I decided to just go ahead and be straight-forward in the title. Since that’s all that really needs to be said and the rest of this overly long post is going to be explanations and very vague plans.

I’m “taking a break” from blogging, but without any real plan of when I’ll come back. I’d even add an “if” just so I don’t have to put the pressure on myself to come back if I don’t want to. And if I do come back I really doubt I’ll be blogging the same way that I have been. I’m just not really up to it.

It’s not so much that blogging itself has lost my interest, but more that it’s anime that I’m not that into. Somewhat. I suppose. I’ll try to explain properly.

(I feel like I should mention all the images in this post are from Full Moon wo Sagashite…for no particular reason, but if this is my last post for a while, I wanted to get some Arina Tanemura art back up here. So what better choice than my favorite series?)

Some point soon after Christmas I suddenly woke up one day and wasn’t really that interested in the things I normally wanted to do. Mainly anime and blogging. Truthfully it was coming on for a while, the fact that I just wasn’t blogging much should make that obvious. But now over the course of just a few days my waning interest (which was mostly fueled by being annoyed) just completely dropped off. Completely. I haven’t watched anything in a month I’d say. I even have two very sad-looking anime boxsets from Christmas sitting on my shelf.

I’ll blame part of it on the lack of people in my social circle who are interested in anime. It’s just more fun to carry on a hobby with others. When you see them every day it can just be another enjoyable little talking point.

Manga, on the other hand, I’m still reading quite a bit. Just in a more casual manner. And quite frankly none of it online. I’ve just been buying volumes when my mom prints out one of her coupons and enjoying what I can get. Reading all new series and such. And with a book in my hand I can read anywhere comfortably.

I would probably watch anime if I could watch it anywhere comfortably. Buy a DVD, curl up in bed and watch it. But my room isn’t really set up to do that. So until it is, I’m sort of out of luck.

It’s also fairest to say that I’m just sick of fandoms in general and want to get away from the internet. Especially in the anime fandom there is almost no unbiased place to get my news or anything. And opinions are the whole point of other blogging. So I sort of just cut myself off entirely.

It basically became a combination of “information overload” (since I finally stopped checking my reader I think I have somewhere around 2000+ unread entries) and just wanting to see something new. I mean we all know almost nothing new has been coming out in anime for a while now. Add that to the ever-expanding blogosphere and how so many people will have a similar style. It’s somewhat natural because people are “inspired” by some blogger or another, but with the way the internet works… New people pop up every day and drop off quite quickly from blogging that there’s not enough time for a lot of them to develop their own style and you’re just left with stuff piling up and it’s…exhausting. Somewhat.

There was actually a very interesting video I was shown in my first class of Human Communication today that I’m reminded of… It basically all came down to being a really interesting, thought-provoking way of showing how fast our society expands these days and how much we take our advancements for granted and blah, blah, blah. So I suppose a lot of that is where I’m coming from here.

All this rambling out of the way, the simple thing is that right now I’m just a casual anime fan. All I want to do is watch the anime, if I’m even feeling up to that on a certain day. My interests are expanding and they’re just going to continue. Instead of going through phases where I’m “into” something I’m picking up on the things I always liked and just not dropping them. It’s quite healthy I think.

So I doubt I’ll ever be the same as an anime fan, but I can still only say how it is, right now.

Now that I said that I still do have plans. That story I mentioned that’s tied into anime? Still plan on writing it. I’m aiming for releases starting late in Spring.

Also, going with my current path at school, I was toying with the idea of trying out a “broader” videoed review series on YouTube or something. In the quite distant future. And if I did it wouldn’t just be anime anyway.

I still would like to come back to blogging, but I’m just not sure if I can go back to just an anime blog. I love all fictional forms of entertainment (TV, Movies, Books, Comics, Manga, and Anime) and now it just seems difficult to restrict myself to one. I’d probably make a tie-in blog if I did make a video series. But all of these are vague plans that may never come to be. So we’ll see.

In the meantime, since I won’t be checking up on my usual accounts I need a way to stay in contact with people. Right now I’m going to be using a different Twitter (ImmaSammich, cute right? ). I haven’t been logging into my g-mail account much lately because I have a new one that I have a blanket rule about not sharing and I’m lazy and just leave that one logged in 24/7 (I’ll try to check FuyuMaiden once a day from now on though). But I still just have one Yahoo account so you can e-mail me there if you want a quicker response. So FuyuMaiden@yahoo.com is the go-to e-mail for now.

I’ll also try to leave this post open to commenting past the usual 30-day limit (which is only there because of spam anyway) as a really easy means of communication.

I’m not up to blogging full-time but if you have something going on where you’re trying to gather different opinions, I’m open to being a “guest” blogger. As long as you’re not asking too much. But you’ll have to come to me (the usual e-mail, the yahoo one, or even just twitter). I just don’t want anyone to feel like they’d be a bother just because of all of my complaining up above.

And that’s it! To close it out: I’m not quitting, just really, really toning things down. Or something.

I guess the Simplicity Christmas tradition is taking whatever Engrish-y (or just plain fun) way to say “Merry Christmas” that I heard by being an anime fan and make it the post title. Last year it was “Happy Merry Christmas!” (which is still the standby if I don’t find something because I love that for some reason) thanks to Shugo Chara!. This year it’s “I Wish Merry Christmas For You!” from Buono!’s B-side on “Bravo Bravo”, Winter Story. So through a chain of events this one was also brought to you by Shugo Chara!.

Anyway, yes! The scheduled Christmas greeting of 2009! Being the second time I’ve been a part of the year-end events of the blogosphere, including just doing a Christmas post, I’m really starting to realize that I’ve been around for a little while. Feels strange to actually be conscious of it. So just a few little Christmas things of note. Unlike last year (and years before when I wasn’t around blogging) I was actually feeling pretty good so I’m feeling extra good about Christmas!

To start my Christmas image is actually a very cute postcard from…something (I don’t know) that I bought off of ebay for this post. Normally I’m not into buying cheap paper magazine stuff online, but being Christmas and not having seen the image, I really wanted it for this post on the blog. I needed it. Plus until then I hadn’t bought anything yet with my ebay account so I was anxious to get it moving.

A larger scan is available on Kokido-chan for those interested. You guys can use it next year or in a Christmas presents bragging post. I had it for my official Christmas greeting (and Kobato as my gravatar all month~) so that’s all that mattered to me.

Now for the much dreaded personal ramblings. Unlike a lot of other people I only really go off-topic from anime twice a year and both are around this time of year. So…suck it up! Or something.

If people were around the blog last year, they’ll probably remember how I got sick. Luckily that only hindered me for a short while this year. My usual Winter slow/tired whatever stayed with me the whole time, but I wasn’t actually sick. But overall I still had much less free time. I guess that would be from the simple fact that I was working cut into that. I don’t work many hours…normally but everyone at my Dunkin’ Donuts was sick. So I ended up filling in a lot. Until just this Tuesday I had to tell them no because I needed to go out and finish my Christmas shopping.

And now as I’m writing this on Christmas Eve, sipping my delicious hot cocoa, my house is a complete mess. Our tree is not fully decorated and there are boxes sitting around everywhere. Plus the usual clutter that just builds up when my mother is sick.

Oh to just imagine next year when I’ll probably be taking 4-5 classes in addition to all of this mess. I’m going to do all of my shopping in November. Less giggly Christmas cheer to enjoy while doing so, but a much calmer Christmas in general.

Now in blogging, obviously I just haven’t had the time, but mostly I’m just lacking the inspiration. I’ve come up with solutions, but I’ll save all my plans for a New Year’s post to prevent this from getting too long.

Quite frankly my usual departures from anime as my primary source of entertainment have just become more frequent and longer. Though this is always especially prevalent around Christmas time. Anime is still probably my number one hobby, but there’s just so much in fiction that I enjoy.

Right now what’s been on my mind torturing me the most is that I haven’t been able to go and see The Princess and the Frog (if you spoil me on anything and I will personally see to your destruction). Now if there’s one thing I love more than anime it’s some of those Disney Movies from my childhood. It’s no contest really. It’s the price one pays for growing up in the Disney Renaissance. Still being an overall animation enthusiast (partially continued by anime), it just doesn’t go away. Plus it’s all just amplified by the nostalgia this time of year brings about.

The stuff that stopped me from blogging wouldn’t stop me from seeing the movie, but I found out that my favorite little girl, friend of the family, Emily wanted to see it but her parents couldn’t afford to take her. (Oh it’s really so sad and not a story I should be telling, but it’s basically summed up by her father being a moronic asshole and her mother should definitely leave him already.) So I have that to look forward to on December 26th since she came to town for Christmas.

Unfortunately, I was going to drive her but my car randomly died (right after the handle to the driver’s side stopped working) and that quite nicely sums up how my Christmas has been.

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But that’s enough for now. It’s going to be tough to rescue my Christmas and make it like those usual ones I dream about, but I’ll do my best. And in the meantime I wish a Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate it! Plus the generic “Happy Holidays” and “Seasons Greetings” for those who don’t.

Now getting all that Christmas stuff out of the way…

Happy Birthday Nagisa~!

Oh Nagisa~ You complete me~ <3

Her birthday was actually December 24th, but who cares I was writing this then anyway. So it counts!

So Happy Birthday Nagisa and Happy Merry Christmas (and other Holiday greetings) to the rest of you from FuyuMaiden and her nonexistent team at Simplicity! Ohoho~ Hopefully by the time you read this I will be enjoying my own Holiday.

Oh yes, the girl has skills. Annoying fangirls at conventions wish they were as good as Mihoshi. But alas, they are not. Maybe because they’re nowhere near cute or charming enough to get away with it. Something the very cute Mihoshi from Sora no Manimani has no trouble with.

So for the fourth day (still doubled up on the fifth day) I present, once again no moment in particular, but just Mihoshi’s glomping. There’s so much of it that it might as well be the whole series…or rather, Mihoshi herself.

I still haven’t finished Sora no Manimani. It was a decent series, but its not the sort that can be anything good adapted into 13 episodes. I’m still on episode 10 and I just have no real motivation to finish it because I’m sure there’s really nothing special presented as an end. That’s just the way it is sometimes.

I really wish studios were better at choosing what they can invest more time in. Sometimes a series just isn’t built to be popular, but they’re really shooting themselves in the foot by shoving all of these sorts of series into 12-episode boxes. One thing you could always say about the sadly ever more departing Gonzo is that they were good at figuring out what shows should be one broadcast season or two.

The problem with Sora no Manimani was just that it was an easy-going anime based on a quite long ongoing series. It was just quite simply impossible to get any sort of satisfying 12 episode series from it. 24 episodes and I think we would have had something. Enough time to cover some good manga stories with some time at the end to build up its own story to finish the anime off with a concluded ending.

But life just doesn’t work out that way. A second season would be a nice, or a license for the manga since it’s not the sort of series I can ever really see being completely in scanlations. Easy-going, plotless manga like this don’t tend to ignite that sort of passion in scanlators.

Anyway, the whole point of this rambling is that Sora no Manimani ignited a bit of passion in fangirls for a short time, mainly before it started airing. I’ll take like…a lot of the credit for that. Not all of it, but I randomly went on about it when I got the chance. Because it was one of those series that perfectly appeals to my fangirl nature. There’s one small thing to latch onto.

In this case the one small thing was our small little adorable Mihoshi. Who has a presence of someone twice her size!

Seriously, look at that girl! She’s tiny! It make it that much more entertaining to see her go flying through the air at whoever her latest glomp-target is. Usually Saku which just brings on a whole bunch more fangirling with the shipping possibilities.

But despite what cynical guys believe, the appeal of Mihoshi doesn’t lie with her glomping and therefore acting out our deepest wishes. Please, I’ve never once wanted to glomp anyone in my life. I don’t see the appeal of combining hugging with violence. I would love to violently tackle someone and I just love hugs in general. But together? No thank you.

I’ll just admit that I find them entertaining to watch from the outside.

But wait? Isn’t this post about Mihoshi’s “Glomp”-Ability? Yes. But relating to her character on a larger scale. The fact that she is so carefree and without inhibition and so confident? Yeah, sure go with that. Anyway, she’s all those things which makes her just do whatever the Hell she wants. Including glomping. Without any fear of being embarrassed or whatever.

And yet she’s still adorable, not awesome. Just…adorable. How can this be?

Mihoshi is one of those rare girls that comes along and unites two warring versions of female fans. The ones that predominately like awesome female role models and the ones that like the uber-cute female girls. Some of us like both on a case by case basis. But I think I mostly like cute “weak” girls, but only the ones I like to see grow stronger (prime example being my one true anime girl love: Nagisa~).

So Mihoshi? Well she has the benefits of both basic types without…well like without any negativity. She’s so easy to love.

I believe said it in a comment once rather than anywhere on the blog, so allow me to explain.

So this one’s less “glomp” and more just straight-up adorable.

Oh gawd blushing. Yes, this is very adorable.

See, you can have your basic cute girl. She’s very cute and moemoe and all that good stuff. The problem is you could look at her wrong and she’ll run away with her tail between her legs. She’s just one-dimensional and both guys with a spine find her to be dull and girls with a spine generally find her to be an insult…or something. I don’t, I have a long complicated thought process on that which boils down to ” yeah, weak girls only insult girls with secret complexes about being weak” because apparently I’m a bitch.

Of course being a bitch brings me to the next point. The strong girl or whatever will be a bitch. No exceptions. Either she’ll being a boring unbeatable hero or she’ll be a bitch. Now everyone can love a bitch, but come on. She’s still a bitch. She’s dragging everyone around and manipulating them and if it gets bad enough everyone in the fandom will be yelling at a certain character stopping another certain character from punching said bitch.

…Yeah…you all know who I’m talking about.

Now Mihoshi has all of the dragging around  and such covered so she should be an extreme bitch. I mean she dives at people so hard that it’s gotta hurt. At the very least she has no respect for personal space!

But here’s the wonderful side of the sweet innocent girl coming into play. She’s actually sweet and naive and doesn’t realize she’s causing anyone any inconvenience and if she does, she gets mopey and apologizes. So…cute!

I’m sure there’s some people out there that still might not fully get it, but Mihoshi was pretty damn near perfect

And yes…in case you didn’t notice I did basically choose this post as an opportunity to massive pic-spam any glompings I could gather before I needed to post this. And now let’s finish it off with a moment selected because I do sort of have a specific one that really gets me going.

INCOMING MASSIVE IMAGE SPAM FOR NO REASON! (Except that it’s adorable, shippy, and causes fangirling~)

And from there it turns into the usual silliness…

…which just made it even better in a completely different, but still cute way.

Okay, so it’s more of just an outright hug, but doesn’t the fact that it’s an outright hug just make it so much better? So…adorable.

Yeah, that scene in particular really makes me wish the anime had the chance continue longer so we could see just where things were going to go since they were so obviously going somewhere. Come on!

Starting off with an explanation…being sick is making what’s just the third post appearing on the day the fifth one should. But since this is me, people shouldn’t be surprised. I got sick last Christmas too. So I’ll just double up where I can to make up for it instead and will hopefully get back on track by Christmas.

Since I added it to the list I’ve been trying to figure out what the heck I’d even write about it. It doesn’t strike me in any “squee”/fangirl way. It’s a lot on the same level as the last one where something about it was just that good. So for this moment, I’ll go ahead with episode 22 of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. The ending of it. Because it was just that good.

Yeah. Just that good.

I never talk about this series except for a few random little mentions that I am in fact watching it at all. So a little bit of general knowledge on where I stand with the series as a whole. I actually wasn’t that fond of the first series unlike a lot of others. It was okay, but the whole thing beyond a certain point felt kind of just…bizarre. It turns out this where they had to go to the intentionally different anime original stuff because the manga wasn’t finished and the manga-ka wanted it to be very different.

So unlike others who raved about the first series without reading the manga I was someone who just went, “huh” and moved on. But when this second one came around I decided to watch it. I believe I ran through the whole manga shortly before or right after it started airing, because apparently I have the tendency to do that with any shounen/action that I see as the slightest bit good. I did the same with Fairy Tail too recently.

Now with the series as a whole I’m part of that group which enjoys any scenes of the regular military characters over the Elric Brothers and any other alchemists that aren’t also regular military I’d say. Oh, plus Ling’s gang who are really neither.

Basically it goes Badass > Science. There’s some alchemists in the regular badass side, but they don’t go around explaining how their alchemy works or anything, they have one technique and they kick ass with it and that’s enough.

The whole point of that explanation is that the memorable moment for me here happens on our main character’s side of the story with Winry who also isn’t really a character I pay much attention to (not military/badass = boring).  Also of note is that I don’t even ship these two despite figuring that the two will get together and how that makes sense. It’s just one of those random personal preferences I don’t even understand myself. Odd that in the past she’s exactly the sort of character I would have enjoyed but I guess out of sight, out of mind.

So I have no prior favoritism or anything else coming into play here. It’s not like other moments that make me cry (oh yes, it made me tear up) where something good/bad is happening to a favorite character. The anime isn’t shocking me because I already knew about this from the manga. I can’t relate to it on a personal level because…well my parents are all fine and stuff.

It was just done very well. Mainly with the music. They have dramatic music highlighting the atmosphere the whole time until Ed blocks Winry from Scar’s path at which point it goes silent which itself highlights the shock factor for Scar. Then it stays silent instead of bringing out something that manipulates you into feeling whatever they want you to feel and instead that’s carried with good writing (for the lines) and good acting. Until they bring out the end music which is just…perfect for the circumstances. Then it just continues straight into the credits and the episode ends.

Though there’s really no point in explaining it, if you haven’t seen it you won’t get it. But I think if you have seen it you will. It’s one of those scenes.

It’s just an important event in the character development for a few characters, probably a key event (Scar heads down the path to becoming an ally, Winry and Ed have their relationship progress). Now taking an event like this and doing it well it very important!

It’s also a powerful scene purely because the one main character who seems to have a pretty carefree life is getting thrown into her own traumatic life experiences too. No one is safe in this series! Except because she didn’t choose that sort of life, she still manages to get away from it in the end which is nice and all. It reminds me of thoughts I had on another recent series. And this is sort of similar. It’s more important for Winry to be safe and living freely because that’s what the main characters want. Or something. (Bleh, I can’t even think about what I’m trying to say because of being sick, but hopefully you’re getting it).

All in all, I respect good character-development over all of the good action and dramatic reveals this show gives us on a pretty regular basis. I guess in stereotypical girl fashion I just prefer the emotion over the action.

Anyway, like I said. It’s just good. And I appreciate a good crying scene so that’s all there is to it.

The final episode of Munto or Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai. Really. It was just…incredibly pretty. Oh so very, very pretty. I can think of a hundred more ways to say it, but that’s all it basically amounts to.

I think I have more fondness for this series than I would for others because it wasn’t discussed very much. Being underrepresented in the blogosphere allowed me to form my own opinions and to create my own fond memories. Memories that remained untarnished because it wasn’t the next big thing from KyoAni and it didn’t need a hatedom to compete with its fandom and talk about how overrated it was. Because it wasn’t overrated, it was just…what it was.

But let’s be honest. This series didn’t have an outstanding story. It was nice, but especially when it got into the actual new part for the TV series it seemed either confusing or just really simple alternatively. A lot of the characters were kind of just basic archetypes, Yumemi’s friends especially. Oddly enough after Yumemi the character who got the most development from her world was Kazuya who really wasn’t important in the grand scheme of things…nice to look at though. Characters from The Heavens side of things are barely worth mentioning don’t even really get screentime. They’re just sort of there because there’s a war going on.

So it was basically all just Yumemi and Munto saving the world. Munto stands alone as a king after the awesome Gass dies so that’s why there’s no other characters of importance on his side really that aren’t just plot devices. Yumemi is a young girl who needs to get by with the support of her friends so that’s why they play a role. They’re key to expressing a theme about friendship and stuff which…kind of gets abandoned once the girls all meet up again.

The plot is kind of just there and Yumemi and Munto are the only characters to get development (and in their cases it’s both unsubtle and faintly rushed at the end of each “event”). And I could pick at everything about it for ages.

But it was executed well.

The whole thing at the end kind of felt like a story specifically for movie release. A simplified, straight-forward telling for its fantasy elements that are trying to connect to the real world and deliver a message. Getting it across in a simple, time-constrained way. With the backdrop of nice music and ohmygodsopretty animation.

Especially the animation.

So most of all remembering this anime makes me retain a fondness for KyoAni. I didn’t turn against them for Haruhi’s second season because quite simply, I don’t care about that. Especially since the whole fiasco was apparently Kadokawa’s fault and I kind of fell in love with Kadokawa for that anyway (Having dealt with horrible fandoms myself, I often wonder if they didn’t do it a little bit just for revenge against the whiney fans).

My problem was that KyoAni hasn’t seem to be up to their former glory lately. The redesigned Haruhi mostly got me there. How things started to look downright K-On!-like in some episodes. Now, as some people got all defensive “What’s the problem with that!?” The problem is that if you look at the source material the two series had different styles. Then when you look at other studios, you see that they are capable of drawing many different series in many different styles.

Studios should have a style, but not for their character drawings I say. After seeing the K-On!-like Haruhi I flat out decided I didn’t really want KyoAni doing Little Busters! anymore, I wanted someone who could properly handle it. A Rin that looks like say…Mio is…not Rin. Not Rin at all!

So this series in general allows me to believe that KyoAni still has a varied “style”. In general, they’ve cut back on details in their drawings, but in this animation it doesn’t really detract from it.

It also lets me believe that KyoAni is a studio that can branch out and do more series than whatever moemoe festival the otaku are craving now. I missed the days where KyoAni mostly brought to mind their Key adaptations and bringing the well-animated Haruhi to life. These days though they’re mostly connected to no-substance 4-koma adaptations which are…kind of a waste of what they can do. But I guess I support it if it brings in the money to do the good animation later on.

So, this series, but this final episode especially gave me some peeks at what KyoAni is capable of when they can do it. Making a (damn pretty) vision of something that isn’t from our world. It’s the stuff you’ve gotten peeks of in the more fantastic elements of their Key adaptations.

To be honest it’s basically just the vibrant colors and lights that makes it all look so good, but the fact is I just don’t get to see stuff like that too often. It seems like a simple way to make things look nice, but I still don’t get to see it that often.

Then being a dramatic conclusion in a fantasy setting filled with some sort of power…there’s wind. Fully-animated hair and clothes moving wind. Stuff is almost constantly moving whenever there’s something going on. Now I love wind and this just makes me remember how I fell in love with wind in animation (arguably it could be Disney, but I say most Disney girls didn’t have long enough hair to really do the trick). It was KyoAni’s Kanon opening. And I get to see all of that slow-moving “hair doesn’t move that way” pretty wind here.

I remember when I first watched the episode, I especially liked watching the part where the rock is rising up because it just looked so…well you know by now. So the whole episode, but especially that.

Now combining these vibrant colors with fluid animation and it’s just…it’s great.

Plus, so many expressions in this episode too. Mostly (okay all) from Yumemi. Whose eyes and general character redesign for the TV series lends a lot of potential to emphasizing certain expressions. Emphasizing a lot of them to make her look all moe~ without having much of a moemoe personality. (Well it is still KyoAni)

Yumemi~ Why so moe?

She laughs. She gets worried. She looks serious. Then she looks determined. And then she looks…

…Well yeah. Then she looks kind of badass.

Yeah…also aside from all the talk of animation it’s just the “Yumemi looking badass in a dress” stuff that really made this memorable for me. Of course, that’s all because of art/animation because all Yumemi really is doing is talking and stuff like…explodes because of her power. But she looks badass when she’s doing it. (I introduce you to…badass moe…?)

Then she smiles and looks relaxed and confident when she’s saving the world. And then has this look of…mature amazement? I’m not sure. But something like that when she’s finished.

And she has a few subtle differences in her expressions when she’s experiencing the same basic mood to indicate her emotions at that moment. Compared to a lot of things that get stuck on “rawr determination” I find this to be just great.

It’s just another piece of animation that makes it all just…work.

So this series…would be crap. Without this end animated by KyoAni. It had other good parts, but being such a short series, this couldn’t even come close to being a satisfying conclusion without the animation kind of forcing us to think it’s believable.

Because it’s just that pretty.

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Now…being who I am since I never really got the chance to blog this series I’d like to just add a couple of things from this final episode here that also make it quite good.

This line…is great.

Considering the series was so short, they got a lot of people on the Yumemi x Munto ship. Probably because they were really good about making the whole plot about them having a bond and working together or whatever in the beginning. Then they just dropped small little stuff like this to get the fangirls jumping up and down in their seats. (Fangirls react better to small hints of romance than full-blown in your face stuff a lot of the time)

And of course…

Saving the World Two Worlds With Hand-Holding = Awesome~

Aaaand Sailor Uniforms. Just because.

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Now I went on about it being “satisfiying” but the end the episode left those watching with a big “What the hell” when we discover that Munto just disappeared. Maybe they wanted to leave it that way because all of the OAVs left off on kind of optimistic but still unresolved moments and they wanted to keep that going for the original fans. Which I don’t really get but whatever. Or maybe they wanted to resolve it at the end of their movie release. Which I haven’t watched since any torrents I tried to download were effin’ slow.

Meanwhile life just went on with lots of running and shorter skirts in this world.

So we’re left with this as an end. Which is fine with me mostly because by itself it’s pretty much movie-quality in terms of animation (so pretty you guys, srsly). Too bad most of the fans I knew were girls and were left wanting at least some vague resolution to the little bit of romance we got going. Instead of more just ship-teasing from this episode. So mean~

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P.S. Isn’t this just the post that will never end? I just thought it was worth mentioning that when I saw how long this post was getting that I kind of wanted to just switch it to a video of all of the previews from the series. Come on! Who watched this series and didn’t laugh out loud at one of those at least once?

Who is that adorably awesome girl wearing the kitty-cat hat!?

Start off the 12 Days of Anime is…Honoka. No scene or moment featuring her particularly. Just…just Honoka. In all of her Yui Makino-voiced adorable-ness. The girl who made the random little mess (even by Sunrise standards) of Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo worth watching for me. In fact, I often got behind, but every time I was actually excited to get caught up. It made the sparse scenes featuring Honoka more plentiful and therefore made for a more enjoyable watch.

Really though, the anime itself was a mess. Totally felt like they were just making it up as they went along. Luckily for me I don’t even like Honoka herself for any substance (because this anime had none) but for her sheer…my god she was just damn cute.

Now being the Twleve Moments of Anime (not characters obviously) I struggled to find a particular scene or something featuring Honoka that I loved. But there’s nothing. That whole anime was a mess that no character has any real sort of story. And the end where everyone should be baddass and there should be an epic fight scene was…well…I can’t even really remember it that well. All I remember is that we got a random new conflict at the end of the second to last episode and then that was resolved in the last episode. How speshul.

Why hello there random unresolved subplot!

There were also a bunch of subplots they introduced whenever they felt like it and either threw away or semi-resolved whenever they felt like it too. Like “Gee we haven’t done much with Honoka’s story. Let’s make her fatally sick!” “Oh yeah that should be good!” And I believe that just ended up bringing her and Itsuki closer together with a vague “life is precious, don’t give up” moral tossed around somewhere. I don’t know. It was all quite lame.

Then there was also the whole Kagura subplot, and those ghost things that were her “sisters” or some BS I didn’t pay attention to, and blah, blah, blah. The storyline sucked for this anime. So therefore there is no moment that really stands out.

But it had stuff like this:

Her adorably expressionless “Why?”

Any use of her effin’ scary superpowers (utilizing red eyes even!)

Just having her hair down.

So cute.

These adorable poses (oh what a face to look up at~)

srsly cute.

The one thing I can give the anime credit for is that almost every scene featuring Honoka felt like it was specifically designed to appeal to her fans. Or at least maybe I feel that way because Yui Makino was using a particularly cute voice. All she had to do was talk and I’d swoon in my chair.

But seriously, Honoka had a couple of ongoing things as seen above which mostly were just there because…it was cute. It was like an ongoing moe joke or something. And it was great.

No Honoka, we salute you!

But…if I had to choose just one scene…let’s see there’s quite a few with her pwning Akiha (who I saw as the usual annoying protagonist from these sorts of shows and therefore in need of a good pwning). She got outright slapped by Honoka once when she was lame enough to be taken over by the box crap even though she’s suppoused to be the hero of the whole thing. That was pretty great. Especially since I’m just a fan of bitch slaps in general.

Commence epic slap maneuver.

But the one thing that did pop into my head was Honoka going to retrieve Fon. When he refuses she just knocks him out (but not before reciting her signature adorable question) and goes ahead to drag him wherever she wants to. Just so matter-of-factly with her usual lack of emotion.

Sadly enough this is the one episode I can’t get my hands on to grab screencaps of. Pretend you see awesomeness.

But I think the cute girls are that much better when they can kick your ass. It takes away the downside of cute girls where some fans take the high and mighty stance of not liking “weak girls” because they’re all for feminism or some bullshit like that. This girl is damn adorable and you can’t say a thing against her! Except about her existing in a poorly written world of course.

Yes, Honoka for me was the one memorable thing about an otherwise completely forgettable and mediocre anime. I very much regret the fact that I have been unable to get my hands on any merchandise featuring Honoka. The fact that she never managed to get a figure at all just…just kills me inside. I would have bought just about anything! Probably the only two reasons I want a second season of this series is to get some Honoka merchandise and…well any chance for more Yui Makino singing is always a good thing. Then again, making sense of the plot might be a plus too.

But while I cry into my pillow about the lack of merchandise, I can at least take solace in this:

An adorable Megami poster signed by Yui Makino herself. It certainly helps…a lot. Ah~ So very, very much~ The signing of this poster (and my cd, and the concert, and asking a question at the Q&A the next day) was probably the highlight of my year actually. Yucchi~ You just won’t be seeing it in this article because I’m keeping it strictly anime/manga. Real life has no place on an anime blog!

Now to go return my precious poster to its nice YUI MAKINO FILE FOLDER (yes, I have one) until I have a decent place to hang it up when my room is redone.

I don’t know what’s up with all of these “Winter” updates and changes people are doing. Other seasons don’t warrant it, so why does Winter? Because Winter = The effing Holidays! Just be honest you dorks! And with that said, the true Holiday season doesn’t officially start in my part of the world until we can finally shove aside those turkeys. For the Friday after Thanksgiving is Black Friday and we start buying shit.

Buying Shit = Holidays. That is the way America works. (On a personal note it’s “Christmas Songs = Holidays” so I’ve been in the mood for a while now.)

So uh…long story short….banners and site updates! Yay!

First on site stuff…yeah I haven’t had much inspiration to post lately. I blame any aforementioned Holiday Mood. The Holidays just totally take me over. Of course, by Holidays I mostly mean “Christmas” but…you know whatever. The whole Winter-y Holidays season just makes me smile. Until New Years ends and then I curl up in depression. So hey! No posts then either! (Not like there’s anything to post about coming up then anyway…)

Really though, I’ll most blame the fact that I haven’t been properly taking care of myself, especially considering winter is coming up. For those who may not remember, I’m not really getting sick, I’m just incredibly tired all the time and thus…unmotivated. I’m also getting a lot of headaches for some reason so I’m going to head to the doctor soon to make sure that it’s not just me being lazy that caused my current situation.

Otherwise, I just don’t think I’ve felt very motivated to right about the current season of anime, so…whatever. I keep having ideas though that I’ll get down eventually. Just need to be feeling better again…without getting distracted by the Holidays. But right now I’ll be honest and say I don’t have any posts planned.

Now that the crap is out of the way…the banners!

Sakura & Tomoyo (CardCaptor Sakura)

I shall have a CCS banner every year for Christmas! There’s enough images to last a while, so this seriously shouldn’t even be a problem to accomplish. Overall, there’s not much to say except that I like it…but I think that the images of the girls themselves are a bit messy. But whatever. I did my best considering my overall meh-ness of late.

Kobato (Kobato.)

Literally nothing to say about this banner because, as you can see, I didn’t do anything to it. I just wanted to use the image. Something for more of a just “Winter” and not “Christmas” banner. Plus the more Kobato, the better! I had three images I wanted to use, but I saved at least one for next year.

Kobato & Ioryogi (Kobato.)

I guarantee that at least in the circle of blogs I visit, that this will be the most common banner. Normally this would irk me and I wouldn’t use it, but I had plans to use for something since I first saw it as a splash page so I didn’t really want to back off of it. I didn’t do much here. I was going to do even less but the fact that I had to edit in the break in the image meant there were some iffy parts of editing that I didn’t really think should be left uncovered. Overall, I think it looks nice enough.

Ah~ This time next year (actually a little later than this moment because it’s not December yet) I’ll have this image on my desk next to me on my very lovely Kobato calendar. Be jealous of me!

Amu & Eru (Shugo Chara!)

Had to use my Eru-run. Though I figure if people find the scan this is from it will also become overdone. It’s from a Nakayoshi calendar in the December issue from this year I believe. I’m not sure if it’s the source of the scan quality or maybe a mixture of both but this was a freakin’ pain to clean up. I’ll blame a lot of it on the shoujo sparkly random ribbons and shit source though (I’m sure you can sympathize when you see it up top). In the end I did my best and then made it all glowy and stuff because I figured I could get away with it because…Angels!

But yeah. There was no way I couldn’t use this because Eru is my angeru. And everyone else needs to BACK OFF of her. She was mine first. I swear it! (Worth noting since it hasn’t come up that Caramel from YumePati if my Eru of the series to BACK OFF applies there too in the future.)

Ichigo & Vanilla (Yumeiro Patissiere)

This one is probably my favorite. I’ll thank kelakagandy for having saved the wallpaper that made it possible, as soon as I saw it I saved it and started working on a banner. It’s just too perfect! I also think that it’s the most difficult to look at because it’s so bright and stuff, but…that’s Christmas decorating for you! So that’s probably why it’s my favorite. I’ve never been able to use the classic Red AND Green before for Christmas. Plus me having a special place in my heart for YumePati right now it helpful.

Oh god~ It’s an adorable Ultra Shoujo show~ That means I’m probably going to get a Christmas episode right?

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And those are my five banners for now. I have three other images I may be working on. Plus more images may naturally pop up with the season. Probably won’t get more than three more from me though. But for now, I’m quite satisfied with all of these. Even if I complain about them, they’re still good considering how “bleh” I’ve been lately.

Considering there were only four in my last batch though, I figure this is fine. ^^

This is a filler done right guys.  Nadeshiko makes her reappearance to Amu and there’s cute Rimahiko-ness going on too. No filler characters. It’s just three of the main cast, with the emphasis not even on the two secondary ones of the trio. This is what fillers can be good for. Giving development to secondary main characters and giving the fans what they want. Like when we got to see Kairi again.

Now, I couldn’t help but fangirl for this episode because it’s fun, but I suggest you watch the episode before reading, because hype can kill your enjoyment in something. Fall for it yourself.

I had trouble with hype myself. The bigger a fandom is, the more that I dislike it. I had to sit through tweets (which was fine) and even an e-mail or two before I was able to sit down and watch this episode. If I hadn’t closed comments on old posts due to spam, I’m sure I would have gotten comments on old posts telling me I had to watch this episode.

You think me stopping blogging with a dramatic statement about how people need to have more interests would put a stop to this sort of thing.

Anyway, the episode was good overall, even longer than usual and everything. It was the best filler I’ve seen in a long time. The fact that all characters seemed to be in character was just great. Watching Nagi panic, watching Amu be oblivious, and of course…the best thing of all…

Watching Rima rub it in Nagi’s face when she knows full well what’s going on. If your main reason for loving Rimahiko isn’t because of how Rima is always suspicious and judgmental of Nagi then, you’re not a Rimahiko fan! (It sounds messed up, but it really works).

Rima devil smirk ftw!

Which really just goes to show that Rima is another sort of tsundere like all the other girls. She’s actually a lot like Utau’s mild tsuntsun for Kukai (in fillers) except where Utau actively makes Kukai do stuff for her (lol Utau) Rima just sits back and watched Nagi squirm all on his own.

And you better believe she enjoys it.

Except when poor Rima is being jealous. Even when Rima and Nagi go out someday (which they totally will), you better believe Rima still won’t be letting him near her Amu.

Of course, it’s really more about Nagi lying to Amu, but I still say Rima is going to be the same and it will all be revealed to actually just be Rima being jealous. Like we all know it is.

The episode was, of course, also good for Amuhiko…though I’d say more of the “fun” sort (like how I enjoy seeing the two together and such also). Because Amu’s first best friend was Nadeshiko…she’s even used Nagi to help her communicate with Nadeshiko. So yeah…for romantic purposes that ship sunk a long time ago. Doesn’t stop Amu and Nadeshiko’s reuinion from being adorable though.

Makes you wonder who should really have the Devil/Angel charas.

Fear the Rima-tan.

Of course, like I said…what makes the episode shine is Rima. It’s been a long time since we’ve gotten to see Rima in her element. She’s just brutal this week. Taking any shot at Nagi that she can get while still keeping his secret. Putting him in as many difficult situations as possible.

Then how Nagi manages to get through it and such. Making the whole big thing a competition between Rima and Nagi. The whole thing is just hilarious when all Rima has to say is “Nadeshiko” or “Nagihiko” to make Nagi run off again though. The end of the back and forth with “Nagihiko…or rather Nadeshiko” was the best. Oh yes, this episode made me love Rima that much more.

Nagi held up like a champ the whole way through though. Until Rima threw him a bone. Which of course leads to a giggly moment for fangirls in the form of “d’aww…she really does care…” (Watching Nagi smile at Rima after is great~)

I think the whole reason we actually got this filler is so that Yamato Maihime and Temari could appear before Nagihiko tells Amu the truth (which certainly won’t be happening in this filler series). Of course, being a general mahou shoujo fan I loved this too. Especially with the Nadehiko character single coming into the anime. Finally.

…Makes me want a full blown Rimahiko filler where we can hear Rima’s character single actually. (How great would that be guys?)

But the whole episode I couldn’t wait for Nagihiko and Rima to be left alone because that was when any shipping development would happen. Of course, this is my fun couple, but I want to see real progress to you know! And I got some fun lines (twisted i

Since I think Rima kind of bends that way after all of my jokes about her and Amu, I couldn’t help but think Rima likes that idea.

Seriously, in my fan mind I can’t help but think that Rima is the only one for Nagi because she probably bends that way a little if you know what I mean. She even gets along better with “Nadeshiko”. That can also be owed to the fact that Rima treated guys like servants a lot though. If I think about it…that’s exactly what she does with Nagi too.

Oh Rima~ You wonderfully sweet tease~

Like this scene which made the whole episode. As many fans caught on…it’s a lot like Rima just asked ordered Nagi to go out on a date with her. Oh Rima you tsundere you~

Of course, this date thing is what got me thinking about the Rima character song thing. Rimahiko filler at an amusement park! Who’s with me!?

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(I just had to get this reaction shot in at the end~)

This whole episode did a lot to get me back in my normal shipping mode~ Where recently I’ve just been enjoying various anime for more legitimate purposes. But it takes the cute twelve-year-old couples to always bring me back. They’re the cute ones without complications that you can just watch and sigh at.

Which makes me pissed off that immature fans are hijacking this pairing and getting as annoying as they get with everything else. Is nothing sacred? Not even the cute, fun side pairing? (Yeah…I’m taking this opportunity to tell everyone I’m deleting any comments that bug me here…)

So overall, this was a good filler. Featured things we can’t get in the manga that we actually want (Nadeshiko, Yamato Maihime, etc) along with the fangirl favorite of some shippy-ness…without moving the couple ahead of where they’re supposed to be in the manga. Good job team. Now return to your usual suckage.

I’m still liking the current season of anime. So people who thought I was weird for getting excited about it, nyeh-nyeh and all that immature stuff. Like I said, it was looking perfect for me. And it is~

This season I’m watching more anime than I usually do and I’m not really losing interest in anything. Usually I love a season in a preview and hopefully at the beginning before it kind of wears out. Series can start out good and then just run out of steam.

The anime I picked up this season at any point are attacked/praised in alphabetical order. Though I really didn’t have much to say that was bad. Shocking even if I do particularly like this season.

Ah, what’s happened to me? I want to be overly critical and pick on everything again! (Really though, it seems like lately I’ve become such an optimist. Right around when fans stopped bothering me about blogging because they stopped caring about a certain series because of its spin-off. I wonder if that would have anything to do with it…)

I also just flat out got lazy and didn’t include screencaps for a couple of anime because I didn’t talk about them much. I don’t think it’s a big deal. Even so, I keep feeling like something is horrible wrong with this post. I’ll owe it to my obsession with images, but it’s overall a sort of throwaway post. I wanted to make up for not getting to a First Impressions collected post, so Mid-Season post instead!

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11eyes

Episodes Aired: 6
Episodes Watched: 5

Yeah. Five episodes in. About time. Training = Boring.

Yeah, I really don’t think the fanservice was that bad after everyone was going on about it. The first episode was certainly bad and Yuka still seems to get camera angles and sitting positions purely to show off her underwear. But really, it’s a decent anime. It has exactly what I was hoping for based on any reviews I saw of the game.

I mean the constant “I’ll protect Yuka” gets kind of annoying, but now that Kakeru can back it up I guess it’s okay. Still, despite all of the adorable situations Yuka and Kakeru end up in that get my fangirling going, they still leave a lot to be desired as a couple. Bring on the drama!!! (Though apparently episode 6 is taking care of that…)

At this point I am kind of liking the cast of side characters better, though like I said, Kakeru being able to back up his declaration to protect Yuka gives him bonus points. Also, now that we’re heading into the second half of the story, all those hints I saw about Yuka should be leading her to become a very interesting character. A come from behind favorite. As of right now she should be my favorite since I have no others and I find her generally adorable, but knowing the hints about her combined with her not having much to do with the story just makes me feel unsatisfied with her current state.

So, as I said in my preview, I’m watching this to the end. Because I have to know Yuka’s secret. I expect to be disappointed with my own hype though. Though I have the basic idea of it and that basic outcome is nice.

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Fairy Tail

Episodes Aired: 6
Episodes Watched: 6

Sweet. Got a group shot without the “main character” (in shounen main = lame)

This actually became one of my favorites of the season. The fact that a bunch of fans of the manga hated it just confirmed to me that I had to watch. It lead me to believe that it would be the classic shounen anime adaptation because shounen fans never like their anime adaptations at first. Especially the seiyuu choices. Memories of Soul Eater occur to me…

Really though, I don’t like Kugi-san as the cat thing or Hirano-san either. But at least I got used to them.

Overall it’s a fun anime and I never get bored while watching it. Though my attention was certainly completely fixed in place in the second episode when a certain character appeared and became an instant favorite.

And if you can’t guess which one then you don’t know me well enough! Actually…since it’s a guy this time I think that distinction deserves a mention. Usually I’m a fan of the girls~ …Wait that didn’t come out right.

But yeah, Yuuichi Nakamura voiced character ftw. Obviously. I have a theory that any character with even one good line will become an incredibly awesome force to be reckoned when they’re voiced by Yuichi Nakamura. Because seriously you guys, seriously. (Yes, that does sell my point.) Also, bonus points if their hair is blue. (Seriously! There are four roles someone can easily connect to Yuuichi Nakamura and three of them have blue hair! Now it’s four! It’s gotten to the point where I see blue hair and I think anyone but Yuuichi Nakamura is a miscast! Even for women!)

That said, Gray would have been a cool character anyway (random loss of clothes does that), but you know, Rule of Yuuichi Nakamura makes him that much better. Seriously. (Erza is second favorite even after just one episode though. Secondary Characters > Main Characters…like almost every other shounen out there.)

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InuYasha Kanketsu-Hen

Episodes Aired: 6
Episodes Watched: 6

This screencap is relevant for having the two main characters! And that’s it.

Nostalgia~ Nostalgia~ So far this season though I’ve liked the first two episodes best. The recent episode too for having a scene with real interactions between all three women/girls of the show. Overall this season is good for that stuff, having characters interact that normally don’t (they tried some bullshit fillers like that near the end of the last series which were all thoroughly lame).

I also always enjoy it whenever there’s adventures in Kagome’s world, which there really aren’t many of in this season (except fluffy shippy interludes…ohoho~). I really like Rumiko Takahashi doing romantic comedy better than doing big long stories.

Generally though, right now I’m not enjoying the series as much because we’re in the basic shounen upgrade BS and still tying up some loose threads. Apparently after all of that is done, they’re going to slow down the pace because that’s when the important stuff is coming up.

I’m really looking forward to the arc with Kagome and Kikyou (which is now coming up next). Plus that mini-arc about Kagome’s powers. And then the last two chapters being adapted. Plus the shippy stuff I mentioned. So basically anything involving Kagome who still manages to be my favorite character again now that it’s animated. Bonus points for a Kagome and Kikyou combination. Triple super special bonus points for Kagome x InuYasha shippy times.

Ah~ Once you hit a certain age, you just embrace your past fandom loves that much more I think. (Though enjoying this series so much has a negative side effect of making me feel old-ish when so many young fans don’t even know it. Terrifying!)

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Kobato.

Episodes Aired: 5
Episodes Watched: 4

Shame on you if you don’t know how I feel about this. The episode 2-4 post explains in full detail me getting used to it being an adaptation but basically deciding that it’s doing a good adaptation. Some things don’t really live up to expectations, but it’s impossible to do everything right.

Especially when this fangirl is a shipping fangirl and adapting the short manga into a 24 episode series requires you to mess with events of said fangirl’s shipping.

Anyway, as you can see by the episode counts, there’s an episode I would have posted about before now, but my brother got in the way. The post should be coming on Saturday unless I continue to be derailed by…other things. *been watching a game’s videos to “tehe~” at cutscenes*

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Miracle Train

Episodes Aired: 6
Episodes Watched: 4

These guys dressed up way too much. Not even mentioning that other outfit from episode 4.

I don’t care what other fangirls say, I’m on the side of those who are highly amused by this series.

Some girls are pointing at it and saying it’s sexist, but I just don’t connect to that at all. Growing up in a very liberal equal part of the US I just don’t experience that sort of bullshit ever. So I see fiction as just harmless fiction…though there are certain tipping points that offend me as a girl. Miracle Train just isn’t one.

That said, I still don’t think Miracle Train should be at all sexist, even to the most sensitive girl. The reason the bishies help out girls instead of guys is quite simple you see. If they helped out guys, they’d be gay. And being a man harem with no lead female they already have all the signs of being a gay gathering of gay men. If you just have them go out and help guys then there’d be no doubt. It would turn into the anime edition of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” which is literally gay. So there.

Really, it’s a series that knows it’s bad. It’s kind of pointless to take it serious in any way. And by not taking it seriously, I find it highly amusing.

Now with all that said, of course being a bad episodic series, it really does wear thin. I only pick it up and watch it when I’m really bored. And if it wasn’t streaming I wouldn’t bother at all.

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Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu Purezza

Episodes Aired: 6
Episodes Watched: 2

I’m actually behind with this one. When I come back to it I’ll post on it, so you’ll just hear about it later.

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Nyan Koi!

Episodes Aired: 6
Episodes Watched: 2

I kind of dropped this for the moment even though I found it quite simply entertaining. It just didn’t really have anything new to offer me that I want at this point in time. It looks like things have gotten cuter, but I don’t know…I just don’t get my usual motivation for that stuff.

It seems these days I like romance on the side. Or…thinking about Nogizaka Haruka…I’m just not willing to have two series like that in one season. Haruka gets the love because it’s a sequel to a series I already liked.

Still…I miss the kitties. But time is valuable and if I just don’t fell satisfied by each episode, it’s time to give it up. If I get even more bored this season though, I’ll definitely go back to this one. I cycle through my bonus anime pretty easily anyway.

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Seiken no Blacksmith

Episodes Aired: 6
Episodes Watched: 6

At least if this loli ojou-sama bitch was voiced by Rie Kugimiya someone would like her.

I still enjoy this anime, though my enjoyment noticeably fell during the Lisa filler. So damn boring. Then I just went “wtf?” when the next episode started with Aria and Cecily being chased. Overall, a dislikable episode because we introduced a loli princess. Entirely unnecessary because we already have more than enough loli than the world could ask for in an Aki Toyosaki voiced Lisa.

I still get interested again whenever Luke and Cecily interact for any period of time because these interactions entertain me in numerous ways, especially when Aria and Lisa are around too. (I don’t know why, but the “Cecily’s boobs” jokes just aren’t wearing on me like they should especially considering I’m a girl)

The mood whiplash is kind of annoying though. I didn’t mind when it was the original four so much, but with the addition of the loli-princess and her three guards, it’s annoying.

At least Cecily’s gotten to be a better fighter with Aria as her sword. Even if Cecily is still pretty average without her, they can at least justify her being good with Aria because of their bond of friendship and all that stuff. She’s improving, but she’s still not improving too fast. So you have to give the anime credit for that.

It’s decent for what it is. The plot is fairly decent for a fantasy anime. It just isn’t really noticable with all of the other bullshit going on. Even so, I like that bullshit when it’s the four main characters. The addition of new characters made it cross that thin line between fun and annoying for me though.

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Seitokai no Ichizon

Episodes Aired: 7
Episodes Watched: 5

Favorite girl based on a one-scene hairstyle. I think that’s rational.

I have nothing to say here. It is what it is and that’s all there is to it. (Lies. I always have something to say. Especially about anything that should be labeled as crap.)

I am liking it more than I thought I would though. It was my seasonly “pick up a crap anime” anime and…while it’s still not good, it is pretty legitimately funny. It actually gets funnier the more it goes on because you become more familiar with the characters and thus character-based humor becomes an option. Episode four I believe (the one with all of the light novel delusions) was especially great for this. Combining the parody elements with the character humor.

Also the overall pacing works excellently for a comedy anime. Being fast (and occasionally loud) makes things funnier. I’m wondering how well that works in the light novels of this series, because as I know, humor becomes a lot harder to specifically write out and keep a good pacing or timing to it. Plus a lot of the humor in this anime is visual.

I could point out some obvious flaws in the show, but since the flaws are there for other people to enjoy the show, there’s not much point to it. Plus, shows that poke fun at themselves and seem to acknowledge being what they are always just seem exempt from criticism for me. Because what’s really the point, right? It’s not something they have to improve, because it’s part of their joke and what makes the show work.

Also…I’m routing for Sugisaki to get his harem end. I think he deserves it if he can earn it in the face of so much outright disdain. As for a favorite girl…gee I wonder…

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Shakugan no Shana S

First OAV was funny. Bring on the next one. What? No I don’t care if it’s related to the plot. There’s plenty of time for JC Staff to screw that up in the third season!

Of course, I kid. I’m always willing to give animation studios some slack, even if I really think Shana would have been better off as 12-13 episode seasons to reduce the boring filler bullshit.

So in the meantime, shut up the fanboys crying about how the anime hasn’t been as good as the novels and therefore the third season will suck as well. Did it ever occur to them the reason for the OAV was to stall for time so the novel can finish? Which it’s actually pretty close to doing. Yashichiro Takahashi does things quick and he follows his schedule. Truly something to be admired by writers everywhere.

Truly, this a decent series. Doesn’t deserve too much praise, but it doesn’t really deserve all the bashing either. I think it just gets that for being the true birth of the Kugi’s tsundere loli.

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Shugo Chara! Party!

Episodes Aired: 6
Episodes Watched: 4

So this scene I’ll take…I’ll leave the babysitting adventures thanks.

I still stand by the idea that it’s not as bad as most of the fandom makes it out to be because nothing is as bad as this idiotic fandom makes things out to be.

Still, the novelty of it has worn off and I really don’t feel like watching it anymore. Rikka just doesn’t make a very compelling protagonist and she shouldn’t, since she’s not the real protagonist of the show. I enjoyed the Utau episode, which got a lot of flack for introducing the fact that Ikuto left off-screen, sadly taking attention away from it actually being a good episode. I liked the secretive smiles Amu and Utau shared over their own past together and Ikuto.

Especially after that episode and seeing the sort of titles since then, I want to stop watching and have someone else tell me when to watch it. But since I gave myself that job for the other fans, it seems that I’ll keep watching it just the same. The fact that unlike other fangirls, I still like the manga helps a bit I guess. Still planning a post on that by the way. And now an official closer for the last season of the anime too.

However, I do enjoy Party! sucking because it means I get to watch all of the one-interest fangirls that piss me off writhe in pain.

The rest of you smart girls, watch Yumeiro Patissiere. It has all of the cute charm of Shugo Chara!, just without the awesomer characters and broad appeal..and instead replaced with even more cuteness. But if the characters aren’t as awesome you don’t have to worry about them being ruined for fillers! It’s like right now they’re perfectly designed for fillers! (Wow, YumePati fangirling is the new invading force for me)

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Yumeiro Patissiere

Episodes Aired: 6
Episodes Watched: 6

We already did the six-episodes in impression (though it was actually written after five episodes, but still published after six where I still felt the same) and my opinion on it hasn’t changed a bit. It’s the best shoujo for the younger age group on TV right now.

Granted, I don’t watch Mecha Mote Iinchou, but that show got disqualified when they started off with 3D bullshit. It still makes me sad since every time I do see something about it, it looks so cute.

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And that’s it!

There’s a noticeable absence of Kimi ni Todoke, but that’s quite simply because I haven’t watched it yet. Before anyone thinks they should throw something as me, I’ll explain why. Every time I start thinking about giving it a go, the hype on it starts right up again and I just can’t bring myself to watch it.

See, I don’t watch things with hype when I think said hype will lead me to becoming disappointed. I want to find my own love for the series, thank you very much.

When I do watch it though, expect a post of some sort to make up for the delay. Unless, you know, I just don’t have anything special to say.

My namesake season of anime is coming up! And what does it bring me…? Almost nothing of interest. Damn.

Summer and Winter are always about half the size of Spring and Fall so I guess it can’t be helped. Still, this is probably the most disappointing season of anime for me personally since I’ve been blogging. I only found one new series I have any real interest in picking up.

Though it’s all for the best. I’ll be busy in Winter. Plus less anime = easier preview = earlier post!

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Last time I finally found a preview format that I liked, so I’m sticking with it. This time just making the images smaller to make things look neater and making the title more noticeable.

Same format though. Continuing Series, Sequels of Interest (none this time), New Series, OVA & Movies, and…the rest. There’s a lot of “the rest.” You won’t even get much enthusiasm from me on the new stuff I go in-depth for.

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Continuing Series

Continuing from the last season.

• Shugo Chara! Party!
• Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
• Fairy Tail
• Yumeiro Patissiere
• InuYasha Kanketsu-hen
• Kobato.

They go in order of what I think will not end first. Shugo Chara! places first because it’s never going to end. Kobato. places last because…it has 24 episodes which is mathematically the least amount of episodes. Fairy Tail places above Yumeiro Patissiere which we now know will probably have at least 52 episodes just based on most shounen stats. YumePati is already confirmed for just 52. Fullmetal Alchemist? Well it has at least a half a year to go I think.

Of course things always change. To make it simple: Only InuYasha and Kobato. are ending in Winter.

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New Series

New anime for the season.

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OokamiKakushi

Series: Ookami Kakushi
Adaptation: Game by Ryushiki07
Studio: AIC
Airdate: 01/??
Episodes: ?
Website: http://www.tbs.co.jp/anime/okami/
(ANN) (Wikipedia) (MAL)

Seiyuu: Yu Kobayashi, Emiri Katou, Mai Fuchigami, Mariya Ise, Saki Fujita, Yuko Goto

Videos: show

A secret law in the old part of town brings together dread and mystery. It is the summer of 1983. 10 stories, intertwined by the idle thoughts of people caught in repeating nightmares. What could possibly be the truth therein!?

Always wanted to watch Higurashi, but I wanted to get it on DVD so it just hasn’t happened yet. Probably for Christmas (lol nice Christmas present). Didn’t watch Umineko because I just felt like I wanted to watch Higurashi first. But now we have a new anime based on a Ryukishi07 game and its character designs were done by Peach-Pit. So…Oh hell yes.

Watching? Yes.
Blogging? Doubt it.

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Durarara!!

Series: Durarara!!
Adaptation: Light Novels by Ryohogo Narita
Studio: Brain’s Base
Airdate: 01/07
Episodes: ?
Website: http://www.durarara.com/
(ANN) (Wikipedia) (MAL)

Seiyuu: Toshiyuki Toyonaga, Ayahi Takagaki, Daisuke Ono, Hiroshi Kamiya, Jun Fukuyama, Kana Hanazawa, Mamoru Miyano, Sanae Kobayashi, Yuuichi Nakamura

Videos: show

Ryuugamine Mikado is a normal high school boy who seeks peculiar beings. he moves to Tokyo’s rowdy Ikebukuro neighborhood, where teenage punks gang up and fight against each other. There is an urban legend “Dullahan” headless rider, who rides a black motorcycle without head lights nor sounds of engine.  A mad scramble for Dullahan’s missing head breaks out.

It looks like it could be good. Legitimately good. It has all the signs of being good. There’s only one downside. I usually don’t like things that are considered good. Or rather, I like them, but I don’t get excited for them. Strange. But I’ll still be watching this, even if it isn’t really my sort of thing. But the cast…the cast, I’d watch this even if I thought it was going to be crap.

Watching? Maybe.
Blogging? No.

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So•Ra•No•Wo•To

Series: So•Ra•No•Wo•To
Adaptation: Original Work?
Studio: A-1 Pictures
Airdate: 01/??
Episodes: ?
Website: http://www.sorawoto.com/
(ANN) (Wikipedia) (MAL)

Seiyuu: Juri Aikawa, Aoi Yuki, Aya Endo, Eri Kitamura, Mayuno Yasokawa, Misato Fukuen, Unshou Ishizuka, Yu Kobayashi

Videos: show

In the future there is a land that, after being marred by long-lasting wars, has settled into quiet decline. A 15-year-old girl named Kanata fulfills her dream of enlisting in the army and joins a unit of five girls who protect a fortress. The girls play music that reverberate across the skies over towns without people and seas without fish.

“K-On! Joins the Army” I guess (I was going to leave the character resemblance alone until I found out about the music). I’m willing to give it a chance if it’s just the art though and not the overall moemoemoe tone. Now I’m supposed to love shows with girls, but I’m worried about the moe-blobbery that’s been getting to me lately. So I’ll just keep a little tally going. It gets five “too stupid to live” moments in the first episode and then it gets dropped. Any yuri subtext that isn’t really subtext and is just there because it’s a series full of girls for the sake of fanservice gets it immediately dropped.

Watching? Maybe.
Blogging? No.

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Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu

Series: Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu
Adaptation: Light Novels by Kenji Inoue
Studio: SILVER LINK
Airdate: 01/??
Episodes: ?
Website: http://www.bakatest.com/
(ANN) (Wikipedia) (MAL)

Seiyuu: Hiro Shimono, Hitomi Harada, Emiri Katou, Kaori Mizuhashi, Kouki Miyata, Tatsuhisa Suzuki

Videos: show

There is an academy rigidly divides up the student body into classes based on the results of tests. Prodigies are in the heavenly A class, but our “baka” Akihisa is in F Class, the lowest rung of the school ladder which is as bad as A class is good. Mizuki Himeji is also in F class, but is actually one of the smartest girls in Akihisa’s sophomore year. Besides Mizuki (who Akihisa secretly adores), the F class also has class president, Yuji Sakamoto, who has been Akihisa’s friend and since freshman year. So they…start a revolution…with mascot characters…

My seasonal “pick up something that looks bad so I can watch it when I’m bored” pick. I have one every season. These picks I usually choose based on character designs and the potential for some romance in the plot, but lately I’ve been picking them out for ridiculousness that may make me laugh. Of course, it’s worth noting that excessive fanservice just gets kicked out and I pick up something else that’s idiotic instead.

Watching? Maybe. -_-
Blogging? No.

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OVAs, Movies, & Etc.

Released without first airing on television.

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Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha The Movie 1st

Series: Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha The MOVIE 1st (Film)
Adaptation: Redone of a Series that was a Spin-Off of an Eroge!
Related Series: Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha (+ A’s & StrikerS)
Studio: Seven Arcs
Release Date: 01/23
Website: http://www.nanoha.com/
(ANN) (Wikipedia) (MAL)

Seiyuu: Yukari Tamura, Nana Mizuki

Videos: show

Nanoha Vs. Fate -> Nanoha & Fate Team-Up in all of its big screen GLORY!!! Plus their non-mahou shoujo clothes are cuter this time around I think.

Nanoha!!! Ass-kicking loli befriending magic on the BIG SCREEN! The original befriended story! Damn I wish I was in Japan. At least I’ll enjoy the build-up and the merchandising like I’m in Japan. (Got a pre-order in for my Nanoha nendoroid!)

Really though, this is one series that having a recap movie beats having a new storyline. The first season could use some tweaking to make the action and story work better. So I’m very excited.

Watching? YEAH!!!…on DVD.
Blogging? Maybe when I actually watch it.

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Other Anime for the Season

TV series I probably won’t be watching.

Chu-Bra!!: If the title isn’t obvious why I won’t watch this than the website certainly is. I don’t seem to be the intended audience.

Dance in the Vampire Bund: I just don’t like vampires guys. I think they’re the most overrated…thing ever. The only vampire story I ever liked was Karin which put a unique spin on it and had the plus of being a comedy…and the manga being just plain good. But if the promo art for a vampire story looks vampire-y I generally stay away.

Hanamaru Kindergarten: When I saw this I originally thought it seemed cute. Then I realized that my tastes have changed and that stuff like this bores me nowadays and pisses me off if I don’t realize it bores me. Go figure.

Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 3: Owari Naki Unmei: Stupid long name, I’m glad I’m staying well away from you. Anyway, this reeks of fantasy otome game adaptation or something resembling that so I’m just staying away.

Hidamari Sketch×☆☆☆: Haven’t watched it yet. Don’t know why I’d start now.

Katanagatari: I may miss out on a lot of good stories this way, but I have the opposite reaction that most have to something that looks unique and possible interesting. At least for anime. If it looks weird at all I just want to stay away.

Ladies vs. Butlers: The title sounded interesting, but then any further research into it ruined it all with its horribly generic…everything.

Nodame Cantabile Finale: Even though I really do want to watch this I can’t catch up in time. I will take this opportunity to actually watch it though. The promo art did me in.

Omamori Himari: Those evil bastards try to lure me in with their cute big riboned-girls and their romantic comedy summaries. Luckily this time I was able to scroll down and I decided it wasn’t for me.

Seikon no Qwaser: You almost had me with your mildly pretty art. But I saw those unnatural looking boobs and I ran. Even so I don’t think it looks very interesting anyway.

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All information was gathered in other places and all I did was simply collect them into one post. Resources include The Fansub Wiki, Wikipedia, Anime News Network, and the anime sites themselves.

As a warning, if my resource was wrong, then I’m wrong. But I try my best to collect information I believe is correct.

The adorable Rin image up top was brought to you here. (Image itself is also clickable)

As always, when information changes or becomes available, this post will change accordingly.

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Thoughts

…I totally want to skip over this season, just grab Ookami Kakushi along for the ride and go to spring. There’s four anime that I was interested in enough to get the full information. Four. But on the other hand…there’s just 14 total in this post.

For once I can’t really see myself picking up anything this season that I didn’t preview and that’s just disappointing.

Of course I don’t have much to complain about when I have Spring resembling Fall in being perfect for my tastes. And they’re the big seasons that really matter.

Angel Beats! will be watched and almost guaranteed to be loved by this fangirl. Black Rock Shooter…which everyone is watching (and screw you if you’re not). Likely Kaichou wa Maid-sama! which…should need no explanation.

Plus Iron Man which actually gets a bigger FUCK YEAH than the rest from me. I secretly love comic book superheroes, but I just don’t read them because of their convoluted intertwined stories. Plus I don’t like different writers working on the same thing. It irks me because the trouble I know it can lead to. But movies and anime? That’s just fine with me.

And this is how boring I find Winter. All I can talk about is Spring. I’m not going to blog anything, am I? Only one “doubt it” and the rest are flat-out no. More time for Project R and school then.