaki HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
• Ougi and Villetta marry, Japanese style.
• Damocles burns up in the sun. Stupid decision if you ask me. They could’ve recycled it instead.
• C.C. resumes travelling. God she sure loves Cheese-kun. She does her Marianne-thing to Lelouch but the dialogue is vague enough to make you think she’s also talking to herself.

The rest I can’t see since the raw is HorribleRaws. Waiting for the HD ones now.

P.S. 2: Man, this is sooo CLAMP-ish.

P.S. 3: StoleBorrowed Omni’s caps. God I just love that guy. Here’s the two pics I was talking about.

Interesting pictures here. Why do I see Diethard there lol? Also, Tamaki trying to put the moves on to Hong Gu (is that her name?) was LOL. The bottom right pic is even weirder. Gino and Tianzi together LOLWUT? Gino ish a rorikon?

And finally, Ohgi’s wedding pics. Notably absent is Xingke, so I wager he finally kicked the bucket. Tianzi looks OH-SO-CUTE-OMOCHIKAERITAIII!! as the bridesmaid. Anya looks positively drunk or that is just sheer QUALITY and I can’t believe that SERIOUSLY MINOR CHARACTER (next to Rivalz) actually appeared in the pic as well! The Ikaruga bridge bunnies also managed to survive unharmed too.

Looks like Toudou and Chiba hooked up as well, good for her. Other couplings seem to be Gino and Kallen, Lloyd and Cecile while Cornelia and Guildford probably still have that awkward “I-love-you-but-we-not-the-same-class” kinda relationship there, judging from the body language. Guildford smile sure looks QUALITY as well.

Rewatched the episode. 4 times in fact. In HD glory. I can’t stop listening to the medley, god damn it.

You gotta admit, despite the inconclusiveness of the love triangle (god I feel so damn trolled), the mecha porn was good. Damn good. Especially with that medley. The part where Alto becomes so angry that he breaks his helmet was just awesome. “HITORI DAKARA KOSO! DAREKA WO! AISHETERUNDAAAAA!!!” At least Lion was used properly.

I wish they will put that medley as a track on the second OST. I might just be suckered enough in to buying it for the keeps.

Now, I just hope we get more details of the MacF movie. I guess details will be announced in the upcoming magazines. Will it be a true sequel or “historical movie”? God, if they do a sequel, I hope it’s not gonna be like this episode. I can’t take more of this trolling!

Finally, Sheryl’s (ﾉゝ∀･)~キラ☆ was just so awesome. So so so so awesome.

Final episode! It pretty much ends with a happy ending so no point summarizing. Highlight of the episode was Yuto and Haruka almost going straight for the home run, if they weren’t careless and forgot to lock the damn doors again (or do those doors never have locks in the first place?!). That part sure got my blood pressure running up high, haha. Also, Haruka in twin pigtails was just so cute~

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So eh, since some one posted it up on 4chan, might as well post this up for posterity.

DO NOT FUCKING COMPLAIN ABOUT GETTING SPOILED IF YOU READ THIS. I’ve put enough safe guards in place, so unless you WANT TO BE SPOILED, you CAN’T BE SPOILED.

4ch-translated 2ch spoilers omgwtfroflol ▼

Impressions? Sounds pretty fake to me, but sometimes, reality is far stranger than fiction so we’ll see if this really IS the final episode of Geass on Sunday. I wonder if which ending will be the better troll? MacF’s or Code Geass R2’s.

• Battle Frontier almost suffers a direct hit from a Vajra warship. Quarter bails them out at the last minute.
• Alto didn’t die because he escaped his unit and remote controlled it using his suit while hiding in the wreckage of a battleship. God damn it, we didn’t think of remote control! He further tells Quarter to shoot the giant Ranka which reveals it’s true form; Battle Galaxy.
• Leon gets arrested on assasinating President Glass when Cathy breaks it out.
• Grace interfaces with the Queen. Galaxy simultaneously launches multiple Ghosts to help counter the attack by Frontier and Quarter.
• Alto gets a special delivery from Klan (LOLI IN A VALKYRIE!!!); his VF-25. Empowered by both Sheryl and his VF-25, Alto rejoins the fight.
• Ozma: “TOTSUGEKI LOVE HEART!!!” ROFL
• Battle commences in full ferocity. Alto calls out to Ranka using the fold quartz earring.
• Grace finally controls the Queen and she uses it to gain full control on the Vajra and she sends Vajra attackers to Macross 11 (why only that ship?) and to Earth as well.
• Interesting tidbit: Tori no Hito from MacZero is actually Vajra as well?
• Under control by Grace, the Vajra launch a ferocious barrage to our heroes. Sheryl collapses in the attack and her hair turns grey.
• In midst of the despair, Ranka’s voice is heard. Brera, now finally freed from his slave system, tells her to sing her heart out. Ranka’s voice manage to reach the Vajra and they go back under her control.
• In fold-space, Ranka calls out to Sheryl. Sheryl says that her job is finished and Ranka slaps her (WTF!!!!). Ranka tells her to not to give up and Alto echoes the same thing. Ranka magically moves the V-type virii from her brain to her stomach, and Sheryl is revived.
• Ranka-Sheryl medley begins, with nearly all their songs making an appearance. Accompanied by this medley, Quarter punches a hole in Galaxy for Alto to rescue Ranka. Oh god, My Boyfriend is a Pilot -Sheryl ver.-!!
• Grace is pissed and targets Island 1 with the Queen’s main weapons. However, the Vajra form a shield and absorbs the blast, saving the humans.
• Ranka explains to Alto that the Vajra also have feelings, but they don’t understand why we fight each other so much so they tried to rescue/kidnap her in order to understand humans. Thanks to hers and Sheryl’s songs, the Vajra have finally understood us.
• Song medley continues. GOD DAMN IT STICK TO ONE DAMN SONG DAMMIT!!! Seriously it’s a bit distracting for them to change songs so much.
• Final counterattack: The Vajra open a hole in the Queen’s barrier, for Quarter and Battle Frontier to enter. Galaxy moves to cover it and they both take a direct hit from it’s main cannon. Canaria rushes forth and opens a chance for Quarter to destroy Galaxy’s weapon using a MACROSS ATTACK! and Frontier finishes it off.
• Alto and Brera cooperate together (mmm fanservice!) and they both take out the Queen’s head where Grace is at. Thankfully, Brera explains that the Vajra think with their guts than their head, so the queen will be fine. Alto finishes Grace off using Micheal’s favourite gun.
• The queen begins to sing Aimo. Ranka further explains that the song is actually mating song which is used when the Vajra meet with others of their kind from other galaxies every few hundred million years.
• Bilrer’s true intentions: to meet Lynn Minmei again. LOL. Kawamori is such a bloody tease.
• Show ends with Alto flying in the skies of the Vajra planet, while Ranka and Sheryl look at him. Ranka declares love-war on Sheryl and she accepts graciously with a “KIRA~!” pose ROFL! The ending theme is Triangler duet by Sheryl and Ranka. Alto Harem End(?)

The ending is so… inconclusive. Worst type of end in my opinion dammit. Urge to kill Kawamori seriously rising. It’s never revealed who Alto chooses and everyone just manages to survive and land happily on the planet. I just feel like my feelings have all been trampled over and thrown away like a used dirt rag. Oh man, I was at least expecting some deaths.

Anyways, there’s still the just-announced Macross Frontier movie as well. I guess it’s probably a retelling of the series or even maybe an DYRL-style “historical movie”. But I hope it continues the story instead. I need more Alto x Sheryl!!!

P.S. WE ALL HAVE BEEN TROLLED HAVEN’T WE? HAVEN’T WE?!!!! *breaks down in a corner and cries*

Finally! The Lucky Star OVA! Man, it was well worth the wait. God, I so miss the antics of Kagamin, Konata and Tsukasa.

Continue ->

Ahh, all’s well ends well. Itazura na Kiss has been a really fun show to watch throughout it’s run… WAIT!

WHY IS THERE A PREVIEW?!!

WHAT! THERE’S STILL MORE?!

So, er, okay… I guess this post will have to wait.

Actually, I don’t really know what I should say more about the show. The show is… frankly speaking, actually, “has” ended for me a long time ago, and watching more of it going on to a downward spiral of disharmonic logic and sheer whacked out plot is just really hard to see when I actually liked the show before. It’s just like watching a distinguished war hero trying to wage another war just to experience past glories without taking in to consideration the feelings of the normal citizens who respect him and are willing to die for him, so he takes full advantage of it for his own joys at the cost of other’s happiness. Long analogy is long, but it best sums what I feel towards this series now. Sigh.

Let’s see, Schneizel makes for a joke villain especially now that he’s became Lulu’s bitch. I mean, I read all the spoilers but it still didn’t prepare me for the sheer madness/stupidity of his motivations… which is none apparently. So for the first time, we actually have an antagonist that just decides to confront our protagonist because he thinks he’s supposed to do that. And really, Scheneizel as the first end-boss was fun for a moment but he turned oh-so-lame by running away at 70% HP! On the bright side, I think it was his just desserts to become Lulu’s bitch.

And Lulu. Oh Lulu. Admitedly the video recording was some impressive shit, but it certainly is stretching the limits of logic there since it had flawless timing. Heh, seriously, watching him run up all that flights of stairs after his Shinkiro got pwned was just hillarious. Should’ve shown him panting for the extra LULZ factor.

Then finally, Nunnally. Oh poor Nunnally. She sure has got her character messed up a lot at the endgame. Plus the sudden “OMG SHE CAN SEE!!” revelation was actually quite “WTF!” after you rewatch it again. I mean, like it’s done so damn arbitrarily that I’m surprised at why I went “WTF!” in the first place.

Now, I’m just wedging all my hopes for the final episode to actually tie up the loose ends. Somehow, I’m thinking we’ll never ever know what is the real truth behind the “Code” after all. They’ve been quite masterfully covering and throwing attention away from that part of the story up so nicely with all the SHOCK and AWE plot twists and developments. Perhaps they’ll leave it that way to open a possibility of another sequel/series/spin-off.