Azure Flame Reloaded

Spoiler Alert: look out for Chevalier, Fate/Stay Night and X TV spoilers this week.

It’s dangerous to stop playing Harvest Moon- once you give it a rest, you realise how tedious it is, and consequently don’t want to resume play. Nonetheless, I must get back to the game, for Anton’s story must surely be told.

Le Chevalier Orphe
Remember all those Meine Liebe crossovers I suggested when I was parodying the series? At the time, the list seemed complete, but in the interim, a new candidate has appeared- Le Chevalier Orphe! Continue Reading »

Real life truly can be pain sometimes; on Wednesday, I had to deal with water pouring through the ceiling thanks to a burst pipe (thankfully there was no lasting damage), and Thursday was the day of numerous power cuts thanks to Wind’s evil brother Snow. Hopefully matters will stabilise soon, before this becomes my personal woes blog.

Reviewed this week: Busou Renkin 18, Death Note 16, Kanon 18, Les Miserables 1, Nodame 3-4, Red Garden 14-15, SaiMono 30, Shounen Onmyouji 10-11

…and in manga: REC 26, Spiral 23-4, Spiral Alive 1, Tsubasa 142, Twin Spica 2

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Apologies for the sudden and unannounced hiatus; I know many of you will have experienced unpleasant withdrawal symptoms due to a lack of your daily Azure Flame, but I must assure you that this period has been equally painful for me as well. Due to a recent bout of gale force winds, some local power lines were damaged, and 2pm Thursday saw me thrust into a world not unlike the hell of Anton’s farming days. With the blackout extending as far as the local church, all I could do was sleep, listen to my mp3 player and read Kare Kano until the time came to depart for the weekend to a land of electricity but no internet access.

Anyway, if this has been posted, then obviously all is well again, and so I will try to catch up on missed posts and resume normal service.

I realise that I have inadvertently missed out on some chapters of the Higurashi manga, and that the download links for them have long since expired- due to this problem, reading and reviewing the Watanagashi and Tatarigoroshi arcssh is stalled for now.

Reviewed this week: Corda 6, Death Note 13, Kanon 15, Nodame 1, Red Garden 13, ROTK 38, SaiMono 25

…and in manga: .hack//GU+ 5, .hack//XXXX 1, Erementar Gerad 23, Gunslinger Girl 20-22, Higurashi Onikakushi 3, Nanoha StrikerS 3, Meine Liebe 6, Tsubasa 139-40 Continue Reading »

Thanks to some discussion on ikimashou.net, I now feel relieved of any need to buy the expensive 1/6 Feena figure and thus can now stop going on about it and get on with my life.

I still haven’t picked anything to watch from the new season, but maybe something will present itself soon.

Reviewed this week: Asatte no Houkou 10, Iroha 10, Busou Renkin 12-14, Chevalier 12, Kanon 14, Red Garden 12, Uta DVD Specials 1-2

…and in manga: Higurashi Onikakushi 2

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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.

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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 »

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 Continue Reading »

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

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I live by the five second rule, although I did once accidentally pick up a chilli peanut whilst trying to retrieve some chocolate.

Alas, real life has been getting in the way of blogging again- really, how dare it? All sorts of cruel conspiracies have come together to keep me away from the computer for crucial hours, and therefore I must apologise for the lack of content and quality this week, and promise that improvements will be forthcoming.

Reviewed this week: Asatte no Houkou 7, Busou Renkin 9, Corda d’Oro 4, Death Note 9, Kanon 9, Keroro 67-8, Otogi-jushi Akazukin 19-22, Red Garden 8, SaiMono 22

…and in manga: REC 20-22, Tsubasa 137

I won’t be watching or reviewing Code Geass 8.5; I don’t see any reason to knowingly expose myself to a recap episode. Continue Reading »

The cast of One Piece decide to search for the missing backgrounds.

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

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