This episode continue’s Haruhi’s quest to make a movie with the SOS-dan. The SOS-Dan continues to film in the park and Mikuru-chan does her famous Mikuru beam…
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Archives for August 2009
The Music of K-ON! – It sounds so good!
Maybe K-ON! strongest point is not the story, but the music… With all the albums sold up to this date, 552,491 albums, about half a million are sold up to date since 5 months ago when the first two albums are sold… which is impressive compared to how many albums are sold in the time period for Suzumiya Haruhi in total (this should make the Haruhiists jealous)…
Here is the rough data of how much are sold:
Death Devil – Maddy Candy – 15464 total sales, #31 for the week
Don’t Say Lazy – 161163 total sales, #59 for the week
Cagayake Girls – 144909 total sales, #79 for the week
Hokago Tea Time – 100221 total sales, #37 for the week\
Fuwafuwa Jikan : 77804 total sales (current, was not in top 100)
Mio Character Single : 51897 total sales (current, was not in top 100)
Yui Character Single : 50196 total sales (current, was not in top 100)
Data is gathered from this thread and CDJapan.
The music is pretty much the strong point of the anime… Rarely, the ED doesn’t give that much attention, but Don’t say “lazy” became insanely popular after the first episode that many people like with Hare Hare Yukai started to imitate it or even try to play the piece. If you were to search on Youtube, you will find a good amount of people playing it or even MADs that have it.
Also, believe it or not, Cagayake! GIRLS is also popular as well… Although not as popular as the ED, it’s still pretty popular that some people plays it… In my opinion, both of them are just as good… I really don’t have much of the preference…
The next album is Fuwa Fuwa Time (Lit: Light and Fluffy Time) and there are two versions of it, the first with Hikasa Youko (Voice of Mio) and second with Toyasaki Aki (Voice of Yui). Fuwa Fuwa time pretty much brought out a lighter side of Mio, however, after hearing both of them, Yui’s version was a little bit better since her character suits her for that song alot more and in my opinion, on the same level as God Knows and Lost my music… Also in the Fuwa Fuwa Time album is Tsubasa wo Kudasai performed by all 4 voice actors of the K-ON! Club and sounds pretty good…
Next is the character image album… The only ones that I heard so far are Mio’s and Yui’s and most of the songs sound pretty good as well. The only song that didn’t fit well is “Hello Little Girl” in Mio’s Image Album, but still sound good… The favorite songs from both of these albums are Heart Goes Boom!! from Mio’s Image Album and Sunday Siesta and Guitar ni Kubittake from Yui’s album… They sound great… but I can’t give a final verdict on these since I haven’t heard the rest of the image albums (I expect that they will be good.)
Also, the recently released image album,Houkago Tea Time with the full versions of Watashi no Koi wa Hotch Kiss (lit. My Love is a Stapler) by Toyosaki Aki and also another song, Fude Pen ~Ballpoint Pen~ (lit. Calligraphy Pen ~Ballpoint Pen~) sung both by Yui’s and Mio’s voice actors… Also included is Yui’s version of Fuwa Fuwa Time as mentioned earlier. Both of these songs undoubtedly sounded great… but haven’t heard the live mix yet.
Overall, the K-ON! music is what make K-ON! what it is… Even if you think the story line might not be the strongest… you have to agree that the songs in K-ON! are pretty appealing… more so than Super Driver and Tomare! which is terrible or average sounding at best (Again, this opinion is not meant to offend Haruhiists. I have to agree that although Hirano Aya is a good voice actor, she isn’t a great singer, but some of Haruhi S1 songs are pretty good). The songs sound good that it ended up on the top ten on my Last.fm charts:
Note, Top 11 was added due to a duplicate.
Yes, I have to admit that I am also a big fan of I’ve Sound/Key Visual Arts stuff and also Lia… mainly because her songs sounded beautiful (Tori no Uta, Light colors and Toki wo Kizamu Uta).
Note: K-ON! soundtrack isn’t mentioned since it doesn’t really have anything that interesting and it will probably put me to sleep (more so than the Visual Novel BGM (like Kanon and others of sort), which is alot more exciting) and Kyoani isn’t great at making BGM.
Air in Summer – Episode 1
In this episode, Kanna and others decide to go on a adventure to find her mother. On the way there, Kanna discovers the outside word for the first time.
This episode is probably the most light-hearted episode in the series… and we learn about more about Kanna, but yes… more Tsundere moments…
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Suzumiya Haruhi Second Season – Episode 11 – Sighs Part II
Episode 11 continues the Sighs arc and we see the filming of the commercial and battle scene with Mikuru… in a Waitress costume…
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College and Fall Season Anime Coverage
Time flies when you are having fun, but eventually you have to go back to the learning practice once September starts again. With Labor day starting the week after, I start school a week earlier with no more breaks except the day I got off for Labor Day. This time, I go to school on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday (Saturday classes suck, but there are no more openings for the class I need to take.) This leaves me Sunday, Wednesday (although there is one class in the afternoon) and Friday to do homework/study and also write on this blog… but I’ll do my best to atleast make 2 posts per week during the 16 week semester.
Also, pretty much the Fall Season anime schedule is finalized… It sucks that there won’t be no Key adaptation this fall, but maybe next winter… but I hope for the announcement for Angel Beats! pretty soon… but that won’t be until later… Here is what I got to cover for the fall season (and yes, Fall 2009 Season is VERY LACKLUSTER after next week:
– 2 more episodes of Haruhi S2 (mainly Sighs…)
– 4 episodes of Air and 1 Air in Summer Special Episode
– 2 episodes of Kannagi until Vol2 comes in
– 13 episodes of sola and
– 12 episodes of ef – Tales of memories
That should pretty much keep me busy until a interesting show start airing… but lets hope Winter/Spring 2010 season have a better selection of anime than the ones in this upcoming season.
Attribution Infomation
Fanart used in this post is made by やんよ. Orig Source
Air – Episode 8 – Summer Arc Part 1
This episode is very enjoyable and who knew that that Kanna (or Kannabi no Mikoto) would have a personality of a Tsundere…. Although it’s abridged, Air in Summer two episode special covers more content over the abridged, two episode Summer Arc in the main series. It’s recommended to watching this episode before watching the Air in Summer special.
In this episode, Ryuya promises Kanna to go on a journey to find her mother and the three of them, Kanna, Ryuya, Uraha goes on a long journey to find her mother.
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Suzumiya Haruhi Second Season – Episode 10 – Sighs Part I
The airing of the first part of Sighs was a breath of relief since Endless Eight finally ended and a new story arc is now starting… this time, Sighs pretty much covers how the SOS-dan makes the amateur movie, “The Adventures of Asahina Mikuru.” This first episode was alright, but there are several things that bothered me about it. More after the jump.
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Nintendo DSi Unboxing and Review
The Nintendo DSi I have sent away for have finally received in the mail. While North America have to wait several months to obtain one, the Nintendo DSi was released late last year in Japan. Nintendo DSi meant as a successor of the Nintendo DS Lite with new features including a bigger screen, two cameras, Wireless G and also WPA security compatibility, ability to use SD cards, plays and records sounds, and also buy downloadable games off the Nintendo DSi Store.
If you want a DSi, I suggest not getting rid of your old DS since it doesn’t have a GBA slot (so no more transferring Pokemon from your GBA games to your DS games)
Warning, rest of the review is image heavy.
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Air – Episode 7
Episode 7 is start of the beginning of the melodrama kicking in at full force. In this episode, Misuzu’s condition gets worse due to her curse and Yukito started to remember things in the past that her mother told about the girl who is cursed.
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New Twitter Comment System and Tutorial.
With the overall popularity of Twitter growing and use by many Anime Bloggers in the blogging community and I have wrote a editorial on Twitter and Anime Blogging in the past, but I have decided to take it a step further. Now, any reader who wish to comment on the posts may now use their Twitter identity instead of manually typing in the name, email, and also homepage every time you want to make a post.
This is simple. If you have already signed into your Twitter account, when you go down to the comments page, there will be a new button called “Sign in using Twitter.” A popup window will appear prompting you to authorize the blog to use your Twitter credentials (if you are not signed into Twitter, Twitter will prompt you for your Username and Password). All you need to do is to approve and it will automatically authorize you to use your identity and will take you back to the same page you were before so you can start making your comments. The sign in process is secure, so you don’t have to worry about your passwords being shared and your account being hijacked by a spammer.
After posting, your comment is still will go to for moderation if you use the Twitter account the first time. After that, you may post comments freely. Also, comments that were made by your Twitter account will use your Twitter picture opposed to the Gravitars for Non-Twitter users. If you don’t have a Twitter account, go get yourself one… and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter at Chikorita157 and also Chikorita157a (blog Twitter account).
Attribution Information
Fanart used on this post is made by 芭桜 (Orig Source)
Kannagi: Crazy Shine Maidens Vol 1 Unboxing and Impressions
The first volume of Kannagi have arrived in the mail. Bandai seems to have worked hard to quickly release the first volume after shortly releasing it in July 17, 2009, the release was okay considering there is no dub, but it shouldn’t discourage people from watching it.
Unlike the other boxsets I own which have episodes on DVDs, with the lack of dub soundtrack, Bandai made it possible to fit all seven episodes while including the credit-less OP, and two EDs. Inside the case, is just the DVD… nothing else unlike the Kanon Boxset which was filled with Funanimation advertisement crap.
Kannagi Vol 1 seems to be only available at Rightstuf at the moment since Bandai have a exclusive deal with them, but it should be available through other stores later on. The second volume releases in late September.
Now I can finish Episode 6 and 7 legally… until volume 2 comes in the mail (yes, I preordered it)
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Happy Birthday!
Today on August 9, 2009, I turn 20… Yes, time flies while you are young, but it reminds me that summer break is almost coming to a end and starting September, I will be starting my fall semester at Rutgers University since I transfered in which means alot less time for watching anime and more onto college work although I will still update this blog frequently…
Last week was pretty much a good week since I finally got my drivers license and the dreaded Endless Eight comes to a end with a bang… Well, hopefully my birthday won’t turn out bad today… except my presents are still being shipped, so I won’t be able to show or unbox anything until they arrive. If you want to know what it is here is the list”
I will post my thoughts on the anime DVDs and DSi once I receive it through the mail…. Otherwise, Happy Birthday… myself… =p
Attribution Information
This fanart used in this post is made by かゆね (kayuumi) source.
Like always, Bandai Entertainment yet again delay the release of sola again.
Yes, this is facepalm worthy, but yet again, Bandai Entertainment yet again delayed sola another month, which now releases on September 15, 2009 from the orginally posted date, August 18, 2009 (found out on rightstuf. Is Bandai Entertainment pulling another ADV since they have delayed prerelease due to financial trouble? I’m 100% positive that Bandai Entertainment is not in any financial trouble in contrast of ADV which is was due to a big fiasco. Reguardless, Bandai Entertainment should have released sola by now.
Was it necessary to delay the release another month? How hard is it to just subtitle the whole series, author them onto DVDs, press the DVDs and package them? As mentioned in a few posts back almost about a week ago, I was asking, what is going on here? This latest delay make me ask the same questions over again, when it will ever come out? At the rate they going, sola will never materialize which is sad because I’m interested in watching that show and there isn’t really that much to see in the Fall season because it’s so lackluster… so, if they delay or cancel it one more time, I’m canceling my order completely along with my second volume of Kannagi as a punishment and they won’t get any more money until they formally apologizes for the delays.
To people who want to buy these series: If Bandai Ent. never materialize these releases, I suggest complaining via written letter. The address is:
5551 Katella Ave
Cypress, CA, USA ,90630
By Email: support@bandai-ent.com
or mention them on Twitter with @bandaient
Also, I suggest boycotting any of their releases if they don’t release them. Delaying it 3 times is more than enough… This will probably be enough to have them listen
Endless Eight is no longer Endless – Final Thoughts
Endless Eight with the airing of the ninth episode shown the ending when Kyon finally decides to have the group finish his homework at the cafe scene towards the end finally breaks the endless loop. Endless Eight is probably the worst, not because of the animation, but because of the repetition. This caused a mass outrage of Haruhi fans and also cause the rating of the show to nosedive to 7.28 just within a few weeks… but now that is over.
Endless Eight, because of the r repetition and how Kadokawa done it in the anime was horribly done. Although Kyoto Animation got the animation right towards the end, the lack of new content caused the arc to become very unwatchable and irritating. I would have done a 30-page long chapter with 2 episodes, 3-4 at the most, but they gone and decide to do 8 which is WAY TO MUCH and meanwhile irritating the whole fandom and causing some of them to give up on Haruhi all together. If they have done it within 2-3 episodes, the arc itself would not be as bad as it would.
Within the last 5 Episodes, the members at AnimeSuki have negatively voted majority of Endless Eight Episodes. Also, back where the episodes were aired, the reaction to the repetition of Endless Eight started to become negative. Atleast Kadokawa and Kyoto Animation have the sanity not to keep going on with the Endless Eight madness past Episode 9.
This doesn’t mean Kadokawa is off the hook, since I’m still angry about what they did with Endless Eight and remember the trolls they done with the first Episode of Haruhi-chan and Second Season being canceled. Although Endless Eight reduced my expectations drastically, I don’t except the rating of Haruhi S2 for what I see so far be any higher than a 7. Endless Eight… Worst… Anime… Arc… Adaptation… Ever… Just read the light novel for this one.
Hopefully when they Air Sighs in the next few episodes, hopefully it won’t turn out bad as the Endless Eight Fiasco.
Verdict
Endless Eight Arc: 4.275/10 (Average of all the ratings of the Episodes in the Endless Eight arc including Episode 9. Don’t complain about this score)
Episode 9: 7/10
Attribution Infomation
Fanart used in this post is made by chocolat.
Reminder: Fanart and Crediting
In response to the raging over not crediting artists fanart I decided to make some changes. Most of the time, I will use screenshots from my anime, but sometimes I might use fanart. Note that I am very busy and I don’t usually browse imageboards… but I made changes so that you can send the artist and the artist page of the fanart used to help me to credit for their hard work deserve and also to save my time trying to figure out who made which image.
On the contact page, there is a new contact form. If you want to help credit the image for me, just select the “Crediting Artist.” After that, you must provide the following information, the blog post the fanart is used (URL), the Artist name and URL to Artist’s page. This information goes directly to my inbox and I’ll try to fix that immediately.
Note: Any fanart in the future that I cannot find a credit to will have a notice on it and a link to the contact page so it will be easier for people to help and find the artist and the artist page for the fanart. Any that is missing information will be placed in the “Missing Artist Information” category so it will be easier to identify which are missing this sort of credit. Once I get the information, I will add it ASAP.
Another note: The danbooru Image Board provides the source of the image that is uploaded, so it shouldn’t be a problem not to obtain the artist name.
Another Note: A new page explaining about this matter can be read here. Spread the word!
What Anime songs you play with Audiosurf?
While one other Anime Blogger mentioned Audiosurf and Audiosurf his whole music collection… I actually did the same…
What is Audiosurf anyways?
Audiosurf and it’s purpose is to “ride your music.” Just put Rock Band/Guitar Hero and put it on a F-Zero track and you get Audiosurf. Like Dance Dance Revolution and Beat Mania, the blocks in Audiosurf represents the beats in the song and it’s automatically generated, so the tempo and the blocks are created according to the song you chose to play. There are various modes, but the most easiest to get the hang on is Mono, which you hit the color blocks and avoid the grey blocks. If you don’t hit any grey blocks, you get stealth bonus, which is 30% bonus. Also, there are puzzle modes like Pointman, which you have to match a cluster of color blocks (red and yellow matches give you the highest points while the others give you lower points). Other modes have similar concepts to Pointman, but have different abilities. Audiosurf also feature Ironmode, which makes the song even harder, but sometimes, you can earn even more points.
Audiosurf is relatively cheap ($10) off Steam and have unlimited replay value depending on how good is your music collection.
Audiosurf runs great with the highest settings if you have a decent graphics card (My Unibody Macbook Pro plays Audiosurf with good framerates at native resolution).
What are the best anime songs to play on Audiosurf?
Most of the time, songs with a downhill pattern and high traffic (150 or higher) gives you more of a enjoyable experience. If you still get a uphil pattern, suggest adding [as-steep] to the song title (Suggestion: Just make a copy of the MP3 file and add that tag at the end of the song title), but it will create a different scoreboard.
Lia
Most of Lia’s songs work great with audiosurf since most of her songs are trance, which most of the time create high traffic and downhill patern.
Suggestions:
– Tori no Uta – (Air Opening Theme)
– Light colors – (Tomoyo After Opening Theme)
– Toki wo Kizamu Uta (Clannad ~After Story~ Opening Theme)
– TORCH (Clannad ~After Story~ Ending Theme)
Ayana
Same as above, although Kaze no Tadori Tsuku Basho have higher traffic count.
– Last regrets
– Kaze no Tadori Tsuku Basho
Suzumiya Haruhi
Suggestions:
– God Knows
– Lost my music
– Yuki, Muon, Madobe Nite
– Bouken Desho Desho?
– Hare Hare Yukai (any version)
– Koi no Mikuru Densetsu
– etc.
Lucky Star
– Motteke! Sailor Fuku
– Kaeshite! Knee-socks
– Koi no Minoru Densetsu
– Kosutte! Oh My Honey
-Yuuchou Sentai Dajare Ranger
K-ON!
– Cagayake! GIRLS plus the Image Song
– Don’t say “lazy” plus the Image Song
– Fuwa Fuwa Time (both regular and Yui version)
– Tsubasa wo Kudasai
– Practically all the Character Image songs.
Others
– motto hade ni ne! (Kannagi Opening Theme, although adding [as-steep] makes it more interesting)
– Shiawase Sagashi (motto hade ni ne! Image Song)
– Shoujo no Gensou ZTS Remix (Remix of Shoujo no Gensou, Clannad…)
– Little Busters! (Little Busters! Opening Theme, duh!)
– Megmeru (Clannad Opening Theme, depending on what version)
– Any of Touhou songs and remixes
– Kumikyoku Nico Nico Douga (Pretty epic song and it’s 10 minutes long)
What songs you play in Audiosurf in your opinion that is Anime related that give you a enjoyable experience? If you don’t own Audiosurf yet, I suggest you to get it… it’s a awesome game (and it’s very addictive)!
Also, you can check out my recorded Audiosurf runs (mainly Anime and casual mono since Fraps kills the framerate alot) on my Youtube account.
Anime Bloggers: Optimize your blogs for the iPhone!
As smartphones are getting more popular, more people are using them to browse the internet including Anime Blogs. Except from Ganbatte Forever and the blog you are currently reading (and yes, Anime Nano have a iPhone version of the website), I see a lack of easy readability on mobile devices like the popular iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberries, Google’s Android and the Palm Pre. Often, most anime blogs do not have a separate theme for mobile users. Unless you have a simple blog layout like Baka-Raptor’s, most cases, you have to zoom into the page in order to be able to read the content on the blog which can be frustrating (unless you have good eyes)… Not to mention, if you want to want to comment, it gets even harder just to type a comment since you have to scroll back and forth just to comment on a post… and most of the time, full pages will load slower if you are not connected to a Wireless Network with your Smartphone.
Some examples how most Anime blogs load on a iPhone:
Unless you have good eyes, you may need to zoom in just to read the content without straining your eyes.
However, there is a solution to this problem. The WPTouch plugin which work with most WordPress blogs adds a iPhone friendly theme to your blog which will load when your blog is viewed on a iPhone/iPod Touch/Android/etc. However, this theme does not replace the current theme you are using and is completely independent. You don’t need to mess around with any coding or such and the mobile theme can be turn on/off on the bottom of the page if the visitor wishes to view the full layout.
WPTouch plugin is a highly recommended plugin for most anime bloggers and most should take advantage of it to give a better viewing experience for mobile users and it’s free!
What is a Harem Anime anyways?
I have been wondering… Why Kanon and Clannad or the like is labeled as a harem anime? Is it because it have a group of girls and only a minimal amount of male characters? It surprises me that in the game, you are only allowed to fall in love with one girl depending on what flags you have choose in the game…
For example, when I was playing Shiori’s arc in Kanon, the game does not give me another option to go on a date with another girl nor the choices I choose will allow that since the girlfriend is willngfully chosen depending on the flags you chose. Games like these are more on the melodrama/drama/one sided romance/slice of life opposed to a harem where you can date more than one girl. multiple dates and not having a definite girlfriend is key here. If the male lead willingfully chose his girlfriend, all bets are off and it isn’t considered a harem by definition.
The dictionary definition states for Harem:
Harem (noun) the wives (or concubines) of a polygamous man.
a group of female animals sharing a single mate.
This definition pretty much fits the classical definition of Harem (suggested reading on more about Harem from Baka-Raptor). Harem shows under the definition would be more like Shuffle!, Love Hina or Da Capo where the male lead dates more than one girl… When people consider Kanon a harem, just remind them the simultaneity requirement which is important in harem animes.
Fall 2009 Season.. Not Impressed at all.
Not impressed at all with the Fall 2009 season lineup… since there is nothing that interests me or worth watching… That’s because Kyoto Animation is still wasting their time animating Endless Eight garbage instead of working on another Key adaptation (Little Busters!, Tomoyo after, or Planetarian) which is worth watching, but it could change since there is one month left.
I guess we have to watch older anime again… This is what I will be covering in Fall 2009 (Starting September)
Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Madiens: I only completed 5 episodes, but since the licensed DVDs are releasing (the first volume atleast), it will probably take awhile until the second release comes out so I can finally complete the series once and for all. (and also had trouble finding good subs for the DVD special, but it should be on the second volume).
Air/Air in Summer: Yes, I was busy all this summer and the rate I’m going, it’s probably will be completed in late September… and I probably be watching the Air in Summer OVA before watching Episodes 8-9 since it’s basically the same thing anyways.
sola: Well, I got interested into watching it since it have similar themes like in Air like reincarnation and also another drama series I would like to watch. Sola is made by former writer who worked with Key on Kanon, Naoki Hisaya. I will watch if Bandi Ent doesn’t mess up the release like last time…
Ef ~ Tales of Memories: Well, I can’t watch melodies yet unless I finish the first season first… but I never got the time to start watching it…. maybe a lack of new anime will help me start.