Archives for September 2009

Kannagi Volume 2/sola Unboxing and First Impressions

September 29, 2009 by chikorita157 Leave a Comment

Well, while I was at college learning, the final two DVDs I have preordered have finally arrived in the mail and yes, sola seems to finally materialize instead of being delayed indefinitely…

Like with the first Kannagi volume, Kannagi second volume have the same format as the first, but now featuring Zange-chan/Hakua. The DVD features extras like a creditless Opening/Ending and also trailers. The DVD Menu is the same format with some background changes. The only problem right now is that Kannagi is only available at Rightstuf at the moment (talking about monopoly), but I hope it changes in the future.

Another surprise is that sola have finally came in after the many times raging about how many times they delayed it. Given how many times they delayed it, they seem to got it right this time. As you see, there is nothing special with the case, but the series came on 3 seperate discs and features a creditless Opening/Ending themes. There is nothing special with the DVD menu and looks plain, but the picture quality is good enough. sola should be available in other retailers today.

I’m expecting to start at least one episode of sola this week, but the exams that is going on, it’s going to take awhile… I can’t wait. (click Continue Reading to see the pics)
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Nagisa, why she is the ideal girl, which screams moé! – Part I

September 24, 2009 by chikorita157 3 Comments

After seeing a post about wifes and anime girls and watching the CLANNAD movie, it made me think about something about Nagisa and CLANNAD. In the previous two posts made a few months back that I mentioned about moe although I never really talk about moe or the so called moe competitions out there, but it’s quite evident I really like, Misuzu and Shiori. There is one character I haven’t touch that have both personalities of these girls I mentioned… Nagisa Furukawa.

Nagisa is the combination of Shiori and Misuzu in my opinion. Misuzu because the fact she is a shy girl and doesn’t have any friends because in the case with Nagisa, her friends have long been graduated and she is innocent. Then, why Shiori have anything to do with Nagisa? Shiori in the sense that Nagisa have a similar sickness, but her determination and unwilling to give up. Also, they both have a interest in drama since Shiori mainly watches drama while she was at home and Nagisa have a interest in drama with her determination of wanting to revive the Drama Club. Another thing with Nagisa and Shiori is that they are ordinary and wear plain clothing. If you notice the clothing that Nagisa and Shiori wears, you know why.

Nagisa is like Shiori and Misuzu in a sense… We take them for granted until they are gone. (in Nagisa’s case, in Clannad After Story Episode 16 until she returns in Episode 22).

Nagisa starts out in the beginning of the show as a shy girl and unable to walked the hill since her friends have graduated and she no longer have the courage to walk up the hill. With the help of Tomoya, she was able to walk up the hill on the first day of school.

Like with Misuzu, Nagisa seems to be alone...

Sadly, her illness causes her to get held back in her last year of high school and caused her loneliness. In today society, we rarely see that, except with quiet and shy people.

Unfortunately, a year too late... poor Nagisa...

Nagisa seems to show her determination to try and revive the club although the club seems to shut down when she opens the door with shaky hands and being melancholic after seeing the packed boxes, but she doesn’t give up. Next day, she makes a poster:

Nagisa loves dango. The Toei version of the poster seems more colorful..

Like with Shiori with her obsession with ice cream and Misuzu with her “extra thick peach nectar,” Nagisa continues the tradition with Dango because they are cute although not as popular as it was used to. Big Dango Family resembles a cheerful and happy world where people and famlies get along and flourish. This is important later on since CLANNAD is about families after all… and Nagisa starts one with Tomoya later on, but at a expense (which will be talked about next part). Also, the poster seems to bring out Nagisa’s personality, as her being innocent.

As with Shiori, Nagisa still waits for Tomoya outside in the rain without a umbrella.

Nagisa wanting to see Tomoya to play basketball waits in the rain, which in contrast is sorta the same thing with Shiori, which disobeys the doctors order just to see Yuuichi after school. Nagisa realizing that Tomoya can’t shoot and apologizes since she know that she was wrong and faints because of her illness.

Later on, Nagisa makes friends with Fujibashi twins, Kotomi and Fuuko and starts to warm up instead of being shy and lonely.

Another trait that Nagisa seems to have is she is naive. For instance, Tomoya grabs Nagisa and runs away from Sunahora. She protects Tomoya from Sunahora since she thinks he is trying to make Tomoya gay and admits that she is Tomoya’s boyfriend, which caused Sunahora run like a nut job. Although she doesn’t mean it, she eventually start having a relationship with Tomoya since the two seems to have a lot in common and that they both care about each other.

No! You not letting your finger on my Nagisa!

Tomoya reacting to someone who wants to help Nagisa after she fell and hurt her leg in Episode 16 of Clannad… Now there evidence that Tomoya does love Nagisa romantically. In the visual novel, the relationship starts right after Tomoya embraces Nagisa after the Nagisa gives up on the Drama Club since she want the choir club to keep their advisor.

With the growing of Nagisa’s relationship with Tomoya, she seems to care for him a lot more before she met him, even after she performs her play, she still cares about Tomoya and doesn’t want him to do anything wrong. For instance, with the PA calling for Tomoya and him running away, she chases after him and drags him back by pulling his arm. This proves that Nagisa, although she is ill is caring and also very determined, which is not the case with Shiori and Misuzu (they do care, but not the same as with Nagisa and Tomoya.). The way how she try to revive the Drama Club with the help of Tomoya, Sunohara and friends and her performance on stage shows her determination of achieving her goal.

However, her dreams of performing stage drama came at a price since Sanae and Akio have to give up their dreams to take care of Nagisa, which caused herself to become melancholic and also caused her to suddenly cry on stage after the curtains were lifted up after being reminded of Akio’s dreams of performing theater after watching a video of him performing before her performance. With the encouragement from Akio and Sanae, she was able to break from her depression and able to achieve her dreams that her parents have sacrificed.

After sweeping away her tears, she starts to perform her play, which is flawless… both in the Anime and TV show:

Wait, the costume Nagisa is wearing looks vastly similar to the Uniforms in Kanon...

Toei seems to glorify Nagisa with her wedding dress... Moe Moe Kyun?

Like with both the TV series and the movie, Tomoya officially confesses his love for Nagisa, which have been evident across the whole season (and also the Nagisa arc in the Visual Novel). Tomoya and Nagisa seems to be the dream couple… most say… but I still prefer Tomoya and Kyou… *runs*

Next time, we will discuss why she is the ideal girl in the 2nd part of the story, After Story.

Attribution Information

Fanart used in this post is made by moonknives, ¶

Poll #9: Air Movie, should I watch it?

September 22, 2009 by chikorita157 6 Comments

After watching the CLANNAD movie and being disappointed about it, I see why not watch the Air Movie to see if it’s any different. From what I heard about the movie, there are mixed opinions instead of most of the people saying the movie sucked or anything that Toei made with Key sucks and that Kyoto Animation is better! I’m not trying to get into a debate which studio is better, but I heard that the Air movie seems to go more in depth with Misuzu’s arc than it did in Air TV because they covered the other two girl’s arc and the amount of episodes alloted in the series (it would have been a little better if it’s 24 episodes, but it was still good for what I have seen so far). After seeing the big disappointment with the Clannad movie, should I push my luck and watch and review the Air Movie? The only difference with this is I haven’t played the visual novel for Air, since there is a lack of a translation so that would be to my advantage.

Note: Everything is back to normal… the poll should work

You decide… I will post my decision in two weeks (or earlier).

[poll id=”9″]

Attribution Infomation

The fanart used in this post is made by ゆきおう (yuki ou) Source ¶

Running Visual Novels on a Mac?

September 21, 2009 by chikorita157 Leave a Comment

Got a copy of a visual novel and you got a Mac? The problem with many visual novel or the so called popular Bishoujo/Otome games is that they only work on Windows, so you are mostly out of luck if you want to play games like Kanon, Air, Higurashi, Clannad, Da Capo, etc since they only work on Windows. You aren’t out of luck since there is a way to install them and play on a Mac. The following will be discussed is Crossover Office, VMWare Fusion/Parallels/Virtual PC 7 (for PowerPC users) and Bootcamp.

Clannad – Motion Film Final Impressions – Grade: 6.8/10

September 20, 2009 by chikorita157 1 Comment

Wait, there is a Clannad Movie? I decided to watch it this Sunday afternoon and after watching 30 minutes of it, it’s nothing that special, but still continue to watch it anyway. Unlike the Clannad TV series which I could say Kyoto Animation did a great job of being faithful to the original source for both seasons, I can’t say for the movie. The Clannad Movie which was made by Toei Animation, who worked on the Air Movie and the first season of Kanon (before it was remade in 2006) released a month before Kyoto Animation’s version was aired on television.

My impression it… Not great, as expected since I have already completed Kyoto Animation’s version and now the movie feels inferior to the television series… Most Key/Clannad fans would feel this way because Toei Animation in the past aren’t that faithful to the original source, meaning the visual novel.
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Hosting troubles and Internet Provider Switching – Updated!

September 18, 2009 by chikorita157 3 Comments

The last past days, the WordPress Blog have been loading slowly lately and I have been receiving Slow Mysql Queries spam messages in my mailbox and unable to fix it since the blog have become pretty popular according to Google Analytics with hits ranging from 1500 to over 3000 a month (peaking in July). With the popularity of my blog and my desire to update it frequently, it have taken a toll on the hosting since this is a free hosting provider and doesn’t quite work as well since there are several other websites.

The total amount of vistors we have this month and counting the other months is 10,000 and close to 20,000 pageviews. When the blog gets even more popular, I highly doubt that free hosting will help and I cannot afford paid hosting nor I’m willing to downgrade my blog to WordPress.net since it’s too limited for my needs since I’m using various plugins and a advanced, custom theme that is used in this blog which WP.net does not allow. Hosting the anime blog on my own server isn’t a option too since the server is too slow to handle the site load I’m currently getting. I’m asking anime blog hosting providers to help me so I can keep contributing to the Anime Blogosphere.

Another thing is in my concern is that I will be switching to a new ISP, Optimum Online from Verizon DSL since the phone line is getting too expensive since my family never uses it and gets hit with high bill since we don’t have long distance. This is because the whole family and myself have cell phones. Not being able to keep the DSL if I cancel the phone line, we have to switch to a alternative since there is no FIOS in my area (town have FIOS, but not coming to my neighborhood) and DSL is becoming slow in general since it takes forever to load a Youtube video or download anything big, which is why we are switching to Cable. For my experience of having used Optimum Online before, they don’t do any traffic shaping of any kind. Once I get cable internet, I will get 15/2 speeds and I can blog faster.

Update: The website is finally moved… and took nearly 2-3 hours to reimport the database and reupload the images, plugins and the theme. If there any problems, please use the contact form and tell me the problem ASAP so it can be fixed. Note that it will take a week until this new address shows up on Google.

Update #2: URLs listed on Google and Anime Nano will redirect to this website with the same page you are trying to load. Have updated some of the WordPress plugins which wasn’t possible with the old host since of FTP file quota limit (6000 files). These include WP-touch and the blog is now using StatPress Reloaded instead of Google Analytics so I don’t need to log into Google just to get the site stats.

Update #3: Disabled the Captcha since there are problems with it which is causing the Captcha code not to show up, but updated the anti-spam plugin. Once Captcha gets fixed, it will be reenabled. Also, Twitconnect does not work at the moment.

Update #4: SI Captcha is replaced with re-captcha. Twitconnect is temporarily disabled.

Update #5: Everything works again… The problem was that the whole WP-Content folder was chmodded 777 instead of 755, causing the scripts to malfunction. ¶

Suzumiya Haruhi Second Season Final Impressions – Grade: F (5.93/10)

September 17, 2009 by chikorita157 3 Comments

Once upon a time in May, we were excited that Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody was going to be aired after we waited a whole 3 years for a second season. The first new episode was well received. When June came around, Endless Eight aired and we thought that episode was the only one… We were mistaken by despair as Endless Eight repeated for most of the summer, which made fans go on a frenzy outrage by raging at Kyoto Animation, Kadokawa or even both. Some fans go so far and smash Haruhi figures and rip apart the light novels. We have thought that the series have finally jumped the shark and the whole series was ruined forever, but fortunately, Kadokawa wasn’t insane enough to do that, so it ended in the 8th episode and the week after that Sighs aired, which is apparently the lowest part of the light novel series because primarily, Haruhi becomes the biggest b$%#& in the whole world that everyone wants to have and/or avoid, until Kyon straightens her up and finally conclude the recording of the film, which was miraculously edited. After the airing of the last part of Sighs, it seems that most fans are in despair since Disapparence have disappeared (no pun attended).

In the review, I will be reviewing some positives, but mostly negatives because Kadokawa could have done better in managing this so that it won’t become a complete disaster like it is. Some Haruhiists may disagree, but this is my take… it’s F%$%ing horrible!

Content

This is the weakest point in the whole season, honestly… mainly because of Endless Eight. Rhapsody and Sighs (although good, but not very good) was the only arcs that did fine in this season. The rest is a disaster, because Endless Eight repeated more than 8 times which is completely unnecessary. I would rather watch K-ON! than watch this piece of s$%^ Endless Eight and that is my feeling on Endless Eight. Endless Eight in my opinion is a middle finger from Kadokawa saying, “HA! Do you want Disappearance, but you aren’t getting it!” Every time Endless Eight repeated, It makes my blood boil and want me to rage about Kadokawa again.

I found that the repeating of Endless Eight 8 times was completely unnecessary, it should have been at most 3 episodes and one loop. The light novel does not repeat it more than 3 times, so why should it repeat 8 times in the Anime. Thats because, Kadokawa is the biggest trolls on the planet.

Sighs was okay, but it’s nothing that hits home because some of the content was already presented in “The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina, Episode 00” in the first season. Sighs is just behind the scenes making of the movie, which some people may not find that interesting until towards the end of Sighs when Kyon finally blows up at Haruhi for smacking Mikuru around. Otherwise, Sighs is good and faithful to the original (hopefully) and also the same case with Rhapsody.

Characters

Theres not much to say, but the Sighs arc made me hate Haruhi forever… because she is a absolute b%$#& and why would anyone be around her if she is going to act that way… but she atleast shaped up…

The scene where Kyon flips out is probably a reason to admire the other character for taking Haruhi as being a jerk. Also, love the talking cat, which only talked briefly.

Animation

The animation was a disappointment just like Endless Eight. The animation and art style in Suzumiya Haruhi 2009 was mediocre/below average, mainly because, someone in Kadokawa decided… Hey, why not make it look like K-ON! The K-ON! art style works only with K-ON!, put it anywhere else and it surely won’t be well received… it would just be like using Lucky Star art style in something like Kanon… You sure get the fans raging…

The K-ONification of Haruhi was pretty much another debate that was happening throughout the whole season… Some may notice that the first episode had this treatment as well… If they going to use that art style, they should just rename the show, Haruhi-ON! and have the SOS-brigade eat cake and crumpets all day long and do moe stuff and of course, play music… oh wait… Thankfully it improved towards the end of the season, although there were faint elements from K-ON!

Music

The music was not great… Tomare was okay, but Super Driver is the WORST OP I ever heard (Yes, this tells you why it’s not good) and made my ears bleed. Personally, I’m not to fond with Hirano Aya’s singing, except the first season songs since most of her songs aren’t that great and she isn’t a great singer compared to other J-Pop artists.

Conclusion

Although Sighs and Rhapsody was good, Endless Eight, poor sounding OP, average to not good art style and the trolling of Kadokawa is what made the season downfall like a hubristic hero. Kadokawa’s arrogance with the amount of trolling they have done to the fans (for example, Second Season announcement in Newtype and showing the Nice Boat parody video) and hubris with the handling of the Haruhi Franchise after it became highly successful caused the franchise’s downfall as a whole with Endless Eight and Haruhi Franchise as a whole will never be at the height as it was three years ago ever again. It’s such a shame, really since I expected this season to be great, but it ended up to be a total disaster after Endless Eight repeated 8 times and I felt it was a waste of time repeating and reanimating Endless Eight because the resources can be used on adapting other interesting arcs, but Kadokawa had to blew it and give Kyoto Animation a bad rep because of it. If there is ever a third season, I will still watch it, but I won’t be expecting much after this disaster of a season.

This is why Haruhi 2009 got a big F, merely because it’s a big disappointment. If Endless Eight haven’t repeated so much and the art style was a bit better than what they shown, I would have give it a better or at-least a passing grade.

Overall Rating

5.93/10, F ¶

Suzumiya Haruhi Second Season Episode 14 – Sighs IV (END)

September 16, 2009 by chikorita157 1 Comment

Finally, a episode where Haruhi doesn’t act like a complete jerk. The conclusion of Sighs is pretty good, but still there was a few things that bothered me about it.

As the SOS-Brigade wants to complete the movie, something happened the night while Kyon falls asleep while editing.
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Kannagi – Episode 7

September 16, 2009 by chikorita157 2 Comments

Episode 7 is a filler, obviously, but unlike all fillers which are highly repetitive in nature, this one is actually good… and also have good comedy values as well.

In this episode, Nagi locks herself in the closet because of something Jin did that made her not to forgive him.
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The Harsh Reality of College and Anime Blogging

September 14, 2009 by chikorita157 11 Comments

We all wish that we are in a city where wishes come true and be part of a drama club with a girl drawing pictures of Dango or help a harem of sad girls in snow… The problem is… reality. The majority of us Anime bloggers attend high school or college and school isn’t as fun like in the Anime universe or visual novels.

I’m going onto the third week at attending Rutgers University (yes, I know theres a Anime club there, but I won’t bother since there will probably be a bunch of Weeaboos that will annoy me since I’m a actual Asian) and like with Spring semester at my old college I used to attend, I’m in a pile of homework, readings and papers to write. Unlike spring semester, I am practically going to school almost the whole week although three days I only have one class and I don’t really have that insanely difficult classes that require alot of time. Still, homework takes a lot of free time I could spend on watching anime and writing a blog post about it. With the Prelab for General Chemistry Lab, it took me nearly 6-7 hours just to complete it… Same with my accounting homework since I have problems to work out which takes a while since I need to learn how to solve it. With the other courses, mostly it’s reading and writing papers which won’t take as long, but I won’t be updating nearly as much I did in the summer since I need to complete my homework ahead of time so I can have time to update my blog later… Remember, work and study now and play later… and you will get good grades.

I do anime blogging and watching on my free time and I do my best to make updates since I’m not one of those people who does hiatus and never updates the blog again… If you excuse me, I have some homework to do.

But my feelings still wish it was still summer, but not a eternal summer of course… I hate that Endless Eight loops… ¶