NANA – First Impression (Manga)
March 6, 2008 at 12:55 am | In Manga, NANA | Leave a CommentI’m so glad I stopped being lazy and start reading this. (In truth, I had my eyes on it around 2 years ago, never got around to it)
Then I thought.
Wow.
Favourite manga by far, but then here comes the dilemma.
“Since I’ve to figure out manga is better than anime because of speed of plot, what should I do? If I continue reading it’s going to ruin my enjoyment of the anime, and if I stop… I’m going to get withdrawal from the manga!”
That’s what I said on 4chan, and the response, as expected, wasn’t really helpful.
But there are some good advice here and there, since the manga moves faster and apparently the anime follows it closely, I’ll just watch one episode at a time and then catch up on the manga side.

Original plot, original characters (bet many of them will by dynamic too), great artwork, fast plot movement and great sentimentality usage. Good stuff, good stuff. Great read for all types of reader, even if you’re not into shoujo.
Melty Blood – First Impression (Manga)
March 6, 2008 at 12:41 am | In Manga, Melty Blood, Tsukihime | 1 CommentI think I’m a bit rusty on the plot and the outcome of Tsukihime and/or there are some arcs from the H-Game that didn’t get shown on the anime, because I only know Sion from the Melty Blood fighting game. But it gets easy to picked up and its background becomes much less important as the plot advances quickly and explains itself as it gets along, moreover from the fact that Sion wasn’t from the H-Game.

As you can see here, Akiha looks pretty much the same, Arcueid and Ciel looks slightly different, and Shiki is totally different from the anime. This manga is decent, there are some dull times when battle scenes drag on too long, and explanations and flashbacks overlap pretty often. Otherwise, the plot movement is decent and the humour which didn’t exist for the other media-type helps lighten the mood once a while. Yes, there is romance in this, and yes, it’s a sloppy job. From the H-Game and the anime that spawned from it, it’s actually quite a disappointment IMO since it’s is actually slower than the anime. However it compensates for it by totally creating a new arc/plot, so Tsukihime fans like myself would enjoy it.
Mint na Bokura – Review (Manga)
March 4, 2008 at 7:48 pm | In Manga, Mint na Bokura | Leave a CommentPromise to myself, will study for midterm tomorrow after this entry.

Can you tell which one is the guy? Of course not, this is a manga.
Synopsis (from ANN):
Noeru has a close connection to his twin sister, Maria. When Noeru learns Maria’s gone to a boarding school to be near her first love, he goes after her to stop it. The only problem is that the school has only one bed left, for a girl student. Disguised as a girl, Noeru attempts to bring his sister home. In the process, love is found, lost, and found again for both of them.
Thoughts:
Cross dressing seems to be a easy subject to poke fun at, and it’s much more believable within Asian culture because girls are flatter and guys are girlier. (Not an insult!) Short series, just sat down in math lecture and read most of it, and finished it later in the day. A nice light read but direly lacking in romance since it’s bland and one sided, with a stereotypical happy ending. If you don’t mind that, since sometimes getting too heavy is a drag, then this is a relaxing type of manga, and both the length and its nature makes it feel like it should’ve been longer, which is a slight disappointment, but disappointment at a manga ending is a good thing, you don’t want things to drag on too long.
Then I proceeded to start Vampire Knight and Claymore, stayed up till 3AM reading till I’m fully caught up with Claymore.
Shigofumi – Episode 8
March 3, 2008 at 4:50 pm | In Shigofumi | Leave a CommentRealized I saw this a real back and haven’t posted this up yet. (Though I was quite sure I did…)
Ya, midterms still looming, but I thought I ‘d clean out my laptop and some stuff piled up for my blog.
Synopsis:
Totally revealing Fumika’s past, so she used to be a nice girl that was adored to the point of being spoiled by her father. Then one day her father started using Fumika’s body as draft for his works, in which he channels all his hatred of the betrayal of Fumika’s mother, Kirei, back to Fumika’s body. (It involves stabbing Fumika with glass pens, and of course it has to be done with Fumika naked, sick lolicon). Fumika goes into denial and refuses to believe that a) this is her father, and b) this is herself. Thereby creating a split personality for herself, the original Fumika becomes Fumi-chan and the new one is Mika-chan. This continued and eventually (for plot consistency purpose) Fumika’s father suddenly enrolls Fumi-chan into a middle school, where she befriends her ex-best friend. Mika-chan continues to watch from Fumi-chan’s mind as time goes by. Until one time Fumika’s father’s aggression was particularly brutal to the point of extreme pain for Fumi-chan, she snaps and Maki-chan takes over, then proceeds to shoot Kirameki. Why did her father, in the process of torturing her, lets her get up, grab a gun, then shoot her is beyond by comprehension. And denial strikes Fumi-chan again and she goes into a coma. Mika-chan, keeping the promise that they shall be together 永遠に. And so that’s about it, this was all said while Kirameki is locked up in Fumika’s old room after a bash from Fumika’s wannabe boyfriend (I have a real hard time with names). Anything but the face, by the way, it’s Kirameki, after all. After the story Kirameki breaks out and almost gets killed by berserk Fumika/Mika-chan by the very same glass pen (again, where did Mika-chan find the time to get one?), then お姉さん comes along and saves the day, some would say. Or completely ruin a potential good revenge scene by Mika-chan. Ends with another confession to Fumika after Mika-chan tells the guy that he got rejected because it was too sudden (seems like a lame shounen excuse to me).
Thoughts:
I noticed my thoughts are pretty much embedded into the synopsis I write, so I’ll do a little forecasting.
I think that since the background’s all out in the light now, they next plot movement would be having her secret discovered would mean Kirameki does something (the purpose for letting him live) that would jeopardize a) Mika-chan’s job, or b) Fumi-chan. Or it could be someone else, like Chiaki snooping into Mika-chan’s business.
Any chance for a decent romance plot for this anime is gone IMO, damn that lame reason for rejection, and making light of the situation too much.
Shigofumi got licensed, and the name got changed to Letters from the Deceased, so I guess I need to correct that…
Gundam 00 – Episode 20/21
March 2, 2008 at 4:00 pm | In Gundam 00 | 3 CommentsWanna try out the format that I see most other anime blogs do, looks less messy that way, but not good for making snide comments =
We’ll see how it works out.
I wonder if I can mass-upload with WordPress, since uploading one at a time can get quite tedious. Or maybe I should collage it into one big image…
Synopsis (Episode 20):
Turns out Louise Halevy’s arm is not regrow-able (that part was really unnecessary since we don’t know that arms CAN be regrown in the first place). Some thing to do with GN Particles, damn them! Saji crying about it, and missed his train, then cried some more. Skipped to next part. AEU, HRL, and Union formed an alliance to combat the new threat, while they were on the verge of surrendering, what caused this? Marina Ismail gets a little airtime in this episode… then cut to the Ptolemaios… prepare the GN Arm! Ooo! What’s the GN Arm? Hopefully it doesn’t look as lame as the current Gundams, the Thrones look decent though. Well, to explain the alliance, there is a traitor within Veda (if not several) that sold information and 10 GN Drives to each of the three nations. We see each of the nation assigning these units to pilots, naturally it’s the pilots we’ve been seeing so far. Graham Aker turned down the offer since he promised on Howard Mason’s grave that he’d defeat a Gundam with a Flag. On the other hand, Soma Peries was keen to have one. Then cut to sideshow (could later be relevant?) on Patrick Colasour courting his captain Kathy Mannequin (what is up with these last names?). Who was the traitor? Turns out to be Laguna Harvey is the traitor (Harvey, not Halevy, got nothing to do with Louise… I think, or could be translation thing) talking with Ali Al-Saachez (again with the last names, he hasn’t done anything to live up to his pun… yet). Is it getting too hard to follow with a massive amount of brackets? Ali Al-Saachez demands a Gundam also, leaves the place, and picks up Saji’s sister Kinue (who’s been snooping for info outside). Bad bad bad, never get into a car with a man with goatee. Next thing you know, she winds up bleeding to death (raining for dramatic effects) in a back alley. Her clothes are still on, that proves it, Ali Al-Saachez is GAY, and likes little boy like Setsuna. Some more talking, switches to Alejandro Corner and his little boy slave heading somewhere. Then switches yet again to Wang Liu-Mei and the Trinity talk about cooperation. Right after that is a relatively short battle scene (they need it in order too keep it a Gundam episode, a battle an episode keeps the angry fans away). HRL retaliate the Trinity with their GN Units, caught off guard, they retreat. Lastly, the most important part of the episode, Alejandro enters Veda’s physical core computer, and thereby controls it.
This is a lot more tiring than I thought it’d be. And it’s really chewing out my study time. Or my supposedly study time.
Synopsis (Episode 21):
Kinue in a body bag, that means she’s dead, dead, dead. No chances of regrowing or whatever unknown technology the writers still have up their sleeves. You see, her mistake was, she should’ve reached for her cell instead of her wallet when she’s dying. A talk between Daryl Dodge and Patrick Colasour before operation against Ptolemaios, Daryl decides to kick some ass in Graham’s place. All he needs now is KFC and a watermelon. Aboard Ptolemaios, the two girls are working hard to hack their way out of the Veda system, since Sumeragi is suspecting traitors within the midst. Setsuna has a dream about Marina, that may sound somewhat twisted and sex depraved, but it’s not. That’s how romance is in Gundam, it’s never in the flesh, they do all this spirit combining thing in place of the real thing to keep it PG. Somehow it ends up more f’ed up than the real thing though. Alejandro found out about Laguna’s betrayal, and had him ousted. But isn’t Alejandro kinda a traitor by hacking through Veda and controlling it for himself? Apparently he’s trying to make HRL win. What a commie. God, we return to Saji’s side, and he’s STILL crying, hurry up and be a Shinn already. This is before coordinators (I think), so anyone can pilot a Gundam! So the battle scenes for this episode are Trinity VS HRL and Celestial Being VS AEU and Union, with only a little coverage on Trinity and HRL. AEU and Union attacked Ptolemaios and then suddenly Veda overrode and disabled the 4 Gundams. As expected, the hacking thing got their asses out of that mess, but Virtue’s system is still down (maybe it’s because he’s directly controlled by Veda). Lockon took the hit for Tieria, and lights out for him. Doesn’t look dead, and is probably not dead. New Gundam comes and saves the day! Or just a jet… is that the GN Arm? I fail to see any resemblance.
Thoughts:
My thoughts are this is way too tiring, but it does look better this way, so I guess I’ll stick with it. Cut back on some Battlefield/Stepmania time I guess. And cut back on 4chan lurking too… but that’s for my own good. Especially the 4chan thing. You all know that me downloading these episodes mean I’m finally interested enough to do so. The story is really nice and the artwork is an improvement from Seed (note that artwork and Gundam design is different). I like how the multiple point of views that Gundam series have, and they emphasized on this point more so than the older ones. The music is great too, though the music video for Ash Like Snow is pretty lame. Blatant attempt at advertising Sunrise stuff.
MicroEcon Midterm… Tomorrow…
March 2, 2008 at 1:35 pm | In 4chan, Random Stuff | Leave a CommentAnd know that, guess what I’m doing…
Found this picture… guess where I found it.
I’m sure a lot of Fate/[insert extension] fans will have a copy of this…

O RLY? I would’ve never guessed.
But wait, something is wrong.
Let me point it out…

Yeah so it wasn’t the right format, but it wouldn’t fit if I made it landscape. Who cares! It’s the text that matters.
Gundam Episode 21 is finished downloading (school internet owns on Sundays!).
Yes, I’m at school.
Yes, I’m downloading Gundam, it’s finally getting good.
Gonna watch it, post about it later.
H2O – Footprints in the Sand – First Impression
March 1, 2008 at 11:54 pm | In H2O - Footprints in the Sand | Leave a Comment
Hmmm… the synopsis got me interested…
From ANN:
Takuma Hirose, a blind young male high school student, though the cause for his blindness is undetermined. After his mother died an unexpected death, it left a deep emotional scar on him, which caused him to become very lonely and reserved. Due to this, Takuma and his father move from the city out into a rural area and Takuma is enrolled into a new high school. At his new school, he meets several new girls, though three of whom he gets to know the most out of anyone else. They are, the firm and obstinate Hayami Kohinata, the kind and obliging Hinata Kagura, and the cheerful and mysterious Otoha. As Takuma interacts with these girls, his medical condition gradually begins to heal.
His medical condition gradually begins to heal my ass. It was like poof he’s healed by a nymph or something like that. His blindness lasted one episode, the only think to set it apart from the rest was crushed. Not that it was doing good in the first episode anyways… The first episode involved too many “mishaps” that led to fanservice for its own good.
Disappointment.
Don’t call me quick to judge, I have it another 4 episode to change itself, but no, it turned towards the two main arc girls being childhood friends and then broke up, now they fighting for the ONLY eligible guy in the village. All the others are totally douche. Ya ya, same old same old.
Dropped. Don’t recommend it at all, but unless you’re into loli….

I like the one with bombs-ears, epic lulz.
Mai Otome 0~S.ifr – First Impression
February 27, 2008 at 3:21 pm | In Mai Otome 0~S.ifr | Leave a CommentWell, my first impression of this is the name.
How the hell do I pronounce it?
It turned out to be 舞乙HiME ゼロ~シフル~。 (Mai Otome 0-Shifuru)
Besides the confusing name, there is little outstanding about this OVA and so far has no characters related from the original series and Zwei (besides Nina, she’s a cat now).
Same old, same old besides that. SciFi version of Mahou Shoujo, and features much less blatant fanservice than its non SciFi counterpart. Decent costume design based on Persian/Middle Eastern(?) culture. Will continue to follow this series, even if it’s more out of duty than anything else.
This episode features the symbol of the Mai-Otome anime series.
That’s right, giant oversized semi(?)-mechanical arm extensions. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, here is a picture of it.

Zettai Kareshi – Manga Review
February 26, 2008 at 1:00 pm | In Manga, Zettai Kareshi | Leave a CommentI am beginning to have a pile of posts… well… piling up. I’m going make them short and sweet, or at least, short.
This manga is generally Kansai romance/comedy. When you hear that you should think of something like this…

Once again, nice editing shoujomagic!
An anime equivalent of Kansai humour I can think of would be LoveCom. This was much better than Alice 19th IMO, and is great for casual readers since their is little plot movement in general. Well, until later on, then the plot rushes for the finish. Ending is bittersweet, just the way I like it.
Recommended read.
KimiKiss – Episode 19/20
February 26, 2008 at 12:14 am | In KimiKiss Pure Rouge | Leave a CommentMaybe I I showered it with praises too much early on, and only after watching episode 20 does my haunting suspicion became realized. They had indeed cut back in the art quite a bit throughout the middle of the series. Kinda reminds me what Konata mentioned in Lucky Star. I wonder if they just get lazy or some other internal thing like letting newbies try drawing or something. But returning to good art means… it’s going to end soon? Awww, and it was just getting good! (Probably the reason why it’s ending though -.-”)
Overall the two episode is the aftermath of Mizusawa Mao’s confession and Kazuki Aihara’s determination. Well, Aihara’s determination came from this! Obviously a scene from the game, underaged and maybe a reason why this isn’t a drama.

So after Mao’s confession, she tries to act like nothing big happened, but that isn’t going to fool anyone! Along comes Hoshino to freak her out! If Hoshino either looked cuter or scarier it would’ve classified as Higurashi material! にぱ~~♪

Who’s these two? They came so late in the anime… is it like a honourable mention for other “choose-able” girls in the game? At least it wasn’t like that honourable mention in School Days, that was just an orgy. Literally. The one with long hair looks like Miya Miya from Bamboo Blade, now with black hair to match her sentai colour.

I’m sure little of us forgot about the long awaited moment. No, it’s not here yet, they’re just mentioning it once again. Poor Sakino, she has yet to kiss anyone… yet? No idea, it doesn’t look like it’ll be her turn anytime soon.

And while we’re STILL waiting for it. (Mostly me…僕は摩央が大好き!) Let’s draw the attention with some cheap comedy! And some directing cuts!

On the other hand Hoshino has a heart-touching moment that is on the cheesy side and has no effect on me, but then again I’m a Mao fan.

Getting onto Aihara x Futami side… this is the final judgement. She has lain the smackdown on Aihara. Then comes a crying in the shower scene, but wait… she’s not crying! Cooooold!

But it’s Mao who ends up crying this episode… and my expectations are crushed as this is as far as they go… where is the kissing scene? How are they gonna put it in the movie?

Hoshino is on scene to see this, but falls short of going into おやしろモド,good self control if you ask me.

At the end of Episode 19, Kai caught Mao at a weak moment, will he be able to get back into her heart?

Episode 20
To start off, no he didn’t. His speech wound him up in the BFF and not BF category. Though he already accepted that fact. He suggested Mao should also act strong in order to ease the burden to those around her. Notice the detail of the still scenes in this episode. No idea how long since these appeared.

Mao decides to drops this all behind her, or at least try to. I personally think it’s not working out so well. On the side, Sakino is becomeing more and more lady-like. Not working out so well for her either, but at least she’s trying.

What does Hoshino do when she found out about Kouichi and Mao? Like any humble and diligent Japanese girl would do, nothing. For a woman, she sure took it like a man. Very detailed hair, me likes.

Then comes a rare moment with Nana-chan, it turns out she was originally the protagonist’s sister in the game. Although you couldn’t tell if it’s a good adaptation since both Kazuki and Kouichi have separate and equally important arcs.

Wrapping it up, Eriko finally accepts Kazuki’s feelings, or at least her wall is crumbling down. Tsundere moment!

Ending has yet another cliffhanger! Mao decides to move out! Wait… is that so shocking?
That’s all I can manage today… some posts tomorrow… if I feel like it.
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