Like most fall seasons, there’s quite a bit that have the potential to be watchable, but not much that really grabs me. I found quite a bit to preview, but I’m not all that excited. I could say that it’s a side effect of growing up, but screw that. I almost always love the Spring season. Ah…spring…

Well I suppose it’s good for school and all to not have that many series. But I really wish I only had 4 series to preview that I was really excited about/guaranteed to watch than 8 that I’m only mildly interested in. Except Iron Man.

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The always evolving preview continues. This time I did four new things.

• Alternate titles since series are arbitrarily better known by the English translation over the Japanese (or vice-versa)
• Official studio websites in addition to ANN
• Demographic/genre for manga in the adaptation category (shoujo, shounen, jousei, seinen)
• Continuing OVA & Movie DVD Releases

I think as of now it’s looking like it’s got a semi-permanent format.

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• Sequels
  • Yumeiro Patissiere Professional
• New Series
  • Iron Man
  • Kuragehime
  • Star Driver: Takuto no Kagayaki
  • Otome Youkai Zakuro
  • Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai
  • Psychic Detective Yakumo
  • Bakuman
• OVA’s & Movies
  • Yozakura Quartet
  • Tamayura
• Video Releases
• Leftovers

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Sequels

Remakes, spin-offs, or continuations of a previously animated series.

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Yumeiro Pâtissière Professional

Prequel: Yumeiro Patissiere (Adapted: Shoujo Manga by Natsumi Matsumoto)
Studio: Pierrot (ANN)
Airdate: 10/03
Episodes: ?
Website: http://www.ytv.co.jp/yumepati_pc/
(ANN) (Wikipedia) (MAL)

Seiyuu: Aoi Yuki, Nobuhiko Okamoto, Shinya Hamazoe, Tsubasa Yonaga, Ayano Taketatsu, Yuri Yamaoka, Mayu Iino, Sachika Misawa

Videos: None Yet

lol Ichigo grows up.

I’m not totally sure what to say. I mean this can potentially branch off in two directions, being horribly awkward or a really interesting experience. However, “new characters” is always worrisome. I’d be surprised if I ended up hating it. No matter how often I note something awkward with something in this anime, I still love it. The only thing that could drive me away is CG.

Note that I just took information from the current series. I don’t know if it really applies to the new season (especially in regards to seiyuu since we don’t know if the all the main characters are sticking around), but whatever.

Chances of Watching: Guaranteed.

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New Series

All-new anime airing this season.

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Iron Man

Alternate Title: N/A
Adaptation: Marvel Comics
Studio: MADHOUSE (ANN)
Airdate: 10/01
Episodes: 12
Website: http://www.animax.co.jp/marvelanime/
(ANN) (Wikipedia) (MAL)

Seiyuu: Keiji Fujiwara, Hiroe Oka, Unshou Ishizuka, Takako Honda, Shizuka Itou

Videos: show

Tony Stark he is an industrialist playboy and ingenious engineer who suffers a severe heart injury during a kidnapping in which his captors attempt to force him to build a weapon of mass destruction. He instead creates a powered suit of armor  to save his life and escape captivity and later uses the suit to protect the world as Iron Man. Or at least so goes the comics…

Every time I try to write thoughts for this I end up rambling or thinking of the start to a certain song. So…song instead.

Chances of Watching: Guaranteed.

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Kuragehime

Alternate Title: Jellyfish Princess
Adaptation: Jousei Manga by Akiko Higashimura
Studio: Brain’s Base (ANN)
Airdate: 10/14
Episodes: 11
Website: http://noitamina.tv/kuragehime.html
(ANN) (Wikipedia) (MAL)

Seiyuu: Kana Hanazawa, Mamiko Noto, Mitsuki Saiga, Takehito Koyasu, Motoko Kumai, Akemi Okamura, Junichi Suwabe, Kentarou Itou, Kimiko Saito, Shigeru Chiba, Sumire Morohoshi

Videos: None Yet

Tsukimi Kurashita, a huge fan of jellyfish, has just moved to Tokyo to become an illustrator. She lives in “Amamizukan,” an apartment complex that is full of fujoshi with no-men-allowed. However, one day, Tsukimi invites a stylishly fashionable woman to stay in her room, only to discover that the guest is not who “she” seems to be.

I am intrigued. Not much to say except I’m gonna start a tally of this being called shoujo. Though maybe I’ll give people more slack for this one since it won the Kodansha award in the shoujo category. Even if that’s only because having another category would water down the significance though (’sup 10 Best Picture nominees).

Chances of Watching: Good.

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Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto

Adaptation: Original Work
Studio: Bones (ANN)
Airdate: 10/??
Episodes: ?
Website: http://www.star-driver.net/
(ANN) (Wikipedia) (MAL)

Seiyuu: Jun Fukuyama, Mamoru Miyano, Saori Hayami, Maaya Sakamoto, Ami Koshimizu, Ayana Taketatsu, Ayano Niina, Chiemi Chiba, Ooki Sugiyama, Shun Takagi

Videos: None Yet

On a cross-shaped island in the South, a gigantic humanoid robot known as the “Cybuddy” is discovered in the underground ruins, sealed for untold ages. The “Order of the Glittering Star Cross” attempts to remove the seal by abducting a girl named Wako Agemaki, the “shrine maiden” and key to activating the robot. Takuto Tsunashi arrives with his own Cybuddy named Tauburn to rescue Wako. Thus begins a struggle to unlock the secrets of the advanced technology and prevent disaster.

‘Sup Mecha genre. It’s been a while. So let’s do it up good. All I really have to add is, “OH MY GOD YES! Maaya-san in a voice acting role!”

Chances of Watching: Good.

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Otome Youkai Zakuro

Alternate Title: Girl Demon Zakuro
Adaptation: Seinen Manga by Lily Hoshino
Studio: J.C. Staff (ANN)
Airdate: 10/04
Episodes: ?
Website: http://otome-zakuro.jp/
(ANN) (Wikipedia) (MAL)

Seiyuu: Mai Nakahara, Takahiro Sakurai, Aki Toyosaki, Yui Horie,  Kana Hanazawa, Nobuhiko Okamoto, Akihiko Ishizumi, Kazue Komiya, Mutsumi Tamura, Satoshi Hino, Takayuki Kondou, Yuka Iguchi, Yuuki Kaji

Videos: show

It’s the Meiji Era in a slightly alternate Japan, and the Gregorian calendar has just come into effect. The fox-eared girls living in the youkai part of town are about to be put to work together with a delegation of young human soldiers, to promote interracial understanding. So what will happen when Zakuro’s strong personality collides with human sensibilities?

Twin-tails and fox ears. Moe~ I actually see this often enough, but I always write it off when its an eroge or ecchi manga. However, this is a seinen manga. And it looks like it could be pretty cool. And I love the Meiji Era (along with its Western Equivalent actually…). It also has Mai Nakahara and Aki Toyosaki and Yui Horie playing twins. Couldn’t make that up if I tried. Plus…despite the fact that I saw it listed as “seinen” it totally feels like shoujo in some respects. So yeah…

Chances of Watching: Good.

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Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai

Alternate Title: My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute; OreImo
Adaptation: Light Novel by Tsukasa Fushimi
Studio: AIC (ANN)
Airdate: 10/??
Episodes: 12
Website: http://oreimo-anime.com/
(ANN) (Wikipedia) (MAL)

Seiyuu: Yuuichi Nakamura, Ayana Taketatsu, Kana Hanazawa, Yukari Tamura, Hitomi Nabatame, Saori Hayami, Satomi Satou

Videos: show

Kousaka Kyousuke is an average high school student who doesn’t get along well with his younger sister, the cute and popular Kirino. Then one day he makes a startling discovery: Kirino’s secretly an Otaku…of eroge.

“Oh hey, there’s Yuichi Nakamura in the cast list.” -watchlist’d-

That’s really all there was to it. It’s been too long so I was determined to watch it no matter what. Plus it’s been a while since I’ve seen a tsundere imoutou. I didn’t see ecchi listed as a genre anywhere, so we should be good. I’m definitely checking it out, but whether I stick with it depends on if it actually manages to be funny I think. Also long title, so OreImo from this point on.

Chances of Watching: Decent.

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Psychic Detective Yakumo

Alternate Title: Shinrei Tantei Yakumo
Adaptation: Light Novel by Manabu Kaminaga
Studio: Bee Train (ANN)
Airdate: 10/03
Episodes: 13
Website: http://nhk.or.jp/anime/yakumo/
(ANN) (Wikipedia) (MAL)

Seiyuu: Daisuke Ono, Ayumi Fujimura, Akimitsu Takase, Hiroki Touchi, Megumi Toyoguchi, Rokuro Naya, Ryoka Yuzuki, Tokuyoshi Kawashima, Toshihiko Seki

Videos: None Yet

The story follow Yakumo, a young man who can see the spirits of dead people with his red eyes. He uses this ability as a gift to solve murder cases.

Bee Train, we meet again. Still not sure how I feel about you, your animation improved the last time we met, but you still pissed me off. However, this series interested me enough to check out one of its (shoujo) manga adaptations. That was decent so I’m checking out its adaptation. Though I’m a little weary of this only being 13 episodes, I totally expected a 24-26 count. I guess it depends on how the pacing is handled. Though 13 episodes series are always making me a little weary lately. :/

Chances of Watching: Decent.

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Bakuman.

Alternate Title: N/A
Adaptation: Shounen Manga by Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata
Studio: J.C. Staff (ANN)
Airdate: 10/02
Episodes: 25
Website: http://www9.nhk.or.jp/anime/bakuman/
(ANN) (Wikipedia) (MAL)

Seiyuu: Atsushi Abe, Satoshi Hino, Ayumi Fujimura, Sayuri Yahagi, Nobuhiko Okamoto, Hirofumi Nojima, Junichi Suwabe, Kenji Hamada, Kentarou Tone, Kenyuu Horiuchi, Saori Hayami, Shinji Kawada, Tomoyuki Shimura

Videos: None Yet

Moritaka Mashiro, an average 9th grade student but talented artist. Akito Takagi is an advanced 9th grader and aspiring writer. After much persuading, Takagi convinces Mashiro to join him in becoming the greatest manga-ka Japan has ever seen. Takagi, with his gift of writing, hopes to become a successful mangaka, and Mashiro, with his gift of art, hopes to marry the girl of his dreams, Azuki Miho. (Wait what?)

I think there’s some rule written somewhere that most anime fans will check out any anime with anime-related things included in the subject matter. Obviously, I’m included in that rule. Up there is OreImo with eroge and down here we have a couple of manga-ka. Plus I’ve heard some good things about the manga, so we’ll see if that carries over to the anime. Unlike many anime fans I wasn’t totally wrapped in Death Note, so it’s not like that association alone will make it “must watch.”

Chances of Watching: Decent.

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OVAs, Movies, & Etc.

Releases outside of Television.

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Yozakura Quartet: Hoshi no Umi

Format: OAD
Adaptation: Shounen Manga by Suzuhito Yasuda
Related Anime: Yozakura Quartet
Studio: Tatsunoko Production (ANN)
Release Date: 10/??
Website: http://kc.kodansha.co.jp/yozakura/
(ANN) (Wikipedia) (MAL)

Seiyuu: Misato Fukuen, Yuuki Kaji, Saki Fujita, Miyuki Sawashiro

Videos: show

Reboot OAD packaged with volume 9 of the manga.

The anime for Yozakura Quartet was in the Fall 2008 season. It apparently drifted from the manga story (though I stopped watching at episode five). So now there’s an OAD, that’s more faithful. In fact see quite a few scenes I can easily recognize from around volume five, which is the last volume released officially in America (and therefore the last I’ve read). So, I’m assuming it’s adapting the arc started there? Excellent, I won’t be lost so this is a must-watch for me. Everybody sing the Tsundere Song Sakurashin Anthem.

Though I have to say the character designs are throwing me. I’ve seen two adaptations of Suzuhito Yasuda’s art which were pretty much on the mark. It’s an easy to animate style, so I am puzzled. And conflicted. The animation also seems to have a thin line between awesome and wonky…

Chances of Watching: Guaranteed. I’m actually planning on blogging it.

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Tamayura

Format: OAD
Adaptation: Original Work
Related Anime: N/A
Studio: Hal Film Maker (ANN)
Release Date: 11/25
Website: http://tamayura.info/
(ANN) (Wikipedia) (MAL)

Seiyuu: Ayana Taketatsu, Erino Hazuki, Kana Asumi, Yuka Iguchi, Yuko Gibu

Videos: show

For her first year of school, Fu Sawatari moves to Takehara, a scenic old town near Hiroshima where her late father grew up. She loves taking photographs with his old film camera, a Rollei 35S.

I’m always up for giving a Junichi Sato anime a chance, even if I’m not always in the mood for the current offering. Not much to say here except that there are two apparent dates for this anime to be released. 9/25 is a preview airing and I guess and 11/25 is the release date for the (first) OVA. I just went with the latter since it fit my format.

Chances of Watching: Decent.

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Video Releases

Films released on DVD + Continuing OVAs.

Sept 24 – Shakugan no Shana S 4 (OVA)

Oct 7 – Macross Frontier ~Itsuwari no Utahime~ (Film)

Oct 29 – Bungaku Shoujo Memoire II (OVA)

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Leftovers

The TV series I’m not interested in.

Agriculture Girl! – Wut.

Arakawa Under the Bridge x Bridge – I didn’t watch the first season so it’s kind of out of my hands. Maybe someday.

Battle Spirits: Brave – Nothing to say, moving on.

Fortune Arterial Akai Yakusouko – I go to school. I have no room for an eroge adaptation that may or may not be shit. Especially when the former seems to be true in most cases.

Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai – It feels like this one is trying too hard. It’s got a set-up which is basically just shouting, “Look! Irony! Right? Right!? Hilarious shenanigans will obviously ensue!” In which case the opposite usually happens. So yeah… The animation looks nice though. Pity.

Karl to Fushigi na Tou – It’s a bunny! And a kitty! And I obviously don’t need to watch this!

Hakuouki: Shinsengumi Kitan Second Season – “Second Season” -> Moving On.

Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls – I looked up how many series had the phrase “Samurai Girl” in the title on MAL. It was less than I expected.

Motto To Love-Ru – I read this entire manga. I feel such a mix of shame and accomplishment.

MM! – This looks like the most generic cliche-ridden piece of crap ever. Just by the promo picture, you can totally just tell.

Panty & Stocking with Garderbelt – What…the…? Is it just me or are those supposed to be their names? Also obligatory, lol Powerpuff Girl style. It looks weird if they’re not supposed to be five.

Pocket Monsters: Best Wishes! -  I don’t know what I’m supposed to say here…I can’t make fun of it because it kind of makes me happy that something that helped shape my childhood is still airing. (I’m also totally going to buy the next game…)

Rita et Machin – Heh. The website’s kinda fun.

Shinryaku! Ika Musume – I make it a point to stay away from anime with lol-hair unless I am otherwise persuaded.

Sora no Otoshimono: Forte – When I see sequels to stuff like this I just have to believe we’re getting a second season of Durarara!! someday.

Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru – I pride myself on not judging series solely by their art. But in this case, I really looked into this series, and it interested me. But not enough to make up for simplistic fugliness.

Super Robot Taisen OG: The Inspector – Did nothing to interest me.

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes – Wut.

Tegami Bachi Reverse – Second season lockout. And I had no interest in watching it back then either so…yeah.

To Aru Majutusu no Index II – Maybe when I finish the first season.

Togainu no Chi – The trailer for this thing was halfway between weird and kinda cool. But it really didn’t make me want to watch it. :/

Yosuga no Sora – Oh hai. Another eroge adaptation. See Fortune Arterial.

You Are Umasou – Wut.

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Sources

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, My Anime List, and the anime sites themselves. Some additional info from MangaUpdates.

As a warning, if my resource was wrong, then I’m wrong. But I try my best to collect information I believe is correct. Though I’m always wary of series getting dropped off the list, so unless they have an actual date, caution is somewhat advised.

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Thoughts

Like I said there’s a lot in this season that has the potential to not outright suck. It depends on execution. But not much really stands out. Luckily I’ve been excited about Iron Man for a while, but even that has me feeling subdued because I’d really rather check out the dub. I’m probably most excited that I’ll be able to keep watching YumePati every Saturday, but with Ichigo grown up it’s guaranteed not to be as cute. And I think I’ll have nightmares about Mary Sues until it airs.

I guess it’s a good thing that I’m not that into the season. I may not be taking many classes, but I’ll have my hands full trying to keep up my health. I was finally getting to 100% at the beginning this summer, but…well I’m sure everyone’s noticed I haven’t been posting much. And I’ll leave it at that lest I go into pissy rant mode about stuff no one cares about.

That said, I’m missing blogging since I…can’t blog. So I’ll do my very best to fit it in. I’m thinking about working just two days instead of the three I have planned right now, but we’ll see. Or if I just always do my homework the day I get it, I’ll have three free days anyway!

This blog started and gained popularity from usually being the only one blogging a very popular anime series. Especially when fansubs were slow and I could half-guess at what was going on. Back in the day it was a way to take up time when I had no life. We’re talking longer than the 2+ years Simplicity has been around.

Since then the fandom…got really dumb. I grew up and got a life. I was a little annoyed that my blog was linked up with Shugo Chara!. Fillers combined with my need to comment on everything in a post, whether or not it was interesting, was finally the death of me. I didn’t even blog the end of the anime. (Which was Shugo Chara! Doki – 102, right? :D)

But now the manga is over, and I was feeling all fine about it. Until about ten minutes went by and I wanted to bawl my eyes out.

I don’t think I have it in me to really comment on the final chapter specifically. I think when I came back from my break my episodic blogger self stayed behind for good. Obviously though, some of those thoughts are going to sneak in here. Because my thoughts upon the end of this series and my feelings toward it most certainly include my thoughts about the end. Logical, right?

But I’d mostly say it’s because I actually didn’t expect not to like it. I’m an optimist only in the face of adversity. Meaning that when everyone else feels like being a pessimistic bitch I go, “Come on guys! It’s not that bad!” just to be contrary.

However since Shugo Chara! had a habit of letting me down, and I cut myself off from the fandom so I felt no need to be contrary, this wasn’t a problem.

Yeah…Since Easter was defeated and the end of Doki (which I still had my issues with) the series has been so incredibly lame and low key that I just didn’t expect anything at all. Mostly. Blast my fangirl heart for temporarily getting excited when people saying “August Nakayoshi” might have meant July Release.

…It didn’t.

I mean sure I got a little smiley when I saw my favorite side pairings getting their own chapters. Except Kairi and Yaya because I never shipped it. Kairi has the least face time of any characters and Yaya is…Yaya, so those two just never really struck my fancy.

But I’d say that was at least partially owed to the fact that 50% of my shipping enthusiasm comes from me being competitive rather than just good old fashioned fangirling.

So as much “awww~” as I got from the first two chapters I got an equal amount of fist-pumping and shouting, “Bitch, who called it!?”

Looking back though, the Encore chapters were actually pretty well done. One shots with ties to each other and an overarching story. They’re certainly better done than a lot of shoujo side-story-”epilogues” that I’ve read. (The Mermaid Melody ones always irked me.) So I guess Encore joins that Hana Kimi and the ShinKuro ones as post-series fangirl approved stories.

Still, I feel like the final arc of Shugo Chara! should have been included with Encore somehow or should be a separate title itself. I mean, everyone knows it felt totally disjointed from the main story. Urgh, and I can’t really go without mentioning that the Road of Stars arc still feels like one of the most nonsensical/pointless plots I’ve seen in manga. I’m not sure if this is because it was boring I don’t have the time to make sense of it, or if it just didn’t make sense.

I mean I think I see what Peach-Pit was trying to do (ignoring the likely “editors told them to stretch it out a bit”), but with the random jumps to set up Encore and then just a lot of jumbled-ness otherwise…eh. The message got lost.

So…The Road of Stars and Party! were the last representations of Shugo Chara! in my mind. Encore just felt like the side stories they were. The long wait for the final chapter didn’t exactly help matters. Go ahead and add my own personal troubles with the series (I tried too much, I really did) to this mess. Plus the fact that we Shugo Chara! fangirls don’t exactly have a lovable fandom to fall back on. (Oh god, the fandom).

Well, my love was at an all-time low.

Plus I got some spoilerrific information from pessimistic fangirls about the final chapter. That experience has pretty much assured that I will not be seeking out spoilers in the future. Mostly. I’ll only get accurate information when it’s bad, since the world clearly conspires against me throwing a fangirl party.

Which I actually didn’t anyway this chapter, but that’s besides the point. I melted a little though.

It’s been a long time since I connected fangirl heart attacks with Shugo Chara!, I believe the potential to have them is still there, but this whole cool down period has…well, cooled me down.

I don’t think I can even want to compare myself now to who I was when I started. I was seventeen back then, still high school age, and when I started writing this I have actually left behind my teen years altogether. As of yesterday.

That’s right, I got the final chapter of Shugo Chara! for my birthday…just a couple of days early. Really makes me think I need this issue of Nakayoshi for super commemorative purposes since it’s such a fun coincidence.

But I digress.

When I started, I still didn’t really see the point to an anime (especially a shoujo) without any ship I liked. Meaning anime without romance, especially anime where the main couple is ew. And lawl. Shugo Chara! would have been completely forgotten if Ikuto didn’t show up.

But by now I’ve watched and enjoyed two anime where I wasn’t particularly a fan of the end couple. And I truly am an odd person when I use that as a sign that I’ve grown up.

And I really must have grown up or “changed” since someone may infer that me saying I grew up because I don’t put as much stock in shipping means that I think they’re immature because they still do. Which isn’t what I’m saying.

Mostly.

When I started, I think I forgot too quickly when I got involved in the fandom so soon after discovering the series that I wasn’t in it for the delicious Amuto at the beginning. I was a mahou shoujo fan and the idea behind the series seemed really interesting.

Then group fangirling caused me to forget this quite a while. (Still…it was fun…)

But maybe the cool down and disappointment has made me remember the whole package. Or maybe I just grew up. Because I am absolutely 100% satisfied that we don’t get a total ultra-confirmed final pairing for Amu (though we all totally know anyway), a kiss, or a time-skip.

All of which are related to each other! The time-skip could have been easy to justify in a non-shipping manner to show what Amu chose as her dream, but since Amu is supposed to be relate-able for other girls, it would be bad to shut down anything in particular. And showing how she combined them all would make the epilogue too long that would deflate the tension from the climax (though, lol, I don’t really think we should be going on about long epilogues here).

So for that, I’ll stick with the fanon that Amu becomes a model and then fashion designer since that pretty much combines them all anyway. Art, athleticism (& extroversion?), and shining too. Except it leaves Suu out, but that can just mean she’ll be an awesome homemaker too. (This girl bitch-slaps anyone who says that being an awesome homemaker isn’t a real “job” or admirable quality because she loves her mommy who went with her on every field trip and cut the crusts off of her sandwiches.)

The other stuff just goes along with having no time skip. Amu’s still like thirteen or something so yeah. CardCaptor Sakura is really the only one I feel has gotten away with finding the person they’re going to be with forever around that age. The way Shugo Chara! handles it with Amu being confused until the end is way more realistic for a girl who just graduated from grade school.

Oh, and I never really wanted any kissing until Amu got older anyway, since she’s only allowed to kiss one person and he’s a gentlemen (sorta? at least in this aspect?) who will totally wait until she’s older.

Plus, I’m actually not that big on kissing anyway. Totally a hugging girl.

I still feel a little odd that I’m not the least bit disappointed. I guess I never really expected those things to begin with. Maybe just a time-skip before the Road of Stars arc and I saw how Amu was clearly never going to figure anything out. Or maybe it’s because LilyGinnyBlack so perfectly shaped my headcanon for what is going to happen post-series. Or maybe after months away from the fandom I finally remembered all the virtues that made Shugo Chara! a fun manga. The themes about growing up and finding yourself along with a pretty great ensemble cast. It got a little slow at the end, but some part of me still feels like that’s appropriate.

Maybe it’s all of them. Or maybe I’ve just achieved Nirvana. But for now let’s go with remembering it’s original virtues before fangirl derailment occurred.

Shugo Chara! was a mahou shoujo manga, but Amu didn’t transform until the very end of the first volume. Originally it was just Amu, a confused girl, trying to find her way and be herself. With some subtle hints of an enemy inserted along the way.

And it really wouldn’t be right to end with Ikuto and Tadase getting to figure themselves out, but not letting Amu make any progress. Then you’ll end up with the sad scenario like you used to get from mahou shoujo of the past. The girl grows up and graduates to being a wife because her character development was dependent on a guy.

There were definitely flaws, but I think I see what Peach-Pit was trying for. Perhaps time will vindicate the series. You can never really appreciate a manga until you go through and read the whole thing together. Maybe by then I’ll understand a bit more of what the Road of Stars arc was all about. Though I did try rereading just that after it was finished.

At the very least, rereading it in the future will bring me back to some of my favorite scenes in the beginning. The ones I can smile about while I’m just remembering them right now.

So, while I still have some tainted feelings concerning Shugo Chara! now, my affection is most certainly still there. The had potential that gave us high expectations that it really didn’t live up to, especially where the fandom is concerned. Shipping is so prone to taking over even shounen manga, so it’s not like I’m surprised it absolutely devastated this super-shoujo.

But as I said, quite cornily, in another post, “Fangirls are for life” and once I love something I will totally love it forever. It’s just a matter of time before something pops out at me and suddenly I’m all giggly going, “That was so much fun!”

So, Shugo Chara! you are forever in my heart as an series that made me change as an anime fan. In a year or two I would like to look back and get a better view, but for now I just know that you’ll always be floating around in the back of my mind until you fully explode back into my heart again. /extreme corniness.

I really hope to be able to write fully about Shugo Chara! a year from now, when I can properly articulate without bring out the cheesy cream of corn. Somebody hold me to that, please?

This one pretty much matches up with my expectations perfectly. I was expecting a few things and each one of those came to pass. So all in all I’m very satisfied with my first watch of the Summer 2010 season. A good thing considering this is the only new anime I was really expecting anything out of.

So where to start with Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakamatchi? I find it so hard to write about the series I hit it off with right away. Especially if there’s one or two elements I could go on all day about. So to hopefully stall devolving into fangirling over a series I really shouldn’t love that much yet, I’ll start with some background.

Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakamatachi should be approximately known as Ookami-san and Her Seven Friends to us English-speakers, but henceforth shall only be known only as Ookami-san no matter what for the usual sanity-ensuring reasons. Though as long titles go, this one’s pretty simple. Especially considering the novel series is really just known as Ookami-san anyway, apparently in the same vein as the Suzumiya Haruhi novels and an even more famous, mainstream example, a little series called Harry Potter.

So, I guess I can forego the usual long title rantings considering these circumstances. Even though I somehow already went at it a bit.

So First Impressions made up of Music (just the OP really), Story, and Fangirl Ramblings replacing any real talk about Characters.

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Music

Opening: May’n – “Ready Go!”

It felt really weird to hear May’n sing a cute song since I’m familiar with her exclusively through Macross Frontier. So right away I’m not really a fan of the song. Mayn’s voice  voice is already something I only like when it’s with certain songs and suffice to say this one just wasn’t one of those songs. It has a cute beat though. Or maybe it’s just the chibis that sway me to say so.

The opening itself is kind of underwhelming. Just overall generic. Show each character, show some daily life, show a super vague tease for plot, show an action sequence, jump into the sky, some more character shots, end with wind (<- this one I always like no matter how cliche it is, so we forgive it, ‘kay?). Normally I don’t mind generic openings, but this one was kind of all over the place visually and it didn’t stay on any one thing too long. Basically, it’s kind of rushed and when the frames are there in the beginning it’s cluttered too. :/

But there are things I like. Some shots I really like and those chibi’s moving to the beat are pretty cute. But yeah, that’s about it. It’s not often that I don’t adore an opening, but this is one of those rare times. That being said, I still don’t think I’ll often skip this when watching an episode. It does a pretty good job of capturing the mood for the series.

The ending is apparently going to be a cover of a song I’ve never heard of “Akazukin-chan Goyoujin” but we won’t see that until next week so no point in discussing it. Moving right along.

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Overview

The basic premise of Ookami-san is a bunch of characters who at a school who help other students with their problems. With various fairytale motifs thrown in…just because I guess. Who am I to complain when I love fairytales so?

Each of the characters apparently has their basis from a fairytale. So far I’ve only caught on to the titular Ookami Ryouko and Akai Ringo who are pretty obviously representing Red Riding Hood. Though with Ryouko being the wolf, I think it’s pretty clear the fairytale connection is really just for theme naming and maybe character designs. There’s also someone who is probably a witch, but I can’t tell if she’s supposed to be from anything specific. There seems to be an Urashima Tarou (named outright) thrown in there because anime is from Japan after all. But like always I feel odd when I see my own childhood stories mixed up with a very different culture’s, but I suppose people in Japan grow up hearing both so it’s natural to them.

Judging by this first episode, it seems the fairytale motif extends to the episodic story. I won’t spoil it for fellow fairytale lovers who haven’t watched the episode yet, because even though it’s fairly obvious here, it can still fun to go, “Ah! It’s ___!” But as a fairytale enthusiast I’m glad they chose a strong well-recognized one to start and that despite it being so blatantly obvious to start (the bike is where I kind or rolled my eyes and laughed at the same time) it does end with a humorous spin. This seems to be following the actual fairytale more closely, but since we have yet to learn anything about the characters I suppose it’s unfair to rule out that their respective tales somehow come into play.

Though I couldn’t guess what that shot from the opening that just screams “significant” has to do with Little Red Riding Hood, but whatever. Never rule anything out, not even in a light-hearted comedy. Or rather, especially in a light-hearted comedy when there’s a shot in the opening that all ominous and dark purple.

As far as actual story goes, the characters are all part of the Otogi Bank in their school which helps people. Having it be called a “Bank” confused me quite a bit when I was reading the premise, but it turns out they operate exactly like a bank. They help people and in return, that person will have to help them. Whether or not there is interest isn’t clear, but the narrator tries to make it sound mildly devious.

Which reminds me, yeah, there’s a narrator. And the characters are aware of it. How well fourth wall breaking depends on the person, but I found the jokes a little forced here. First episodes usually seem to go overboard establishing running jokes though, so I’ll let that go. I’m not too fond of comic narration as it is (unless it’s a snarky cast member) but here’s it’s useful for various reasons. Most obviously because it helps fit in with the fairytale motif. Also because it creates self-aware humor with less damage to the fourth wall, though there’s plenty of damage anyway…

It’s obviously going to be a show that runs on character humor (most comedies are) so judging how funny it is when I don’t even know most of their names is a little hard (introduce medio character please). I’ll say that it never made me laugh out right (giggling is an entirely different matter), but sometimes I like comedies just for their light-hearted nature and the ability to put a smile on my face where it’s working pretty well.

And a quick note on Art & Animation (since it’s J.C. Staff I shouldn’t have to say what to expect by now), the ToraDora-ness isn’t as present in the animation as it was in the promo shot. For the better I think. It has the best aspects of that design style without less of the downfalls. I hated side shots in ToraDora, the characters just looked ugly. Also the nose-less and flat faces, urgh. Anyway, it’s not a problem here which I really felt I had to mention.

So that’s basically a full-explanation on how the show works. To state the obvious, it’s going to be an episodic character-based comedy with some glimmer of plot shown for half a second in the opening.

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Ramblings

Now that I got all of that proper explanation/reviewing out of the way, onto the things I liked that have absolutely nothing to do with the actual merits of the show!

Oh my god Ryouko is so tsundere!

Oh my god Ringo is so deviously moe!

Oh my god Ryoushi is so pathetically adorable!

Also ohmygodshipping! Which honestly hasn’t really gotten me going yet, but totally will in the future! \o/

And bonus points for being able to use a dysfunctional image for a pairing. I love that so much more than I should. (Well, why not~ It’s fun~ )

Yeah, the ohmygod fangirling especially for Ryoushi though.

Cute and earnest, just the way I like my Miyu Irino characters!

I don’t know what’s up with me acting more like a female fan and fangirling over male characters as much as female ones lately. Not that anyone would know it with me doing all of it privately. Out of all the embarrassing stuff I say every time I write on this blog, for some reason going on about guys like my fellow fangirls is somehow what does me in. But I’ve been doing so much of it lately that I guess I totally hgave to own up to it. (I even bought merchandise. )

Seriously, Ryoushi is so pathetic in the best way possible. Here I’d say it owes a lot to seiyuu charm because even before I recently realized I can find anime boys cute (and dare I say…moe at times) Miyu-Miyu was my one weakness (Syaoran-kun~) Of course it’s totally helped along by Ryoushi’s peek-a-bangs too. Oh god that shot in the opening kills me every time I see it. So cute~! Ryousi-kun~! I’m going to totally kidnap him and stare at him all day. Because his freakouts are just so adorable too~ <3

Don’t worry Ryoushi-kun, Fuyu-neechan will take good care of you. Ufufufu~

A girl with a glare that pierces the fourth wall is quite impressive.

I also totally have a girl-crush on Ryouko. Mainly because I’ve seen an illustration from the light novels where she was downright hawt while still being super cute. She retains a bit of this in the anime, especially in the eyecatch. I guess it’s because of the uniform. Poor Ryouko may have insecurities about her lack of a bust, but her legs are nice enough to make up for it. And they also keep putting her in these really cool poses to show off her appeal. Every blogger is going to have the eyecatch as their top image so they can have their readers look at Ryouko’s sexy thighs.

…Yeah at this point I’m kind of resigned to being bisexual when it comes to anime.

Of course, the fact that she’s tsundere as well just opens up so many possibilities for the future. And oddly enough I’m happy to see a return to the violent tsundere. It’s been a really long time since I’ve seen one that my former irritation has turn into elation. I guess because going back a lot of tsundere I liked originally were the more straightforward kind who would just outright yell at a guy and possibly kick his ass. Basically Satsuki Yukino type tsunderes over Rie Kugimiya tsunderes. Though Shizuka Ito makes a fine tsundere here (Ayumi Fujimura is still my favorite though~).

But for that type it was always the guy that could handle the ass-whooping the girl I liked was paired with, so I’m a bit more conflicted about Ryouko picking on poor Ryoushi. Hopefully she goes easy on him. Beating up a defenseless guy is an easy way to suck the fun out of a ship.

At least I finally got my Kanae Ito “Jiii–-”

That leaves Ringo-chan I guess? I like her, but I feel like the devious loli character has lost some of its appeal for me since I’ve seen them used as an excuse for basic fanservice pandering so often. It’s not helped very much by the fact that I’m just not a fan of Kanae Ito’s loli voice. It really sounds unnatural. It’s adorable when she slips into it under emotional circumstances, but eh. I like Kanae-san’s more natural voice best. Of course, that totally wouldn’t fit here, so I’m really just complaining about nothing.

Ah, I counted her as one of my favorite parts of the show, but all I’m doing is speaking badly about her. Well, I mean Ringo-chan is my shipper on deck so I totally have to love her. It’s just that her character doesn’t have a lot to set her apart which is a small pet peeve of mine lately. Ryouko would suffer from it too if I wasn’t missing violent tsunderes and didn’t find her so…well yeah.

That brings me to the last factor that has me loving this anime in its one episode (excluding the fairy tale motif which I already spoke about in overview section). Which is of course obvious shipping! Since Working!! ended I really need a light-hearted comedy anime where I can get some shipping done. While the comedy is much weaker in this anime, and the ship will be of a mostly different type (still involves a phobia-inflicted character oddly enough), it’s totally going to get the job done.

Also I think this is the first time I’ve had a pairing where the guy confesses at the very beginning of the story. It’s pretty common for a girl to confess and get rejected in shoujo manga, so it’s nice to see it gender-flipped. And with Ryoushi’s confession being so adorably pathetic, it’s kind of hard not to root him on even if you don’t like Ryouko.

As I said, it’s also nice that Ryouko is such a classic tsundere. Ah~ It’s nice to know you have a tsundere in advance because then you’re already aware of how stubborn she can be. You can get some fangirling in just by using your imagination. Glad to see the OP helped us out there too.

Even if you haven’t watched it yet, you totally know what’s going to happen from here.

Yeah… I’m expecting to be very satisfied with this ship unless they overdo Ryouko’s tsun. I can never get tired of a good tsundere. What it really depends on is who they pair the tsundere with. I get tired of jerks and lobbying insults. Normally I like guys that can stand up to the tsundere, or even get the better of them. But it’s pretty rare to have a guy who is already open with his feelings. Usually tsun is a two way street. And Ryoushi’s shy too, so I can look forward to lots of blushing too, right? Ah~ My weakness~

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So I guess you can say one of my reasons for loving this series is all the potential I see for future entertainment. Much like the reason I was looking forward to it to start, sheer potential to be relevant to my interests. And this first episode is doing a good job reassuring me so I’ll remain optimistic!

However, despite how many points of interest this series has for me, I think I may love this series more than I would in another season because as I stated, this is the only one I really expect to like. I’m going to check out a couple of other things, but anyone who read my preview knows I’m pretty pessimistic in that area.

So yeah, right now it’s just this, Kaichou wa Maid-sama!, and Yumeiro Patissiere for me. Such a sad watchlist that I’m still holding out on one last Spring anime (why did I already marathon Durarara!! dammit!?).

I said on Twitter that this most recent episode of Angel Beats! was my favorite so far. True, but mainly in regards to the end. The humor was quite hit and miss for me, mainly on miss due to its repetitive nature and me not being a huge Yui fan. Up until we hit that certain point where the end is more than enough to make up for everything.

By this point, we’ve had the usual flood of “important/touching episode” blog posts and I’ve been stalling quite a bit with this post, so if you don’t know what happened yet I’ll be surprised. None the less. Spoilers will ensue. (All post images are clickable for source.)

Angel Beats! is a very different project for some of the Key staff. It’s referred to as mixed media, but most of us in this little blogosphere aren’t encountering much of the media besides the anime and the music. Maybe the manga by now. (I was reading it but then my internet cut out and I haven’t gotten back to it.)

But it still links up with a classic Key anime. We still have an obvious protagonist, sad background stories, a butt-monkey best friend, and moe all around (mostly concentrated on Kanade). Also baseball, gay jokes, and emotion-manipulating music. Naturally.

Angel Beats! is basically coming out as the compressed Jun Maeda/Key formula. They’ve got 12 episodes, a ton of characters, and goddammit they’re going to do their best to make you cry.

However, the most recent episode has what is really small logical deviation from the formula that just freakin’ blew me away. And to think it includes two of the most consistent roles from a Key VN.

Hinata is the best friend. The wingman. Butt-monkey extrodinaire! Complete with that BL ship-teasing I’ll never quite understand. (The target audience is moe-loving otaku, right? Right!?)

The only thing that sets Hinata apart is that he’s got a bit of a backbone.

Yui is definitely that hyper-active obnoxious girl (loli optional). The one that’s a favorite in Japan all along, but the Western fandom will warm up to after their horribly tragic bawww-fest comes out. You know, Makoto, Fuuko, and judging from her popularity in Japan, likely Kud from Little Busters! too.

As far as Fuuko being hated throughout Clannad, blame that on her reappearing after her beautifully sad story ended. In ridiculous ways that kind of negate the emotion. (For me personally, it’s just that I really dislike Ai Nonoka’s voice.)

Now my own opinion on Yui, obviously was that I didn’t even consider her much. I don’t think she was mentioned in my last post at all. I did, however, love her character design (gimme a Na-Ga drawing of her please). Like usual with these characters, I was prone to being annoyed with her, but I didn’t dislike her. I just put her in the usual category and expected to be blown away later.

And blown away I was. Because this is where Jun Maeda noticeably takes advantage of Angel Beats! being free from the constrictions of a VN. We have a side character romance here guys! And an adorable side character romance at that.

It would have been a complete surprise for me, had someone not spoiled it on Twitter. After watching the episode, and after I stopped my crying (the first tears Angel Beats! has gotten out of me so far), I remember seeing people who shipped Sunohara and Tomoyo during Clannad and remembering how I ridiculed them in my head due to the nature of its source material.

That’s what kind of makes it brilliantly wonderful. Because the main key fanbase is conditioned to not expect it. The wingman never gets a girl! He’s just the buttmonkey to be used for insulting and to beat up. Because that’s how a visual novel works. You’re playing as a protagonist, what’s the point of hooking up your best friend with another girl? You want those moemoe eyes looking at you!

But this isn’t a game. Every character is just a character with no alternative motives in mind from the writer. So, like with any other story without a harem, you can have another couple. Every girl doesn’t have to be shoe-horned in with one guy. Different personalities can meet their true complement~

Or something like that.

I’m probably more affected by it because I always have my shipping goggles on. Looking back now, there are totally hints for it. But I just write this stuff off as the usual shenanigans, there to make us laugh.

So yeah, I’m totally ecstatic over Hinata x Yui (where are my AMVs people!?). Just like everyone else. I mean have you seen how many pictures there are on pixiv? I’ll give you a hint, the fanart cluttering up this post doesn’t even cover 1/20 of it. It’s really the simplest, sweet stories that hit us the hardest sometimes.

To put this simply, this story is going to go down as one of my favorite Key stories of all time. Explaining Yui’s hyperactivity, rather than letting it just be Rule of Moe; Having Hinata give the best love confession speech of all time (seriously, Hinata is now my second favorite character because that was just too sweet ) combining it with a marriage proposal (one of my weaknesses~); Making it bittersweet and thus all the more memorable; and just the fact that it makes perfect sense, but I still didn’t expect it.

I’ve been enjoying Angel Beats! all along, but this is more certainly proof that I love it. People have been complaining and debating back and forth on whether it’s good, but I don’t care. I’ve been enjoying it and a move like this is enough to make it memorable forever. And that’s all I need, I haven’t quoted my forgotten blog motto in a while, but if I like it, it’s good and that’s all I need. Simple as that.

And I really, really like this.

I’m sorry that I didn’t discuss the actual scene that I loved so much, but that’s really something you have to see to understand, right?

When I go for the straight-forward title you can tell it’s not going to be one of my better posts. But as a fan of Key adaptations (I can’t say “Key” full and clear since I’m not much a VN gamer), I really feel a pull to absolutely comment on the current anime original project no matter what. Not least of all because it’s one of my favorites of the season and is sure to be a favorite for the whole year.

Spoilers are going to ensue for all of the released episodes. Because you totally can’t talk about any Key anime that’s made decent plot progression without spoilers.

This is going to be a pretty divided post, because I just kept jotting stuff down. It’s already been put off for like two weeks so at this point I just wanted to get it out.

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To start I would say the most surprising thing about this anime is that there’s not really one girl I absolutely adore. Then again, there wasn’t really one in Kanon or Air either so I don’t know why I’m too surprised. Another then again, the cast of girls in this anime is surprisingly limited. Only three really have gotten fleshed out so far and only two of those remain.

I suppose Yurippe is the closest thing I have to a favorite~ I base this one two facts. She’s actually the abuser in all of the Key-style comedy as opposed to the main guy. I always loved that role and the comedy it causes. And this abuser it a cute girl. So…better. Better in every possible way.

I’m guessing that her being my favorite is why it still irks me when I see the Haruhi comparisons. Those comparisons aren’t exactly unfounded, but since they began well before the anime based on a hairstyle and a pose I’m allowed to be irked. I don’t like that Haruhi is allowed to dominate that look when Yurippe makes it so much cuter.

Unless Na-Ga draws Haruhi, it’s futile to argue with me.

But I like Yurippe because she acts like she’s willing to sacrifice her subordinates when rule of funny comes into play, but in reality, it really causes her a lot of pain. Even when they can all regenerate without a scratch.

Oh and she’s damn awesome. I love seeing her fights with Tenshi(s). Given what little we know about her past it seems to come out of flippin’ nowhere, but whatever. It’s cool.

But yeah, despite all of this rambling that sounds like my usual love-rant it’s not near favorite girl status of some from the past. Then again I only have two favorite girls in Key anyway (Nagisa and Rin), so it’s more like something I’ve exaggerated even to myself that I absolutely have to love a Key girl. Still, Yurippe would probably be my third favorite.

So Yuri is my favorite…but that brings us to Kanade, everyone else’s favorite girl of the season. Erm…

…Yup. Everyone is totally going to hate me.

I’m a little indifferent to her to be honest. *cringe*

No flying bricks? Ah~ the wonderful force-delayed reactions of blogging!

Basically, to me Kanade feels more like a prop or a plot piece than an actual character and in that way, she is very compelling. I love the story which she is an integral part of.

I guess my moe barriers got stronger while I was away because by all accounts I should totally love Kanade. But that’s sort of the thing. Her character basically seems to be made up of “feel sorry” and “love me” events right now. It’s pretty sloppy for a Key character to be honest. I know non-fans complain about how Key “manipulates” emotions, but they do tend to make you really get to know a character first.

It’s a great weakness of the seemingly emotionless girl. Though even fans of this sort of character tend to admit that the best part of these characters is when they show their true emotions. The same basic principle behind why tsundere always remains popular and supported by the fact that at least 1/4 of Kanade fanart I see is her smiling or crying her eyes out in a way we haven’t seen yet.

Of course, I also have my “emotionless moe” girl which may not be as defeated as I thought. It just has a Yucchi-exemption clause written in. Or maybe I enjoy these characters as side characters exclusively. My appreciation for them is directly proportionate to how much I see them on screen.

I’m fully expecting to warm up to her substantially by the end. The lack of development and information on Kanade is already showing signs of changing and there’s still time to develop a character. And one as important as her is probably getting held back for dramatics.

Good thing death is so cheap in this anime, T_T would’ve abounded.

Of course, since episode 7, I started feeling much warmer to her. The way she has to protect her brand new friends, previous enemies, is just so awww-dorable. The end of episode 8 just opens up all sorts of possibilities too. The horrible possibilities of losing the pure-pure-ness of Kanade to evil-Tenshi is just so horrible. By the way, Evil-Tenshi gets my approval for being such a stark contrast. She’s so delightfully evil.

But I wanted to say all of this regardless because it’s how I felt, mainly based on the fact that I couldn’t notice anyone else saying it. Not that I’ve been looking very hard. Vast improvements in Tenshi love have been made by avoiding any lovebombs concerning her. It’s hard though, you guys are freakin’ Tenshi-love snipers.

Other characters vary. Otonashi is okay, but he seems kind of bland too. I guess I’ve grown too accustomed to the snark of his predecessors so he just doesn’t measure up to me. Him being the only sane man is pretty good too for comedy though I suppose (plus it opens up Yuri for ultimate abusing). The other characters seem to do their job for comedy, but don’t really leave much of an impression.

The only other one I feel worth mentioning is Iwasawa, who was really only around for a couple of episodes. Three in fact. I think he story really left an impression. A lot of that emotion that KyoAni can stretch out to five or so episodes to get across all in one. Of course part of that may be that everything leaves more of an impact with music. Everything.

Surely this is the sort of trap the SSS should use to guard the Guild.

Oh plus there’s Yusa who has really done nothing…except bounce emotionless to rock, trip some guy, be cute, and most important be voiced by Yui Makino. Yucchi exemption clause at work! Though that’s also the side character thing coming into play I suppose. Soall of her random little five-second scenes just get to be adorable or humorous, worth a little giggle.

Surely these sorts of characters are most effective when they just pop in and out. One scene wonders on a slightly bigger scale.

I oddly find myself really liking Naoi for absolutely no reason I can think of. I’m serious, I’m at a complete loss, even though he’s probably my second favorite character. Every so often I get this feeling that it may be some sort of thing but then I decide to never ever mention it because I can’t put it into words without it coming out wrong. And by wording it so ambiguously I’m going to lead to even more misunderstandings.

It’s probably the voice. Megumi Ogata is absolutely the best female seiyuu for male characters and beats a lot of male seiyuu for me. Plus it’s fun to see a serious character going all silly. One episode he’s viciously killing people, the next he’s all deredere for Otonashi.

Episode 06Episode 07 (AKA…VERY NEXT ONE)

I suppose it’s also just insanely hilarious when you realize that by standard Key male lead operating procedure, Naoi is only one of two characters helped by Otonashi and thus added to his harem. (One could argue for Yuri and Iwasawa with them telling their stories, but 1/4 is less funny than 1/2)

Of course Key only seems to encourage this line of thinking since Clannad. I wonder if they’re on a secret mission to get rid of all manly pretenses after becoming such a big source for manly tears. Or maybe they’re just taking the Gundam route to expand their fanbase.

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One thing I have to admit as Angel Beats! strongest weakness is that it makes the main fault in Key anime adaptations so clear. See…Key is a company that makes visual novels. Bishoujo Visual Novels. So naturally, while they write beautiful tragic stories, these stories are all about girls. Therefore, their stories for guys totally suck in comparison. Suck as in, less thought put into them and not nearly as much horror.

Yurippe’s backstory versus Hinata’s is the most extreme example, but it hold true in all of the cases we’ve seen so far. Otonashi’s is pretty damn sad, but in that case it’s his poor little sister who’s used as the tragedy sacrifice. Which reminds me…why does this anime have it out for little sisters?

It’s not a real problem when it just comes to adaptations. It’s the nature of what they wrote it for after all. It’s just really noticeable here.

On the other hand after thinking about it I can’t help but feel like the requirement for ending up in that world they’re living in isn’t a horrible life, but more some sort of complex. Either involved self-loathing or just a general feeling of unfinished business. Basically just people who aren’t at peace. I think the main evidence for that would be Yuri and Naoi who both have self-loathing and inadequacy issues, and it would clear up why Hinata’s otherwise tame story makes it in. Plus the claim that people who commit suicide don’t go there because they’ve accepted death is pretty obvious I suppose. There’s other stuff that fits in too. (Ahaha~ I had this all well thought out in my head, but I got lazy when it came to writing it.)

Of course, even with these conditions the girls still get the worst of it. Especially Yurippe. That story is seriously close to being the most horrible, traumatic backstory I’ve ever seen in anime…or just ever. Partially because of how young she and her sisters were and because of how senseless it was. I thought it might end up with her dying, but no she ends up dying in a completely unrelated incident we don’t know about yet, proving it’s just there to be absolutely and completely horrible.

Helluva Haruhi Rip-Off, eh?

But, horrifying girl-abuse aside, I really do love the story. It’s a pretty unique backdrop. It feels different from other works we’ve seen, but still oh-so-Key. The action is pretty obvious in this respect since I can’t exactly recall much of that in Kanon, Air, and Clannad…because it wasn’t there. Even from what I know of Little Busters! I know there isn’t this much action in it. It’s still not a whole lot of action, but you could totally get away with listing action in the genres.

Also I mentioned how even when I feel like Kanade is mainly there to make the plot move (which even though I’m growing to genuinely like her, still seems kind of true with the whole evil-Tenshi thing), she is a really compelling plot device. Not some cheap little doll to throw around…or something.

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Anyway, I really am loving this anime. Of course, no one could have expected anything less. It’s totally made me a fan of P.A. Works and I’m totally campaigning for them to take care of the Little Busters! adaptation. KyoAni can keep it up with their moemoe 4-koma since everyone else loves that so much anyway. (Or I’d like to say… The Full Metal Panic! novels are ending really soon and I’d really like to see that finished too…)

A few other random things I want to mention!

• The Girls Dead Monster music is pretty good and the animation surrounding the band scenes is completely awesome.
• Otonashi’s little sister was Nagisa! It’d be funny if it was just the voice, but it’s seriously the whole deal. From being sick all the way to dying in winter. With a connection to Christmas too. Sheesh, I’m worried about how good Mai Nakahara is getting at dying.
• Key staff really, really has a thing for baseball.
• Key also has a thing for making Hikaru Midorikawa play eccentrically srs bsns characters.
• Like I mentioned, Key also has yet another inexplicable thing for super gay situations (literally gay) considering their main fanbase. It’s all for lulz so I totally love it though. XD In five years time they’ll come out with a BL game. (Watch out, it’s the times when I’m half-joking that I turn out to be right.)

So that’s it for now. Don’t be surprised if I manage to knock out a couple more posts even with only five more episodes left. Though I can’t promise that because I am totally behind in blogging and just doing what interests me at the time anyway (meaning I’ll only fall further behind). So just as likely, next time you hear from me may just be when the series ends.

The Simplicity preview for all animated adventures from Japan that debut sometime in June through August. Or at least the ones I have some interest in. I do at least list all the TV series I know of, but the OVA’s and movies still get screwed.

So how do I feel about this upcoming season? Meh. It’s a solstice season as opposed to an equinox, so it’s only expected. I only have four anime I’m doing a full preview on and I’m a little less than enthusiastic about those too. Luckily there’s a little bit more in OVA’s and movies for me. Just a little bit though, especially considering how short they’ll be.

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Same format. Now with a Table of Contents!

• New Series
  • Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi
  • Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin
  • Amagami SS
  • Shukufuku no Campanella
• OVA’s & Movies
  • BLACK★ROCK SHOOTER
  • Ginmaku Hetalia Axis Powers Paint It, White
  • HiyoKoi
  • Kyou, Koi wo Hajimemasu
• Leftovers

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New Series

All-new anime airing this season.

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Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi

Adaptation: Light Novels by Masashi Okita
Studio: J.C. Staff
Airdate: 07/01
Episodes: ?
Website: http://www.otogi-bank.com/
(ANN) (Wikipedia) (MAL)

Seiyuu: Shizuka Itou, Miyu Irino, Kanae Ito, Aki Toyosaki, Ayako Kawasumi, Hirofumi Nojima, Kimiko Koyama, Shintaro Asanuma, Yui Horie

Videos: show

Ookami Ryoko (the titles Ookami-san) is a spunky high school girl. She is a member of a “fixer” club, so-called Otogi High School Bank. She fixes the school’s problems with her partner Akai Ringo (Akazukin-chan). Love comedy x fairytale parodies ensue.

Love Comedy = relevant to my interests. Fairytale parody = relevant to my interests. Combine the two and…well you get the point. Actually, I was already pretty sure I was going to watch this based on a few things before I ever saw the summary. J.C. Staff’s batting average since they stopped making Zero no Tsukaima anime, seiyuu, and the trailer. Especially the trailer, I like the feeling it gives.

Chances of Watching: Best pick for this season I’d say. The trailer makes me cautiously optimistic.

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Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin

Adaptation: Original (Anime no Chikara)
Studio: A-1 Pictures
Airdate: 07/05
Episodes: 13
Website: http://www.occult-gakuin.jp/
(ANN) (Wikipedia) (MAL)

Seiyuu: Yōko Hikasa, Takahiro Mizushima, Ayahi Takagaki, Hiroki Takahashi, Kana Hanazawa, Minori Chihara, Takehito Koyasu

Videos: show

Apparently it follows supernatural cases around a fortress-like academy, with a side of comedy to its horror/mystery! (<- The most detailed summary I can find on any site I go.)

Uh…this is summer where I just pick up anything that looks like it won’t suck. So, I’m not sure I have any real reasoning to watch this, but I guess I can try. It looks like it’s going to be a mystery and that’s pretty interesting, plus I like giving original works a chance for the very reason that you don’t know what to expect. It’s just too bad Anime no Chikara hasn’t really had any major hits yet and I can’t speak from personal experience because the anime released has only been while I’ve been on hiatus.

Chances of Watching: Meh, fifty-fifty.

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Amagami SS

Adaptation: PS2 game by Enterbrain
Studio: AIC
Airdate: 07/01
Episodes: ?
Website: http://www.tbs.co.jp/anime/amagami/
(ANN) (Wikipedia) (MAL)

Seiyuu: Tomoaki Maeno, Hiromi Konno, Kaori Nazuka, Rina Satou, Ryoko Shintani, Shizuka Itou, Yukana

Videos: show

A second-year high school boy finds himself uneasy during Christmas time because of a past experience. However, this Christmas is his last chance to ask out the graduating senior, Haruka Morishima! Or one of several other classmates.

Why do Playstation dating sims always look so boring? Still, I’m going to give this a chance because it’s better than all of the strings attached to an eroge which inevitably lead to fanservice.

Chances of Watching: If it’s not boring, sure…

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Shukufuku no Campanella

Adaptation: Eroge by Windmill
Studio: AIC
Airdate: 07/02
Episodes: 12
Website: http://www.mmv.co.jp/special/campanella/
(ANN) (Wikipedia) (MAL)

Seiyuu: Asami Imai, Kaori Mizuhashi, Kimiko Koyama, Mai Kadowaki, Nobuhiko Okamoto

Videos: show

Ert’Aria is in the middle of preparations for their harvest festival, every seven years, the harvest of the mysterious energy source, Eru is more abundant than usual. Leicester Maycraft is a young item technician who lives in the city as part of the Oasis adventurers clan. On the “Day of Shooting Stars,” one shooting star lands near a party that Leicester attends. When Leicester searches for where the shooting star landed, a girl appears before Leicester and says, “You are my Papa!”

Eru jokes…so hard to resist.

Anyway, this is going to suck.  But I always try one thing that looks like it’s going to suck. Usually the one with the cutest girls. And this one’s got that. Too bad I can’t say much about the seiyuu cast. Except, oh hey Nobuhiko Okamoto. I’ve enjoyed his roles in literally everything I’ve seen with him in it. Time to break the perfect batting average!

Chances of Watching: Not good.

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OVAs, Movies, & Etc.

Releases outside of Television.

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BLACK★ROCK SHOOTER

Format: OAV
Adaptation: Art Similar to Miku -> Vocaloid PV(s) -> This
Related Anime: N/A
Studio: Ordet
Release Date: 07/24
Website: http://www.blackrockshooter.jp/
(ANN) (Wikipedia) (MAL)

Seiyuu: Kana Hanazawa, Miyuki Sawashiro

Videos: show

See PVs. Basically…I think… Note: NOT a “Vocaloid Anime” …Mostly.

I’m not sure what to say except that, everyone loves Black Rock Shooter, and I’m no exception. I’m not much of a Vocaloid fan, but I know all the biggest songs and PVs so I definitely know (and love) the song, PV, and character that is inspiring this anime. Of course, since the Pilot Edition came out, I’ve been even more excited because it looks totally epic. Agh, I can’t wait so come out already.

Chances of Watching: I mostly used the thoughts section to ramble a bit, but yeah, Guaranteed.

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Ginmaku Hetalia Axis Powers Paint It, White

Adaptation: Webcomic by Hidekaz Himaruya
Related Series: Hetalia Axis Powers, Hetalia Axis Powers World Series
Format: Film
Studio: Studio DEEN
Release Date: 06/05
Website: http://hetalia.com/movie/
(ANN) (Wikipedia) (MAL)

Seiyuu: Please don’t make me list them all.

Videos: show

Countries made into bishies (and arbitrarily girls too) doing stuff that sometimes resemble historical events. Made into a movie!

Like many, I am totally oblivious to how this will work out. However, I have little to no uncertainties about how much I’ll enjoy it. There hasn’t been an episode yet of Hetalia that hasn’t made me laugh out loud and I usually let the stockpile until I have about a full anime episode’s worth to watch anyway. So increasing it to 60 minutes isn’t as extreme for me as it may be for others.

Chances of Watching: Guaranteed…when it’s available.

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HiyoKoi

Format: Film
Adaptation: Manga by Moe Yukimura
Related Anime: N/A
Studio: ???
Release Date: 07/30
Website: Nothing specific…so here’s a cute game!
(ANN) (Wikipedia) (MAL)

Seiyuu: Unknown

Videos: None

Hiyori is a very small fifteen-year-old girl who is extremely shy thanks to missing school for a whole year after an accident. Now that she’s back in school, how will she manage? Can she find friends…and maybe even more…with a really tall guy? XD (Manga Summary)

Shoujo film? Seriously? Oh~ A film shown at Ribon events. That makes a little more sense. Anyway…

OHMYGOSHSOCUTE!!!! After seeing this, I immediately ran off to read the manga. It’s so cute~ As expected of a Ribon manga! I’m such a sucker for the “girl misses school, comes back with no social skills” stories. Shy girls who do their best to make friends are just so…gah so cuter~ This one is pretty refreshing because no one is bullying Hiyori, they actually appreciate how insanely adorable she is! Ah~ So small…so cute~! (From here I’ll just further devolve into incoherent fangirling, so we’ll stop.)

Chances of Watching: Guaranteed. When/If it comes out in a format I can watch.

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Kyou, Koi wo Hajimemasu

Format: OAD
Adaptation: Manga by Minami Kanan
Related Anime: N/A
Studio: J.C. Staff
Release Date: 06/25
Website: http://www.sho-comi.com/sakuhin/kyokoi.html
(ANN) (Wikipedia) (MAL)

Seiyuu: Kanae Itou, Daisuke Namikawa

Videos: None

Despite Tsubaki Hibino’s talent in styling other people’s hair, she isn’t comfortable with doing the same for herself. On her first day of high school, her delinquent classmates look down on her for her old-fashioned taste. When teased by the top student, Kyouta, she defiantly cuts his hair. Interested in her actions, Kyouta decides to make her his target. (Manga Summary)

…I know what people are thinking. It’s shoujo. I have to watch it. Normally I would agree, but this is shoujo from Sho-Comi. Totally different ballgame. See, we don’t get along. I mostly like Hana to Yume, LaLa, Ribon, Nakayoshi, but I’m always willing to look into others. Sho-Comi is different. Plus the summary is so cliche and already a little “Argh!”-inducing itself. And I already have a distaste for the manga-ka after another manga I had the displeasure of reading. But…it’s still shoujo. So I guess I’ll check out the manga first. At some point. Maybe.

Also…why is J.C. Staff suddenly jumping back on the shoujo train? Not that I’m complaining or anything…

EDIT: Okay, so I read it and I was about to say it was okay-ish, but then I wanted to start by saying “It treats rape like it’s actually a bad thing!” This of course lead to the headdesk moment when I remembered that meant rape was a plot point. You go into these things with this stereotypical view and isn’t it just astounding when it perfectly matches up? But yeah, it’s not getting a pass just because it’s less insulting than others, especially when it has other various annoyances too.

EDIT #2: But…I don’t want this to be Kanae Ito’s next shoujo role. Make her Haine from ShinKuro if you have to make her a stupid heroine! (Ooo~ Actually that’d be pretty good… in the distant day that will never come.)

Chances of Watching: Still might on shojo justification. Don’t really know.

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Leftovers

The TV series I’m not interested in.

.hack//Link – I remember watching .hack//sign years ago. I remember almost nothing about it because it was so boring. And since then there’s somehow been like 5+ other series/OVAs or something all by Bee Train. I have now cited three reasons why I won’t be watching this.

Asobi ni Iku yo! – Someone needs to make it illegal for fanservice shows to have cute titles. It’s always so disappointing when you click the link. Leave exclamation points to moe slice of life and shoujo!

Digimon: Xros Wars – How does one go about pronouncing Xros I wonder…is it like Xylophone?

Gakuen Mokushiroku: High School of the Dead – Was maybe going to check this out, but the trailer changed my mind. Extended panty shot in the trailer will always tells you where the priorities lie.

Kuroshitsuji II – Didn’t watch the first season because it wasn’t my thing, so same thing applies.

Mitsudomoe – Hey! Lolis torturing someone older than them! Surely we’ve never seen this before!

Nurarihyon no Mago – Plot sounds too generic for me. If I hear good things I might check it out.

Osaka Hamlet – Not really interested anyway, but since I can’t see the site, I’ll never know for sure.

Seitokai Yakuindomo – How many “only guy on a student council of girls” anime do we need?

Sekirei ~Pure Engagement~ – Wasn’t this supposed to air last season? Or am I just accidentally adding another to the randomly long delayed list from that season. Either way, goodness no.

Sengoku Basara Two – Another sequel to something that isn’t really my thing.

Shiki – Didn’t care enough to look anything up.

Sock Monkey Loves You – I thought of two things when I read this title.

Stitch! ~Zutto Saikou no Tomodachi~ – Nuuu, again!? DX My favorite post-Renaissance Disney movie is being whored out more than The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin combined. (Just proof, Adaptation Decay goes in both directions.)

Strike Witches 2 – Doesn’t summer always feel like it’s dominated by fanservice? Anyway, I didn’t finish the last series because I decided to prioritize. Boys can have this one, I know they want it.

The Legend of the Legendary Heroes – Hello redundancy. I’d blame it on an awkward translation, but it sounds just as odd in Japanese,”Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu” Seriously? That oddness aside, it doesn’t seem bad or anything. If I drop something else I might give it a look.

Tono to Issho – What the…?

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Sources

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. Some additional info from MangaUpdates.

As a warning, if my resource was wrong, then I’m wrong. But I try my best to collect information I believe is correct. Though I’m always wary of series getting dropped off the list, so unless they have an actual date, caution is somewhat advised.

I would give you the source of the adorable summery fanart of Kanade and Yui, but alas I cannot find it.

As always, when information changes or becomes available, this post will change accordingly…when I get to it.

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Thoughts

Not a heck of a lot to say. For me personally Spring was enough to bring back my enthusiasm for anime. So this season is looking rather bleak as a follow up. I got pretty lucky in Spring though. Even though Iron Man and Black Rock Shooter disappeared from the lineup there were still two series that perfectly fit my interests. Plus a few nice surprises.

Like I said before though, I’m quite looking forward to Ookami-san. Not for the same reason as most, since I’m one of the few who wasn’t that into ToraDora! (I watched it all and liked it well enough but it apparently just didn’t hit me that way it hits other people). Plus, I always hated that instant connection people make between anime based on promotional materials. Sometimes I’m guilty of it too, but I try to keep it to one joke or ignore it entirely. I definitely don’t take similar art into consideration when deciding what I’ll watch. That’s silly. I only do that with my manga!

Like the past few seasons, this one has a movie or two and that has me lost in despair again. Oh the sad life of a foreign anime fan. Oh well, it’s summer blockbuster season, so it’s not like I don’t have plenty of movies to see in my own country.

Haven’t really finished the anime I wanted to by the time I wrote a post, but I want to keep some sort of momentum going. Otherwise we end up with my triumphant return post and then nothing for another three months. This would, of course, be hilarious, but not really what I want.

Basically this should be a familiar mish-mash post on anime and anything else I happen to be thinking or planning (hey look new theme and banner!). Plus all those “but”s I didn’t want to include in my return post need to go somewhere after all. Oh, also addressing that, yeah, stuff happened while I was gone.

So, more for my own benefit, I want to go over what I’ve gathered has happened in the blogosphere while I was gone. Feel free to fill in any blanks I’ve missed. Skip between the chibis if you don’t want to read what you already know.

I was already fading when that Otaku Elimination Game came into existence and that’s probably when I went “later suckers” because of how ridiculous that whole thing seemed. Basically just some otaku grudge against Danny Choo that got all caught up in word semantics. It just seemed silly to me since the majority of the blogosphere isn’t in to all of that otaku hobby stuff, but rather just into watching anime. Of course that whole thing wasn’t for me (woo! totally managed to stay under the radar for that one!) and upon finding out how super serious they were about their otaku pride I basically went “ew” and stopped looking for drama unfold.

What can I say? Creepy otaku guys are…well, creepy. Blah, blah, blah, disclaimer that not all otaku are bad people or anything, but the stereotypical ones (who totally exist) are not the top of guys I would personally hang out with. Thank goodness I’m a girl and have the alternative of fangirl…despite all those bad connotations being on the rise again as well. Curse you Stephenie Meyer and your extreme fangirl cult! (Shit, see I just used it as an insult too!)

So…(off-topic rambling feels so good~)…Then this Aniblog Tourney thing popped up after which I’d support much more. Due to it being more relevant since every anime blogger is by definition an anime blogger. Rather than a devout followed of Choo-ism or whatever the Hell that stuff was about. (I still have no idea.)

Ah, this is fun~ Usually I pretend like the blogosphere doesn’t exist. You know, because I’m an introverted bitch.

Anyway, success 2.0 at avoiding that because my blog was dead. My hit count for the blog has dropped oh so much since I, well, stopped blogging (shocking). Well, it first dropped when I blogged erratically and stopped blogging Shugo Chara!. Clearly, I’m just going to have to find another cash cow shoujo series in this next year to produce a new legion of obnoxious fangirls to command.

That is if the tournament is still around. I seem to remember a certain Anime Blog Awards that was before my time that somehow never existed during my time. Mysterious…

Yeah, and since I’ve already heard some rumblings of drama in the tournament, I’ll just go back to pretending like I don’t care about the aniblogosphere.

*blog-tsun~*

And Xiao Jie started up 2010’s SoMT! If I’d been around I would have gone all over board, full-length pimping post for it, but nuuu…I just had to go to school. (The tone in my head is totally inappropriate since I have no one to blame but myself for being a space case.) Come to think of it I was pretty much absent for the end of the 2009 tournament too… I suck.

Now what happened in my little world? Absolutely nothing! Seriously, just school. So let’s just get down to business.

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Anime Watchlist

Caught Up

Angel Beats!
Kaichou wa Maid-sama!
Mayoi Neko Overrun
B Gata H Kei

Catching Up / Still Finishing

Kobato.
Bakemonogatari
Yumeiro Patissiere
Working!!
Hime Chen! Otogi Chikku Idol Lilpri

I feel so much shame from this list. I will justify that two of the shows I’m caught up with I’m only caught up on because I download avi files to watch in bed at night (I lurve my new PS3, even if I have yet to buy a game for it). Everything else I care about more, so I’m downloading mkv files. As for the stuff that’s finished airing that I still need to finish…I do that every season. I have to watch the stuff that’s currently airing because my mind is totally programmed like that.

However, I’m planning on writing posts on just about all of these currently airing anime and why I’m watching them. But more on that in a little bit.

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Blogging Plans

I’m totally not messing with my schedule page until the Summer season. So in the meantime, here’s the listing of posts I’m thinking of doing.

Kaichou wa Maid-sama! Post
Angel Beats! Post
Article (No title, it’s a surprise)
Why I’m Watching Things I Should Hate (B Gata H Kei, Mayoi Neko Overrun, Working!!, Hime Chen)
More Articles

And that’s about how it should work out for a while. Yeah, I’m totally through with episodic blogging right now. Way too much structure.

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New Theme

Yeah, fyi, I’m totally not doing exclusive posts for banner changes anymore. I basically just used them to boost my post count anyway so they really served no purpose except patting myself on the back. XD I’ll probably still acknowledge theme changes though, because that’s just too extreme to ignore. But I won’t likely be changing them up that often anyway.

Right now I just have the one banner rather than a rotation and I might stick to doing things like that for a while. It basically just depends on how many banners I feel like making to be honest.

So right now it’s just the Angel Beats! one I made quickly just so I would have something. By the way, I totally love having a Key series again to fill all my image needs. Angel Beats! will be appearing in just about any post I write that isn’t exclusive to another series. XD

I’m also going to be fiddling with the theme some more. The background is too dark and I may want to poke at the coding a bit more since this theme is a teeny bit messy. So don’t be alarmed if the blog explodes when you switch pages. It’s supposed to do that. Sorta.

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What’s Different

So I mentioned how I have a lot of “but”s in my last post. To be honest though, it’s quite simple. I’m into anime again, but nowhere near the level I used to be. Especially in regards to collective hoarding. I still have this obsessive need to buy stuff, but it’s not really as anime-related. It’s totally all about Disney Snowglobes. (It does three different things you guys!)

I would say that it is mostly about my money priorities shifting, but that’s not true. I just don’t like collecting merchandise as much. My money is being redirected into manga instead with my one exception being nendoroids (they’re so chibi).

This one please.

I’ll make exceptions when I go to anime conventions in the future.

Which reminds me, I’m probably not going to NYAF this year.  I really can’t afford the collective $600 right now without any Yucchi presence to justify it. I wasn’t even able to make it to my closest convention, Anime Boston, because it felt like a waste when I wasn’t into anime. Right now the only certain convention for me is Another Anime Convention up in New Hampshire. A smaller convention, but much more convenient. Plus the mall in Nashua totally has a Chick-fil-A and I haven’t been there since my brother graduated.

I mentioned this already, but I’m totally done with episodic blogging. I need real fangirl power and dedication behind a series like that and I just don’t think I have that anymore. Not with the episodics I did. My god how did you people read those things? XD Kaichou wa Maid-sama! could possibly be worth them, but I don’t know.

It would be a little sadder if I hadn’t been failing pretty badly at episodic blogging for a while before my hiatus anyway. But you can bet that when something makes me “kyaa” enough, it’ll get a post. Unless I totally lose the enthusiasm before I get the time to blog.

I’ve also lost all drive to watch anime without subs and possibly to make any real effort to learn Japanese. The first one is just so I can enjoy it more. Sure I get spoiled on twitter all the time (oh my god, it’s so dangerous after Angel Beats! comes out ), but full understanding is essential for optimum enjoyment. And there’s really not that many anime I would watch twice in a row. Just two really. But I’d still rather watch them with optimum enjoyment to start.

As far as the “any real effort to learn Japanese” goes…I’m held back by a few things. Number 1, light novels (and manga to some degree), I love my novels, but the English publications just aren’t happening (except Bungaku Shoujo which I’m psyched for in July!). The other one is that I want to read tweets and blogs from my favorite seiyuu and manga-ka.

But those are silly reasons to learn Japanese. Clearly when I enter the world of Public Relations I should join a company that deals with Japan to give myself some justification.

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So there you go, Simplicity is official officially back in business now. Coincidentally, I’m back with time still left to spam the latest Key anime’s images on her blog to the point of abuse.

I held back fairly decently this time though, didn’t I? More chibi-abuse than anything. Also room for Popura~ <3 (Or is it Poplar? Someone make up their minds! & why is Mahiru hogging all the poster love!? )

I guess at some point a girl has to stop pretending she’s all cynical and a pessimist (oh excuse me “realist”) when it’s just not in her nature. She may have these small parts of my brain that lean toward these stupid traits (even though they are quite small, they get loud when fandoms get frustrating). For I can deny it no longer! Once I love something with enough passion, I’m totally going to love it for life.

So it was just a matter of time before I was pulled back into Simplicity. Even if it is kicking and screaming! In a fangirl fit. As it should be.

Perhaps to “blame” is my extreme susceptibility to nostalgia. Anyone who follows my personal twitter account is probably learning (if they didn’t already know from vague references here and there) that I am absolutely in love with Disney Animated Movies. As most of you who are around my age also grew up during the “Disney Renaissance” I’m sure you can at least somewhat understand where I’m coming from. It defined my tastes in characters, stories, genres, voice actors, music, and my overriding love of animation in general.

Animation > Everything Else

No exceptions.

(Except for Iron Man)

That statement obviously makes use of the anime/manga-inclusion rule.

You could say, I’m more of an “animation fan” in general with anime and Disney being my personal tastes. And within that I skew toward the heart-warming and sentimental with a certain weakness for AWESOME as well (see Iron Man exception). Then again, anyone who doesn’t appreciate AWESOME-ness is…something bad. (Sorry, I’m creatively weak due to these months without blogging)

But I find that I tend to look much more favorably on things I already know in love. As you get older it’s only natural. Your tastes become more refined (or constrictive if you’re being cynical) and you have less room to introduce love in your heart for these new-fangled things those rascally kids today are into.

I know I’ve seen others say it, but I’ll add to it. The decline of the perceived quality anime industry might be owed to the personal perception of people who are growing up rather than just moe and fanservice pandering. Though there is plenty of that too.

Though, I don’t really see why my nostalgic tastes should be a problem. Nostalgia is rampant in the anime fandom. While I’ve been blogging Itazura na Kiss got an anime as did Hanasakeru Seishounen, Full Metal Alchemist got a remake, Macross got another series, and of course InuYasha got a conclusion which lead to some personal fangirl triumph for me. If you even know what the means (I’m not sure myself).

Then just off the top of my head there have been animated tributes to the series of manga-ka like CLAMP and Rumiko Takahashi. Anime can totally fit in with my love of nostalgia. Since it already does.

Even without series-specific nostalgia, taking a break has allowed me to enjoy a lot more about anime than before. When I come back with a post on what I’ve watched the catch up you might find me saying positive things about stuff I downright hate…d. (Oh I’m not kidding myself I’ll hate them again in the future.)

I think my nostalgic tendencies also account for why I love childish shoujo so much over more mature titles. It’s a familiar and comfortable feeling. One of the things that adds to that wonderfully vague “fluffy” feeling that they generate that I just absolutely adore.

I remember just a couple of years ago I wondered how older fans could watch cutesy mahou shoujo with absolutely no interest in shipping (Come on! I mean srsly?) even though at the time I would start such anime with no intent of shipping (it just happens). Now I get it though. It’s just enjoying the pure-hearted cuteness of it. How I or anyone else can possibly enjoy it eludes me, but I do. I really, really do.

As we grow up, we split into two factions, those who enjoy ridiculing their childhood loves and those who just embrace them (and I guess those in the middle if you really need those shades of gray). I’m the latter more idealistic and optimistic sort of girl, as much as I might try to fight it.

But those who fight against their childhood and past embarrassing fan moments are taking part in a futile effort. Everything you’ve watched and enjoyed probably contributed a bit to your current tastes in entertainment. I’m sure I’m not the only anime fan who can wistfully think, “If I never watched that horrible Sailor Moon dub on Saturday mornings…”

Sure, we all went through the phase when we were too cool for Sailor Moon, but I know most of us would totally want that new dub Funimation keeps hinting they’d like to do, at least to show the next generation of anime fans. Plus you can’t be an anime fan without having a little respect for the moon princess. There are so few anime that everyone knows and must have seen at least a clip of. (Sadly, as the next generation is coming up I think that’s fading away. )

And that’s the point. No matter how far I may stray from what I once loved, I’ll always love it when I’m reminded of it. And yes, I’ll love it with almost the same ferocity I once did.

After all, it just took was one viewing of the first episode of the Kaichou wa Maid-sama! anime and I found myself stifling giggles and screams all over again. And I immediately dove into all of the anime I was stockpiling for after my final. (Ah, my poor English final, please don’t suffer too much for this post.)

Despite all these geeky confessions I’m getting to today, I would love to say that it’s not the same as it was before and pretend like I’ve grown up and “matured.” If I were to look at it a certain way, it even is a little different because not everything I once squee’d over can get me right now and as much. But you can’t love everything 100% 24/7 and I already knew that. So you know what? Yeah, it’s exactly the same. Dorky and excitable as ever.

Someday I’ll have a bunch of old boxes out and those horrible cranky teenage kids I’ll have in the future will find me giggling like a maniac over old shoujo manga. I can only hope that it’s a day their friends come home with them for maximum damage.

Is it immature and embarrassing? Sure. But I wouldn’t change that for anything in the world. If I like something enough to make audible noise, then surely I must be enjoying myself. A lot. And who could really ask for more?

There are a lot of “but”s I would add in here, but I wouldn’t dare finish this post that stands as a tribute to optimism, nostalgia, and all things giggle-inducing with those. Basically the point is that I’m back …with eight days until my next anniversary (seriously not doing anything for that).

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.