Ah, summer, it’s that time of season where you want to be at the beach (unless your beach is polluted by BP’s oil spill, damn bastards) or at the pool. What happens if you are stuck in school? Well…
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Working!! – Episode 10 and 11 – Love Triangles and Stuff
After Souta reluctantly crossdressed as “Kotori-chan” so Inami could keep working in the restaurant, Popura, the one that Souta likes now have a desire of wanting Souta to crossdress as a girl. You know that most males do not want to crossdress… They would not even do it for love? Also, in Episode 11, it becomes so tense that Yamada thought about this love triangle between Inami, Popura and Souta.
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WordPress 3.0 and What it means for Anime Blogs?
WordPress 3.0 is the next big installment of the popular WordPress blogging platform used by the majority of Anime Bloggers. Automattic, the maker of the WordPress have been working on 3.0 since the early of this year and there had been some Beta and Release Candidate builds. Currently, they are very close to releasing WordPress 3.0, which brings a new array of features to bloggers. I will discuss some of these features that could be useful to the Anime blogger.
This only applies if you have a self-hosted WordPress, not blogs hosted on WordPress.com
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Summer 2010 Plans
Since, most of the 13 episode shows will end by the last week of June that includes Angel Beats! and Working!!, I decided to post my Summer 2010 plans. Kaichou wa Maid-sama and perhaps K-ON! by the looks of it will be 24+ episode shows that will air throughout the summer. Therefore, I am pretty much occupied without getting into the Summer 2010 Season. Before I go into detail in what I will be focusing on this summer, I want to give my overall thoughts about the Summer 2010 Anime lineup.
Fanart used in this post is made by 月蔵.
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Opinion: Elitism and the Aniblog Tourney: What happened?
In light of the drama, I felt that I needed to write this editorial because things went out of hand. People arguing each other saying that Listless Ink doesn’t deserve this victory and that Random Curiosity should have won. I have discuss this on my sideblog that I won’t go into detail (just read the post on my Sideblog if you are still interested). Still, this argument keeps going and going, which disturbs me. This editorial won’t be about Random Curiosity and Listless Ink, but other things that bother me about the whole situation.
Note: Fanart used in this post is made by 紅雪
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K-ON!! Second Season – Episode 10 – Sawako’s Dilemma
Sawako is under pressure because she wants to keep her pure image around the freshmen. However, the former members of “Death Devil” want her to participate in playing music at a wedding reception since the bride thats getting married used to be part of the band. Sawako refuses and the Light Music Club devises a plan to eventually force her to play.
You might be wondering how well they will perform without Sawako. We will find out soon enough.
In the last season, Sawako revealed that she had a wild past because the boy she wanted liked wild girls. However that pretty much backfired as she went too far and he rejected her. If she was so talented, why she stopped now? It’s because purity and hardcore death metal does not mix.
Wait… Haven’t I seen something like this before?
When I saw the girls in K-ON spying on Sawako, I thought about Nogizaka Haruka Episode 4 when they were spying on Hazuki. In the the first half of the episode is focus on following this one person. It was the same, except it was a lot shorter and the girls got caught as you will find out.
The funniest thing that happen when the girls were spying on Sawako? The short, light brown hair woman noticed them all along.
In the end, Yui cries because she spent the most amount of money. It happens because sometimes, we want the best and the greatest that we sometimes spend too much money.
By the way, that girl… isn’t she…
Actually, she is a nice person. Her name is Norimi and she finally tells them what is going on. She wanted Sawako to play with the former members of Death Devil at a wedding, but Sawako declines. It’s pretty difficult since Sawa-chan had image problems.
This scene is probably the funniest scene in the whole episode. Passing notes during class is somewhat typical when students are up to no good. Mugi passed notes to Mio. then to Yui and Ritsu. The reactions from Yui and Ritsu is hilarious. Yui says that Mio’s handwriting is cute and Ritsu draws some scary shit that would make Mio laugh. The response is pretty obvious. Sawako catches them and they get time out in the hallway as Mugi had wished for…
Usually, standing in the hallway is a punishment like shitting in a corner… It’s so elementary, yet the girls make standing in the hallway a fun punishment. I highly doubt it will happen in real life, but it was pretty funny.
Now that they were unable to get Sawako to participate, they help Norimi and dress outlandishly…
Whose idea was this? Well, of course, Norimi’s!! You know when something doesn’t feel right, but you don’t want to blow your image, but you have to do something… Sawako flips, went on stage and started to play. She blew everyone’s expectations away on Death Devil. After performing, she realizes that she had done it and her image is completely ruined!
In the end, I knew that the girls couldn’t pull it off because it’s not their type of music. It seems that they do better with fluffy J-pop music instead of metal and I don’t blame them. Some people are simply better at a niche than others.
Well, I guess Sawako would be popular either way, so it’s no use of holding what you like most back. Sawako shouldn’t be so worried about the past because she is so talented. People change and grow up once they graduate in high school. The students aren’t going to make fun of her just because her past. Heck, they might even be amazed about it. Lastly, people look up to others who are talented, so she take advantage of that. If she does, she will remain a good role model.
Next Episode: It’s so freaking hot… can’t move… Yep, summer is in full force and you might be wondering… Where is the Air Conditioning?
Verdict
8.9/10
Pocket Monsters – Giratina and the Sky’s Bouquet Shaymin Movie Review
It’s been nearly three years since I last touched the Pokemon Anime and a lot have changed. However, I don’t intend to go back to watching Pokemon since I want to spend time watching good Anime. I felt that the Pokemon Anime was going into the pool of mediocrity because it took them several years to have the show in wide screen and there is so many filler episodes… It’s just as bad as the worst offender of filler episode, which I will not name.
I have been holding off this review since I was busy on other things like college and working on programming projects that I completely forgot about it. Since I have the time, I will review it in my view after watching several good (and bad) Anime.
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Kaichou wa Maid-sama – Episode 10 – The Indie Idol and Sakura
Sakura, the fangirl of this Indie band… We knew this was coming by the preview shown in the last episode. Don’t worry, it’s a bit better than the mediocre Girls Dead Monster singles I reviewed. It seems like anime these days starting to include some sort of band. First Suzumiya Haruhi, next K-ON, then Angel Beats and now, Kaichou wa Maid-sama… I think I lost track now! :p
Sakura is really cute and innocent! However, does she deserve what coming beyond the horizon? We will find out!
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Angel Beats – Epsode 8-9 – Some Thoughts
A lot had happen since I last watched Angel Beats. Episode 8 is the battle to save the real Tenshi with the reprogrammed cloning ability by Yuri. In Episode 9, Tenshi looked like she is in an eternal sleep while they have others rewrite the program. Meanwhile, we get more of Otonashi’s memories after the train crash. Otonashi I have to say is a pretty strong character that doesn’t seem to give up and give others hope, but at the same time didn’t survived after the help crew came. The whole 7 days was like you see in Hurricane Katrina back in 2005 where people are left without food and supplies and some dying on the streets. Same case scenario here, but in a train wreck and both ends are covered with rocks.
Retouching on why people end up in this “purgatory,” people come here because they couldn’t live out their youthful days, as Tenshi put it. Life can be unfair and good people might pass away even if they didn’t want to. Life has many variables that it’s nearly impossible to get an accurate meaning of life. People need to live life to the fullest and not end up with a life full of regrets. That way, people can remain optimistic and strive for their goals.
Otonashi and Tenshi seem to want to help others, even though it means that the person disappears. However, Angel Beats seems to have so many unknowns because we don’t know exactly what happens when the person disappears. Does the person get reborn as someone else or reincarnated? Perhaps humans who are in this “purgatory” don’t want to disappear because they are afraid of the unknown. We won’t know exactly until the next few episodes.
This ultimately means that Tenshi gets back her student council position and the rest of the season focusing on clearing people’s regrets? I won’t know until I watch, so stay tuned and remember to have a box of tissues beside you… It’s going to be an emotional roller coaster ride!
Review: Little Braver Single
General Information
Album Title: Little Braver
Artist: Girls Dead Monster (Singer: LiSA)
Catalog Number: KSLA-0055
Release Date: June 6, 2010
Tracks
- Little Braver
- Shine Days
- Answer Song
General Thoughts
If you haven’t heard enough of the rather mediocre music from Girls Dead Monster, there is more! A few weeks back, there was a promotional video on Little Braver, but I didn’t take a look at it because I don’t want to go and spoil it. Several weeks later, the single is released. Have LiSA improved her rather mediocre and rather forgetful performance of the “Thousand Enemies” single? It’s only slightly better, but I am still not convinced if it’s good enough. LiSA seems to sound good on the lower notes, but she still goes slightly out of tune in some areas. Not as bad as Thousand Enemies, but that is saying too much about it. The songs are still pretty forgettable and made me wish that they had better singers singing these songs…
Little Braver is the song that was shown in the promotional video. It starts off with a calm intro and when LiSA enters. This is where the good composition gets drown out by the mediocre vocals. It does sound slightly better than Thousand Enemies, but it’s slowly goes downhill from there. The songs feel pretty dull and the higher pitches like with the previous album sounds slightly ever out of tune. Not only that, Little Braver is pretty forgettable several minutes after. Little Braver is an okay song, but it doesn’t try to go beyond the mediocrity of Girls Dead Monster.
The intro of Shine Days sounds pretty well like the intro to Alchemy and it’s a pretty upbeat song. This is probably the best song out of the whole single, but it’s hardly perfect. It still have several flaws like the slightly out of tune pitches on the higher octaves and it’s slightly dull. It’s an okay song, but still forgettable like the rest of the songs LiSA has sung. It’s worth mentioning that at 4:30, her vocals are barely audible…
Lastly, we have Answer Song, which is probably the most disappointing song out of the whole album. The performance of the song felt a bit messy and somewhat dull. I don’t feel any energy in this song, except mediocre singing that could put me to sleep. Probably the worst song I heard from LiSA.
I don’t know what they are getting at by not letting the seiyuu sing! I’m pretty sure Eri Kitamura and Miyuki Sawashiro are fully capable of singing, but no! Lets pick two amateur singers that doesn’t necessarily represent Japanese Indie scene and fuck up all 9 songs! Thats how I feel about the whole Girls Dead Monster thing and it’s a big disgrace. Jun Maeda does a wonderful job in composing these songs and these singers go out and ruin the work he worked hard for. It’s just like making a good game with good game play, story and graphics and the orchestra go and fuck the music up. Like I mentioned in my rant in the last paragraph of my Pure Pure Heart single review, they choose singers that can’t sing properly and resulted in the mediocre and disappointing performance of these songs. Girls Dead Monster will never reach the appeal of Houkago Tea Time because their songs continue to have flaws with the vocals, which make them rather forgettable. Houkago Tea Time is simply more polished, sounds better and the vocals don’t go out of tune so many times that it makes me cringe.
Not only that, there is more Girls Dead Monster singles that is coming out and what can you expect out of them after hearing the first 9 songs? More disappointment. They are making a mockery out of Girls Dead Monster and milking it what its worth from the hype. Believe me, My Soul, Your Beats!/Brave Song sounds like heaven compared to the mediocrity of all the Girls Dead Monsters songs combined.
Verdict
7.0/10