Gag Manga Biyori 3
I’m still waiting for Gag Manga Biyori 2 to be subbed in its entirety, but this offbeat and random comedy series has always been a fun diversion, and hopefully it will continue to be so.

Chi’s Sweet Home
I just had to mention this one because it’s about a lost kitten who finds a new home- it will probably get totally ignored by the anime viewing world, but the artwork is cute. Should I watch it just because I’m a cat lover? Perhaps.

Nijuu-Mensou no Musume
Also known as Chiko, Heiress of the Phantom Thief, this series is, unsurprisingly, about a girl who is the spiritual successor of a notorious phantom thief. I quite like her character design, but until someone reports otherwise, this seems like it will be a rather generic bronze-tier outing.

To Love-Ru
This is one those series that you automatically expect to have an anime adaptation already, but as it turns out, it’s only just about to get one. The series takes on the generic “alien girl lands in boy’s bathtub, leading to a series of events that ends up with him unwillingly getting engaged to her” story, presumably complete with the clichés that have been around since the days of Urusei Yatsura. Unless someone tells me that it’s good to parody, I don’t plan to waste my life on this one.

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D
Yes, it’s the one you’ve all been waiting for- a subpar spin-off of a card game anime, complete with new characters and a new way of playing cards- via motorcycle. I’m not sure I quite understand how that works, but this is going to be so splendidly awful that I almost feel like trying it- almost, but not quite. The insanely spiky haired character designs also remain oddly appealing in a perverse fashion.

Kyou Kara Maoh! season three
For better or worse, Kyou Kara Maoh seems to be one of those things that go on forever, and now it has thirty-nine more episodes to come. Presumably, if you’ve seen seasons one and two and still have an appetite for more, you’ll want to watch this, but for everyone else it’s just something else to ignore.

Allison to Lillia
What happens when you take two light novel series about girls named Allison and Lillia- and put them together to form one anime? The answer, of course, is Allison to Lillia, a series about both of their adventures. Although I know very little about it, it does give off a positive Last Exile vibe, and the fact that the original material was written by the author who brought us Kino’s Journey is a big plus point in its favour. I’ll be keeping my eye out for this one.

Kure-nai
On the surface, this sounds like another potentially interesting episodic light novel based series, this time about a mediator who negotiates squabbles between people. Unfortunately, there also seems to be a proliferation of seven year old characters, which makes me worried that it will either be a loli-fest or about as deep as Chokotto Sister.

xxxHOLiC: Kei
Much as I enjoy the xxxHOLiC manga (even though I haven’t bothered to read any new chapters in months), the anime was incredibly dull and poorly animated, leaving me unenthusiastic about a new season. Should I watch it for completeness? Perhaps, but then I remember the struggle of staying awake as season one progressed, and I think that I should just leave well alone.

Kanokon
Typical high school student meets a girl who is actually a fox goddess and builds up a harem with her and supporting characters- this sounds like Inukami for 2008, only probably inferior because it’s been done before. I may watch it once it’s finished airing, but it’s probably not something I’ll keep up with on a weekly basis.

Amatsuki
Boy who hates history gets caught in a historical simulation VR game- seems like a fairly standard setup that will produce a solid but not outstanding result. I may or may not watch, depending on early impressions and time available.

Druaga no To: the Aegis of Uruk
“Thus begins the story of a warrior named Gil who, finding companions along the way, embarks on a quest for the fabled Blue Crystal Rod”- is it me, or does this sound like yet another generic fantasy waiting to happen? And, given that it’s being animated by Gonzo, it seems unlikely to contain much originality or innovation.

Itazura na Kiss
Another romance series; this time about an ice-cold model student and the girl who relentlessly pursues him; it would sound like an immediate throwaway, except for apparently the story continues after they get married. For that reason, I may give it a go, in the hopes that it will at least be reminiscent of the greatness of Kare Kano.

Blassreiter: genetic
When I was reading the synopsis for this series, I thought like it sounded like the worthy successor to Persona and Mushi-Uta, containing as it does zombies and people with special powers. Then I saw that not only is it a Gonzo production, but that said people are meant to participate in a battle royale, and somehow all the potential just melted away.

Zettai Karen Children
Although the title draws me to this series (simply because it reminds me of Zettai Shounen), I feel I must resist, since it seems to centre on three young girls with ESP who are hired by the Japanese government. I sense magical girl, and whilst that doesn’t necessarily make it bad, I can’t say this particular setup is very appealing.

Kamen no Maid Guy
A masked burly maid guy- I don’t know whether to laugh or run away in fear. It will probably be amusing in a “light on the brain” fashion, but it hardly seems like something to clear a space in a packed schedule for.

Kyouran Kazoku Nikki
Forget Kamisama Kazoku and its family of gods, this series has a makeshift ‘family’ of beings with the potential power to destroy the world, including, for some reason, a lion and a jellyfish. It could be fun, but it could also be juvenile, so I’m remaining on the fence until it actually airs.

Da Capo II Second Season
Another one I’m just reporting in case anyone doesn’t know of its existence- as I haven’t watched season one, I won’t be seeing this any time soon.

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2
I can feel the Code Geass fanboys gathering around already (Hanners, are you reading this?), but since I didn’t complete season one, I won’t be picking up this one either. And what’s this I hear about Lelouch’s previously unmentioned brother showing up?

Neo Angelique Abyss
Didn’t we already have two Angelique TV series? Weren’t they more than enough? Somehow, however, another series with a new set of bishies has made it into existence, although if it’s as lacking in plot as its predecessors, it can be happily forgotten.

Wagaya no Oinari-sama
With Spice and Wolf having concluded, I need another worthy series with a furry lead, and so what better than one with an unsealed fox god who can take the form of either a man or a beautiful woman? As it’s light novel based, I’m getting good vibes already.

Special A
No, this isn’t a new type of cereal or vitamin supplement; instead, the Special A is an elite group of students who get such good grades that they don’t even have to attend classes. Nonetheless, our main character does go to classes, because her goal is, unsurprisingly, to beat the male lead. It sounds like a bit of a mishmash of other shoujo series, with little merit to watching it.

Soul Eater
Shinigami are always a popular subject, but here we have a slightly different spin on the topic, as weapon technicians try to turn their zanpakuto human weapons into proper Death Scythes by collecting the souls of evil people. Will it be an interesting take on a tried-and-true concept, or is it just the latest shounen series to star shinigami? Only time will tell.

Nabari no Ou
I almost wish that this was a spin-off of Shion no Ou, but instead it’s about a boy with destined powers and the two ninja clans who end up fighting over him. The latter sounds disturbingly similar to Basilisk (especially as the Iga clan shows up in both series), but I’m still undecided as to whether to try this.

Vampire Knight
I’ve long thought about reading the manga for this bishie vampire series, but all signs pointed to it being generally shallow and more about looks than story. I’m still oddly drawn to the series, but I can’t help feeling I should start with the manga rather than going to the anime- simply because it reminds me a little of the underwhelming Zombie-Loan.

Monochrome Factor
Having ruled out one possible Mushi-Uta/Persona successor, could this series be the destined heir instead? This time around, we have a high school student who is told he must acquire destined powers and use them to restore the balance between the human and shadow worlds- to be honest, it sounds pretty generic, but there could be a smidgen of potential hidden in there somewhere.

Crystal Blaze
A city with secrets, an ex-policeman turned detective, a woman with no memories- do they get these setups from a standard book of storylines? Nonetheless, this could be the Heat Guy J of 2008, so if it isn’t too unbearably MANLY and cyberpunk, it might actually be a solid outing.

Real Drive
I’m a sucker for series that promise to blend reality with the virtual world, especially when this one is very similar to a story idea I had several years ago (I must write that story!). Having been instantly drawn to the promo artwork, I know I must pursue this series, so my only hope is that it delivers on its potential instead of turning out to be unbearably cryptic and pretentious.

Kaiba
It may have ‘cutesy’ artwork and sound like another Yu-Gi-Oh spin-off, but again the idea of digitising memories draws me to this series like a moth to a flame. It may well be an offbeat classic, but of course there is always the chance that it’s the one that everyone wants to be an offbeat classic but isn’t actually very good. Still, I’m staying optimistic for now.

Toshokan Sensou
When the government starts getting heavy-handed with the regulation of information, who can you count on to save the day? As it turns out, the answer is the book soldiers of the local library, which is an original premise if not one that seems to hold much long-term story appeal. It could be the spiritual successor to Read or Die, but I’m going to keep my expectations reined in.

Golgo 13
Didn’t this series already have an OVA or something? Anyway, it now moves into TV series territory, with the titular Golgo 13 apparently being a womanising top assassin, who is most likely a less suave James Bond. It looks a bit too MANLY for me, although I’m not ruling it out entirely.

Anyway, joining us in the newsroom this week is the tiny artist Issun, as seen in Okami.

Take your PiQ
ADV’s Newtype was reported to have ceased publication this week, but just as read cried into their peach juice about the loss of its shininess, it was announced that the magazine would be replaced with a new one entitled PiQ, with subscribers set to receive two free copies for each copy of Newtype their current subscription entitled them to. Or, to put in short, one magazine is being replaced with another, whose content and quality won’t be known until release.
Issun says: My art is far better quality than these magazines!

Bandai product recall
Bandai have always been infamous for having temperamental DVDs creep up with alarming regularity, but this time around errors on copies of new releases Gundam Seed Destiny #12, Eureka 7 #1, Flag #2 and Mai-Otome #4 have forced a product recall. Replacement stock is to be sent out to all stores, but for those who have already purchased the discs, and exchange program will be made available on Bandai’s website.
Issun says: This new-fangled technology sounds problematic- when paintings have errors, we call them ‘special features’.

Code Geass R2
It seems fashionable these days to append an ‘R2’ to the end of anything that’s entering its second iteration, and indeed, this April Code Geass will be entering its second season. For those who cannot wait, however, the show website has been updated with new character and mech info for the second season, whilst some 3800 lucky people in Japan will get to see a preview screening of the second season around a month before it airs. A whole month- oh my!
Issun says: If I could just master those celestial brush techniques, I’d be a match for any mech.

New manga licenses
A couple of new manga licenses to report this week- Seven Seas will be releasing Inukami, whilst Del Rey have decided to complement Genshiken with some Kujibiki Unbalance.
Issun says: That dog-girl looks hot!

Emma DVD release
Having been brought forward from December 2012, the first season of the Victorian Romance Emma anime has now been given a release date of June 2008- series fans, get your orders in now.
Issun says: That maid girl can’t hide it- she’s one tasty babe!

Viz halts releases
The single DVD releases of MÄR and Hikaru no Go have both been interrupted mid-run, with indications that Viz are planning to switch to box set releases for both series. Whilst this won’t sit well with people who have gone ahead and bought the singles, box sets do seem the natural choice for series of their length.
Issun: I wonder if I can get a job painting cover artwork…

Meine Liebe Wurst
Welcome to the third season of popular bishounen series Meine Liebe- Meine Liebe Wurst! In the hallways of Rosenstolz, Lui and the other Strahl candidates are busy teaching Elmunt, Nicholas and Daniel all about being part of the HARD GAY inner circle, but unbeknownst to them, their old enemy Beruze is getting ready to strike again! Having enlisted the aid of generic Duke Munst, Beruze plans to launch his third attempt at taking the throne of Kuchen; can our heroes overcome their individual angst arcs and help Lui find a way to foil his latest evil plot?

Wurst includes some of the following exciting events-

• We finally see inside the penis-shaped airship that floats high above Kuchen, thanks to flashbacks from the days when Barty was missing.
• Now reconciled with his evil stepmother, Ed goes out to tea with her before continuing the futile search for his long lost sister.
• Naoji goes back to Japan, but realises his true calling lies in Kuchen and returns in order to restore the status quo.
• Camus takes Elmunt to see his brother Leohart for some three-way HARD GAY.
• Isaac lurks around in back alleys looking mysterious but not actually doing a great deal.
• The Strahl visit the palace and reunite with Gerard, whilst the King becomes even more motionless and ineffectual than ever (except when he is with Barty).
• Camus grows yellow roses in his greenhouse.
• Lui sips tea whilst reading a book.

Rozen Maiden Again
Prepare for more dolls, more battles, and more inconsistent plot points as Rozen Maiden also gains its third season- Rozen Maiden Again! When Souseiseki and Hinaichigo mysteriously wake up, the Rozen Maidens are gathered together for an announcement; last time was merely a trial run, and the Alice Game proper begins now. Unfortunately, a previously unmentioned rival from the school of doll-making that Rozen once attended has created his own army of Shadow Maidens, evil dolls of limited lifespan who can only attain true life by stealing the Rosae Mystica! Should the Rozen Maidens continue to fight each other, or should they ally to counter this new threat?

Otogi-jushi Akazukin 26

An all-male scene in the new OP heralds the start of a new HARD GAY era.

The party encounters a church that specialises in HARD GAY marriages.

Souta quickly hooks up with a new partner.

Unfortunately, as a HARD GAY virgin, his first experience is a little painful.

“What do you mean, you’re not really HARD GAY?”

“…I thought we had a future together!”

Jed explains that the public response to Souta’s denial of HARD GAY has been unfavourable.

Short parody: Code Geass II

Lelouch uses his Geass on generics.

Lelouch: I command you to buy Pizza Hut.

The generics head off to buy Pizza Hut.

Lelouch: Everything is going as planned! By forcing everyone to buy nothing but Pizza Hut, I can cause an economic collapse!

CC: Plus it’s tasty and nutritious too.

Suzaku is sent out in his mecha.

Suzaku: I must stop Zero’s evil plans before all the pizzas are sold out!

(Onscreen notice: Please watch Code Geass in a well-lit room whilst eating Pizza Hut.)

Weekly Awards

Generics of the Week: Whilst the generic guards of Deltora Quest episode one deserve a mention, none of them can hold a candle to Sa Soujun of SaiMono. Since he is a named character, technically he should not qualify as a generic, but his reused character design and minor villain ways enable him to steal the prize from true generics.

Apples of the Week: Whilst poor Anton of Harvest Moon BTN finally gets a break with some free apples from his apple tree, Deltora Quest must be mentioned again for having a generic girl who longs for an apple.

Crude series of the Week: What else could it be than the nausea-inducing Busou Renkin? Male nudity, comparing sizes, Victor…somehow it doesn’t even have to try.

Tree Monster Honourable Mention: Just as they did in the OVA OP, tree monsters finally show up in Otogi-jushi Akazukin TV.

OP of the Week: It may be far from new, but Kare Kano’s Tenshi no Yubikiri still scoops a long overdue prize.

HARD GAY corner: Berserk

Raised by Gambino and introduced to the battlefield at an early age, Guts soon learned about the rough and intense HARD GAY that occurred there. Equipped with a sword more impressive than that of any other man, Guts developed a voracious appetite for HARD GAY, but unfortunately, his partners never survived for long, forcing him to continually move on.

The day he met Griffith and the Band of the Hawk was a revelation for Guts; apart from token female Caska, here was a whole new vein of HARD GAY males to plumb. In particular, Griffith was the one who fascinated him, for here at long last was a man who could match him in the bedroom.

Guts and Griffith shared many years of HARD GAY, but deep in Guts’ heart, doubts began to surface- did Griffith consider him as anything more than a mere plaything in the bedroom? Determined to prove that he was more than that, Guts left the Band, only to send Griffith into such despair that he even tried sleeping with a woman to take his mind off the pain of losing a HARD GAY partner!

Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there; after being imprisoned for months without a partner, Griffith’s frustrations became such that only the power of the Godhand could hope to relieve his throbbing libido. With this in mind, Griffith decided to shed his human body and enter a whole new level of HARD GAY. Now left behind but still branded as Griffith’s lover, Guts decided to set out a journey to meet the Godhand and undergo one last explosive HARD GAY encounter…

Licensing Reactions

It’s been a week of announcements from FUNimation, of which I’ll focus on the ones that are relevant to me.

• Aquarion: Since I’m one of a handful of people who love Aquarion, this is great news. Quite possibly my favourite mecha series overall, Aquarion combines top quality music and animation (let’s try to forget about ‘experimental’ episode nineteen) with a story that avoids the usual mecha pitfalls of taking itself too seriously.
• Suzuka: An entertaining but not outstanding series overall, Suzuka has a few episodes that make it seem worthy purchasing on DVD, but when I think of Akitsuki’s stupidity, I wonder if it is indeed worth it. Although I know we’re all supposed to be upstanding citizens who only ever buy the singles as they are released, I’ll probably wait for the boxset if I choose to invest in this.
• Tsubasa Chronicle was licensed a year ago, but has only now received a street date. Unfortunately, in that time, I have seen the tedious filler-fest that was season two, and where I might once have bought this on DVD, I am now no longer inclined to do so; I’ll just stick to buying the manga (although even that is losing its allure).
• Mushishi also receives an official confirmation of what we all already knew- as one of my favourite series, it will be great to finally get my hands on these long awaited DVDs (not to mention the manga, which should be out around now).

Mini-rant: Sensible, correct and the choice of all right-thinking people, or gimmicky, hideous and flashy?
Yes, for those who haven’t worked it out, this rant comes in response to ANN’s recent ‘unbiased’ poll about DVD subtitles vs. fansub subtitles. Now admittedly, at the end of the day, the most important thing is that the subtitles are readable, and there are technical reasons why DVD softsubs have such a basic appearance, but let’s face it- from an aesthetic point of view, that yellow is just ugly.

Of course, on the flip side of the coin, fansub groups can get a little overenthusiastic with flashy karaoke subs and the unnecessary subtitling of every single insert song, but at least their subtitles are more visually pleasing. There’s room for better fonts, colours, and the occasional effect to indicate telepathy or similar is a nice touch; flame me, if you will, but I even quite like it when different characters get different coloured outlines on their dialogue- it’s not that I need that to tell who is speaking, I just appreciate the attention to detail. It’s hardly as if it’s a new thing, either- subtitles on UK TV have been doing the same thing for years.

This may seem like a somewhat pointless rant since I haven’t even bothered to cover the accuracy of subtitles, translation of honorifics and the like, but that was never the point of this piece. All I wanted was to air my opinion that fansub subtitles are not the devil’s own work, and actually look quite good.

Figure Review: ⅛ Saber

I forget who made this Saber, but although I got mine last year, a re-release is forthcoming. For some reason, this Saber is smaller than the average ⅛ figure, so either it has been mislabelled, or Saber is actually a midget.

In terms of detail, this figure is a lot more simplistic than my usual choice, and I have to admit that if it had come out a while after it did, I probably wouldn’t have bought it at all. In the flesh, it does look quite nice, and the boots, sword and hair are well detailed, but just like Saber herself, the main costume is a little dull. Overall, it’s a technically well done piece, but it doesn’t really have any great aesthetic hooks- were I buying a Saber figure now, I would pick Alter’s Dark Saber instead.

In Your Reflection

This week’s head to head is between Bleach’s Yoruichi and Shrine of the Morning Mist’s Koma. Both are beautiful young women and formidable fighters in their true forms, but each is first seen in their alternate form as a black cat.

Fashion police: Selphie Tilmitt
Admittedly, when you’re hanging out with the FFVIII crowd, you don’t need to have the greatest fashion sense in the world, but even by the game’s standards, Selphie leaves a lot to be desired. The main offender is, of course, that hideous yellow dress, although to call it a dress is a bit of a stretch when it looks more like a duster. Not only is the colour nothing less than hideous, but the lack of fabric is a poor choice for someone who hails from the cold country of Trabia. Even an attempt to add some variety through wristbands is a failure, whilst Selphie’s hairstyle could also use work- get rid of the curls at the bottom and either cut it or tie it back.

Fashion sense: F

Amusing Search Terms

audition sea hack, hack pre audition, Down hack perfect audition, hack audition mew, hack perfect audition SEA, hack audition, hack audition perfect, hack cash audition: Please, if you’ve clicked on this post looking up one of these, can you comment and tell me what the hell they are?

busou renkin Doujin free: No doujins here.

define:lolicon: what am I, wikipedia?

utawarerumono tactics interesting: Coming soon, Uta Tactics, a specialised empire building game.

ugly Ginga Densetsu weed: Well, yes, the animation isn’t great.

GAY PASS HACK: I can’t just give out free passes.

romance of three kingdom toys: Every little boy wants a Zhuge Liang.

options21 not work: I’m very sorry it doesn’t work, but what do you want me to do about it?

harvest moon parody: “So today I thought to myself, I’ll just google for parodies of a farming game…and what do you know, I actually found one!”

2d battle maker: No, no, no, this is the isometric era.

lolicon, lolicon ero: none here.

large boobs: Large boobs sighted!

two endings weed ginga: only in the multi-path RPG, I’m afraid.

Kanon 2006 5 1/3: Episode 5 1/3, the secret hentai episode.

Amusing Spam has been put to one side since I simply get too much to sift through it all for the good stuff.

I can now exclusively reveal that the reason my blog is so HARD GAY is because I have Lui chained up in my basement.

As the days became depressingly short and winter tightened its grip upon the land, I had the great idea of summarising all the 2006 series I watched in one great ‘Annual Round-Up’; hardly an original idea since everyone likes to do it, but nonetheless a course I became determined to take. Little did I realise that such an innocent decision would lead to a massive fifteen page document that took over a month to compile; in fact, if I had any sense, I would take the lazy route of posting this over several days in order to avoid having to write anything else for a week or so. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, depending on your perspective), I’d rather just include it all in one guide so that I can get on with writing newer and more interesting things to spice up the inevitably dull and grey January.

I shall also take this opportunity to thank necromancer, whose screencaps made many parody posts and Tuesday Rumble sections possible, as well as my blogging ‘sempai’, who can identify himself if he wishes.

For once, red is not for generally poor series, just for the ones I dropped before the end of their run (mostly because they were generally poor). Series in blue are my top picks for the year. Links lead to earlier reviews, rants and parodies of the series in question.

STILL RUNNING FROM 2005
I’m only including series I was still watching in the New Year; several others had long since been dropped by this point.

Ginga Densetsu Weed
A bloodier canine version of a shounen action series, Ginga Densetsu Weed follows the adventures of young dog Weed as he recruits allies to fight evil dog Hougen. It ranges from dull and predictable to laughable and predictable, but the parody potential and novelty of having dogs as the main characters conspired to keep me watching this right through to the end.

Final words: It’s not good to be a generic brown dog; you always get killed.

Jigoku Shoujo
When it first started, Jigoku seemed like a compelling series, the tale of people driven to such extremes that they would accept eternal damnation in order to remove their tormenters. Unfortunately, it all became a little ridiculous and far too repetitive after about four episodes- not only did the basic concept of each episode lose a lot in the execution, but there are only so many times you can watch tales of revenge before getting thoroughly bored.

Final words: Revenge is a dish best served sparingly.

Karin
Karin is a strange series; it’s too tasteless and generic to even be mediocre, but at the same time it feels like it could be good- only I can’t really quantify just what is needed to make it better. The tale of a ‘blood-making’ vampire and her slow romance with a human boy could at least have made for light entertainment, but the inclusion of irritating supporting characters and the gimmick of having blood spurt out of Karin’s nose with alarming regularity are more than a little off-putting.

Final words: No, just no.

Mai-Otome

It’s hard to believe, but there was a time when I thought Mai-Otome was actually going somewhere; an illusion that was soon dispelled as the series moved into its closing episodes. Despite the numerous flaws of this series, it somehow remains memorable, burned into the brain by hype, wasted potential and the presence of fat grey cat Mikoto.

Final words: Fat cats may improve a series, but even their furry bulk cannot compensate for a lack of plot.

Mushishi
Although I took my time starting on Mushishi, I’m glad I finally got around to watching it, since it turned out to be one of the better series of recent times. An absorbing and atmospheric folk tale-eqsue collection of stories featuring the laid-back Ginko and the myriad strange phenomena he encounters, Mushishi is recommended viewing for anyone with even a passing enjoyment of fantasy, drama and slice-of-life.

Final words: If your memory is bad, blame it on the mushi.

Noein
When it first swept onto our screens, Noein seemed to be the sci-fi series that we had all been waiting for- a mixture of complex storyline, grandiose action scenes and alternate worlds that would surely only improve as it went on…or would it? Unfortunately, the studio was so busy spending money on CG house shots that it forgot that the series actually needed a proper plot (not to mention decent animation), and so by the end, Noein became little more than a pretentious but ultimately empty series that never lived up to its early promise.

Final words: The quantum mechanics of Noein is not clever- if you want clever, then come to some theoretical physics lectures.

Rozen Maiden Traumend
Given the excellence of the first series, another season of Rozen Maiden was highly anticipated, but somehow it just couldn’t live up to what had come before. Rearranging and diverging from the manga material led to some continuity issues with the first season, whilst the plot itself had numerous pacing problems. Despite promising that the battle royale Alice Game would be getting underway right from the start, it took nine episodes to get down to business, after which the writers chickened out of going the whole way so that things could be left open for a third season. Even the new characters introduced in this season were less than inspiring, although overall the series was not a bad experience, just one that did not live up to expectations.

Final words: If you thought dolls were scary before, wait until you watch this.

Shakugan no Shana

A tale of swords and sorcery mixed with high school romance and comedy, Shana proved to be a solid enough source of light entertainment, but unfortunately turned out to be lacking beyond that. Disappointing villains and a story that proved to be flawed on close inspection ultimately prevented the Shana from reaching the heights it initially promised- whilst by no means a bad series, it was certainly in need of improvement in key areas.

Final words: urusei, urusei, urusei!

WINTER 2005/6

Ayakashi
A collection of three separate folk tales collected across eleven episodes, Ayakashi promised period horror, but in the end, it brought only contemporary boredom. What would have been perfectly enjoyable as a three episode OVA became drawn out and monotonous in TV series form, so much so that watching it was something of a struggle.

Final words: Rap OPs never work- no really, they don’t.

Binchou-tan
Having convinced myself that Binchou-tan would be sickeningly cute, I avoided watching it for a while, only to predictably regret that when it turned out to be far better than I had imagined. A series that really does embody ‘simple and sweet’ Binchou-tan is a delightful slice-of-life tale that really needs more episodes.

Final words: Unexpectedly worthy.

Ergo Proxy
To be fair, I only watched a single episode of Ergo Proxy, but I never could bring myself to continue with it. Despite the echoes of Texhnolyze, the fact I neither knew nor cared what was going on in the first episode was not much of an incentive to continue- the animation may have been slick, but that could hardly make up for the lack of comprehensibility.

Final words: When people say ‘hard sci-fi’ they must mean pretentious, nonsensical crap.

Fate/Stay Night

Admit it, you want a Caster figure too.

There was a time when Fate seemed filled with potential; yes, it had a spiky-haired hero, but it also had the incredibly worthy Rin, not to mention the prospect of a hard fought battle of wits and strength between legendary heroes and their Masters. Unfortunately, Fate never lived up to its promise, instead turning out to be a combination of insipid characters, flimsy story, and Shirou’s harem exploits.

Final words: I will make ‘True Fate’ one day.

Hanbun no Tsuki ga Noboru Sora
A short and sweet hospital-based tale of drama and romance, HanTsuki was an almost overlooked series that turned out to be a hidden gem. Within its six episodes, the series managed to weave a tale that was bittersweet, heart-warming and entirely worthy.

Final words: Natsumi is evil.

Meine Liebe Wieder
Despite promising something in the way of a plot this time, the second season of Meine Liebe turned out to be an inferior rehash of the first, featuring increased angst, more HARD GAY, additional characters and Beruze’s latest puppet duke attempting to take the throne of Kuchen. It wasn’t bad, but it could have been so much more.

Final words: Ludwig-sama is an A-ranked bishie.

REC
An oddly addictive series about the romance between a voice actress and a salaryman, REC is enjoyable while it lasts, but is over all too quickly. In retrospect, it was perhaps a bit too angst-filled, but it made for an entertaining experience while it lasted.

Final words: Umai-ki!

Shinigami no Ballad

Yet another brief series, this time about a pure white shinigami and the people she meets, SnB was filled with character pieces, but was oddly short on death. Whilst it never really had the impact that it could have done, SnB was an enjoyable series that didn’t overstay its welcome.

Final words: The RPG episode was the best one, but the series overall gains points for the winged talking cat.

Pale Cocoon
Having been told that Pale Cocoon was somewhat incomprehensible, I went into it expecting not to understand anything, only to be pleasantly surprised at how much I could actually grasp (of course, the accompanying pdf file helped). A brief yet worthy glimpse into the far future, Pale Cocoon may be short on explanations, but is nonetheless a worthy snapshot of a distant era.

Final words: Watch it now, it won’t take long.

Hellsing Ultimate
It was the event that all Hellsing fans had been waiting for- a more accurate adaptation of the manga material that would surely blow them all away. Unfortunately, having realised that I really didn’t like Hellsing all that much, this wasn’t something I was inclined to keep following.

Final words: When are we going to get a good vampire show?

SPRING 2006

.hack//Roots
Hard as it is to believe now, I was actually looking forward to .hack//Roots- I was in the middle of my Item Completion obsession phase, and somehow I convinced myself that it would be a series that married the addictive qualities of SIGN with the action and faster pace of Legend of the Twilight. After several episodes of deluding myself, however, I came to realise that Roots was not so much a case of a train wreck as of the train simply not leaving the station in the first place. Characters came and went, but the plot never arrived- in the end, it was just too boring for me to watch anymore.

Final words: The origin of the screencap parody format.

Ah! My Goddess: Sorezore no Tsubasa
I’ve said it on more than one occasion, but a second season was just too much for the Ah! My Goddess- how much can you actually squeeze out of a harem story about a regular guy living with goddesses? Admittedly, it did seem like a bit of harmless light entertainment for the first few episodes, but it soon fell into the realms of the utterly boring, especially when Peorth arrived.

Final words: Sometimes, less is more.

Air Gear
I have to admit that Oh Great’s artwork is good, but since I’m not particularly interested in nipple shots, ridiculously oversized breasts or Bob Makihara’s penis, the actual content of his manga does very little for me. An unholy fusion of Tenjho Tenge, Ikki Tousen, Beyblade and Shaman King, Air Gear is the tale of spiky-haired Ikki, his buxom companions, and the rollerblading sport of Air Trak- or to put it more succinctly, it’s complete dross. No matter how much curiosity compels you to watch this, take my advice and give it a wide berth.

Final words: With breasts like that, those girls must get backache.

Aria the Natural

The first season of Aria was excellent, but Natural goes one better by doubling the episode count and giving us a full 26 episodes of sweet and heart-warming gondola life on the planet of Aqua. From the beautiful setting to eponymous fat cat President Aria, everything about the series is right on the money in terms of creating a simple yet absorbing world. Bring on season three.

Final words: Punyu!

Disgaea
Since RPG-based series are rarely worth watching, I wasn’t really planning to investigate Disgaea- at least until I watched the trailer. An ironically hilarious take on the RPG world, Disgaea’s trailer promised much, but the actual series itself delivered all too little. As it turned out, the reason the trailer was so good was because the entire series budget had been spent on it- meaning that the episodes themselves were poorly animated cyclical repeats of the same tired and worn jokes.

Final words: Pizza in the face? Excuse me while I try to force a laugh…oh wait, I can’t.

Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid Tessa OVA
Much as I like Tessa, this OVA didn’t really do much for me; aside from a select handful which hit the mark, most of the jokes fell completely flat. It’s something you watch for completion rather than enjoyment.

Final words: Dull, dull, dull.

The Gargoyle of the Yoshinagas
The tale of the Yoshinaga family’s animated stone guardian, Gargoyle may seem like a kid’s show at first glance, but it is nonetheless a highly entertaining story. In Gargoyle’s hands, everything from battles between stone monsters to talking to flowers takes on a new vitality. It’s funny, off-kilter, and eminently worthy.

Final words: All hail Gar-san.

Gintama
I only watched the first twenty-five minutes of Gintama, but what I saw didn’t really click with me. Apparently it’s meant to be a tongue-in-cheek approach to Shounen Jump, but I just couldn’t force myself to pay attention to it.

Final words: I liked that large white animal, but nothing else drew me in.

Good Witch of the West – Astraea Testament
When it first started, Good Witch seemed to be the fantasy series we had all been waiting for; a fairytale of intrigue and romance set in a magical kingdom. Unfortunately, within the space of a few episodes, Good Witch had become so bogged down with different plotlines that it was difficult to tell where it was supposed to be going. After continuing in this manner all the way to the end, Good Witch left viewers with plenty of story threads, but not much in the way of coherence- maybe the manga is better, but I’m not about to risk wasting money on it.

Final thoughts: It’s the sample book of plot directions.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
It may have started as a tense psychological horror, but after the first few episodes Higurashi’s main draw was its sheer gore factor. A somewhat inconsistent series that mixed moments with greatness with more pedestrian sections, Higurashi may have only covered six of the eight game arcs, but spoilers revealed that the solution to the mystery was too obvious to be satisfying.

Final words: “It wasn’t me, I am not evil or suspicious at all.”

Hime-sama Goyoujin
Truth be told, I shouldn’t really be writing about Hime-sama- I only saw about eight minutes of the first episode, and I had so little clue as to what was going on that I couldn’t bring myself to watch anymore.

Final words: Utterly confusing.

Jyu-oh-sei
One of a rare few series which I picked up months after dropping it, Jyu-oh-sei made good parody material, but had little worth as far as entertainment went. The bulk of the series, which saw cycle-wear model Thor stranded on jungle planet Chimera, was average and predictable, but was nonetheless sheer excellence when compared to the laughably ridiculous ending. A rushed story with a nonsensical ending- if I hadn’t wanted to parody it, I would never have watched past episode four.

Final words: If you want to attain at least a shred of credibility, magical DNA is not the way to go.

Kamisama Kazoku

At first glance, Kamisama Kazoku looked to be the spiritual successor of Kamichu- a sweet and simple series about a youthful god. In fact, to borrow a phrase from a lecturer of mine, Kamisama was a very different animal- a series that ranged from juvenile to infantile in its fanservice laden lack of hilarity. After struggling all the way to the third story arc by virtue of the show’s worthiest character- Tenko- I realised that I simply could not take anymore and crumbled a mere four episodes before the end.

Final words: Look, Mama is naked in an apron!

Keroro Gunso: the Movie
Series-based anime movies are as formulaic as they come, and unfortunately the Keroro movie is no exception. There are a few entertaining moments, but not really enough to justify spending an hour of your life watching a story that has been done a thousand times before.

Final words: Giant Keroro is the worthiest aspect of this movie.

Kiba
Like Tokyo Underground, Kiba is one of those series that just seems like an inferior amalgam of numerous other series- there’s industrial word, pastoral world, summoning of destined monsters, and numerous other ideas that have been done better many times before. Roia was truly the only worthy aspect of this seemingly never-ending series- in fact, is anyone even watching it anymore?

Final words: Series and games ripped off by Kiba include Tokyo Underground, Ergo Proxy, .hack, Yu-Gi-Oh!, YuYu Hakusho, Dragonball Z, Pokemon, Hunter X Hunter Greed Island OVA, Mai-HiME, Dynasty Warriors and Suikoden.

Love GetChu!
Due to slow subbing, I have only watched four episodes of this series so far, but it has already proven itself a worthy source of light entertainment. The tale of a group of young girls trying to become voice actors, Love GetChu! does exactly what Kiba failed to achieve- it takes ideas used in earlier series, and combines them into a worthy whole. There’s a ditzy lead, standard personalities, a Maison Ikkoku style apartment and a hint of romance, but somehow it all comes together to make something enjoyable rather than tiresome.

Final words: Please sub more, or I’ll have to start on the raws.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Once an obscure series of novels, Haruhi catapulted to fame after its first episode captured the fandom, but as the series progressed, opinions became divided. Although there now exists a small but vocal “yay Haruhi great lol” group, still others (myself included) concluded the series with a more sceptical view on the whole franchise. The characters were insipid, the stories were disappointing and not at all helped by being aired in a random, non-chronological order, and the humour had all but dried up after episode three. It may have gained cult status, but I can’t help wondering why.

Final words: I did actually like the fourth novel.

Nana
The tale of two very different girls both named Nana, Nana was an interesting shoujo drama in manga form, but unfortunately the transition to anime turned it into something far more dull and boring. With the bulk of the series’ focus falling on ‘Hachi’, the less interesting of the two Nanas, Nana failed to engage the attention, and was eventually indefinitely put to one side.

Final words: Less Hachi, more Nana.

Ouran High School Host Club

The delightfully over the top story of one poor girl and six rich guys running a host club at the prestigious Ouran High School, Ouran delivered standard jokes with such infectious enthusiasm that it was impossible not to laugh at them. A fewer weaker instalments and too many episodes focusing on twin brothers Hikaru and Kaoru prevent this from being a pick of the year, but it is certainly worth watching.

Final words: Kyouya is god.

Ray the Animation

Ray is another series I dropped after a single episode, but unfortunately it didn’t really seem to merit any more. As someone with various family members in the medical field, ridiculous conditions like tumours that retreat into the heart when operated on are a bit too much to swallow, and thus this medical-themed series was not fated to last long.

Final words: Monster remains the only decent medicine-related anime.

Saiunkoku Monogatari

At first glance, SaiMono looked to be yet another period series featuring a girl and her attendant bishies, but how wrong I was. SaiMono is leagues beyond the likes of Fushigi Yuugi in terms of quality- this isn’t a reverse harem romance, it is an absorbing tale of political intrigue in the fictional country of Saiunkoku, blended with the the story of Kou Shuurei, a young woman dedicated to improving her country through breaking precedent and becoming a government official. Every episode of SaiMono is like an addictive drug, leaving you desperate for your next fix.

Final words: I need more! More, more more!

School Rumble Nigakki
After thoroughly enjoying the first season of School Rumble, I was looking forward to the continued antics of Tenma, Yakumo, Eri and the rest, but unfortunately, Nigakki failed to deliver. With its crazier humour and lack of plot progression, Nigakki soon grew stale, especially when it meandered into the realms of filler during the latter half of the season.

Final words: Please, let it end.

Simoun
I was actually looking forward to Simoun before it aired, but upon actually watching the first episode, all my expectations for the series were shattered. A poor woman’s HARD YURI version of Last Exile, Simoun features ugly snail-like craft that are not only powered by the pilots getting out of the cockpit and kissing whilst in mid-air, but also have special abilities like drawing pretty lines on the sky. With no discernible plot whatsoever, the series had to be dropped.

Final words: HARD YURI power is an eco-friendly solution to dwindling supplies of fossil fuels.

Tsubasa Chronicle season 2
Whatever it was that made Tsubasa season one so enjoyable (and in retrospect, was it really all that enjoyable?) seemed to have vanished by season two, which devolved into a slow and dull mix of lacklustre adaptations and mediocre filler, all animated in Bee Train’s trademark “stills only” style. When each episode started featuring no fewer than three insipid insert songs, it was time to put the series to rest.

Final words: Go, you filler bus! Drive along that road, carrying your passengers!

Utawarerumono

It started as a pastoral fantasy, only to slowly reveal its flaws and turn into a harem series with ill-fitting sci-fi elements, but nonetheless, somehow Utawarerumono merited its own addiction phase. The series itself was lacking, but it led into the game, the mini-game, the parodies, and sparked many ideas simply due to the potential the setting contained. Not a pick of the year, but notable for being integral to the life of this blog- even now “gwakakaka” is still going strong.

Final words: Karura and Touka are all.

xxxHOLiC
I love the darkly stylish xxxHOLiC manga, but when the time came to turn it into an anime, something seemed to go terribly wrong. The high contrast art style became a washed out version of its former self, stories were slow and filled with dull exposition scenes, and the overall result was none too tantalising. I completed the series out of loyalty to the manga, but in retrospect I would have been better off not to do so.

Finally words: This could have been so much better.

Yume Tsukai
At first glance, I thought that the story of three dream masters would be a touching slice of life piece in the vein of Kokoro Library. At second glance, I awoke to the fact that this was not the case; instead, this was a poorly animated and poorly constructed series of tales in which one of the main characters has a fetish for underage girls. Shrine of the Morning Mist simply blows it out of the water.

Final words: It could have been good, but let’s face it, it wasn’t.

Zegapain
Sunrise, when will you learn that churning out endless mecha series doesn’t necessarily mean that any of them will actually be worth watching? Apparently Zegapain improves later on, but the starving man’s Aquarion vibe given off by the first couple of episodes (not to mention the unnecessary nudity) was enough to ensure that I never actually reached those episodes.

Final words: The apples that appeared in episode one were the best characters.

SUMMER 2006

Binbou Shimai Monogatari
The evening before watching the first episode of Binbou, I read sixteen chapters of the manga, almost all of which began with a variation on “Mother died; Father ran up gambling debts and disappeared.” In case you hadn’t guessed, that is the setting for this anime about two sisters living in poverty, which is perhaps the most lifeless and half-hearted slice-of-life series that I’ve encountered. An angst-filled example of how poor the genre can be, Binbou went through the motions, but achieved nothing more.

Final words: I don’t know if you’ve heard this before, but Mother died and Father ran up debts and disappeared.

Bokura ga Ita
One of the first ever series to feature in my Weekly Round-Up, Bokura ga Ita’s tenure in my viewing schedule was nothing if not brief. A poor man’s version of Kare Kano, Bokura ga Ita featured all the angst and drama, but completely neglected the elements that would have made the series enjoyable. After struggling through a dull episode populated by dislikeable leads and a Nagato Yuki clone, I gave up on it.

Final words: Not my cup of angst.

Le Chevalier d’Eon

Despite treading perilously close to the realms of cheese, Chevalier consistently manages to deliver an absorbing historical fantasy despite its lack of much in the way of accuracy. The tale of d’Eon, a French knight who not only gets drawn into a shady underworld of magic and manipulation, but also ends up housing his sister’s soul, Chevalier’s only inconsistency in its animation, which starts well but soon goes downhill.

Chocotto Sister
Haruma has always wanted a little sister, and one Christmas, Santa delivers just that. Choco, as Haruma names her, is entirely devoted to her big brother, but unfortunately she is so completely lacking in life skills that she has to refer to a notebook. This could have been a passable slice-of-life series, but unfortunately it chose the route of excessive fanservice instead- when a series needs to use police tape as a censor, it is never a good sign.

Final words: What, you don’t like naked aprons?

Coyote Ragtime Show
Aside from its infamous turn as the “Great ANN Ad”, Coyote Ragtime Show is a series best forgotten- even the name serves a warning. A tale of MANLY men and gothlolis for every month of the year, Coyote Ragtime Show lacked anything even approximating worth; I went into it with low expectations and was still disappointed.

Final words: ADV licensed this? They think it’s good? Where is Kurau!?

FLAG
Years ago, when my supply of anime was less plentiful, Gasaraki happened to be one of the few series that I had access to. Despite appearing to be quite bland and boring on the surface, I forced myself to keep watching the series until I finally gained something of an appreciation for its intricate politics; with that in mind, I was determined to give FLAG- a similar series from the same creators- a fair chance. Unfortunately, once the novelty of having the story told through monitor stills and the lens of a camera wore off, FLAG proved to be a dull series with bland character designs and ugly mecha. I feel slightly guilty for not giving it as much of a chance as I did for Gasaraki, but then again, there’s more to watch these days.

Final words: Gritty realism with issues relevant to today’s society? Take it back, please, and come up with a phrase that’s less overused.

Hanoka
No matter how poor it was, I was confident I could sit through a series where each episode was only five minutes long, but as Hanoka went out of its way to demonstrate, that wasn’t the case. Animated in Flash, Hanoka looked like an amateur piece, complete with a generic storyline to accompany its unimpressive looks- in the end, it had to go.

Final words: Five minutes of boredom is five minutes too many.

Honey and Clover II
I loved the first season of Honey and Clover, and perhaps it was because of that that I was secretly sceptical about a second season; the last thing I wanted was for my high opinion of the series to be ruined, but unfortunately, that’s just what happened. Although it did indeed have its moments of excellence, H&C II lost points for focusing on minor character Kaoru before turning into some kind of “who gets Hagu?” dating sim (with added “Mayama the stalker”). Yes, I understand the deeper arguments behind the resolution and the characters’ choices, but it was simply handled too flippantly for me to enjoy it.

Final words: One word- disappointing.

Innocent Venus
Innocent Venus may have looked vaguely promising before it aired, but when it turned out to be a poor rehash of ideas from numerous different series (not to mention completely unable to retain the attention), the adventures of Jo, Sana and Jin had to be put aside. Thanks to this series, however, there are various unwelcome images that will forever be burned into my mind- the irritating pirate captain and his busty first mate; the Last Exile psycho killer team; blood pooling out of a man’s smashed faceplate and those ugly, ugly mecha. After the series finished airing, I did consider giving it another chance, but happily I think I’m over that phase.

Final words: I already posted this list way back when I was watching the series, but let’s refresh our memories as to the series IV ripped off- Last Exile, Wolf’s Rain, Kurau, Hunter X Hunter, Burst Angel, Mahou Shoujotai, Arc Twilight of the Spirits, Stand Alone Complex, Gasaraki, .hack//Roots.

Kemonozume
If appreciating Kenozume’s artwork is supposed to indicate some kind of superior taste, then I’m happy to call myself inferior; yes, technically it has its strengths, but on purely visceral grounds, I find it hideous. The tale of a clan of demon hunters, one of whom falls in love with demon, the relationship between Kemonozume and I was destined to be short from the moment they showed a man losing bowel control onscreen.

Final words: Sex and defecation- how mature.

Koi Suru Tenshi Angelique
With its nine brightly coloured bishies, Angelique was clearly never going to be marvellous, but I went into believing that it would at least offer up some light entertainment. Unfortunately, what I got was an insipid mess with even less plot than its sister series Haruka 8; unless watching a dull lead wandering around a castle and chatting to bishounen sounds exciting to you, be sure to avoid it.

Final words: It’s like a computer game in which you can’t ever leave the hub world and actually play a level.

Night Head Genesis

Featuring a pair of brothers pursued due to their unique psychic abilities, NHG had the potential to be a chilling and compelling series that would have been the spiritual successor to Kurau, but as it turns out, reality was far less kind. A barely comprehensible string of scenes that seemed to thinly disguise a HARD GAY propaganda piece, NHG become downright painful by its fourth episode, and was thus swiftly removed from the viewing schedule.

Final words: Give me Kurau and Christmas any day.

Otogi-jushi Akazukin TV
It was always abundantly clearer that Akazukin was aimed at a younger audience, but in the early days it nonetheless exuded a simplistic charm that was enough to keep it watchable. Unfortunately, as the series progressed with no hint of a plot outside of our fairytale-based heroes fighting magical monsters of the week, it all started becoming a little tedious. I haven’t actually dropped it yet, but I’m only a hair’s breadth away from doing so.

Final words: I hate those damned Sweet Phones.

Tsuyokiss
Tsuyokiss was one of those series I watched just because the name got stuck in my head after the “Great Tsundere Debate of 2006”. Unfortunately, after assembling a cast that was generic beyond belief, and throwing in some awful scenes about a drama club, it managed to drop into the red after just one episode. I had originally intended to watch a little more of the series, but when the subs dried up, so did what little enthusiasm I had for the series.

Final words: It may be Cool X Sweet, but it tastes more like Generic X Dull to me.

Welcome to the NHK
Just prior to watching the first episode of NHK, I finally started on the manga, and was instantly amused at its bleak comedy. As I well knew, however, Gonzo are not the best at adapting manga series into animated form, and indeed, no amount of optimism could disguise the fact that they messed up with NHK, somehow sucking out all the humour and turning it into a bland romance instead. Apparently the series improves in its second half, but I really didn’t have the will to keep watching past episode eleven.

Final words: Damn you, Gonzo, for messing up ultimate moe!

Zero no Tsukaima
Although the novels are quite entertaining, Zero no Tsukaima takes what could have been an interesting (dare I say Harry Potter-esque?) story about an Earth boy interacting with the students of a magical school and turns it into insipid, fanservice-ridden fluff. This was yet another series that I briefly toyed with picking up again, but when every cell in my body rebelled against it, I was forced to abandon that plan.

Final words: Guiche is no Tamaki.

AUTUMN 2006

Asatte no Houkou

Despite the fact that I have yet to watch the ending (which sounds quite bland from what I’ve read), I’ve tentatively given Asatte ‘Pick of the Year’ status for the ease in which it drew me into its world. It does have its flaws, but the series certainly deserves points for taking the age-old idea of having a child suddenly become an adult (and vice versa) and turning it into a compelling drama instead of playing it just for laughs.

Final words: The manga just sounds scary.

Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto
The final title to earn ‘Pick of the Year’ status, Bakumatsu was not a series I could easily get into; trying to penetrate just exactly what was going in the first few episodes was pretty much beyond me. Over time, however, it began to exert an irresistible lure; from the beautiful OP and general atmosphere to the refreshing novelty of a series set in period Japan that isn’t an action or Shounen Jump title, there is much of worth here.

Final words: Like Chevalier, it takes the cheesy and transforms it into the highly worthy.

Bartender
When I first heard of a series about a bartender who helps his customers by finding their ‘destined drink’, I knew I had to watch it for the novelty alone- and I was secretly hoping that it was one of those series that sounded laughable but actually turned out to be worthy. As it turned out, Bartender was the kind of series that leads only to boredom, fidgeting and irritation- especially when you try to swallow the fact that a mere glass of a particular cocktail can radically change someone’s entire life.

Final words: I don’t even like alcohol, so I should have known I wouldn’t like this series.

Black Blood Brothers
“Oh dear” is all that can be said to the prospect of yet another series featuring a moody bishounen vampire and his unhelpful sidekicks fighting against generic evil vampires, and indeed, BBB had nothing to bring to an overworked franchise. By the third episode, it proved entirely impossible to concentrate on what was going on, and so the series had to be abandoned.

Final words: I played Go through much of episode three.

Busou Renkin

Upon learning that Busou Renkin was from the same creator as Kenshin, I was actually looking forward to it- little did I know that where Kenshin was solid and sound, BR was the dumping ground for all the mangaka’s strange and twisted ideas. A standard shounen series filled with everything from the terrifying (Papillon’s thong) to the bizarre (Moon Face), Busou Renkin is far from great, but I watch it partially for Tokiko and mostly for my parodies.

Final words: I pinned all my hopes on Moon Face, but his special technique is a big disappointment.

Code Geass- Lelouch of the Rebellion
The latest stage in the search for that elusive good mecha series, Code Geass turned out to be yet another product from the dango-addled minds at Sunrise. Despite boasting CLAMP character designs, Geass proved to be little more than Gundam Seed Destiny Remix, complete with Kira, Athrun, Lacus, Flay, Lunamaria and more (not to mention added rip-offs from various other sources). Had I known from the start that it was going to be fifty episodes, I wouldn’t have struggled with it for as long as I did.

Final words: How many times am I going to have to say that the cat was the best part of a particular series?

La Corda d’Oro

Despite my bad experiences with fellow Neoromance series Haruka and Angelique, Corda’s focus on music made it seem worthy and so it was duly tried. Despite the extreme predictability and the fact that giving the lead a magical violin amounts to little more than cheating, Corda is an enjoyable series which mixes brightly coloured bishies with an actual plot.

Final words: Behind every good natured lead are multiple bishounen backing her up.

D. Gray-man
Although there was a brief period in which D.Gray-man looked like it might be the one shounen action series I followed this season, this poor man’s FMA blew it early by killing off its most interesting character (unsurprisingly, a fat cat which I have named “Big Boss”). The series never really recovered from this loss, and by the third episode, it was clearly time to put it aside and focus on shounen series which could at least be parodied.

Final words: Why is it called D.Gray-man anyway?

Death Note
Despite my quibbles with the second half of the series, I did enjoy the Death Note manga, and therefore it might seem quite odd that I always seem so negative towards the anime. Unfortunately, the fact of the matter is that the battle of wits between Light, a student with a notebook that can kill people just by writing their name in it, and L, the detective appointed to stop him, is simply too exposition heavy to succeed in animated form. Excepting those laughably theatrical moments when Light and L seem to phase into a coloured ‘Justice Mode’, Madhouse have done the best job they can with the material, but this is really a series that needed to be told through straight prose, not animation.

Final words: Justice Mode, engage!

Ghost Hunt
In case you hadn’t already guessed, Ghost Hunt is about hunting ghosts…or at least, standing around and arguing over what to do about said ghosts. Featuring the by now familiar ‘eclectic bunch of heroes’, Ghost Hunt seemed to be nothing more than the autumn’s Ayakashi- a series that made mediocre stories even worse by playing them at 1/3 speed.

Final words: Generic by name, generic by nature.

Hataraki Man
When I first read about Hataraki Man, it sounded like it could easily become a pick of the season- what could be more enjoyable than the tale of an overworked journalist? Unfortunately, my hopes for a superior slice-of-life series were instantly shattered by the first episode, which portrayed the main character as just the sort of ‘I need a REAL MAN’ woman that I really dislike, and surrounded her with a group of dull and generic supporting characters. A single episode turned out to be more than enough.

Final words: It’s strikeout time for Moyoco Anno.

Kanon [2006]

Given how much I loved Air, I was expecting Kanon’s ‘sad girls in snow’ to elicit the same feelings of enjoyment, but unfortunately, after the first couple of episodes, it was clear that Kanon just wasn’t in the same lead. With an overly sarcastic lead whose main pastime seemed to be verbally abusing all the girls around him whilst they smiled and asked for more, Kanon proved that its main worth lay in parody.

Final words: Yuuichi is one of the foremost villains of the era.

Mai-Otome Zwei
Like the very dango that Sunrise subsists upon, Mai-Otome may not be good for the health, but an unhealthy fascination draws one back to it. The first episode of this OVA sees an evil Shadow Otome start petrifying and absorbing various main characters, whilst Queen Mashiro and Meister Arika’s bond is tested to the limit in preparation for the angst, forgiveness and destiny phases later on.

Final words: At least we got to see some fat cats.

Maria-sama ga Miteru OVA
I enjoyed the first two seasons of MariMite, but having been expecting this OVA since around March, I had pretty much lost enthusiasm by the time it finally rolled around. Episode one sees Yumi accompany Sachiko to her summer villa, only for her week of HARD YURI to be spoiled by general apathy and evil lesbians. The next episode looks like it will be better, but this one was far too standard to truly entertain.

Final words: Onee-sama!

Negima!?
Although the idea of a ten year old boy teaching a class of thirty-one junior high students was never really one that appealed to me, Negima is one of those big name titles that you have to try just to say you have. With my progress into the manga going slowly and my knowledge of the first anime season basically nonexistent, this new series seemed like an ideal place to start. Unfortunately, our relationship was never destined to be a long one- the animation may have been good, but the story left far too much to be desired. With too many insipid characters and a divergence from the very manga arcs I was interested in, Negima!? had to go.

Final words: That ferret is creepy.

Pumpkin Scissors
Gonzo series must always be watched in case they turn out to be the next Last Exile, but as Pumpkin Scissors demonstrated, most of them have no hope of ever entering the same league as Claus and Lavie’s tale. Another FMA-lite tale, this time with Blonde Heroine 10658 at its head, Pumpkin Scissors failed to inspire to such an extent that it was abandoned after the first episode. It will, however, be making a comeback in parody form.

Final words: The Pumpkin Scissors must cut through the pumpkin-esque layers of corruption like a pair of scissors. I’m not kidding.

Red Garden
Another Gonzo effort, Red Garden is effectively ‘Gantz with girls’, featuring four teenage girls who have been revived after their deaths in order to fight slavering men. Despite being drenched in angst, Red Garden looked to have an interesting mystery at its core, but with each passing revelation the truth behind it all becomes ever more laughable and ridiculous.

Final words: KEITO! KULAIR! ROSU! RACHERU!

Rozen Maiden Ouverture
Great visuals and average story were what I expected from Ouverture, and predictably, that is just what this two-part special delivered. The tale of Shinku first met Suigintou and turned her into the psychotic witch we know and love, any enjoyment Ouverture had to offer was simply overshadowed by the amount of plot holes in the Rozen Maiden story.

Final words: More explanations, less ‘wtf’, please.

Shounen Onmyouji
After a poorly subbed first episode, my time with Shounen Onmyouji seemed destined to be short, but fortunately Yoroshiku saw fight to pick up the series, and it was a given a second chance. As the title indicates, Shounen Onmyouji covers the adventures of youthful onmyouji Masahiro, grandson of Abe no Seimei. Together with his destined powers and sidekick Mokkun, Masahiro set out to battle evil foreign demons from the West, but can he prove himself worthy of being Seimei’s successor? A surprisingly fun series that is, if not gold, at least parody silver.

Final words: Imagine how good it could have been if Bishie-Seimei was the lead, and Guren wore proper clothes.

Tenpou Ibun Ayakashi Ayashi
Yet another in a long line of period series, Ayakashi Ayashi is about…well, I actually can’t recall what it was supposed to be about. The only images burned into my brain are those of a disturbingly HARD GAY male bathhouse scene and a fight between two monsters, one with a head shaped like a wang, and the other which looks like three wangs joined together. With that in mind, is it any wonder I chose not to watch past the first episode?

Final words: I should have known that a series with ‘Ayakashi’ in the title was to be avoided.

Tokimeki Memorial
As the doyen of all dating sims (not to mention the one that gets parodied most often), it seemed only right to watch Tokimeki’s long overdue anime incarnation. After just a single episode, however, all such feelings of duty had long since evaporated in the face of the fact that this series was completely and utterly crazy and random- and not in a good, Pani Poni Dash sense. Apart from the chick in the first episode, there seemed little to recommend this makeshift collection of scenes, and so it was quickly swept under the carpet.

Final words: I think I’ll stick with Ukidoki Memorial.

Yoake Mae Yori Ruriiro Na ~Crescent Love~
If you discount the sex scenes, H-game CGs always look good. Anyone got any from Jingai Makyo?

A series that I wanted to watch purely on the strength of some promo artwork, YoakeNa follows the romance between earth boy Tatsuya and Feena, princess of the Moon. Admittedly, it did start out as light fun, but as the weeks passed both the animation and story quality deteriorated to the point where each episode was more an excuse to take a nap than anything else.

Final words: I dislike the series, but I need that figure.

Looking Ahead to 2007
I had planned to try my hand at the obligatory ‘winter season preview’ post, but when I realised that my three paragraph effort would be a firefly as compared to the moon of Hung’s multi-part season preview posts, I quickly abandoned that idea in favour of putting a few words at the end here.

To be honest, the coming winter season doesn’t really look that exciting- do we really need more episodes of Angelique, FLAG and Kamisama Kazoku, much less a remake of Ikki Tousen? Despite the danger of not enjoying the most hyped series, I can’t help looking forward to trying the Ichigo Mashimaro OVA and ‘Corda but better’ Nodame Cantabile; I’m also slightly curious about Les Miserables, although fifty episodes of that does seem a bit much. The likes of ‘chibi-HiME’ Venus Versus Virus and anything dating sim or virtual girl based will most likely be avoided.

Looking further into the year, we have the disappointing news that Bokurano’s anime adaptation is being handled by ‘let’s mess up the story’ Gonzo, as well as a Spring debut for the third season of Nanoha, now with less loli. And regardless of whatever else there is to watch, there’s always more Otome Zwei and MariMite episodes- what fun…

Join me again on Tuesday for the New Year Rumble.

Next week will diverge from the usual format to bring you a special New Year Rumble, complete with Annual Awards, Anime Rankings, and anything else I can think of before next Tuesday.

How to write a magical girl series
Ever wanted to write your own magical girl series but didn’t really know where to start? If that sounds familiar to you, then why not kick start your brain with our handy guide to writing a magical girl series?

• The lead must be a typical junior high or even elementary school student. One day she rescues a magical talking animal that imbues her with special powers, usually via a baton of some sort.
• Our lead is now tasked with saving the world from an evil force, consisting of one shadowy main villain, three or four named generals and a near infinite number of monsters of the week.
• Each episode, a general will dispatch a monster of the week to cause trouble. In order to combat them, the lead will undergo a naked transformation scene before dressing in costume and adopting a ‘cute’ name involving words like Lyrical, Magical, Natural and Hypothetical.
• The monster of the week will always seem invincible at first, but can eventually be defeated by using the same piece of stock footage to perform an ultimate final attack that turns it into sparkles.
• In later episodes, supporting magical girls will appear just at the point where their special attack is exactly what is needed to defeat the current monster of the week. After their introduction episode, however, the supporting magical girls exist to be defeated in battle- only the lead can actually defeat monsters.
• At school, the lead will have two close female friends and one male friend who she wishes to become closer to (none of these friends can know about her true identity as a magical girl). Although both the lead and her crush have feelings for each other, misunderstandings and romantic rivals mean that they do not get together until the end.
• At some point in the series, mascot will reveal itself to have a human form.
• Once the main evil is defeated at the end, the generals of evil will admit that opposing the heroes was all a big mistake on their part, and they will instantly become good friends with the lead.
• Lead will be able to return to her normal life…until season two.

I’m not HARD GAY, get me out of here!

Tired of endless reality TV shows putting F-list celebrities into unlikely situations and successively voting them off week after week? Fortunately, we have just the thing for you- a much needed spin on an overused format, entitled “I’m not HARD GAY, get me out of here!” The series takes twelve well known straight anime characters and sends them to an island filled entirely with bishounen tasked with turning our contestants HARD GAY; every week, a combination of judges’ scores and audience votes is used to decide which contestant is not HARD GAY enough to stay. By the end, only one man remains to claim the ultimate prize- a night with Lui from Meine Liebe! Look forward to it!

Code Geass, Licensed By Pizza Hut

The official English release will have new subtitles and an exclusive watermark.

With all the rumours flying around about Code Geass being licensed, it would be logical to think that Bandai was the one responsible, but I beg to differ, for who else could it be other than Pizza Hut themselves? In an effort to expand their business enterprises, Pizza Hut have decided to move into anime, hoping to ensnare hungry anime fans desperate for a snack as they sit at their computer watching episode upon episode of anime.

As part of this plan, Code Geass DVDs will be sold with discount vouchers for Pizza Hut, whilst anyone buying a family meal from Pizza Hut will receive free merchandise- everything from Code Geass baseball caps to Knightmare models! Get on down to your local Pizza Hut now to take advantage of this great offer!

Saiunkoku Monogatari 23
Gloating is an essential part of being a villain.

Ensei’s HARD GAY is the only force that can match up to Seiran.

Shuurei imagines a HARD YURI future with Kourin.

Ensei is impressed by some speedy HARD GAY.

He becomes determined to learn who can teach him new HARD GAY techniques.

Flattery will get you everywhere.

A new BI bishie enters.

Short parody: Shrine of the Morning Mist

Ayatachi and the three evil priestesses appear.

(Ayatachi: By wearing this mask, no one will guess that I am the blonde bishie from the OP.)

(Evil Priestesses: We too will wear masks to obscure our identities as the classmates of the heroes).

Yuzu: I have no idea who you are, but we will fight you!

Ayatachi: I don’t think so- summon monster of the week!

Ayatachi and the others stand well back and summon a monster of the week to attack the heroes.

Yuzu: Everyone, use your stock animation attacks against it!

Standard attacks are used, and the monster is defeated.

Ayatachi: Gwakaka, no matter how much you struggle, you cannot prevent us from summoning the ultimate evil until the last episode!

Ayatachi and the others flee.

Yuzu: Come on, let’s get back to my place for another priestess training arc.

Hiro: Hey, I’m important enough to be mentioned on the back of the DVDs, but I hardly have any screentime.

Yuzu: Quiet, Hiro, you won’t be important until the final arc. Now go home and have some comedy scenes with my father.

Hiro: Not again…

Weekly Awards

Obscure crossover of the week: Today sees a rather odd connection between two very different series, Keroro Gunso and .hack. Where Keroro has Angol Mois, the woman tasked with destroying the planet, the .hack game OST has a track named ‘Angorumoa’.

OP of the Week: OPs come and go from the Weekly Awards section, but in favour this week is one of the few recent OPs to even make an impression- the Bakumatsu Kikansetsu OP “Kouya Ruyen”. Another Yuki Kajiura/FictionJunction effort, this OP sees both composer and performer back at the top of their game.

HARD GAY man of the week: An award must surely go to Chevalier’s version of Robespierre, which showcases the HARD GAY side that history never saw fit to record. Even the leads lust after him.

*New feature* HARD GAY corner: GetBackers
No one can deny that GetBackers is a HARD GAY as it gets- just look all those young men waving their weapons around and boasting about special powers. At the core of the series are Ginji and Ban, a happy couple with issues in their pasts. Where Ban was forced to kill his former lover after he got violent, Ginji abandoned his whole HARD GAY harem, the Volts, after Ban showed him just how good he was in the bedroom (note how he always calls him Ban-chan, even in public).

Throughout the course of the series, Ginji’s former subordinates are gradually reintroduced, and almost all of them are upset that Ginji left them to start a new life with Ban. Some, like Kazuki and Shidou, come to accept the idea and even indulge in HARD GAY with Ginji once more, but others cannot see past their jealousy, and remain opponents until the end. The few female characters, meanwhile, are forced to accept that none of the males are interested in them, whilst Akabane ‘Dr. Jackal’ merely scares everyone with his desire for particularly intense HARD GAY.

OST Spotlight: Kurau Phantom Memory OST1- Indigo
Kurau has secured itself a place as one of my favourite anime series, and this excellent soundtrack played no small part in that. A selection of strong and themes with a distinctive sci-fi feel, Kurau takes everything that is good about anime and game soundtracks, whilst drawing from none of the bad. Tracks cover a range of styles, from the light-hearted to the melancholic, but rarely falter in delivering on quality.

Notable tracks: Natsukashii Umi, Daily Life, Lilipri Layli, Trouble, Lonely Freedom, Moonlight

In Your Reflection

What happens if you put Mikoto on a diet? Hopefully, no one will ever try it, but if they do, the result is likely to be this cat that briefly appeared in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.

Amusing Search Terms
romance of the three kingdom manga: people keep searching for this- does it exist?

aria 4koma: sorry, no 4koma here.

densetsu weed and reika pr0n: this just scares me- who wants to look at dog pr0n?

fate stay night pr0n: In comparison, Fate pr0n is tame.

young gay: Got to get them whilst they’re young.

you toube: The old staple.

rpg maker door sprite: RPG Maker already has door sprites, although I admit the selection is less than edifying.

fruits basket 136 memento: If you’re looking for Memento, why would you click on a blog called Azure Flame?

Shotacon: Mention shotacon just once on your blog, and you’ll get all kinds of searches for it.

Star Ocean has taken over my life; it seeps into all the cracks and leaves me with no time to do anything else. Nonetheless, I shall get on top of this addiction, even if it means playing all three games (four if you count Blue Sphere) to death. In the meantime, Bakumatsu 7-8 will be covered next week since my birthday cut into regular anime viewing time.

Reviewed this week: Asatte no Houkou 9, Code Geass 10, La Corda d’Oro 5, Death Note 11, Kanon 11, Keroro 70-73, Red Garden 10, ROTK 33-5

…and in manga: Bokurano 33-7, Chevalier 1, Chokotto Sister 37-8, MariMite 21, Pani Poni 1-7

ANIME

Asatte no Houkou 9: Whilst Karada makes her way to the coast and gets a job at a small inn (anime destiny came through after all), Tetsu is finally pushed into going to look for her, with Kotomi just happening by in order to give her a hand. Although there were some excellent moments in this episode such as a confrontation between Shouko and Hiro in the café, it just felt a little lacking when compared to the overall standard of the series- certain events felt a little too contrived, and I found myself distracted by the ugliness of Tetsu’s costume. When will anime characters realise that the Heero Yui look is out of date?

*DROPPED* Code Geass 10: There comes a point in many series where you wonder what compelled you to start watching them in the first place, and Geass has finally reached that point. This episode sees Lelouch provoke a pointless fight just to increase his Ego Counter, all the while hoping to snag some Pizza Hut along the way- since I can no longer force myself to pay attention to what passes for a plot in this series, I feel no inclination to wade through any more episodes.

La Corda d’Oro 5: Corda’s plot is hardly what you’d call complex and unfathomable, but this must surely rank as one of the most predictable episodes ever to grace our screens. As the first round of the concours begins, Kaho’s accompanist seems strangely absent- could this possibly mean she is as evil as she looked in the closing shot of episode 3? Will our heroine finish in last place and have to struggle her way to the top in later rounds? Will secret piano genius Tsuchiura step up and do something unexpected like playing the piano? Far be it for me to give anything away, but if you can’t work out the answers to these, then you probably aren’t that interested in televised media anyway.

Death Note 11: After waving to some passing treacle, Death Note continues on its way, which finally sees events begin to move with the introduction of a second Kira. I keep saying that from hereon, things will get interesting, so I realise that now is the time to tone down my optimism- events may improve, but they may equally continue to plod along at the current pace.

Kanon 11: With Makoto’s story over, this week sees a shift towards Mai’s arc, whilst making sure to check up on all the other girls along the way. After such a heavy focus on Makoto, it is refreshing to see some of the more neglected characters return, but unfortunately that also means that Yuuichi is slipping back into his sarcastic and abusive mode. Overall, though, it’s a fairly average and inoffensive episode, although if not for the parodies I probably wouldn’t still be watching.

Keroro Gunso 70-73: A quadruple bill of Keroro was never going to show the series in the most flattering light, and unfortunately, it has forced me to make the oft-delayed decision of placing Keroro in the red (it was previously on ‘orange’). Admittedly, episode 73 was an entertaining trip to the past that prevented me from dropping the series entirely, but the preceding trio of episodes were all tired rehashes of overused ideas that could barely hold my attention. Perhaps this is simply the curse of episodic comedy- since the story and setting are bound to always return to the status quo, there reaches a point where you simply can’t do anything more with the format.

Red Garden 10: Angst phase two continues in this episode, as the girls train for future random encounters (Claire swings a baseball bat, Rachel orders an abs training machine, Kate fails to do one press-up and Rose, er, cooks meat). By this point, most of my hopes for the plot have been dashed by the fact that it makes little sense and seems unnecessarily convoluted; nonetheless, for now, it just manages to stay above the drop zone somehow.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms 33-5: The punishment for over a fortnight without ROTK was inevitably going to be a triple bill of episodes, but for once, I was able to get through them all with little fuss. At long last, the time for Liu Bei to meet Zhuge Liang and begin the destined HARD GAY that will found the Shu kingdom. In case you hadn’t already guessed, I’ve given up even trying to review this series seriously- you either watch it because it is unintentionally hilarious, or you don’t watch it at all.

Ironically, episode 36 was released just after I wrote this- here’s to another HARD GAY review next week.

MANGA

Bokurano 33-7: I hadn’t realised that Kirie’s story actually ended with chapter 32, meaning that this sequence of five chapters is entirely devoted to the next pilot, Takami Komoda. The daughter of a military man, Komo must find the strength to step up to the plate and control Zearth, but events take an unexpected turn when the enemy pilot runs away- if he isn’t located within 48 hours, both sides lose. Bokurano is always excellent and these chapters are no exception; as always, however, I am eager for more.

*NEW* Chevalier 1: It would be no understatement to say that the Chevalier manga was not at all what I was expecting. A far cry from the animated version, the manga may share the same characters and basic ideas, but the execution is very different. The series revolves around D’Eon du Beaumont, a laid back bishie guard who pulls double time not only as an agent for the king, but as a cross-dressing vessel for his sister’s spirit in order to fight Poets of evil. Compared to the anime, this is more of a Chevalier-lite Otome/magical girl version, but I will continue to read out of curiosity.

Chokotto Sister 37-8: The fanservice may be in abeyance here, but Chokotto Sister still has a way of giving you a few pages that impress you with how good the series can be, only to drop back down to the level of a child’s reading book straight afterwards. This pair of chapters concludes the ‘Choko and the panther’ arc, but mars its surprisingly tragic ending with a trite reversion to ‘brother makes it all well again’. Perhaps I shouldn’t complain; the whole ‘Choko keeping a panther’ premise was a little bizarre, after all.

Gunslinger Girl 18-19: I never thought this day would come, but at long last, I have been able to start the fourth volume of Gunslinger Girl (damn you, ADV!). Chapter 18 covers a day in the life of Claes as she goes about her normal routine whilst showing hints of remembering the time she spent with her handler. 19, meanwhile, starts a new story in which Triela and Hilshier must act as bodyguards for the daughter of the mafia defector they protected in a previous chapter. Although 19 is the better of the two stories, both chapters are a very much welcome continuation of Gunslinger Girl’s trademark excellence. Apparently two new cyborgs will be introduced later on, so the need for more chapters is great.

Maria-sama ga Miteru 21: Sei’s past story and volume three conclude in this chapter, which sees the tragic separation of Sei and the girl she loved. I can’t say it was a particular tearjerker, but it was still a well executed ending to one of the series’ best arcs.

*CATCH-UP/DROPPED* Pani Poni 1-7: If Pani Poni has anything to tell us, it’s that oddball comedy series really need the vibrancy and motion of the animated medium in order to shine. Unfortunately, on paper, the series is little more than a poor man’s version of Azumanga- there are a couple of worthy jokes, but most of the content seems like random ramblings grouped together into mercifully short chapters. Even if you’re a fan of the anime, there’s not much to see here.

This week marks a first for the Weekly Round-Up, and I have to say it isn’t a particularly edifying one; for the first time since I started this feature, there is no manga to write about. Fortunately, this lack of new releases does mean that I have been able to clear Alice 19^th out of the backlog (expect to see a post on that in the near future) but it does leave the Round-Up feeling curiously empty.

It has also come to my attention that people are starting to think I am obsessed with HARD GAY. Let me clarify- it’s not that I’m obsessed with it, it’s just that HARD GAY is everywhere.

Reviewed this week: Asatte no Houkou 8, Bakumatsu Kikansetu Irohanihoheto 6, Busou Renkin 10, Code Geass 9, Death Note 10, Kanon 10, Keroro 69, Red Garden 9, SaiMono 23, Shounen Onmyouji 8

ANIME

Asatte no Houkou 8: Having learned about Hiro and Shouko’s relationship, Karada runs away from home- only to learn that surviving in the real world is a lot tougher than it looks. Reaching her lowest ebb leads her to fall into Flashback Mode, where we finally see how Karada and Hiro first met, and that she already knows that Hiro is not her real brother. Another excellent episode from the consistently enjoyable Asatte no Houkou- but is this series really going to be only twelve episodes?

Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto 6: I can’t help but like Bakumatsu and its OP more and more with each passing episode, especially as I’m gradually getting to grips with what’s going on (which, it has to be said, is always a bonus). As the troupe puts on the final performance of their latest play, real life events are also moving ahead, with current Fei Wong style villain getting overexcited about impending chaos. This series is slowly but surely moving its way into the top bracket of the year.

Busou Renkin 10: There’s a refreshing lack of Papillon’s crotch in this episode as twins Shuusui and Oka finally initiate a battle with Kazuki and Tokiko. Although I would have preferred to see more of the women fighting, predictably the bulk of the episode is handed over to the boys as they trade blows. Thankfully, the fight doesn’t last too long, but other than that, it’s a fairly standard episode.

Code Geass- Lelouch of the Rebellion 9: Geass dips back into the red with this collection of dull scenes more commonly known as an episode. Whilst Karen/Kallen’s obligatory tragic backstory takes the forefront, the Sunrise dango addicts make a cry for help by introducing a drug known as Refrain to the plot for no apparent reason. Suffice to say that little of note occurs here, and unless something does actually happen soon, Code Geass won’t be lasting much longer.

This cat is the best part of Code Geass, but it’s no Mikoto.

Death Note 10: When I said last time that Death Note would really be taking off soon, what I obviously meant was that there would be a dull exposition episode first. With that in mind, episode 10 is hardly the most enthralling of moments, consisting of numerous lines of speech which were more easily tackled when they were on paper- whilst I can’t help but chuckle every time Light and L go into “evil red” and “justice blue” mode respectively.

Kanon 10: It may have been intended to be the tear jerking ‘farewell Makoto’ episode, but unfortunately, by this point, Kanon is little more than a continuing struggle to get through. Not only was I disappointed at the lack of “MAKOTOOOOO!!!” at the end, but the emotion of the episode really didn’t reach me- perhaps it’s just hard to believe that Yuuichi could care so deeply about Makoto after the way he treated her in earlier episodes.

Keroro 69: It’s episodes like this that reaffirm my belief that Sunrise are getting high on sweet potato dango; whilst the first half initially looked like it was going to be an amusing Spirited Away spoof, it somehow metamorphosed into a completely random hunt for banana slug eggs (and no, banana slug is not a typo). If not quite as drug induced, part two was a similarly pointless story, featuring a repeat of the beach manzai competition from the last year, only this time without adult Natsumi. Keroro is hovering very close to the red now- can it save itself yet again in the next episode?

I have to admit that I am tired of 556, but he was actually mildly amusing in this episode.

Red Garden 9: Angst phase one may have ended last episode, but phase two is just beginning as Red Garden forges ahead along the path of teenage girls fighting slavering monsters. Despite finally giving us a few answers to the questions that keep us watching, Red Garden nonetheless manages to turn in yet another dull and mediocre offering that seems designed to make viewers question just why they started watching in the first place. I shall give it a few more episodes, but I can’t deny that it is now worthy of a place in the red zone.

Saiunkoku Monogatari 23: SaiMono is like a drug- even while you’re getting your fix you can’t help looking ahead to the next one. This episode sees Shuurei end up on her own after the rest of her party is taken into custody by the Sa clan- with plenty of intrigues, a Fei Wong style gloating villain and a new pink-haired bishie, the series is as satisfying as ever (well, that list may not sound particularly inspiring, but SaiMono makes even the trivial seem entirely worthy).

Shounen Onmyouji 8: SO moves more slowly than I would have liked in this episode, in which Masahiro and Mokkun battle their way up Kifune Mountain in the hopes of rescuing Akiko from the evil foreign demons. The other shikigami are slowly getting more screen time, but it isn’t enough for me- I want to learn more about them, and given that there are twelve in total, the series can’t afford to take its time in exploring them. Apart from these complaints, however, this is a reasonably entertaining episode, and I’m looking forward to the next one.

With December now upon us and the festive season on its way, it occurs to me that I do something clever like an “Anime Advent Calendar” for the month; however, since I only just thought of that idea about ten minutes ago, it will have to be the necessarily basic idea of just posting a different image in the sidebar every day. Is there any point to doing this? Absolutely none whatsoever.

Reviewed this week: Asatte no Houkou 6, Busou Renkin 7-8, Chevalier 11, Code Geass 7-8, Death Note 8, Gargoyle 5, Kanon 8, Keroro 66, Akazukin 18, Red Garden 6-7, ROTK 32, Shounen Onmyouji 6-7

…and in manga: Nanoha StrikerS 2, REC 18-19, Haruhi Suzumiya vol 5-6

ANIME

Asatte no Houkou 6: Although it doesn’t quite reach the heights of the previous episode, Asatte no Houkou remains far ahead of the competition this week, in an episode which sees Amino meet the adult Karada (although he entirely fails to recognise her). Not only is this episode another touching and absorbing instalment, but there must be few series which can show you a pool of water and make you want to reach into the screen in order to dip your hands in it.

Busou Renkin 7-8: Whilst nothing in this episode matches the trauma of seeing Papillon reach around in his thong, Busou Renkin is degenerating ever further into allies vs. monster of the week, with the arrival of a whole host of new characters doing little to alleviate that. Aside from the curious attraction of the moon-faced Moon Face, the increasing vulgarity and generic nature of the series conspires to make it somewhat uninspiring to watch- only when Tokiko appears onscreen is my resolve renewed.

Le Chevalier d’Eon 11: If Peter’s reign was short historically, then it becomes even shorter in this episode of Chevalier, which can perhaps be said to not be the series finest moment. Whilst it is certainly enjoyable and ahead of most other series in terms of quality, the episode suffers from continually jumping between one set of characters and another, resulting in fast paced yet extremely short scenes. The animation is also somewhat inconsistent, but nonetheless episode twelve is highly anticipated.

Code Geass- Lelouch of the Rebellion 7-8: Upon watching this unexpected double bill of Code Geass, I realised that I couldn’t decide whether this series was laughably poor, or just plain bad. There’s a definite sense that the writers don’t really know where they’re going with this, and are just playing it by ear à la Mai-Otome; where episode seven has Lelouch attempting to go after Cordelia, eight suddenly throws in a hostage situation and a whole new anti-Brittanian faction for no apparent reason. I guess it’s to the series’ credit that it somehow manages to keep me interested to not to start playing Go, but I do feel that I’m watching it more to see how bad it can get rather than because I expect anything of merit.

I can’t help thinking of Fye and Kurogane when I see this.

Death Note 8: The momentum begins to pick up again in this episode, which continues to take a good story and add some laughably theatrical touches that drag it down a little. The presentation remains top notch, and there’s no reason to stop watching, but the series does need to tone it down a little before it becomes too difficult to take it seriously.

The Gargoyle of the Yoshinagas 5: An enjoyable instalment even by Gargoyle standards, this episode sees Futaba accidentally get stuck with a helmet that enables her to talk to plants, opening up a whole new world of communication. Although the likes of Camus and Souta have made the idea of talking to flowers seem a little wimpy and desirable, Gargoyle turns that notion on its head and comes up with a hilarious and thoroughly entertaining episode; if you’re not already watching this series, start now.

Kanon 8: After watching this episode, all I really feel like saying is ‘oh dear’. I’ve ranted a lot about Kanon lately, and this episode really isn’t making matters better; Yuuichi treats Makoto like an annoyance, Makoto’s tragic past is offhandedly revealed, and I struggle to care about anything other than how long I have to endure until the ending. I wanted to like Kanon, but this really isn’t working for me.

Keroro Gunso 66: Keroro brings us another pair of mildly entertaining if unoriginal segments in this episode, which promises a busy time for Keroro, Giroro and Tamama as they first attempt to rescue the Hinatas from a space TV studio before spying on Natsumi as she goes on a shopping date with Koyuki. I haven’t gone so far as to want to stop watching Keroro, but each passing episode doesn’t really expose me to anything new.

Otogi-jushi Akazukin 18: Even for a show like Akazukin, there’s a point where it can get a bit too ridiculous, and this episode marks that point. Featuring a musical pumpkin, the unwelcome return of the Bremen quartet and some budget-saving flashback/insert song combinations, this episode has very little to recommend it. Just a hint of a reminder that a vague plot exists would be nice.

Red Garden 6-7: Instead of explaining anything (that’s being held in reserve for the final episode) Red Garden continues to throw in more mysteries, adding a hospital of evil, experimental combat life forms girls of some unknown purpose, and revealing that the girls can return to their original lives if Gantz gives them enough points. It’s like a mix of standard Gonzo ideas (sans the mecha) combined with record levels of angst and tedious insert songs, but I must keep watching for now.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms 32: It had to happen eventually; we’ve had so many hilarious episodes of ROTK that it was almost inevitable that a less entertaining one would come along eventually. To be fair, ROTK 32 starts off amusingly enough, but as events move into the infamous battle of Fan Castle, it all becomes a bit weak. Whether you watch this seriously (is there anyone who would do that?) or just for a laugh, this is not one of ROTK’s finer moments.

Shounen Onmyouji 6-7: I never thought I’d say this, but I’m actually enjoying Shounen Onmyouji- it may be entirely predictable and filled with characters who will probably never get the screen time they crave, but at the same time, it’s straightforward fun. These two episodes see monster of the month Kyuuki send out underlings in an attempt to kidnap Akiko- can Masahiro and Mokkun deal with him alone, or will they need to recruit new party members from Seimei’s stock of shikigami?

MANGA

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS- A’s to StrikerS 2: Given the relatively large cast of Nanoha, it should perhaps come as no surprise that this chapter largely consists of characters talking whilst the plot (such as it is) advances at a crawl. I’m not entirely sure what is supposed to be going on, other than the fact that some generic enemies are going after artefacts whilst Vita struggles with the memory of some tragic past event.

REC 18-19: Every series needs a swimsuit segment, and chapter eighteen marks REC’s efforts in that area, offering the usual bikini service, romantic misunderstandings and a few panels that seem more suited to an adult series. After that short break, nineteen changes direction entirely by including a heist at a post office (to be honest, I was expecting the whole thing to be publicity stunt) before introducing yet another new character intent on breaking Aka and Matsumaru up. I can’t help feeling that another wave of angst is on the horizon.

NOVEL

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 5.1-6.2: After the refreshing change that was volume four, Haruhi is back to standalone stories presented in no particular order. Volume five contains three longer stories- Endless Eight, the tale of a never-ending summer vacation; The Day of Sagittarius, a computer game showdown between the SOS Brigade and the Computer Club (as seen in the anime) and Snow Mountain Syndrome, in which our leads go on a skiing holiday, only to get trapped in a mysterious mansion. Unfortunately, all of these chapters suffer from the same problem- despite the relatively interesting setup, the resolution is always too swift and arbitrary to provide any real satisfaction.

Volume six marks a return to some shorter stories, with the first two chapters corresponding to anime episodes twelve (Live A Live) and one (Asahina Mikuru’s adventure Episode 0, aka the movie). Neither are particularly bad, but by the time you reach the sixth volume, you start to want a little more character and story development.

I always have mixed feelings when I google something and my blog scores highly in the results; one the one hand, it’s gratifying to see it appear, but on the other hand, if I’m trying to search for something I don’t currently have a clue about, my own blog is hardly going to help me.

How to be evil: What not to Wear
When trying to present yourself as an evil villain, bumming around in a t-shirt and shorts just isn’t going to cut it- no matter how many hours you spend sitting in your castle of evil, you need to do it in style. Before you head down to the nearest clothes store, however, be sure to read through this guide in order to discover which outfits to choose.

• Older men: for the mature gentleman, villainous dress is as simple as it comes- a dark suit and tie is sufficient to indicate your worldly experience and corporate, capitalistic evil. Avoid going clean shaven as this will make you too honest and open, however, be aware that too much facial hair is also a bad move; at best, you will appear friendly and avuncular, at worst you will resemble Santa Claus. Try to cultivate a short yet functional beard and moustache, or opt for a goatee if you wish to appear especially evil. Fashionable glasses or a monocle are also recommended, but avoid wearing shades or any kind of hat.
• Young men: If you wish to be a youthful villain, you must be a bishounen- if your looks are below average, there is no point even continuing. Long hair is recommended, and can be either very dark or extremely pale; preferred clothing is either a high school uniform or suit with loose tie, whilst a long dark overcoat that can billow our behind you is nigh essential.

Occasionally, you may need to infiltrate the hero party by posing as a normal person; in this case black trousers, white shirt and glasses are required.

• Women: sultry and seductive is the watchword, so keep both hair and dresses long. Either choose a simple black number or an incredibly elaborate piece of engineered fabric, complete with jewellery and headpiece. Nails should be long and painted.
• If you wish to be an ‘extreme’ type villain, the above must be ignored in favour of highly impractical and near-indecent clothing such as a thong.

Using anime to spice up your CV/resumé
So, crunch time has come- for whatever reason, you realise that it’s time to get a job, but thanks to your near-hikki ways, the old CV is a bit sparse. Admitting that you spent an unhealthy amount of time sitting on your backside and watching anime probably isn’t the best way to get prospective employers to notice you, but fear not- this handy guide will explain how to market your anime viewing skills to their full potential. You aren’t just watching anime, you are becoming experienced in the following skills:

• Refining foreign language skills via a total immersion technique (watching raw/subbed anime).
• Creating accurate graphical records (taking screencaps).
• Organising extensive volumes of data across different media formats (transferring files to external hard drives or burning them to disc).
• Time management (fitting in all those episodes that were released over the weekend).
• Gathering resources from a variety of online sources (downloading via bittorrent, IRC or ddl).
• Troubleshooting operating system issues (why the hell has my computer crashed again?)
• Recognising traits and patterns in data (not another harem series)
• Researching and reading background information about relevant material (looking up spoilers on blogs, wiki and the AnimeSuki forums).
• Gaining stamina to work on the same task for six months to a year (watching 26-52 episode series as they air).

Code Geass: sponsored by Pizza Hut
Some people have been claiming that Pizza Hut appears often in Code Geass, and that it is all part of some evil marketing plan. I have to say that those people are clearly paranoid- if you look at these selected scenes from the series, you’ll barely see a mention of Pizza Hut.

For each episode of Code Geass that you watch, you get one coupon towards a free meal at Pizza Hut.

• C.C. transfers her power to Lelouch, who uses it on some generics.

Lelouch: Generics, bring me some Pizza Hut.

Generics: Right away.

• Lelouch gets in the contact with the terrorists.

Lelouch: Since I don’t like any extra toppings on my pizza, you may call me Zero. Since I am the main character, you must follow my orders and help to liberate delicious Pizza Hut from the evil Brittanians.

Karen: We’ll do it- we’re sick of the Brittanians having all the pizza for themselves.

• At school, Lelouch has to stay behind for a student council meeting.

Millay: Now, the first order of business is to deal with student requests. We’ve had an overwhelming number of letters asking for the school cafeteria to start serving Pizza Hut. What do you think, Lelouch?

Lelouch: Excuse me, I’m just finishing off my Pizza Hut

• Meanwhile, at the Brittanian research facility…

Lloyd: Excellent! By feeding our Knightmare pilots Pizza Hut, their performance is increased by 50%!

Bakumatsu 5 screencap parody
“The Lord’s Head” is a source of incredibly powerful HARD GAY.

Villains in search of HARD GAY power are interested in the Lord’s Head.

Our villain has been reading Tuesday Rumble’s “How to be Evil”.

Damn those foreign scum!

It is best not to swing your ‘sword’ around in a brothel until you know the proper etiquette.

Kanna shows off his ‘pistol’.

Weekly Awards

Gratuitous Violence of the Week: Although neither are particularly recent titles, both Gantz and Elfen Lied deserve a prize for the amount of blood and corpses each of them manages to pack into their relative runtimes.

Novels that should be translated: As I slowly work my way through the Haruhi and Zero no Tsukaima novel translations, I can’t help feeling that there are worthier projects just waiting to be made accessible to those of us without an extensive grasp of Japanese. Naturally, the winner in this category is the ever worthy Saiunkoku Monogatari (the novel covers alone have me drooling in anticipation), but other suggestions include Iriya no Sora UFO no Natsu, Maria-sama ga Miteru and even the original NHK novels.

“What’s that in his underwear?” of the week: Just as I was recovering from Busou Renkin’s Papillon pulling a butterfly mask out of his thong, Luffy of One Piece decided to reach around inside his underwear to remove an octopus.

Traumatising moment of the week: In keeping with the above, Papillon scores a second award for reaching around in his underwear (in fact, just the sight of Papillon in a thong is bad enough).

OST Spotlight: Final Fantasy X-2
FFX-2 opens with a melodic piano piece, but if that gets your hopes up for the rest of the OST, then unfortunately they are going to be sorely dashed. Whilst there are a handful of worthy tracks mixed in amongst the dross, most of what is on offer are either simplistic electronic mixes that sound like the background arrangement for a superior signature theme that doesn’t actually exist, or a marginally worthy piece denied all worth by endless looping.

Notable tracks: Eternity ~Memory of Lightwave~, I’ll Give You Something Hot, Sphere Hunter, Under Bevelle, Eternity ~Band Member Performance~

Worthiness: The opening theme aside, there is little reason to taint your ears with this.

In Your Reflection

This week is another head to head between hot-headed ginger males- namely Haruka 8’s Tenma and Furuba’s Kyo. Both are antisocial with short tempers and a tendency to resort to violence, but where Kyo softens and becomes more likable, Tenma remains a possessive wife beater throughout.

Amusing Search Terms

you toube: back for its tenth consecutive week.

your toube: another guest spot to support its cousin

You toube pr0n: a rarer member of the family.

t: to everyone searching for t, remember, the fourth dimension isn’t t (time), it’s ict (square root of -1 * speed of light * time). See the useful things you learn in physics lectures.

tutor el ova: presumably this is some OVA I’ve never heard of and not someone looking for an OVA tutor.

hack pre audition: long time readers of this blog may remember that I used to get “hack audition” as a search term for reasons I could never fathom; now it has finally returned in an evolved form.

blonde shounen: that’s specific.

abandon yu-gi-oh cards: yes, you must abandon them when you realise they are expensive and largely pointless (anyone want to buy mine?).

hacked first auditions gay: another entry worthy of just a “hmmm…”.

I’d also like to thank the person who searched for Bubblegum Crisis 2040 episode 10, since this means that my episode guides are occasionally of use.

As the season hauls itself to the midway point, the inevitable pruning time has come again (although sometimes it feels like I prune every week). The first few series to face the chop are YoakeNa, Negima and Ghost Hunt, none of which inspire me to waste any more of my life on them. Code Geass and Red Garden now rest in the danger zone, with Busou Renkin only remaining safe due to parody potential.

I must also confess to some blogging inefficiency this week, so Otogi-jushi Akazukin 18, Keroro Gunso 66 and Asatte no Houkou 6 will all appear in the next round up.

Reviewed this week: Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto 5 (why does this series not lend itself to a catchy acronym), Busou Renkin 6, Code Geass 6, Corda d’Oro 3, Death Note 7, Ghost Hunt 3, Kanon 7, Keroro 65, Otome Zwei 1, ROTK 31, SaiMono 21, Shounen Onmyouji 5, YoakeNa 7

…and in manga: Emma Bangaihen 4, Otome 35, Tsubasa 134, 136, Haruhi Suzumiya novel 4.6

ANIME

Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto 5: Although there are still large stretches of confusion, Bakumatsu is slowly becoming more comprehensible with each passing week (especially after the discovery of this site; to borrow a phrase from a former tutor of mine, it’s ‘fantastically useful’). This episode sees the villain of the fortnight power up his generals of evil in a specially designed S&M shop before unleashing them on our heroes; as always, it remains interesting even when I don’t have a clue what’s going on.

Busou Renkin 6: ‘Traumatic’ is perhaps the most fitting way to describe this episode, a twenty-five minute showcase of horrors in which Chouno transforms into Papillon, a villain clad only in a butterfly mask and tight-fitting thong. Whilst the episode itself was a fairly standard shounen hero vs. enemy battle, the sight of Papillon is surely enough to permanently scar the brain. If you must watch, approach with caution.

Code Geass- Lelouch of the Rebellion 6: In retrospect, I’m not sure that Code Geass was ever in a position to make viewers take it seriously, but if it was, then all hope of that was lost in this Pizza Hut drenched instalment in which Lelouch’s Zero helmet gets stolen by a cat. The resulting chase around the school grounds was eerily reminiscent of Tokimeki Memorial, but it was entertaining enough in its own way (which is to say mildly entertaining, but not something I’ll be rushing to watch again).

La Corda d’Oro 3: Last episode Hino was saved from embarrassing herself in public, and this one begins in much the same way, as Hihara comes to her rescue. Now, however, our heroine must find an accompanist for the first round of the concours- can her attendant bishies help her in this quest? In between Hino’s struggles, the episode focuses on the cold and standoffish Tsukimori and his opposite number, the apparently non-musical but friendly Tsuchiura, making for another entertaining and enjoyable instalment.

Death Note 7: This week’s instalment focuses almost entirely on Light’s attempts to manipulate Ray Penbar’s fiancée into giving her real name and thus sealing her fate; it’s a somewhat exposition-heavy segment with some overly theatrical scenes (the metaphorical gallows, Ryuk walking around and laughing, ‘inner Light’ being red and evil) but nonetheless retains enough of the original’s quality to be worthy.

*DROPPED* Ghost Hunt 3: Unfortunately, Ghost Hunt is just not a series I can get on with; the events of the series barely interest me and the fact that it has taken three episodes to conclude an arc that was barely worthy of one isn’t an incentive to continue. Perhaps in a distant, anime-drought filled future, I will give it another chance, but for now it seems hardly worth watching unless I need an excuse to play Go.

Kanon 7: Another week means another chance for Yuuichi to tease the girls, and unfortunately, that’s pretty much all that happens in this episode of Kanon. Whilst fans of the game are no doubt enjoying seeing all their favourite non-H scenes animated, the rest of us can only hope that the series cuts to the chase soon.

Keroro Gunso 65: Following the slight improvement of the last three episodes, 65 is back down in the “watchable enough, but the premise has been so many times before that I’m not terribly enthralled” category. Whilst the first half has the Keroro Platoon turn into a detective squad in an attempt to catch space criminal #303, part two sees Tamama’s jealousy stirred when hyper-cute new recruit Karara arrives on Earth Pekopon. Once again, the 70+ episodes in front of me are beginning to look like a long and barren haul, but at least the series has finally brought in a new eyecatch.

*NEW* Mai-Otome Zwei 1: Clearly I love Mai-Otome so much that I had to watch this OVA raw (it remains to be seen whether I’ll bother with the subbed version) and whilst I can’t exactly heap praise upon it, at least it wasn’t as awful as feared. Thankfully, fat cats do appear, but unfortunately they must take a back seat to Arika, Mashiro, 600 supporting characters and an Evil Shadow Otome that can petrify people and absorb their powers. It’s somewhat annoying that we’ll have to wait three months to find out what happens next, but perhaps that’s for the best- too much Otome at once isn’t good for the health.

The star of the show, even if she does seem to be drawn differently.

Arika loses her blue Zwei mode after Mashiro tells her to shut up and follow orders.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms 31: It’s hard to accept that ROTK is at all taking itself seriously by this point, as the series comes up with an episode that made me laugh more than most intended comedies manage to do. Seven years have passed since the last episode (I must say that it felt more like about five days to me), in which time Liu Bei has grown a beard, fathered a son and not done much else. But fear not, Shu supporters, for the stage is already being set for that fateful meeting with the king of HARD GAY, Zhuge Liang…

Saiunkoku Monogatari 21: Just as Chevalier took its time to get to Russia, SaiMono is in no hurry to reach Sa Province, although that’s not to say that this episode is not as enjoyable as all the others. It may seem that little actually happens, but with its insights into the world of SaiMono, and reunions with Kourin and Ryuuren, this is an absorbing episode nonetheless, despite a slight loss of animation quality. And of course, the announcement of a second season must rank as the best news all week.

Shounen Onmyouji 5: Despite the fact that facing a boss enemy who stands around instead of fighting is somewhat laughable, Shounen Onmyouji manages to maintain its light fun level this week through the introduction of some new OP characters. Although they seem to be fairly standard, these character have been long anticipated, and will hopefully add some variety to the mix.

*DROPPED* Yoake Mae Yori Ruriiro Na ~Crescent Love~ 7: It’s a sad state of affairs when the OP is the most interesting part of an episode, especially when it’s an OP as slow and dull as the one that graces the beginning of Yoake. Whatever light entertainment the series once contained is now long gone, replaced by tedious scenes that are mix of clichés and non-events as Feena’s generic Blonde Prince fiancé arrives and True Love is challenged. Even the animation has sunk back down; use of stills is up by 50%, and many faces look poorly drawn. There may be only five episodes left, but that’s still 125 minutes of pain that I cannot possibly face.

MANGA

Emma Bangaihen 4: Continuing the Eleanor story that began in chapter three, this instalment sees Eleanor meet up with Earnest Reeve once more. It’s another worthy chapter for Emma fans, and a nice complement to the original.

Mai-Otome 35: Without their Shinso-sama, the Otome are basically just women in maid costumes, but now Natsuki proposes to restore everyone’s powers by becoming the new Shinso-sama, that is, if she can get past the wall of enemies first. I wouldn’t exactly call this chapter good, but in a way it is better than the Otome anime.

Tsubasa Chronicle 134, 136: Filling the gap that opened up last week, chapter 134 is mainly an exposition piece, renewing everyone’s intention to travel together as they prepare to face the next 134 chapters (seriously, is it likely Tsubasa will end before civilisation itself crumbles?). In contrast, 136 opens an entirely new world, an Alice (or perhaps Miyuki-chan) in Wonderland-esque place where a Deus master controls her angels pieces in a pseudo chess/tag team battle. Sakura and her team of Kurogane, Fye and Syaoran are oddly successful, thanks to the newfound resolve Sakura discovered on her desert trip. Was the desert to Sakura what FFX-2 was to Yuna? Maybe we’ll find out in the next 10-20 chapters.

NOVEL

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya vol 4 chapter 6+epilogue: The best volume of Haruhi thus far ends with a return to the original world, alongside the realisation that the twists and turns of this tangle in time aren’t quite over yet. It was far from perfect, but it was fun whilst it lasted; next week I’ll be setting my sights on tackling volume 5.