Kuuki no Puraido

Japan, Europe and Thermae Romae

2012-02-08T15:41:00.000+01:00

First, sorry for the sudden disappearance, since I started to work, life obviously decided it was just the right moment to start throwing things at me, now it's calmed down a bit (until the next time at least), I can blog again!

Second, today's subject is Thermae Romae, as a French who's studied Latin and (reluctantly) roman history as well, I had to watch it. If only because, for once, the title is proper Latin (unlike Madoka, because yeah the full title was supposed to be "Latin").
Truth is, I really like seeing anime set in Europe, no matter it's a fictional Europe (like in Gosick for example) or a real one (like in Ikoku Meiro no Croisée, to a certain extent), because I find it incredibly interesting to see the representations Japanese have of my continent.

Thermae Romae is a bit special in that aspect.

First, its subject is a theme common to both Roman and Japanese cultures, mainly, baths, and I can only admire the researches that have been made to accurately present the differences between them.

Second, as you probably noticed, the animation style is special. Want to know where it comes from? Then, let's take a look at Alix, hero of a French comic set in Ancient Rome.

Now look at Lucius :

See the similarity?

But these two points are not what make Thermae Romae that special, the thing that striked me when compared to other Europe-inspired anime is that it is always implied that Japan is superior, at least when it comes to baths.

Lucius says it at every episode.

Every episode has Lucius improving Roman baths with Japanese inventions.

From an historical point of view, that isn't true, I am pretty sure that at the time of Ancient Rome, Japanese culture of baths wasn't near as technologically advanced as Rome's.

And so, not only did I find Thermae Romae somewhat funny, but also sociologically interesting because for once, an Europe-inspired anime didn't cater to exotism but to nationalism to attract viewers.

The fan and his sleeping habits

2012-01-25T13:30:00.000+01:00

Actually, strangely enough, this idea came to me in one of my insomnia streak. How do the regular anime fan sleeps? How do the anime blogger sleeps? And more importantly, do they even sleep?

So I got curious and thought I'd ask you.

I'm probably pretty special, I'm an early riser, thankfully, I sleep longer now it's winter but expect me to be awake by 8 a.m. everyday (in summer it's 6, not kidding) as such I go to bed pretty early. Or I try to, because obviously sometimes, insomnia (or cafeine) strikes in my system.

What do I do during these terrible times? I blog, mostly. It's strange how inspiration is much stronger in the middle of the night or in early morning.

Lately, in a normal day my schedule is as such, study in the morning, work after 2p.m., add the time to do various little chores like cooking, I usually go to sleep around 11p.m. The rest is all anime. Or at least dedicated to the internet. Unless I find something more interesting outside, or someone brings me a book, but you can do a whole lot of things on the internet, really.

I think that it's a question of balance, how to balance work and/or studies along with real life various obligations, other hobbies, sleep and anime. I don't really have an advice on the subject, since, as I said, I'm a bit special in my sleeping habits and would rather go to bed at 9p.m. and wake up willingly at 5 a.m. the next morning to study (I did it regulary in school)

Guess the only thing I have to say is, just like Kurisu, I think couch naps are the best!

Now, do tell me, how do you sleep? Do you nap? Was your sleep affected by anime and/or blogging and/or the internet?

Kuuki's anime shocks Weekly #1

2012-01-22T16:52:00.001+01:00

Hello and welcome to the first edition of Kuuki's anime shocks Weekly!
Am just going to share the things that shocked me during this week.

First and above all, I started a job! It kinda killed my anime drive a bit but I should manage enough energy to follow what I decided to follow, and, let's face it, I need a new laptop. Dotachin has lived a good life but he's way past the expiration date.

Anyway!

- I gave in and started Aquarion Evol. I don't really like it, what I like is that it keeps on making me think dirty, and that for once it's not even my brain acting up but the anime that's like that.
Best of it all? There's stuff to think about for everyone!

- Guilty Crown got cliché again.
But I got Daryl in glasses. Daryl who's totally blocked inside that Gate thing of sort. Because of people that are supposed to be his allies. Daryl who really might be Gai's brother.

- Hiroaki Hirata finally appeared in Another. His character looks like Tiger&Bunny's Yuri Petrov. Minus the glasses.

- Oh and the more it goes the more I think I'll remember Persona 4 as a mediocre anime.

Being a fujoshi #3 - A dictionary

2012-01-19T13:39:00.001+01:00

And another article in the series, mostly prompted because Nopy said he wanted to put up a Guide to Anime and there's nothing I know better than fujoshi terms.
I have voluntarily left out some rather questionnable fanfiction terms that I'm pretty sure you don't want to even imagine the meaning of, but of course if anyone ever comes accross a word he/she thinks fit for the list please comment and I'll add it. The list is meant for change and no matter how much I review it (and ask fujoshi friends to review it) there's no other word we could think of.

Have fun reading? I guess.

- Boy's Love or BL (also called shonen-ai) : Story revolving around two (or more) boys falling in love. It may be used to define the genre as a whole but it's usually for sweet and cute love stories.

- Doujinshi : Self published work by Japanese artists. In the context, more often than not, it's a drawn story of characters from various popular (and not so popular) series, not always explicit but that's usually the main point of the "story".

- Fanart : Just like its name suggest, it's art of series created by fans, again, but without story, just an illustration (but I guess you know that already)

- Fanfiction : Stories based on a series written by fans. Can be explicit or not, can be serious or not, can be a crossover between different series, basically, there's many kind of fanfictions.

- Homoge : Games in which the main goal is to make two men come together. Like an eroge, except with two men. Most popular series are from Nitro+Chiral and, believe it or not, some of those have great stories (Togainu no Chi before the anime for example ^^) (Though you shouldn't really look at some of the game CGs, trust me on that)

- Pairing : A pairing is basically a couple. It's mostly used in the context of fanmade stuff but technically it can be any couple. Not always an homosexual one either. (Because fujoshi can do yuri and hentai too)

- Seme : I have no idea how to define this in a tasteful way, it's used to define the dominant one in a sexual homosexual relationship, the one who tops?

- Ship : See Pairing

- Shonen-ai : See Boy's Love

- Uke : The exact contrary of the seme, the one on the receiving end of anal sex.

- Yaoi : It's the general term used to define the genre revolving around homosexual relationships. Usually more on the sexual part of things.

[1st episode] Thermae Romae

2012-01-14T13:02:00.001+01:00

Here comes the first other Noitamina show of the season (BRS comes later), and, I can't say I can complain. (I could complain on Guilty Crown and laugh madly saying "MWAHAHA I knew it" but I won't bother)

Thermae Romae, is, like its name tells you, if, obviously you know latin better than the people who titled Madoka, an anime about baths in Ancient Rome. Except main character travels through time and often end up in modern japanese baths. Magical!

As you can see, the animation and character design could be caracterized as experimental or at least unusual. Unless you're familiar with European comics because that's totally the style we're used to (Again, remember I'm French)
Well, while it's not exactly what I'd call pretty it's at least interesting to see.

The characters are pretty normal, nothing to really note.
The plot is pretty much non existent, poor main character just get transported in modern Japan and comes back with new ideas to built new baths, which is used for comical relief.

And that works. That totally works and it's hilarious. And rather accurate aside from the obvious. Which lets me say that if you ever have the occasion go visit a roman bath, these guys were geniuses and it's incredibly big, and awesome.

[1st episode] Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou

2012-01-12T19:59:00.000+01:00

First and only new Sunrise anime I'm giving a chance to this season, I don't even think they're broadcasting anything else are they? Not that I mind because they do lots of shit among their god-tier anime.

Anyway, Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou is, just like its name hint, if you understand a bit of Japanese, an anime about the daily lives of high school boys.

As you can see, again, the character design isn't exactly pretty. But Bakuman taught me character design and art aren't the most important things in gag manga. Which I agree with, if something is funny you don't even look at the characters.

Except I don't mind looking at pretty things you know, as such, prettier designs would have been great.

Another thing that bugged me is that this literally screamed Gintama. Everywhere. At every second.

The only seiyuu who isn't in Gintama doesn't even have a very distinctive voice (Sorry Irino Miyu, you're good at what you do)

The composer is also the writer of Gintama's music.

And the director is also Gintama's.

So, I hope it'll break free from the Gintama influence. I love Gintama, don't make me wrong, but, I'd rather watch the real thing than a knock off without swords and aliens.

All in all and despite all I complained about I really enjoyed myself, contrary to Gintama, the episode was constructed in a succession of shorts. No boredom, more possibilities to change the settings to create funny jokes, Kuuki is happy. And Kuuki laughed. She doesn't laughed very often.

And the introduction was hilarious. Absolultely hilarious.

There's something else that works very well in favor of this anime and it's the nostalgia factor, and they probably know it. A few of my male friends were exactly like the guys in the anime and the memories make me smile.

[1st episode] Another

2012-01-11T17:29:00.000+01:00

When you realize you've nearly watched all the shows you wanted to watch for the new season and the only thought you have in your mind is : "Already? But it feels like I've watched only two shows", you know it's time for you to get your head checked. I mean, my MAL currently watching list is at 35. And there are still new stuff I want to watch.
At this point, I can't seriously go into a withdrawal syndrom can I?

Anyway, back on tracks, what's Another? Well, it's another anime (didn't see that one coming did you?), an horror anime about a girl who's apparently a ghost and a class full of creepy people who might really be all dead considering how creepy they are. Didn't catch much about the general storyline from that first episode but they did tell the story of Misaki Mei, the probably-ghost-girl, guess we'll follow the adventures of outsider-kun (noticed how it's always an outsider who creates trouble?) as he uncovers the truth behind that story.

I guess I shall start by the only thing that really bothered me, mainly, the character design. If it's an horror anime it would have beneficied from a character design a bit more unusual, less big eyes, more creepy. See the main protagonist? If the picture was a little clearer she'd look like she came straight out of a moe anime.
Thankfully the really dark atmosphere of the anime makes up for the character design.

Some people mentionned the lack of character depth and their non-reaction to things, but I didn't see it. I guess that's something I'll have to see on the long run but so far the characters seems fine to me. Except maybe for outsider-kun but I don't even expect anything from main male protagonists anymore so ...

There are probably a lot of bad things to comment on, I didn't notice them.

To be honest I went out of these 20 something minutes screaming for more. (Well, minus the OP, I really don't like it). So far, this anime has everything I love. I really, really hope it'll keep up because if it goes on with such a creepy atmosphere and intriguing settings, it'll become one of my favorite anime of all time real quick.

In any case, even if by chance it'd end up bad, there's a limit to what you can do in 12 episodes in terms of mystery and horror, I won't drop it before I get to hear Hiroaki Hirata King of Fried Rice.
I am just hoping he won't voice a villain because there's no way I'll take him seriously.

In short : GO WATCH THIS!

[1st episode] Brave 10

2012-01-08T18:09:00.001+01:00

And another one of the show I've been dying to see. Which, as most shows you die to see, kinda isn't what you expected.

So, Brave 10 is yet again another samurai show, telling the story of the warlord Sanada Yukimura and his 10 greater soldiers. Or so I assumed, given the title and the timeline and such.
I actually have no idea what's happening aside that a poor samurai whose name I forgot is dragged into a miko's affair (since the poor girl is obviously chased by the evil people) and they're both dragged in old man Sanada's little plot too.

As we already have established, the plot isn't the strong point of the anime, as cliché as possible.
Which could be nice, really, after all, it's hard to go past the cliché stuff in a Sengoku anime, except that, seriously, even that Sengoku Time Paradox thing was better done than that. And it had more boobs than this.

The strong point of this anime should have been the cast. It's like a dream cast for every (girl) seiyuu fan out there. Except, you know what, while I like Ono Daisuke, I can't really handle him talking this much.
We, sadly, haven't heard many other people talk but I did like Sanada's voice, and, I was greatly amused by the fact the girl is voiced by the same seiyuu who voiced Sakuma in Azazel. Not that any of you has watched Azazel but Sakuma's damn badass.

The BGM was annoying, I can deal with music not fitting the atmosphere and all, but this is too much, please, not that much electric guitars in my Sengoku anime.
As usual, the OP and the ED sucked.

To be fair it has, for me at least, a few redeeming points.
- It's pretty. And no, I don't only mean it has pretty boys, the backgrounds were pretty too.
- Sanada Yukimura is fucking sexy. Being a bearded old man and all. (<-- new found fetish)
- Talking about fetishes, it had a bondage scene. Yeah, that too.

Wait and see as they say, I don't follow many anime this season I can give a chance to a few stuff I don't particulary like. And it's my anime date with Teap. I can't drop it.

On the other hand, if you thought about maybe give it a chance, watch Sengoku Basara instead. It may not have much plot either aside from the very cliché "let's beat everyone and especially the bad guys down to a pulp" but at least it's funny.

[1st episode] Nisemonogatari

2012-01-07T20:59:00.001+01:00

You have no idea how much I was waiting for this. Finally something I want to watch!
Granted, there already was Natsume Yuujinchou but it's a continuation, not the same.

So, the first one of this season is Nisemonogatari, I don't even know how to summarize this so I'll abstain. (And wish good luck to everyone who'll try)

What to say about Nisemonogatari, well, first, the same old SHAFT atmosphere is there, with more budget than Bakemonogatari and I couldn't stop hearing Itoshiki Nozomu (but that's because Kamiya Hiroshi)
Visually, it's exactly as I expected to be, maybe a bit too bright.

As for the story, I have to admit I was a bit surprised, I expected the thing to go fully toward the sisters route, but it still focused on Araragi and the other Bakemonogatari girls.
Hachikuji somehow became cuter and wiser since I last saw her.
Senjougahara on the other hand managed to become a psycho since I last saw her.
The first thing I could think about when I started the episode? : OMG BONDAGE.

The next one? Senjougahara really has strange fetishes.

I think I might need help.

In the end, I still don't know what it's going to be about, but I don't mind, I know I'll enjoy it.
If I had one complain to make it'd be that : WHERE'S MY DANCING ED??!

Happy New Year! (and 200th post o_O)

2012-01-01T16:48:00.001+01:00

Have been waiting for everyone to be in 2012 before making my post because, obviously, timezones are a pain, but HAPPY NEW YEAR GUYS! I wish you lots of happiness and good anime!

And, since the gods of timing are with me, it's also my 200th post so, let's look back?

What the hell did happen in 2011 in my anime world?

- My Durarara!! obsession died.
- It's been replaced by an anime I didn't even like at first.
- The rest of the year, my entire brain has been dominated by ... Tiger&Bunny! (Just in case you didn't notice XD)

- That being said, it makes me even more thankful for this blog because it really, REALLY helped balancing things out, since, when I start obsession over something I really go all out. Having an anime blog on the side forces me to focus on something else.
- I embraced my creepy otaku side. And I said "otaku", not "fujoshi", I've been apparently lost to the dark side for a long, looong time.
- I met lots of great people!
- Hell, one of them even asked me to write on his blog.
- There has been a lot of good shows, as busy as I was obsessing over Tiger&Bunny, even I noticed.
- Had a very good New Years Eve and New Years Day. No, really, nothing beats spending peaceful times with your family and flailing with your friends over how good your favorite show is (I'm sorry for everyone I harassed over Twitter ^^), listenning to your favorite radio show (obviously in Japanese, you have no idea how much my ears are ringing whenever I heard "chara song album") and watching the New Years special of that show you love.
- And, last but not least, even though I'm pretty sure I am forgetting something, SANDY BEACH, SANDY BEACH~

Then, what's going to change in 2012?

- I already have more things planned for 2012 when it has just started than in the entirety of 2011, so, probably less time to blog and watch anime.
- The bi-weekly "Kuuki's crazy anime watchlist corner" is out. Because it's boring to write and makes me lazy. Instead you'll get a weekly highlight kind of thing. Maybe.
- Nothing else is going to change, I'll keep up what I've been doing and hope to make many more friends in the process!

Lastly and once again, happy New Year! It's technically a Christmas picture but Yamaguchi Hoshiko said she wanted to see what kind of photograph I make so ...

The end-of-season blues

2011-12-29T14:26:00.000+01:00

I don't know for you but I always, always, hate the end of an anime season. It doesn't even need to be a good season but for some reason I always find it really depressing and, even if I'm not doing episodic reviews, I find it hard to write.

You see Mio? That's my state currently, and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone because the whole blogosphere (or at least the blogs I subscribe to) are in the same state.

I'm positive most people are busy with hollidays and such and that's why a lot of people are silent but, I, I do nothing for Christmas, for me it's just a day like any other.

I wanted to use the opportunity to have a few articles ready in case I'm hit by a writer's block, but nope, all I did on Christmas Eve is play an online otoge my anime date kindly provided so I wouldn't feel lonely (first time ever I'm playing an otoge, it's so ridiculous it becomes interesting) and write ... fanfics.

I can't even watch anime, all I painfully manage is to watch one or two episodes per day, when I know I won't have this much free time in a long time.

All I want now is for the next season to start, so I can feel excited about something. And hopefully find more inspiration to write.

12 Days of Christmas - Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T22:56:00.000+01:00

I have successfully completed the challenge! *applauses*

That being said, it was indeed challenging but, even if some posts were really short, also a good lesson that I am still able to find a different subject to talk about everyday.

In the end, it's still a bit early but we're mostly celebratin Christmas Eve at my place (and it's already the 25 in some countries anyway, yeah, I love timezones only when it's convenient) I wanted to wish you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Have cute mascots to celebrate! (I admit the second has nothing to do with anime but I find these ads hilarious. And French.)

12 days of Christmas - The fandom Events

2011-12-23T16:45:00.000+01:00

If there's one thing I have realized on my journey in the anime-verse, it's the importance of the fandom, I'm not going to say it's always a happy and welcoming place (No.6 fujoshi fandom I'm looking at you!) but I can't help but appreciate to see so many different people coming together in one place doing one thing.

2011 was really fun in terms of fandom events.
First came Nopy's my History with anime project which helped me discover quite a few interesting anime blogs that I still follow to this day.
Next came Kidd's Ani-bloggers Choice Anime Award which has been quite a challenge to take part to but also very interesting.

And I won't even start on all the numerous Tiger&Bunny related projects I was crazy enough to join and sometimes made me feel like an hopeless creepy otaku (you know, the kind that celebrates a character's birthday by taking pictures of food in front of a picture of said character, yeah I did that) and not even regret it.
That being said, the last event was to design a Christmas memorial pin in Tiger&Bunny's style. Which I did. Obviously.

12 days of Christmas - Tiger&Bunny

2011-12-22T16:31:00.000+01:00

You probably wondered when the hell I'll start talking about my favorite anime of the year, and probably favorite anime for a long, long time and this time is now! So, have a whole post entirely dedicated to this wonderful anime that is Tiger&Bunny.

I've been under the impression I was a little bit alone in my endless spazzing over this in the anime blogosphere, and I can understand that. I didn't want to start watching it either. Not everyone can like what I like and I have to admit the first few episodes are rather dull when compared to what's next.

However, what's next is wonderful. I already said it but it can't hurt to say it again, I stopped counting how many times I cried and laughed at that. How many theories I made. How many people I met. How surprised I was by the performances of the seiyuu, by the quality of the writing and by how realistic they all felt.

It's the kind of anime that grows on you before you even realize it and in the end, you don't regret it the slightest bit.

12 Days of Christmas - Kalafina

2011-12-21T18:17:00.000+01:00

I love music in general, however, it seems I have rather peculiar tastes and it really is incredible for me to like an OP or an ED or an insert song or well, J-music.

Which is why I was incredibly surprised when I came accross Kalafina. They quickly became one of my favorite band ever, I love the diversity of their songs, the music and their voices.
2011 was the year of the release of their new album After Eden.

12 days of Christmas - Steins;Gate

2011-12-20T16:23:00.000+01:00

Seems like these 12 days of Christmas will end up covering all of my favorite anime of the years. Hey, that's an easy topic, what else would you expect? It's been quite long since I forced myself to write daily blog posts after all.

So yeah, as you may suppose I loved Steins;Gate, after all, it did rank second in my ACAA post and it'll probably stay one of my favorite anime of all time and Okarin one of the most awesome character I have ever come accross. Now, unfortunately I have already talked about Steins;Gate in length. Several times. And I don't really know what more to add aside that the simple fact it's awesome and you should watch it.

For nostalgia (yeah already) sake, have the OP! (Well hopefully it won't stay nostalgia that much longer because of that planned movie, it's just wishful thinking though, god knows when it'll be out. As long as it does come out I won't mind the wait!)

12 Days of Christmas - Tohoku Earthquake

2011-12-19T18:49:00.000+01:00

Of course you all remember the Great Tohoku Earthquake and the tsunami that followed and spread over all Asia back in March 11th.
And, as much as I'd like to personnally offer my sympathy to people who lost a loved one I can't, and saying it here won't achieve anything, so, what I wanted to focus on and express my admiration for what the community did to help.

HERE is a book put together by mostly French artists and sold for charity. The LJ fandom community put together auctions. Good Smile released a special Nendoroid.

12 days of Christmas - Natsume Yuujinchou

2011-12-18T17:16:00.001+01:00

Guess that one of my favorite anime ever has a place in this 12 days of Christmas series that can't even be called a series since there's no sign of continuity.
Maybe next year I'll actually plan things before starting and have a vague idea of where I'm going instead of making things up as I go.

Anyway, the reason why Natsume has a place here is because its third season aired this year and that the fourth one is starting next season. It's rare for an anime to do well enough to have 4 seasons, even rarer to have enough material to make these 4 seasons, especially considering the manga chapters are released every two months. (Now please make me a fourth of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei too!)

I'm having an additional reason as to why Natsume Yuujinchou should be highlighted in this period of the year, it's sweet. Sweet, adorable and heartwarming. Isn't it well needed?

12 Days of Christmas - Being a fujoshi #2 - The joys

2011-12-17T16:47:00.002+01:00

I'm pretty sure you've all wondered at some point what the hell was so great about being a fujoshi (a decent one, because, well, every group of people has its idiots, thankfully I now know how to avoid them) so I'll tell you what I find great about it.

As usual, my opinions are mine alone, and the usual warnings apply etc etc.

- The love : Believe it or not but the fujoshi world is overflowing with love, well, that's kind of the point, after all it's not called boy's love for nothing. But that's not exactly the path where I want to go, what I really wanted to say is that most of my anime friends are fujoshi, were fujoshi, even before I went down the same path, you want to know why? Because we like the same things. It may seems shallow and it obviously doesn't always work that easily but, making a friend in the fujoshi world is easy. It goes like "OMG you like that too?" "Yes I love it, let's be friends!" and from there it develops quite easily compared to what I experienced before.

- The fanwork : It's emulating and inspiring being in the middle of people who writes or draws constantly.

- The porn : Well, obviously XD No, more seriously, when you're a girl who loves porn in the first place, it's really hard to find people who are able to accept it without judging you. You don't usually casually bring up in a conversation the last porn videos you have watched right? At least, not with everyone. That's the same, when you're among fujoshi you know it's ok to talk about those things.

- The acceptance : While there are general disagreements since different human beings have different opinions I think I can safely say the community is generally pretty accepting. Where you come from, what you do, what kind of sexuality you have or anything doesn't matter, you are who you are and that's OK.

After all, it'd be a shame if we started to judge each other, we're already prejudiced enough as it is.

12 days of Christmas - This blog's holliday spirit

2011-12-16T15:58:00.000+01:00

While Wordpress snows, Blogger doesn't (not that I mind since, after all, most of the time you don't even see the snow on Wordpress blogs since most of them are white)
That being said, changing banners is something one should do from time to time. Coincidentally, I like doing that, which is why, I thought I should change it in the course of these 12 days of Christmas thing, it's supposed to accompany us on the way to Christmas right? Changing a blog theme to fit the hollidays does accompany you to Christmas right? So, what's better than a Christmas themed anime banner?

Right, nothing.

As such, say hello to Sky High and "John"! (Original drawing by That Japanese fanartist)

How would your favorite characters spend Christmas?

2011-12-15T13:48:00.000+01:00

New edition of the 12 days of Christmas that might end up being more or less than 12 because I don't know how my inspiration will follow me and more importantly, IF it will follow me through 12 days, or more.
Oh well, let's enjoy it while it lasts.
I was genuinely not going to do actually that many Christmas themed post but I don't seem to be able to escape it so, today's topic is going to ask you to be a little imaginative, I'll be taking my top 6 shows of my ACAA post, try to imagine how their characters would spend Christmas and would love it if you shared your opinions with me!

Working!! : Yamada would insist on spending it with her "family", cry when her wish was crushed by Takanashi, be comforted by the girls who would find it's a good idea, the manager will join because Christmas = food, Satou would join because Todoroki, Takanashi would finally accept because Taneshima, Souma can never miss any occasion to find more blackmail material, and then they'll celebrate together after the closure of the restaurant!
And I think it would be adorable.

Level E : I can totally expect Baka Ouji to bring a carnivorous Christmas tree to Earth. And then going all "But I thought you celebrated Christmas with trees" with his innocent eyes.
"WE DO BUT NOT WITH CARNIVOROUS ONES"
Something like that.

Fate/Zero : Iskandar would bring on himself to invite everyone to celebrate, it'll end up exactly like last week episode, they'd all argue and try to kill each other.

Natsume Yuujinchou : His friends would invite Natsume but he'd feel bad about leaving the Fujiwara alone but they'd tell him to go so he would, or he'd invite everyone at home.
I don't think I have ever read a Christmas Natsume chapter, nor a New Year one. I want to, it'd be cute.

Steins;Gate : I am firmly convinced Okarin would start by planning a little party with the labs member but would end up inviting everyone he meets (or nearly) the lab would quickly become too small and they'd end up at Feyris' place because of course Daru would want to go there anyway.

Tiger&Bunny : Since of course Bunny doesn't like Christmas, Kotetsu would want to help him forget and since he of course would want to see his daughter at least for Christmas he'd bring Bunny forcefully back home with him.
And of course before leaving Nathan would insist on throwing a big party with everyone, obviously disrupted because they can't party properly.
Or they'd have to take part in a HeroTV special. Or both.

Well, as obviously these are only my headcanons, you're free to disagree. But I had fun writing them and that's all that matters. (The fanfic writer that hasn't written fanfics in 6 months is talking ^^)

12 days of Christmas - The re-start of Gintama

2011-12-14T16:43:00.000+01:00

As of when this will be posted Gintama hasn't any Christmas episode for this year yet, however, it has provided its fair share of Christmas episodes as it went on for 4 years before re-starting earlier in 2011.

In the beginning of 2011, when I heard it would come back after a few years hiatus, I hurried to catch up on the 150 episodes I had to catch up on. Gintama is special to me, Gintama is one of the first anime I have downloaded back in the days it was only 100 episodes long, for some reasons (read : the team translated from English subtitles to French and it was just bad translation) I stopped watching halfway, always telling myself I'll continue at some point. (Read : when my English level would be sufficient to accurately follow the jokes. Now I can even somehow, maybe, follow some of them in Japanese, it was about time I pick it up again)

And thus I finished the first season before the start of the second. And, so far, that second season hasn't disappointed the slightest bit.

All I can say now is that I'm eagerly waiting for Gintama's Christmas episode, as it is always hilarious. And I'm recommending it to you. While the jokes may be sometimes trash, while the tone might sometimes be serious, a friend of mine told me she wanted to become like Gin and I think there are much worse heroes than him in the world.

Children, don't celebrate Christmas that way at home though!

12 Days of Christmas - The Blogging World

2011-12-13T16:13:00.000+01:00

I am jumping on the bandwagon and thought I'd be doing this kind of meme thing named 12 Days of Christmas, in which I'm basically listing 12 thing pertaining to anime that I want to remember.

The first one definitely have to be YOU. Yes, YOU, YOU who're reading this lame corner of the internet (not that you're very numerous but that makes you all the more precious to me)

And even if you're not reading this I love you anyway. Because even if we're all different and have different tastes when it comes to specifcs we all love the same thing in the end. We all enjoy talking about it. We all enjoy reading about it and discussing about it and a lot of different and wide subjects more or less related to anime.

This year has been quite important for me in terms of blogging as I have finally found readers (I say it everytime I touch on the topic but I suck so bad at promoting it's not even funny) and the kind of blog I want to have, as well as blogs I like to read and other authors I like to interact with.
It has felt like a new beginning, in more ways than one, in real life too, when I'm asked to reflect on the year spent I realize that, for me, nothing big happened, just an accumulation of small steps and I think that it makes it, as a whole, even more amazing.

So yeah thanks for being awesome everyone! Thanks for taking the time to read, thanks for taking the time to comment and thanks for keeping on updating your blogs, please continue!

Ani Bloggers Choice Anime Awards

2011-12-12T18:12:00.000+01:00

How can I resist joining a project hosted by someone who calls me his favourite fujoshi, there's no way I can right? I urge you all to go check Kidd's AniBloggers Choice Anime Award post for further informations on how to join and to just do it! (He said I was his favorite fujoshi after all, KYAAA *cough*)
And this is why I present you with my own list of 12 anime, movies and OVAs that marked, for me, the year 2011. Probably ranked. Or not. It's always pretty hard to rank things.

Damn do I have the feeling I'll be quite alone in some of my choices.

12) KamiNomi II (Spring)
Because this is probably the only harem anime I genuinely like. I don't usually like the genre and get bored pretty soon. It didn't happen. Not only that but the second season was much more enjoyable than the first.

11) Mawaru Penguindrum (Summer)
Only reason as to why it is so low in the ranking is that it's not finished, and, knowing the kind of anime it is, it can take a turn to have a disappointing ending pretty quickly. Even the risk exists, at least it was a very fun ride.

10) Usagi Drop (Summer)
Heartwarming and adorable piece of fluffy feelings. And realistic. And pretty.

09) Yondemasu yo Azazel-san (Spring)
I think more people should give a chance to that very short (one episode is only 10 minute) anime, it's totally nuts, crazy and over the top in every way (and a bit trash too, considering the favorite "food" of one of the main character).
Nyorin~

08) Hellsing Ultimate 8 (Summer)
It did something very difficult, making me cry for the death of a character. At least one character dies per episode you think I'd be used to it by now but nope, that one was horrible. Beautiful in a very sick way, but horrible. (Yes that's the only thing I remember about the episode, I'm not even ashamed of it. At all.)
And, since I'm talking about it, every character voiced by a seiyuu I really like die in that series. I'm glad he lasted that long.

07) Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica (Winter)
Because I didn't think they'd dare to behead Mami. And because Kyubey is adorable. And because I really liked the story and the visuals and the music. (I didn't quite like Madoka the character but that's another story)

06) Level E (Winter)
That was hilarious. I love trolls. Especially alien trolls.

05) Working 2 (Spring)
This is the only reason you need :

04) Fate/Zero (Fall)
That's, for me, the second great surprise of the year. I'm not a fan of Fate/Stay Night. Not at all, so I didn't even consider watching this until I heard Yuki Kajiura was doing the music, and then I saw the first episode.
And I think I completely fell in love at the whole Sakura in the insect pool scene.
Anyway, I'm enjoying myself immensely while watching every episode and I just love the characters.

03) Natsume Yuujinchou San (Summer)
It's Natsume. It's adorable, peaceful and it has yokai.

02) Steins;Gate (Spring)
It took me off guard a bit too, it's something I heard about quite some times before it aired, so, as usual, I was a bit wary of the hype and expected nothing out of it, especially since I did see Chaos;Head before and thus assumed Steins;Gate had the same crazy themes and thus would be as hard to animate.
I was wrong, I'm glad I was wrong. Steins;Gate was amazing, I understood what they were talking about (since I'm not a scientist I'm sometimes lost, especially when it concerns time travel), I wasn't bored, even when re-doing the same days over and over, I loved the characters, felt sorry for them, supported them, didn't want them to die, wanted them to be happy. I loved the plot, I loved the surprises, the plot-twists, the romance. Everything.

01) Tiger&Bunny (Spring)
That is the first surprise of the list, I found no other interest in the first episode than the main character, I honestly thought the whole thing would be boring, hell, I wouldn't even be the slightest bit interested if Narita Ryogho didn't mention he was watching it on his Twitter. (Shallow, yes I know, though I can't really help to feel like I might be interested in something the guy who wrote Durarara!! likes ^^)
I expected some generic super hero show and it's exactly what I didn't get.
In the end I don't think I have cried more at any other show but this one, because I didn't relate to any characters more than I related to these two. (Crap, I outed myself as screwed up)
That's, I guess, part of the reason why I love it so much and obsess over it so much, but even speaking objectively the characters are really well written and realistically well written. Hell, even the seiyuu surprised me, upon seeing one of the main character was voiced by Morita Masakazu I sighed, thinking said character would be another fighting maniac without depth, I was wrong. Everyone else too was perfectly spot on and it showed me once again how perfect Tsuda Kenjiro is. If I had one complain to voice it'd be about the predictability of the story (because I honestly don't care much about the quality of the animation and saw worse anyway). But even with a predictable story it caught me in, and you had to actually think to predict it, I don't care much anymore at this point anyway, pretty much everything is predictable. (And I was wrong, I thought someone would die)
Still, the end of the series actually feel like a closure even if it's not, it leaves room for more thoughts and they keep on adding more depth to the universe. It's almost like an interactive story and I think it's great.
(Should probably stop before I write a novel about why I liked that anime ^^)

Winter 2012 - What will I watch?

2011-12-09T17:28:00.000+01:00

Suddenly I realized Un-Go was already at its Ninth episode and that in two weeks it'll be already finished. Where did my Fall go? (Granted, it doesn't feel like Winter at all yet but nevermind)
As such I thought it was about time to decide more or less about what I'll watch next season. (Instead of working on my Anime Blogger Choice Award post, damn procrastination ^^)

On my watch list for sure!
- Kyousougiga : In the hopes of finaly getting what it is all about I shall watch it.

- Black Rock Shooter : I liked the OVA and I'm curious about how they'll continue the story and how they'll balance the two worlds.

- Another : Horror story? Yes please!

- Nisemonogatari : Love Bakemonogatari a lot so I'll obviously watch this.
And they look like they're wearing a fried egg on the promo picture so ...

- Natsume Yuujinchou Shi : Well, it's Natsume Yuujinchou! <3

- Brave 10 : Sengoku Jidai is always a must. And I heard it had Kamiya so ...

Will at least check out (and probably end up watching anyway)
- Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou : Well, I usually trust Sunrise when it comes to adapting gag manga (*cough*Gintama*cough*) BUT I really don't want to see Kimi to Boku n°2 and Sunrise is either really good or painfully average so we'll see.

I think something's wrong. Usually my first list has at least 10 shows, I'm at 7, and I don't even know what's continuing.
Well, guess I won't have to feel guilty and suppress my urges to check more things when the season will start

Kuuki's crazy anime watchlist corner desuu~ #35

2011-12-08T14:52:00.000+01:00

Today is Guilty Crown daaay~

- Phi Brain : I'm just watching this for the interaction between Gammon and Nonoha. As such, I'm really happy.
And shall say again that the character design kinda sucks.

- Mirai Nikki : Aaw Akise <3
Kinda nice to see how Yukiteru deals with Yuno.

- Gintama : I seem to say that every week but it's sooo awesome.
That's not even my kind of humor usually at all but it's Gintama so it works. Though a bit repetitive and forever shocked they allow this to air on TV.
That being said "I've been on standy all along under that snowball". Zura is Sky High undercover. I swear.
Also, "The ones at the top must try to understand the feelings of the ones in the bottom", that line too was awesome.

- Kimi to Boku : Cute but that's it.

- Chihayafuru : It was kinda adorable to see them interact during that tournament.
And I'm already in love with the sadist of the next team they'll play against.

- Tamayura : Cute and sweet as usual.

Kuuki's crazy anime watchlist corner desuu~ #34

2011-12-04T16:32:00.001+01:00

It's raining, it should be finally snowing yet it's raining *sobs*

- Un-Go : So, they've been introducing the "background" plot for two episodes now, am I the only one thinking it's a bit late?
Well, I won't complain, that episode was pretty nice.

- Guilty Crown : That's the kind of episode that really shows the weakness of the writing. You know, the story about Shu's father, that's normally the kind of thing that at least makes me teary, especially when they tell it in a graveyard, or I don't know, if it doesn't it at least makes me sympathize with the character and like him a bit more. It didn't work, I still dislike Shu, I haven't felt a thing at all during all the scenes at the graveyard. Totally emotionless.
I don't know, I mean, I get it, we're supposed to see it from Shu's point of view and apparently Shu doesn't care but seriously, that was the perfect moment to make the viewers sympathize with Shu, why not use it?
Instead, they'd rather show us how sad and pitiful Daryl is. (Which add depth to his character but you're not supposed to feel sorry for Daryl of all people)
I think they should revise their priorities.

- Idolm@ster : Cute Christmas episode. That's all I have to say. There's nothing more to add.

- Persona 4 : Would you say Risette in English too? Seems REALLY French to me.
And I actually don't remember much of the episode so ...

- Mawaru Penguindrum : People seemed to be surprised about the developments. My logic actually didn't quite accept the Takakura parents were alive. That didn't make much sense. Sanetoshi is obviously not human so yeah, not surprised either. And the previous episode totally gave away the fact Masako was Kanba's sister and their family was a fake since the flashback episode of Shoma's birth.
So, I'm a bit disappointed. Though now I wonder, who killed the Takakura?
(Still, can I say once again how disturbing it is to be born on the same day as them?)

- BokuTomo : Don't have anything to say.

- Sekaiichi Hatsukoi : I want a lover like Yukina.

- Bakuman : Any episode without Hiramaru is a lost episode.

- Fate/Zero : Any episode without Iskandar is a lost episode.
Though that one had its use like : making me wonder (again) where the hell Shinji was? And I got to see Ryunosuke.

- HunterxHunter : Leorio's smarter than I thought.

- Beelzebub : These delinquants are hilarious. They should focus more on them and less on Oga, though I don't really mind Oga either.

- Ben-to : The epitome of boring. What happened?

- Working : Not enough Yamada but she sure steals the show whenever she appears <3

Kuuki's crazy anime watchlist corner desuu~ #33

2011-12-01T15:44:00.000+01:00

It suddenly occured to me I'll probably have to put the blog on hiatus at some point during the year again, got another internship, a long one, yesterday. But that one is much further away than the one I'll do before, and they said they can lend me a small room for free, alternatively, I have family living there too, and even if I have access to the internet I don't know if I'll have time to watch a lot of anime.
Anyway, it's for April so it's still a bit long before it happens and I'll see.

- Nurarihyon no Mago : How I don't like the end of arcs in shonen -___-

- Fate/Zero : Actually, does anyone has a character relationships charts that cover both Fate/Zero and Fate/Stay Night because it's confusing.
Aside from this, well, how Iskandar can be so moe?
And Lancer's reaction was so predictable. But I still don't like him.

- Mirai Nikki : Akise <3
I haven't paid attention when I first read the manga but I didn't think that started so soon. I hope they'll animate that too! (Look at how hard I try not to spoil anyone!)
Also, LOL at the censorship.

- Gintama : I was close to tears and then, just before closing the window I realized there was a bit too much time and fast forwarded until after the ED, and then I laughed XD
I love Gintama so much.

- Phi Brain : I don't know what to make of this anymore. I don't understand why they even made this anime. It's soooo similar to Sacred Seven, but at least Phi Brain has a few loveable characters.

- Kimi to Boku : I would definitely have loved to have the twins in my class.

- Idolm@ster : So what now? There are a few episodes left and the villain has been defeated so ...

- Chihayafuru : The more it goes, the more I feel sorry for Taichi.
Also, is it weird if every time I see him and Chihaya together I silently cheer for them to just fuck already? o_O

- Tamayura : The first part of the episode was boring, even though I can't shake off the feeling I have already "heard" Momoneko-sama's voice somehwere. The second part was nice.

Being a Fujoshi #1 - Defining the monster

2011-11-28T15:16:00.000+01:00

Hello there to the first article of a, I hope, long series of article about ... fujoshi. I'm pretty sure you all encountered them during your life in the anime/manga/game/whatever fandom, and I'm pretty sure some of you wonder what the hell is going on in their head.
(See me finally starting to clear my backlog of drafts ^^)

I shall bring responses! Or so I hope. Because, after all, it takes a fujoshi to know one.
Before I start, have a few warnings : obviously there will be questionnable content (I'll avoid putting questionnable images though, since it's harder to avoid than text), if anything seems offensive, it's not, if anything it's a fail attempt at humour and for that I apologize, and, obviously these are only my opinions and you shouldn't assume everyone thinks like me.

Activities

The world of the fujoshi revolves around yaoi. Of course there are differences (for example I only dabble in fanfictions and doujinishi and only have a very limited interest in the rest) but we all agree on one very important point : boy's love is interesting/hot/sexy/whatever.

Gender identification

One of the main defining point of the fujoshi is that the fujoshi is a girl. (If only because, technically, a boy would be called a fudanshi)
To be honest, most of the yaoi lovers out there are girls, there are a few men here and there (probably more lurking around the shadows) but the main crowd are girls.

Random facts

*The fujoshi's love is not always entirely directed on boy's love, a fushoji can love hentai and yuri just fine.
*Fujoshi's sexual life (or lack of) covers a really wide spectrum. No, they're not all lesbians or young and innocent maidens.
*Ages too cover a really wide spectrum.
*A fujoshi don't always enjoy the sexual part of yaoi, I have friends who're fujoshi and absolutely can't stand any graphic depiction of sex.

Actually, fujoshi are simply girls who enjoy yaoi. Any attempt to find any further common point to the whole group has been faced with failure.

Kuuki's crazy anime watchlist corner desuu~ #32

2011-11-26T16:29:00.001+01:00

I have apparently secured myself another 8 weeks internship, turning it into 11 weeks non stop from the end of March to the middle of June.
I'll be damn busy when the Spring season will start. -____-

- Guilty Crown : Bondage serial killer didn't appear. But I got Puppy!Shu and that almost made up for it. Almost. Anyway, it's not like you want to know what went through my head during that episode.
It was pretty entertaining, even if really predictable, until the last big revelation about Inori and Shu, I snapped.
Also, it's quite a shame that the first time I really notice the music it's because it's Strauss and I hate Strauss. Sawano what are you doing?

- Un-Go : Excuse me but I didn't get it.

- Sekaiichi Hatsukoi : Didn't like it.

- Mawaru Penguindrum : Don't really know what to make of it, are somehow Kanba and Masako siblings? I'm pretty sure Mario is NOT his blood related brother at least. I don't really know anymore and the scale of the events is so small I can't even manage to see the big picture.

- Last Exile : That was so pretty, it looked like a movie! And the always present politcal stuff delights me.

- BokuTomo : Not really interesting either.

- Persona 4 : I'm going to say something and be hated for it but, as far as I'm concerned and until this point, Trinity Soul was much better as a stand alone anime.
As for this episode in particular a friend of mine said "As far as I'm concerned this episode doesn't exist". She played the game and I didn't but I agree.

- Ben-To : Was bored and stopped midway through it. I think I might drop if I get the urge to fast forward that much next week.

- Bakuman : Hiramaru is my saviour! Though this time he didn't make me want to rewatch the show subbed, wasn't there for long enough.
Well, enough to tell us about his pretty German car and his new appartment. And to realize Yoshida-shi's evilness. Still, I liked this moment when even Shuujin knows more about taxes than him.

- Beelzebub : I skipped all the training parts.

- HunterxHunter : Actually, it's pretty fast paces for a Jump shonen. I'm surprised. And definitely don't complain.

- Working : Yamada, just marry me, I can do everything Takanashi does. And better too!

Kuuki's crazy anime watchlist corner desuu~ #31

2011-11-23T17:13:00.001+01:00

I am currently facing a blogger's crisis, it's not even about the lack of inspiration, my problem is the lack of motivation. I have lots of posts drafted but don't feel like finishing any of them.
Sorry?

- Gintama : I tried to, I really did, but I can't even begin to find the beginning of a summary of what I watched. This is probably one of the most memorable anime episode ever made.

- Nurarihyon no Mago : We're entering the final fight arc, I hate this kind of arc, it's always too long and boring.

- Chihayafuru : It suddenly occured to me that I never ever had pork buns. I want to!

- Kimi to Boku : So adorable! They're all so adorable.
I love the twins. And despite a slow start I really love this anime too!

- Tamayura : Nice reflection about life and hobbies. Kinda sad in a way.

- Phi Brain : No Gammon = not fun.

- Mirai Nikki : Really liked that part in the manga, I find the kid adorable.

- Fate/Zero : I have forgotten this last time, I thought Caster would be defeated, I'm very happy he wasn't. I thought Kayneth would be defeated too, I'm not so happy he wasn't.

Kuuki's crazy anime watchlist corner desuu~ #30

2011-11-18T20:25:00.001+01:00

Since the last time this blogger posted she managed to secure herself a one month job and a three weeks internship and she can't help but wondering what the hell is wrong for things to go this well.

- Guilty Crown : Bondage serial killer lost all his bondage gear aside from a pretty collar.
And then I can't help but wonder. Is there something wrong with me for me to notice?
That being said, it would appear the writers haven't learnt proper characterization since last episode. I don't care anymore.

- Un-Go : The more I see Kazamori the happier I am.

- Idolm@ster : I'll admit it, I skipped most of the episode. I don't like drama in my mindless entertainment.

- BokuTomo : I always end up feeling sorry for Sena.

- Mawaru Penguindrum : I don't really know what to say about it, I'll just quietly keep on thinking Shoma is the Penguindrum.

- Persona 4 : The jokes felt really forced. Too bad because otherwise it was really fun.

- Sekaiichi Hatsukoi : Poor An-chan. But, once again, I don't like drama in my mindless entertainment.

- HunterxHunter : Will they be able to get past Tonpa's betrayal? (obviously yes ^^)

- Ben-To : The quality's dropping big time, to the point I'm considering dropping the anime too.

- Bakuman : Hiramaru is my hero.
Boycott Banzai!

- Beelzebub : The whole dream before the opening was the most hilarious stuff since the beginning of the series.

- Last Exile : Made me think about Star Wars. And Oban Star Racers.

- Working : I don't know what to think, does Souma loves Yamada or does he love having her around because she's an easy victim?
In any case, these two are hilarious. Yamada is my heroin.

Kuuki's crazy anime watchlist corner desuu~ #29

2011-11-14T17:00:00.001+01:00

It's starting to get really cold, the weather makes it seem like it'll snow but it's still not snowing and it's depressing. I don't want to freeze to death if I don't get to see snow!

- Nurarihyon no Mago : Soudaichou should always be voiced by Yusa Kouji *sob*

- Last Exile : I don't always understand everything what's going on, is it just me who's dumb?

- Mirai Nikki : I don't know what to say about that, Yuno is as awesome as usual.

- Phi Brain : That episode was below average. I even think I may say Nonoha is my favorite character.

- Gintama : This is one of the most enjoyable episode ever. Playing "Where's Waldo" was really fun. How many known characters did you spot?
And, after months of desperate waiting and searching (because, mind you, I'm not even alone in this) we've finally spotted Tiger&Bunny in Gintama!

- Kimi to Boku : It was so adorable I forgot to count the cats.

- Chihayafuru : This was the first time I truly thought Taichi was cool.

- Tamayura : I don't know what to say about this. I never know what to say, not that it isn't good but it's so calm that I never know what to say.

Kuuki's crazy anime watchlist corner desuu~ #28

2011-11-11T17:43:00.001+01:00

The news didn't quite sink into me yet but I'm pretty happy about it anyway! Even though it still hasn't sunk into me right now that we're getting two Tiger&Bunny movies.
Actually, I think my main problem is that the wait will be horrible. We're talking about one year MINIMUM.
Oh well, I'm patient!
(I'll probably make another post on its own when I'll realize it for real ^^)

- Guilty Crown : I am left speecheless by Shu's stupidity every. Single. Time.
Not to say the rest of them isn't stupid as well, but Shu's goes beyond everything I could ever imagine.
The only ones who could save the day so far are Gai (even though his character is still written like shit, I can't grasp it, at all, it normally comes naturally to me), Daryl (but the writers don't seem to want to use him more), the torturer guy (can't even remember his name) and the bondage-Nobuhiko-Okamoto-voiced guy who had quite the brillant two lines.
It was still possible to salvage it when it was stupid but funny. I don't think it can anymore.
But I'm somehow still going to keep on watching because I like to rant on things from time to time.

- Un-Go : I think I'll have to express my happiness at seeing Kazamori as a recurring ~~perverted~~ character. Other than that, well, culprit being obvious, Shinjurou being like himself, etc etc. Nothing special.

- Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai : You know, there are a lot of things I'm willing to go past in anime such as this one, since I don't expect much in the beginning there would be no meaning in complaining about every single fact I ended up not liking.
Unfortunately, there's one thing I cannot forgive. Why. Is. Kobato the only one we didn't get to hear sing? Damnit. It's Kana Hanazawa! She has a godly singing voice!

- Persona 4 : I liked that episode.
I like that new character whatever his name was. I feel sorry for him too.
At least that episode didn't seem as pointless as the other were.

- Sekaiichi Hatsukoi : I don't care for that anime if it's not funny.

- Working!! : I don't quite understand how they manage to tell people the very same fake name.
But it was hilarious.
And I feel sorry for Takanashi, though I think he's more on the other side of the spectrum.

- Bakuman : I know I rant a lot about the cast of that one but I think casting Morita Masakazu as Hiramaru is one of the best idea anyone could ever have.
I hear him in my head when I read the manga and I just HAD to rewatch this week's episode because Hiramaru was so cool and Morita so good.
I think I might have to restart watching Bleach o_O

- Ben-To : It's starting to get a little bit too serious and real close to boring.

- Beelzebub : Oga is nuts, I love Oga. And I love the sensei.

- HunterxHunter : I love Killua.

Mawaru Penguindrum 18 - All's end that ends well ... probably

2011-11-11T17:34:00.000+01:00

As I struggle, like I do every other day in my life, to make myself understood by the people around me (strangely enough, only the people in the internet, to whom I speak mostly, ironically, in a foreign language, seem to understand what I mean), Penguindrum continues to build its story pretty much flawlessly (Though I reserve my judgment for the last episode ^^)

Not so strangely, this episode doesn't solve anything at all, again, and no further clue is given about the Penguindrum, or the diary. As expected.

What it gives on the other hand is an insight on Tabuki's past. Obviously he has had a traumatizing past. Obviously Momoka saved him.
I was surprised about the backstory of his fngers and a bit disappointed it wasn't as I thought and he sacrificed them for the sake of making the diary predictions come true.

To be honest, I don't really know what to say about this episode, in the end, nothing really "important" happened, it was mostly an excuse to make a Tabuki episode.
There are still a few noticeable things in that episode.

- Yuri's tormentor was her father. Tabuki's one was his mother. I find that somewhat interesting.

- Kanba's badass. We still don't know what these men in black are but Kanba's badass!

- Only Himari's penguin seems to be somehow useful. Kanba's apparently think he should prioritize hiding his porn magazines over helping. On the other hand, Kanba always helps his penguin and I find that really adorable.

- Shoma is useless. When called for help he comes late and all he can do instead of taking everyone to the hospital is hug them. But it was pretty beautiful. (Especially since they're not all related)

(And last but not least, the endcard was beautiful and now I have found both of Lily Hoshino's Twitter accounts I can stalk all I want <3 And rejoice whenever she posts a fanart <3)

Kuuki's crazy anime watchlist corner desuu~ #27

2011-11-09T18:09:00.002+01:00

I have completed my, technically, third re-watch of Tiger&Bunny. I still get teary quite often but still significantly less. Which is yet another proof that the writer of this thing may be godly.
Anyway, the crazy watchlist after the cut!

- Mirai Nikki : Damn, that was fast. I am looking forward to the next arc because damn Akise *__*

- Gintama : As I said on Twitter, I strongly advise against any intake of food or drinks during the watch. Dangerous for your health.

- Last Exile : Well, are these people allies or enemies?
Whether they are or not they have pretty loose security if Dio can come and go as he pleases.

- Phi Brain : I have high tolerance but that episode was boring. Really boring.

- Nurarihyon no Mago : Nothing special, same old shonen things. He trained, got a new technique and defeated some bad guys. Just hurry up to the final boss!

- Chihayafuru : Aaw Kana-chan is so cute!
That was a super easy development to predict but Kana-chan is cute. And I like to see kimono.

- Tamayura : Well, nothing to say about this week, kinda boring and a bit unrealistic that they magically met when they were 5 or something and are re-united afterward.
But I did love the "real" encounter between Norie and Maon.

Do you have a fandom bias?

2011-11-07T18:08:00.001+01:00

Pyro posted a blog post about her fandom bias, the small facts that can transform a show you're not interested in at all into a must watch.
She talked about hers and asked about ours, it actually made me think a lot so that post will be my answer.

The only problem is : I'm pretty sure I am forgetting things but it will have to do.

- Seiyuu
A good seiyuu cast can hold me through the most boring of shows. Almost. (Well, there are things that are beyond saving, even with my favorite seiyuu)
It did get me through Uraboku, which is everything but good, and on the other hand my fascination for people like Kamiya Hiroshi is the thing that made me start Angel Beats for example.
As such, it has good and bad sides.

- Yakuza
Sadly, this is the bias that is always, always used against me to make me read BL manga.
On the other hand, it made me discover stuff like Gokusen which I would NEVER have checked otherwise and became my favorite drama of all time (since both the manga and the anime version suffer from horrific art)

- Yuki Kajiura (and a few other composers)
In an anime I am very sensible to music and I can tell Yuki Kajiura or people like Sawano Hiroyuki are the composers as soon as I hear their music in an anime, a great soundtrack helps me finding the show enjoyable.
And if it wasn't for Yuki Kajiura I would never have checked Madoka or Fate/Zero.

- Sengoku Jidai
Rather than Sengoku Jidai I have developed over the years a soft spot for Akechi Mitsuhide, probably one of the less likeable warlord of the era and I feel obligated to watch every single anime featuring Sengoku Jidai in the hopes of seeing him.
And you have to admit the era has a lot of potential, in terms of battles, in terms of interesting politics and in terms of colorful characters.

- Narita Ryogho
I like this man and how he writes and how good and faithful the anime adapted from his works are. I'd watch anything if he's somehow involved. I'd watch anything if I know he's watching it as well. (Wouldn't have tried Tiger&Bunny if it wasn't for him, I'm forever grateful. And he's watching Fate/Zero and seeing him stay up so late to fanboy about it is adorable. I love Twitter) (AND I WANT A SECOND SEASON OF DURARARA!!) (AND ANOTHER ONE OF BACCANO!) (AND FOR HIS OTHER BOOKS TO BE ANIMATED!)

- Psychopaths
You probably already have noticed my love for, well, rather questionnable characters. Tell me there's one in something and I'm watching whatever you were recommending.

I don't even have that many. I thought I'd come to find many more considering the amount of stuff I watch. Oh well, guess I'll just blame curiosity.
Anyway, I'll ask the same question she did back in the days (because that post slept for quite some times in my drafts), what are YOUR fandom bias?

Kuuki's crazy anime watchlist corner desuu~ #26

2011-11-06T17:16:00.001+01:00

One day I'll make a post about what's good in re-watching some anime. Because I'm currently re-watching Tiger&Bunny and can't stop discovering new things.

- Un-Go : Quite an enjoyable episode, probably the best so far as I didn't know who the culprit was.
And I still love Kazamori. Especially the scene in the car.

- Guilty Crown : I liked the explosions? (And the numerous S/M references. I'm not kidding, they WERE numerous)
No seriously, I don't think I have ever seen such a bad characterization in my whole life. It would have been a decent episode otherwise.

- BokuTomo : I can't believe how far Sena's obsession for Seiken no Blacksmith or whatever the eroge was called is going. But it's amusing.

- Persona 4 : After the Persona introduction we're going into full blown romance setting mode? Do not like.
Though I did like Narukami's flustered side quite a lot.

- Idolm@ster. Ritsuko is moe. Which I think was the whole point.

- Sekaiichi Hatsukoi : Much better than Chiaki's episodes. I like seeing the story advance but I don't want the drama. I'm watching this to laugh damnit!

- Fate/Zero : I'm kinda sad there was no Waver and Iskandar this week.
And having Caster's identity revealed further actually pleases me.

- Working : Nakamura Yuuichi *__*
And I love Yamada even more for being the one who ultimately brought him there!

- HunterxHunter : Cooking <3

- Beelzebub : Man, that teacher is like Yankumi! <3

- Gundam AGE (since this week I'm up to date) : I'm still wondering how old are supposed to be Flit and the rest. I wish they'd be older and I wish for another character design. For very wrong reasons.
Still, my point stands. And why the hell are they allowed to wander on their own in a military ship? I understand for Flit but the rest is another story.
Oh well, whatever, I'll just turn my brain off.

- Ben-To : It's less enjoyable when there's plot.

- Bakuman : I don't like that hospital arc.
At least I know I'll get to hear Hiramaru at some point right?

Mawaru Penguindrum 17 - Penguins vs. Octopus(es)

2011-11-04T16:02:00.000+01:00

After having spent the last 22 years free of any broken bones I had to go and break ... my pinky. Don't laugh, I know full well how ridiculous the whole situation is.

Beside, it's not like I should complain, there's much worse happening ...

But, back to the topic at hands. Let's start to make theories shall we?

The Takakura
It's not like I have much to say on the subject this week. Just that we're once again kindly reminded of the fact that things may not be as they seem and it would take just a little push for everything to fall apart. Quite sad.
Second thing I have to note is how worried for the brothers I am. Strangely enough, I'm not at all worried for Himari, but the brothers are a completely different matter.

The evil couple

As we all thought, they're not really married because they love each other, mostly because they hate the same thing, mainly, the Takakura. And Tabuki isn't as nice as he seems to be. Quite obviously again. For that I'm not surprised.
At the same time, and surrounding them and Momoka, they introduced the concept of truth in this episode, and I think that's quite interesting.
I don't know what they really intended by mentionning that tidbit of information about Momoka being maybe not dead and then going on about truth, but I'm looking forward to the explanations (if explanations there will be)

Were other people noting the similarities between that episode and the whole flashback about Yuri? Did you notice they were building a strang tower? I'm almost ready to assume the elevator ride is going to Yuri's old appartment.
Fate is a circle, the place where ultimately everything started for Yuri is the place she has to finish everything. I still wonder where Tabuki stands in that thought.

The Penguindrum.
And the secret has been revealed, quite obviously again, the diary is not the Penguindrum! Even though she didn't say it clearly, I think it's safe to assume the Penguindrum isn't the diary. But I still do think the diary is necessary to create an alternative to the current Penguindrum.
Because in my theory the Penguindrum is Shoma.

Which would make the most sense if you think about it. Remember, the Takakura mother only gave birth to ONE kid. In this episode Kanba said he couldn't when Boshi-sama mentionned who/what was the Penguindrum and I think he meant he couldn't sacrifice Shoma as long as there is an alternative to save Himari.
Which could also mean that, it's all Momoka's fault and that her Project M actually succeeded and that Shoma is the result.

Kuuki's crazy anime watchlist corner desuu~ #25

2011-11-02T17:31:00.002+01:00

For some reason, this seems to be quite a meager edition, it doesn't seem at all like a crazy watchlist anymore, what the hell did I miss?

Aside from that blogger worry, did you do something for Halloween? What was it?

- Kimi to Boku : I think I can remember 7 cats but I'm not too sure.
Whatever, I liked Mary in that episode, I like how she gradually warms up to everyone and not only Shun and I can't decide who I love more between Kaname and Yuki.
It became much less boring and I am now genuinely enjoying this. Not as much as I enjoy other stuff but still decently enough not to wonder why the hell I am watching.

- Gintama : The less I understand what's going on the more I love it.
Still, it made me wonder about something quite important. Weren't Kamui and Takasugi flying to Earth something like 20 episodes ago? Where are they?

- Phi Brain : I'm only watching this to know where the relationship between Gammon and Nonoha is going. Damn, these two are adorable.

- Nurarihyon no Mago : Rikuo is in a bad situation. Again. Then again, it's a Jump shonen, I don't know what I expect.

- Last Exile : Pff I love that thing. I totally don't remember what happened but I love it!

- Chihayafuru : Taichi's definition of love is great, it's "not being able to stand the person but wanting to say by her side anyway"
I found that incredibly adorable.

Happy Birthd - HALLOWEEN! Wait, what was it again?

2011-10-31T19:47:00.004+01:00

While I don't usually do these celebration posts, aside from the New Year, since well, I think the New Year is important everywhere in the world, and if I really wanted to do it I'd have to celebrate every single special day in the world, only to be fair, it appears Halloween is special.
Mostly because it's a fun celebration and because I'm totally not going to do a celebratory post for Halloween.
(On the other hand, I am going to post an Halloween anime selection tomorrow over at Organization ASG)

What I was trying to post about is a reminder that Tiger&Bunny is great and that you should all watch it. As well as the very useless information today is Barnaby's birthday and that he deserves to be wished a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY.
And also that I love the fans, I love the fandom, I love fucking everyone and I LOVE STERNBILD

Now that I've totally outed myself as a creepy fangirl, I shall leave and rewatch Tiger&Bunny to celebrate.

Kuuki's crazy anime watchlist corner desuu~ #24

2011-10-30T17:02:00.001+01:00

Before tomorrow's "Halloween" special let me present you with yet another edition of my crazy watchlist!

- Persona 4 : The best episode since the first one but I'm still starting to get tired of seeing the same patter over and over.

- Un- Go : Kazamori was moe. Yes you read right.
Still, I'd like to know who the cullprit was.

- BokuTomo : I had been warned Rika's fetish were scary but in the end I didn't really care, but she's definitely more talented than Sena at reading "litterature"

- Idolm@ster : I don't like Makoto.

- Mawaru Penguindrum : I fail to see the relevance to the overall story. Sure I like to know more about Masako's past but how is this tied to the story?
Also, her father totally looks like Claire Stanfieled from Baccano! I sure hope he has the same voice.

- Sekaiichi Hatsukoi : Still don't like that couple.

- Bakuman : Hiramaru is the highlight of the episode. I'm happy we're starting to get into the storyline where he's threatened by Yoshida.
I'm sad we're going to enter the hospital arc, was kinda boring.

- Fate/Zero : Finally Ryuunosuke and Caster appeared! I'm sooo thrilled by the fact he's going to go for Saber in that way (you know Bluebeard's story don't you?)
And Iskandar was sooo fucking badass AND adorable, and how he stood for Waver against his teacher and I just love him! I love them! It's so surprising but they're wonderful, the perfect team ever.
Well whatever, I just love this anime.

- Working : It's funny how all I can think about when this anime is mentionned is Yamada. I initially started to watch because of Soma and his seiyuu, now my heroin is Yamada.
And the manager because just like her "I like almost everyone who gives me food"

- Ben-To : I liked the fights. But that's pretty much all there was to it. I do hope they won't continue to introduce more and more characters at every episode because it takes away the fun.

- Beelzebub : The worst cliffhanger in the story of that serie.

- HunterxHunter : I'm still not much of a fan but I am drawn to the story. And Namikawa Daisuke is awesome. It changes from his other (numerous) roles this season. I like this kind of voice better.

Guilty Crown 03 - What are friends when there are idols?

2011-10-28T20:03:00.000+02:00

Trying to wrap my head around the fact that I may not post a Penguindrum impression this week because said Penguindrum was probably the less impressive episode since the serie started I decided I'll post about Guilty Crown instead.
Because posting about Guilty Crown is making fun of every possible aspect of the episode.

Help me, an idol's living in my appartment.

Talking about Guilty Crown is talking about the two main characters, obviously. It has been established that Inori "looks exactly like a doll". But that's because she has as much personality as a dead frog.
It would also appear, judging from the wonderful dialogue she had with Shu in his appartment that she is only able to perform basic animal functions, mainly, feed, fight and probably fuck. (I know there is no clear evidence for the last aspect but when you tell someone you just met "Use me I'm yours, you are obviously inclined to think that way)

As for Shu, his precious feelings must be protected. He's a poor high school student after all, can't he be happy about anything? Can't he stop worrying for a bit? I mean, he probably cannot help it but his mood swings are annoying, he's all courageous for a second, then change his mind and goes back to be a scaredy cat.

Help me, I'm fabulous.

This, was probably the highlight of the episode, because Gai, who just broadcast an announcement about the existence of Funeral Parlor and who's probably the most wanted criminal at the moment goes around, meet a high schooler whom I wouldn't trust and is probably having meetings with important people or he wouldn't wear that kind of clothes (As noted by Shu in this very insightful piece of dialogue "Thanks for coming." "You have great clothes")

Which puts even more emphasis on the fact that, even if he's fabulous, I don't understand how this character thinks, I don't see the logic behind his actions. At all.

I do understand why he warned Shu though, after all he has more to loose than him and he might have thought it would bring Shu to his side.

Help me, my best-friend tried to kill me.

Since he was warned by Gai who possess the mysterious power of seeing people's Voids without physical contact (I still don't quite understand how the hell this works, even with the rules laid before my eyes) Shu embarks on a journey to find the mysterious student who saw him on that fated day.

On the road to a shocking truth he finds people whith hearts shaped (because that's apparently what a Void is) like a vase, pliers or a fridge. And the only thing he finds relevant to be surprised about is that Inori's is a sword. He saw weirder.

Anyway, much to everyone surprise, actually it was so obvious I thought they couldn't have done it on purpose and almost didn't believe it, the guy who saw them is one of his bestfriend, whatever his name was.
And, as the anime was about to close on a very sweet moment "I felt like I've met him for the first time", said best friend pushes him in the arms of the very bad guy who apparently likes to torture people and ... somewhat acquainted with Shu's mother who works for the bad guys too. Life sure is a bitch isn't it?

And as a conclusion, everything felt forced and I have to say that the only good thing of the episode (aside from Gai being fabulous) is Miwa Shirow's Inori.

Kuuki's crazy watchlist corner desuu~ #23

2011-10-26T15:08:00.001+02:00

Looking for internships in the middle of nowhere is hard you know? Well you can probably imagine.
That being said, I just realized there's a convention near my place next month, will try to go.

- Nurarihyon no Mago : All I remember about this is how awesome Tsuda Kenjiro is.

- Mirai Nikki : I don't remember that amusement park thing in the manga, was it even in the manga?
Well, it's a good thing I don't remember, I'll be able to enjoy it more.

- Last Exile : That was sweet. And interesting. And sad too. I'm looking forward to the next episode.

- Chihayafuru : I had forgotten Taichi was Mamo-chan, nice surprise. And now I can't help but wonder what happened to Arata, I think I'm hooked.

- Tamayura Hitotose : Would have been better if anything related to ryokan didn't remind me of Hanasaku Iroha.

- Kimi to Boku : 7 cats but 5 of them were the same one.
On the other hand it's probably the most entertaining episode so far, still not the funniest thing ever but it starts to become bearable (maybe because Kaname is my favorite character though ^^)

- Phi Brain : Nonoha and Gammon are meant to be. No matter how I look at it, they should totally get together.
On the other hand, every single time the final trick is obvious it pisses me off.

- Gintama : I don't even know what to say about this. What can I even say about this?

Kuuki's crazy anime watchlist corner desuu~ #22

2011-10-23T17:12:00.000+02:00

I'm starting to wonder if saying a word about Gundam AGE is worth it granted I watch them one week late, what do you think?

- Un-Go : I can't say "same old stuff" because it's only the second episode but it more or less comes down to that.
I also slowly start to get a bit bothered with guessing who's the culprit as soon as we see her and even if the clues are misleading (and for some reason it's always women so far)

- Guilty Crown : Well, at least it's pretty?
Still, there are so many things wrong with this that I don't know where to start. I even kinda want to blog it just so I can bash it, the worse is that I'm genuinely excited for the next episode.
I think something's wrong with me.
Oh, and Daryl is the only somehow likeable character in the show so far, the rest are poorly written or just don't have a personality. Only problem (because there obviously need to be one right?) is that the seiyuu is voicing one of the main guy in Kimi to Boku. I can't take him seriously as a fabulous villain pretty boy.

- Persona 4 : They'll need to break from the "one episode - one Persona introduction" pattern because I'm nearly at my limit.
It's not as boring as it was last week and if you try to concentrate on the psychological stuff it's more interesting.

- BokuTomo : I am glad I finally got to see "Lucas" and "Ceccilia" getting together. Still, I wonder why Seiken no Blacksmith?
Other than that, well, that's why I never go to the pool.

- Idolm@ster : Jupiter tries to get more popular by flirting with an ostrich yeah!

- Sekaiichi : Boring. I hate their storyline.

- Fate/Zero : Too much fights with too many talks in between that somehow cut the flow of the episode.
But Iskandar is adorable, he almost made up for the lack of Ryuunosuke and Caster.

- Working : Not enough Yamada. Too much Inami.

- HunterxHunter : Quite an interesting episode, I think I'm going to like Kurapika.

- Bakuman : HIRAMARU you were the highlight of the episode! Morita-san I love you even more now, so many different tones of voice in so little time, once again I'm sorry I thought you weren't all that good before. So. Fucking. Sorry.
And saying Hiramaru means that Yoshida-shi was there too! I'm happy.
The rest of the episode was boring, never read the manga before seeing the anime self, especially when you know from the start it'll be animated (I started Bakuman at chapter 6 so ...)

- Beelzebub : Boring.

- Ben-To : Boring too. I think I like it better when they focus more on the fights. Main character was great last week, this week not so much. It's funnier when he fights on his own.

Mawaru Penguindrum 15 - Freudism paradise

2011-10-22T19:43:00.000+02:00

Driven by my hope of finally learning Yuri's secret and, well, learning something, anything really, I jumped right into this week's episode of Mawaru Penguindrum. What I got is, once again, more theories and fail French, which got me wondering, did you understand it?

Yuri
She is once again the Queen of the episode, to the point I start to be a bit sick of her, but nevermind, she's more interesting than I thought.

To start with, I don't quite understand her logic. She wants to revive Momoka, that much is easily understandable, but how?
Why trying to rape Ringo and then not go through with it when she could? Is she trying to get Momoka's spirit to possess Ringo? How does she intend on reviving Momoka in the first place?
Well whatever, to me, this part of the anime lacks some necessary logic.

As for her father, I guess I'll start by saying the obvious : he's a psychopath. He has all the symptoms, the lack of strong emotions, the abuse, the egocentrism, the anti-social behaviour.
I am not really sure about what exactly he did to Yuri, I am wondering about exactly he did to her body (though, if the incredible amounts of phallic objects is relevant, well, he probably raped her), but he obviously messed up with her mind.
And last but not least, whether she's a boy or not, who knows? Yuri is both a girl's and a boy's name in the first place. Also, judging from her father's apparent obsession for ancient greek style art and how Greeks viewed homosexual love as purer than straight (because it's not tainted by the need of breeding) then it's totally possible he wanted to turn her into a boy.

The Takakura

I wanted to skip the section for today but I wanted to say how cute Shoma's love for Ringo was and how adorable the two idols were with their gifts.
Though it makes me wonder more and more about their relationships and how it's relevant to the plot. Just like it makes me wonder more and more about who Sanetoshi really is and his motives.
I'm still convinced he's in love with Himari/Boshi-sama though.

The diary, Momoka and Tabuki

I bet you wonder why Tabuki is interesting as far as this episode is concerned since he didn't appears. That's exactly why.

Exactly, Tabuki wasn't there, he was supposed to be there, didn't he go to school with Momoka? And if he went there with her in the mornings then why didn't he go home with her at night too?
Where the hell is he?

In any case, hello there Momoka, glad to know you and your pink hair, very natural colour indeed. She somehow reminded me of Haruhi except that Momoka knows she has the power to change the world.
She was the first owner of the diary of Fate, which has the power, not of predicting the future but of changing it and such power comes with a price, so, who did she make disappear/appear for her to loose her life?
I first thought about saving Tabuki's life, but, she nearly died for saving Yuri (and making a building and a person disappear) there's no way she was going to completely die for saving Tabuki, the scale is not as big. So, what has she done? And if she had that power, why didn't she prevent the attack in the subway? Is there another Penguindrum/diary that could have countered her?

Which leads to the next question, is it possible for the Takakura parents' disappearance to be caused by a diary? Could it be Tabuki's doing? He had the diary. He had the injuries. He obviously used it, so, is he the one who wrote everything Ringo was religiously following? Because he loved Momoka, and he wanted to have her back, thus trying to turn Ringo into her dead sister by using his knowledge to his advantage?

In the end and once again all I have is even more questions than when I started. Great Penguindrum. Really great.

Kuuki's crazy anime watchlist corner desuu~ #21

2011-10-20T10:57:00.000+02:00

You know, aside from my crazy list, Genshiken is a great anime!

- Nurarihyon no Mago : I like Kubinashi all crazy like that <3

- Mirai Nikki : Aaw Ninth <3
That was a short commentary o_O

- Last Exile : Feel too lazy to make a whole post but I like that, reminds me of a mix of Fractale and Gundam. I'm interested!

- Kimi to Boku : 23 cats.
But it was also the most interesting episode so far. And I now know my favorite character is Kaname.

- Gintama : Adorable! Kagura was adorable. Their relationship is adorable!

- MajiKoi : Dropped. As much as I enjoy myself during the first 30 seconds of the show I can't watch this if only 30 seconds are worth watching (and even there "worth watching" is subject to discussions ^^)

- Phi Brain : I want Gammon and Nonoha to get together damnit! They'd be such a cute couple!

- Chihayafuru : Kazuya Nakai was priceless in that one.
And now we'll get back to present days. High school days. Do.Not. Want.
They were damn cute as kids.

- Tamayura Hitotose : I definitely like this!
I have only one complain to make : can I have the recipes? These anime where they cook and no one thinks of giving us the recipe are pissing me off, the only "official" recipe I've ever seen is, strangely enough, for Tiger&Bunny. The rest is all fanmade.
By the way, since we're on the topic, is Yumeiro Pâtissière worth it?

- Working : Yamada <3 (And for the record, it's the first time ever I squee so much over an anime girl o_O)
Though Nazuna is much more talented at manipulating people, I now want to see her manipulating Souma!

Fall 2011 : the (huge) wrap up post

2011-10-18T16:59:00.000+02:00

As I have finally gotten my hands on everything I wanted to watch (except Coppelion but I shall assume the project is dead or delayed) have the final recap of what I'm going to watch and how much I love them! (or not) (Truth be told, I find myself hardly captivated by anything, it'll thus be a matter of what I don't dislike as much as the others. And the reason why I watch so many? Hope I'll find something amazing. I'm hopeless.)

THE top 3 favorite (a.k.a. watch if you want to live)

3 - Un-Go

A detective story that seems good (it didn't even bother me to figure out who the culprit was before the crime was actually comitted, mark the date!) and surnatural put together. It's like Yondemasuyo Azazel-san the serious version.

2 - Fate/Zero

It came as a surprise since I didn't like Fate/Stay Night that much but this is really enjoyable, I finally figured out what Noble Phantasms were and what it was all about. It's also very creepy and characters are somehow deeper and more interesting than in the sequel.

1 - Working 2

Their antics never cease to amuse me and the more I see Yamada the happier I am.

The guilty pleasure(s) (a.k.a. Don't judge me but these are so bad they're addictive)

- Sekaiichi Hatsukoi 2

As much as Onodera deserves to die a painful death, he somehow manages to amuse me. It's a very bad BL and a very good comedy. (Actually, the kiss scenes are the funniest)

- Ben-To

The more I facepalm at the stupidity of the show, the more I seem to enjoy it. Go figure.

It could have made it to the top 3 but ... (a.k.a. I'd like to discuss these with you but it's OK if you're not into it)

- Last Exile etc

Seems like a good fantasy anime, in the same vein as Fractale, I hope the end will be better though.

- Persona 4

The second episode bore me to death. I don't really understand what happened there but yeah, as much as I loved the first episode the second was a bit boring.

- Bakuman 2

As much as I love it, I know the manga nearly by heart, and the anime is really heavier on the love stuff, I'm not much of a fan of love stories.

- Mirai Nikki

Same as above. I've finished the manga and I know everything that'll happen, which makes me look forward to the love stories (yeah, miracle happens)

- Tamayura Hitotose

It has the big drawback of being a slice of life, a genre I don't particulary affectionate and that needs to be perfectly done for me to like, so I'll stay forever wary.

- Guilty Crown

Still wondering how they'll make things work from now on. I hope their writers are good.

- Phi Brain

It has good moments but also boring ones and somehow feels ridiculous. But I like Gallileo!

- Gundam AGE

It was less boring than UC but less awesome than 00.

I don't even know why I'm watching this (a.k.a. no but seriously, I don't)
- Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai
It is a harem anime. And the second episode was boring. Sadly. But the characters are itneresting.

- Chihayafuru
I don't like love stories damnit.

- HunterxHunter
I fail to see anything worth mentionning, it's entertaining at least?

- Kimi to Boku
I count the cats instead of focusing on the anime, slice of life done wrong. (Though it is better with the new character)

Dropped (a.k.a. Damn, I am less masochistic than I thought)
- Horizon
I can't look at this anymore, it hurts.

-MajiKoi
Harem anime done wrong, it had lots of guys in the cast too, why not use them more? It would have been much better.
To be honest, the only thing worth anything at all in the anime is the very first minute. (Concumber anyone? /shot)

17 this season.
With continuations from before I'm now following 22 anime. Help?

Kuuki's crazy anime watchlist corner desuu~ #20

2011-10-15T20:03:00.001+02:00

*the smart introduction has been eaten by a hungry tamayura*
Hell, these things need to eat too don't they?

- Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai : That was a bit more boring than last week, while I love the dynamics between Sena and Yozora I want something else. Introduce that stalker character and quick or I'll get bored. (Ok, I was a bit bored in that episode)

- Persona 4 : Leaked subs or not the quality was crappy. (I just HAD to watch the French subs when I saw it on an English speaking site ^^)
I might as well have watched it RAW, we learnt so many things and so many things happened (<-- that was irony) that I was a bit bored. (I think I'm getting bored easily lately ^^)

- Tamayura Hitotose : Well, it's slice of life, to me, it's not exactly the most exciting genre out there, so yeah a bit boring too, but I really liked the talk Potte had with the big sister at the end. I think the big sister is one of my favorite character, with the crazy teacher because I had one like him and yeah, he's worth of admiration.

- Idolm@ster : That was fun? Once again, I really admire people who blog about this.

- Sekaiichi Hatsukoi : Onodera starts to piss me off a bit.

- HunterxHunter : I like Kurapika.

- Fate/Zero : I am very disappointed by the lack of Caster and Ryuunosuke.
Aside from this, I, once again, enjoy the interaction between Waver and his servant, I liked the one between Iris and Saber as well and like Saber more in this version than usual.
And I like Kiritsugu and his twisted side hidden behind his ideals.
It's getting more and more interesting.

- Bakuman : I'm not much of a fan of Nakai and Aoki and I didn't particulary like that part of the manga either.
At least I got to see Fukuda? (Though I'd like to see Hiramaru and Yoshida much more but well ^^)

- Beelzebub : There was Blue Rose!

- Ben-To : I am convinced that the number of times I facepalm at this is correlated to how much I enjoy the episode.
Because, strangely enough, I loved it. I thought it was ridiculous and adorable, random and beautiful.
Go figure. Hello there guilty pleasure!

Mawaru Penguindrum 14 - Is Yuri into yuri?

2011-10-15T20:02:00.000+02:00

It feels quite strange to write this that late, but hey, life happens?
And in the end, the episode wasn't even that shocking/interesting/full of revelations. Well it didn't make my head go as crazy as it did the past weeks.

Anyway, I have a few, very few points to explore. First, for once, Lily Hoshino's illustration didn't make me imagine things. It was all drawn by her. (I had no idea she could do yuri that well <3)
But aside from this and more seriously.

Yuri

While I was pretty sure she had an hidden agenda, I didn't think it was this twisted.
From the beginning of the episode I am now convinced she is a man.
I thought for a good half of the episode that she was in fact Momoka but no, she's/was just in love with her, in a very very Ringo-like fashion on top of that.
On the other hand I understand where it comes from, more than I understood Ringo's stalker tendancies.

I now wonder two very interesting things :
- Will Shoma save Ringo? (Or someone else? Tabuki? Masako in her mission to fetch the diary?) Because as much as my perverted side wants to see it there's no way they'll make the story goes toward this route.
- Did she consume her marriage with Tabuki? If they didn't , well, Tabuki is even more suspicious than I thought. But if they did I am curious of her reaction to her "true self".

The Takakura.

*Shoma and Ringo were adorable. The more it goes the sadder I feel for them, obviously they'd be outcasted and avoided by everyone. And now Shoma finally found an outsider he actually cared for (more like : was forced to care for) he had to realize his parents killed her sister and obviously he can't imagine she'd really want to stay his friend.
Their fate is sad.

*Himari finally finished the scarves and, well, the two idols were wearing scarves of their color in the last ED, I kinda knew it.
On the other hand, the more it goes the more I think there's something else between her and Sanetoshi. He looked overjoyed to have them, and who else would be more than a lover?

*Kanba is really really involved with shady people. Masako was incredibly sexy.

And Kanba on the other hand is everything but a gentleman when it comes to his sister sake, he even hit a girl.
That part in the train convinced me there are more than one organization involved, the guys giving the money to Kanba aren't the ones who gave Masako her weapon, she'd have no reason to try killing them otherwise.

[1st episode]Guilty Crown

2011-10-14T18:04:00.004+02:00

It's interesting how you always can tell whenever there's a a big convention somewhere in the US. Subs are always a bit late.
I don't complain though, was busy today anyway and usually Saturdays always come bearing one single show (and it's Sekaiichi ^^), I'll have a bit more things to watch tomorrow!

Anyway, I was trying to talk about Guilty Crown. Unfortunately, I haven't quite figured what this is all about.
Apparently some kind of guerilla group fight the established power in a post apocalyptic Japan that's suffering a very dangerous disease.

I'll admit it, I braced myself for the worst, in the summary it just sounded like so many things put together I never thought it would hold. In the end it's not as bad as I thought it would be, it barely holds but it does.
And I don't even know why I started my review by my general impression. Well, since I'm at it, it's not bad, not the best anime of the century but not that bad.
Ah and it was pretty too.

Now that I've stated the good, let me tell you what was bad about it.
Mainly, the multiple "influences" from everywhere. It wouldn't be a problem if they weren't so numerous.
The post apocalyptic setting has been done and redone (Evangelion for starters), the guerilla vs. established power is the same (the Gundam serie), the powerless main character who's in fact special is the basic setting of every shonen, Japan being "occupied" by a foreign country (Hello Code Geass), the protagonist being the singer of a popular band reminded me of Chaos;Head and the virus who's supposed to be named Lost Christmas according to the summaries I've read is totally from Bloody Monday.
It's so many elements thrown together that I fear it will crumble when they'll keep on adding more.

Sadly, I'm starting to have a hard time with Kaji Yuuki, his voice is a bit flat to voice a main character, not enough variations. (Main character who didn't interest me much either)

Oh well, should be entertaining enough and if worse comes to worse, I'll just shut my brain off.

[1st episode]Un-Go

2011-10-14T17:07:00.000+02:00

One of the two Noitamina thing of the season, the first I've seen and, I'll tell you right now, my favorite. Only that Last Exile thing and Coppelion (if it still exists since we haven't uncovered the mystery yet)

So, what's Un-Go, with such a name you'd expect some futuristic thing about aliens and such. You're wrong, it's a mystery anime, set in the near future yes but without the aliens.
Or maybe (s)he's one?

Aside from the very annoying and a bit too innocent girl who probably will be a recuring character (even if I truly hope she won't) I have to say I quite like the characters.
The detective/assistant couple has been done and re-done, that one is rather classic in its execution, they're hiding their real relationship and get along rather well for a human/surnatural being couple. Aside from the little panda (for convenience I'll call that ... thing the little panda) the human is pretty generic and surrenders easily to politics, it's like he doesn't care at all for his reputation.
I can't help but wondering what their goal is because as things stand, they're not gaining anything from the mysteries.

I have to say that, so far, it is a nice mystery anime. Much better than what we've recently seen on screen. For once, even though the solution was obvious from the moment Rie fainted, it didn't bother me. They gave the viewer the elements to solve the mystery and then laid out the whole thinking process while examining fake solutions. It even put politics into the pictures.
I really liked that. When compared to other recent detective stuff, Gosick didn't show all the necessary elements to solve the mystery and KamiMemo showed them so much it was pissing me off whenever they couldn't seem to put things together, in that aspect Un-Go did a very good job.

The only problem I have had with that episode was the pace. I barely had the time to register it was starting that it was already finished. I hope they're going to fix that, it could have been a bit slower.
But I guess that's the sign I was bored so I should be happy?

I have hopes for that thing, mostly because it's adaptated from a novel, an already old novel, I'm not saying that what's old is superior, I just wanted to point out that since it's old and still remembered then there's something worthy of interest to it.
The only problem left now is how they'll adapt it because no matter how good or bad the original material is, an adaptation is only an adaptation.

Kuuki's crazy anime watchlist corner desuu~ #19

2011-10-13T12:53:00.001+02:00

Today is finally the day when Guilty Crown and Un-Go air. I was getting tired of waiting for the last shows to air before I could my wrap up post.
Still, does anyone know whether or not Coppelion is airing and when? I was actually quite interested in that but can't find any further info anywhere so ...

Anyway, as usual, beware of spoilers!

- Phi Brain : FukuJun's character makes this a hundred times better!
And I don't want to brag or anything but the last part of that puzzle, the one Kaito solved on his own, I thought about it long before he did. And it's something that pisses me off quite a bit when, in anime where I figure out stuff before a character who's supposed to be super smart does.

- Nurarihyon no Mago : Tsuda Kenjiro is awesome!
And Rikuo is even badass when he looses.

- MajiKoi : You want a concumber don't you? /shot
Still, aside from the concumber scene it was very boring. I'm considering dropping it.

- Gintama : Okita I love you.
But I think that this Love Plus parody would have been funnier if Matsudaira was included ^^

- Kimi to Boku : Boring. I spent more time complaining about it on Twitter than watching it.
I'm still giving it a chance until the new guy appear but if it doesn't manage to interest me at least a bit by then it'll be dropped.

- Horizon : I couldn't take it anymore. Dropped.

- Chihayafuru : It's adorable and Chihaya kicks ass.
I'm just wondering if it'll be as entertaining once we'll get back to their high school days

[1st episode]Mirai Nikki

2011-10-11T17:58:00.000+02:00

Another thing I was looking forward to this Fall season, unfortunately I've read the manga so it's a bit less interesting for me to watch.

So, Mirai Nikki tells the story of Yukiteru, a very normal young boy who's first and only hobby is to observe everything around him and note it in his phone diary. He doesn't have friend aside from the imaginary Deus Ex Machina who once grants him the power to see the future thanks to his diary.
Unfortunately things don't go exactly as planned.

The problem in this is simple : I have read the manga. I know exactly what will happen and how things will go from now on and everything.
It takes away the fun.

So I'm just going to tell you the story is fucked up but awesome and there are many more interesting characters to come.

I'll just concentrate on telling you what's nice with the anime.
- Norio Wakamoto makes everything awesome.
- They move and talk (but that goes without saying)
- Yuuno is ten times creepier in the anime.

However, there are things that are less pleasant.
- The atmosphere is less dark than it is in the manga (at least at this moment of the plot)
- It makes Yukiteru ten times less bearable.

The manga was awesome. I'm definitely continuing this.

[1st episode]Gundam AGE

2011-10-11T17:41:00.000+02:00

No matter how many times I read or write it, I misread that title as "Vanishing Age" every. Single. Time.
It's the sign I miss Star Driver a bit too much.

Anyway, have the first impression post of Gundam AGE, the newest edition of the popular franchise.
The story is pretty much the same as always, a young boy and his Gundam are supposed to save the world!

Unfortunately for this edition (or fortunately because it can be damn confusing) it doesn't seem that the show has all the political implications the others had, for now things are clear, we know who're the good guys and we know who're the bad guys.
But since we're in a Gundam I can't help but wonder if everything is exactly as it seems.
I know it's supposed to be kids friendly and such (though I wonder when it airs exactly) but I'm pretty sure there's more to it than meets the eyes.

I'm not going to spend time talking about how unbelievable it all is that Flit is so much smarter than everyone (including the top military commanders), more skilled than everyone etc. He's just a bit too special.
At least in the other Gundams there was some kind of explanation as to why the pilots were chosen (in Wing the scientists just took the most skilled people they could find around and in 00 it was all Veda's calculations)
Well, Flit is chosen because he's the son of the last Gundam makers but I don't see how it's a valid reason and it definitely isn't a good lesson for children (I thought we said it was aimed at children)

I don't like the character design, nor the mecha design and, as far as seiyuu are concerned, the only very notable thing is how Flit is Toshii. I love Toshii! I'm glad he's finally in something I can watch again!

In the end, while something just isn't right with this anime I'm just going to turn off my brain and enjoy.
It's less boring than Seed and UC so ...

Kuuki's crazy anime watchlist corner desuu~ #18

2011-10-09T18:00:00.000+02:00

First edition of the now famous corner featuring the anime of the Fall season 2011. Man, time goes fast doesn't it?
It's nearly ~~Barnaby's birthday~~ Halloween too ...

As usual, beware of spoilers if you're not up to date with things!

-Working : YAMADA I LOVE YOU EVEN MORE THAN BEFORE!
Same goes for Soma, damn it I had no idea I missed that show so much!

- Idolm@ster : I don't remember what happened ...

- Boku Ha Tomodachi ga Sukunai : Quite enjoyable They went slower than I expected them to in the introductions.

- Sekaiichi Hatsukoi : Don't judge me. I know it's essentially bad, but that's why it's addicting, and taken as a comedy it's funnier than most of them.
I had an epiphany during that episode too, but, the one hated by everyone, the one who puts himself in between the "two fated lovers", well, want to know something? He may be the one who's the less of a jerk in the whole serie.

- HunterxHunter : Less boring than the first episode, I think I'm going to keep on watching after all. If only for Leorio's hilarious faces.

- Bakuman : No matter how I look at it, the one who did the cast for the voice actors in that one has a problem. The only 3 I feel are a perfect match are Koyasu Takehito as Yoshida-shi, Suwabe Junichi as Fukuda (I even predicted it ^^) and Morita Masakazu as Hiramaru (and it's only because I now know he can pull the most unexpected roles). The rest is hard to listen to. I've grown used to most of them but it still doesn't feel right.
Anyway, I don't know what to say about the serie, I read the manga I know what's going to happen since it's quite a faithful adaptation.

- Fate/Zero : Excuse me while I fangirl over Uryuu Ryunosuke and Bluebeard. I have found my favorite characters!
Another really great episode, I'm so happy I gave this a chance, not regretting it a single second.

[1st episode]Ben-To

2011-10-09T17:40:00.001+02:00

As every day goes by we're getting closer and closer to the end of things I'm looking forward to.
The irony? The things I'm loiking forward to the most haven't even been released yet. I'm cursed.

Today, I've finally had the pleasure of being acquainted with Ben-To which I have dubbed as "Battle Royale in the supermarket" (pay attention it's not a combini ^^)
If you were looking for a more detailed summary I am afraid I won't be able to deliver. I still don't know what the hell I have just watched.

The anime opens on our unfortunate main character "dying" in the middle of the supermarket, his mistake? Trying to grab a half priced bento from the store.
What he didn't know however is that the half priced bento of that store are so famous (for some reason) that customers are putting their lives on the line for them.

The next events are quite blurry, well, not that there are more notable events, aside from his second (he ended up unconscious, still an improvement, he didn't need to go to the hospital again) and his third attempt, which he failed again.
As you imagine, main character is a weakling. He should be thankful to have big breasted girls around willing to teach him the in and outs of these daily battles.

In the end, while I still don't know what the hell I have watched it has good aspects.
- The megane girl is an awesome weirdo.
- Hiro Shimono is awesome. I could swear it really was Norio Wakamoto talking.

Going to continue this for sure. Even though I'm not that enthuisiastic.

Mawaru Penguindrum 13 - Sleeping Beauty

2011-10-07T17:17:00.001+02:00

It's quite thrilling to blog about an anime weekly. The main reason I usually never do it is because I never have anything interesting to say, on the other hand, Penguindrum does such horrible things to my brain that I need to write about it to sort it up.

I love that anime.

So, as expected, Himari is miraculously saved by Sanetoshi, apparently some kind of representative of Fate on Earth, or so I believe.

Obviously, he doesn't do it out of sheer kindness. Dayo ne~

Why saving Himari?

They said it was because the longer it lasts the funnier the punishment is. But, what if there's something else? Sanetoshi is quite a twisted character and he appeared twice so far, I'm not too sure I have quite grasped his character yet so everything I'm going to say is subject to caution.

- Himari is special. That much we know. Being the bride of Fate and all. If I was Sanetoshi I wouldn't want Fate to have a grudge against me. Definitely not.

- Boshi-sama is his lover. I've been saying countless time that they're probably of the same kind, given their eye color and eyelashes and such. He said he finally found someone of his kind. Himari got into the library, that other person did too.

Now, either he did something to her when he got rejected and somehow split her personnality into two hats, either there are more of their kind.

- He's just an asshole who likes playing with people. He's helping Natsume too after all.

Either way, Sanetoshi probably knows more than we thought.

The twins

Is it me or doesn't it seem like everything goes by pair?

See, Kanba and Shoma, the two Black Rabbits, the two idols, two hats.

I wonder if it has a deeper meaning or if it's just coincidence.

The apples

You probably noticed for quite some time now that the symbols are different.

And I have no idea what to make of it. So far, there have been 2 penguins symbols and Sanetoshi's, that makes it 3 symbols. There should be 3 organizations, 3 is too much, 3 doesn't work in that world, one of them has to disappear.

As usual, it doesn't make more sense than it did last week.

Which is why I'm enjoying myself quite a lot!

[1st episode] Persona 4

2011-10-07T16:57:00.000+02:00

Finally another show that got me as excited as Fate/Zero (aside from the second seasons) While Boku ha Tomodachi ga Sukunai wasn't bad, it's not exciting, just entertaining.
Anyway, I've seen Persona 4 and I loved it.

Unfortunately I never played the game so the summary may be a bit off. Basically, a high school student has to transfer to a new city, he makes friends at school and at some point and for some reason they're attack by a strange entity and they're saved by said transfer student because he has the power to summon a Persona. Fear the power of glass!

To be honest I have lowered my expectations for everything to the lowest level possible, not to mention that I feared for something that was so hyped up I couldn't even access the website on the day of the annoucement.
I've been very pleasantly surprised.

Not having played the game I can't compare, all I can compare it to is to Persona - Trinity Soul, the first attempt at animating the franchise. Well, if you, like me, liked Trinity Soul you'll like Persona 4. The premises of the serie are the same, I wonder why they always feel to make one of the hero's family member a policeman.
Well, whatever.

I really liked the opening scene, it really did feel like you were playing a regular RPG, quite a nice idea, I heard they used the music from the original game too and the seiyuu kept their roles. (That means we're getting Daisuke Namikawa as the main character, I wondered for most of the serie why they chose him to voice such an apathetic character, but I understood at the end, it fits him perfectly)

Talking about the characters, well I have nothing to say, your regular high schoolers, quite surprised by Yu in the end though, thankfully.
For now it's easy to understand even if you're not familiar with the franchise, though it's obviously a bit better, if only to know what the Persona are exactly, not that it really matters.

To sum up my impressions : it was creepy. I loved it.

[1st episode] Chihayafuru

2011-10-05T17:59:00.002+02:00

It's finally the middle of the week, the moment when there's nearly no anime broadcast or if there are they're re-runs. I'll complain again about my boredom next week I promise.

Until then, let's talk about Chihayafuru, another one that didn't make it to my initial watchlist but managed to catch me off guard.
It's the story of a high school girl, dubbed the "beauty in vain", because she's beautiful but kind of a klutz, add to that that her greatest passion is karuta, quite a rare card game and you'll get what that anime is about.
(On the other hand I understand the passion, I once played a game similar to karuta except with regular cards and it's quite entertaining and pulls you into it quite easily)

Another slice of life anime.
A josei on top of that.
Not that I particulary mind, it's just that I'm afraid I'll get fed up of the genre real fast. What's with the slice of life trend to start with?

Anyway, I quite like the main character so far, she really kicks ass, and she already did as a child.
We don't know much about the main two boys yet but I hope they'll be a bit interesting too.
Granted, the black haired one must be at least a bit, his goal is to become the world top karuta player. That's quite the original dream isn't it?

All in all not exciting but not bad either. Will probably continue to watch.

[1st episode] Tamayura Hitotose

2011-10-04T18:23:00.001+02:00

Seems that this season has quite its share of slice of life anime, the genre is growing on me it seems.

Tamayura Hitotose fits the genre perfectly, it's the story of a girl who lost her father, who loved photography. Her family and her move back to the father's hometown and the meantime she picks up photography using the same old camera her father used.

First, photography is one of my hobby and the reason why I picked this up in the first place. I like to hear why it is interesting for other people and why they like it, what they see in it and how they see their work.
I liked her vision of fixing happy memories in photographs. It's a very positive vision.

Second thing I liked in this is the theme of loss. I like to see how this very unhappy subject is treated in anime and other forms of entertainment that are supposed to be entertaining, not make the viewer feel down.
I find it cute, not very realistic but cute to see how the heroine follows on her father's footsteps.
(On the other hand if I had a friend like Chihiro, well, while her intentions are nice, I'd never ever be able to stand her)

I don't really have anything else to note except that I'll be looking forward to the next episodes. (Which seems to be quite a rare thing this season)

[1st episode] Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon

2011-10-04T18:13:00.000+02:00

As you may have noticed I made a new banner, I don't even know where the hell I found time to devote to this but I did, as such, please enjoy this temporary Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Halloween themed banner.
I thought it fit quite well.

Back to the topic at hand, mainly the other Sunrise Saturday night anime Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon. You probably ask for a summary but I have no idea what the hell it is about. The official one reads that it's about a very modern Japan re-enacting Sengoku Jidai war for some reason having to do with manipulated history.
I might as well tell you now, I haven't understood a thing.

I can't even critique the plot, I haven't seen it, but there are lots of things I can critique.

- What the hell is this absolutley awful character design? The expressions are shitty, while the form of the body is OK (I've seen Clamp stuff before, I can deal with really strange body shapes) the heads are defying all logic, boobs, boobs everywhere and a total ignorance of male anatomy.

- Why do you guys censor some rather innocent and clothed breast fondling while displaying a totally naked man running around and claiming he's not suspicious (I'll admit I feel quite sad for said male since he lacks quite an important part)
Point is, it runs between 2am and 3am. Who cares about censorship at this hour?

- I'd say it has a good cast but they can't do miracles. Even if it's FukuJun.

- This is worse than Sacred Seven. I'll watch the second episode in case the plot develops enough for me to ignore, well, everything else.
If it doesn't interest me by then. Dropped.

[1st episode]Kimi to Boku

2011-10-04T13:09:00.000+02:00

As excited as I was for the Fall season to start, I think I might be going overboard and will start to drown very soon.

So, Kimi to Boku, the summary is quite easy : cute boys talking with each others.
It's not even about doing stuff, well, they did stuff, but they mostly talked.

The plot is non-existent. I should have known, it's a slice of life. As it's only their first week of school I think I'll let it get away with that. It's an introduction self, they're using it to introduce the characters.
Or so I try to convince me. I hope it wasn't introducing the general atmosphere of the anime or I'll fall asleep trying to follow.
I was talked into trying to watch this before it aired by people saying the manga was cute and funny.
I smiled more at MajiKoi.

Usually that kind of anime is light hearted too. Kimi to Boku isn't. Apparently these high schoolers were already casually talking about death among themselves in pre-school.
For some reasons the atmosphere felt heavy.

The cast isn't bad, there's Kouki Miyata who was Kimimaro in C and Toyonaga Toshiyuki who never gets enough roles among other talented people.

Might be dropped by next episode if it doesn't pick up. I wouldn't mind an all male K-On, at all actually, but at least make it light hearted? Or go all out into the depressing stuff, or, I don't know, make me laugh how a comedy is supposed to?
Well, do something? Anything. Really.

[1st episode]Phi Brain - Kami no Puzzle

2011-10-03T20:04:00.000+02:00

First of the two new Saturday night Sunrise anime (or so I assume, which reminds me, I missed Hoshizora Sunrise yesterday, I like that radio show) have the review of the first episode of Phi Brain.

Apparently, this is the story of a young man, Daimon Kaito, great fan and genius at solving puzzle. One day the president of the student council and puzzle club gives him a mobile device that leads him to an unsolvable puzzle that he solves anyway (obviously, he's the genius protagonist) thus gaining access to the power of his Phi Brain (that apparently makes him even more of a genius).

Plot is interesting, at least it got me more interested than the average Sunrise first episodes, the whole concept of solving puzzles to make the plot advance is quite interesting.
That first episode made me think about a Zelda game, finding your way through the dungeon, then acquiring your prize, but oh god another brain teaser to solve and you can finally get out of the place.
These were my favorite parts of the games. Of course I'd like to see the same concept in an anime, it's quite a shame we can't take part in the solving process though, it goes too fast and they don't really present the viewer with enough elements to do so, but since they don't make it obvious either I'm happy.

There's not really anything worth to note about the characters so far, the principal and the student council president obviously have a not-so-hidden agenda. The main character seems like an average delinquent and the main girl like an average main protagonist best friend.
Apparently next week we will discover the character voiced by FukuJun, who, judging from the voice he used in the preview, will be quite an interesting fellow.
I'll be looking forward to it.

So far, and aside from Bakuman which got me fangirling for a very shallow reason, Phi Brain is one of my favorite show of the season.
And the music writer should get more jobs! He's damn good.

[1st episode]MajiKoi

2011-10-03T19:42:00.000+02:00

The season has barely started and this is already the second anime I wasn't at all interested in but check anyway. I think I'm doomed.

Summoning my greatest courage and not even remembering what the hell this was about. (I did read it though, I just forgot) I watched this. MajiKoi for short because I forgot the actual title too.
In the end it turns out to be some kind of harem anime in which the main protagonist already confessed and was rejected by his older sister and they're all going to a school where conflicts are solved by school wide fights.

To be honest, I don't even know what to talk about when it comes to this anime, because ... nothing happened.
Well, they all fought against each other and I didn't even figure out who belonged to which team.
From the look of it, it doesn't seem like it'll be mindblowing either.

Too many character, so many I don't remember their names aside from Kuki Ageha and Kuki Hideo and that's only because we share names. But at the same time, after 3 months of Idolm@ster I don't remember all of their names either. Guess that MajiKoi will share the same fate.

Putting the whole incest part aside (because I, myself, am a big sister, I'd freak out) it's nothing revolutionnary, school setting, martial arts and cute girls.
The only redeeming point of the anime? Its cast, especially concerning the male characters, Kamiya Hiroshi is voicing the main one, there's Katsuyuki Konishi, Yusa Koji, I heard Koyasu Takehito and Nakamura Yuuichi was priceless as Hideo.

To sum it up, I normally wouldn't watch it, but it has Kamiya, as a result and very reluctantly, it makes it to my watchlist.
Though it'll be the second thing to be dropped if really I can't keep up.

[1st episode] Fate/Zero

2011-10-02T21:49:00.003+02:00

Last post of the day before I get swamped under more construction work (which doesn't mean you shouldn't expect stuff tomorrow, I still have the Sunrise Saturday timeslot to review)

It's kinda hard to summarize that anime, if you know Fate/Stay Night you know it's a prequel to it.
If you don't know, well, it's about battles of magicians summoning heroes from past eras to fight against each other to obtain the Holy Grail to have a wish granted.

Quite long first episode, not that it feels at all like 45 minutes. Really, time went fast.
Second very important stuff to note : this is actually quite good.
See, I didn't like Fate/Stay Night very much. I didn't hate it but wasn't a fan either and stopped watching the movie halfway through because I was bored. So my expectations were low.
I'm surprised. This is good.
Probably mainly because there's no annoying Shiro.

As you may have guessed, I didn't want to watch it and if I did it's only because I heard Kajiura Yuki was doing the soundtrack. As expected it's wonderful. And as expected she found something new to add to her usual style.
Second reason why I thought I'd give it a try was because I heard Urobuchi Gen was involved. It shows.
Probably not a good thing for everyone though. If you are araid of insects. Stay away.

To sum everything up, and even if that episode only introduces the characters, their relation and the general situation, I really enjoyed myself.
No previous knowledge of the serie is necessary either. It was a good first episode.

Summer 2011 - The end

2011-10-02T21:27:00.001+02:00

And with this come the end of the Summer 2011 season.
With the end of a season come the final impressions post.
Want to know something? It's a disaster.

I tried to come up with a top 3 and this is what I got. All 3 being 24-episodes anime, 2 of which having debuted in Spring already, thus not really belonging there either, but the situation is that dire.

3 - Mawaru Penguindrum

2 - Steins;Gate

1 - Tiger&Bunny

They all got their dedicated posts already and Penguindrum is the first anime I ever felt the need to blog almost weekly. I'll leave it at one more thing before I move on to the other stuff and attempt to rank them, these 3 anime are awesome. Watch them.

For the rest, well, you're familiar with my Crazy anime watchlist corner, then you know what to expect, the rest of the post will be huge.

13 - Sacred Seven

First time ever I dropped an anime halfway through the season. Should tell everything.

12 - Utapri

I expected it to suck and so it did. No big deal. Was watching only for the seiyuu anyway.

11 - Idolm@ster

I expected it to be exactly what it is, watching this only for mindless entertainment, not very interesting but not boring enough to drop. Yeah, mindless entertainment.

10 - KamiMemo

On the other hand I had great hopes for that one. I lost all of them during the Hison arc, not only do I hate predictability but I hate it even more when they think the viewers are idiots.

I would have been ready to forgive them everything, really, if only it didn't have that much of a promising first episode. That's why it's so low, because I felt like they wasted the potential.

09 - Ikoku Meiro no Croisée

A cute story about a cute girl trying to get used to a new country.

There's nothing more to it.

And, while I was super excited to see my country portrayed in an anime, I think that cringing at all the inaccuracies and misconceptions kinda ruined it a bit for me. And well, I live there, even worse, I've seen the real Galeries du Roi, it's not really exotic or anything.

08 - Nurarihyon no Mago

I have a yokai bias. And I can't help it, it has a lot of great seiyuu and the fights aren't as boring as they could be. It's enjoyable but there's really nothing more to it.

07 - Ao no Exorcist

Loved the manga. Very much and, while some parts of the anime were a bit shitty (even when you do forget the fact these were an original storyline) it was still entertaining? Not the wonderful anime it could have been and definitely not a faithful adaptation but it has so little material to work on that it was a given from the start.

Could have been better. And the extra Mameshiba helped greatly my enjoyment of the last episode.

06 - Kami-sama Dolls

If you forget the last episode and the lack of answers we got it was an interesting anime and a fun ride.

Just lacked something I still haven't pinpointed to be really awesome (like, say, ... answers)

05 - Hanasaku Iroha

Despite being quite weak in terms of plot and character develpement, along with me being quite adverse to slice of life anime most of the time, I still found myself enjoying this. Not the best thing ever but still quite nice if you have time to spend.

04 - No6

It was a nice 10 episodes serie!

Would have been better with more answers and less useless scenes, which, considering it had only 10 episodes would have been a nice idea. It's quite sad because if it would have gone a "realistic" way with less emphasis on the characters and more on the city it could have been great.

What, you're saying there was a 11th episode? Where the hell did you get this from? ...

03 - Dantalian no Shoka

Despite the fact I'm still wondering what the hell was the point to this anime, if I take the episodes as separate 20min mini-movies it's actually quite nice.

Once again, not the very best out there, but still has enough entertainment value to spend time on.

02 - Usagi Drop

It was very, very, very good before I read the manga.

So if you're going to watch, don't read the manga beforehand, it spoils the fun.

01 - Natsume Yuujinchou San

Natsume is always adorable and awesome and it has yokai and there's going to be a fourth season guys. A FOURTH.

You should watch it. (But don't read the manga or it spoils the fun a little too)

So my general impression? Disappointed. Either I become too hard to please or this season was really weak.

[1st episode] HunterxHunter 2011

2011-10-02T17:08:00.001+02:00

And finally the long awaited Fall season 2011 is there! (If you don't count Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai)
My first victim is HunterxHunter, the remake of the first serie. I haven't seen it so I might as well tell you right away that I won't be able to compare them, but I thought the cast was worth it, and since the guy who wrote it wrote Level E too I thought it was worth a shot. (I never seem to watch enough anime anyway ^^)

HunterxHunter is a basic shonen, the story of the growth of a young guy who wants to follow his father's footsteps and doing so meets friends and fight alongside them etc etc.
Same as usual, really.

Which is why I'm not too sure I'll be able to follow through.
I mean, there's nothing wrong with basic shonen, but the problem is ... it lacks originality.
I don't like the lack of originality, because it brings along my most powerful foe in anime, predictability. Which, as anyone know, piss me off. Especially if the storyline is one of the only strong point of the anime.

To be honest, this is a bit below what I was expecting. Mostly because I expected to, at least, smile a little. (Hell, the original author wrote Level E). I didn't smile.
And all I got was a generic shonen first episode with a character design that reminded me of my first childhood anime (even the OP got that old feeling to it)
I know that usually this genre, especially when the manga was published in Jump, picks up later. But will I last?

The cast is wonderful, as expected. Seeing Keiji Fujiwara as Lerio was an interesting experience and Sawashiro Miyuki was really scary as the blond guy.
On the other hand, and mark my words because it's the first time ever it happened, the music was shit.
Ok not shit, just, definitely not fit to be used a background music, especially not in a shonen with such storyline, I bore with the composer in Break Blade because his kind of epic music actually fitted epic mecha fights, but it doesn't fit in HunterxHunter. This music should be played in a concert room for classical music fanatics. (If it should be played at all because to be honest, while I love classical music, this is not the kind I particulary like)
First time ever I considered dropping an anime mainly because the music pissed me off.

To sum it up? It barely makes the cut, and only because I at least want to hear Namikawa Daisuke in it and some people consider the original serie a classic.
If I end up having troubles to keep up with my shows, it'll be the first to be dropped.

Mawaru Penguindrum 12 - After black Tigers come black rabbits

2011-09-30T17:17:00.000+02:00

Every week I really look forward to Mawaru Penguindrum, because every week I am mindblown (and let's face it, since the end of Tiger&Bunny and Steins;Gate there's not really anything I look forward to, my Summer 2011 recap post will be depressing -___-)
This week is the same. Maybe even more than usual. I wouldn't devote it a post if it was some minor informations, remember, I'm lazy.

If you're like me you wanted some fantastic revelations about the day when everyone is born. We got them.
(And actually I have one more for you, but, I too, am born on that day. And trust me, it's a bit creepy)

Anyway.

The Takakura

Rushing out of his (very suspicious) workplace, Kenzan Takakura goes to the hospital to see his wife. And, as soon as he is there, initiates the Survival Strategy. (Which may or may not mean he's been in contact with another Hat being, he probably was and I think it's Sanetoshi, but more on that later)
During the ride and before we learn TWO important things.
- When exiting the car and giving the signal for the attack to start we saw two plans of him, two mirrored scenes. So, I believe Kenzan Takakura has a twin.
- When receiving the call from the hospital, and that is of utmost importance, they said ONE child. And he repeating he has A child. Not children. Child. (and even with my very small knowledge of Japanese I can tell it wasn't a translation mistake)

So what does it mean?
First, one of the "twin" isn't Kenzan's. (I thought they didn't look alike ^^). Then, what is the other? The child of Kenzan's twin? A random child picked up on the streets? A clone?
And what about Himari? Is she really Kenzan's child? Is she really related to either of the twin? Is she the result of human experiment?

That leads to another question. What the hell did they do in Antartica? Human experiments?
Did they trigger fate by digging up something they shouldn't have dug? Were they searching for the Penguindrum?

Mary and the lambs

The story of Mary (who is a man in the story) basically tells us that doing something you're forbidden to do will bring consequences. That there are reasons why some things are forbidden.
And that if you really want something you will have to make sacrifices along the way.

First question, who's who?
We can easily figure out for the lamb, we can easily figure out, I think we can fairly assume that "Mary" is in fact Kenzan.
Logically the goddess would be Fate and then the tree would be their mother.
The ashes would be, probably, the Penguindrum, which is apparently a pretty useful tool to keep people alive.
So, in my theory, Kenzan wanted the Penguindrum to save his wife with no regard for others, he probably gave his life for it (see what Kanba tried to do), and I hope unknowingly his daughter life.
Now, what's happening is that Kanba wants to get the Penguindrum at all cost to save Himari, who's herself endangered because his father wanted (and used) the Penguindrum. Kanba is safe but Himari isn't, because they don't have the Penguindrum. Yet. (At the very least, for now Shoma is safe?)

Sanetoshi and the bride of Fate
Back on what I said about Sanetoshi and what Himari said about "returning to her home, the Destination of Fate". Sanetoshi comes from there, thus they're the same kind of being.
Which is why I think Sanetoshi may be one of those who managed to obtain the Penguindrum and that he was previously living inside the Takakura Mother. As such, she might be alive somewhere or the consequences of using the Penguindrum is that these beings completely take over the body they used.
In any case, these beings who obtained the Penguindrum could really be the goddess of the story.
On the other hand I don't believe things are completely finished for Himari and her Hat.
Because Sanetoshi came with both the black rabbits and the apple, he wants to offer an alternative to them.
Which could mean that he's the one behind everything and thus, Fate if you continue on previous analysis.
And then, Himari would be his bride.
And damn is this confusing -____-

March 20th and the diary and Tabuki
*The diary is the only thing that remained from Momoka. What remains after a fire is : the ashes.
I'm now pretty sure, after lots of denial, that the diary is the Penguindrum. Probably just part of it though because if that was that easy Boshi-sama would have won already.
On the other hand, Momoka herself is ashes, Japanese custom is to burn bodies after their death (if what they burnt as Momoka is really Momoka ...)
That makes too many metaphors
*Tabuki has really strange scars on his hand. And he seemed quite without parents during the funerals.
Did he sacrifice them for a purpose? And what that purpose was?
The Penguindrum too? For Momoka's sake? For Ringo's sake?
*March 20th is an important date (aside from being my birthday I mean), it's a turning point.
Not only is it an equinox, the day when night is as important as day, but also the day before the zodiac changes from pisces to ... aries.
That is to say, lambs ...

To sum everything up. My brain is a mess and I'm not even sure if this makes any sense.

Kuuki's crazy anime watchlist corner desuu~ #17

2011-09-28T12:37:00.001+02:00

I talked a lot today. Then again, a lot of things are ending, and since I'm too lazy to make a whole post for each of them ...
It's hard watching so many anime at the same time isn't it?

- Hanasaku Iroha : Ok, I'll admit it, I feared for Sui to die before the end of the serie. I'm glad she didn't. She's not a good mother but definitely a great woman!
I'm not really sure if I'm satisfied with that ending, well, it has the merit of really be a turning point in everyone's lives so I guess it works as an ending.
Oh and I was delighted to see Yuina studying French on her own. I found that pretty cute. I think she was my favorite character, though hard to understand.

- Ao no Exorcist : One episode left. While I'm relieved it's ending I'll miss Mephisto.
And, am I the only one who get slightly annoyed by emo!Satan?
And, am I the only one who keeps on being reminded of various and very unrelated stuff while watching it? While I'm totally admitting my numerous Tiger&Bunny moments were just my fangirlism acting up, it's been several episodes it's reminding me of Bleach. This one had a very Lennon's Imagine moments and the moving statues are totally from Kirikou! (which is a French animation movie you don't particulary need to see)
Oh, and I loved the Armaggedon quote, if anyone caught the reference please go tell GG, their editor was sad ^^

- Nurarihyon no Mago : Recap episode. I skipped.
The only recap episodes I watch are Gintama's.

- Gintama : (Admire my skills at making transitions!)
At first, I didn't care much, see, I watched the first episode of Sket Dance and thought it was generic and not a masterpiece at all, so well, at worse I thought it'd be funny because one of the main character of Sket Dance is also voiced by Sugita Tomokazu, who voices Gin.
I was pretty sure they'd make seiyuu jokes. I was right.
They were hilarious, because, what I didn't know before I looked at the cast list of Sket Dance, is that all of the 3 main seiyuu of Sket Dance voiced people in Gintama.
One of them being .... Jugem.

- Natsume Yuujinchou : NOOOOO! COME BAAAAAAACK!
It may have been the serie I talked about the less during this summer, but definitely one my favorite. I totally recommend it. Come on, you have the time to watch the first 3 seasons before January don't you? (because yes! They're going for a fourth! That makes me hope for one of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei as well ...)

- Kamisama Dolls : So that's it? Does it mean we're getting a second season?
I honestly wouldn't mind because, mmh, what is Mahiru doing? What is Kirio doing? And Kuuko? And did her father finally discovered the truth? (He was with Kirio after all ...) and what impact did it have? And how things went between Kyohei and Hibino? (I'll easily admit I was cheering for them to just go at it on the roof, is it just me?) What happened between Aki, Kyohei and the village? And Kukuri? And Amaterasu? And why is Kyohei controlling Kukuri again at the end?
Basically and to sum it up, unless you're clear about announcing a second season, a finale episode that makes you ask more questions than the rest of the serie alltogether is BAD.
The serie in itself wasn't, but please don't raise so many questions if you're not going to resolve anything.

More Tiger&Bunny songs!

2011-09-25T20:24:00.003+02:00

I knew it would made its way on Youtube in no time.

As I was talking about earlier today, the Tiger&Bunny OST set for release on Ocotober 19th and that, strangely enough, I didn't care much for before, will include, at least a song. A trio.

Whether you remember the episode of the strange new unit B.T.B. or not, whether you were watching Tiger&Bunny or not, you HAVE to listen to this.
It's Kotobuki Minako (who sings quite well in that one), with occasionnal help from Hiroaki Hirata and very thoughtful comments from Morita Masakazu. ("See you tomorrow")

I might as well tell you. I cried. Of laughter.
And I can tell you that even if they obviously heard it before the guys presenting the radio show and their guest Morita Masakazu had troubles keeping their cool too. (He still managed to be adorable and spent 5min thanking the fans, by the way.)

[Summer 2011] Seiyuu top 10!

2011-09-25T17:24:00.000+02:00

Remember last season's "voices hit or miss" post? Well, I decided I'll do things differently for Summer, mostly because I realized there was no point to rant about Kishio Daisuke for each show I'm watching. I don't like him. I think you got it.
Then, came the second question, do I still consider shows that started back in Spring? Do I consider shows that are going to run until Winter? In the end, after lots of talking with myself (and, I'll admit it, heavily influenced by the fact I was listenning to a radio show with Morita Masakazu as a guest), I thought : screw it! I'll consider everything!

So, in the end, the only shows I'll leave out (officially) are Beelzebub and Gintama. Sorry Sugita, I still love you!

10 - Ono Daisuke
I have to admit I'm usually not much of a fan of his because his voice is usually very flat. That works perfectly for characters such as Huey (Dantalian no Shoka), but sometimes he surprises me like he did with Shizuo, and so he did as Yondaime. That's why he's there, because I didn't think he'd pull it off that well.

9 - Suwabe Junichi
As usual, he's perfect as the ambiguous villain in Natsume Yuujinchou. We won't talk about his singing in Utapri because that was terrific for everyone but he did well as the rich boy who's only thinking about girls.

8 - Mamoru Miyano
Once again leaving Utapri aside (even though his version of Amazing Grace was really pretty) he was just too perfect as Okarin in Steins;Gate. So perfect I didn't realize it was him at first.

7 - Nobuhiko Okamoto
He's everywhere, I just can't leave him out and I have to admit that while I was wary of him when I first read Ao no Exorcist's castlist, he does a good job as Rin.
And he did fit Origami in Tiger&Bunny pretty well in my opinion. On the other he isn't special at all and tend to piss me off a bit in Kamisama Dolls. And he shouldn't sing. At all.

6 - Fukuyama Jun
Same as above, I didn't expect him to voice Yukio in Ao no Exorcist, I knew he'd pull it off because it's FukuJun but I didn't think it'd fit that well.
And then there's Rikuo in Nurarihyon, he really does that kind of dual personnalities well. And during this second season he appears more as night!Rikuo so I can hear his deep voice more. I'm happy.

5 - Kana Hanazawa
She's one of my favorite female seiyuu, ever, but well, before her character in Kamisama Dolls appeared she wouldn't have made it to the list. I love her, but I'm not a fan of her cute voice, so yeah, when she came down from the sky and started using her deep voice, I started fangirling.

4 - Kamiya Hiroshi
He's Natsume guys! Natsume is adorable!
He's Mephisto guys! Mephisto is such a twisted and interesting characters.
And the voices of both these characters are quite different. He's good, you can't deny it.

3 - Yusa Kouji
I don't even know why he's so high up the list, he's the young version of Nurarihyon in the eponym anime and Lunatic/Yuri Petrov in Tiger&Bunny. He sounded so evil and so nice, both at the same time.

2 - Ayu Matsuura
She voiced Rin in Usagi Drop. It was perfect. She's 10 years old.
That's all I have to say.

1 - Morita Masakazu
Sadly, he doesn't get many roles in anime (guess he must be busy with Bleach) but, I was stunned by his performance as Barnaby. When I checked the cast when it first started I admit I was a bit weirded out, first I didn't recognize him and second, I never thought of him as very good.
How wrong I was.
So, he's in first because he's the first seiyuu who made me cry so much with the tone of his voice alone. He'd better get more emotionnal roles (in anime) instead of his usual fighting addicts.
Too bad he speaks so fast on radio shows. But I can make out he's adorable all the same.
(And damn, guys, I have a surprise for you, as soon as someone uploads that damn song somewhere on the internet, it gets posted here, it's too epic! (and hilarious) Full version out on October 19th)

Kuuki's crazy anime watchlist corner desuu~ #16

2011-09-25T14:55:00.000+02:00

I know I've already complained, but I can't stop, I love to complain, it's one of my favorite hobby, so, this corner feels empty at this time of the year. Well, next week I'll have new stuff, but until then, please bear with it.
Oh, and I'm kinda a bit disappointed by Kalafina's new album, but I guess I'll vent my frustration on a dedicated post. I've never reviewed an album before, guess it's the perfect occasion.
Anyway, beware of spoilers!

- Mawaru Penguindrum : Mmmh well. Yuri was indeed surprising but what was the most was the fact the potion actually worked.
I just couldn't stop laughing. It was amazing.
And now I just can't stop wondering who the hell is that third party after the Penguindrum.
And what the hell really happened on that day.
AND THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS I WONDER ABOUT THIS ANIME.
Damnit.

- Idolm@ster : Miki, I love you but please stop.

- KamiMemo : I liked that episode. It was predictable, as always, but sweet anyway. Narumi was incredibly cute. I love how much he cares for his friends.
I love how much Yondaime cares for his friends too. Well ok, I just love Yondaime.
What I liked best were Alice's words at the end. The speech about NEETs. About how it's not that there's nothing they want to do, just that they choose to do it differently and that people just say they're NEETs and that it allows them to just give up and continue their lives without caring too much.
I loved that speech.
In the end, what I liked best in KamiMemo were the first and the last episode. Not a good sign. Not a bad anime either, just, once again, wasted potential.

- Utapri : It took me the whole season, but I finally have found the perfect word to describe the serie : kitsch.
All in all, it wasn't bad, just, well, an otome game adaptation. And cliché. And kitsch.
But the last episode was pretty hilarious for some reason.

- Dantalian no Shoka : I have to admit, even being European and supposed to be knowledgeable in the are, I had some troubles to tell which side the planes belonged to. The big black cross are the symbol of the Luftwaffe and the tricolor circles were the Royal Air Force. Even with knowing this fact, at times I just couldn't tell.
That's what I didn't like in that episode, it was a bit too confusing, took me quite some times to understand he Illas was a traitor. And I still don't get his motives.
And there are so many things I didn't get in that episode.
But I loved Illas! Hell, it was Hayami Shou! He has something that makes him perfect to voice traitors ^^

[1st episode]Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai

2011-09-22T17:24:00.002+02:00

Slowly, new things are starting to come out (even though it's officially just a preview) I'm glad, I don't really like the time between two seasons, it's a bit sad.

But, readers of Kuuki no Puraido, rejoice! Today is the day we discover together the episode 0 of Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai!

I know I probably should wait for the actual episode but I don't think the overall atmosphere of the serie will change, if anything, it'd be a better indicator of the rest of the serie than the first and usually introductory episode.

At least episode 0 makes us jump straight into things.

So, it's yet another harem story, revolving around Hasegawa Kodaka, who, as the title kindly puts it, don't have many friends. When he meets whichever girl it was, he realizes he's not the only one who's facng this predicament and thus they decide to establish a club dedicated to a simple purpose : making friends.

The plot sounds lame. You're right it is. Lame and cliché. (The OVA starts by a beach scene. Yes, they don't beat around the bush)

The cast of characters look like they're all coming out of an eroge. You get the imouto, the shy maid, the smart girl, the (very out of place) sister, the tsundere, and the big breasted blonde.

And obviously there's only one man.

Normally, with such a plot and cast of characters I'd say pass (actually I did, it originally didn't even make it the list of anime I wanted to at least try). I wouldn't even think twice about it. I just know this kind of show is not my cup of tea.

But obviously again, there are exceptions. The main one in the past has been Kore wa Zombie desu ka? And from the look of it Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai seems like it'll be one as well.

Why? Well, it's not your average harem anime.

First, the girls are not what they seem to be. I don't really know how to express it, and it's actually just a feeling that hasn't been proven by any fact, but I'm pretty sure they're all going to surprise me, at least a bit.

The guy is an average harem anime guy though, doesn't seem like he has much depth to him.

Second, it's trash. I don't know many anime where the two main girls throw up on the main guy during the very first episode (and to be honest, that's the very reason I tried to watch, too curious for my own good I guess).

Lastly, it's amusing. It didn't make me laugh, but I did smile a few times, so I guess it shall be enough.

Oh, and it has nice seiyuu too! Such as two of my favorite girls ever, Kana Hanazawa and Marina Inoue.

I shall now wait patiently for the actual first episode, hoping it'll stay that way so I like it enough to keep on watching (Or not because my watchlist will explode if I already start to add more anime I didn't intend to watch ^^)

Kuuki's crazy anime watchlist corner desuu~ #15

2011-09-21T10:35:00.001+02:00

So many things are finishing, yet, nothing really started so far and I miss Steins;Gate.
In the meantime you can still check my tentative crazy watchlist for Fall.

- Hanasaku Iroha : Mmh, well, fine, if you want.
The best thing in this episode was Nako's speech about how some people can't have dreams on their own and just tag along with the others'.
Nako became my favorite character.

- Ao no Exorcist : Despite being a filler, it's actually quite nice.
I hope they asked the mangaka about revealing such important things thought.

- Nurarihyon no Mago : I love that 13th heir or whoever it is.

- Gintama : I don't like pajamas. Do you?

- Croisée : So, that's it? That's how it ends?
Sure. Why not.
Well, ok, I don't know what to think. About the episode. Nor about the serie.

- Natsume : Probably one of the sweetest episode (and chapter of the manga)
Felt so sad for Natsume and so happy he's finally found a place where he belongs.
On the other hand there's only one episode left, I'm slowly loosing hope for my second favorite chapter to be animated.

- Kamisama Dolls : While this episode was enjoyable, wonderful even, I start to really wonder how they'll end this. There's no way they'll have time to wrap up everything properly in one episode.
Once again, many things will be left unknown and I'll be going crazy trying to make theories of my own.
On the other hand, Kuuko really kicks ass!
And Kirio was adorable.

[Tiger&Bunny]When fandom makes you do crazy things

2011-09-20T20:30:00.002+02:00

You're free to skip this post if you want to keep whatever image you had of me before., because even to my standards, what I'm about to talk about is nuts.
But I regret nothing!

Back then when we all couldn't decide whether Kotetsu was dead or alive, two friends of mine, the creators of the blog This is Sternbild, came up with a silly idea, let's all make fried rice!
And so we did.

In one week time, the silly idea of two crazy (but lovely) people had been adopted by more or less 300 others crazy (but lovely) people. (If you want to see CLICK HERE)

The list has been compiled yesterday and so far we've received words from none other than the director Satou Keiichi, the producer Ozaki Masayuki and even from the writer Nishida Masafumi.

I've been involved in a lot of different fan communities in the past, not just blogs, but forums and other websites and it's the first time I see anything like that. Got to love the power of the internet.
I can't help but find this amazing and adorable. Crazy, yes totally, but adorable.
And again, I regret nothing! (and I've learnt to cook carrot cake in the process)

Kuuki's crazy anime watchlist corner desuu~ #14

2011-09-18T17:13:00.000+02:00

Before I leave you with my usual anime report, December will come with a full album of Tiger&Bunny character songs (Oh god how much I want one for Agnès you have no idea) and second, and totally unrelated, a new Kalafina album is released in a few days. I can't wait. I love Kalafina.

- No6 : I could have forgiven this anime for all its plot holes, after all you can't possibly animate 9 light novel volumes into a 11 episodes anime without it being a bit rushed.
I wanted to know more but I do understand why I can't.
But, damn, how could they make that ending so lame?
To be honest I was loving it, until weird things started happening around the body and I just knew they would go down that path. I cringed. It was ridiculous to the point I laughed.
So yeah I'm incredibly disappointed in this anime, and I wasn't even expecting much, the episode I liked the most was the first, and it shouldn't be that way, considering it has pretty much nothing to do with the rest.
Another show with great potential wasted.

- Usagi Drop : Well, true to its tradition it shows yet another episode of Rin and Daikichi's lives and as usual it's adorable.
While Daikichi finally accepts and finds happiness in his new life as a father it doesn't feel much like an ending.
On the other hand and even if I really wanted to see it animated, the manga ending doesn't feel much like an ending either. Always hard to find a closure to a slice of life anime I guess, unless someone dies, or moves away, so it's not that bad.

- Idolm@ster : Is that really going to be 25 episodes? Oh well I don't really care.
Miki was there, Miki should get even more screentime.

- Dantalian no Shoka : Very pretty violin. I loved this episode the most so far.
Not that there's anything else to note because it always follows the same pattern.

- KamiMemo : So yeah, I'm now pretty sure Ayaka has been drugged.
Aside from that fact, well, it's easier to enjoy this when you stopped having expectations. Really.

- UtaPri : I'M SORRY MAMO-CHAN!
I know I said he did a crappy job in that anime so far but he was good in that one (well, the songs aside, as usual)
Oh and damn this anime and its predictability.

- Beelzebub : I guess there's on thing you have to learn from this episode and it's that maids are a dangerous breed.

Tiger&Bunny 25 - Eternal Immortality

2011-09-17T22:09:00.000+02:00

Want the short version of what I'm going to write? Watch the show. Once you get through the first episode it's surprising at so many levels. And now it's finished you won't have to deal with the cliffhangers.

For the long version and after episode 25 thoughts (once again, haven't seen the subs yet) it's under the cut. Because I wouldn't want to spoil.

To be honest I already wanted to title this "And they lived happily everafter", but first, it'd be a bit too spoilerish and second, well, I said I'd keep my fujoshi side in check.

It's kinda amusing how everything is linked together, remember the title of the first episode "All's end that ends well"?

Well, first, and against all expectations it did end well and second, the episodes, they're mirrored, it's kinda fun. It starts with bickering and a wonderful princess carry and it ends with bickering and a wonderful princess carry.

Anyway, I'm not too sure I want to sum up the last episode, just, know that there are so many questions left unsolved that even as an hopeless fangirl of this shows, I'm a bit disappointed. It's not like they could wrap up everything we didn't know in one single episode but not getting to know more about Ouroboros? Even if it's only a little, I'm disappointed. All that's left are speculations and we've been at it for 2 hours and I'll be continuing with more people once the subs will be out.

All we ended up knowing is that they're damn scary (since Maverick prefered to erase all of his memories to protect his life, we kinda knew that) and that they have a lot of influence (Granted, we knew that too since the symbol appeared on one of these back in episode 4 or 5, my theory that they're the ones controlling the city is still valid! We even came up with the theory that they're using the city as an experiment on NEXTs, well whatever ^^)

Second very important thing to know is that I fangirled so much in that episode you have no idea. Over Saitou and his genius, over Kotetsu and his "I've returned from hell MWAHAHA", over Kotetsu and his bare chest (seriously, they killed me with that), over the hug of relief, over the princess carry, over the bickering, over Bunny's "There's no meaning to it if Kotetsu's not there anymore" and, and over Agnès, her badassness and her fucking erotic voice.

I loved the tiny bits of everyone's lives after that (I seriously think there's more to Nathan and Antonio's relationship than that), and I'm not too sure yet about them going back to the business together but oh well, against all of my expectations everyone's alive so I guess I won't complain.

Actually I'm not too sure about what I think about this ending for two main reasons. First, it's the ending, I hate to see things ending, especially when I love them. But, I want to know so much more (as in Ouroboros, or the NEXT powers, or the future of HeroTV or Kaede or Lunatic), and the characters, we saw them but we don't know their feelings about everything that happened, that was one of the strong point of the anime too.

The only one who got his satisfactory ending in that aspect is Barnaby. Yes, the scene at the graveyard was touching (and yes I cried OK?)

It's been a fun ride. Really fun. Made lots of friends in the process and the livestream sessions were wonderful (making friends wither other fujoshi is quite simple it goes like "OMG you ship them too??!" "YES I DO!" and then you're BFF. For real.)

I've never been happier to be wrong and now, all that's left is to wait for that "first part of the NEXT project" on November and wish with all my heart for a second season.

Mawaru PenguinDrum 10 - Fate loves me

2011-09-16T17:08:00.000+02:00

You may have noticed the incredible amount of posts in this blog during the last days, let me tell you something. Insomnia has only one good redeeming point : more time to blog.
And, while my brain really wants to make a rant post about the end of No.6, it'll have to wait.
Penguindrum's more important.

Mostly because I want to say : I WAS RIGHT! (It happens pretty often with me so you should always be ready for that)
The particular point I was right about that was finally proven in this episode is the existence of another Boshi-sama like being. Say hello to Mario!

Mario has the same hair color as Himari. I'm thus concluding they're related.
I thought at first that he might be his soulmate but she seems to be taller than him so I don't think he is.

I'll be quick to go over the rest of the anime, because there's something else I think is important and I want to share.
- Glad to see Shoma is OK, felt sorry for him when he was poisonned TWICE in less than 24 hours and loved the bondage. Obviously.
- Kanba was adorable, trying not to show he cared for Shoma that much. Or did he have another motive? Something that must be accomplished in which Shoma is absolutely needed? Basically, does Kanba knows more about their fate than he really lets us know? And that may be the reason why he gave the diary back to Ringo.
- Who managed to even grow more on me. She cares for Shoma. It's cute. She's moving on, I'm happy for her.
- Himari finally decided to make her move to catch her soulmate but, who the hell it is?
- Masako's real motive on the other hand escapes my understanding. Is her project M the same as it is for Ringo? Does she need a baby from Kanba? And why Kanba in the first place? Where could we place Yuri and Tabuki in this mess? Does Yuri have a penguin too? Is Tabuki hiding something?
- You may think that Ringo is just as out of place as Yuri in my theory, that she has no Boshi-sama to fight for, but, I think I heard something, Masako's working with someone(s), she couldn't have been there to take the diary at the same time she was talking with Kanba, and it was clearly a man we heard on the phone.
So, I'm not too sure I heard right but I'm pretty sure the voice on the phone was the voice of her father.
There might be more to Ringo's and her family's involvement than they make it out to be.

Hang in there there's more. The whole sequence of Shouma going down the stairs in that strange building/dream.

To be honest I skipped the visuals, they probably have some kind of meaning but I was too concentrated on the music (to the point it's stuck in my head). That dear readers was an excerpt from Dvořák's New World Symphony, which wouldn't be that relevant if it wasn't the 2d movement of that symphony which is commonly sung during funerals.
I don't think the French lyrics are relevant so have the English ones (the relevant ones ^^)

Going home, going home

I'm just going home

Quiet light, some still day

I'm just going home

It's not far, just close by

Through an open door

Work all done, care laid by

Going to fear no more

Mother's there expecting me

Father's waiting, too

Lots of folk gathered there

All the friends I knew

I'm going home

Nothing's lost, all's gain

No more fret nor pain

No more stumbling on the way

No more longing for the day

First, note that Kanba is going down, so, it does seem to enforce the theory that he's in the dark side of the twins.
Second, see what I bolded? I'm now pretty sure their parents are dead.
It really got me thinking about Kanba's role in this, if he just had to push Shoma in the right direction, if the role he was determined to play is now finished or if there are several versions of the fate they're supposed to be tied to. In that case, for each Boshi-sama one fate? And everyone of them are going to fight against the others to find the Penguindrum and make their very own destiny win. In that case, having the diary of the adverse "team" is indeed something very useful.
I really can't wait to see how it goes.

Oh and I've wanted to say that since last week but : Sanetoshi really has long eyelashes.

We have attained Steins;Gate. El. Psy. Congroo

2011-09-15T19:55:00.001+02:00

Steins;Gate has ended, after 6 months of weekly wednesdays spent watching the show. I was excited by the plot when it first was announced, I really enjoyed watching but I never thought I'd be that sad when it'll end.
Thankfully, they announced a movie and the trailer shows nothing but things we already saw in the anime and I have no idea what the hell they'll put in that movie. An alternate ending maybe?

While it isn't one of my favorite anime ever it is something I want to re-watch. It is something I enjoyed from the beginning to the end and it definitely is something I'd recommend.

The reason is simple, its fits a lot of my requirements for anime (not that there's such a fixed list in my head but who cares?)
- The plot is interesting. Even before knowing about Steins;Gate I knew I'd enjoy this, people making a time machine out of a microwave? It just sounds so weird that it's bound to be at least a bit interesting.

- It's well written. The pace is great. It introduces characters little by little, slowly builds the tension until the events finally take a tragic turn and everything goes faster. I complained about the episodes dedicated entirely to a single character before, but in the end everything falls together perfectly. In each of these episodes Okabe grew to understand people more, he grew to care more, to feel more, just so that in the end he and the world can be happy. It does show that nothing is truly meaningless and I find that a great lesson.

- The cast is eargasmic. Mamoru Miyano is someone I grew to love a lot since his role in Durarara!!, and to be honest I didn't recognize him at first and as much as I loved Light and Kida, Okabe is now my favorite role of his. He managed to voice the mad scientist moments as well as showing the despair that hit Okarin, that was quite the challenge I think. Aside from Kana Hanazawa (who I love) and Kobayashi Yuu (who I hate, I'm glad Rukako doesn't speak much) I wasn't too familiar with the girls but I was glad to ear Saori Goto (as Moeka) again (she's Q damnit! I loved Q) and very glad to discover Imai Asami, her voice really quited Kurisu well.

- It's pretty. I've admired huke's work for a long, long time so I'm always glad to see more of his designs animated. The atmosphere too is really well done, you can feel the tension sometimes or the peace of mind of the protagonist only by looking at the scenery around them. It's quite great.

- It's entertaining. That's one of the main point of anime isn't it? It's amusing to watch and I loved to see them all interact, even in the darkest moments of the story.

- It made my brain work. The ones who do that are always the ones I remember the most. Once you got the hang of it you couldn't help but wonder how the hell things will turn out, what will be achieved by working together, whether or not they'll beat CERN and how, at every episode there were things to think about.
Even if it wasn't the most brain wrecking anime I've seen, far from it, the simple fact it dealt with time travel just forced you to think to understand how it worked (and I just felt like I had to do researches afterwards)

And while I know it obviously had flaws, for now, I can't find one to share. (I'll probably do when I'll rewatch, you never pick everything up at the first watch)

Kuuki's crazy anime watchlist corner desuuu~ #13

2011-09-14T13:57:00.000+02:00

If I keep this up, there will come a day where I'll be lost in my numbers.
Also, I hate Sunrise. So. Fucking. Much.

- Nurarihyon no Mago : This was rather boring.
But I did like the villain, reminded me of the real Akechi Mitsuhide by finding the time and will to create a death poem before, well, not dying. (Mitsuhide did die though)
Well, that was kinda fun. I love the real Mitsuhide ^^

- Ao no Exorcist : Everyone said this was crap, I didn't dislike it as much as I thought I would considering everything I heard.
I still would have liked it much better if that ending scene didn't remind me of Bleach.

- Hanasaku Iroha : That was a nice episode. Not as boring as I thought it would be.
And I do think people's lives would be much more enjoyable if they loved their workplace as much as they love theirs. Not that it's possible but still.

- Natsume Yuujinchou : This is where I say I shouldn't have read the manga because, while it's still adorable, it does take away a bit of the anime.
But it's not like I expected a third season.

- Gintama : This is. SO much like Gin.
Kinda reminds me of the haunted inn arc for some reasons.
Kinda expected the Shinsengumi to show up thought, I hope they will.

- Ikoku Meiro no Croisée : I want to know more about his relationship with his father now.
Even though I still don't like Claude at all.

- Kamisama Dolls : So, as I suspected there's some dark parts to Kyohei he tries to bury deep inside himself.
I still don't know what it's all about and Hibino's breasts are still not human breasts but I got Mahiru and superb Kana Hanazawa voice acting so I can't really complain can I?

- Steins;Gate : That was so perfect in every way.
It deserves its own post.

Japan Blog Matsuri - Reasons to visit Japan

2011-09-13T22:05:00.000+02:00

The lovely Justin over at Organization ASG posted it and so I follow his example. I'm proud to present you my own taking part in the Japan Blog Matsuri, the theme of the month is "reasons to visit Japan", hosted by A Modern Girl.
The theme made me think quite a lot actually, about what really interests me in Japanese culture and whether or not it can be really seen in a simple visit in a touristic context. If it's just going to see famous places or doing anime related things I think it can be done, but anime is hardly the first thing I loved about Japan, if I talk about it a lot it's just that it's easier and I wouldn't want to dwelve on topics I don't know first hand. In the end I realized that if I ever go to Japan, I want it to be a long stay. If it's just to be a tourist, I can be in another country in the next hour.

So, why would I want to go in Japan? I liked Justin's idea of making a Top 5 so top 5 reasons it'll be! (please note that the reasons might not make much sense and/or be a bit weird.)

5 - I want to buy doujin.
I could do that online, true enough, but the concept of going into stores entirely dedicated to fan made books is wonderful. Actually, the recognition that the fans can be active in their love for a show is something I like a lot. Even though I fully understand not everyone sees it as positive, this is still something I love about fandom.
Basically, and to sum it up, I'd want to go to Japan in person to thank the country for showing me that loving a show can be productive. (That comes from a lazy person, it's important)

4 - I want to see a real yakuza
Please note I said "see", not "meet", I may be a bit weird but I'm not crazy to that extent.
If you're new here you probably don't know it (yet) but I have a little bit of an obsession for yakuza, try to understand me a bit, they're living in the underground yet they're recognized in society (hell they have legit press publications), they cause troubles but people comes to them for help, they're criminals but they have/had high morals.
I love contradictions like these. I am interested in yakuza. That's the reason I'm curious and want to see a real one one day.

3 - I want to see Honnouji.
Just so I can walk on Akechi Mitsuhide's tracks and think to myself "that's where you betrayed Nobunga you wonderful bastard"
Granted, it's not the original one but I'll deal with it and take what I can have.

2 - The food.
Mind you, if a pizza eaten in Italy tastes better than a pizza eaten in France, a Japanese oyako-don (my favorite Japanese dish) eaten in Japan will always taste better than an oyako-don eaten in France. Even if it's just for the scenery.
Even though to be honest I'd travel anywhere just to taste the food.
And I want to go to the Sunrise headquarters with fried rice. Just for the sake of it and so I can (or not, depending on what will happen on Saturday) smash it in their face with my very angelic expression of utter satisfaction.

1 - The culture
Basically, I want to meet more Japanese people so we can share our difference (I want to meet more people of different countries actually, which is why I blog in English in the first place), I want to go a Matsuri, to a temple, I want to go to a ryokan, I want to go to Akihabara, to Asakusa, I want to see the Tokyo Tower, and the Asahi building just for the sake of it, I want to ride the Shinkansen, I want to experience the start of a new year in Japan and Tanabata and the Mooncake festival ... and a seiyuu event.
I just want to try by myself everything that's different, compare it with what I know, enjoy it for what it is and continue to learn more about how others live and try to understand them.

Kuuki's crazy animewatchlist desuu~ #12

2011-09-11T15:41:00.000+02:00

I just realized I've been keeping up with this for 6 weeks already. I feel a bit proud of myself.
And I want fried rice.

- No6 : Hello again very convenient plot twists.
So convenient that it spoils the fun a bit too much.

- Usagi Drop : That'w where I regret reading the manga before the anime but since I already spoilt myself about the ending I thought it didn't matter anymore, well it did. It does lessen the "Aaw so cute" reactions.
Not that it stops being adorable, but it's a bit less.
Ah and there was Kishio Daisuke too, in not one but TWO roles. I thought I was going to kill someone.

- The Idolm@ster : I loved Azusa in that episode. As someone who shares her problem I admire her.

- Mawaru Penguindrum : So, that pink haired person is a dude, never thought, but he does seem to share some features with Boshi-sama, so they may be from the same specie.
It didn't resolve that cliffhanger but instead we got to learn some facts about Himari, which are probably relevant in some way or another.
On the other hand I'm starting to believe that the diary may come from that library, and would really be Momoka's fate. I'm still not sure it's the Penguindrum but it at least must be some kind of forbidden item that shouldn't exist in this world. Yeah, another one.

- Dantalian no Shoka : Probably the episode that gave the most obvious Gainax vibes since the beginning of the anime.
I liked the concept of going into a book though, and Dalian was adorable.

- KamiMemo : Ok. I didn't see this coming. For once.
Well, it would have been a bit more predictable if they developed their characters a bit better.
It feels like it came out of nowhere, everything feels like it came out of nowhere.
I'm forever disapointed, so much potential wasted, it's unforgiveable.

- Tiger&Bunny : I still didn't get the strength to watch it a second time with subs because, to be honest, I'm still crying only thinking about it (and even though my brain KNOWS it's all a lie, if he had to, they would have done this at the last episode)
So, basically, everything went perfectly fine, Kaede is saving the day, Karina is all adorable, Sky High still himself and Bison shows quite the soft side, in a way.
Maverick is still not defeated but Black Tiger is.
Yeah, everything's fine, until, until nothing is fine anymore and comes the most perfect acting I've ever had the chance to hear, and god knows I pay attention to this kind of things a LOT.
Hell, it's not what happened that made me cry, not entirely, it's the tone of his voice, of their voices.
BUT, I know I'm the one who keeps on saying someone will die and all, but we all know Sunrise likes to toy with us, we know they like to troll, so it can't be true, RIGHT?
*continues to ramble for hours*

- Beelzebub : Boring.

- Utapri : Boring. The attempt at drama still feel half assed.
And ok I'll admit it, while the usual quality of these two anime has never been incredibly high, everything feels boring after yesterday's Tiger&Bunny.

Summer 2011 - My favorite anime music

2011-09-09T12:54:00.000+02:00

Being a very picky music enthusiast, especially when it comes to anime, this summer season disappointed me.
In term of OSTs it's not exactly what I'd call mindblowing. Not bad either just pretty average, even Iwasaki Taku for Kamisama no Memochou has been somewhat disappointing and not like himself. If anything the most noticeable music writer this season has been Yoshimori Makoto for Natsume Yuujinchou San. And not for the good reasons either, just because his work is sometimes too recognizable and it does disturb me a bit to watch something very peaceful and adorable, see a beautiful scenery and suddenly believe I'm right in the middle of Durarara!!.
Don't even get me started on the two idols anime, the music is everything but their strong point. Not that I am able to find any right now, but I digress.

Instead of complaining let me tell you what I did like. Mainly, only three songs.
Well, at least it'll be short right?

Dantalian no Shoka OP - Cras numam scire

Dantalian no Shoka ED - Yes prisoner (I am very diversified aren't I?)

And last but not least, my favorite even before hearing it Sacred Seven OP - Stone Cold

Kuuki's crazy anime watchlist corner desuu~ #11

2011-09-07T15:40:00.000+02:00

And I come once again bearing a new edition of my bi-weekly crazy watchlist. One day I swear I'll be able to control myself and not watch as many things as I do now.
Or not.

- Gintama : I can't handle the word Kotatsu anymore. My mind goes nuts. I thought something like that would happen but it confirmed it.
On the other hand I laughed quite a lot at this episode. Bye, bye Jugem, hello emo!Tenshi!

- Hanasaku Iroha : You know? I'm kinda jealous of Ohana. I mean, can I have her mother?
Can I have a badass aunt like that too?
I'm looking forward to how things will develop at the inn now.
And no I still don't care for love stories.

- Croisée : Once and for all, stop trying to make me believe they're poor. Poor people of that era didn't eat meat everyday, nor do they own toys like these.
But Alice was adorable, I'm glad she's becoming less and less like a spoilt brat.

- Ao no Exorcist : That was a pretty sad episode. To be honest I nearly cried.
And I think I like the direction where this is going. Filler or not, this is interesting. So far.

- Nurarihyon no Mago : I don't remember what happened. Ah no, wait, Yura somehow summoned badass!Grandfather's Onmyouji friend. And I heard people talking about "being a yakuza at heart" (I pick up the strangest things ^^)
But does it really matter? It seems like no one else is watching this anyway.

- Natsume : Another sweet episode, Natsume finally bonding with friends is always adorable. Tanuma and him worrying about each other is always adorable.
And it's a very good adaptation too.

- Kamisama Dolls : I hereby declare Mahiru is my favorite Kana Hanazawa role ever!
On the other hand I'm happy we're finally going to discover more about the "real" story. Because so far, I've been a bit disappointed, always knowing there was something more behind all they showed us.

- Steins;Gate : I have no words to express my love for the serie. For Okarin and all of the other characters.
I'LL BE CHEERING FOR YOU!
It was too painful, he HAS to do it!

[1st impressions]Towa no Quon

2011-09-06T18:45:00.000+02:00

Ever mistook one anime for another, even if during a split moment? That's what happened to me with movie.
Twice.
The first time was when I heard the music. I thought I was in Gundam 00 (and the setting didn't help, we were in a military HQ). Obviously, both OSTs were composed by Kawai Kenji.
And there I thought : good point for this movie.
The second time was when I first saw the hero in battle gear. I wondered, what the hell is that, a suit? It's night so I don't see very well, wait, is this a yellow and blue color combo?! TIGER, what are you doing there?
And, obviously, it was wishful thinking, there was no way it could be him right? I thought there was a chance the character designer could be the same too (because damn was he similar to Zetman) but nope.

Anyway, I guess you want to know what the hell is Towa no Quon about.
Pretty basic if you ask me, some strange powers awaken in young people, two factions are opposed, the ones who want to destroy them and the ones who want to help them.

To be honest I think there's more to this than just what is in the summary, and while I understand this is only the first movie of a serie of 6, who the hell is Towa?
Quon is the hero-Tiger-look alike (First time I've ever been thankful Kamiya Hiroshi isn't voicing anyone in Tiger&Bunny, I would have died. If only from the confusion) and Towa seems to be ... a tree?
As things stand I'd guess they're somehow related and she (I assume it's a she) was transformed into a tree by something. Still, I'd like to know much more. I'm interested.

I mentionned I thought I was in Gundam before (Ah, I heard Miki Shinchiro too, must be another reason ^^) but, it's much simpler than a Gundam, the good and the bad guys are clearly defined from the very beginning. The battles on the other hand are always about saving (or at least trying to save) one person whose powers just awakenned (there are a lot of different sorts of powers by the way, and not only battle related, to be simple and continue on the serie "but which anime I am watchin again", they're NEXTs), the battle are led by a few guys sent to the battlefield and strategy is being held somewhere else.
The bad guys use cyborgs who apparently used to be human (one of them is voiced by Kotobuki Minako) and the good guys only have two people able to fight, mainly Quon and an Amber look alike (that was a Darker than Black reference, please don't mind me)

It's something I'd recommend, it's not that long for a movie, 45 minutes, there are a lot of things to uncover (and names to remember because I won't go far if I just remember their seiyuu or give them names from other anime).
The only problem is, last time I was excited about a serie of movies I ended up being disappointed (*points at Break Blade*), but for now I have faith.

Kuuki's crazy anime watchlist corner desuu~ #10

2011-09-04T16:13:00.000+02:00

Oh clever introductions why do you fail me?
Why do my writing drive fail me too? I have so many post ideas and they're sitting there, drafted but not quite completed.
And why, why is Evangelion so ... boring? (At least by episode 12, where I'm at ^^)

- No6 : A lot of people will hate me for this but I hate Nezumi's singing voice. I really do.
On the other hand I now love Inukashi very much. Much more than I thought I would.

- Usagi Drop : Learning new words is hard, right Kouki?
Rin reminded me of myself in that episode, telling the delinquents to shut up in high school was my speciality ^^

- Mawaru Penguindrum : What an episode.
Somehow, Ringo turned out to be more twisted than I thought she was. But I'm disappointed she didn't go all the way. But I feel even more sorry for her at every episode.
Lastly, I can't help but wonder about Yuri's "coincidental" return.
In the same fashion I wonder about that black motorbike (Celty!), the logical hypothesis would be that the biker was Natsume but, it'd be really too easy so ...

- Dantalian no Shoka : This double episode felt more natural than the last one.
And I've grown to really like Camilla and Dalian. More than I thought I would.
Armand on the other hand is a totally different matter ....

- UtaPri : As an insert song or as an ED I'm sorry but this song sucks.
I don't even remember why I watched -____-

- KamiMemo : I don't know what to say. I was entertained but it was nothing out of the ordinary.
Better than last arc though, if only because it had more yakuza. (Because the predictability level was the same)

- Beelzebub : When I started to watch the serie, the people who read the manga told me Himekawa was a bishonen. I didn't believe them.
I should have.
I kinda feel sorry for him though because I know I'd never let anyone touching my hair. Never.

- Tiger&Bunny : You know what? I knew it all along.
You probably didn't notice but, Kotetsu hasn't called him Bunny for at least 3 episodes. ~~And it was a month since we last heared Morita's english but that's irrelevant ^^~~
So obviously, it would come to that. Much more effective than slapping him. (I was cheering for Kotetsu to hug him at that moment, just so you know ^^)
Saito became my hero when he told Ben his car was crappy. The moment I saw the insect I was ecstatic.
Karina was impressive, I liked how she worried for Kaede, she's the only one who asked about her.
Now I think about it I have tons of things to say about Kotetsu and Barnaby's characters, but I guess I'll wait for the anime to finish in case I'd be proven wrong.
Anyway, this made me wonder about a few things :
*how are Lloyds, the secretary and Agnès influence the future events? (since they're the only ones who didn't gain their memories back, yet)
*Where are Kaede and Yuri?
*What's going to happen with Maverick? Because, from my initial predictions he should have been defeated during this episode. And the last two should have been dedicated to beat the mysterious head of the mysterious organization. I'm afraid it's going to be rushed.
Oh, and as things stand Kotetsu has now more death flags than Bunny.

Normally there should be the Idolm@ster to talk about too, but the subs are still not out and, while I usually don't mind watching RAWs (the Tiger&Bunny impressions are from a RAW episode by the way) the Idolm@ster is off limit. Don't quite understand the cutesy kind of talk ^^)

Kuuki's crazy anime watchlist desuu~ #9

2011-09-01T17:20:00.000+02:00

Hey! I have the pleasure to announce two things. First, I failed my job interview, was very close to get the job but didn't get it, which isn't bad because the pay was low and I would have started today and would have had to move out in less than one day.
And second, much better, I've joined Organization ASG as an anime reviewer. Everything related to the current season stays here, the rest goes over there, please check it out

Now, as usual, beware of spoilers!

- Nurarihyon no Mago : Ryuuji's my favorite character!
And I still wish they'd at least try to make the global mood of the OP and ED go with the actual anime. Really.

- Hanasaku Iroha : This is the first time I laughed so hard at an episode. Jiromaru was hilarious.
As for the rest, well, I don't care for love stories but Tohru reacted much better than I thought he would.

- Ao no Exorcist : All I noticed during this episode was the, somehow, increased beauty of the music.
Oh. And Mephisto. He was fabulous!

- Gintama : This - this episode was so cute! No really.
And Matsudaira is my favorite character, I'm glad he finally appears again.

- Croisée : I'm happy the anime develops to paying more attention to the "side" characters, because to be honest I don't really care for Claude.

- Natsume Yuujinchou : Is it a surprise if I say "aaw so adorable!" once again?

- Kamisama Dolls : THIS ROLE SUITS KANA HANAZAWA VERY WELL!
I'm glad we got to see Kuuko again. I really like her, and her father and Aki too.
I still hope there's something more because the story doesn't really see to develop fast. I wonder where they want to go.

- Steins;Gate : All in all, nothing much happened in that episode but damn so powerful.
They finally said it, but, it's such an awfully tragic love story. But so beautiful. I admire Okarin. So very much. I admire Kurisu. So very much.
I now can't help but wonder what's going to happen now that they crossed the 1% divergence limit.
And I now can say that this is definitely one of my favorite anime ever.

Kuuki's crazy anime watchlist corner desuu~ #8

2011-08-28T15:39:00.001+02:00

Usually I'd find something clever to introduce my bi-weekly recap post but you know what? I have no idea today so guess I'll just leave you with a spoiler warning, as usual.

- No6 : I finally got plot. Granted, that wasn't the best plot either.
First it's confusing.
Second and more of a problem : it just seems too convenient. Everything seems too convenient. So Nezumi is the last survivor of an antic tribe (but is he really the only one?) who happens to be rescued by a guy who contributed to build No6 and who's also oh so by chance, an old friend of Shion's mother?
Yes. Sure.

- Usagi Drop : The feeling that damn, this is Tomoe cannot escape my brain. It's not particulary a bad thing, just a bit confusing. And, since I read the manga, I do like Masako much better. She's more likeable in the manga.

- Idolm@ster : You know, attracting troubles like that, it's too much. But it had Miki so ...

- PenguinDrum : This episode was a bit disappointing, in the sense that my brain didn't go as crazy as it did in the past.
On the other hand I wonder more and more about Yuri and her involvment in Project M.
I'm also starting to wonder if Tabuki isn't somehow the last male of some kind of alien specie. That would explain why is everyone so much over him and why he seems to be that important in that Project M thing.
But then, what exactly is Boshi-sama?
This point is a bit blurry in my mind so I'll get back to it later.
Oh, you probably don't care but, hearing Hayami Shou again and as the pervert of the episode was a delight to my ears. And totally giggle worthy.

- Dantalian no Shoka : So, they're going to totally ignore last week?
While this stays enjoyable, I can't help but being disappointed by the direction it's taking.
On the other hand, Dalian showed an interesting side of hers today, she was very cute, ... desu.

- KamiMemo : And once again my predictions come true. And once again I'm disappointed. I like to be surprised goddamnit!
On the other hand, Narumi had guts in this episode, for a change. It makes up for his stupidity. (even though it was part of his stupidity ^^)

- Tiger&Bunny : Once again, very predictable, but done right so it doesn't bother me that much.
So yeah, Kaede saves the day by using Maverick's power. And Kotetsu is so Kotetsu it hurts. He said it himself, going against all of them was suicidal.
But it was very painful to watch at the same time, especially the end. And that cliffhanger was even more painful.
On the other hand Saito surprised me, I love Saito! That hug was so adorable and his "hurry up and use my suit" was so perfect.
All I can do now is wait for next week, why isn't it Saturday yet?
(I don't even have any reason to want to be next Saturday, I haven't even have watched the subs ^^)
Oh, and Scarf-tan talked!

- UtaPri : If I were Haruka I wouldn't choose any of them. They're so selfish I wonder how they even hope she'll choose one of them.

- Beelzebub : I love that thing, so much. I don't even understand how I can love that so much.
Still, Oga and Tojo were awesome "So, can we fight now?" and Aoi "NO!"

Fall 2011 - Facing the end of Tiger&Bunny what will I watch?

2011-08-25T16:31:00.000+02:00

While I admit the title is a bit over-dramatic (Come on self, you'll survive, you've survived the end of DRRR and the lack of your favorite character in it, you survived death of your favorite characters too, so there's no reason why I won't be able to get over the end of Tiger&Bunny, right? RIGHT?), the fact that the only shows I'll have the pleasure to continue next season are Gintama, Beelzebub and Mawara Penguindrum. Not that I mind, but that's not much, and I feel empty when some days (like thursdays) nothing new comes out.

So, what will I watch?

These are the things I can't miss (for various petty reasons) :

- Un-Go : I can only hope for Noitamina to finally bring me a very good mystery anime. Please?
It should right? The original author is good. So maybe?

- Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon : Depending on the end of Tiger&Bunny I may or may not have lost all hopes in Sunrise by the time this airs but, it has a good cast and a kind of Sengoku Jidai setting in modern times.
I should enjoy this.

- Persona 4 : It seems, I've been one of the only person on Earth who REALLY enjoyed Persona : Trinity Soul so, more? Yes please!
And everyone who played is super excited, and since I never played I won't complain about the adaption. It's a win/win type of situation. (Well, except if it's bad ^^)

- Working!! : Yamada loved the first season to bits. Yamada even recently rewatched it when she heard about a second season.
Yamada is overjoyed!

- Sekaiichi Hatsukoi : Don't ask. It wasn't as half bad as I'd have expected it to be. I enjoyed it enough to keep going. If worse comes to worse at least I'll laugh at the animation.

- Phi Brain - Kami no Puzzle : Or, how Sunrise may or may not be the death of me. I shouldn't expect much from this but the setting interests me enough. The fate of the world reside in a puzzle my friends!

- Mirai Nikki : Liked the manga. Should be enjoyable enough.

- Bakuman 2 : We're entering the interesting part. Mainly, Hiramaru.
Hiramaru means more Yoshida-shi. Yoshida-shi is my favorite character. (When I say I'm cursed, I'm not joking ^^)

-Gundam AGE : Well. It's a Gundam.

I will check but am a little bit wary (or, things with obvious flaws from the beginning)

- Guilty Crown : Noitamina + good cast = must watch.
Even though the plot seems like a mess and like they're trying to throw everything they can into it. (Please don't let it become another Sacred Seven fiasco because from the look of it, it's a Code Geass style dystopia, resistance group included, with a virus reminding me of Bloody Monday and a hero à la Kamijo Touma)
Also note that it's the first time a Noitamina thing is downgraded to this section, that shows how wary I am.

- Hunter x Hunter : Heard a lot of good stuff about the serie, the mangaka wrote Level E , it has Daisuke Namikawa, Sawashiro Miyuki and Keiji Fujiwara.
BUT, it's Jump. And that makes it a major flaw because it'll go very near the boring line for the first 25 episodes.

- Kimi to Boku : The title sounds like a cheesy romance thing, and it looks like a slice of life thing, which isn't my favorite genre either. But it has Toyonaga Toshiyuki so I'm willing to give it a shot.

- Tamayura hitotose : I love photography, I really do, but yeah I'll stay wary of slice of life things.

- Ben-to : Or Battle Royale in the supermarket. The plot is completely nuts but as I have seen girls with big breasts on the promo picture I'm not going to hope too much.

- Fate/Zero : I didn't like the previous installements very much but there's nothing I can do against Kajiura Yuki.

Kuuki's crazy anime watchlist corner desuuu~ #7

2011-08-24T15:35:00.002+02:00

I think I'm a bit disappointed by this batch of anime. Don't really know why. On the other hand, it's still hot as hell and my laptop is so old it cannot handle more than one anime episode at a time. Must be why I'm so pissed off.

- Nurarihyon no Mago : Aaw FukuJun you're so good!
Rikuo you're making me laugh so much.
And Yukionna's gonna get pissed.

- Hanasaku Iroha : Aaw finally Okami-san makes her move!
But that was beautiful, her talk about not letting the other be alone was so beautiful.
Too bad that this is only something you can do when both party agrees to it. And I'm still not convinced by their couple ^^

- Ao no Exorcist : Despite being useless that was one of the most interesting episode in a while.
And the reference to Working! was really cute.
And Rin got the bunny plushie!

- Gintama : Please. No more Jugem.

- IkoMei : I can't decide if Camille is really mean or not.
But it would seem that I was right, she's in love with Claude.

- Natsume : Aaaw the shota fox is back!
And these episodes are always so adorable!

- Kami-sama Dolls : For once, I like Hibino. We don't understand exactly the same thing.
I miss Kuuko. I could have said the same thing about "the darkness in Kyohei's mind". Except I was convinced he took part in the slaughter in the beginning.
You know what? Thinking back, I would have liked it better if I was right.

- Steins;Gate : Fuck, this one was the most painful and sad so far.
Now, the great question is : will Makise betray them and go to CERN?

30 Days seiyuu meme #3 (Days 21-30)

2011-08-23T16:34:00.000+02:00

And here comes the last part of that meme!

Day 21: The seiyuu with the most acting range
One of those girls who can do boys, so, obviously and once again Maaya Sakamoto.

Day 22: The seiyuu with the least acting rangeDunno. Ah well, maybe Norio Wakamoto. But he can do GPS voice so ...

Day 23: Cool dude seiyuu
As in, I'd like to be their friend? Tsuda Kenjirou!

Day 24: A seiyuu you make fun of
That's really mean but Kondo Takashi (Claude in IkoMei) Not that he's a bad actor, quite the contrary actually, but how he moves, talk, laugh and such, it's just ridiculous and exagerated, in the bad sense of the term.

Day 25: A seiyuu that makes you like any character they portray
There are a lot, and considering my tendancy to like all kind of characters, especially the most twisted and unloved, without the involvment of seiyuu I guess it doesn't matter much?
But if you really want me to tell then I'd say Hochuu Ohtsuka (because he does Davy Jones' voice in the Japanese dub of Pirate of the Carribean and since then I find him sexy. Yeah. Sexy.)

Day 26: A seiyuu you’d hang out with
Tsuda Kenjiro again!

Day 27: Best seiyuu match-ups
I'm not too sure I got the sense of the question so let's say it's as in : do a great job together.
Actually the first "match ups" I thought about were into fujoshi territory so I'll shut up and instead will tell you that I think Kana Hanazawa and Nakamura Yuuichi were pretty awesome together in Oreimo.

Day 28: Best seiyuu match-ups, romance edition
SUZUMURA KENICHI AND MAAYA SAKAMOTO!
Come on, they're married! And everyone who watched Kara no Kyoukai was rooting for Mikiya and Shiki.

Day 29: Your least favorite seiyuu ever
Kishio Daisuke

Day 30: Your favorite seiyuu ever
Kamiya Hiroshi.

Kamiya Hiroshi

And overall, it would seem I talked on and on always about the same seiyuu, I'm really sorry, I love a lot more of them but these questions didn't cover a wide range. Sadly.

Tiger&Bunny #21 - Do you like Spandex?

2011-08-22T17:15:00.001+02:00

And there I nearly thought I'd never get to make this post. Do you know how awful distractions are? Do you know of many of them there are? Worse of it all, and aside from the dreadful heat I'm facing at the moment, do you realize they've all been somehow related to Tiger&Bunny?
Before starting on the episode, and more, I have 3 facts I wanted to share.
1) I love the aftermath of Comiket. I really love it. Very much.
2) I love Tsuda Kenjiro too, very much. In fact I love all the radio shows that have to do with Tiger&Bunny, especially the ones with extracts of the character songs, which totally don't sound like them but are hilarious all the same Oh Baby I'm gonna save youuu
3) Don't you think raisins kinda look like Maverick's face? (and now you're never going to see them the same way anymore MWAHAHA!)

Anyway, back to the actual episode.
I honestly don't even know why I bother making a post about it because to be honest, I wasn't blown away. I mean, everything was more or less predictable.
While I have to admit I totally forgot about Ben (and I should have thought about him, I don't even know why I didn't after the mysterious disappearance of the preview pic), everything else went just as planned.

So, what's interesting in that episode in the end? I don't really know myself to be honest.
All I know is that it gave me incredibly conflicted feelings. The first (RAW) round left me giggling happily, the second round left me uneasy. Well, I still think Bunny will die so ...

On the other hand, Kotetsu finally came back to being himself, dumb but not too dumb. Dumb enough to be funny and not piss me off. This scene especially left me laughing for a few minutes.

Then the real shit happens and we get to meet the "new" Tiger, which is probably a robot.
Exactly as predicted Kotetsu almost got Karina to remember, almost because obviously it wouldn't be fun if they remembered now.
And, exactly as I predicted, Lunatic protects Kotetsu, gratifying us all about a wonderful talk about justice and ramblings about how he is the voice of Thanatos.

Then, more shit happens, while Kaede meets Maverick who affectionnaly pats her head and everyone but me was thinking how cool it was since now she has copied his powers (I was more thinking things such as "OMG OMG he's gonna abduct her, he's gonna abduct her")

All in all what really striked me in this episode is the general urgency. No one knows what he's doing, no one, but Kotetsu. Kinda, since well, it's Kotetsu.
It was an established fact before that Maverick's plan had a major flaw, the scale. (Its second being the fact he definitely wants Bunny to kill Kotetsu before the scale problem goes out of hands, and can he do it?)
With more time it would have been resolved, he could have gathered more people, he'd have thought of more people.
Ben too had no plan in mind, he was just looking for Kotetsu, Kaede's doing the same and see Lunatic? He's not wearing his cape, he was pressed by the time, he didn't bother. (Or he burnt it ^^)
It's a bit strange to see all these people normally calm to jump into things like that without thinking. I guess that's where my uneasy feeling comes from.

So, will Kaede saves the day next week?

Kuuki's crazy anime watchlist corner desuuu~ #6

2011-08-21T14:55:00.001+02:00

Courageously facing heat and battling against my fate of a construction worker/mechanic/cook/couch potatoe, I bring yet another recap of what happened this week!

As usual, spoilers for Usagi Drop, No.6, Dantalian no Shoka, Utapri and Idolm@ster. And Kami no Memochou, which section contains potential spoilers for next episode. Yeah. I'm awesome like that.

- Idolm@ster : Iori pisses me off. I didn't like this episode very much.

- Usagi Drop : Once again blown away by how perfectly are the issues handled.
Daikichi is my hero. Forever.
And he was soooo cute, it's like a school boy crush. So adorable. I want them to get together so badly now.

- No6 : It totally doesn't concern the anime and I think you're mostly away from all that shit but, in the fujoshi world, this is the hype show currently (Ok, one of them ^^) and you know what? I hate the fandom. First time it happened to me, usually I don't really care but I'm sick of people who think that BL is all there is to No6. I'm sick of being picked on because I happen to correct a spelling (of course I'm wrong, I'm French, why should I know how to spell a French name?), I'm sick of being hated on when I say I hate Shion and that I don't care what happens to their relationship. Remind me not to even try to have an intelligent conversation with this kind of people.
And now I finished my rant I wanted to say how this "amazing" episode (that's how nearly all of my friends described it) was not so amazing, since I have NO interest at all in their relationship. Ok, they may be interesting in terms of character growth but, I mean, we nearly got more informations, yet they stopped right in the middle and I wanted more informations goddamnit!

- Dantalian no Shoka : Kinda surprised not to see Dalian and Huey. Kinda disappointed by the whole tying up thing. I expected more. But I liked Flamberg.
Aside from this, well, guess there are more phantom books hunters with different purposes.
It makes it much more interesting but I wonder how they'll manage to include them in the story, well, it's more "how they'll manage to start a story, now".
But the more it goes the more I like the character design, especially for the girls.

- KamiMemo : I'm pissed.
I mean, there's a limit to how obvious you can get without spoiling the show.
I'd accept it if Narumi didn't get it, but seeing Alice going all "aaw it doesn't make sense" pissed me off. (Though obviously in the end she does get it and then goes an awesome, and very fake, cliffhanger)
They're dumb. All of them. Except Yondaime, but Yondaime's an idiot. An adorable idiot but an idiot nevertheless.
You know what's even worse, they might say stuff like "We're mock brothers!" and "I don't judge him like you do Narumi", they sure as hell don't trust him. At all.
If they did, they'd have found out much earlier.
Then again, (highlight to see my wonderful spoiler for next episode, I feel bad enough to spoil the ones that are out I'd never forgive myself if I spoilt the next too) who would have thought that Ishida Akira was in fact a gir?l

- UtaPri : I think I want to listen to more of this version of Amazing Grace. It's not my favorite ever, definitely not but it was probably the best song of the show so far.
Aside from this, everything is going according to keikaku.
And it's boring.

So, for those who'd feel sad about the lack of Tiger&Bunny, I haven't been able to find subs yet (*sobs*) and my RAW talk was becoming already huge and kinda off topic and since I'm waiting for the extract of that duet character song to air at the radio I thought I'd make a dedicated post later.

Mawaru Penguindrum 06 : Dead but Alive.

2011-08-19T18:13:00.001+02:00

I realized half way through my huge recap bi-weekly post that this was becoming too much, so Mawaru Penguindrum will have its separate post for once.
Beware for major spoilers and character over-analysis. About Ringo, I cannot really do that for the others, yet at least, but I'll be glad if you could at least read what I wrote about her and tell me your opinions?

We finally got a little more informations on the diary and how it works. On the other hand it also shed much more light on Ringo's character and yeah, I love her. And we still don't know the goal of that girl, nor anything really relevant to the Penguindrum. As usual, I'll throw theories out there.

*The diary was Momoka's, Ringo's sister who died a mysterious death, so, Ringo's fate is Momoka's fantasies from when she was in elementary school. She was an extremely precocious child but that's perfectly realistic and thus I accept this explanation. (Ok, that's because I had one too -___-)
That doesn't really give more informations on whether or not it is really the Penguindrum. Nor if it is the only Penguindrum.

*Ringo's family was destroyed over that death, which, once again, is perfectly realistic. And I understand her behaviour much better now. It's logical, her family is suffering because of her sister's death, her family puts her sister's death before her and she becomes almost invisible, or worse, a reminder of the one who's not alive anymore. So, since apparently she feels that her existence is so forgettable, she decides to become another person. Jealousy between siblings is common, fighting for your parents' attention is common, but, how do you compete with someone who's dead? You can't. Either way you'd loose.
So Ringo strives to become her dead sister, to make everyone happy, so that her family will love her and they'll be able to be happy together again.
Except, except that half way through, the focus changed. She wanted to become like her sister so much that she followed exactly everything as she wanted it to be in the future and she was a girl in love, a girl in love forgets everything else and that's how her parents ceased to really exist in her mind, becoming mere concepts.
Hence the plushies.
Want to know something? She needs help. Definitely.

*Is Kanba real? I mean, a previous episode already hinted that Himari was able to create illusions, so I wouldn't be surprised.
Or worse, does someone/thing want to make him disappear and make everyone believe he was an illusion?
Since that girl is getting rid of the memories of him in everyone (help, Maverick is everywhere!)
Maybe the price to pay for the mysterious penguin money he has been given is his existence itself. Bits by bits, with every cent he uses, he disappears a little more from the world?
He wasn't even there during the Seizon Senryaku.

*Last but not least Boshi-sama said something very interesting at the end, she said "another survival strategy"
Does she mean she wants to search for another way to stay alive aside from the Penguindrum?
Or did she mean there were others being like her doing the same?
(Also, hearing her talking about hentai like that and the emphasis on her crotch was priceless ^^)

To leave you with a funny note (See what I did there?) and a pic, which made me laugh despite everything said about Ringo ...