Chikorita157's Anime Blog

Happy Birthday!

August 9, 2009 by chikorita157 2 Comments

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”

Spoiler Inside	Select Show
– Nintendo DSi – Noise Canceling Earphones (not real expensive ones) – Kannagi Vol 1 and Vol2 (preorder) – sola Boxset (preorder – New wallet with money

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.

August 8, 2009 by chikorita157 1 Comment

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

August 6, 2009 by chikorita157 4 Comments

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 is the rating breakdown on Haruhi S2 with the data gathered from the polls.

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

August 4, 2009 by chikorita157 5 Comments

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?

August 4, 2009 by chikorita157 2 Comments

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!

August 3, 2009 by chikorita157 3 Comments

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?

August 2, 2009 by chikorita157 3 Comments

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.

August 1, 2009 by chikorita157 Leave a Comment

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. ¶

Editorial: How to screw up a licensed anime release.

July 31, 2009 by chikorita157 2 Comments

Everyone might be wondering, what ever happen to the True Tears and sola anime releases? Originally Bandai Ent., the licensor of both anime series licensed both series early 2008 with selling volumes that are singles which are expensive without a dub… until they scrap it and instead decide to make it a full box set mid/late summer of last year. Ever since, the release date kept getting delayed and never face a release. Recently, True Tears supposed to release on July 21st, which is this month, but yet pushed back to August 18, 2009, the same date sola boxset supposed to be release.

What is going on here? I know the economy is not in the greatest shape, but it’s gradually improving, Bandi Ent., this is no excuse to keep delaying the release on end so people expect that it would never materialize… You already messed up the Lucky Star OVA release without a dub when it’s a very popular series… Next you are going to disappoint us on August 18 by delaying the release of both anime series again by another month? I am posting this because I am interested in watching sola and want to buy the DVDs, but keep messing with the release dates… If it gets delayed or even canceled, people are going to go into a RAGE somewhat like we have experienced with Endless Eight. There is absolutely NO EXCUSES why it shouldn’t release on August 18, 2009… but I am going to be very upset if it gets delayed or even canceled…

Also, I suggest boycotting any of their releases if they don’t release them. Delaying it 2 times is more than enough… This will probably be enough to have them listen. ¶

The Fiasco of Suzumiya Haruhi: Endless Eight is Endless

July 30, 2009 by chikorita157 5 Comments

My reaction to the 7th Episode of Endless Eight... Depressed... because Endless Eight is Endless.

Now I’m totally hopeless… because it’s all Kadokawa’s fault of deciding to repeat it more than 6 times when it’s supposed to be 6… Even six is too many episodes.

Seriously… Endless Eight is a big waste of money and time to animate… I rather have Kyoto Animation dump Endless Eight and start putting their efforts to animating Little Busters!, but I still wonder how much money they wasted animated Endless Eight crap… I mean… a Little Busters! anime will be alot better than a whole season of Endless Eight.

Now, KADOKAWA owes me 7 strawberry sundaes to forgive me now! (No, I’m not referring to the 7 strawberry sundaes in the Kanon VN)

Fan Reactions

resoLv777 from AnimeSuki made a downfall of Haruhi.
Also, CCYoshi (the author of Mega Megane Moé) also made two of them,
Haruhi S2 dropped to a 7.50 within one week.

This Music Video by Jinto from AnimeSuki pretty much sums everything up

Cartoon Leap: Endless Eight is still Endless and NICE BUTT!

At AnimeSuki, Episode 5 remains the most negatively voted episode with Episode 7 trailing 5 in ratings.

Endless Eight in a Mathematical Sense

Also, Mathematical proof that Endless Eight is Endless (using Calculus)… Take a limit of f(x)=15527+x as x goes to infinity. x represents how many times Kyon does not do his homework… The solution therefore is:

Infinite, meaning Endless Eight is Endless and will never end.

What’s wrong with the picture? Have Haruhi truely “Jumped the Shark” this time?

Ever since Endless Eight started, we have thought that it would end on the second episode… Instead, the Endless Eight arc have dragged on for so long that people started to blame someone (Kyoani and/or Kadokawa) on the handling of the Haruhi S2 anime… Believe me, Endless Eight is what made the Haruhi series jumped the shark… It will never be the same ever again since expectations have lowered across the board… so, good luck on selling those DVDs, Kadokawa….

In conclusion, This is got to be worst stunt for Kadokawa to play… while hurting Kyoani’s reputation with it, but they will recover someday, but for Kadokawa… not so much. (does this part give you the sense of deja vu?)

If Endless Eight doesn’t end next week, just watch something else so you will keep your sanity… It will eventually end when pigs fly. ¶

Chikorita157's Anime Blog