Yep, Ika finally gets her own invasion club so she can take over mankind! Sort of…
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Shinryaku!? Ika Musume – Episode 7 – Creation of the Invasion Club
Weekly Anime Rankings & Digest – November 14-20
Subsequently after the downtime that caused a significant drop in hits, I’m plan to fight with the hosting company so I can get a prorated refund and move to a more reliable shared hosting for another year. Although a VPS is nice and all, I need to learn how to set one up locally before actually taking a risk.
During the downtime, I have taken the plunge and brought the fifth Idolmaster Animation Master, which contains a few notable songs from Episode 13. I promise to post pictures of it once it gets released (and no, not like this).
On the brighter note, last week’s anime was exciting with Mini-Ika returning and most importantly, the Chihaya episode. (Image Source)
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Fate/zero – Episode 8 – Kiritsugu’s Trump Card
As the battle rage on with Lancer/Saber taking on Caster while Kiritsugu takes on El-Melloi, Kirei makes a surprising appearance.
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Extended Downtime = Extreme Rage
Having a site go down for more than a few hours is every blogger’s nightmare and it seemed that it became reality this weekend. Yesterday, the site went down and I complained numerous times to the host on why it’s not fixed. This was not the first time it happened this month as my blog faced downtimes, some lasting a few hours.
Apparently, a few sites on the shared host got compromised in a XSS (Cross site scripting) attack, most likely from an outdated TimThumb library that compromised many Wordpress blogs. Still, the poor communication with support and the inability to detect this problem before it was too late kind of shows how irresponsible WPWebhost is. They talk about how good Wordpress is, but they care less about their customers. I felt that I received subpar hosting for them to the point where I’m furious at them for not fixing these problems before. To make it worse, this wasn’t the only problem I faced with them in the past. My site had numerous short downtimes, slow loading times and database not working properly because the tmp folder is full. From what I have experienced this weekend, I feel that their support staff and the people who manage the server needs to get fired and replaced with competent people since their response in this situation was horrendous.
Needless to say, I’m still going to send a complaint letter so maybe I can get out of the contract and get a prorated refund. If I’m successful in doing this, I will transfer my domain to another registrar and move my site to an affordable unmanaged virtual private server like Burst.net. If not, I’ll stick it out for another year, take daily backups and then move to a new host. Either way, there is no way in hell they will ever get my business again and heed the warning… Never get hosting from WPWebHost.
Aside from that, the post for Fate/zero episode 7 will be up in a few hours.
The iDOLM@STER – Episode 20 – Thank You for the Memories (おもいで を ありがとう)
From the aftermath of an article in a gossip magazine regarding Chihaya’s past, it kind of shows how judgmental society is even though it clearly crosses the line.
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SOPA, The Cancer that will kill the Aniblogosphere… in America.
In the past few years, there are notable and controversial legislations that deemed as the apocalypse of Anime Industry and its fandom. Just last year, I have shared my thoughts on Tokyo passing a very controversial ordinance called “Bill 156” also known as the Nonexistent Youth Bill, which aims to restrict sexual content. Up to this day, the industries’ impact of the bill is still questionable, but that is only the tip of the iceberg. (Image Source)
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Shinryaku?! Ika Musume – Episode 6 – Adventures of Mini-Ika
Ika Musume is back after taking a second break. Guess whose back?
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Weekly Anime Rankings & Digest – November 7-13
First off, I apologize for making a statement (including the complaints on Twitter) in the last post that wasn’t called for and got scalded for in the past. I admit that I have gone through a rough weekend regarding some stress in the family regarding an illness along with someone crashing into my mother’s car while making an illegal U-turn. Therefore, I wasn’t in my state of mind. Going forwards, I will not complain about it in the future if it happens again (everyone should heed this warning, especially those who complained about it on Anime Suki Forums).
Aside from that, the stuff that happened last week was exciting despite Ika Musume Second Season not airing. (Image Source)
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The iDOLM@STER – Episode 19 – Takane, the Elegant Silver-Haired Princess
This episode obviously puts the spotlight on Takane, which is one of my favorite idols aside from Azusa and Chihaya not because of her looks, but her mysterious personality.
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Fate/zero – Episode 7 – Kiritsugu’s Regret and the Battle Against Caster
Following the big explosion of a hotel building with El-Melloi in it, has Kiritsugu successfully killed him? We’ll see.
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Working!! Second Season – Episode 6 – Souta Becomes a Jerk
I have to admit that I was quite annoyed this week since I couldn’t watch anything. Therefore, I did not have anything to blog about for the past two days. Apparently, a particular video game called The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim released yesterday and it has ruined everything through mass delays of subs. Let’s get our pitchforks and torches so we, the 99% of the anime bloggers can shred that game into pieces…
Just kidding because Working Second Season Episode 6 relived some of that rage that I have pent-up inside myself.
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Iyashikei, The Art of Friendship, Escapism and Healing
In recent years, shows involving schoolgirls doing cute things have become considerably popular, especially in the second half of the 2000s. Although some people argue that these works don’t have any substance, for others, it gives a feeling of happiness and refreshment. Shows like K-ON, Hidamari Sketch, Sketchbook, Tamayura, and A Channel along with the acclaimed Aria series and Ikoku Meiro no Croisèe, which don’t set at a school setting. So, what are in these shows that give this present feeling?
Iyashikei (癒し系), which means “healing series” in Japanese is what it says on the box. It’s a genre that focuses on the lighthearted aspects of life with little to no conflict. If you look further, there are several qualities in this genre, which contributes to feeling such as the emphasis on friendship, the setting and an easy-going feeling. (Image Source)
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Weekly Anime Ratings & Digest – October 31st – November 6th
Miraculously, our power finally returned on Monday after I spent two nights sitting in a cold, dark room. Thankfully, there were no trick-or-treaters this year, so we didn’t have to go through the annoyance of the doorbell ringing every minute and having to pass out candy.
Aside from that, Ika Musume finally comes back from hiatus to make our day brighter along with Ritsuko’s comeback as an idol. Fate/zero on the other hand, it was somewhat disappointing, but still remains strong show. In addition to this, I will share this year’s pick for the Aniblogger Secret Santa project. (Image Source)
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Fate/zero – Episode 6 – When in doubt… Use C4.
Needless to say, my views of Caster just got worse as a result of this episode.
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Working!! Second Season – Episode 5 – Kyoko’s Hunger Pains and Extreme Cuteness
Be warned, this episode has some criminally cute moments…
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The iDOLM@STER – Episode 18 – Ritsuko’s Reluctant and Unexpected Idol Comeback
For a while now, Ritsuko became a full-fledged female producer of Ryuuguu Komachi. Somehow, Azusa comes down with an illness, which causes her to become afraid of the inevitable…
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Shinryaku?! Ika Musume – Episode 5 – Fighting Boredom and Extreme Test Drives
Ika Musume is finally back after a week of hiatus, thus brightening our day with more hijinks.
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Experiences of Self-Learning Japanese: First Observations
Up until now, I have only spoken English mainly because somehow in my childhood, I decided not to attend Chinese school. Sadly, being monolingual is painful because now I have become interested in playing The Idolmaster, which is only in Japanese. Not only that, I wanted to prepare myself for the future since knowing another language looks better on the résumé opposed to just English.
Since I have motivated myself to self-study the Japanese language, I memorized all the Kana along with two lessons (currently on the 3rd) in one month. Through my experiences, I found the beginning rather easy to grasp. Thus, I share my experiences thus far. (Image Source)
Note: This post uses the ruby HTML5 tag to view the Furigana for any Kanji used. If you use Firefox, install this extension. This is not necessary in Safari, Chrome and Internet Explorer.
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Fate/zero – Episode 5 – The Unexpected Confrontation
From last time, Rider decided to crash Saber’s and Lancer’s duel and invites the other servants to introduce themselves.
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Weekly Anime Rankings & Digest – October 24-30
Tomorrow is Halloween. So, this weeks picture fits the mood with Makoto and Hibiki wearing the “My Dear Vampire” outfit from The iDOLM@STER 2. On a side note, the PlayStation 3 version of the game came out last Thursday in Japan. Hopefully I’ll get a copy to play around at years end.
Despite the lack of Ika Musume 2 and a snowstorm that hit the Northeast, which knocked out our power for over 24 hours, this week’s Anime had very exciting developments. Makoto finally gets some time in the spotlight along with Iskander’s/Rider’s epic attack against Berserker. (Image Source)
Note: The Fate/zero Episode 5 post is delayed until tomorrow, unless the power comes back on tonight.
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The iDOLM@STER – Episode 17 – Makoto, a Princess in Disguise
Makoto finally gets some time in the spotlight and desires to become a princess.
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Working!! Second Season – Episode 4 – Otoo’s Wife and Yachiyo’s Guilt
Poor Yachiyo… Something must have happened to make her feel so depressed.
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Tamayura ~hitotose~ – Episode 3 – Friendly Desert Competition
Norie faces a fierce desert making competition against Komachi over winning Kou’s heart. Who is going to win? You just have to wait and see…
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Weekly Anime Rankings & Digest – October 17-23
What is this? Are you doing weekly digests now?
Considering that I’m now taking part in the Anime Power Rankings, the answer is yes. A fellow Animeblogger named kevo runs these rankings to see how the currently airing shows are doing at a particular week. Given that I want to share my reasoning behind these votes and possibly add brief thoughts of episodes from older seasons that aren’t part of the rankings, I decided on doing it. This is how it’s going to work:
- I will concentrate on the shows that I have voted on the rankings first. This means the shows I’m up to date on are eligible for this. Sub availability plays a key role in this. Once I know enough Japanese, this will go a lot smoother as I can just jump right in and then re-watch the subs later while having a sufficient understanding of what I watched.
- Second part will focus on unranked shows. These are shows that I’m currently behind in because of uncontrollable circumstances.
- If there is any, the last part only focuses on episodes from shows of other seasons. They won’t be part of any ranking whatsoever.
- Lastly, this is not a replacement for episodic posts. It’s meant to recap what I watched during the week.
So, let’s get started, shall we? (Image Source used in this post)
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