Azure Flame Reloaded

Spoiler Alert: Shameless Utawarerumono spoilers infect this week’s instalment.

So there I was the other night, sitting down to watch a rented anime DVD- when I opened the case and found ‘A Complete Mind, Body and Soul Workout’ instead. I can understand accidentally getting sent the wrong volume of a series, but how on earth did that get mixed up with an anime disc? Oh well, the mysteries of Tesco are many and varied…

Vineyard Sun
Had enough of playing Harvest Moon? Why not try this new variant on the series- Vineyard Sun? After your grandfather died, his precious vineyard went to wrack and ruin, and only you, a city boy with no prior knowledge of grapes, can put it right. Continue Reading »

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.

Continue Reading »

By virtue of recalling how dull a character Saber is, I’ve managed to get the need for Dark Saber and Maid Saber out of my system (not the one with the chair, the one that actually looks good), but unfortunately the figure wish list just keeps on growing. Aside from the expensive Feena which I’m still deliberating over, the current list includes the following (bear in mind that I have no idea who either of these characters are):

• Shiki: I rarely see worthy male figures, but this one looks quite appealing, and it’s cheap enough to be seriously considered.
• Saika: Quite expensive for what it is, but I love the hair, and the blue colour scheme will contrast nicely with Ignis and Hikaru.

Reviewed this week: Aria the Natural 18-19, Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto 7-8, Busou Renkin 11, Kanon 12, Keroro 74, MariMite OVA 1, Red Garden 11, ROTK 36, Rozen Maiden Ouverture

…and in manga: Hataraki Man 2, Mai-Otome vol 5, REC 23-5, SaiMono 5 Continue Reading »

It’s all change behind the scenes this week, as Wordpress brings out a new dashboard; I think it’s supposed to be an improvement, but I have to admit that as far as actually managing the blog goes, I prefer the old one.

Hataraki Man has been put on hiatus until I feel motivated to watch it again.

Reviewed this week: Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto 2, Busou Renkin 4, Chevalier 8, Code Geass 3, Death Note 4, Kanon 4, Keroro 62, Red Garden 3, ROTK 28, YoakeNa 4

…and in manga: Bartender 1, Hataraki Man 1, Mozart Doesn’t Sing Lullabies 2-4, Phantom Dream 2, Solanin 6, Tactics 7b, YoakeNa 2 Continue Reading »

Sometimes the path of obtaining good artwork is one strewn with pain and sacrifice. For example, I dislike looking at H-scenes, but nonetheless when bj0rn uploaded the Yoake CG set, I decided to acquire it anyway, in the hopes of finding some good pictures that didn’t involve sex scenes. Luckily, amongst the 500+ pictures there were around 279 that didn’t involve Tatsuya partaking of whichever girl happened to be in the immediate vicinity, but in order to single them out, I had to sit through numerous pictures of him sleeping with underage girls and even his own family members.

Bartender Re-imagined
He tends the bar! He mixes the drinks! He serves the customers! He is….the Bartender! Continue Reading »

If there’s one thing I’m not too keen on when watching fansubs, it’s mkv format. According to its proponents, mkv is new and ‘1337’ whilst avi is old and outdated, but the fact remains that mkv is a pain to play. The picture gets stuck, it uses up more CPU resources than I’m willing to give it (I like to run a lot of programs simultaneously), the softsubs can be problematic, and VLC media player doesn’t like them. I may get comments here telling me that mkv is good or to use a different media player, but that’s not going to stop me ranting about how annoying it can be.

Aria, Death Note, Emma Bangaihen and possibly Ayakashi Ayashi will be covered next week.

Reviewed this week: Bartender, Busou Renkin, Chevalier, Code Geass, Corda d’Oro, D.Gray-man, Ghost Hunt, Hataraki Man, Kanon, Mushishi, Negima, Otogi-jushi Akazukin, Red Garden, Yoake Mae Yori Ruriiro Na

…and in manga: Mai-Otome, NHK, REC, Tsubasa, xxxHOLiC Continue Reading »