*glare* *dokkyun* I like the Mikoto X Touma scenes, they’re just plain awesome. Not only do we get a comedy duo, we got a massive amount of tsundere out of Misaka and a fight afterwards! Of course, our Electric Goddess always ends up losing the match! This encounter, we get to see Mikoto use her abilities like [...]

It’s Shakuan no Shana S, the OVA series that JC Staff is giving us to tide us over until Shakugan no Shana III comes out, probably next fall.

Shana and Yuji sift through junk at Friagne’s old place looking for Hougu he’s stashed away when Yuji finds a telescope. He looks at Shana through it and the pair immediately switch bodies, and Alastor realizes that it is the Hougu “Reshuffle.” However, Satou and Tanaka, who were out buying ice cream, come back so Yuji-in-Shana’s-body has to throw as much junk in Shana’s cape as he can and hopes that Reshuffle is there for them to change back later, as Alaster impresses on both of them that no one can learn that they swapped.

The pair try to think of a place to sift through the junk. At first Yuji thinks of the party room of a Kareoke parlor, but find Margery drinking near by. He then thinks of the school, but the end up finding out that Yoshida and Ike are there to watch Ogata play a volleyball game. Worse, Shana-in-Yuji’s-body barges into their classroom while the volleyball team is in the middle of changing.

After finally escaping the school, they head to about the only option left: Yuji’s house, but run into Wilhelmina in town. Wilhelmina is immediately suspicious and sends one of her ribbons after Yuji’s body, but Shana blocks it out of instinct. This raises Wilhelmina’s suspicions even more, and Yuji is only able to get them out of it by yelling that he loves Wilhelmina, stunning her, and allowing the pair to escape.

The pair finally get to Yuji’s house, only to find Yuji’s mother there, who immediately suggests to Yuji-in-Shana’s-body that he should take a bath since Shana’s body is all sweaty, but Yuji is able to get out of this. However, once he reaches his room, he finds Shana doubled over and wonders if Reshuffle causes some sort of damage when used with a Flame Haze, so Yuji promptly dumps out everything that he stored in Shana’s cloak, making his room look like a disaster area.

Yuji’s mother, hearing the crash, arrives to see what happened, so Shana puts up a Fuzetsu, allowing Yuji to put all the junk back away and allowing Shana to grab Reshuffle, allowing them to switch bodies back. However, Yuji immediately finds that the problem Shana was having was that she ate so much ice cream that Yuji’s stomach was about to revolt, causing Yuji to sprint to the restroom.

Shana then asks Alastor why it was so imperative that no one find out that they switched bodies, so Alastor tells her that Reshuffle works only between two people who have no wall between their hearts.

I always kind of like body-switch episodes, and it works particularly well here with Shana, I think. They probably could have done even more with it, but most of the time was spent dodging everyone they knew rather than Yuji doing un-womanly things with Shana’s body (though there was some of that, such has him flashing Shana’s panties everywhere when climbing over the garbage at Friagne’s place).  Of course, this also let the writers to make Shana appear super-tsundre in this episode as well (and make Yuji look like a manly-man).

This OVA was created with the expressed reason of developing Shana and Yuji’s characters to set the series up for the third and presumably final season. Having that in mind, what did we learn here? First off, Yuji still has a lot of potential to develop his skills, as Shana was able to use his powers to their fullest extent. Second, we pretty much confirm, due to the nature of Reshuffle, that the two love each other, even if they aren’t willing to admit it to each other or themselves yet.

I’m not sure when this is supposed to take place, but my guess would be between the first and second seasons. Yuji has all his built up power of existence, so it is certainly after the first season, but Yuji supposedly “chose” Shana at the end of the second season, and it didn’t seem to me that their relationship was to that point here. Perhaps I’m wrong too, and we’ll find out more later, and we just didn’t see that sort of stuff due to the nature of the episode too.

I haven’t seen any schedule for when the next episode comes out, but there are supposed to be 4 episodes, and if we assume roughly the same amount of time between releases, and some time between the last OVA episode and a presumed season 3 in Fall 2010, we’re probably looking at something like 3 months between episodes, which would put episode 2 near the end of January, with the last two episodes in April and July (basically near the start of each anime season).

lol Gintoki may have lost his Analog Stick, but got a Screwdriver in return!! XD

Sawako gets to know her classmates more and even helps tutor them.  But the realization that there might be competition for Kazehaya’s affection is starting to become clear.

Episode Summary:

Sawako’s time at school is getting easier and easier it seems.  She gets greeted by her surrounding classmates, and even carries on conversations with them.  During one such conversation Sawako learns about how popular Kazehaya is with the girls and how in middle school there were so many girls vying for his attention that they decided to call him “Everybody’s Kazehaya.”  This just makes her vow to try harder.

A new homeroom teacher shows up, the baseball coach, and promptly tries to dispell any rumors by staring at Sawako for 10 seconds.  He then asks for roll call volunteers and Sawako once again accepts the job to try and save the class from trouble.  As before, Kazehaya also accepts, but this time other classmates respond as well which surprises Sawako.   After school, as Sawako starts the roll call book, Kazehaya shows up to help but only gets one name written down before he has to go to the teacher’s room.  After that, other classmates of Sawako’s appear in the doorway and actually want to talk to her and a nice conversation ensues.

The next day during class Kazehaya passes her a note asking to meet him and the puppy they found after school, which she gladly accepts.  On her way to drop off some papers later in the day, Sawako starts zoning out thinking about her future encounter and winds up dropping all the papers.  A girl, whom Sawako says looks like a French doll, helps her pick them up.

At the riverbank she meets Kazehaya and Maru-chan (the puppy) and they chat about studying.  Sawako confesses that she learns best by dreaming about how she would explain it to someone else.  The next day, Kazehaya does just that by asking Sawako to help him with homework.  The other sudents in the class catch on and realize that Sawako is a great teacher and she winds up helping everyone.  When they all finish, Sawako was so happy that she could help that she lets out a big smile, much to the surprise of the rest of the class.  Later, Kazehaya tells Sawako that he is selfish and wanted to keep that smile all to himself (awww…).

Finally, as Yona and Yoshida are leaving they hear girls talking about rumors about themselves.  Annoyed, they approach them to find out who spread the rumors, for which they answer “Sadako”.

Thoughts:

So it looks as though they are going to start the fracas next episode.  This episode calmly and slowly built on the progress that Sawako made in the previous episode.  Everything is still butterflies and rainbows so far, except for the last minute of the show.  It was good to see that people are starting to come around and treat Sawako like any other person.  Her interactions with peers is getting better and better, even to the point where people came to her to talk, instead of her just being there at the time.  Of course Sawako gives all the credit to Kazehaya for his actions putting her into those situations, which to a point is correct.  But Sawako is the one that is trying hard to win their favor as well.

The tutor aspect was a nice touch to bring everyone in together around Sawako.  Obviously, the crap is gonna hit the fan next week, and will most likely be the French Doll girl.  No one should really expect Sawako to be making rumors about people, and French Doll is the only real character that has been shown a few times.  Methinks she had something to do with it.  Aside from that, this was a nice soothing episode.  The art is still great (although the distorted chibi Sawako faces are getting annoying), but all in all not much to complain about.

This is what happens when Gintoki loses his Analog Stick~ In games where the you get to choose gender, which one do you pick? I always almost go with females.

Polaryzed – Now this series threw me for a loop.  I came into it knowing that it’d be a fan service comedy.  The premise/synopsis from ANN made it sound very similar to To Love-Ru.  I enjoyed watching that show, in a mindless zombie way, and I’m never one to shy away from fan service, so I gave this a try.  After two episodes, I’m VERY surprised by this show.  The production quality is much higher than I expected, and it was REALLY FUNNY.

What I usually don’t like about most fan service comedies is the male lead.  They usually are trying to adhere to some mythical ‘higher moral standard‘ that keeps them from acting on their impulses the way that (IMO) most other teenage males would.  For that reason you get the old: “Lala-san put some clothes on!  I don’t want to see that!”, or something similar.

Sora no Otoshimono is handling it differently, which I like.  When an oppai andriod angel falls from the sky and says that she can grant wishes, what does he do?  Wish for money and to be invisible so that he can watch/grope his hawt neighbor.  Perfect!  This is an animated fantasy, so dammit show me some fantasies.  It’s a funny and off the wall show that doesn’t seem like it’s really supposed to make much sense, but who cares?

The clinching moment for me came at the end of the second episode.  After all that pantsu nonsense the whole episode, the show has an ED of beautiful panoromic scenery with pantsu flying in a goose flock formation.  Absolute win.  Definitely going to watch this one to see what else pantsu can do that I didn’t know about.  I’m out!

Josh: There wasn’t very much “pure” about the first episode of this second season, since the first episode attempted to be a fan service fest.  Unfortunately, the main star of the first episode was the steam used to censor all the fan service which was apparently going on behind the, er, steam.  Now, I’m not one for huge fan service shows, but if you’re gonna show fan service, then you just as well show fan service.  What’s the point in having loads of it but not showing any of it.  I can understand if it is an otherwise clean show with a few risque shots that you don’t want going overboard, but the first episode was nearly unwatchable.

Luckily the 2nd episode was mostly steamless and started going back towards what made the first season good in the first place: Haruka being a hot and popular, yet secret, otaku nerd.  However, I do have to laugh somewhat at the lacrosse anime, being an alumnus of Syracuse University.  I didn’t even know that the Japanese knew what lacrosse was, given that it is one of the few sports truly rooted in North America, having originated with Native Americans (though apparently Japan does indeed have it’s own lacrosse association).

Hopefully the rest of the series will go more of the way of the 2nd episode than the 1st…

Polaryzed: I don’t have much more to add that Josh didn’t already say.  I also enjoyed the first season and hope it continues that way.  Steam sucks.  The end.

Anime DVDs

October 20, 2009
Ah My Buddha – Volume 5
Blassreiter – Part 1
Bleach – Volume 21
Blood+ – Part 2
Clannad After Story – Collection 1 (sub)
Comic Party: Revolution – Box Set
Escaflowne: The Movie (Blu-Ray)
Ghost Hound – Collection 1 (sub)
Loveless – Box Set (sub)
Vision of Escaflowne – Box Set

Manga

October 20, 2009
20th Century Boys – Volume 5
Gestalt – Volume 3
Inubaka – Volume 14
REAL – Volume 6
RIN-NE – Volume 1
Two Flowers for the Dragon – Volume 5
Vagabond: BIG Edition – Volume 5
What a wonderful world! – Volume 1
What a wonderful world! – Volume 2

October 21, 2009
Devil Inside

It’s Kobato episode 3, and Kobato get an apartment, several umbrellas, and another piece of candy.

Sayaka sees Kobato out in the rain in the park, and takes Kobato to an apartment that she’s set up Kobato to live, where Kobato also meets the apartment manager, Chitose Mihara. However, Kobato almost forgets to go to the nursery, and on the way runs into a seemingly cheerful girl.

At the nursery, Fujimoto asks Sayaka why she had to go so far as to get an apartment for Kobato, and asks her how many times she plans on “getting hurt like that.” also warning her that they have to be on guard about anyone.

The next day, Kobato doesn’t have to work at the nursery, so she decides to try to go out. However, it starts to rain, and the manager at the bakery Tirol gives her an umbrella to borrow. Kobato then goes to Piffle Princess to see if she can have any luck there (she doesn’t), where she finds Tirol’s umbrella is gone. However, she also runs into the girl from the day before, whom we learn is named Mutsumi Tadokoro, outside, who gives Kobato her umbrella. A boy then passes by playfully teasing Mutusmi, and Mutsumi chases after him.

The next day, Kobato returns Mutsumi’s umbrella to her at her school (which the got the location of from Tirol’s manager). However, it starts raining again whens he has to go home from the nursery, so Fujimoto lets Kobato borrow his. On the way home, Kobato finds Tirol’s umbrella at Piffle Princess once again, where she also sees Mutsumi once again. However, the they see the boy who teased her earlier walking down the street with another girl, causing Mutsumi to run away.

That evening, Kobato is distraught over Mutsumi’s behavior, when Chitose’s two daughters, Chiyo and Chise swing by with a futon for Kobato. The next day, Kobato sees the boy who had been teasing Mutsumi and tells him that he should “share an umbrella” with her. Mutsumi happens to be walking by at the time and asks what’s going on, where Kobato remarks that Mutsumi seemed sad when she saw the boy walking with another girl.

Kobato finally coaxes the two under an umbrella, where the boy tells Mutusmi that he was only walking with the other girl because she forgot her umbrella. That evening, Kobato finds another piece of “candy” in her bottle. Meanwhile, she passes another woman, named Kohaku, on the other side of a canal, who feels a strange atmosphere when Kobato passes by.

First, let’s get the obvious cross-over stuff out of the way. We had three cross-over characters that I saw in this episode, all from Chobits: the apartment manager Chitose, and her daughters Chiyo and Chise, who may or may not be persocoms.

However, this looks like a similar, yet different universe from that in Chobits and related stories, unless this is supposed to take place after Chobits, and Chitose has changed her family name back to Mihara and make two new persocoms that look just like Chii. However, I’m inclined to think this is a similar, but different universe. In any case, it’s nice to see some familiar characters again. It makes me wonder who else we might see next.

Next, Kobato gets her next piece of candy, this one relatively easy, I suppose, since it just meant she had to set Mutsumi up with her crush and that’s it. That means that she gets rewarded, even if the heart that needs healing isn’t in some huge crisis. I’m sure seeing your crush with a member of the opposite sex like that is tough for a middle/high schooler, but it doesn’t seem anything earth shattering. At least it’s helping Kobato get used to things, anyway. I’m sure there will be harder tests to come.

I at least hope we get to see Mutsumi again. She seemed like a pretty cool character.

Finally, we have the woman, Kohaku, at the end, who seems to have some awareness of Kobato or the universe she came from, since she had some sort of feeling when Kobato walked by her. However, it’s obviously way to early to even guess as to what that connection might be.

I really enjoyed the first season of Natsu no Arashi. I liked the silly humor, the interesting characters, and even the drama that they mixed in at the perfect times.  Naturally I wanted to see more in a second season.  So far, the first two episodes have been high on the hi-jinks and fan service, but that’s all right with me.  I still find it amusing as they reintroduce the characters, and I expect (hope) that they’ll start with some more plot progression with episode three.

The character designs aren’t my favorite, but I can overlook that because the characters are so much fun.  I wonder if the situation with Jun will be resolved early this season, or if it’s going to be the main focus of the season instead.  Either way, I’m going to continue to watch this every week. Peace!

Josh: This series has at least started off somewhat promising, but I still can’t shake the feeling that I’ve basically seen these characters and this story, in some form or variation before…several times.  Maybe this show will put them all together in some unique combination, or maybe it’ll just be the same show we’ve seen 3 times before already.  For some reason I got a feel for this show that is some strange mix of Shuffle and Asura Cryin’ or something along those lines (with bonus Pandora Hearts attack chains).

This is based off an eroge, so I guess I shouldn’t be too shocked at the fan service, and perhaps glad that it isn’t more prominent, but the more we have seemingly pointless fan service, the more points the show loses.  Some shows can survive such displays (I consider Shuffle one of them), but many do not, in my opinion.  Throw in some sexual harassing tentacles and the ever omnipresent anemia, and the start of this series feels a bit too cliched for it’s own good, despite it’s somewhat uniqueness.  Nevertheless, This is probably one of the top 4 shows that I’m watching this new season (out of 7 that have started).

Polaryzed: Well, as I’ve said before, fantasy anime aren’t really my thing.  However, I was intrigued by the promotional material, and since I’m such a big idiot I always watch almost ALL new series anyway.  I’ve only watched the first episode, but here are the things I liked so far: pantsu and fan service.  What I didn’t like: the rest.  The animation was sketchy (and it’s only the first ep!), the premise seemed the same as a thousand series before it, and let’s face it, the monsters were really lame looking.  I’ll almost never dis a series for fan service, and this is no exception.  In this case, however, the fan service might not be enough to draw me back.

On the bright side, there was a lot of mystique surround the whole sister death, the parallel world, etc., making things interesting.  But intrigue alone isn’t enough to sustain a good show.  You need good characters to help maintain the effect and so far the characters are very one dimensional.  In fact, the show lost a lot of points for me when the male protagonist proclaims in the first episode one of my most loathed lines in anime: “No matter what I will protect you!“  Ugh.  I don’t mind that line so much if the series has drawn you into the characters and you WANT him to protect her as much as he does.  Not so much here.

I’ll probably give this series until episode 3 to improve or I drop it.