It’s funny how obsessions come and go- earlier this week I was briefly addicted to the children’s Flash site Club Penguin, but a mere two days later I had exhausted all its possibilities and found it quite boring. What will next week’s obsession be?

Reviewed this week: Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto 19, Busou Renkin 26, Chevalier 18, Claymore 1, Gargoyle 13, Heroic Age 1, Hitohira 1, Nanoha StrikerS 1, Nodame 10, ROTK 43, SaiMono 37-8, Shounen Onmyouji 15

…and in manga: Bokurano 39-40, Lucky Star 1-4, School Rumble 219, Shirley Madison 1-2, Tsubasa 148-9

Murder Princess, Winter Cicada and Gunslinger Girl vol 5 will be covered next week.

ANIME

Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto 19: After the last two episodes, Iroha couldn’t really have got much worse, and fortunately, things do begin to pick up in this episode, as Enomoto’s plans move forward and Soutetsu pioneers a new style of villainy. Yes, there are still long stretches of dullness and some laughably clichéd elements (oh look, Akidzuki washed up on a beach and a dog found him), but there are also some good parts creeping back in, such as Kakunojo’s fast and fluid sword work, and a cameo from Tesunosuke (last seen in Peacemaker). Here’s to a general improvement from now on.

*COMPLETE* Busou Renkin 26: At long last we can bid goodbye to Busou Renkin, the series that took crudeness to new levels, and completely ruined the opinion I had of Nobuhiro Watsuki’s work. This episode basically wraps up all the loose ends without ever showing the actual month long fight between Victor and Kazuki, bringing our hero home to Earth after some space STRAIGHT with Tokiko

Le Chevalier d’Eon 18: In the wake of Robespierre’s death, our heroes preparation to storm the abbey and force a confrontation with Dashwood, but is Robespierre truly out of the picture just yet? If last episode seemed a little disappointing, then this episode certainly makes up for it by packing in plenty of top notch action and story development, but it is over all too soon- even though I know exactly what happens in 19, I still want to see it in subbed form as soon as possible.

*NEW* Claymore 1: In a world where demonic Yoma menace humans, the Claymore, an all-female group of human/Yoma hybrids, are the only line of defence against them. In this episode, our cool and distant heroine Clare (it’s almost refreshing that she has so little personality since she just gets on with the job with giving any reason to any) protects a village from a Yoma and picks up a sidekick, Raki, along the way. Whilst Raki is presumably there to add a little humanity to the show, he seems like he’ll be an annoyingly chirpy presence, and so ideally I could do without him. Overall, however, despite the rather generic nature of this first episode, I’m oddly drawn to the series, and want to watch more- in the meantime, the manga can be acquired.

*COMPLETE* The Gargoyle of the Yoshinagas 13: Alas, despite waiting so long for it to be subbed, it seemed almost inevitable that the finale of Gargoyle could be nothing other than a disappointment. Whilst the ‘war’ between the shopping district and the department store heats up, various villains emerge for their final appearances, and Osiris turns into a final boss, before everything magically goes back to normal with little effort on the part of our heroes. Gargoyle started well enough, but it’s a sad fact that the story and setting weren’t even enough to keep me entertained for a mere thirteen episodes.

*NEW* Heroic Age 1: Ah, the heroic age, an age of heroes…or at least one hero, a feral boy living on a planet with a computer for a ‘mother’. In this episode, various members of a spaceship are sent down to find him, only for disaster to strike when a giant monster attacks. To be honest, in general it was hard to know (or care) exactly what was going on in this episode, but for that reason there’s a slight compulsion to watch episode two in order to get some handle on events. That being said, if it takes a long time to be subbed, my enthusiasm for the show will probably have long dissipated.

*NEW* Hitohira 1: I had low hopes for what seemed to be the HARD YURI Tsuyokiss of the season, but having watched the first episode I can say that while it is by no means particularly good, it wasn’t as awful as I was expecting. The series sees our lead, a girl so nervous she is unable to speak sometimes, end up joining the drama club after she reveals that on occasion, she can project with an extremely loud voice. Although there is clearly HARD YURI and angst in the works, it wasn’t to the level of painfulness that I had braced myself for, and so this was a rather inoffensive twenty-five minutes. I don’t know how long I’ll continue with the series, but for now it can stay.

*NEW* Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS 1: Nanoha, Fate and the rest are back, only this time they’re no longer nine years old, ensuring that the fanboys must abandon the loli factor and focus exclusively on the HARD YURI elements. In this episode, our usual heroines take a step back from the action, which instead spotlights up and coming mages Subaru and Teana as they take the class B mage test. Although the battle scenes aren’t bad, it’s somewhat like watching a tutorial and wanting to get onto the game proper. Unfortunately next episode seems to be a rather slow-paced HARD YURI piece, so it may be a while before we actually get to the good stuff (good being relative since I’m not a drooling fanboy).

Nodame Cantabile 10: It’s a relatively inoffensive episode this time around, with Chiaki preparing to play a Rachmaninoff piece under Stresemann, whilst Nodame and the others decide to put on a costume orchestra for the upcoming music festival. Happily, Stresemann should be leaving Japan for a while after this, whilst the mystery of why Nodame wears an animal costume in the ED is finally answered when she dresses up as a mongoose for the festival.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms 43: After a gruelling absence, everyone’s favourite (soon to be second favourite) Three Kingdoms series is back, and this time the cunning and crafty Zhou Yu (now given an odd eye twitch due to the poor animation) tries to kill the noble and righteous Zhuge Liang by getting him to bet his life on whether he can assemble 100,000 arrows in three days. Can the omniscient Zhuge meet this challenge? Of course he can! I was worried HARD GAY had evolved too much since I last watched the series for it to be funny, but fortunately this was one of the more hilarious instalments.

Saiunkoku Monogatari 37-8: As SaiMono nears its end, I find myself both sad that it will soon be over, and happy that season 2 will quickly erase any possibility of withdrawal. In these two episodes, Shuurei and Ensei try to figure out a sustainable industry for the province, before Shuurei goes home as the representative for the New Year festival. Although these two episodes aren’t the most eventful we’ve seen, they are still as addictive as ever, with a satisfying scene in which Shuurei presents herself to the emperor as the governor- a reminder of how far she’s come since we first met her way back in episode one.

Shounen Onmyouji 15: Contrary to my expectations, the evil onryou actually gets exorcised in this episode, which starts off as a budget saving exposition and recap piece before actually showing us some action. Meanwhile, the plans of the inexplicably evil woman move forward, but who is she and what does she want?

MANGA

Bokurano 39-40: Anko’s story continues in these two chapters, which sees the team in charge of Zearth try to counter the information leaked to the press, only for someone to get the scoop in before them by putting a fake pilot on TV. Now the only option may be to let a camera crew into Zearth’s cockpit for the latest battle, but how can they disguise the fact the pilot dies after the enemy has been defeated? Another excellent pair of chapters from this consistently good series, but as always the painful part is waiting for more.

*NEW/DROPPED* Lucky Star 1-4: With everyone getting excited about KyoAni’s adaptation of this, I thought I’d take a look at what this 4Koma is all about, but unfortunately, it is not to my tastes. A poor man’s Ichigo Mashimaro, Lucky Star lacks the appeal of that series, with its jokes having potential but losing much in the delivery, whilst the artwork is all too reminiscent of the Shana manga. And no, there isn’t any crazy wild loli yuri sex in it.

School Rumble 219: The end of the second year may be in sight, but the end of School Rumble has gone far away by this point, as Hanai and Tougou run for student council president, and little else happens. I keep reading because I feel that someone has to find out what happens, but these latest chapters are making the content that went into anime season two look good.

*NEW* Shirley Madison 1-2: After Sasa kindly pointed out its existence, I’ve been able to get my hands on the first two chapters of this sequel to Kaoru Mori’s Shirley, which tells the continuing adventures of Cranry Bennett and her thirteen year old maid Shirley. In these two chapters, Cranry and Shirley discover some old records and stay up all night dancing, before having to deal with a stubborn old window that won’t shut on a particularly stormy day. It may sound simplistic, but if Shirley left you with a desire for a more, you’ll want to pick up this gentle and charming story.

Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle 148-9: After Syaoran tries to stop Sakura from going to another world by herself, we cut to a mysterious long-haired woman trapped in a tower as she is given the choice to save either herself or her ‘other self’. Upon choosing herself, Ashura comes to save her, whilst back in Infinity, Fye stabs Sakura due to a curse that causes him to attack anyone who is stronger than he is (remember that his magic was halved when Syaoran-clone took his eye, so the feather Sakura just got was enough to tip the balance). Even so, the blood spurting out of her doesn’t seem to be fatal, as she is about to go to another world via Chi’s power.

Anything in red probably won’t be touched, blue will be watched for at least a few weeks, and black is indifferent/undecided. Edit: the blue got messed up when I pasted from Word so it may not be entirely correct.

• Keitai Shoujo: Five girls, one average 17 year old high school student, a mission to get a girlfriend…haven’t we been here before? It sounds like the most contrived harem ever.
• Doujin Work: It’s based on a 4-koma comedy about a girl who starts drawing doujins, so it could either be amusing in an Azumanga-esque way, or more likely, completely dull and random.
• Burst Angel OVA: I’d like to forget that I ever watched Burst Angel, but a small particle of curiosity suggests that I might like to watch this OVA. At least Meg isn’t exposing as much flesh this time, although her fashion sense is still questionable.
• Hitohira: A shy girl who gets so nervous that she can’t even speak gets recruited into the drama club- I get the feeling it’s going to be a painful procession of the main character messing up, angsting about it and occasionally getting it right when the plot allows. My ‘pain sense’ indicates that this will be about as enjoyable as a Tsuyokiss and Gokujou Seitokai marathon.
• Murder Princess: It’s a Bee Train OVA, and I should know better by now, but it won’t be the first time I’ve watched something just because I liked the promo artwork. Apparently a bounty hunter ends up in the body of a princess and takes over her role, which probably means the whole thing is just stills of her sitting in the castle.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann: It has mecha, cheerfully generic looking characters, and since it’s from Gainax, there’ll probably be some blatant advertising references to Evangelion as well. I may watch the first episode out of curiosity, but I don’t see my relationship with this show being a lengthy one.
• Hayate the Combat Butler: A boy gets sold to the yakuza, and then becomes a butler; I can’t say it interests me in itself, but when a title gets mentioned a lot prior to its release I tend to end up checking it out just to see what all the fuss is about.
• Gegege no Kitaro: A remake/continuation of a series that started 14 years before I was born…I don’t think I’ll bother.
• Seto no Hanayome: Man is forced to marry mermaid, his family tries to break up the relationship whilst remaining unaware that she even is a mermaid…even if they aren’t really alike, I can’t help thinking of Urusei Yatsura, and even that vague hint of similarity is enough to keep me away.
• Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS: The lolis are all grown up, but they’re back for another 26 episodes- if it’s anything like its predecessors or that dull manga that came out a while back, the story won’t be much to write home about, but somehow when the animation is this good, I don’t mind.
• Heroic Age: An age of heroes that look an awful lot like every other hero designed by Hisashi Hirai, with Eiji “KirAthruShinn” as the Destined Lead. It just sounds too generic too be worthy.
• Touka Gettan: It seems to be a spin-off of an adult OVA from 2001, and that’s about all I know. The artwork looks nice, though.
• El Cazador: It’s Bee Train’s latest girls with guns series, and even after getting burned with Madlax and to a lesser extent Avenger (not to mention the general dullness of Tsubasa season 2 and .hack//Roots), I know I’m going to end up watching it.
• Idol Master Xenoglossia: Take one game in which you turn one of ten girls into an idol, and change the story so that they are now mecha pilots. The fact that it’s produced by Sunrise makes me wary that it’s going to be another Otome/Destiny/Code Geass but I quite like the character designs, and may just be persuaded to watch the first episode.
• Saint Beast – Kouin Jojishi Tenshi Tan: When I first saw all the bishies I thought it was going to be something like Angelique, but it actually looks to be a prequel to a series about good angels fighting evil angels who escaped their seal. I’m guessing it will be all bishies and not much substance.
• Wellber no Monogatari- Sisters of Wellber: A princess stabs her groom in protest at an arranged marriage and goes off to have HARD YURI with her bodyguard. Just reading the synopsis of this made me fall asleep, so I don’t anticipate it being anything special.
• Ohedo Rocket: I’m not entirely sure, but this seems to be about fireworks makers in the Edo era; perhaps it should be applauded for originality, but the character designs look fairly childish and it generally lacks appeal.
• Sakura Taisen- New York: I know it isn’t great, but I have a certain fondness for what I’ve seen of the Sakura Taisen franchise, so I may as well give this OVA a go.
• Kiss Dum- Engage Planet: A destined hero fights against invading aliens and a female scientist finds a mysterious book- it’s like a cut and paste of ideas we’ve seen many times before. Even the character designs seem generic.
• Shining Tears X: I already said that no good can come of RPG adaptations, and apparently Shining Tears has been called the “worst RPG ever”. I must try to resist the lure of those character designs.
• Claymore: Last year I read a review of Claymore, and I have to admit it didn’t sound great- if it’s just going to be girls with swords having HARD YURI I’m not too interested, but if it turns out to be female Berserk, maybe it will be worthy.
• Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku wo: By the looks of it, this eroge adaptation is the season’s answer to YoakeNa, although hopefully not quite as awful as that. Still, I’ve learned my lesson about this kind of light entertainment (for the time being, anyway).
• Shinkyouku Soukai Polyphonica: Based on the title, I thought this was going to be about collecting polyphonic ringtones (gotta download ‘em all) but it actually seems to be a love story set in a world where fairies live on music. I may have to watch the beginning out of curiosity, but it sounds a little too sickly sweet for me.
• OverDrive: All I know is that it’s a sports anime and the lead looks like Kazuki from Busou Renkin, but since I’ve never been a fan of straight-up sports anime, I won’t be starting on this one.
• Romeo X Juliet: It may look like Romeo x Firiel from Good Witch on the promo image, but sheer curiosity drives me to try this anime adaptation of the one Shakespeare play everyone knows inside out. I have to admit that my expectations are not particularly high, however.
• Kishin Taisen Gigantic Formula: Not, as you might imagine, one of New Wang’s signature products, but a series in which teenagers pilot giant robots in a post apocalyptic world in order to establish a new world order. Couldn’t they have found a less clichéd way to do it- even having chickens pecking each other would be more exciting.
• Kotetsushin Jeeg: This appears to be a spin-off of a retro robo series from 1975- shouldn’t the franchise have long been laid to rest by now?
• Nagasarete Airantou: A boy gets stranded on a tropical island with only girls- could this be the ultimate evolution of the harem genre? The character designs alone give an indication of just how many times we’ve seen this set of characters before, and there’s no real need to see them again.
• Koutetsu Sangokushi: I’m almost finished with ROTK, so maybe this should be my next stop for Three Kingdoms related material…only apart from the fact that it has Liu Bei et al in it (dammit ANN, give their Chinese names, I can’t work with the Japanese ones), I have no clue what it’s about.
• Kamichama Karin: I never did get around to reading the manga, but I have the feeling it may be almost unbearably sugary for my tastes- however the character designs look nice, and the cat may be a descendant of Mikoto. Since I periodically have to satisfy odd cravings for this kind of magical girl/romance series, I may have to give it a try.
• Darker than Black – Kuro no Keiyakusha: Hell’s Gate appears, and people gain evil powers- hopefully in the hands of Studio Bones this can be turned into something compelling instead of laughably brooding and angsty.
• Saiunkoku Monogatari series 2:Yes, this has already started airing, and yes, I haven’t even finished the first season yet, but more SaiMono can only be a good thing. If one of my favourites from 2006 can continue for even longer, all the better.
• Lovely Complex: Tall girl and short guy- are just good friends or will they develop into something more? Since I recently got my fix of generic shoujo with Tenshi Nanka Janai, I don’t think I really need to bother with this since it just looks like something along the same lines.
• Furusato Japan: A movie set in a Tokyo elementary school in 1956; I can’t say I’ll ever get round to watching it but it sounds like it might be quite charming in a Whisper of the Heart sort of way.
• Seirei no Moribito: A prince is chosen to guard a magical egg, an older woman becomes his bodyguard to protect him- nothing about the story really screams “watch me” so I’ll probably just let it fade into obscurity.
• Terra E…: A remake of an 1980 series that was itself based on a classic manga, this is classic sci-fi as we all know and love it (or not, as the case may be), complete with powerful computer systems and psychic children. The character designs are a little simplistic for my tastes, but the sci-fi fan in me wants to watch this anyway.
• Blue Dragon: Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe this is a game adaptation with character designs by Akira Toriyama- whatever the case, it looks a little too childish for my tastes.
• Kaze no Shoujo Emily: A novel based series about a typical free-spirited girl who ends up living with her strict aunt- why do I get the feeling it’s going to be as painfully predictable as the anime version of Les Miserables?
• Kiddy Grade Ignition: And so the Kiddy Grade movies begin…character designs aside, I didn’t have much in the way of good things to say about the series, so I’ll probably let this one slip by.
• Eikoku Koi Monogatari Emma- Molders Hen: Also known as Victorian Romance Emma Season Two, this is something I’ve been looking forward to ever since I first heard about it. Emma is an excellent series, and provided second season syndrome doesn’t strike, this should be the continuation we’ve all been waiting for.
• sola: Apparently it’s about a boy who likes the sky- and that’s all I know. The character designs seem to have been ripped off from several other series but that in itself is an invitation to watch, for with its undefined plot and Engrish title, it surely has to be laughably bad if nothing else.
• Bokurano: In manga form, Bokurano is one of my favourites, and so I was overjoyed when I heard it was getting an anime- right up until I learned that Gonzo were in charge. I’m fervently praying that they don’t mess up this adaptation, although with the manga still unfinished I can see it diverging at some point anyway.
• Lucky Star: Another 4-koma based series, seemingly based on the little things that make up our day to day lives. Here’s hoping for the next Azumanga.
• Bakugan Battle Brawlers: Here it is, the show we’ve all been waiting for- Bakugan Battle Brawlers! Join generic shounen hero and his friends as they persuade you to buy cheap plastic toys by battling with them! Yes, it’s the spiritual successor to Beyblade and B-Daman, yet a part of me wants to watch and have a good laugh at how hilariously bad it will inevitably turn out to be.
• Kaibutsu Oujo: A demon princess resurrects the main character and the resulting bond means he has to fight monsters on her behalf- I’m not entirely convinced this can bring us anything we haven’t seen before but I may try it out if early impressions are favourable.
• Kaze no Stigma: Could this be the next Shana? Is that even a good thing? The character designs look quite appealing but I sense a generic story lurking behind them.
• Ookiku Furikabutte: Another sports series, this one about a baseball team. I think I can live quite happily without ever touching it.
• Kino no Tabi the Beautiful World Country of Illness -For You: It’s been a while, but at last we’re getting another Kino movie. I’m wholeheartedly looking forward to it.
• Shakugan no Shana Movie: Perhaps this movie will help impart some point to the Balle Masque organisation, but even if it’s just “heroes band together to fight powerful but previously unmentioned evil”, I’ll probably watch it just for the sake of completeness.
• AIKa R-16- Virgin Mission: An OVA about a female salvager, some high school girls…and a pair of large breasts. It looks a lot like the ocean-based version of Stratos 4 (sans fat cat), and so it can probably be passed over without loss.
• Skullman: “Skullman, Skullman, does whatever a Skull can…” Self-indulgence aside, I can’t help but laugh every time I see a picture of Skullman, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting to see this, or hoping that it will turn out to be worthy.