chikorita157

Kannagi – Episode 11-12 – The Drama Kicks in Sky High!

August 7, 2010 by Chikorita157 Leave a Comment

Before I watched Episode 11, I would have thought that they will go down the same path with comedy since the other episodes were like that. However, good things have to end and we have to let the drama kick through.

In Episode 11, Jin couldn’t take the unluckiness he was receiving including falling out a window. He ultimately blames Nagi for his problems. Nagi in turn leaves Jin all alone because she thought she was causing trouble for Jin.

Compared to the last ten episodes, Episode 11 and 12 had a change of pacing. The comedy is turned into drama with the whole ordeal over finding out information about Kannagi, a god that Nagi claimed to be. The general lack of information makes the whole situation a bit difficult, especially when the last resort is a grandmother that talks funny. I know this was supposed to be a serious scene, but I couldn’t think straight with her mouth opening very widely when she talks.

The overall situation in my opinion is Nagi’s fault, not just Jin’s. She seems to be too be a bit too self centered and spoiled for attention. She is too consumed on her goals of getting followers and destroying impurities that she cared less about Jin. This is why Jin reacted like this because Nagi was just causing trouble for him. Some of the trouble Nagi caused is making everyone think that Jin is gay or double timing with the two other girls. Besides the trouble Nagi caused, Jin and Nagi seems to have a hint of romance going on, which explains why Jin feels so depressed after Nagi left him. He really needs to get over the trouble Nagi caused and save her… or something that that. If not, we may as well let the other girls fight over him.

Overall, the drama scenes were okay and weren’t drawn out so long. Hopefully in our finale, we will have Jin and Nagi reunite with each other and learn more about her true identity. After that, we have a special and I would be complete with the whole series!

One more thing… Zange-chan kicking the three guys butts in an alley? That was so out of place after my mood changed from the drama.

Category: KannagiTag: A1 Pictures, aniplex, drama, emo

Amagami SS – Episode 6 (Kaoru’s Arc Part 2) – Kaoru and More Unusual Kisses

August 6, 2010 by Chikorita157 2 Comments

amagami-ep6-scr1 — Nii-nii is doing something perverted again!

Like in Haruka’s arc, girls seems to hate kissing on the lips for some reason and want to be kissed in unusual places instead. Last time this happened, our hero kissedHaruka puppy style, but what he came up this time with Kaoru?

And while you at it, we might see a more pissed off Miya?

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Category: Amagami SSTag: AIC, comedy, drama, romance

State of the Union: The Current State of Anime/Manga/Etc Cataloging Services

August 4, 2010 by Chikorita157 14 Comments

sample-a2fffa0b5a35183bcfd291c20be78545 — Don't worry, we changed in the last 6 months...

Cataloging sites are an important pillar to any Anime Fan since it keeps track what we watched, completed or planning to watch. People share these lists with others so other people can see what the person watched.

The evolution to good and easy to use Cataloging Services have been a rough one. MyAnimeList from the opinions of other users have been rather negative for unnecessary changes, random bugs and no open APIs that its been a frustration for both regular users and developers alike. AniDB hasn’t changed much and still too advanced for the average user. AnimePlanet is rather new still and still missing some features. However, its still better than MyAnimeList in many aspects. Lastly, Melative, the whole kitchen sink remains powerful and became more accessible to users. However, it does not have a really pretty web UI. In this State of the Union, I will discuss my thoughts on what’s good and what’s not good about these services and which one benefits the user the most.

Note: Fanart used in this post is made by えびばーちゃん
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Category: EditorialsTag: AnimePlanet, editorial, fandom, melative, MyAnimeList, opinion

Kaichou wa Maid-sama – Episode 17 – The Epic Beach Volleyball Match

August 3, 2010 by Chikorita157 Leave a Comment

maidsama-ep17-scr1 — From the looks of it, its pretty evil.

In the pursuit of Aoi-chan to have Nagisa accept his crossdressing lifestyle, Misaki and Aoi-chan participates in a Beach Volleyball Tournament… However, for Usui… he has other reasons to participate in the tournament.
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Category: Kaichou wa Maid-samaTag: drama, it’s a trap, JC Staff, moe, shoujo, tsundere

K-ON!! Second Season – Episode 17 – No Clubroom?!

August 2, 2010 by Chikorita157 Leave a Comment

k-on-s2-ep17-scr1 — I think Ui would make a fine lyricist.

Imagine that your club room, gym or field became unusable because of some accident or rare occurrence. You have an important event happening in a few day and need to practice or you won’t perform well. You soon find out that the other rooms are being occupied by other club activities that are preparing for the same event… Then what? The same exact occurrence happens to the Light Music Club and they really need to practice to prepare for the festival.

Since when the Light Music Club ever practiced? Every time I see them, they are drinking tea and eating cake… They will do fine, except in this instance…

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Category: K-ON!Tag: florida orange juice keeps the cold away, kyoani, moe, music

Amagami SS – Episode 5 – Kaoru “Sex Hair” Arc, First Impressions

July 31, 2010 by Chikorita157 Leave a Comment

amagami-ep5-scr1 — Ear biting is the new kind of fetish invented by Haruhi and Mikuru!

With one girl’s arc down, we continue on with the next one featuring Kaoru. There was a lot of talk about her because of her hair since it looks messy. Kaoru’s hair style gave her the nickname,”Sex Hair” from her fans. After watching this episode, it was a bit better than the first episode of Haruka’s arc because Kaoru was a bit more entertaining compared to Haruka.

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Category: Amagami SSTag: AIC, comedy, moe, tsundere, zettai ryouiki

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha – Episode 6 – A Whole Lotta of Cliffhangers

July 29, 2010 by Chikorita157 1 Comment

nanoha-ep6-scr1 — Nanoha is feeling a bit down lately... I wonder why.

After taking a three day break from Anime and catching up with some other stuff, I decided to watch more Nanoha. Apparently, Nanoha got her butt kicked two times with Fate. Two losses was enough to make Nanoha go in “emo” mode for a little bit and change her approach in getting those Jewel Seeds and how to deal with Fate.

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Category: Magical Girl Lyrical NanohaTag: drama, explosions, mahou shoujo, moe, tsundere

Reminiscing the Past: My Journey Through Anime…

July 27, 2010 by Chikorita157 12 Comments

3d01d3ea87853775d59529499ffbe44f — Remembering the happy memories can always be fun...

After reading Yumeka’s blog post on different generations of the US anime fandom, it would be interesting to tell my experiences of Anime when I first started in the nineties in full detail instead in a small paragraph…

From the nineties, things were a lot different compared to what Anime fans have now such as easily accessible fansubs, fast Internet connections, streaming, and cheap boxsets. Anime was hard to obtain and can only be watched from limited sources from television or VHS. Since the topic is relevant, I will show you my experiences on how Anime was like back in the nineties to the present.

Note: Fanart used in this post is made by 米

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Category: EditorialsTag: commentary, editorial, experiences, fandom, opinion

Amagami SS – Haruka “Lovely” Morishima Arc Final Impressions

July 25, 2010 by Chikorita157 7 Comments

amagami-ep4-scr1 — It looks like they are going to have a good family...

As Haruka’s arc begins, we saw a few good scenes that came out of the arc. The excitement happened as a result of Haruka having an enthusiastic personality. Does our male lead, Junchi reaches his goal of finally getting a lover on Christmas Eve? We will find out soon enough.

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Category: Amagami SS, ReviewsTag: AIC, comedy, drama, final impressions, opinion

K-ON!! Second Season – Episode 15 – Marathon… Houkago Tea Time Style!

July 23, 2010 by Chikorita157 2 Comments

kon-s2-ep15-src1 — Yui just isn't fit for this kind of activity.

Although we don’t want summer break to end, break ends for them. This leaves us with the most feared activity for Yui… Running long distances!
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Category: K-ON!Tag: comedy, kyoani, moe

Kanon (2006 Remake) – Final Review

July 23, 2010 by Chikorita157 2 Comments

b001c6fd159e42849e2cf5363ccec0c5 — Well, it's not hard to like the girls of Kanon...

Kanon, released on June 4, 1999 was a visual novel that changed the bishoujo game industry forever. It featured deep melodramatic story lines for each girl that gave a sense of sympathy and sadness (along with the optional eroge scenes). The one that was behind this masterpiece is Key/VisualArts. They continued to create other masterpieces like Air and Clannad that released several years later.
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Category: Kanon, ReviewsTag: drama, final impressions, key, kyoani, moe, opinion, review

K-ON!! Second Season – Episode 14 – Tsumugi’s Wish…

July 22, 2010 by Chikorita157 Leave a Comment

k-on-ep14-scr1 — Oh no! Mugi is deflating into nothingness!

As the Summer Break heads to the very last days, Mugi is deprived of Mugivision and wants female to female contact. Ritsu decides to help by taking her out and try to fulfill Mugi’s wish of being smacked.
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Category: K-ON!Tag: kyoani, moe, yuri

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha – Episode 5 – Hot Springs and Fate Kicking Butt…

July 22, 2010 by Chikorita157 5 Comments

nanoha-ep5-scr1 — Poor Yuuno... looking at girls this way is ruining his purity.

What is the best thing to do after you got your butt handed to Fate? Go to the hot springs to relax and try again later. However, unexpected things happened that turn the whole situation rather sour for Nanoha and Yuuno.
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Category: Magical Girl Lyrical NanohaTag: drama, fanservice, mahou shoujo, moe

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha – Episode 4 – Fate just kicked Nanoha’s Butt?

July 19, 2010 by Chikorita157 2 Comments

nanoha-ep1-scr1 — This is what I call a Mega Neko.

Before going through the intense battle between Nanoha and Fate, let’s focus on some of the slice of life stuff since it has maids and a lot of cute cats and kittens!

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Category: Magical Girl Lyrical NanohaTag: mahou shoujo, moe, neko

Kaichou wa Maid-sama – Episode 15 – Kanou Soutarou and Girls

July 19, 2010 by Chikorita157 Leave a Comment

maidsama-ep15-scr1 — It's very abnormal for a boy to act that way around a group of girls!

You would have thought that Soutarou would win this round with Misaki hating Usui forever. The spell did not work since Misaki stayed up from Usui saying irritating things. As a result, Misaki gives Soutarou the harshest punishment ever! Have him work with a group of girls, every boy’s dream, except for Soutarou.
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Category: Kaichou wa Maid-samaTag: drama, JC Staff, moe, tsundere

Part 3 of the Taste Test: Amagami SS Episode 3 and the Love/Hate Fest

July 18, 2010 by Chikorita157 12 Comments

amagami-ep3-scr1 — Just don't ask what I'm watching...

Something tells me that Amagami SS looks like a generic harem with ideal archetypes. On the other hand, after I watched this episode, I enjoyed it. Is this the “guilty pleasure” anime I was watching? It sure is since Amagami doesn’t have the greatest character development. It has the over the top situations where the male lead and/or the girl do silly things that make the show sound so funny and enjoyable. Even some people can’t admit that they enjoy the absurdity of the actions in Amagami. However, that is okay since it’s a guilty pleasure after all? Right?

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Category: Amagami SSTag: AIC, comedy, opinion, romance

K-ON!! Second Season – Episode 13 – Azusa and the Summer Memories

July 16, 2010 by Chikorita157 2 Comments

What most people do during Summer Break? Stare at the wall or computer!

I spent most of my summer having my eyes glued to the computer with some exceptions. Now, I am on vacation in Wisconsin/Minnesota and I felt refreshed since staying at home all summer was boring and I wasn’t doing much except sitting at the desk doing programing work, blogging and chatting with other bloggers.

Azusa suffers the same fate with Yui, Mio and Ritsu having a study session in the library and Mugi vacationing Finland. Azusa spends time with Ui and Jun to get away from the summer boredom.

The dream flashback is rather strange, but silly.

Throughout the whole episode, Azusa falls asleep. In the dream sequences, we get a flash back of memories for all the four girls on what happened during the summer. They range from silly to completely funny. The flashback includes Yui eating the wrong combinations of food, Mio watching scary movies, Mugi trying to win a prize with Azusa winning a trip to Finland and Ritsu pushing Azusa down with a bowl of Yakisoba on top of her head. I couldn’t help but laugh since they did silly things.

I'm surprised they had such a movie within an anime like K-ON!… Also, the doggy was so cute!

Of course, those dream sequences that we are shown have some consequences… For instance, Azusa forget what she was doing or misses an entire movie… It happens when you are tired during the day and decide to take a nap while you were doing something like listening to a lecture. It’s not a good sign…

They had a fun time without the whole crew…

Most people think that summer is long… In reality, it’s not. Sitting in the house in front of the computer is no way to spend the whole vacation. If you want an enjoyable summer, you need to go on one vacation at least and enjoy what it has to offer. I’m doing so right now and It’s a breath of fresh air. Even though there isn’t much things to do in Wisconsin, I enjoyed some of the sightseeing in the state. I don’t regret it.

Besides the flashbacks Azusa had while she was sleeping, this episode was rather enjoyable. However, it wasn’t as enjoyable as the last episode. Its pretty much the trend where we have one episode being very enjoyable and the next… well a mixed bag. It’s not a bad thing, but I wished that the enjoyability factor was a bit more consistent. At least they aren’t repeating content like they did in the last season.

Next Episode: Time to study for those exams?

Rating

8.6/10

Category: K-ON!Tag: comedy, kyoani, moe, summer

ef – a tale of memories – Episode 1 – First Impressions

July 16, 2010 by Chikorita157 1 Comment

The typical introduction, boy meets girl… girl meets boy…

I don’t care about minori scolding me for watching their materials since they don’t want to show outside Japan. I’m going to watch it since it was just collecting dust. Last year, I was going to start ef ~ a tale of memories, but I never did since I got sidetracked with other shows. Since I’m not watching much this summer, I will do it now.

Unlike the previous visual novel adaptations, ef has two male leads instead of one. This is because the original source material, ef: a Fairy Tale of Two had two separate stories. The first story consists of Hiro Hirono, Miyako Miyamura, Kyosuke Tsutsumi, Kei Shindo, and Yuko Amamiya. The second consists of Renji Aso, Chihiro Shindo, Shuichi Kuze, Mizuki Hayama, and Yu Himura. The way they adapted the story is pretty organized since they show the first story first and then the second. Combining both stores would make a big mess and it wouldn’t be enjoyable that way.

The first part of the first episode involves with the first male lead, Hiro on Christmas Eve. On his way home to the Christmas Party, some girl took his bike to try and get the purse back from the snatcher. Later, Hiro finds her unconscious on the street with his bike completely broken. The girl gains consciousness and she reveals herself as Miyako. She gives up on getting the purse back and then drags him to someplace. The second par of the episodet involves with another male lead named Renji who finds a mysterious girl at an abandoned train station named Chihiro. She keeps a diary and suffers from amnesia (she only has a memory span of 13 hours). Towards the end of the episode, Renji promises to become friends with Chihiro and leaves…

The story itself is rather interesting and a bit more down to earth than some of the visual novel adaptations I seen. That said, the series is nicely animated, but there are some of the usual “SHAFT” elements like this:

Don't worry, you just got SHAFTed in the first episode!

This weirdness they have in some of these scenes simply don’t make any sense. It looked as if it was some “Mind F*ck.” Besides from that, the scenes and the characters looked rather nice and colorful.

From the first episode, the adaption of the ef visual novel looks very promising. Although not on the same level as Clannad, it’s definitely going to be pretty much the same, except that its more realistic (then again, Clannad is more realistic than the other two visual novels Key made). Because of this, I will most likely to continue on with the series since I’m interested on how the male leads will fulfill the girls’ dreams.

Not to mention, Miyako, Chihiro and the girls are rather cute!

Category: ef ~ a tale of...Tag: drama, moe, shaft

sola – Episode 7 and 8 – Aono vs Matsuri… over Yorito

July 16, 2010 by Chikorita157 Leave a Comment

Forget about Matsuri and like me instead…

After Matsuri’s disappearance caused by Aono’s promise to Matsuri, she finally gets her chance to win over Yorito and start life over again as she did in the past. However, Yorito does not like this and tries to find Matsuri…

Given Aono’s past of being forced to live forever because of Matsuri, it’s no surprise that Aono wants Yorito back. So, why not do some sleazy trick to persuade Matsuri to leave forever so she would have Yorito for herself? It’s a genius plan and she even goes on a date with him.

Aono actually looks pretty cute in that outfit…

Like in Episode 5, Aono gets a chance to go out with Yorito and make him forget about Matsuri. She goes to some places such as the plush shop and riding the rails. In a later scene, she loses her umbrella like Matsuri did in the first episode and gets really wet. Yorito tries to buy a towel, but he finds Matsuri and chases after her. Aono tries to prevent him, but couldn’t. She weeps while Yorito finds Matsuri in an abandoned building and reminded her of the promise she made. While kissing, he mindlessly stabs Matsuri and it gets into his dreams (and of course, Matsuri self-heals from that stabbing).

In this condition, Yorito really needs serious help…

How about brainwashing Yorito to make him forget about Matsuri and tell her that she is gone? This is Aono’s plan all along. We knew that she was up to no good by hiding everything away from Mana… Mana eventually gets back into the house and bring him back to his senses with a picture of Matsuri that one of her friends took and sent.

I never knew that Aono would be that malicious. She was always seen as a very quiet girl that doesn’t talk often. After I seen the actions from her, I was proven completely wrong. Probably there is reason she wanted to get rid of Matsuri. If Aono gets rid of Matsuri successfully, she would be cured from her “Yaka” status and could stay with Yorito forever. Or maybe, she is jealous of Matsuri since Yorito spends way too much time with Matsuri and not with herself? Whatever the reason, Aono seems to be serious in achieving her goals…

From the two episodes, I have noticed that the pacing of the story sped up in a tenfold like CCY mentioned in his comparison post:

While both are pretty slow through the first episodes and only kick in about halfway, sola feels a lot faster and feels a lot more breakneck with the plot twists.

Although plot twists like shown in episodes 7 and 8 aren’t so bad, it’s definitely not the smoothest as the excitement ends suddenly at the end of the episode. It was shown with episode 8 when Aono and Matsuri started to have their battle against each other. It makes people wonder, who will win? We will have to find out in the next episode.

And this isn’t the last plot twist, there are more plot twists coming where that came from.

Verdict:

8.7/10

Category: solaTag: Diomedea, drama, jealousy

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha – Episode 3 – Magical Powers comes with Big Responsibilities

July 15, 2010 by Chikorita157 2 Comments

nanoha-ep3-scr1 — Being a magical girl is hard work... and thus drains you.

Nanoha had done a pretty good at being a magical girl since she already got 5 jewel seeds shortly after becoming one? The three Jewel Seeds since the second episode is giving me vibes of Kobato where Kobato’s bottle mysteriously filled up with konpeito within a few episodes!

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Category: Magical Girl Lyrical NanohaTag: drama, fanservice, mahou shoujo, moe

Two Episode Taste Test – Amagami SS

July 14, 2010 by Chikorita157 Leave a Comment

Amagami-ep2-scr1 — Huh? What are you doing here?

I lied about not trying out any of the Summer 2010 Anime. I decided to check out Amagami SS since everyone in the blogosphere was talking about it and there isn’t many things I can do in Wisconsin. From looking at it, Amagami SS was a pretty enjoyable show from the two episodes I watched so far.

This is a two episode taste test. This is the overall impressions I have for this series over the two episodes. The third episode will ultimately decide if I should continue the series or drop it.
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Category: Amagami SSTag: AIC, comedy, drama, first impressions, harem

Angel Beats! – Final Review

July 12, 2010 by Chikorita157 2 Comments

Angel Beats is a very odd Anime. It’s a anime original that was hyped not only because Key was producing it, but PA Works who worked on “True Tears” and “Canaan” was going to animate the show. What we got is the Tsundere of Anime with inconsistent storyline and out of place drama and comedy. Even though I enjoyed Angel Beats, it felt like an experiment.
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Category: Angel Beats!, ReviewsTag: final impressions, key, PA Works

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha – Episode 2 – The First Jewel Seeds

July 11, 2010 by Chikorita157 Leave a Comment

Done perfectly on the second capture!

This episode pretty much showed how Nanoha uses her newly given mage powers for the first time. Nanoha also captures Jewel seeds (two of them in this episode). Yuuno explains more to Nanoha about the Jewel seeds via the “Raging Heart” while she is at school while Yuuno is at home after the first jewel seed capture. I have to say, Nanoha did amazingly well on the first try without knowing all the magical spells/skills!

The way of how Nanoha battles seems very familiar to Card Captor Sakura where Sakura battles some kind of creature and seal them into some kind of cards. Nanoha has the same concept, except they take form in black blobs and oddly shaped seeds. The battles were very interesting to look at, but there is nothing else I can say about them. It’s a typical Magical Girl episode and it feels nostalgic. When Fate comes in, things will hopefully get a bit more interesting than just watching Nanoha capture Jewel Seeds. It just needs more conflict than what I am currently seeing right now.

Verdict

8.6/10

Category: Magical Girl Lyrical NanohaTag: mahou shoujo, moe

We will see you soon!

July 9, 2010 by Chikorita157 2 Comments

0328ab34f3905be5a753f64621eed0d9 — Ready to go…

Will be away for two weeks on vacation… so see ya until those two weeks are over. I will still be updating this blog, although the post rate might go down a little. I will be back on the full schedule once I come back.

If you want to keep track what I am doing on vacation, check my Twitter profile or my sideblog, Shiori’s Diary. I’ll try and keep up to date with my Anime watching since the hotel have free wireless internet and I can just download the fansubs on my remote computer and SSH them back to my laptop. In the meantime, I will be lurking around the interwebs on my iPhone 3GS, so stay tuned.

For now, so along. 🙂 (and this is NOT a hiatus since I never do those.)

Also, fanart used in this post is made by ななつ

Category: UncategorizedTag: update, vacation