I'll Try Again For Spring

So you may have noticed that I stopped doing the Anime updates. It was fun while it lasted, but those ten days when I lost internet really did a hurting. After that video games started coming out and I had to try and balance between playing games and watching Anime. Needless to say, video games won.

In case you're interested, I dropped everything after the fifth week other then Aquarion, Another and Nisemonogatari. The shows were great, and maybe I'll get back into them, but at this point I'm so far behind that it would take a lot of hours to catch up. But like I said, this happens every season.

But I'll do this again for the Spring season of Anime and a lot of them seem more interesting then the current batch. As for the ones I'm currently watching, I'm not sure if it would be right to start talking about them during the Spring season. Maybe I'll do a review of each of them when they finish up. I think Another is almost at a close. Man, if you want to talk about a show that has done a complete 180 on me liking it... well it be Another.

So to recap: No more winter Anime discussion, try again for Spring, something something Anime.

Oh, and watch this please. It was fun to do:

I continue to try and catch up to Anime: Week 4

I'm trying to catch up as fast as I can with all these shows. But having to write down all this still is giving me plenty of procrastination. Hopefully, I'll be back on track by the time week 7 hits. Oh and I'm still playing FF 13-2. Think I'm half-way through the game?

Lagrange -The Flower of Rin-ne

Remember how I said this show was going to be all Moe? Well I think I'm right about that. No Ovid's involved in this episode. Just good old jealousy and grown men being attracted to what I assume are 14 year-old's.

The mysterious nude girl joins Madoka's class and goes by the name Muginami. She seems to be aware about the Ovid's and has a interest in Madoka. After saving Lan from drowning in the sea (Muginami herself was the cause of this), Madoka feels like Muginami can join her Jersey club. The club doesn't have a specific description, but its motto is to always finish what they start. Lan gets jealous. Muginami helps out Madoka's uncle's restaurant. Men get attracted to her, Lan decides to help out only to become a clutz which oddly enough attracts another type of men, and the show ends with Lan going to school and both Muginami and Lan living with Madoka.

Oh and the bad space dudes rescue their comrade and are joined by some guy with a beard.

I guess it's fine to have breather episodes but man, was this not the most generic episode yet. The relationship between Madoka and Lan seems to be something like Usagi and Ami from the Live action version of Sailor Moon. Ami was the quiet type who held onto Usagi for her openness and got jealous whenever Usuagi got close with Naru (Who you may remember as Molly). This seems to be a play on that (or well, another other show that did this before Sailor Moon) and I can see it becoming some sort of conflict in the episodes to come. There's still they mystery of Muginami and when her Ovid will be shown. But that mystery is one of the things that is keeping me interested.

Nisemonogatari

The show immediately takes place back at the Araragi household with Karen and Tsukihi talking about their problem. This is where some unknown girl who looks way cute shows and people call her Hanekawa. Who, I guess cut her hair and got contacts. Afte a bit of discussion Hanekawa tells the story about how Karen and Tsukihi were looking into a situation, found the person involved, confronted him and now Karen is super sick.

After taking in all this information, Koyomi randomly decides to take a bath when Shinobu appears out of his shadow. Shinobu was the vampire that made him a vampire. But now they share the same body of sorts which is why Koyomi retains some of his vampire powers. Shinobu says that it's the fire bee curse and the person most likely behind it is Kaiki. After some weird depictions of Koyomi bathing with what looks like to be an eight year old, Shinobu asks Koyomi to kill her so he can become a human once more. But that's what Shinobu wants and Koyomi still doesn't forgive her for what she did to him. Shinobu tells Koyomi to stay on guard cause she might kill Koyomi, thus killing her and Koyomi is fine with that.

So what the fuck did they do to Hanekawa? I mean, she was fine in the first season and yes, ok, time has passed (which is why Kanbaru grew hair) but there wasn't a mention of design change in this episode. Which makes me believe this was done to make Hanekawa more sexy. That just urks me. Her look fit her character (being the smart one) but now she looks like a Kanbaru wannabe. Aside from that, the show was fine. I guess since Hanekawa and Shinobu have been spoken too, that removes all the girls that have to be re-introduced (Unless I'm forgetting some like last time) and hopefully we get some new characters.

Bodacious Space Pirates

Now that she ship is fully operational, Chiaki and Marika do some scanning and find out about a Ghost Ship (a ship that should be long gone) on their radar. After reporting this the advisor, they talk to the club president and Marika confess that ghost ship is just a decoy with some other ship looking to hack into their ship because Marika is a potential captain of a pirate ship. The club president (and really, everyone else) is fine with that and plan out a attack to hack back at their enemy. Marika makes a battle plan and everyone is read for the eventual cyber warfare or whatever... including yours truly.

I know I've been kind of down on the past couple episodes, but this one made me think of the show in another light. What if the main objective of this show is to be all space-talk? Like let's say something similar to Star Trek? If you take that approach then this episode was kind of awesome. Sure it could of been more detailed, but the idea is that Marika is not a expert on the field just yet. So it kind of fits.

Maybe this show is trying to be more then just Anime cliche's over and over. Instead just going down whatever path it wants. If that is the case (Which I doubt it is) then colour me much more interested.

Senki Zesshou Symphogear

This episode was awesome. Not going to lie. So much so that they decided to not play the intro song and had its own custom credits roll. What other show does that four episodes in?

So Tsubasa and other Symphogear duke it out for pretty much ten minutes of show time while Hibiki is being restrained by Noise. It seems that the enemy has the ability to summon Noise with her gun saying her objective is to capture Hibiki. After some good action, Tsubasa decides to use her swan song. Which gives her some super power but is suppose to kill said user (it's what Kanade used to protect Hibiki). Unfortunately, it doesn't finish off their enemy and Tsubasa still lives. Tsubasa is in critical condition, the enemy flies away, and Hibiko learns why Tsubasa is the way she is.

This gives Hibiki motivation to try harder and starts to train with boss man. Oh and also in the beginning they show how Kanade got her Symphogear. It wasn't by chance, but by lots of science and drugs.

Have I told you how weird this show is? We it's pretty weird. While I don't necessarily like the story (I still don't care for Hibiki all that much) it's presentation is just oh so awesome. The way the show opened is something that an Anime would do for its final episode. Not here though, here they do it four episodes in. Why? Well why not?

Waiting in the Summer

 So Ichika is weirded out by Kaito's reaction. She may be from another world but Kaito made it oh so obvious about how he felt. So she decides to leave before Kaito does. Though, still lives with him.... so there's that.

The rest of the episode had Ichika and Kaito acting akwadly between each other, Kanna supporting Kaito and Lemon asking Ichika why not and go for it with Kaito. But seeing how she's not of this world, Ichika doesn't want to get involved because, well, she's from space.

At some point, Kaito meets a girl named Manami that is rather chummy with Kaito and they go off to have some fun or something. At some point Ichika runs into them and thinks that Kaito is already moving on without getting a response from Ichika. She decides to stalk them and eventually sneaks into Manami's house to get Kaito out of their in the name of Kait's sister. It's revealed that Manami is Tetsuro's sister who ran away from her husband who deleted all her stuff off of a DVR.

Ichika is embarrassed and tells Kaito that she'll do anything he asks (like say, give a response to him). Kaito opts out of the obvious choice and asks her to help him study.... yup.

You know, with shows like Another and Nissenmonogatri starting to rev up their stories, I find it hard to continue watching this show about nothing. The director behind this show did a favourite of mine called Toradora! which is actually one of the few romantic comedy's that I liked throughout. But Toradora had an objective throughout its story that this show doesn't. I have always hated Anime that don't really go anywhere both in story and location, and I was hoping that since Ichika was from space, they'd play on that more then they have. But for all intents and purposes, her being a space lady doesn't mean anything... so far.

High School DxD

Issei ends up running into Asia cause, why not and they decide to be friends regardless of their backgrounds. Asia tells her tale about falling out of heaven or something because her Sacred Gear can heal people and she used it on the wrong person so she was called a heretic and had to flee.

Unfortunately, she flee's to the wrong people and as it turns out, the boob angel that tried to kill Issei let Asia join her ranks. So big boob angel shows up to ruin the moment wanting Asia back. Issei tries to fight her off with is Sacred Gear but it's revealed that his Scared Gear doubles the users power. 0 x 0 is still 0 so Issei looses and Asia accepts her fate and leaves with the fallen angel.

Issei tries to convince Rias to let him rescue Asia but Rias declines. Issei doesn't care about his life since he's just a lowly pawn and Rias tells Issei that Pawns have the ability to change into any of the other classes. Rias leaves, Issei is all "Fuck that, I'm rescuing Asia." and Koneko and Yuto decide to help Issei.


After they dust some fools (also it seems Yuto has a Sacred Gear too), they meet up with the big boob demon who is extracting Asia's Sacred Gear which seems to both kill Asia and show off her boobs as well. The show ends with Issei screaming yet again.

So wow, really didn't expect this show to be as deep as it is. A blogger I follow called Hashihime made a comparison between this show and another called Dai Maou which seems about right. I really liked Dai Maou so here's hoping this show will be the same.

Aquarion Evol

Since the genders are now able to mingle, the Chairman (who is a little girl) sends all the students out in pairs of three to do romantic things. The catch is that everyone is wearing a device that when the love meter gets too high, they will get electrocuted. The reason for that is explained back when mixing genders in Aquarion were still allowed.

See, a couple were fighting bad dudes (plus some other guy that is not revealed) in Aquarion when there love meter went to high causing Aquarion to go beserk leaving two of the pilots missing and one severely injured. The purpose of this project is to make the students be as close to love as possible without it crossing over.

So Mikono, Amata and Zessica are grouped together for some crazy antics. At first Amata is all over Mikono and it is totally obvious when he gets excited since he starts to fly. So Zessica starts to tease Mikono by always touching Amata which causes him to start flying. This of course makes Mikono sad and Amata goes after her. They make up and are interrupted by Kagura (bad dude from the first episode) who is after Mikono. He grabs her and says she smells horrible which actually shocks her. The show ends with Fudo saying something about forbidden love appearing.

This episode was fine for a break episode. Though you have to wonder who this show is for. We all know being horny and falling in love are two different things, I'm not sure if the shows creators or perhaps that universe are aware of that though.

Brave 10

I didn't end up watching this and will probably drop it. I'm behind and need to catch up ASAP. Sorry Brave 10 you were fun for a while.

Another


This was another good episode. The show starts off with a narration that hints at the idea of someone dieing every week until school ends or something. It doesn't just mean the students of class 3 but also everyone they know.

So Kouichi talks to this nurse lady that he knows well and asks for some information. Turns out nurse lady is an older sister of one of his classmates so he wants her to find out about Mei Misaki and why everyone says she's dead.

Throughout the rest of the episode, Kouichi meets up with another classmate and they both almost end up dieing by some freak accident. The classmate ends up crying saying she doesn't want to die. Kouichi becomes rather adament about finding out what's going on but no one will tell him. The show ends with Kouichi talking to nurse lady via cellphone with nurse lady dieing in a elevator accident.

I am so glad this show is going somewhere not involving Misaki. Honestly, I thought the show was going to be about finding out Misaki is dead and people are scared of her. But with this "People will die in every episode" idea, it's enough to keep me interested. That and actually seeing progress happen in each episode is pretty good in my eyes.

No I have not fogotten about this weekly Anime talk thing: Week 3

So I actually missed out on these past three weeks through no fault of my own for the first week and through my fault the following. See, I lost my internet for ten days. So I couldn't watch any Anime for awhile. Also, I've been playing Final Fantasy 13-2 a lot. I have another medium of which I can speak about that but let's say I'm enjoying it far more then Final Fantasy 13. To the point that I don't want to watch Anime until I beat it. ANYWAYS Anime talk time.

High School DxD

I think I'm coming around with Issei and his whole non-stop sexual appetite. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that he's relentless with it. With the exception of one scene, he never stopped thinking about boobs. Which is awesome. So awesome that I couldn't help but laugh at it.

So remember how I said a new girl was introduced and I thought she was an angel? Well that proved to be true... or something. Named Asia Argento, Asia is a Sister and thus, an enemy of Issei. But she's so nice and cute that Issei can't resist helping her find her way to the church, all the while hiding the fact that he himself is a devil.


Sometime later, the Gremory clan fights some monster servant thing that no longer has a master. This is where Rias begins to classify each of her members with a chess piece. Rias is the King (duh) Akeno Himejima is the queen, Koneko Tojo a rook, pretty boy Yuto Kiba  is the Knight and poor Issei is a pawn. So they fight this monster who happens to be a big boob lady and Issei got all horny (at which point I just laughed). The monster transformed to a more monsterish looking thing and then they defeated it. Seeing how Issei realised he was just a pawn, Issei told himself to try even harder to rise up the ranks for the sake of becoming a "Harem King".


This leads to Issei trying to form a contract with a human (a soul contract I guess?) but turns out it's a trap. Freed Zelzan is an exiled exorcist who likes to do stuff a little gruesome. After a bit of a tussle, Asia appears and is shocked to see Issei. Once she realizes what's going on, she tries to stop Freed from hurting Issei, so Freed decides to try and rape her. But before any of that could happen the Gremory clan shows up and saves Issei. Issei tries to rescue Asia, but all is lost and the show ends with him screaming out Asia's name.


At the very least, there seems to be an actual story throughout all this. I was actually thinking the show would just be a bunch of Issei quests with boobs thrown in, so it's good to know there's a solid direction to where the story can potentially head. 

My only real disappointment is with the rest of the Gremory clan. I guess it's still too early, but none of them have broken out of their stereotypical shells just yet. Also I'm a bit confused if Issei is the only slave of Rias or if the rest of the group is as well. I get he's a devil now but does that still make it ok for him to be classified as a chess piece as the others? Or have all of them been through that process before? I don't know, but with big boob demon I had my fill with this episode.

Nisemonogatari

After helping out Kanbaru with cleaning her room, Koyomi and Kanbaru have a discussion about who Koyomi will end up marrying. Kanbaru thinks he'll end up with a girl named Hanekawa (who has yet to be seen this season) and of course, Koyomi thinks he'll end up Senjogahara. After a bit of back and forth (with a pretty good jab at Sengoku being the "Final Boss"), Koyomi leaves and meets someone named Kaiki.

Kaiki seems to be a person much like Oshino, who was a kind of Paranormal expert that Koyomi knew very well. Later on Koyomi meets up with Senjogahara and banter between one another (pretty entertaining) and Koyomi talks a bit about Kaiki. This stirs something up in Senjogahara who ends up knocking out and tying up Koyomi in some abandoned building. Senjogahara reveals that Kaiki is a con artist that tried to fix Senjogahara's problem from the first season for money and also broke up her parents (This is a horrible person) and will not allow Koyomi to get involved with him.

Unfortuneltly, Koyomi gets a text message from one of his sisters asking for help, and with the power of his power of vampirism (he was a vampire at one point, I know right?), breaks from his shackles wanting to help his sisters. Senjogahara puts up a fight, but she herself gets a phone call talking about some sort of deal and how she will "Do whatever they ask" and Koyomi is free to go. When Koyomi asks about who it was, Senjogahara reveals it was Hanekawa and cut to credits.

First off, I am so glad the wheels are turning. I get that you'd want to reintroduce characters, but the way they handled it was so off putting. It was like "Oh here's girl, let's talk to her for ten minutes" for the past two episodes. Secondly, while I liked the banter between Senjogahara and Koyomi in this episode (their banter really died down by the end of the first season), it really wasn't enough for this episode to be good. Now we are finally getting into the paranormal side of this series and hopefully some more interesting stuff.


Waiting in the Summer

While we are all lead to believe that Ichika rejected Kaito that isn't necessarily the truth. It turns out that Ichika thinks Kaito knows she's an alien and is afraid that he'll call in the Men In Black. Weird I know, but hey, she's not of this world so her thought process is different.

So while she's afraid about confronting Kaito, Kaito is afraid about confronting Ichika because he thinks he got rejected. So much so that he decides to skip school leaving his friends worried. Kanna pays him a visit after school and they decide to head out while Mio, Tetsuro and Lemon decide to stalk and film them.

This is where the love pentagon shows its head. See, Kaito likes Ichika but Kanna likes Kaito. Tetsuro likes Kanna while Mio likes Tetsuro. This whole episode was pretty much a way to show off who likes who. Where does Ichika stand in all this? Well near the end, Kaito and Ichika run into each other and clear the air of sorts. Both don't say what each other thought happened at the end of the last episode, but both know it wasn't for any reason that they actually thought.

So there they are being all chummy and Ichika starts to tease Kaito about who he likes. She names off Kanna, Mio and Lemon all the while Ichika rejecting them all (poor Kanna). Jokingly she says it can't possibly be her and Ichika makes this huge reaction making it oh so obvious that he does. Real smooth Ichika.

If there's one thing this show has done right by its name it's the waiting part. I have no idea where this show is going. First I thought it would be a romp in space, then I thought it'd be about making a movie. Now I'm not so sure. I'm pretty sure the movie is just a "movie" in which it's just a bunch of random events recorded and not them actually filming with a script or anything. Also I just realised how much Ichika and Kaito look alike. That just makes me hate the couple even more. Kanna should just pair up with Tetsuro.

Aquarion Evol

Mikono's testing reveals she is not a Elemental so off she goes back to where it was she came. Unfortunately for her, Bad dudes attack again and a mysterious man who is revealed as Fudo Zen brings her back to the academy.

Amata, Andy (a great man) and Cayenne are fighting off the bad dudes with not much luck. Fudo tells Mikono to replace Andy (how all this pilot stuff works is beyond me) so she can help Amata and Cayenne. After a bit of doubt she agrees and because they are of mixed gender, Aquarion Evol is formed.

Evol kicks ass and then targets the leader of the bad dudes (who is in space) with a huge arm punch that stretches ridiculously far. So far that not only does it defeat the mech in space, but comes back to the planet to break the berlin wall (the wall that separated the men and women). Fudo makes an announcement that boys and girls are free to mingle, but no love is allowed. The show ends back at the enemies lair with some dude waking up. I'm guessing he's bad news.

So let me say that this show is in lead to be my favourite show out of all these others. It's not just the Jam Project type music (though it's a big part) but the animation quality is great, the story always seems to have its high points, and well, it's super flashy.

My only complaint about this episode is exactly why Mikono was able to pilot an Aquaria. I mean, I know that it will be revealed she is an Elemental, but I thought they'd reveal that first and then she would pilot one. Otherwise, fun times all around.

Bodacious Space Pirates 

Remember that whole hacking thing that the last episode was leading up to? Well that all but lasted the opening segment... before the actual intro song started. Anyways, Chiaki and Marika start the hack and are about to successfully hack the people that hacked them, but the other guys up and left. So there you go... hope that was eventful.

The rest of the show had the yacht club go into space. This is where I learned that while the school is of mixed gender, the yacht club is only full of females. Guess that means guys have no interest in yachts... or have their own club.

So they go into space and a lot of space talk is had. The ships sail (yes a space sail) doesn't fully come out so the freshmen (including Chiaki and Marika) and their club adviser must go out and push the sail so it fully comes out. And that was the entire episode.

You know, if your going to do a slow build to Marika becoming a space pirate that's all fine and dandy. Infact, if this was a way for the crew of her fathers ship to see if she has what it takes, then all the better. But the problem is that we as an audience already know she has the ability to become a pirate in the first episode. So she should be dealing with the idea of becoming a pirate. Instead we get this dumb space adventure for a purpose that serves no one. This all could of happened and probably been for the better if the whole Marika can be a pirate was revealed after the fact. But no, we get this.

 Senki Zesshou Symphogear

Before they can fight it out the big boss man comes and ruins Tsubasa's fun. Hibiki tries to apologies by saying she'll do her best to replace Kanade which makes Tsubasa really mad. Eventually, Hibiki and Tsubasa go back to their regular life with Hibiki trying to finish an assignment in hopes of seeing shooting stars with her friend, and Tsubasa going down the crazy path thinking more of herself as a weapon.

The show also states that the Noise are actually targeting something. Most notably, the organization that Hibiki and Tsubasa work for. They state that they are being targetted by a group of people that are after the power that makes the Symphogear. Or something like that, it was a lot of Mumbo-jumbo.

Hibiki eventually finishes her assignment but is unable to go to the shooting star thing cause she has to fight off Noise. She goes crazy fighting the Noise, meets up with Tsubasa and somehow some other lady is wearing another Symphogear appears. Which I guess is the item they showed off in the first episode... I guess.

Maybe it was because I wasn't paying much attention, but I felt like they never properly set the scale on how bad off the world is. I was fine with it being a more isolated matter instead of having to deal with the rest of the world. Well, maybe not like that, but I imagined that the group Hibiki fights for was kind of a "One and only" kind of thing. We get an idea that the rest of the world is after whatever they have but where exactly are they? In Japan? Hell if I know.

Probably the best part of the show was Hibiki going crazy. I'm not sure if her look actually changed, or it was a stylistic metaphor or something, but it worked. It was kind of weird though. I always assumed that headquarters was always in communication with Hibiki and Tsubasa, so why didn't they pick up on her being all crazy? Maybe it was because she was undergound? Or maybe I just assumed too much. I hope this will become a story line with Hibiki having to deal with that other side of her.

Another

Misaki showed her other eye to Kouichi which turned out to be a fake eye. She then tells him about a rumour 26 years ago about a girl dieing and everyone in her class still believing she was alive cause she was so cool. When they took the class photo dead girl was in it. There was more to the story but that's as far as Misaki got. The rest of the episode had Kouichi ask a bunch of other people about the story but everyone felt uncomfortable and never answered. Kouichi asked Misaki why everyone acts like she's dead when Misiaki finally says that she doesn't exist to them and that only Kouich can see her. At that point some girl comes running out of class and see's Kouichi with Missaki, runs the other way, and in a freak accident trips on the stairs and gets stabbed with her umbrella..... ella ella ella.

OR WAS IT A FREAK ACCIDENT?! DID MISAKI SOMEHOW DO IT?!

I don't know, but finally, something happens. I'm happy about that and where they go from here. This really should of probably happened in the first episode to grab peoples attention, but at the pace their going, I guess this is fine. Also, I'm not sure that Misaki is actually dead. The wording was that the rest of the class don't see her. Not that she's actually dead. Yeah, I'm sure it's the writer being all artsy or something, but with this big push of "Misaki is dead, ooooo, scary, ghosts" there has to be a twist somewhere. The twist being? I don't know, everyone is dead and Misaki is the last person alive? I don't know. I just find it hard to believe that Misaki will actually say something like "Yup, I'm a ghost" mid way through the story. Cause what do you do afterwords? Well, dead umbrella lady will probably take up the entirety of the next episode.

Lagrange -The Flower of Rin-ne

So Instead of double teaming Madoka and her Ovid, the two enemies separate and deal with two different objectives. One looks for the Ovid that Madoka beat in the first episode, and the other fights Madoka. Instead of, you know, beating up Madoka. So Madoka fights the new comer and kinda looses, evil guy tells Madoka that they're not here to destroy earth but to move there or something. Madoka rejects and keeps fighting but not all that well.

On the other hand, Lan wants to help Madoka out but is afraid to ride her Ovid after knowing the truth about them. Eventually she grows some balls and helps out Madoka and the two other Ovid's retreat. Lan thanks Madoka and then they give their Ovids their own names. Madoka names hers Midoro while Lan names hers Orca. Then some random cut to some guy in a bed acting all sad telling us about the Legend of the Ovids.

Basically, he tells us that there are three different Ovids (Blue, Orange and Green) and they'll destory the earth. A back shot of the once naked girl shows up and that's how the show ends.

I'm really liking Madoka's character, but I still find all this other stuff hard to believe. I find it hard to grasp a random person who has never trained in a Mecha knowing how to fully work it instantly. Gundam usually has a good reason as to why be they super elite humans or something rather, but with Madoka they say she made an oath to her Ovid but that doesn't really mean anything to me. That lets her use the Ovid, not necessarily knows how to pilot it right away. Hopefully there will be an episode where she actually learns how to use her Ovid instead these situations where people come to attack and she has to learn on the fly. Cause we all know that just isn't enough.

Brave 10

Isanami and Saizo are told to head to Izumo for some reason. Accompanying them is new character Junzo Kakei who uses a gun to dust fools. On their way, they run into Yuri Kamanosuke and his gang of bandits. They plan on stealing Isanimi for her Jewel taht destroy's everything and Saizo and Kakei must rescue her. Saizo evnentually meets up with them, defeats Kamanosuke, and spares his life from the pleading Isanami.

That's pretty much what happened. I like how Kakei is the prudent old man who opposes the liberal Isanami and the laid back Saizo. There was this one scene where Isnami and Saizo were fooling around in a sleeping blag (get your head out of the guter Chris) which left Kakei stunned and myself fairly amused. Like I said before, this show seems to be going down its path at a stable speed. Though I have to wonder if this group are going to have more crazy antics before they get to Izumo.

Second Week of Anime Talk: Week 2

Holy crap can you believe I'm doing this again? Well not really, I did that for the other Anime for two weeks. So the holy crap point should be next week.

I wrote more words this time, so it's more in detailed. No specific order as usual.


 Senki Zesshou Symphogear

The show kicks off right where the first episode had ended with Hibiki in same gear as the two Idol signers. She fends off some Noise and then Tsubasa shows up to clean house. The rest of the episode was used to explain a bunch of stuff (none being what Noise are). For one, the suits Hibiki and Tsubasa wear are called "Symphogear" which is created from sort of ancient crystal that when the right person sings, creates said suit. Which also turns out to be the only thing that can fend off the Noise. So Hibiki must lead a double life hiding the fact that she will now fight the Noise, which is explained in a rather generic "Everyone you know will be in danger" way.

The show is a lot like the main character: Half and Half. In one way, I really like the ridiculous idea that they sinG while fighting (which leaves a lot of awful lip synching), it's kind of awesome. But on the other, it's been kind of generic so far. Hibiki is doing to her best to impress Tsubasa who she idealizes since she not only saved her life, but also loves her music. While Tsubasa is the cold hearted character who doesn't care about her because, well the suit she wears and the crystal Hibiki uses belonged to Kanade (the one who died). Which is understandable, but, well, do we not know where this is going? Am I not to believe Hibiki won't make a believer out of Tsubasa?

Also, I'm not sure where I stand on Hibiki, she just seems so generic, from design to character type, I can't really click with her. She's the "fish out of water" this show needs, but hell if she doesn't look generic. I'd be leaning more on the side of Tsubasa but her character is played out. Honestly, I was more interested in seeing the story play out from a pop duo's perspective. But they went off and killed that option fast. The only real saving grace of Hibiki is her voice actress Yuuki Aoi who is awesome. She has made me a believer out of her time and time again but this role is a bit different. Maybe it's a lot of the generic lines fed, to her but she doesn't really stand out when she speaks. The only time she does is when she get's to play Hibiki in more of a conversational laid back way. Yuuki has played a lot of interesting characters that would challenge others, but maybe it's best to keep her doing those characters rather then the generic super hero.

High School DxD

This episode was pretty crap. Boobs were left to a minimum and I'm not sure if Issei is the kind of person I want for these kind of shows. See, I like guys who are kind of passive to the idea of having bobs in their face. Issei, is the kind that just wants it all. Which makes it boring to watch. The interest is in constantly teasing the character and him avoiding seeing lots of boobs. it keeps the viewers wanting to see the boobs. But if the character gets to see boobs all the time, well where's the interesting in continuing to watch?

Anyways, Issei learns the boob demon that originally killed him was a fallen angel who found out he has an object in him called the "Sacred Gear". Rias saved him and the gear and he is now a Devil. We are introduced to more characters and Issei just kind of does menial tasks in the hopes of getting his own slave in the future. Eventually, he's attacked yet again and is able to spawn the Sacred Gear (which is some sort of magic armlet thing) and fend off the attacker. And that is pretty much how the show ends. Oh and some other girl is seen at the end.... I think she's an angel.

I'm  interested to see if there will be any solid action in this show. The idea of Angles (be them fallen or not) against devils is kinda cool. Also, the idea of Issei having this magical armlet thing certainly leads one to think so. But I've seen shows like this that kept it to a minimal. That aside, not a lot of great boobs in this episode, I kind of don't like it when a girl is naked and talking all casually. Just kind of takes the idea that her boobs are showing out of my mind.

Nisemonogatari

I sure hope there's more to this then just talking to girls from the previous season. Last episode we got to hear from Senjogahara (Koyomi Araragi's Girlfriend), Tsukihi (youngest sister) and Hachikuji (A wondering spirit that is a child female that Araragi likes to bad touch). This episode reintroduced Sengoku (A moe girl that has a thing for Koyomi) and Kanbaru (best friend of Senjogahara) and the elder of the two younger sisters Karen.

The big thing to take way from this episode is that Tsukihi and Karen are up to something but Koyomi doesn't know what it is. Everything else was pretty much fan service. Sengoku likes Koyomi so it was interesting to see her flirt with him and the Koyomi/Kanbaru dynamic has always been fun. But that's it really. Since the Senjogahara conversation wasn't exactly a reintroduction of her, I'm expecting to see a full on episode between the two. If that is the case, then these guys are certainly taking their time with the story.

In the first season you knew what was up by the end of the first episode. Here, I'm not sure what to expect other then Araragi's sisters being involved. While I usually like the endless banter between all the characters, it usually had a story behind it that made everything kind of flow. Here they're just yapping away. The third episode has got to bring it. Or, at the very least, having really good banter between Senjogahara and Koyomi.

Bodacious Space Pirates

I'm not sure what was going on in this episode. Marika still isn't captain of her dad's ship. That's kind of all I know. Well that and some other stuff. Like Marika's mom making her shoot laser guns and then her yacht club about to take off into space. Oh and mysterious new comer Chiaki Kurihara seems to know a lot more then she leads on. And then there was this part where they were being hacked so Chiaki and Marika were defending it and are about to cyber attack back or something, I don't know.

After letting out that big bomb drop about Marika's dad being a pirate, the show sure slows down the pace. Hell, at the end of the first episode the restaurant where Marika works was crowded with unsavory people. Making it seem like Marika was public enemy 1. Here, nothing happens. Aside from the hacking thing. I expect a lot of it is probably going to be her dad's crew testing how Marika handles certain situations, but if you're going to put a bulls-eye on her, keep it on.

Lagrange -The Flower of Rin-ne

Why is it that in almost every Mecha show, they do the typical person "pilot's robot in the first episode but then later regrets it in the next"? Well this one does it as well... but at least it explains some stuff. Stuff like how Madoka's robot thing is known as an Ovid with its name being Vox Aura. It seems something happened in the past where Madoka nearly drowned and met said Ovid. But all is not sure.

Anyways, when Madoka comes back from defeating the other Ovid (via German Suplex), she is in shock when she finds out there's more to do. Thinking it was a one time deal (kinda cute). But now that she's formally part of the group (group being organization that is tying to stop bad people from doing bad things), she feels the weight of the world on her. So when she engages a new enemy she starts to get sheepish and feels unworthy. Blah blah blah, she snaps out of it and Madoka must fight two Ovids now. Also a new girls was introduced. No name, but she was naked for a little bit.

I get the feeling that this is going to be K-On but with Mechs. The all-girl team is starting to form up (Madoka, Lan and new girl) and there attitudes just seem so moe. Now I liked K-On, but I dropped it sometime around the second season because nothing was happening. They played music for ten episodes. I get the feeling that Lagrange won't be like that, but I'm kinda all moe'd out at this point. Hopefully the Mecha stuff will keep me compelled.

Brave 10

I think I dropped the ball with the overall premise of the show. So yeah, it's about Yukimara's 10 warriors or whatever but it's only used as a backdrop. See, there's this priestess named Isanami who was attacked at her temple and fled to Sanada's place. On the way, she met up with Saizou (the main character) who acts all cold hearted towards her but helps her anyway. Through some stuff that's not worth mentioning, Isnami gets help from Yukimura and Saizou somehow starts serving him but still doesn't like Isanami all that much.

This episode introduced a new lady by the name of Ana (Anna?) and a new enemy who I actually know as the bad ass Ninja Hanzou Hitari. He's totally bad ass just so you know. The episode was pretty much Isanami getting jealous at Saizou for hanging out with Anna a lot, and Saizou starting to fall for Isanami (Isnami already likes Saizou). The big twist is she's a priestess, so no sex for her or something. Then there was a snake, a big snake actually, some rival clan who wants Isanami and some other stuff.

This Anime seems like on a track of sorts. It knows where it's going and has carefully planned a route. Whether that route is a good one is still left to be determined. But comparing to a show like, let's say Symphogear, I'm more then happy to see where this is going.

Another

More and more hints lead to Kouichi believing Mei is dead, while the class still continue hiding a secret from him. At some point, Kouchi is in a doll store looking at scary dolls, meets up with Mei and she is about to show what's under her eye-patch.

THIS SHOW KEEPS TRYING TO SAY IT'S SCARY WHEN NOTHING SCARY HAPPENS! STOP TRYING TO BE SCARY!

I'm really trying hard to see where this is going with it's constant atmosphere. No matter the situation, the show keeps trying to keep a constant eerie vibe. I wouldn't surprise me if there's some sort of twist and Mei isn't actually dead. Or, well, the show becoming something else entirely. Like opting out the eerie for some harem?

Waiting in the Summer

These people are dumb. Really dumb. It used the "well that's weird but whatever" story-telling twice in this one episode.

So at the end of the first episode, Kaito faints and Ichika heals him by kissing him in some sort of shield thing while Kaito's sister (Nanami) and lady friend (Kanna) catch her in the act. Instead of asking what the hell the bubble shield was, they ask her about everything else. Like why she's there, kissing Kaito, all that stuff. I don't even think they asked about the bubble shield. Even if they did, they did the cliche of the character (Ichika) acting timid by not answering and then they move on to the next point. I'm sorry but if I see a person in a bubble shield, regardless of the situation, I'm asking about the bubble shield.

The show continues from there with Nanami agreeing to let Ichika stay since she'll be out of town with Kannna getting jealous. The rest of Kaito's friends find out, and set up a meeting for the film at his place the next day (Cause that's still happening). Lemon (Ichika's class mate) secretly let's everyone drink alcohol and everyone has a fine time. When Kanna presses Ichika about how she feels about Kaito, some weird alien thing pops out and everyone starts laughing, with Ichika claiming its her pet (I guess since everyone is drunk they just don't care about an alien). Sometime latter Kaito is about to confess to Ichika but she tells him not to say it.

It's revealed in the beginning that Ichika is from space and is looking for "that special place". Of course, nobody knows where and neither does Ichika... I think? Other then that the most interesting thing going on is Kanna and Kaito. See, Kanna likes Kaito but Kaito doesn't know (Original, I know). But Kaito likes Ichika and possibly the other way around as well. The thing that I don't like about Ichika and Kaito is that both just seem real timid. Kanna is more full of energy and plays off the timid Kaito. But Ichika and Kaito? well it's like looking at two rocks and your friend saying "You know those two really like each other.", but when you look at it yourself, it doesn't look like anything. It's just too forced. Yes, we know these two like each other, but they don't show any reason too. I'm rooting for you Kanna!

Aquarion Evol

A bunch of stuff is clarified in this episode which is a god send for me. First off, certain people have a thing called elements that they can use (like flying, digging or seeing into the future) and are called Elemental's. Each Elemental has the power to operate a Aquaria (ship/robot thing) and three can form into a Aquarion. Amata (the Main Character) has the ability to combine both sexes into an Aquarion called Evol and that's pretty much all I know so far.

The rest of the episode has Amata joining said group (it's a school really) and training for a bit all the while looking for his love interest Mikono Suzushiro whose brother (Cayenne) is one of the best at the school. Also Mikono isn't an Elemental, which is weird considering her whole family is. The school tries to probe Amata's brain (in a very flashy way) to figure out why he knows the name "Aquarion" but all is lost and the machine breaks. Also, bad dudes are coming.

I am really enjoying this show. There's a mystery around Amata as to why he can do what he does, Mechs are awesome, and my god do I love it when an Aquarion is being formed. The opening music plays, and everything just feels awesome.

Weekly Anime Talk: Week 1

2011 was a horrible year for this blog. But I'm going to try and get back into writing a lot more this year and I figured this would be a great way too keep at it. Much like my attempt at talking about a certain Anime, this one will be me talking about all the shows I've seen in a week. I actually had this idea kicking around for awhile, but was oh so lazy. Anyways, the new season of Anime has started (it's the winter season!) and a bunch of new shows are debuting. So I'll probably stick with the newer ones rather then the currently airing ones.

Aside from the obvious content issue of this blog, I've been known to stop watching Anime shows after the first couple episodes. I usually start big, then by the end of it I'm just watching two or three. So hopefully this will be a good way to either keep watching a show, or see exactly why I dropped it. Oh and I'm terrible with remembering names. Let us begin.

Another

Kouichi Sakakibara transferred from a busy city to a small town where his class is acting all weird. It's kinda told early on that some girl died and the class pretends she's alive. So he runs into said girl Mei Misaki who turns out to be that girl? I think... I'm pretty sure. So this whole Anime is horror based and a lot of it was set up. The tone certainly sets thing up like their is something going on that Kouichi doesn't know about. Almost a bit too much really. There was this one scene where some of the classes students went and greeted Kouchi at the hospital (he had a collapsed lung or something) and the eerie tone just seemed to forced. I get it, your trying to be scary. Great. Show me something more.

Aquarion Evol

So this is a sequel to another anime called Aquarion (though it has little to do with this series) which was a Mecha based Anime and this is no different. I didn't get a lot of the "lore" of the show but man was this a pretty looking show. Probably my favourite part was when they were actually forming Aquarion (The big robot the show is named after). I swear it was something out of Jam Project song. Other then that I'm not sure what's going on. Each pilot has some sort of element attached to them. The Main Character Amata Sora, seems to have a air element (cause he can float) which lets Aquarion fly or something. But then some other guy can see into the future or something, I don't know. Also there's some sort of sexual thing going on with the robots where guys and girls can't pilot Mech's at the same time, and if they touch they get all sexual... seems cool enough.

Brave 10

Do you like Historical Anime? Like loosely based Historical Anime? These shows seem to pop up every season where they take Japanese Historical characters and make an Anime out of it. This, like many others is based on the Ten Heroes of Sanada, but it involves all things Anime. But not a bad first episode. Some good fight scenes, the main female (Isanami) was likable and if you like to see how Anime treats it's historical characters, well this is for you.

Nisemonogatari

Ok, I'm going to cheat here a bit as this show is actually a continuation of Bakemonogatri which I loved. This episode was more or less a recap or sorts with notable characters from the first season. Koyomi Araragi still continues to be Koyomi Araragi and Hitagi Senjogahara still continues to be the best thing about Tsundere's out their. Aside from that everything is still the same, lots of banter and quick shots from different angles to compensate for lack of animation. Koyomi also has his youngers sisters introduced in this series and Tsukihi was first introduced, She seems nice.

Senki Zesshou Symphogear

This show was kinda crazy. It kinda had everything. Death, singing and action all in the first half. So get this, two girls (Kanade Amou and Tsubasa Kazanari) are in some sort of pop group and their signing, monsters show up called noise, they transform, continue to signing all the while fighting the noise. A girl by the name of Hibiki Tachibana is caught up in all this, Kanade saves her but dies and Tsubasa is all sad. Sometime later, Hibiki is being chased by the noise and what do you know? She can transform into whatever it is the other two transformed into. Also Nana Mizuki and Yuuki Aoi are in it (I know, I KNOW!).

So much happened in twenty-five minutes that I am left in awe. Like "This was awesome." kind of awe. It was kinda like Macross but not really and had to tell so much that I can't see how another episode can do so much. In fact, I'd be surprised if another episode tries to do as much as this episode did. This is one of the few that I'm not entirely sure I'll stick around for.

Bodacious Space Pirates (Or Moretsu Pirates)

Marika Kato finds out her dad was a space pirate and only she can captain his ship. That's pretty much the story so far. I don't know, space pirates. You like Pirates? I think that's what this show will be about. Not even a hybrid of Space and Pirates. But Pirates in Space. Which, I don't know. I guess that's the thing to do, cause if you don't then why call it pirates right? Marika seems like a likable character and the potential of her recruiting her fellow class mates is novel enough. BUT Kana Hanazawa is in this. So it's enough for me.

Lagrange -The Flower of Rin-ne (Or Rinne no Lagrange)

Not since Gundam Seed and GunXSword will I be watching two Mecha shows at the same time (Though I'm not sure if they both aired at the same time). Madoka Kyono is a do it all girl who will help anyone. She meets a girl named Lan who asks for her help to which Madoka agrees and next thing we know she's piloting a robot/ship thing. Much like everything else on this list it has an interesting premise and we'll see how it goes. I do tend to like Madoka and apparently she has some sort of history with that thing she's piloting, The most memorable scene had to be when Madoka was riding that plane. Priceless.

Waiting in the Summer (Or Ano Natsu de Matteru)

I'm not sure what this Anime is classified as. The begning makes it seems like some sort of fantastical sci-fi story or something, the middle is slice of life then it goes back to being all sci-fi. Anyways, Kaito Kirishima has a camera and wants to do something with it. His friends decide to film a movie because a new transfer student (Ichika Takatsuki) has arrived and Kaito has a thing for her. It's hinted that not everything is right with Ichika, as she seems to be trying tom hard to fit in. Bkah blah blah, Ichika moves in with Kaito, Kaito faints, Ichika kisses Kaito to heal him in some sort of bubble and that's how the episode ends. Oh and the beginning of the show had Kaito caught up in some sort of explosion with a mysterious person saving him.

I`m not sure why, but I'm more interested in the middle part of the story rather then the beginning or end. Maybe it's just because every other show I'm watching deals with fantastical situations and it's nice to have a change of pace? I would think. But to be honest the middle was so bleh. I honestly hate Kaito's hair. Maybe it's not anime enough for me. Or maybe it's the combination of the glasses and hair. Don't know.

High School DxD

So this is pretty much my guilty pleasure of this entire round up. It's basically a show to show off boobs. Yeah, I know, Anime boobs. Boobs that don't function like that in real life. Now I could be a real nice person and say "Oh this is derogatory towards women..." blah blah blah. And it is. But it's not for women... at least I don't think. You women have your own shows to like to watch. This.... this is for me.

So Issei Hyodo wants to go out with a girl, he does, she ends up being some big boob demon or something and kills him. Some other Big boob demon saves him, turns out she's Rias Gremory of the Gremory clan, who is a Devil and makes Issei into her slave or something. Yeah OK, I know. I'm a horrible person, deal with it. I liked this episode, it was just stupid fun that you could turn your brain off and not really worry about trying to dead those damn subtitles. Oh and that girl who killed Issei? Hot.