Kurogane's Anime Blog

Rio’s departure scene was really touching. I am surprised at how much I was affected once I realized the episode was leading all the way to this. In retrospect, using Amazing Grace as a BGM for the scene probably was a bit cheating. Still, losing such a central figure to the group really makes me feel sad. Something like when ARIA fans went through Alicia’s retirement decision I guess?

Looking back (or actually this is the best time to rewatch if you guys never did pay attention), all the flashes to the past makes sense now. It’s great they made sense of it, I hate getting stringed along for too long. There’s still the Maidens story from the first episode to deal with. I suspect the resurrection of Takemikazuchi will tie in with that in the next episodes.

So, Hino and Tomomi go on a date…

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So this week we start off by having a little side story on Mayumi, Yamamoto-sensei’s younger sister. And same like her sister, she really has a presence that motivates people and helps them do their best.

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You know, I actually watched the shitty Korean-raw+overlaid subs before, but I really didn’t think that gave me the proper experience to talk about the show until now that the Blu-Rays are out. Finally managed to catch the movie is its proper glory and I must say…. Summer Wars is a movie that gets better with a rewatch than just judging it from one go.

Of course, like DarkMirage, the whole subplot involving the virtual world of OZ and Hollywood Hacking is definitely not the high point of the movie nor is the subject of the movie itself. Summer Wars is all about family and the unbreakable bonds between its members, no matter how badly one can become, family will always there to be behind you.

(spoilers inbound after the jump)

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While Bakavangelion wasn’t really that nice for me, the show redeems itself with episode 09 thanks to this…

Yup, Akihisa has hawt older sister, plus it’s voiced by the Onee-sama of seiyuu, Inoue Kikuko, to boot!

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If there ever was an award for “Most Desperate Attempt to Parody Eva for Content”, BakaTest 08 would win it hands-down. I just found the whole thing extremely contrived. It wasn’t even really that funny either.

But well, at least it was made up with this…

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Double posting this because I was waiting for Eva to release but it seems like it’s not happening anymore so I just went with WhiteWings.

Nodoka’s counterattack begins! Dynamis? What does that mean… Wiki says it’s Greek for “power” though.

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Geez, do all Satoshi Hino characters have an inherent pheromone production device that automagically attracts females that are close to him but he will never consider as his main interest? Out of nowhere some yakuza ojou comes and declares to marry him just because he brought her home after her sandal straps broke. And she’s like… six? At this rate, Tsucchi’s gonna be the owner of the largest harem in Japan 15 years later when they are all grown up.

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Thanks to danie, I managed to watch the Animelo 2009 Blu-Ray. Thank god I got myself a 1080p monitor. Things look fucking awesome on it.

*ahem* So anyways, thanks to time limitations, we only watched the important parts, namely Nana, Hocchan, Minorin, some other interesting ones and of course, most of the duets. The quality of last year’s duets really stood out quite a bit and I find myself actually tempted to buy the Blu-Ray now as well, if not for the fact I actually don’t have enough money for both sets (at like 15k yen for both, ha ha).

Day 1 started off with angela + Ishikawa Chiaki’s duet of Cruel Angel Thesis, and that performance is probably already worth the 7000 yen. Itou Kanako’s choice of dress was… eclectic so to say, but of course not was frightening awe-inspiring as ALIPro’s outfit, hurr. Only watched Halko’s Wonder momo-i and she’s endearing as usual, especially during the duet of My Pace Daioh with manzo. Hocchan probably stole the first day with her performances, especially YAHHO! and the duet of Happy Material with Minorin was pretty LOL ahaha. Minorin was nice but pretty standard performances. Kuribayashi Minami performing Namida no Riyuu from School Days was rather unexpected of her, since it’s a rather obscure (so to say) song.

Day 2 started with Hell duet of Nana + Aya of CHU-LU-CHU-LU-PA-YA-PA Discotheque and Mon-STAR. It was rather LOL seeing Nana own Aya at her own song. Sakakibara Yui’s performance of Soshite Boku wa… was really eye-catching because of her costume and accompaniment dance performance. Managed to squeeze in Yousei Teikoku’s Tamakui and oh god that was fucking awesome. Even better was Fairy Yui’s MC and she was totally in her character. It was actually quite endearing to see her pull it off with a serious face. Really admire her for that.

Moving on, Kenji Ohtsuki & Zetsubou-shoujotachi (Aipon, Sawashiro Miyuki, Shintani Ryoko and Kobayashi Yuu) really was pretty awesome especially since Kobayashi Yu was jumping around like crazy as if she just took a whole bottle of Ecstasy pills. And seeing Miyuki Sawashiro shouting her lungs out was pretty funny sight too. Faylan’s mind as judgment was truly a show-stealer with the countdown and all, not to mention her outfit as well, followed by another Makkun duet(the other was Miracle Upper WL with May’n) of Tamashii no Refrain. Pretty good stuff.

DANZEN! Futari wa Precure duet by Yukari Tamura + Ryoko Shintani was pretty good shit too, although ironically both of them aren’t in the series. Would’ve been more awesome if it was a Galaxy Angel song, but that’s just me I guess. Finally the Nana Mizuki mini-concert kicked up with m.o.v.e’s motsu doing Gimmick Game with her followed by Suara + Nana epic duet of Shin’ai. Rounding up Day 2 was Etsuraku no Camelia and awesome performance of Orchestral Fantasia. A very LOL thing happened at the end of the concert when everyone showed up for encore + thanks to the fans where Fairy Yui bit her tongue when asking people to come for her own live and made everyone on stage stumble. Also Ohmi Tomoe did a very spot-on imitation of Aya Hirano that left everyone laughing.

While 08’s Animelo wasn’t as impressive, 09 definitely was and man, do I wish I had the money to go for one of these. Now let’s just wait for the “public release” on the usual places, eh. *coughcough*.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFF IS THAT NOTO-SAMA?!!! WHAT IS THIS I DON’T EVEN

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