Going through some really bad stuff right now so probably won't be reading/posting journals for the next few weeks. If I'm not back before Thanksgiving everyone have a good one with your friends and families!

Current Mood: depressed

KOTOKO's new album UZU MAKI has been delayed a month to 12/13.

News from Geneon.

Current Mood: disappointed

Yet another next gen iPod design.

Play iTune downloaded music on other players...for a price.

Info from iLounge.

Current Mood: restless

This weekend continued things I started about two weeks ago, watching Koukyoushihen Eureka Seven (交響詩篇エウレカセブン) and making a photo album on Winkflash of my trip to Japan last year. Almost done with both. Bought a new HD and moved around 700 gigs of anime. Also finalized a few things on my D&D character for the game at youshou's next weekend.

Felt too lazy to leave the house and vote, so I'll have to do that sometime on the way home this week. Unfortunately from the results so far, the candidate I will be voting for is pretty far behind in the polls. Looks like we'll have to deal with the same governor for 4 more years.

Current Mood: pensive

School Rumble Nigakki (スクールランブル二学期) is a continuation of the zany love comedy among the students of class 2-C at Yagami H.S. The main character list is quite large, but at the center is Harima, the delinquent, and Tenma, one of the most air-headed girls in anime history. Although the 2nd season of School Rumble has been quite good, I still prefer the 1st season a little better. Too many new characters were introduced for the first half of Nigakki, and that took away the enjoyment of the series a bit.

Animation of School Rumble is average. The style changes a lot when they are parodying other anime. The opening and ending songs are good, but still not as good when compared to the first series sung by Horie Yui (堀江由衣) and Ogura Yuuko (小倉優子). The voice acting is excellent. But the strong point of School Rumble is the interaction among the cast and of course the comedy.

My rating: 8.5/10

Current Mood: hungry

Nice and relaxing weekend. Nothing but anime, anime, and more anime. Oh, and a dinner party for one of my coworkers who's recently gotten engaged. Congrats!

Got in an order of CDs I need to start encoding. Also got in an order of artbooks and manga I'm looking through. The art of Yoake Mae Yori Ruri Iro Na is very nice. The Haruhi manga is amusing, with some slight changes from the anime but overall the same. The plot is presented in order instead of skipping around, and the style of the manga uses more SD. I hope if continues beyond the anime.

Current Mood: lazy

KOTOKO's third album will be entitled UZU MAKI, which means "whirlpool".

Kawada Mami (川田まみ) will be performing the main theme of Double Solid (ダブル ソリッド), a new ero-game by Software House PARSLEY. (PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS AN 18+ SITE!!!)

Info from I've Sound Explorer.

Current Mood: okay

Finished up Mushishi (蟲師) today. Luckily a fansub group decided to finish subbing the very last ep. Doesn't change my review though. Also, Koukyoushihen Eureka Seven (交響詩篇エウレカセブン) was finally completed too, so I'll probably start watching that. Maybe gaming will be put on hold till next month.

Current Mood: relaxed

Geneon has made 2 tracks from KOTOKO's new album Chercher and Shimamiya Eiko's new album O available for your listening pleasure. Very nice.

Info from I've Sound Explorer.

Current Mood: hungry

Utawarerumono (うたわれるもの) is based on an ero-tactical RPG by Leaf, famous for producing other popular series such as To Heart and Comic Party (こみっくパーティー). It starts with a mysterious masked man awakening, injured and with amnesia, in a village of beastmen. He befriends Eruruu, his benefactor and the medicine woman-in-training, and soon starts to fits in to village life. He is given the name of Eruruu's deceased father, Hakuoro. After several events where he proves his ingenuity and his dedication to the villagers, Hakuoro becomes the de facto leader and finds himself at the head of a rebellion against the oppressive ruler. As the series continues, Hakuoro protects his people from foreign invasion while increasing his allies, i.e. collecting a harem.

Overall I really enjoyed Utawarerumono. The story arcs are paced very well, with action eps interspersed with comedy ones. It really does feel TRPG inspired, with the arcs moving from one threat to the next. I'm somewhat ambiguous about the ending and the direction it took. It's not a bad ending, but it was not quite what I expected. The real downside about the ending is that the backstory was not explained very well, but the article on Wikipedia fills in most of the gaps.

The visuals of Utawarerumono are excellent. The first half of ep 14 has very bad animation, but that was about it. I like the character designs as well, with various types of beastmen. The opening song of the series, Musouka (夢想歌) by Suara, is quite good, but I'm not as impressed with the ending song. Utawarerumono also employs a number of well known seiyuu.

My rating: 9/10

Current Mood: awake

Again thanks to ayacchi and youshou for introducing me to this excellent series. To talk about Mushishi (蟲師), one must explain what the mushi are first. Mushi are living creatures that come in all forms, shapes, and sizes, and are composed of the essence of life itself. Invisible to most, mushi nonetheless live among us, occasionally helpful, sometimes harmful, but usually just attempting to survive like all other forms of life. When mushi start causing trouble for people (often without the people even realizing what exactly is causing the problem), mushishi are called upon for help. Most mushishi solve the problem the direct way, by destroying the mushi. However there are those among the mushishi who recognize that mushi do not harbor ill will towards us, they only live. Ginko, the main character of the series, is one of these mushishi.

It's hard to determine the time period that Mushishi is set in. Although Ginko sports modern clothes, all other characters in the series are in historical Japanese clothing. Also, there seems to be no technology around, and most of the stories took place in small farming or fishing villages. If I were to venture a guess, I would say sometime around the 20s or 30s, when occultism was fairly popular in Japan. At least that's the feeling I get after playing horror games such as Fatal Frame that deals with such topics. Mushishi definitely has a very occult feel to me.

The animation of Mushishi has a style that's not my favorite but fits the series well. The music I really liked though. It's often mystic and moody. The opening song in English is quite good too.

My rating: 9.5/10

Current Mood: tired

New anime season has started. I've been finishing up stuff from the last few seasons but trying to keep starting new series to a minimum. The last few months of the year is traditionally big for RPG releases, and I'm already pretty far behind in gaming. Need to at least buy and play Xenosaga III, Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria, and Final Fantasy XII.

So far anime-wise I've started the new Kanon series, Yoake Mae Yori Ruri-iro Na (夜明け前より瑠璃色な) and BLACK LAGOON The Second Barrage. Might also watch Galaxy Angel Rune (ギャラクシーエンジェる～ん), Negima!? (ネギま！？), Kubijiki Unbalance (くじびき♥アンバランス), Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori (地獄少女 二籠), and Otome Ha Onee-sama Ni Koi Shiteru (乙女はお姉さまに恋してる). Hmmm...that's a lot more series than I expected. Maybe I won't get any gaming done after all.

Also, finished watching Mushishi except for the unsubbed last ep. As the anime is episodic and the last ep is unlikely to be subbed, I will write a review of it tomorrow.

Current Mood: okay

Kishin Houkou Demonbane (機神咆吼デモンベイン), yet another ero-game inspired series, started out mediocre but with a hint of possibly turning into a passable anime. I was wrong. As the story progressed it became worse and worse, until near the end of the series where plot deteriorated into plain deus ex machina. Basic plot of Demonbane starts with Daijuji Kurou, the unwitting hero, running into Al Azif, the Necronomicon in human form, being chased by the BLack Lodge. The Black Lodge is a group of evil sorcerers out to take over the world. To fight against them, Al Azif grants mystic powers and the ability to pilot a giant robot. Demonbane makes many references to H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos, but arranged it in ways that the creators saw fit.

Demonbane actually had pretty good CG animation, which is a shame considering how terrible the plot is. The only thing that kept me watching instead of dropping it was Al Azif.

My rating: 6.5/10

Current Mood: irritated

There will be a Mushishi (蟲師) movie coming out in spring 2007. Not much info on the plot yet, although the TV series only covered 26 of the 34 currently published short stories. That leaves plenty of material for the movie. Looking forward to it.

Current Mood: excited

Zero No Tsukaima (ゼロの使い魔) begins with Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière worrying about the summoning ceremony that will take place the next day. Although studying to be a mage, every time she tries to use magic it backfires and causes an explosion. The next day, after all the other students have their turns, Louise is called upon to summon her familiar. However instead of a fantastic creature, Louise summons a normal Japanese boy, Saito. Her classmates promptly ridicules her, saying that it was typical for her magic to do something weird. Because of this, the relationship of the embarrassed Louise and the confused Saito starts out on a bad foot. The story continues with Louise and Saito being sent on various missions and quests as their relationship grows. The world of Zero is loosely based on Renaissance Europe, with events and characters inspired from the history of France, England, and Germany.

There's not much special about the animation of Zero. I liked the character designs though, especially when the characters have some amusing emotions showing on their faces. The opening song is pretty typical of anime of this genre. The ending song is cute and wistful, sung by Louise's seiyuu, Kugimiya Rie (釘宮理恵). Other well known seiyuu appearing in the series include Horie Yui (堀江由衣) and Kawasumi Ayako (川澄綾子).

My rating: 9/10

Current Mood: uncomfortable

This past weekend went up to youshou's place to play a game of D&D. I haven't had a chance to do that for a looooong time, since high school actually. It was a lot of fun, and hopefully will last for many sessions. I also liked the new 3.5 rules system, compared to 2nd ed. Unfortunately slicer_jen wasn't able to make it. Well, there is always next time, which will be in a little over a month. Looking forward to it.

Just finished Zero No Tsukaima (ゼロの使い魔). Will write my thoughts on it tomorrow.

Honey and Clover II (ハチミツとクローバーⅡ) is definitely one of the best anime series I have seen and will probably ever see. They story revolves around 5 friends in an art college, their relationships with each other, and with the people around them. Takemoto, struggling to find a direction for his life, and Morita, an eccentric and reluctant artist, vie for Hagumi, a diminutive girl who is an artistic genius. The other two main characters are the naive Ayumi, who attracts every man except the one she truly wants, and Mayama, the subject of Ayumi affections but who treats her like a sister. The 5 are carefully maintaining a balancing act between love and friendship. It's a beautiful (and at times enormously funny) tale of love, friendship, loss, and uncertainty, all the elements of growing up.

The only downside about Honey and Clover II is that it was a tad short. The original series was 26 eps, and developed at a slow pace, letting you feel and absorb each passing moment. The 13 eps of Honey and Clover II seem to pile the events on one after another, with fewer funny scenes between to diffuse the tension. Also, the friends are starting to move on with their own lives, making the storytelling more disjointed than the first series as it skips around to catch up with each character. If the first and second series were combined, I would probably give it a 10 rating.

Animation is very shoujo-leaning, with soft lines and colors. The characters designs are detailed, and their clothing and accessories vary a lot, typical of shoujo anime. The opening song is sung by the same artist as the first series, and is slightly annoying until you get used to it. The ending song, also by the same artist as the first, I like a lot.

My rating: 9.5/10

Current Mood: touched

This is the sequel of the classic Gainax anime Top Wo Nerae! (トップをねらえ！), more commonly known to fans as Gunbuster. The original series was a coming of age story about Noriko, who gains the confidence to believe in herself and fight off enormous space monsters out to destroy earth. Top Wo Nerae 2! (トップをねらえ2！) is somewhat similar, except this time the main character is an android named Nono.

The plot of Gunbuster 2 can only be described as confusing. The fact that 6 months would pass between each ep of the ova being released didn't help either. Also it's been about 10 years since I've seen the original, so I didn't pick up references made to the previous series. Finally, during the middle of Gunbuster 2 there is a plot twist, making it even more convoluted and harder to understand.

One of the few good things about the series is the animation, although oftentimes the action is way too over the top. The opening, Groovin' Magic sung by Round Table featuring Nino, and the ending songs are cute. And Sakamoto Maaya voice-acting for the series is a plus too.

My rating: 7/10

Current Mood: tired

About 2 months back I posted a few Japanese tongue-twisters, or hayaguchi kotoba (早口言葉). While watching School Rumble yesterday, I saw couple more I didn't know. So did a quick search, and found a bunch on Wikipedia, as well as a song/poem someone wrote. I'll probably post the ones on Wiki eventually since there's so many. Try saying the following fast.

( hayaguchi kotoba song )

Current Mood: mellow

Yet another series finished, this time a long 50 episoder. BLOOD+ is about a girl named Otonashi Saya, who discovers that her normal life is just an illusion. There are terrible creatures in the night that she is destined to slay, because her blood is one of the few things that can kill them permanently. As the series continues, she travels the world to learn about the conspiracy behind the origins of these creatures, as well as about her own past. Supporting her both emotionally and in combat is her loyal servant Haji, her brothers Kai and Riku, and the organization Red Shield. I haven't seen BLOOD THE LAST VAMPIRE, so I'm not sure how it compares in terms of plot, or if BLOOD+ ties in to the movie.

The series manages to maintain the animation at pretty high quality throughout. The special effects are quite good. Opening themes for the series are generally fast paced, and a few were sung by popular artists such as Hyde and UVERworld. In contrast the endings were slower and more melancholic. The only real problem I have with BLOOD+ is the pacing. At some points the plot progression slowed down to a crawl, and at others things happened lightning fast, especially toward the end. That's a common problem with longer series, so I still gave BLOOD+ a good score.

My rating: 8.5/10

Current Mood: melancholy