Hope everyone that celebrates Halloween has a Happy Halloween today. It’s still light out where I live so it doesn’t feel like Halloween yet. (And a totally old person thing to say is that in America, don’t forget the clocks go back an hour tonight.)

I decided that my sister needed to watch at least one 07th expansion/Studio Deen anime and episode 18 of Umineko No Naku Koro Ni being fresh on my mind (what an awesome episode), we started watched it last night – it also fits into the season. She seemed interested so let’s see how that plays out.

Here’s a picture of the pumpkins my family carved.

Mind’s the one on the bottom right. And here’s a few more Halloween themed anime pics – Happy Halloween.

You can thank Winamp and it’s non-random random shuffling for this post.

I have a super condensed anime music playlist that I like to listen to; it’s only 230 songs long and there’s a handful of songs on this list that when I’m in the right mood will get me to shed a tear. Last night I wasn’t much in the mood but out-of-the-blue Winamp starts playing every sad song on the list in a row and even repeating some more than once so now I’m in that mood.

It’s probably not a good idea to marathon a Key series right now so instead I’ll write this post.

Oh, and there’s some spoilers so read at your own risk.

Natsukage – from AIR

Let’s start off with an obvious show that could generate a tear inducing song – AIR. This anime holds the personal record for the most tears shed while watching it (Clannad is a close second). See, I was a relatively new anime watcher at the time, mainly subsisting on a diet of shounen shows and wasn’t aware of the emotional depths that could be found in anime. It also didn’t help that I had absolutely no knowledge of what to expect and was lulled into a false sense of security by it’s light-hearted start. Therefore, when the story turned tragic, I wasn’t ready for it and ended up crying for just about every remaining episode.

Natsukage is the name of the instrumental track that KyoAni used for many of the emotional scenes during AIR and thus when I hear it, I’m reminded of those scenes.

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Koikogarete Mita Yume – from Cross Game

The show’s first closing is another song that can bring me to tears and was able to from the very first time I heard it, which was in episode 1.

That episode completely blew me away. I wasn’t expecting to see enough character building and tragedy to fill most series all within those 24 minutes and by playing this song at the saddest scene meant that I’d always link this song to that first episode. Nor has that episode and that song lost it’s power to move the viewer, recently the animators essentially reshowed the first episode in it’s entirety for the episode 30 recap.

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Kanon by Pachebel – from Kanon

The wedding standard got repurposed for another of Key’s works – Kanon. This time, the characters actually referenced the song in the show and provided a strong means for the viewers to attach the often tragic nature of Kanon to the song. At least when I hear this song in public it’ll probably be at a wedding and it’ll be more socially acceptable to cry to it.

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“Libera me” From Hell – from Gurren Lagann

I’m convinced that Gurren Lagann is one of the greatest anime ever made and should be required watching for, not only those who profess to be an anime fan, but also for every single kid that grows up watching the insipid tv shows that pass for kid’s shows these days.

This song was used in many places throughout the show, primarily when it was time for the good guys to kick butt which makes it a strange song to cry over. And it would be but for it’s use during one of the best scenes to Gurren Lagann which happened in episode 26. The hero of the show, Simon, was given the choice between the easy way out and the harder path that true heroism calls for. He chooses the path of heroism and as a result is able to break himself and his comrades out of a devious trap laid by the enemy. The whole scene is very emotional, a testament to Gainax’s stellar character development and story telling ability, and having this track play during the entire scene meant that those emotions come back whenever hear it.

And within the entire scene there’s a small part that absolutely gets to me every single time I see it. The trap that Simon breaks everyone out of gives each person the ability to live in whatever dream world they wish for. One of the people trapped is Viral; he’s a beastman which means he looks human but was created sterile and he has a tough-as-nails personality so one would expect his dream world to be some sort Valhalla battlefield but it’s not – it’s living in a little cottage in a country meadow with a wife and a daughter that calls him “Papa”.

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Dango Daikazoku – from Clannad

Yes, another song from a Key/KyoAni anime, this time it’s from Clannad. This was used as the first season ending but it wasn’t until the second season that this became tear inducing. Though in the case of Dango Daikazoku (or “Big Dango Family”), the song brings tears from being linked to the tragic parts to Clannad and also from the happy parts.

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Love is a Flower, You are a Seed – from Only Yesterday

In many ways Only Yesterday is my favorite Studio Ghibli work so I find it an absolute travesty that it’s the only Studio Ghibli movie not released in America.

This is the only song that exclusively makes me shed tears from happiness alone. It’s the end song to Only Yesterday and the animators had it playing while the movie had it’s climatic scene before going to credits. So, like the others, those emotions got transferred to the song and hearing this song gets to me every time.

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Anyone else want to share? Or is everyone too busy getting in the Halloween mood today?

This episode was Kohaku centric, and an absolute treat for any Wish fan. Thus, I loved it.

Kohaku and Shuichiro are absolutely adorable and watching them interact was just constant ‘Awwing.’ The blushing. The removal of the leaf from Kohaku’s hair. Seeing some other things were pretty cool too, such as Kohaku using her magic to water the garden. I’m also really glad to see that Kohaku is quite happy by the end of the episode.

Kohaku and Kobato’s intereactions with each other was pretty amusing. Nothing like watching two airheads try to sort out what exactly love is.

That's exactly what love is.

Not that it was all about Kohaku. Kobato was extremely entertaining this episode, with the magazines and the lottery. The various events combined with Kobato’s klutziness made for some very entertaining situations that kept making me laugh out loud.

Alley-oop

The bunny at the end was creepy. It’s a cute little harbinger of bad news, straight from heaven. Now there’s an actual conflict added to the storyline beyond the initial ‘Let’s fill a bottle’ that’s been present in the past few episodes. Not that adding a time limit adds that much story, but it is laying the ground for some tension.

I found that idea that Kohaku and Shichiro’s hearts not needing to be healed because they were already happy complete and total bullshit. If they hadn’t been on a date yet, then they really needed to have the chance to go on one. Maybe they were happy to be with each other, but Kohaku was clearly unhappy with the current situation.

I keep getting curious about this place that Kobato wants to go to, and trying to see if there are any hints to what that might be. Probably, knowing CLAMP’s pattern, Kobato has a tragic past of some sort that’s she forgotten about, and where she wants to go ties into that tragic past. Although all Kobato has left now is a desire to go to that place, wherever it is. Right now I want to go with the theory that Kobato is trying to go to heaven rather then hell to be with someone she wants to be with(like a mother), and to accomplish that, she has to do good deeds that she didn’t do in her past life. Clichéd and unlikely? Yes, and yes. But at least it’s a theory I can work with for now.

I'm half expecting a secret to appear on fandomsecrets saying 'I ship this'

I really am jealous of Kobato. She’s so optimistic, and so easily filled with joy by the simplest things. I’d love to be like that.

            Does your top five say anything about you? RP linked back to another blogger, who wrote this post suggesting that your top five can say a lot about you as a person (http://hontouni.com/zan/2009/10/28/what-does-your-top-5-anime-say-about-you/). I decided to check this out. Let’s take my top 5 anime:

1. Princess Tutu

2. K-On

3. Haibane Reimei

4. Kino’s Journey

5. Rozen Maiden

It’s definitely an interesting mix, some classics, one cult favorite, and a couple where the quality of them it debated. Looking at this, I’d say it shows two sides to my personality, one that values deep thought and contemplation, the other half that I like mindless fun. Which is actually surprisingly true, I cycle between an intellectual and the class clown at school.

The other common theme I can draw from this is the common theme about characters fighting with themselves to overcome a flaw or a mental illness, especially when they don’t always succeed and give in to weakness. This is not surprising in the least, especially if you know me.

The outlier of the set is K-On, which really amounts to that this show reminds me so much of the tight group of friends I had through most of high school.

Oh, and apparently I like cute girls. Who would have thought?

It’s interesting, but none of it reveals anything about me that I didn’t know. What I do really like it’s interesting to see how my own insecurities and quirks lead into what has ended up as my favorite anime.

All motivational posters in this post come from the anime_macro community on livejournal.

I’ve been wanting to do just a fun post to get our readers thinking for a while now, and I think this is a pretty good prompt for you all.  We’ve all thought about what would make the ideal group, party, or what have you, from fictional characters.  The most likely setting is a fantasy RPG world, but if you want to pick out somewhere else (school?), go right ahead.  The limits are any media derived from Japanese culture, this includes video games, anime, manga, drama series, and so forth.

Now, when you do this, I want you to try and be creative about it.  Sure, you can make a party of Cloud, Squall, Vincent, and Riku, but, everyone’s thought of it, and it’s not a terribly interesting group choice as is.  Of course, if you want to write a 10 page dissertation proving me wrong, more power to you.  Also, keep in mind that your characters need to be balanced.  They need to be able to work together not just on the field of battle, but also everywhere else as well.  It’s no good to have a bunch of expert warriors if no one knows how to cook!

Write as little or as much as you want.  Whether or not you’re game for this, I’ve picked out my own personal best party, and you can check it out after the break.

Yuri Lowell (Tales of Vesperia) – Yuri is a natural team leader. He has mid-high stats in all categories so he’s capable of playing whatever role on the front lines is necessary. His skills have good elemental coverage, though he does focus predominantly on wind. He has a also has a mix of rapid fire skills and slow sweepers, giving him excellent synergy with any party member. His tension abilities allow him to create exceptionally long chains with himself, keeping many enemies locked down while the other members complete their tasks, Finally, his Glory personal ability lets him shrug off attacks that would normally stumble others.

Outside of battle, Yuri is a natural group leader as well.  He has a strong personal sense of right and wrong, and acts on it accordingly.  He’s not afraid to make the difficult decisions, even when facing moral crisis.  Yuri is also not afraid to guide his party outside the confines of the law, should the need arise.
Ashton Anchors (Star Ocean II) – Ashton is the offtank and secondary melee dps. Ashton’s skills lean on his high attack power and mid-high defense, however, his magical aptitude is low. He also has horrible luck. His skills give good type coverage, however, most elemental skills have long windups; working in conjunction with Yuri solves this problem. Unlike Yuri, he has several ranged attacks when direct contact would be counterproductive. He also has his supreme skill Tri-Ace, which is a unique combination of nonelemental damage, determined by attack power, measured against enemy magic defense, and it hits the whole field.

Off in the field, Ashton has a surprisingly high aptitude for cooking, so the party’s never going to worry about starving.  The demons attached to his back have been around for a while and are quite knowledgeable, especially when it comes to monsters and other demons.  Their elemental affinities can also be used to clear brush or cross rivers, cutting down manual travel time significantly.
Viki (Suikoden V) – Viki is this squad’s go to girl for attack magic. Her Blinking Rune allows for transit to places that she’s been in the past, as well as instantaneous short range teleportation of enemies or allies. Being able to “blink” like that makes up a bit for her low health and vitality scores. It does suffer from minor reliability issues, though fortunately it’s always the exact opposite effect: failed self teleportation moves the nearest enemy and vice versa. She also has the ability to double cast other attack spells in her arsenal, complementing her sky high intelligence score.

Besides blinking through space, which allows rapid transit between known locations, her rune has also caused her to blink through time on occasion.  This gives her a more than rudimentary knowledge of both the past and future.  Viki also pretty clumsy, serving as a bit of comic relief for the others.
Dahna (Grandia III) – Grandia allows an incredible amount of character customization and role filling, and in this case, she’s going to be the healer and support. Her spell book will be stacked accordingly, along with one or two offensive spells just in case. Her basic physical attack is long ranged card throwing, which counters her naturally low mobility. She also has the ability to summon a mana spring beneath herself, to allow for nearly indefinite spell casting while active. Her other self-support skill gives her perfect physical evasion with auto-counter as long as her barrier lasts. Both together give her an amazing survivability few healers have.

Her knowledge area lies in lore and myths.  As we all know, anything in lore usually comes true at some point during the journey, so that knowledge is invaluable.  Dahna is also kind of a mother figure for the group, looking after them and keeping them out of too much trouble…

Well, have at it!

Yeah, I’ve been a pretty die-hard Higurashi fan as of late – even going so far as to ship a few new pairings I didn’t even care for, including Keiichi/Rena. ♥ But all franchises have their weak points, and unfortunately, the Utsutsukowashi-hen (Reality-Breaking Chapter) manga is one of them. The arc, which focuses on Shion and her all-girls school, is by no means terrible. It just has a bland new character and not enough thrills to keep up with the chills, and really doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of the series. Still, with only three chapters scanlated, it has a chance to turn things around; it’ll just take something close to a miracle.

The story opens with a fairly typical Catholic all-girls school setting, except one of the male teachers has just been murdered. The one who found the body, Mizuho, is a socially awkward girl with a rather tormented past. (Now where have we heard that one before?) Enter the one and only Shion Sonozaki and her boobs, who promises to help her cope with both the unfolding mystery and the drama in her past. But, of course, multiple wrenches are thrown in the works – the biggest of which involves Mizuho herself.

The biggest issue the series faces is the plot itself. Instead of delving into the repeating storyline or the aftershocks of the tragedies in the rest of the series, Utsutsukowashi-hen just does a fairly generic murder mystery. Granted, it has Shion as a main character, which is epic; but that’s not enough to make the plot rock. In chapter three, the plot even  gets shafted in favor of Mizuho angst, weakening the story further.

Speaking of Mizuho, she’s probably one of the worst characters in the entire franchise. Sure, she has some twists added to her otherwise boring character, but that doesn’t stop her from being incredibly annoying. Depending on how long the arc is, there still might be some time for her to be redeemed somewhat. The only thing I really dig about her right now is her hair. ♥

The other characters are decent, but the majority of them need a lot more development before I can actually start caring about them. My favorite so far has got to be the creepy chick Mizuho meets on the roof; too bad we don’t even know what her deal is yet. Shion gets a fair amount of awesomeness, but some of her best moments are reduced to fanservice, usually somehow related to boobies.

The art is actually one of the series’ strongest points. Mizuho’s character design, as said above, is adorable, and so are most of the other characters’. (Especially the creeper twins. ♥) Though there’s some mildly sloppy panels and such thrown in, most of the dramatic moments are really well-depicted, with just enough screentone and ink used to make things dark and awesome. The art style is ultimately somewhat different from those of the original anime and games, but it’s not such a bad thing.

I figured none of Higurashi’s arcs could surpass Tsumihoroboshi-hen, and I seem to be right – so far. Utsutsukowashi-hen is a bit of a disappointment, especially in how it has more talking than action. Though the characters are mildly interesting, it has the weakest female lead in the franchise, and the rest of them haven’t developed at a real fast pace. Fortunately, the art is pretty nice, and there’s still lots of ways the series can improve and live up to its sister arcs.

CJ’s Rating: 7 out of 10 California rolls

(A/N – Sorry for the late update this week. Major laptop fail. Go figure. <3)

Sure it’s easy to say this is a weak fall season of anime but how do you quantify it?

I could say that as of right now, I’ve seen only 2 shows that are good enough that I would consider placing them on my fall seasonal top anime list when it gets compiled in the future. Which is true, however this doesn’t really enumerate the problem well enough so instead I’ll make the following comparison:

Let’s call the following group of fall shows Group A:

4 episodes of Kampfer +
4 episodes of Nyan Koi +
4 episodes of Armed Librarians +
4 episodes of Railgun +
3 episodes of Sora no Otoshimono +
3 episodes of Miracle Train +
4 episodes of The Sacred Blacksmith +
1 episode of Trapeze +
3 episodes of Seitokai no Ichizon +
3 episodes of Kimi no Todoke

If I take all the entertainment and enjoyment from these 33 episodes of anime and compare them to a single episode – episode 12 of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Season 3, I find that episode 12 wins. Or to write it a little more mathematically:

Group A < Ep.12 SZS s3

Sadly, I’m completely serious and if I want to rub some salt into that wound, I’ll add that episode 12 wasn’t particularly that much better from the rest of the series. Here’s a recap.

Want deep discussions on science?

Want commentary on current affairs?

Want explosions?

Want chicks with weapons?

Want genderbending?

Want fan service?

I should run a poll: Kaere-sensei or Yoko-sensei?

Episode 12 had it all and it only took 23 minutes to cover all these bases.

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I’ll probably get some feedback about including Kimi no Todoke in group A and because I haven’t written up my impression post let me just say that I do like the show but right now it’s seriously lacking in providing any sort of tension / conflict and I wonder why this show needs to run more the a couple more episodes.

Another cute story of healing a scarred heart. This time was helping in the love affairs of a high school girl. The most noteworthy thing about this for me episode were the CLAMP cameos.

A new outfiit.

Chobits

More Chobits.

Too much cute.

 I was so extremely excited to finally see Kohaku. I’ve waited six years to see her in anime form, and now that I’ve finally seen her, I am definitely not disappointed. Now it’s probably too much to hope to see Kiryuu, but we can’t have everything can we?

Oh, and there was some hinted drama with that grouchy guy and about not being hurt anymore. I rolled my eyes at that, Kobato couldn’t hurt anything if someone paid her to do it. Paranoia is bad. But he’s suppose to be the guy who’s all jaded and angsty, and, well, I still could care less about him. Except when he provides cute abuse. I like cute abuse.

I approve of this scene.

J.C. Staff has been on a serious successful roll of late which has made me a very happy anime fan because when they’re performing at the top of their abilities – very few animation houses can compete. After the spectacular last season with Aoi Hana, Hayate, and Taishou Yakuu Musume, this season’s sole series from J.C. Staff To Aru Kagaku no Railgun has mighty big shoes to fill. So the question is how did it turn out?

Rating: episode 1 – 6/12 B-
Rating: episode 2 – 5/12 C+
Rating: episode 3 – 8/12 B+
Rating: episode 4 – 9/12 A-
Anticipation Level: 2/5 – Below Average

I’ve learned from blogging that doing first impression posts after the first episode or the second episode will often lead to poor conclusions in hindsight because not every good show starts off strong. One of the best examples of this is Lucky Star, it took 6 episodes (25% of the show) for me to begin to enjoy the show the first time I watched it and in the end it turned out to be one of my favorite shows. I bring this up because if I had written this post up after the second episode, I’d be writing that there’s a very good chance I would drop this show since it seemed to lack any redeeming qualities. However, I waited for a couple more episodes because I’d rather be accurate then quick (even if my blogger senses are screaming at me to hurry up and post something), and let’s hope this is at least accurate.

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun is a side-story to the Index manga and focuses on the character Misaka, a middle-school girl who can manipulate electricity which is where her nickname – Railgun – comes from and is one of only seven Level 5 people (which is the top level for powers, at least for right now). She befriends two new characters and along with her overly affectionate roommate, these four form the core of the show. So far the show has focused primarily on introducing the characters and fleshing out their friendship, though by the end of episode 4 hints of a deeper plot are starting to show up.

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who looked at this series as a way to salvage what should have been a quality series. Which is why I was so depressed when the first two episodes of Railgun seemed to be more concerned with how much yuri fan service could be stuffed into the show. I have nothing against fan service or even yuri fan service but those types of shows are a dime a dozen and it would once again waste the interesting premise. And that’s also why I was happy to see episode 3 and 4 focus more on the characters, comedy not involving yuri groping, and their abilities because it’s now at least possible that this show turns out well.

In all fairness, outsourcing policework to middle school kids must save the government a lot of money.

Outside of the question of the subject to the show, there’s much to like here. The animation is great, as can be expected from J.C. Staff, and I really like the voice work done by the main characters. I also like the two new characters and the non-appearance of the majority of the Index cast (they were a gimped bunch). And having the focus be around these four characters is a stronger basis for the story and it’ll avoid how Index felt like the story was just about how Touma built his harem of girls.

I still don’t know if To Aru Kagaku no Railgun will be worth the time but it’s been able to move from the reject pile to the maybe pile and it’s possible that it could move to the decent pile. Therefore, I’ll suggest for now to potential viewers of this series to not judge the show solely on the first couple of episodes.

Love the subtle cameos from other J.C. Staff shows

Using flashlights while telling scary stories is so 20th century.

Probably the best thing about this series is the wackiness of the characters. You don’t get much weirder then crossdressing to try the win the affections of someone you love, can you…?

Oh wait. Kazama proves that you can. We jump from her wanting to practice her first kiss, until she realizes and shouts in the middle of class that she can’t practice because any practice kiss would be her first kiss. Then she considers practicing on the skeleton in the lab. After that, it’s a mask. All of it is outrageous, but hilarious.

The ending scene was honestly sweet, and a little heart wrenching.

Probably the most frustrating thing about this series is the drama is so transparent. It has the standard love triangle, and it’s quite obvious that Kazama will never like Murasame that way. I want to resent Kazama for this, because Murasame is so in love with her, but I can’t. Sure, Kazama is a tad weird, but she’s not a bad person at all. Her only fault is her oblviousness to Murasame’s feelings.

What’s worse, I really want the two to hook up, but I don’t dare count on it after Aoi Hana.