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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K-ON!! Second Season – Episode 15 – Marathon… Houkago Tea Time Style!
moe
Moe (萌え) is a Japanese slang that refers to strong affection towards characters that are usually female.
Kanon (2006 Remake) – Final Review
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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K-ON!! Second Season – Episode 14 – Tsumugi’s Wish…
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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Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha – Episode 5 – Hot Springs and Fate Kicking Butt…
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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Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha – Episode 4 – Fate just kicked Nanoha’s Butt?
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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Kaichou wa Maid-sama – Episode 15 – Kanou Soutarou and 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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K-ON!! Second Season – Episode 13 – Azusa and the Summer Memories
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
ef – a tale of memories – Episode 1 – First Impressions
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!
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha – Episode 3 – Magical Powers comes with Big Responsibilities
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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Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha – Episode 2 – The First Jewel Seeds
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
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha – Episode 1 – First Impressions
I haven’t watched a mahou shoujo (magical girl) series for a long time ever since Sailor Moon and Card Captor Sakura stopped airing. Just a few months ago, I stared to have some interest in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha after reading something about it somewhere… Thus, I decided to start the series.
Unlike Sailor Moon and Card Captors, Nanoha uses the typical magical girl formula plus the addition of moe (except StrikerS, which I will not be watching). The main character is no exception to the moe. The moe is pretty much on par on this series unlike the more moe filled series like K-ON! for example. I also doubt that I will see any moeblobs even though the ferret and the girls in this show are really cute.
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Working!! Final Review
When I watched the first few episodes of Working, it felt like it was going to be a typical slapstick comedy anime. Not to mention, the running gag of Inami punching men was getting out of hand that I complained about it. However, that pretty much changed when we got to the more interesting and entertaining parts with Souta’s sisters, Yamada who now lives at the restaurant and Souta crossdressing to save Inami from her father.
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Working!! – Episode 13 (END)
The result? It turned out to be a very enjoyable finale…
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K-ON!! Second Season – Episode 12 – The First Summer Music Festival
Let’s play some games!
They decide to go to a Summer Festival before hitting the training camps… and guess what? Sawako had 6 tickets!
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Kaichou wa Maid-sama – Episode 12 – Sports Festival and Maids?
There is not much to say about this episode since it’s a sports festival episode. The contest is against the freshmen, seniors and the girls team.
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Hayate no Gotoku – Episode 13-14 – The Transfer Test and…
In Hayate’s quest to protect Nagi, Hayate gets to go back to high school by transferring into the same school Nagi goes to.
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Working!! – Episode 12 – Getting Ready for the First Date…
This is a Popura centered episode even though it’s quite obvious what happens in the end. Souta still doesn’t want to crossdress to make Popura happy… Also, its pretty obvious that after she saw his tall sisters, she lost faith in him.
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K-ON!! Second Season – Episode 11 – So Hot!
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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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
K-ON!! Second Season – Episode 9 – Final Exams Dilemma
She got distracted…
Final Exams… Does this remind you of something?
Final Exams seems to be the period of time towards the end of the school year or semester where stress levels goes to the max. Last minute studying and/or the pressure that if you don’t do well on the finals, your final grade will tank adds more to the already high stress…
As finals approach, Yui forgot about it and panics. Yes, I to admit that I was goofing off on the internet when I was studying for various subjects. The end result is that most of the grades turn out great, except one that I won’t go into since its embarassing. It’s somewhat difficult to focus on studying the material when you have several distractions like your mobile phone, laptop, television, etc. Believe me, I don’t have the study habits of Yui…
Study Groups are usually helpful, unless they goof off…
Note taking is probably the most boring thing to do. In most of my classes, teachers usually teach out of the book, which makes little sense of taking any notes and just study from the textbook. Sometimes, I record the lecture, but I forget to listen to them after I recorded them. However, there is an advantage of note taking because you study what the teacher covers so you don’t have to study the whole textbook. Also, there could be things that the teacher covers in class that isn’t in the textbook.
Going back to the show, there are funny differences on how these girls take notes in class. Mugi seems to take the neatest notes (Yui gets a copy of them), Mio draws cute things on hers and Ritsu sleeps in class like with Yui… Guess who seems to have the higher grades? No need to guess… While they are studying, Yui fools around with a crossword puzzle and distracting the whole study group. What was the purpose of having a study group if they are going to fool around?
Hyper Ultra Sadistic Mint… I don't want to know the taste or feeling of it…
Yui rans into the grandmother and she gives some snack… Yui also introduces her to Gitah.
They were so cute….
I have remembered my grandmother on my mother side taking care of me and my sister. She use to do stuff like taking us to places and doing stuff when my mom isn’t around… until 3rd grade when she got a stroke and unable to look after us anymore. By then, we are a bit grown up. She is still around living by herself in senior housing that is a few miles away from I live.
I’m guessing that Yui had a great childhood by looking at the flashbacks. Also, you see Nodoka in the last scene of the flashback. Lastly, this is the second time I saw Ui as a child which she looks really cute.
When Yui got home, she doesn’t study and practices guitar instead. Great study habits since it won’t get you very far. So, she studies more at school, but like aways seem to drift way when something distracts her.
Oh dear lord… No normal person would mix up soy sauce with sugar.
Like Azusa says, no normal person would mix up soy sauce with sugar…
Yui decides to do the talent show for Grandma as solo because she didn’t want to distract the others from studying for finals… Azusa agrees to help, but on one condition…
Azusa forces Yui to study on a schedule…. No breaks whatsoever.
And the result…
Yui still goofs off… drawing Azusa as nekomimi… Does this signify anything? Absolutely Nothing…
They practice and Grandma comes over when she notices Yui. Yui introduces Azusa to her and the Grandmother leaves. They decide on the duo name, which is YuiAzu. Next day after Yui studied all night, she finishes her exams and a day after, the talent show.
They look cute, but this is just funny…
After cracking up some jokes from Yui, they started to play a song. This pretty much reminded me of slap-stick comedies like Angel Beats… oh wait…
They play a different version of Fude Pen, which is a song played last season and also in the Houkago Tea Time single. Overall, their version of the song sounded okay. Half-way through, they ran out of time and they got the concession prize. I find the whole thing funny, but if Yui hadn’t acted so funny, we could have heard more of the song. Anyways, Grandmother was happy even though they didn’t win and they had dinner with Ui.
Surprisingly, Yui passed the finals with high scores, even though she was goofing off!
This was a rather enjoyable episode. It simply proves that there are people out there that are a lot smarter than they act. Yui is one of these characters, which seems to be this childish genki girl and manages to pull through even with the talent show. However, don’t do this in real life, especially in college because every grade counts in the end.
Next Episode: Sawako and hopeless love? Oh, this is going to be interesting!
Verdict
8.8/10
Working!! – Episode 8-9 – Inami’s Past and Traps?
Right in the stomach!
Well, when the show gets weirder, it get even more funnier than before! Also includes a present surprise.
Hold up… not this time…
Episode 8 is a mediocre hot spring episode. It was mediocre because they never gone inside the hot springs. Obviously they went because the water main broke in front of the restaurant and they couldn’t use water. Another funny part is Kyoko slept in and they had Satou take the girls to the springs and… he ran out of gas. Go blame BP on that (and also the damn oil spill in the Gulf that is still going on). There is some Inami development, but most of it comes in the next episode. Overall, it was a nice episode, but I think the punch is getting redundant again.
Crossdressing? Why did you ask me that?
Worth nothing that Souta seems to hate crossdressing because he was forced to crossdress by his father. Inami wants him to crossdress because her father found out that she got a present from a man and if he finds Souta, he would force Inami to quit the job.
Inami’s father is just horrible… Why would you teach a child to hate men because you don’t want her to wed? Eventually, they have to so they can raise their own family of their own. Also, not all men are bad… Kinda reflects back to Misaki’s strong dislike towards men in Kaichou wa Maid-sama. Overprotective parents are harmful to a child’s future… just don’t do it.
Souta gives in this time to help Inami. With the help of the others, we get this result:
Holy crap! We got trapped again!
At the ranks of Hideyoshi, Aoi-chan and now Souta-kun! Oh dear lord, we can never get enough traps…
Inamis jealousy of bust size again…
How it was done… Too bad they didn't keep the glasses…. It would have been a Meganeko trap.
Kyoko's reaction to Souta's crossdressing = priceless.
I can never get enough of this. Also, her name is Kotori-chan and believe me, after this episode I think we are going to see many pictures of her on pixiv/danbooru. He gets some practice from Popura and others. He became uncomfortable and wanted to quit. However, Souma will blackmail him with his cute baby picture. Although his girly voice has some feminine quality, I wished it was more feminine because it was somewhat lacking. Probably they didn’t want to overdo it, so whatever…
Now they put it to the test when Inami’s dad come. Kotori introduces herself to Inami’s father and he takes out the gun. Her father thinks the girl is a man crossdressing by how tall Kotori is… Inami runs over saying that she is a girl. Inami gets fed up and then saying that she hates her father. Who wouldn’t? If I was her, I would punch the lights out of him.
Holy crap… Kotori-chan flipped.
Later on, Kotori-chan flips after hearing what he done to Inami and s(he) almost punched the lights out of him… Who wouldn’t because he is a terrible father? Kotori makes him apologize to Inami and he leaves afterwards. This makes me think that the whole purpose of Souta crossdressing is to teach Inami’s father a lesson that he shouldn’t be overprotective of Inami and let her date men.
In contrast to Misaki’s situation with her father abandoning the family and leaving the debt behind, Inami is also in a similar situation. Her father is simply horrible, making her carry a heavy metal sheet in her school bag to hit men and showing movies that shows the negative aspect of males. I knew this would backfire at him in the end.
Although Inami’s the weakest character in the whole series because of the over-redundant punching of men, I can’t blame her because she was psychologically manipulated by her father. The fear of men is simply fabricated and eventually, she will get over it like with Misaki.
Overall, Episode 9 is probably the best episode in the whole season… Episode 8 was enjoyable, but not on the same level. This makes me think that they are pushing for a Inami and Souta pairing… What ever happened to Popura and Souta? Not Popura enough?
No, she isn't mad at you… heck, she might like you. 
Verdict
Episode 8: 8.4/10
Episode 9: 8.7/10
Kaichou wa Maid-sama – Episode 9 – Usui’s Folk Tale
Even though the content in this episode looks fillerish, it was actually in the manga too.
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K-ON!! Second Season – Episode 8 – Yui’s “Undecided” Future
Unfortunately, Yui and Ritsu didn't submit their career plans…
Senior year… Time to think about what college you are going to… But Yui have not decided what she is going to do.
Talking about colleges and admission exams….
It's blinding me!
In my senior year, I knew what I wanted to be… an Accountant, but I haven’t applied to any schools since I haven’t finish taking those SATs and ACTs… I didn’t get in the school I wanted at first, so I had to transfer in after sophomore year. Not only that, taking these tests are pain in the ass.
Yui quickly faces her decision on colleges and her future, but she doesn’t know what to be… A NEET? Good idea, but do she really want to be supported by her sister and parents for rest of her life? Most people wouldn’t like to live with their parents for rest of their life… it gets pretty embarrassing.
How about “undecided”? You cannot be undecided on colleges because she has to go somewhere. Most of the time, students in college have a “undecided” major simply because they don’t know what they are going to do. Once they become “decided,” some of their courses won’t count and they have to take even more courses.
Ritsu and Yui gets called down to the facility office and of course, rejected and they try to ask about Sawako’s past. If she looks perfect, why she doesn’t have a boyfriend yet? Maybe because of her outrageous past? I don’t know…
The story on how Yui met Nodoka is pretty funny.
Crayons aren't food… Don't do this or you end up having a mark on your face.
They are usually in the same class… Some more troubles:
I don't think this is the right way to cook it.
She forgot the octopus for the recipe…
Don’t depend on Yui with anything… she manages to forget the octopus and…
Tako-less takyaki! You can laugh all you want because its so funny.
but people manages to forgive her because of her innocent looks. Don’t worry, she improved a little bit…
There is another funny moment in her life when Yui wanted to be a Kindergarden Teacher in this writing assignment assignment:
My dream is to become a kindergarten teacher. I want to become a kindergarten teacher and play with kids forever.
And the whole class laughed at her… even though she didn’t notice and yes, that is so like her… Even the other jobs are unsuitable for her including an office job.
Mio was more shyer than she is now in her childhood:
More like a bookworm at best…
Ritsu picking on Mio as a child… like she always done…
My sister was pretty shy when she was young, but it took awhile to break away from it. Ritsu have teach her well to overcome the fear of speaking to an audience for her piece of writing she got a reward on. Pretty amazing, although not everything that Ritsu teaches is useful.
Yui tries to write Musician down and hand it in and the paper got rejected because notice that she put it in the wrong area… It was supposed to be in the bottom section silly.
And yes, that make her laugh… and the first time too!
This episode is pretty enjoyable not because of some character development. It relates to my time when I decided on my future plans. I’m sure other high school seniors, college students and graduates have the same feeling. The question remains… What will Yui eventually decide on her future for real next time? I guess we will never know…
Verdict
8.75/10