Chikorita157's Anime Blog

Review – K-ON – GO! GO! MANIAC

April 27, 2010 by chikorita157 4 Comments

General Information

Album Title: GO! GO! MANIAC
Artist: Houkago Tea Time (Toyosaki Aki, Hikasa Youko, Satou Satomi, Kotobuki Minako, Taketatsu Ayana)
Catalog Number: PCCG-70071
Release Date: April 28, 2010
Tracks

1. GO! GO! MANIAC
2. Genius…!?
3. GO! GO! MANIAC (Instrumental)
4. Genius…!? (Instrumental)
General Thoughts

K-ON! in the first music had a very good amount of good pop music that sounded very good and very catchy. Did Go! Go! Maniac fulfill the promise to be better than the opening of the first season? Far from it since from first time listening to the TV version, it was a complete mess. However, does this album fixes that messiness. Not a chance… and you will find out soon enough.
GO! GO! MANIAC

Well, in comparison to Cagayake! GIRLS from the first season, GO! GO! MANIAC is two leaps backwards. The problem? The vocals are sadly a big mess. Toyosaki Aki’s vocals were a big mess compared to her first single, love your life, which sounded a lot better than this… The problem is that the messiness comes from the lyrics being sung way too fast and causing some squeakiness. I think the trend of Kyoto Animation providing not so good opening themes is becoming a reality since Suzumiya Haruhi S2’s opening theme, Super Driver, was also considered a disaster because of the not so good singing from Hirano Aya.

Oddly enough, taking the vocals away makes the song less cringing… but it doesn’t change the fact that the song was ruined by the vocals.
Genius…!?

Genius…!? sounds better than the former and Toyosaki Aki’s voice not nearly as bad, but fits in and pretty catchy. However, as with the overall horribleness of the opening song, this song simply doesn’t have the energy and sounds pretty simplistic.

From Toyosaki’s performance of these songs, the overall performance of the songs in the album was average. The problem is the opening song is obviously a big mess to make the song slightly unlistenable. I have heard a a lot better from Toyosaki Aki from the Houkago Tea Time Album and also Yui’s character Album. GO! GO! MANIAC did not deliver at all and was actually worse than the former OP in the first season. Even Toyosaki’s version of Fuwa Fuwa Time sounded better than this… Way better. From my impressions, it is clear that Hikasa Youko will perform better on the ending theme, Listen!! which I will review next time.
Verdict

7.2/10, Average

AniTourney Review Part 3 (Day 7-9) Digest

April 27, 2010 by chikorita157 3 Comments

wpid-sample-f8a594d6a57cf1bd4f8243fae4dcba47-212x300-2010-04-27-12-22.jpg — Blog reviewing is pretty hectic, but fun.

Now, we are on week two of the competition and it is pretty fierce. As always, my review criteria won’t change as we review another 12 Anime Blogs.

Before going on, this review Digest will contain screenshots of the actual website and how they look on my machine, so slow connections, beware… I’m basing all content on quality, not the blogger’s overall opinion on issues and stuff.

Day 7

Match 13

Black and Blue Socks

Black and Blue Socks have a clean layout. Although the theme is commonly used, I won’t criticize it since it’s a limitation on WordPress.com. The layout is very clean and navigable. Although an episodic blog, it does have a decent amount of editorials mixed in and the content is fairly good, so I have much to say… It is a pretty well rounded blog…
Major Arcana

Major Arcana has a very nice and clean design. Although the author does episodic blogging as the former, unlike the former, there is a lot more editorial blogging covering a variety of subjects. The post quality is very good, except that unlike the former, the author doesn’t post as often… but from the quality of posts and content, the advantage is Major Arcana, but ever so slightly.
Match 14

Daijoubu

There is not much I can say about Daijoubu as it is another comic blog with well, comics that look as they were made in MS Paint and posts that lack quality and not as good as Beta-Waffle’s… I wished that this blog have done a better job in providing content that are higher quality. Perhaps some editorials and stuff… Oh well…
Mecha-Guignol

Although not particularly interested in some of the genres that the author is looking at, I think the author of this blog done a better job with the post quality. The author posts a mix of editorial and rarely episodic blogging. With the shortcomings of Daijoubu, it is quite obvious that this one is going to be my choice…
Day 7 Results

Major Arcana and Mecha-Guignol
Day 8

Match 15

Ani-Gamers

Despite the name of the blog, Ani-Gamers is a mixed episodic, editorial and review blog. Ani-Gamers have a clean layout, although not the usual layout as the stuff is on the left side. Fairly good quality posts and the author seems to post frequently.
Anime Full Circle

The problem with Anime Full Circle is that the text is a bit unreadable, maybe because of the fonts used on my system. In contrast to Ani-Gamers, they post fairly frequently, but the problem with the posts is that some of the posts lack some quality. If they improve their post quality, I would have vote for them, but the clear advantage is Ani-Gamers. Anime Full Circle should consider either getting a new theme or fix their current theme so it would be more readable.
Match 16

Since I follow Anime Instrumentality Blog on my RSS reader, it is obvious that I am going to vote for them automatically. It is rare that the Anime Blogosphere focus mainly on Anime Music as a whole, but I find this blog rather unique with high quality reviews on Anime Singles, Albums and Singles and also focus on Anime and related music as a whole.

The problem with Kita ze Inbou is that they focus way too much on Episodic Blogs and post a lot of screenshots like Random Curiosity. They have a clean layout, but why the banner add is on top of the banner? I would rather have them move it to the content area. Although the theme looks appealing, they really need to post more original content like editorials and stuff.
Day 8 Results

Ani-Gamers and Anime Instrumentality Blog
Day 9

Match 17

Behind The Nihon Review

Behind The Nihon Review is mostly an editorial blog. The pieces I have looked at were pretty professional and rational, although they don’t post as often. The layout design overall is pretty clean and easy to navigate.
Chocolate Syrupy Waffles

Chocolate Syrupy Waffles is probably one of the most controversial blogs out there that tries to be funny and interesting. The problem is some may not like the opinions shown on the blog. Also, they do episodic posting as well. As for the layout, it is pretty clean and easy to navigate. Despite the outrageousness of the blog, I think Behind The Nihon Review is better since it has a more rational approach on issues and being more polished.
Match 18

Listless Ink

The author of this blog must have put a lot of effort to make it look really nice. From the looks of the comments, that is simply insane. The content is mostly editorial and the posts are pretty good quality.
Super Noisy Rice Shower Goes Boom!!

Rarely there is a blog out there that focus primarily on Seiyuus. Like the former, the content is pretty good as well and it also has a very clean layout. Tough decision… so I’m going to let you guys vote for what blog I should ultimately decide on. The poll will close this Friday and I will decide on that day on what blog to vote according to the votes on this poll.
[poll id=”12″]
Day 9 Results

Behind The Nihon Review. Match 18 to be decided.

Okay, this wraps up the long blog digest… Now, vote for what I should vote for on Match 18 and I’ll be on my way. Next digest will be posted on Friday with another 12 blogs to review.
Attribution Information

Fanart used in this post is by G TONG (Pixiv Page) ¶

Review – Girls Dead Monster – Crow Song Single

April 26, 2010 by chikorita157 6 Comments

If the artist name doesn’t ring a bell, well don’t worry. This single obviously contains the insert songs in the Spring Anime, Angel Beats! that is currently airing. It surprised me on how early in the season it was released, but then again, the K-ON!! singles just released recently as well… Sorry if I’m not good at music reviewing. Probably Anime Instrumentality Blog will do it better?

General Information

Album Title: Crow Song
Artist: Girls Dead Monster (Singers: Marina and LiSA)
Catalog Number: KSLA-0051
Release Date: April 23, 2010

Tracks

Crow Song
Alchemy
My Song

General Thoughts

The Album sounded fairly good, but it is not without flaws… Like with the music oriented K-ON! which had the characters playing with some rather good music, this is the same effect, but not perfect… Overall, the vocals were good for all the three song, except that the feeling in the vocals was somewhat missing or something as they sound a bit flat. I noticed this on all three tracks. If I compared this to Fuwa Fuwa Time or even Houkago Tea Time back in 2009, I think they done pretty close, except the flaws I mentioned.

Crow Song

This song is the insert song played in Episode 1. The overall song sounded really good and really like the instrumentals and had a lot of energy.

Alchemy

Alchemy is an album insert song. Although this song sounded good, but not as good as Crow Song as the energy wasn’t there that would make this song a bit forgettable. I think it would have sound better Live or something. It is sad that this one hasn’t been used in the Anime let.

My Song

This song is an insert song played in Episode 3 and it is a ballad. I haven’t watched Episode 3 yet, but it is a ballad. The song itself is powerful, and liked the acoustics. A bit better, but the vocals are still a little flat…

Overall, I think the instrumentals sounded really good because they are obviously composed by Jun Maeda which have made some really good music in past works. The only problem is with the vocals I mentioned earlier. While it is almost damn close to the K-ON! songs released last season, I think the flatness of the vocals is the problem I see here. If it wasn’t that flat, I think it would have done better…

Verdict

7.6/10, Good ¶

AniTourney Review Part 2 (Day 4-6) Digest

April 24, 2010 by chikorita157 3 Comments

No, really... I find reviewing blogs fun...

Going to do this digest today since I got bored and just wanted to review more Anime Blogs. Will be using the iPad Simulator’s Mobile Safari (still based on Webkit) instead taking a screencap of every window because of the inconsistent window sizes and blogs should be designed for a 1024×768 resolution. No ands and buts. Now onto the blog reviews…

Day 4

Match 7

A Product of Wasted Time

A Product of Wasted Time (an episodic blog) has a good layout design, pretty easy to navigate and such, except the large number of ads… well besides from that, the author seems to have decent content and frequently updates (from the number of posts made on the Archives). How about what the competitor is doing?
chaostangent

Chaostangent has a unique design which is very clean, appealing and original (the bottom shows his Last.fm, Youtube and Flickr profiles). His approach of blogging some can view as pretty good as he takes three episodes and write about them and afterwards, write a review in the end of the show’s running, which is pretty unique. Also, he posts rather frequently, so although some say it was a hard choice, the match goes to Chaostangent.
Match 8

見ないで! ひとり言 (mi nai de ! hitori gen)

The duo blog from jpmeyer and Hinano… who seems to RAEG a lot or focus too much on the negative. The overall design of the blog is good. Depending on the person, you may find the raeg funny or maybe not as your milage may vary. The notable feature from this blog is jpmeyer’s “what i was forced to watch this week” posts that many can find amusing, although lacking in some quality…
Caraniel’s Ramblings

Unlike the former blog, Caraniel’s Ramblings is less on the RAEG and negativity and more on the actual content. Comparing post quality, it seems that this blog is a little bit more higher quality than the former although the banner should of be design better, but the vote goes to this one as they seem to update more frequently, have better content and less RAEG…
Day 4 Results

chaostangent and Caraniel’s Ramblings
Day 5

Match 9
Just as Planned

Just as Planned has a clean and simple layout. The only flaw that I see with the layout is that the archives are missing. How I supposed to check older posts. The author posts fairly often and the author’s post seems to be very descriptive and high quality and is mostly an episodic blog…
Moe Check

Moe Check has a really good design and really navigable. Although the posts are good quality, the problem is the author seems to post infrequently, which slowly lessen the lead with design sadly. If only the author have posted a little more every month, it would get my vote, but the vote has to go to Just as Plan because the author of that blog posts far more often while maintaining good quality posts.

As the name say, Moe Check, the content is pretty persistent with that.
Match 10

Rainbowsphere

Rainbowsphere is very passionate with its eroge and hentai so much there is a post saying that he is not ashamed of his porno… Something that will turn me off (no, I have nothing against porno, eroge or such, but I find it… gross). The main problem with the blog is that it hasn’t seen an update since March 8th, which is almost like a month and being updated very infrequently, the chances of voting for it is very slow. The navigation is awkward compared to other blogs that have next and previous page on the bottom of the index of blog posts. The author should consider fixing that as well so that it will be easier to navigate towards pages and such.
JanaiBlog

Besides the fact that Janai on Twitter nagging about people not using licensed anime sources and this drama on twitter that causing myself and my friend on twitter to unfollow him (no offense) because of this reason… this shouldn’t be the big thing to be against of the blog because of something that happens on twitter. The design is pretty appealing, clean and navigable. The blogger focus primarily on the Anime scene mainly in America, so he focuses on issues that pertain to America and also Anime Cons and such… not that I would be interested in. The blogger also posts fairly frequently, so the advantage is clear… despite the shenanigans that happens on Twitter on theme design and productivity.
Day 5 Results

Just as Planned and JanaiBlog
Day 6

Match 11

Canne’s anime review blog

I seriously think the blogger needs to put more effort on the images as it look like something that came from MS Paint or something (hint: Use GIMP, Paint.net or Photoshop (If you can afford it). Besides from the fact of that, the content doesn’t reflect that at all. The posts are fairly good quality, but the blogger should really update more often! At least the author posts a few posts every month, I guess…Besides from that, the layout is clean and navigable.
COLONY DROP

I can say that the post quality is around the same as the former and they don’t update often. However, don’t like their design and what with this advertisement for Funimation… Ugh… I think I will vote for the underdog, Canne’s anime review blog. Also, they are missing archive links to older posts.
Match 12

Beta-Waffle

Although the color scheme and layout of Beta-Waffle is ugh, the content on the blog is pretty unique. They post comics that have to relate to Anime and such that they are funny… Only thing they should really improve is the theme and it will be all good.
bananaMuffin

bananaMuffin has a very appealing design to the eye and easy to navigate and has good quality posts and author posts fairly often… I don’t know… This is a tough decision… so what do you decide I should pick on this round? Its up to you now. The one that gets the most votes by next Monday is the one I will be voting for…

[poll id=”11″]
Day 6 Results

Canne’s anime review blog and Match 12 to be decided bananaMuffin.

Okay, this wraps up the long blog digest… Now, vote for what I should vote for on Match 12 and I’ll be on my way. Next digest will be posted on Tuesday with another 12 blogs to review. ¶

Working!! – Episode 3 Thoughts and Impressions

April 23, 2010 by chikorita157 1 Comment

No, seriously… This episode was filled with alot of Mugivision™… Wait… Wrong show…

If Takanashi didn’t have enough with the rather eccentric girls like Inami not liking men and want to punch the lights out of them, well meet another rather eccentric girl named Yachiyo. As shown in a flashback, she was bullied because she was carrying a katana for some reason… and one day, she gets picked on and Kyouko hit them with a needled bat and after that day, Yachiyo follows her around. This meant that Yachiyo seem to have some love interest to Kyouko, although Kyouko only cares about the food…

This episode had alot of Yuri of what you can imagine. Besides the parfaits and Yachiyo go dreamy over it, there were more hints of Yuri aka Mugivision™… For example:

Some Mugivision™ happening here with the forehead touching...

Wait… Theres more where that came from:

Indirect KISS!!! God knows if that spoon has Yachiyo's spit on it.

Don’t ask, but Yachiyo did lash out at the general manager, Otou Hyougo with her Katana for taking Kyouko away from the damn parfaits… yes… it was bound to happen… You know that Yachiyo’s feelings for Kyouko is very sensitive you know… Kyouko got to have those parfaits no matter what favor.

And yea, Inami didn’t punch Otou… but instead Takanashi… I think punching him is getting a bit… well, old… I hope this doesn’t turn into a running gag…

Overall, from the look of it, it’s a bit better, but not good enough. The problem with Working!! like with other bloggers said that the show might start getting into the “stupid humor” ditch that once you get in, it is pretty difficult to get out. Like always, your milage may vary… We get that when Yachiyo only takes out the katana for that one instance… nothing else which made it slightly disappointing. Also, the whole episode left Popura out the spotlight… I thought she was the centerpiece of the show and that Takanashi likes her because she is short and childish? Did she become unPopura…. NO WAI!!!! It can’t be! It is for this one episode.
I still don’t know about this… but from what I have seen, I still perfer K-ON!! over Working!! because atleast it is funny in its own way and it didn’t show “stupid humor.” Then again, it is just what I prefer…
Verdict

7.8/10 ¶

Anime and Japanese Music… and Favorite Artists

April 22, 2010 by chikorita157 7 Comments

wpid-18648f0c31a0e0cb22fcd70d823533ae-300x240-2010-04-22-23-21.jpg — This is what I rather do than go to classes. :p

Like with most bloggers and such, I don’t spend all my time watching anime and such, but do other things like posting on AnimeSuki, tweeting, playing video games, writing editorial posts on my blog and even program stuff. For that, I need music to occupy myself while I am on my laptop. Even on the go, I will listen to music sometimes with my headphones with my iPhone 3GS, which doubles as a iPod. Since my return to watching Anime, my music collection was small, but it grew and grew as time went by… and I think I got what artists I seem to like personally… You don’t have to agree, but here they are (no specific order)
[Read more…] about Anime and Japanese Music… and Favorite Artists

K-ON!! Second Season – Episode 3 Thoughts and Impressions

April 22, 2010 by chikorita157 Leave a Comment

wpid-wpid-shot0001-kon-ep3.WigdobqY1qcS-2010-04-22-21-14.jpg — Look at this cute turtle!

No, this episode is not about this turtle you are seeing here… it is about Ritsu…

Although I’m not a big Ritsu fan, this episode was enjoyable. Well, it is tough that you never be in the spotlight, but trying to do something else won’t help either because the bottom line of doing what you want to do is not all about the popularity favor, but if you enjoy what you are doing. Ritsu gets tired for not being in the spotlight, so she tried the guitar and…

wpid-wpid-shot0002-kon-ep3.SrRbf0IZJDMy-2010-04-22-21-14.jpg — She isn't cut out for it... sadly...

Well, it seemed that it was too difficult and Yui seems to be glad to have Gitah back (lol). She becomes jealous at Sawako’s shining appearance that she also tried doing the keyboard like shown below:

wpid-wpid-shot0003-kon-ep3.EfCvjtPKPjNi-2010-04-22-21-14.jpg — I think I can do better than this...

Be amazed that she can make the keyboard talk, not make actual music. Well, after playing Piano for several years, I think I still know how to play the keyboard at least… more so than Ritsu by what she does with it. Putting her in front of the band or shining the light on her also didn’t help… Of course, popularity isn’t everything as she remembers why she played the drums in the first place… And yes, it only took the watching of The Who (yes, the actual band) and Keith Moon (who is part of the said band) on DVD… After all, The Who is a very influential band.

Funny, isn’t it… Ironicly, the person who really wanted to shine aka Sawako went too extreme and well, yeah…

wpid-wpid-shot0004-kon-ep3.R61yDwVfko8x-2010-04-22-21-14.jpg — Experimenting has dire consequences...

If you cover your face with something, it is quite obvious that you went a bit overboard. Anyways, another factor is Yui… Yes, I know she doesn’t seem to be like Fuko, but I still find her rather cute and very funny despite this. literally, my intelligence fells when I see Yui doing something that a normal person won’t normally do, but it is all good. Also, Mugi figured out another song thanks to Ritsu fooling around the keyboard… Can’t wait to see how it sounds like next episode, if she does sing…
Verdict

8.4/10 ¶

AniTorney Review Part 1 (Day 1-3) Digest

April 22, 2010 by chikorita157 1 Comment

Now I have some time, I will begin to review Anime Blogs from Day 1 to 3. This means 12 blogs in total. As mentioned before, I will be reviewing the blogs from these criterias listed in this post.

Angel Beats! – Episode 2 Thoughts and Impressions

April 21, 2010 by chikorita157 Leave a Comment

wpid-wpid-shot0001-angelbeats-ep2.EhNInUdwFCq5-2010-04-21-19-59.jpg — Time for our next big plan...

Nevertheless… this remains really interesting…

In continuation of this episode, the mission is to restock on weapons from the Guild underground. To get there, they need to get through the traps that are meant to repel Tenshi. Besides the “it’s a TRAP!” (not with boys crossdressing as a girl, but actual traps) moments that includes but not limited to a hammer, a laser trap that cuts your body (don’t worry, it doesn’t actually harm them after all), pitfall trap, big rolling bolder, falling ceiling, you name it! It is quite funny how some of these characters fell for these traps that I laughed… Well since they are immortal after all and only causes a lot of pain. Of course, our main character sees some, well you know for the first time and Yuri going all tsundere… well, dere with the blushing…

wpid-wpid-shot0002-angelbeats-ep2.Eeyn3AiJwZ08-2010-04-21-19-59.jpg — Nice and happy family... Too bad something bad happened to them. 🙁

And then, there is this flashback which is on the verge of tearjerking sad…. The robbers decide to break into her house and nearly wiped out the whole family. Yuri tries to find something they would want, but fails to bring down the large pot since she slipped down stairs and started to bleed. Along with that, she is the leader simply because she rebelled against Tenshi first. Soon, they arrive at the guild and she decides to shut it down since Tenshi already found out and wanted to destroy all the knowledge and then rebuild the guild elsewhere. The workers start with preparation to demolish the guild and Tenshi got there. Otonashi and Yuri stand Tenshi off until the workers finally donated the TNT to blow up the guild, although the cannon was a complete failure.

wpid-wpid-shot0003-angelbeats-ep2.lOS6a8FywAiB-2010-04-21-19-59.jpg — BOOM! The whole thing will be gone within minutes.

Overall, this episode still made me rather interested in the show. Although the pacing is a little off, I think it will get better in the later episodes. Except for some scenes in the flashback, the animation was a improvement over the last episode and looked more appealing. It seems that they finally got the OP and the ED done with song and animation, which looked and sound amazing. About the OP, of course it sounded a little different compared to other songs that Lia sung (yes, I listen to alot of her songs, not only her Anime songs as seen on Last.fm), but it’s is rather mature… The ED sounded rather peaceful and yes, this is what I got from it. It is obvious that P.A. Works is trying to push to become like Kyoto Animation as always. Anyways, I can’t wait for the next episode…
Verdict

8.4/10 ¶

Extreme Makeover… Blog gets Completely New Theme

April 21, 2010 by chikorita157 2 Comments

wpid-Chikorita157s-Anime-Blog-300x231-2010-04-21-14-58.png — Have been working several hours on this...

Well, it have been decided that I was going to ditch the old theme and make a new one. The last theme, Wicketpixie seems alright, but the problem is that it uses alot of images and it seems to load slower than it would on top of the glitches on top, so I decided to gut the theme. We are still using the same banner, but I made alot of mods and tweaks to the Thematic Theme Framework with the help of the Web Inspector in Webkit to figure out what CSS to edit and all that good stuff. I managed to maintain the top bar from the old theme, except for minor glitches that I need to fix. Overall, the theme seems to be very appealing to the eye and also loads alot quicker than the old theme… Several seconds quicker since now everything is done with CSS, not with images and such… I haven’t tested the theme in Internet Explorer since it is the worst browser ever made, but everything seems to work fine.

Anyways, tell me what you think about it and I will take some suggestions… No, the color scheme is here to stay, so yeah….

Also, I got rid of Wibiya… so people who are reading this blog don’t have to tear their hairs out when they see that annoying, floating toolbar. And yes, this theme has threaded comments!

Update: Subscribe menu should now view properly. Something was up with the positioning of the menu in the CSS.