If you’ve been reading this blog for a while (read: years), you might remember that I watched a series for Himitsu for a short time.  First, thank you for reading us for such a long time.  Second, Animada finally finished subbing this series a few months ago, so over the last two weeks I’ve been watching it between this season’s episodes.  It has definitely been a long time coming, but now I can evaluate the entire series for you.

Himitsu’s basic premise is interesting and makes good fodder for ideas.  In the future, scientists have created a system to record and view people’s memories post-mortem.  The world has entrusted this unique computer system to Japan’s Public Security Section 9.  The men and women in this small department must examine the memories of murder victims to find the motive, means, and hopefully the assailant as well.  They not only bring people to justice who might normally escape their crimes unscathed, but also learn about the thought process that goes into committing the crime so in the future they can prevent them.  This mystery sandbox makes for some interesting cases and Himitsu does a good job of keeping the formula fresh as the series progresses.  Some episodes look at the memories of the killer, the blind, the insane or delusional, and even a mass murder that shows viewpoints from multiple perspectives.

The cast of characters can really help a series like this, and the main characters do not disappoint.  Aoki is the main character and plays the role of the everyman and the newbie in the show.  He knows how to read lips, which is an invaluable skill since the memories have no sound.  His thoughts and actions will likely mirror yours as you progress through the series, and he easily grows the most out of the cast.  Maki sits on the opposite side of the spectrum as the jaded boss of Section 9.  He has dealt with a lot in the past few years and drives his team to perform at the best of their abilities.  His specialty is a photographic memory and extreme attention to detail.  He also has an uncanny ability to appear exactly when needed.  The pairs’ abilities drive most case breakthroughs, fitting their role as core protagonists.  In addition, their interpersonal drama allows us to see the series from both extremes.

The rest of the characters, are more of a mixed bag.  Each character’s personality is decent, and all of them have at least one episode devoted to them.  Unfortunately, none of them fully develops.  Amaichi plays the heroine in this mystery drama and has the most development of the supporting cast.  She has a minor sixth sense that occasionally comes into play.  She also has a sizable crush on Aoki, though he’s too busy with his work to notice much.  Okabe is a married and experienced agent who has dealt with his fair share of difficulties and has a more experienced perspective.  Soga, to contrast, is a recent academy graduate who still has much to learn and needs to get his impulses under control.  Michiru and Onogida are the two technicians that program and maintain the machinery, and naturally, there’s a lot of interplay between them.  They round out the core cast.

While much of Himitsu is episodic in nature, an overarching plot does exist.  The main story focuses on a criminal named Kainuma.  His case sent ripples through the division and deeply affected Maki and his outlook on life.  Even after his death, he still manages to cause tremendous grief for Section 9.  On top of that, the source of his influence may not be what it first appears.  Toward the end of the series, this prompts a number of plot twists, some of which are genuinely surprising and moving.  Unfortunately, it feels like the directors pushed far too much into the last episodes.  It culminates in an ending largely based on convenience to tie the plot line together as quickly as possible.  While this weakens the series, it still doesn’t drive it into the ground.

Himitsu really shines in the moral drama that plays alongside the story.  Much of this deals with privacy.  After all, Section 9 views the memories of the victims, and some of these may be embarrassing or potentially incriminating for others.  The characters also have to come to grips with viewing the memories of those close to them.  The mind of someone you may interact with every day is far different from the mind of a complete stranger.  Finally, there’s the ever-present allure of using information gleamed from the videos to benefit oneself.  Beyond the obvious implications lie other problems.  The series probes religion, body modification, and other societal issues.  It does occasionally falter in this area, but overall the morality play is interesting and engaging.

The character designs are mature to match the subject material.  However, they also have a derivative feeling to them.  For the longest time I couldn’t tell the two supporting males apart.  Additionally, while I don’t expect the artists to put a lot of effort into the victims and other one-time characters, perhaps a little more imagination would have helped.  On the other hand, the background elements get their due attention, befitting a mystery series.  Much more effort goes into detail here than in the characters.  A variety of settings helps keep the artwork fresh and make sure the viewer doesn’t burn out on the urban core of the series.  However, it often feels like the setting is literally too dark, which might put a bit of strain on your eyes.

Himitsu’s vocal work is competent, and none of the characters are unduly grating.  The voices fit the characters well, though at times it does feel like the actors needed to put more feeling into the performance.  While the designs may have been uninspired, we do get a lot of variety in the voice work for the one-shots.  The background music does a tremendous amount to help the mood of the series.  In particular, the composer manages to drive the chilling feeling home when it’s required.  The opening and closing themes are relevant to the series’ premise and devoid of any unnecessary Jpop influences.

Despite its faults, Himitsu is a does have its high points and some unique devices going for it.  It’s probably the series from Spring 2008 that everyone missed. If you enjoy a good mystery or moral drama, take the time out and give it a shot.

Final Score: 8/10 MRIs

There’s just something “wonderful” about a snowstorm that all forecasts say will only drop 3 – 6 inches (~7.6 – 15 cm) of snow in your area and you wake up to find that 19 inches (~48 cm) of snow has fallen. So on the day I was planning to write a few posts up for The Null Set – maybe get to a few winter impression posts or mention how much I’ve been liking Kobato lately or get to my top 2009 picks or figure out what else I should do with the 400 screen shots I took from the latest Gurren Lagann movie – instead I was out shoveling snow. I can’t really complain, though, I saw video from the mudslides in California and I have to say that I’d prefer snow removal over mud removal any day.

While I was out today, I took a few pictures and figured I’d share since it’s not everyday that a person gets so much snow dumped on them.

Click on any picture to enlarge, if you so desire.

Filed under: other wallpapers and pictures

Here is the update for the new episodes released during these past weeks. We have finished another long project, GaoGaiGar, and we have started a new project for your pleasure, General Daimos. We released RAW for episode 1 in the past and now we bring you the complete shit with its subtitles and all.

• General Daimos episodes 1 & 2

Episode 01 torrent

Episode 02 torrent

• The Big O episode 03
• Tekkaman Blade episodes 40-43
• GaoGaiGar episodes 47-49 (End)

GaoGaiGar complete series torrent

Enjoy all this stuff.

Regards.

- The_Soulforged

The Face of Love So it seems these wolf tendencies, or whatever it is, arises when the infected person is in heat, and it looks like it doesn’t matter what the gender their interest is. Issei was both attracted to a guy and a girl…maybe. >_> And I guess their time is during the Hassaku Harvest. [...]

Image Leads to Original 2969 × 4203 Scan I’ve seen this image a long time ago…maybe 5 or 6 months ago, and was instantly loved it. I just saw another version of it and decided to post about it here. There are thousands of cute images out there, but to me, this is one of the cutest [...]

Last week on Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu, the writers went a little bit deeper into the love triangle between Yoshii, Minami, and Himeji.  Well, I hope you didn’t care about the romance, because this episode suspends that as well.  Let’s try and make this as painless as possible.

The episode starts out with Yoshii finding a charm on the street.  In true idiot fashion, he puts it back for whoever was looking for it to find.  It actually belongs to Hazuki, but before he can retrieve it, traffic conveniently covers the street.  He asks the narrator-teacher to approve a summon so he can get it… and then gets hit by the principal’s car.  Then, just to drive the failure home, a steamroller destroys the charm.  You can guess how Hazuki feels.

Fortunately, the school is holding a quiz/scavenger hunt that day, and a set of charms is one of the prizes.  Yoshii resolves to win that prize, but Yoshii and Hideyoshi are his partners.  They resort to using the idiot’s multiple-choice pencils to select the answers since none of them can figure out the solutions.  The answers point to a place in the air, Himeji’s death bread, and a toilet.  In the meantime, Himeji, Minami, and Voyeur’s group visits the ladies’ changing room, where the latter passes out from nosebleeds.

Finally, Yoshii has one of his rare bright ideas.  They can’t answer the questions, and luck manipulation hasn’t worked, so they should just randomly search for possible locations.  The trio fails to find anything, until Yoshii realizes one spot remains: the roof.  The prize he wanted happens to be there, but the Class A group encounters them.  A battle brews… and then terminates because the school bell rings.  Yoshii gets the charm for Hazuki, as well as a bracelet that has a portable battlefield.  The principal remarks that even an idiot can do well in his own way, and we exit the episode.

At this point, I’m just utterly at a loss for what to make of this series.  With a 13-episode block, we need some view of where we’re going by now.  I don’t have that feeling.  First, the battle aspect, which initially sold me on this series, has disappeared.  The writers actually revoke the one battle scene because school ends for the day.  The bracelet does give me a little hope, since a portable battlefield has some interesting uses.  Then they stripped out the romance aspects, and while that isn’t a spectacular plot, at least it can drive the series.  What we’re left with is a parody series, which the likes of Pani Poni Dash and Seitokai no Ichizon have already tread and nailed it to the wall.  If the producers would just clamp down and point it in some direction, this series could be so much more.  Unfortunately, next week looks like the obligatory swimsuit episode.

The characters in this series piss me off like none other. Hiro’s spineless, Isuzu’s obnoxious, and holy crap is Isuzu’s older brother an uber- creeper. Like, if he were my neighbor, I’d buy at least twenty shotguns to keep in various places around the house. And the yaoi factor is kinda ridiculous; what’s the demographic supposed to be for this series? Fourteen-year-old yaoi fangirls?

That said, I might just stick with this series, partly because Nemuru’s awesome, partly because I actually sympathize with Isuzu’s plight a little bit. You meet this guy, he’s super nice, but you know he’s in danger for one reason or another… and you don’t want anything bad to happen to him. I get that much. But holy crapola, do you HAVE to run around trying to seduce the guy to “protect” him?!

For most of episodes 2 and 3, the aimless romance antics and other randomness are only occasionally countered with gloom and doom. There’s foreshadowing and creepy moments, yeah, but nothing actually worth watching. Those episodes were almost bad enough to make me drop the series altogether, especially because Isuzu’s SO FREAKING ANNOYING UGH.

But with Issei’s actions at the end of episode 3, things definitely take a turn for the nastier. Issei’s bizarre actions are creepy enough, and then you have the element of the broken Hissaku air freshener… Way to take the mystery up a level, Ryukishi07.

Things don’t get really good til episode 4, though, when it becomes clear that Isuzu does have some idea of what’s wrong with her brother. That scene indirectly added some much-needed depth to her character while keeping poor Hiro terrified, just like in any good horror series. (Although some would argue Keiichi wasn’t nearly this terrified for most of Higurashi No!! I said I would stop the comparisons!)

Even if episode 4 hadn’t been that good, I probably would’ve stuck around another episode or so for the music and eye candy. (And no, I don’t mean fanservice a la episode 3.) Not only is the animation fairly smooth, but the art is downright gorgeous at times. Character designs are well-done, and the action (as sparse as it is) is satisfyingly scary without being, say, Mnemosyne. Heck, if Isuzu weren’t so annoying, she’d be a Saimoe contender since she’s so cute. At this rate, Kana-chan, who’s far less obnoxious, will get farther than her.

I know I originally tweeted about dropping this show, but at this point, I might as well stick with it for a while longer. With Hiro’s horrifying experience at the end of episode 4 and the introduction of a new character, one has to wonder if the series’ pacing is going to finally pick up. If things get too convoluted or slow down too much, I’ll probably end up dropping, since almost all of the characters have failed to capture my fangirling. Nemuru’s the exception, but also I’ll drop if her screentime doesn’t increase. You’re on notice, Ookami Kakushi.

CJ’s Rating: 7 out of 10 California rolls
(it WOULD be a 6, but episode 4 was epic enough to save it from a failing grade.)

The one good thing about getting eaten alive by panel work and school crap this past month is that I get an excuse to marathon stuff. In the case of Durarara!!, marathoning actually seems to make the series a little better; I have the feeling that if I watched each of these episodes individually, they would feel a little more disjointed. The… simply weird approach to the storytelling makes for some awkwardness, even when marathoned, but it’s not like I’m sitting here thinking “What the #$%@ did I just watch?!” Instead, the series so far has been pretty interesting, and parts of episode 2 were actually epic enough to literally keep me on the edge of my seat.

The boring-as-heck protagonist, Mikado, is actually the series’ only real flaw. He’s one of those main characters who sits there and watches as everything happens around him; he doesn’t actually do anything. He’s not annoying, but he’s not nearly as interesting as, say, his BFF Masaomi. Anri-chan and Simon are nifty as well, despite a relative lack of screentime so far.

Their adventures vary from school confusion and awkwardness to witnessing confusion and awkwardness (and fighting) on the streets. There’s fighting, biking, talking, blushing, more talking, a bit of yelling, showering, more talking… pretty much like a lot of shounen-y anime out there today. But Durarara!!’s key difference lies in how the plot’s driven: what little plot there is so far isn’t driven by the main characters, but by the bad guys. That seems to be working so far, though, especially because the typical black-and-white-ness of characters is often blurred. For example, Mikado is warned to stay away from Izaya, but is Izaya really that bad? He claims to love humanity.

To put it blunty, though, Izaya’s a creeper. But an awesome one. He’s a mindscrewing jerk worthy of Evangelion’s Gendou Ikari or Bleach’s Gin Ichimaru. Heck, he could get even better than them, but only if the series throws in some more drama for him to play with like in episode 2. Shizuo’s almost as interesting, and it’s fun to see the contrast between him and Izaya: Shizuo’s physically violent, while Izaya’s mentally and emotionally manipulative. Brawn versus brains. Classic.

I Wikipedia’d Selty, the Headless Rider, because her backstory in episode 4 intrigued me … and apparently in the light novels she’s in love with Shinra? Or something? Putting the mysterious heroine in a relationship already is an interesting move by the original author. I wonder how that will play out in the anime. Shinra was flirting with her, sure, but if the novels have to be condensed at all to fit 24 episodes, maybe it’ll get cut out. I sure hope not, since I kinda ship them already.

Clearly, Durarara!! is not going to be a series for people who like their anime logical and clear-cut. It has no semblance of a real plot yet, and more importantly, the characters are thrown around various situations without any real rhyme or reason. The unpredictability is what makes it so refreshing, though, especially in comparison with the other crap airing this season. If it gets an actual plot going in these next few episodes, it’ll have me hooked for the whole 24-episode run.

CJ’s Rating: 8.5 out of 10 California rolls

Editor’s note: This episode canonized the spellings Filicia and Noël.  Previous posts will reflect the change.

Last week on Sora no Woto, we got acquainted with Noël a bit better.  In addition, the town and it’s people received a bit of expansion.  We saw that not everyone is happy that the military is in town, and that war has affected the community greatly.  Today our trio of younglings gets sent on a “field trip” to visit the security outposts erected many years ago.

The episode starts with a training exercise in the tank.  Klaus, the man from the first episode, shows up with mail and new orders.  The two senior officers are definitely keeping something from the children.  Kureha seems to really like Klaus, whether it’s a crush on him or simply admiration remains to be seen.  Filicia sets up a field trip for the three girls, which really feels like a training exercise in disguise.

While exploring the area, they need to check up on three surveillance outposts.  They can’t fix them, but it’s still good to know if they’re in working condition.  When Kanata touches the first one, some symbols pop out of it; this really is some advanced technology.  They find a small stream to take a break at and have a little fun, but unfortunately, when they return to their packs they’ve been ravaged and the compass has gone missing.

The girls must rely on their own sense of direction to find the remaining two outposts.  They work well together as a team but their personalities do grate on each other a bit.  In the end, they reach their destination and finally see Nomansland.  It’s as wonderful a place as the name implies.  Every girl stationed at the outpost has made this trip and seen the true outcome of war.  We exit the episode with a short scene as the girls relax from a trying day.

The next episode’s title hints that it will continue to expand the town.  I really wanted to learn more about the town’s legend, however, the keeping the war in mind is equally important.  If you had any doubt this series intended to preach an anti-war message, rid yourself of it now.  Nomansland, even from brief shots, is a terrible place ravaged by war and a stark contrast to the field surrounding it.  The skeletons of buildings and armaments remain, strewn about an artificially created desert plain.  What makes it even more chilling is that we’ve done this ourselves in the real world on countless occasions, most prevalent when unleashing Agent Orange during Vietnam.  I’m glad that this series is real about the cost of war and avoids romanticizing the military.  I have to wonder about when these girls will have to make the choice to fight for themselves.

We all learned a lot this weekend. CJ learned how to BS improvise the first 25 minutes of a panel when the projector fails. Rakuen learned functioning on 3 hours of sleep is not easy. (We suspect he already knew that, but perhaps he’d forgotten?) Dave learned nothing, because he was busy working his butt off running the game rooms. And Jenni learned that 4 Russias and one Latvia makes for a very interesting photoshoot.

It was an educational weekend, but most importantly, it was fun (and more than a little wild.) Our writers presented 3 panels, including Anime Blogging 101 and the premiere of Anime Blogging 201. Though we had to battle a fair number of screw-ups and miscommunications, everything worked out in the end, and we made the most of the best Ohayocon yet.

CJ (Friday and Saturday)

Friday was madness. (Not Sparta.) Jen and I got there at 7 pm, leaving an hour to get our badges and find Panel Room 9 for the Soul Eater panel. Bad idea. She was still in the reg line when I finally got my panelist badge at around 7:40. Fortunately, I was able to get an extra panelist badge for her (without even asking!) and we went on our way. But due to a few staffers not even knowing where Panel 9 was, it took us nearly 20 minutes to find it. That put us right at 8 pm, when the hour-long panel was set to start. And then…

… the projector wasn’t working. We got black lines of death across the screen, which wasn’t the end of the world, but still very very bad for ADHD-tan. As the tech guys took over my laptop to attempt to search for a solution, I found myself facing a room of about 40 people… with no visuals. So I improvised for 20 or so minutes until my laptop magically fixed itself (@#%&ing Windows.) After that, things went very smoothly, complete with Excalibur spamming and emo distorted facial expressions. I managed to make people laugh a lot even during the projector-less, spazzy-CJ period. Thanks to everyone for coming out and sitting through the panel, despite our technical issues!

After that, I went to the rave, got hit on by a 20-something-year-old, and went back to my room by my 1 am curfew. (Jenni simply knitted in the room that whole time. Sigh.) The rave was really pretty epic, but it started an hour late, and the floor wasn’t exactly nice to sit on. Fortunately, there was a Belle cosplayer (from Beauty and the Beast) with some really awesome friends who all kept us entertained. They even sang the entire uncensored version of “I’m on a Boat” from memory. Yeah. I lol’d HARD.

Saturday started with a bright n’ early 11 am Phoenix Wright photoshoot! Aaron-oniichan took pictures of my Ema Skye cosplay premiere. (Rohfa from D.Gray-man only partially counts because I didn’t have the hair anywhere near done. Sigh.) I had a great time the 16-20 cosplayers there, but I also kinda didn’t really know what I was doing pose-wise, so I looked pretty dumb in some of the shots.  ^_^;; But now I’ve worked out a few more poses and will be ready to go when the really really complete version (I still need a pink watch and pseudo-stripper shoes) at… whatever cons I end up at in the fall. Hopefully Matsuricon, but it’s all gonna depend on what college I end up at.

After that, the last order of business for Jenni and I was the Anime Blogging panels and a little more dealer’s room madness. The panels went great, and we had the awesome guys from Ending B out again, as well as some new faces. The premiere of 201 went as well as could be expected, but we found a few bits to tweak before the next con. It also ended about 10 minutes early. ^_^; After a bit more shopping and D.Gray-man photoshoot peeping, Jen and I left around 5 pm.

Convention Score: 7.5 out of 10 California rolls

Aaron (Friday, Saturday and Sunday)

Last year’s Ohayocon really disappointed me, to the point that I wished it would either improve or just let itself die.  Thus this year, I really had no hopes for anything, which meant whatever they accomplished would be a positive.  I have to say, overall, I was surprised.

Security’s behavior improved greatly over previous years.  While I have heard of a few complaints, overall they were helpful, more noticeable, and much less overbearing.  The panel staff as well seemed to be on their game, at least on Saturday while I was there.  They came in to check on us, warned us promptly at the 5-minute mark, and actually knew how to fix the projector problem.  The expansion project on the hotel that occurred in the past year meant the game room was moved to a much more spacious and manageable location.  I had no dealings with Cosplay this year, so I have nothing to say on that.  Really, the only pure negative I saw was the rave, which will always be a problem until the convention can obtain a larger room.

As for my experience at the convention, I arrived at 9:30 AM on Saturday morning.  It’s far later than I wished to get there, but because of my own transportation problems, that’s the best I could do.  Getting my badge was quick and painless.  I shot the Phoenix Wright photoshoot for CJ, which I’d say was run fairly well.  Afterward I wandered around for a bit before our panels.  We had probably 20 people for 101 and 15 for 201, which is a decent crowd.  I know I enjoyed the experience; hopefully everyone else did as well.

After that, it was time for CJ and Jenni to head home.  I managed to finally eat something, and met up with my good friends Mataime, Nonobadpup, and Samtoenail (yes, we know they’re odd names).  That is how I spent the majority of my evening and most of Sunday.  I decided against the Masquerade, I didn’t really like it last year and I probably would have fallen asleep from exhaustion if I’d have gone.  On the other hand, I met an amazing artist Saturday night.  Del Borovic was working on commissions late at night, and we chilled with her and watched her work.  She’s going to start up a new webcomic in a few weeks as well, you should definitely show her some love.  Sunday was check out, eating lunch with friends, and a short YYH photo shoot before I went home.

Overall, I enjoyed my experience.  Ohayocon completely surprised me in their improvements over last year.  Where I once wished the convention would just be blown away, I’m actually looking forward to next year.  Keep up the improvements!

Convention Score: 7.5/10

Jenni (Friday and Saturday)

I have to say, everyone at Ohayocon was really super nice.  I was having vertigo issues Saturday morning and didn’t want to go to the Phoenix Wright photo shoot, so these Ed and Winry cosplayers (who I actually met two years ago) let me crash with them for about 45 minutes.  The whole weekend was like that.  I also got a lot of comments on my Rivendell sweater and my fire lizard.  Oh yeah, and the random people who ran by yelling “I JUST LOST THE GAME!!!” made my day.

And omigosh the Hetalia photoshoot. Three words: HOLY FREAKING CRAP.  Most photoshoots for major series had what, thirty, forty people show up?  Hetalia just got licensed two months ago, and probably over a hundred people were at the shoot.  It progressed from shots of the full cast to Allies/Axis/Neutral, to smaller groups like Baltics, Nordics, Asians, and FrUK family, to individual characters and pairings.  (There was ONE Latvia in the whole group – she was really sweet – and she ended up getting stuck in the middle of four Russias.

Awwwwww.)  I had a primo spot in the balcony overlooking the shoot and took a crapton of photos.  There were also some teriffic period costumes; France, Austria, and Prussia were some of the best.  And when I left 45 minutes after the shoot started to go to the panel, it was STILL GOING STRONG.

I had the English/grammar/mechanics portion of the panel, which went a lot better than I expected.  People actually seemed really interested (the crack about Twatlight got a few laughs), and at least no one walked out in the middle of my talk.  Always a good sign, right?

My swag included two dragon prints that look like they were painted by light (the artist also had a ton of koi pictures), an earring-chained-to-cuff set of hearts with Celtic knots inside, and another set with light purple Swarovski crystals to match my kimono-dress. ^_^

The Most Awesome Thing I’ve Seen In a Very Long Time.

Number 1:

Number 2:

Number 3:

Number 4:

Number 5:

Bonus:

Bonus #2:

Filed under: anime, anime rants/views, general anime interst

WISH UPON A SHOOTING STAR! KIRA KIRA! KIRA KIRA! KIRA KIRA! KIRA KIRA! ^_^

WISH UPON A SHOOTING STAR! KIRA KIRA! KIRA KIRA! KIRA KIRA! KIRA KIRA! ^_^

Komachi was the last person I thought would be the one to visit her. The reason of the visit was because he felt it was his fault Nayu’s fitting session turned out into a disaster. He was the one who caused all the commotions while trying to take care of the peeping toms. He only [...]

Komachi was the last person I thought would be the one to visit her. The reason of the visit was because he felt it was his fault Nayu’s fitting session turned out into a disaster. He was the one who caused all the commotions while trying to take care of the peeping toms. He only [...]