Our lovable Corpse Princess as a baby.

And just like that, the book closes on the fall season and 2008.

Back at the start of the fall season, early October, the trees where just starting to change colors and it was still possible to walk around outside in shorts. Now at the end of the season, coats are required and the faded landscape speaks of many more months of cold. Hopefully at the end of the winter anime season, the early crocuses will be blooming and we’ll finally know when the second season of Haruhi is airing.

The scores:

To Aru Majutsu no Index, episode 12 – 9/12 A-
To Aru Majutsu no Index, episode 13 – 11/12 A+

Shikabane Hime: Aka, episode 9 – 11/12 A+
Shikabane Hime: Aka, episode 10 – 12/12
Shikabane Hime: Aka, episode 11 – 12+/12

Kannagi, episode 12 – 10/12 A
Kannagi, episode 13 – 12/12 (end)

Chaos;Head, episode 11 – 10/12 A
Chaos;Head, episode 12 – 11/12 A+ (end)

Kurozuka, episode 11 – 12/12
Kurozuka, episode 12 – 12+/12 (end)

Ga-Rei Zero, episode 11 – 12+/12
Ga-Rei Zero, episode 12 – 12+/12 (end)

Earl and Fairy, episode 11 – 11/12 A+

Xam’D: Lost Memories, episode 20 – 12/12
Xam’D: Lost Memories, episode 21 – 12+/12

Toradora!, episode 13 – 12++/12

Kemeko DX, episode 12 – 10/12 A (end)

Michiko to Hatchin, episode 10 – 12/12

Skip Beat, episode 11 – 11/12 A+
Skip Beat, episode 12 – 12/12

Yozakura Quartet, episode 12 – 10/12 A (end)

Which shows have momentum this week

Up – Shikabane Hime: Aka – If I had to graph this show’s momentum, it would look like an exponential growth curve.

Down – Chaos;Head – Technically, since this ended, it shouldn’t be here but this show definitely lost a lot of the momentum that it had built up earlier in the series.

Thoughts and Highlights

Shikabane Hime: Aka is the momentum gainer of the week again and came very close to having it’s episode 11 be the best episode of the bi-week. This show and Ga-Rei: Zero actually are very similar shows in that they’ve been season long examinations of a character. Ga-Rei: Zero was to show how a hero despairs, gets corrupted, and falls; whereas, Shikabane Hime: Aka was to show how a normal high school boy is called upon to become the hero. The difference between the two was that Ga-Rei told you by the end of episode 3 what it was doing but Shikabane Hime didn’t make it clear till much later.

Episode 11 of Shikabane Hime: Aka had a really awesome flashback sequence in it – very Millenium Actress-esque. This sequence would have wowed me no-matter-what; but, the fact that Gainax did it, wowed me even more because Gainax isn’t known for it’s subtleness and small moments.

Squeaking past for this bi-week’s best episode is Toradora’s episode 13. As epic as the race was, the moment that really stuck out in my mind was the comment Minorin made at the end when she was talking with Ryuuji. She said something to effect ‘I’m talking normal’. A simple sentence might seem insignificant but oftentimes it’s the small things that speak volumes. We were clued into the possibility that Minorin uses her hyper personality as a way to cope with her fears back in episode 3 and this single sentence seems to confirm this idea. What we also learn is that Kitamura seems to have a thing for the student council president and she doesn’t feel the same way about him. I can’t help but think that, because Taiga’s personality is similar to the student council president’s, Kitamura sees Taiga as a replacement for the president and that makes him a jerk.

The clones are fast becoming my favorite characters of Index.

Akiyuki's parents in the midst of making up.

I’ve already put up my thoughts to 3 of the show’s that have ended and will get to the other three – Kannagi, Kurozuka, and Chaos;Head – soon so I don’t have anything to say about those six shows right now. So, I’ll close with just a few more short thoughts.

• To Aru Majutsu no Index is now at it’s halfway point. It’s been infinitely better then the first half of Shana 2 but it’s suffered from having way to much exposition and the apparently pointless amnesia of the main character. Shana 2 was able to have a near flawless second half and lets hope Index can too.
• Xam’D: Lost Memories is nearly done setting the stage for the show’s finale and I’m pumped and primed to see what happens.

• Have I mentioned how the casting in Skip Beat has helped make the show so enjoyable. Marina Inoue infuses Kyoko’s character with the perfect edge that really makes the character feel real. Then there’s the smooth-as-butter Katsuyuki Konishi as Ren that makes Ren’s ability to make all women swoon over him so believable and makes Kyoko’s interest in him genuine.

And finally, Minorin's 7 - 10 split was pretty cool as well.

While I still am hesitant to list my top five shows of the season, I realized that I was much more confident when it came to picking my other awards of the season. This first part deals mainly with the characters in the anime and the second part will focus on the entire show in general and the work done by the animators.

For some of the categories it was tough to determine the winner so for those, I included the runner-ups as well.

Best Female Main Character

Winner: Taiga from Toradora

On paper Taiga appears to be another in a long string of the tsundere character-type that has become so popular in recent years. Not that I have anything against tsunderes, some of my favorite characters – Kagami and Haruhi – are tsunderes but to be the top, I need a character that feels orginal, is remarkable in their actions, and makes me happy to see onscreen. Taiga has all three qualities in abundance and by the end of episode 2, made it impossible for me to consider anyone else. Tsundere’s are supposed to be unable to admit their feeling to anyone, much less themselves; but, Taiga knows her feelings, is able to act on those feelings, and is able to show her vulnerable side to her friend Ryuuji. Even when she gets angry, it seems to be genuine anger and not just acting according to a character-type. So, for example, when she’s kicking the telephone, she’s doing it not because she’s violent but because she’s frustrated at the world.

Best Male Main Character

Winner: Ryuuji from Toradora

Runner-up: Tomoya from Clannad

“Call no man an island,” as the saying goes and in Ryuuji’s case that’s a very appropriate observation. Ryuuji has always been a nice, caring guy even if his looks suggest otherwise but it wasn’t until meeting Taiga that he was able to show this side of him. Episode after episode we see Ryuuji’s loyalty, goodness, and desire to help others and the viewer can’t help but like him and hope he finds the happiness that he deserves. Tomoya has shown many of the same qualities as Ryuuji which makes it hard to pick one over the other but for this season I’ll give the slight edge to Ryuuji because Tomoya shouldn’t have made Nagisa worry as much as she did during the fight in episode 8. Since both series continue for the winter season, it’s quite possible I’ll be picking between the two again.

Best Supporting Character

Winner: Minorin from Toradora

If you permit me to devolve into internet speak, I just need to say Minorin = Win. She’s like a shot of Awesomeness everytime she’s on the screen.

Best Non-human Character

Winner: Kelpie from Earl and Fairy

This was a new category I thought to add this time and silly me, I thought it would be easy to pick a winner. I envisioned giving this award to someone like Buta from Clannad but I forgot there’s a lot of characters that aren’t really human. There’s Soul and the other weapons of Soul Eater, the Corpse Princesses in Shikabane Hime, the majority of the characters of Yozakura Quartet – to name just a few. Since this is an anime blog and not a philosophical blog I just decided to pick someone that’s obviously not human.

Kelpie is definitely not human and definitely a great character on Earl and Fairy. His pursuit of the Fairy Doctor Lydia is one of the funny sidestories of the show, so is his belief that human females are less abusive then female sea horse spirits. Now I wonder if he’d look as good in a dress as Raven, the butler, did.

Best Couple

Winner: Aisaka Taiga and Ryuuji from Toradora

Runner-up: Tomoya and Nagisa from Clannad

I know we’re supposed to at least entertain the thought that various other couples are possible like Ryuuji x Minorin or Taiga x Kitamura but by episode nine it’s obvious that Taiga and Ryuuji are the real couple. It’s just cool to see a guy and girl that can be themselves – with all their warts and faults – around each other. Clannad hasn’t really focused much on Tomoya and Nagisa yet but like I mentioned above, both of the these shows are going to be around for another season so there’s a good chance that we’ll see again next time.

Best Character Ability/Power

Winner: Takumi of Chaos;Head for his ability to make his delusions real

We’re far enough along into Chaos;Head that some of the mysteries surrounding the show has been revealed. One is that Takumi can take what he thinks of and can make it physically manifest. Very useful power but personally, I’d be using that power a lot more then Takumi is and for better things then making his favorite figurine come to life.

Best Cast of Characters

Winner: Toradora

With three characters already mentioned, it was going to hard for any other show to earn this award but when you factor in the Ami, Kitamura, a messed-up parrot and a mom that enjoys being an entertainer at a local bar – it becomes the de facto choice for the season.

Best Dressed Characters

Winner: Clannad

One of KyoAni’s strong points is that they’re sticklers about the small things in the show. Other shows will have their characters wear their one, maybe two different outfits over the course of an entire series but KyoAni will have their characters wear two, maybe three, different outfits each episode – and then never repeat the outfit again. I hate to admit that one of the reasons why I like to watch a KyoAni show is to see what the characters will be wearing next because you’ll never see a KyoAni character on the show ‘What Not to Wear’.

Best Villian

Winner: Fuwa Sho from Skip Beat

Some villains are the old type – actually evil, some are the new type – businesses, capitalists, and anti-environmentalists, some are misunderstood, and some are just plain jerks. Fuwa Sho falls into the last category. In a single episode, he was able to make me so completely hate him that I’d sit through a bad anime series just to see him get what he deserves. Luckily, Skip Beat has been a very enjoyable series so far.

That’s the end of part 1. I hope to have the second part up within a day and I can say that Toradora only wins two of the awards. Comments and feedback are always appreciated – I’d love to see what others would pick.

I really really really should be sleeping now orz

Ah well, just a few updates on the anime I’ve watched/ am watching. As usual. No pics I think :\

First of all, I finally completed Hunter x Hunter, TV series and OVAs and all. The manga’s still running, but I hear it’s pretty slow and the mangaka just keeps taking breaks. There was this long hiatus from 2006 to 2007, it seems, and then from then on it just went on and off, but now it’s serialised weekly in Jump. Then again, if this is considered bad, I sorta don’t know what to say to the faithful D.N.Angel manga followers. How is it now, really?

I also picked up this really random old anime called Legend of BASARA. Sure, Sengoku BASARA is the more popular of the BASARAs now, but this anime wasn’t too bad, I hear it’s really similar to Fushigi Yuugi. *And if you’ve realised by now, I haven’t watched that many of the so-called “classic must-watch animes”. I think my reading shoujo manga somewhat helped me tolerate the obvious traditional shoujo manga art style being animated. I’m not sure how hearing somewhat familiar voices such as that of Inoue Kazuhiko or that of Chopper (One Piece) affected my experience, but I think the plot was really quite decent. Another thing I’m really bad at is recommending anime to others, but if you like romance and uh. Epicness? Heroic anime, or other anime similar to Fushigi Yuugi, you might just want to give this a try.

Oh. Just a note, the ending is really unsatisfactory. It just ended really really abruptly and the moment we (the viewers) were all waiting for just didn’t happen. In Japanese, I’d say 悔しいぃい～～！なんでやねん、こんなエンディングなんていらねーぞ or something like that. 

I am currently watching Fullmetal Panic!, and I must say it is pretty interesting. It’s another “classic must-watch”, isn’t it. Sure there’s quite a bit lot of panchira and fanservice, though of course not comparable to the likes of Kemeko Deluxe, but the character dynamics more than make up for that. I’m not a mecha anime person, I suppose, since more than too often they center around a lot of politics due to GOODMAN influence, but sometimes I make exceptions. Like Code Gayass Geass. Darn, I really need to get rid of that bad habit of mine, but KL-chan’s fanart really isn’t helping.

Speaking of GOODMAN, I am transferring a large amount of data to do with the latest GOODMAN #00 first season to my external harddrive at the moment, from unknown sources. I may or may not watch it in the end, but I may just try. If you are wondering why I am doing so when I could so much more easily watch it streamed, I shall reply that I have had enough with this ’streaming’ education system here in this tiny pea nation googling a series with two seasons and a huge market based on mecha otakus just like Sagara and hoping that there are good streamed videos was entirely wishful thinking on my part. Or maybe I just did it on a whim |d I sort of get the feeling that I will not come to like most or any of the Meisters though :\\

&More details here: http://myanimelist.net/animelist/shadowangellz. And yes, I did realise that 86.7% of my Currently Watching anime list comprises of anime that are currently airing.

&! One line (or two, three for rants and rambles) for each other anime I’m watching that I haven’t really mentioned yet: 

Skip Beat! is actually getting interesting! And Kannagi filler episode wasn’t that bad, gaiz. More Nagi needed, though, and Less Over-Obsessed Nagi-Otaku Plz. Casshern SINS is kinda reminding me a lot of Kaiba with the same production studio and uh. story flow? Whaddya call it? I mean they both have some 記憶喪失 (amnesiac) guy getting around and trying to make sense of the world around him and on the way they meet people and stuff. NEED…MORE…EVE NO JIKAN. Haven’t been catching up on Gintama but slow subs are slow, too, even though Tudou would do just fine for me? GSZS is good as usual. Earl and Fairy is cheesy but the sappiness is teh funny. Kemeko was actually kinda funny the last time I watched it, I was quite surprised, but the fanservice and random Kemeko just don’t always work for me. Kuroshitsuji is getting better, some of the previous episodes really didn’t interest me much, I just want the plot to thicken. Michiko e Hatchin is… above-average, but I want a little more ….direction? Nodame is pretty good as usual. I can’t help thinking of Sagara now when I hear Chiaki speak, though. One Piece is pretty darned OMFG-WTFHish these days, but kinda in a good way. Just, someone remind me how many litres the average human has? The whole Strawhat Crew is inhuman, even those without the Devil’s Fruit. Looks like Luke is gonna grow up soon in Tales, but he’s still freaking getting on EVERYONE’s nerves already just about now. Toradora! is funny as usual. Still hate the parrot. I only like Taiga as a Tenori Tiger or when she’s actually violent and/or angry for logical reasons, Ryuuji’s too nice sometimes, and Kawashima is really really annoying.

….

AFA ‘08’s coming real soon, gaiz, but first there’s a 20% off promotion going on at Kinokuniya from tomor today~!

And someone keep me away from pixiv, I could spend ages and ages there going 素敵♥！, followed by a loud wail directed at heaven complaining about how talentless I am, a million times at the billions of great budding artists there. In effect, wasting another few hours of the holidays I already happen to be wasting.

Marisa, drawn by DaDa on pixiv, wishes you a Happy (Belated) Halloween~

A bit late, but I haven’t been posting. That’s an unavoidable, inexplicable fact. I write more often on Lang-8, and that’s in Japanese, mind you. And I update Poupee more than I update this site |D Speaking of poupee, I found some guy who actually posted stuff there and dressed up his poupee and shtuff. *trauma trauma* And then I just LOL’d.

I’ll be talking about games I’ve picked up/ have wanted to pick up, as well as the anime I’ve picked up and dropped.

I figured I should try and use my holidays to play some game that I’d wanted to play, so I did. I’m playing Pi Story now, but I lag up in dungeons/ maps/ whatever you call the places the pi bring you to because the connection’s pretty bad for some reason. I don’t usually like to team up with strangers, so it’s quite horrible for me when all the monsters spawn like crazy (i.e. Petite Forest, with the dang orbs). I’d play Mabinogi, but I don’t live in North America. I tried the bypass thing but uh I kept getting problems. So I gave up. ._.u I considered the Japanese server but I couldn’t be bothered in the end.

RO2 is coming soon. I’m not sure I should join or not with my grades in the gutters already.

I think I shall make it a habit to post Miku fanart in every future post… or not. Fyi this is by ぷちでびる (read: puchidevil) on pixiv.

I’ve also picked up some new anime, such as Skip Beat! (quite horrible, but oh well the manga was good I heard and I can’t be bothered to read the manga) and Garei Zero (the plot kind of goes nowhere though ep 4 was funny, but I just had to watch each episode to get to the bottom of it but I’m at my limit and gonna drop it damyou). *Edit, I’ve dropped it. Although Kemeko’s not that bad, it’s just not my taste (Fanservice aka ’saggy bwbs’, and Crazy-with-barely-any-logic-nor-meaning?!), so I’m watching it with little enthusiasm. I’ve picked up Tales of the Abyss (just because it’s one of the ‘Tales’ and I liked the cheagles and Luke didn’t irritate me as much at first and I have no means of getting my Tales of Symphonia for my Wii since I’m broke), Kuroshitsuji (the butler’s pretty much the only character who prevents me from dropping this), Clannad After Story (I don’t quite mind KyoAni works), Toradora! (despite whiny tsundere Al-gone-wrong, the duo are funny) and Michiko to Hacchin (this has potential I believe) although none of these shine quite as much as Kannagi does. Do I have to add in a ‘Kya’ or ‘Squee’ to show just how much I love it? Kya~! Squee~! (I don’t normally do this, you know.) I just love the puns, the tsukkomi, most of all the comedy duo themselves, etc., so that might be my weakness, but the bottom line is I just love this anime. Also, Nagi, tsundere as she might be, doesn’t irritate me much since she’s more like Kana from Minamike than a tsundere. Kugyu voices too many tsunderes already, and I don’t even like her that much :\ 

I dropped Hyakko (bad art and bored me despite a Kana-like character, sorry Jazzu), Yozakura (average but boring too), DMC (too vulgar and way too random for me, dropped quite a while ago, although I did enjoy Gag Manga Biyori) and Index (average and reminding me of Mx0 but ohwell, nothing special). 

Ah, gone are the days when I enjoyed Mahou Shoujo and watched anime (as well as the Powerpuff Girls) in Chinese. Akazukin Cha Cha was one of them… Ah, fyi this is by yukke.

My gut tells me that at least 99.9999% of the people who bothered to visit this page just went ‘tl;dr’ as usual and to those who actually know me in real life, this post probably wasn’t relevant to your interests (I don’t really post about my life here so please do look somewhere else where I do if you can even find one in English |D). I wrote a lot of run-on sentences today orz. And I probably abused the parentheses a little too much.

In any case, to sum up, please do watch Kannagi if you haven’t/ don’t plan to |D ! Especially if you love funny anime

And the Kannagi Girls are (from left) Zange-chan, Nagi and Tsugumi. Jin, the main guy and chibi in the centre, is pretty funny, as are his fellow art clubbers. Especially Akiba-kun, who has the same voicer as Simon from Gurren-Lagann. Btw, this is high res so click for fullview.

*Technically, the above image was a highres scan that I had to tweak a little in Photoshop in order for it to look better.

The fall season continues to wow with even more awesome shows this week. I might be biting off more then I can chew by trying to watch them all but I’m willing to try. Also this week, I was able to finish one my favorites from the spring season.

The scores:

Soul Eater, episode 27 – 12+/12

Toradora!, episode 3 – 12/12

Kemeko DX, episode 2 – 8/12 B+

Clannad S.2, episode 2 – 12++/12
Clannad S.2, episode 3 – 12++/12

To Aru Majutsu no Index, episode 2 – 12+/12

Kannagi, episode 2 – 9/12 A-

Shikabane Hime: Aka, episode 2 – 12/12

Maid Guy, episode 12 – 9/12 A- (end)

(previously reviewed)

Kurozuka, episode 1 – 12/12

Skip Beat, episode 1 – 11/12 A+

Mouryou no Hako, episode 1 – 11/12 A+

Thoughts and Highlights

As you can see in the scores, I was able to finish Maid Guy this week so I’d like to thank the joint effort from [Yakuza T-K] in doing this great series. Expect my series review soon. This final episode was of the type that signaled to the viewers that a second season will be forthcoming if they think it will make money. Therefore, this episode didn’t have any sense of closure and we were even introduced to a maid that looked like a worthy adversary to Maid Guy. I like the idea of someone on Maid Guy’s otherworldly level but I’m really ambivalent about another season. For the episode itself, it contained enough Awesome Kogarashi Moments to keep me happy.

Oh the joys of playing the violin.

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Sanae wearing her daughters' uniform.

The Japanese always get the best aquatic-themed rhythm games

BRAAAINS!!!

I hope Tomoya decks Sunohara for making Mei sad.

The best episode of the week was actually the pair of episodes from Clannad. It’s like KyoAni was psychic or something – how else can you explain how they knew to start off the season with a baseball episode and then go into an arc about my favorite character – Sunohara and his younger sister, Mei. As an aside, if Mei doesn’t finish in the top 8 for Saimoe next year – I’ll be supremely surprised. So far Clannad has been delivering that perfect blend of comedy and drama that so epitomizes a Key/KyoAni show.

There really wasn’t a disappointing episode this week. The lowest scoring show of the week, Kemeko DX, was because the show took the time to do character introductions and not the comedic craziness that the show is promising. It’s always important to take the time to introduce and flesh out a character but this episode didn’t quite charm me like I was hoping it would. I still have relatively high expectations for this show so I’ll keep watching.

I think someone was watching too much LOTR

Soul Eater continues to keep me on the edge of my seat. This episode we got to see Justin fight and more of Crona being awesome. Another bad guy (actually a woman with really freaky eyes) appears and Stein continues to battle his temptation to give into the madness. Also, while, I wasn’t really impressed with the seconding ending, this new ending is awesome. The song is perfect – upbeat and snazzy – for the animation and the animation fits the feel of the song and even takes the time to showcase more of the main characters. On a side note, if how Death the Kid’s way of holding his guns bothered you, I was watching a show on History Channel that showcased a few of the great trick shooters living now and it included a guy that held his shotgun like Death the Kid holds his guns – so it is possible.

I can't decide between titling this "You shall not pass"or "Vague Christian imagery 4TW"

The pair of J.C. Staff shows, Index and Toradora, continue to be very good. We got character building in Toradora and they were able to make it interesting. Even though Rie Kugimiya’s Taiga is in many ways very similar to her other tsundere roles there is differences that make Taiga a much more likable character. It makes it hard not to root for her. In the case of To Aru Majutsu no Index, we get an awesome fight that shows off Tohma’s null-power right hand as well as his intelligence in finding ways to win. I have the feeling that the guy Tohma fought really isn’t a bad guy but one that has a temper and is more concerned about the safety of magic books then their carrier – Index.

Sunohara doesn't like to see cute kittens die

The final show I wanted to talk about was Kannagi. In my impression post for episode 1, I mentioned that a lot of fanservice was added to that episode and I didn’t think it was warranted. This episode once again adds in needless, and definitely implausible, fanservice. Implausible because if the main character is worried about people seeing Nagi’s underwear, why does he walk to the front door, holding them, where she is obviously talking with someone. Needless because I think in an episode that’s meant to be more serious with a mother cat and her two baby kittens dieing – the fanservice cheapens their deaths and frankly I wonder what the director was thinking. I have already seen the next episode and liked it more so maybe I’ll end up liking this anime a lot.

I guess you can find sad girls in more places then just snow

Totally shifting gears now, my impression of the first episode of Skip Beat. I thank those people that commented about this show back when I did my preview for this season because I probably wouldn’t have watched due to approaching my limit of shows I could possibly follow at one time but I’m glad I did.

Rating: 11/12 A+

As I watching the first episode, I found myself thinking two things: wow, I’m liking a shoujo show and Kyoko’s voice sounds familiar.

The second thought is the easier one to explain –her voice is familiar because it’s Marina Inoue, the voice of Kana from Minami-Ke and Yoko from Gurren Lagann. What gave it away was at one point she laughed just like Kana. Actually, though, the first isn’t that hard to explain either. The easiest way to my anime-loving heart is with good characters and this episode had that. We were introduced to a dastardly jerk that I will enjoy hating and a heroine that I feel bad for and hope to see her get her revenge against the jerk. We where also briefly introduced to Ren, voiced by Kamina, who I’m guessing – on pretty much a hunch and having no facts – is going to be the person that Kyoko ends up with. Or that’s who I’m going to root for since I still feel sad over what happened in Gurren Lagann.

Maybe I’ve been a shoujo fan without knowing it and I’ve just needed to actually watch one to become a fan of the genre but, more likely, the fact that Hal Film Makers (Aria, Sketchbook, Somedays Dreamer’s season 2) is behind this helped me enjoy this so much. Either way, at this point I’m pretty sure I’m going to watch this all the through.

She overheard a conversation she shouldn't have had

and her reaction

The beginnings of her plan for revenge