New Year's Resolutions

The real reason has nothing to do with danger. It's all glory.

It's 9:36 PM, and I realize that I haven't compiled a list of New Year's resolutions. Better late than whatever. Besides, making lists is fun! Here we go...

1. I will learn how to unplug Setsuna from Makoto.

Don't laugh. I spent the better half of five minutes wiggling round the cord. My boyfriend comes and unplugs the thing in two seconds. I feel like an idiot.

2. I will get a job and buy more anime.

Because really, I feel kind of pathetic. Meh.

3. I will actually finish something that I get a great idea for in the middle of the night.

Does this need explanation?

4. I will explain to my boyfriend that the ouji-sama act is freaking me out.

I think I've been making him watch too many shoujo series or something. Seriously. I'm sorry!

5. I will convince my mother that ordering things off the internet is not going to kill me.

And she will not guilt me into waiting for the comic shops to get whatever it is I want in, if they ever do. She will not.

6. I will realize that just because making a first impressions post got me readers does not mean that I should get a swelled head, feel like I fit in even though I'd rather be making lists and commentaries, and start doing it all the time.

...Half that should have been in the explanation.

7. I will get a new wallpaper.

That one with Osaka and the knife is freaking me out.

8. I will get my boyfriend something half-decent for his birthday...

...to make up for "forgetting" last year, and by "forgetting" I mean "taking revenge for the Friend Magnet Fiasco". He did get me that nice wallscroll. Even though getting a magical girl fan Card Captor Sakura is a bit of a cop-out.

9. I will post more.

If anything interesting happens.

10. Hm... I dunno... What should I do?

I'll think of something.

Happy New Year from Jisu (Sana Jisushi) at Not With A! Have a good year! And I dunno, let some dark-haired man into your house, eat Southern American food, I dunno. Apparently you do that.

Christmas suggestions

Merry Christmas, everyone!

So it's Christmas Eve, and I'm sitting here reading everybody else's blog. Then I wondered, what else could be done to spread cheer to the sphere? (Stop rhyming, for one.) So I went and hunted down a few things with which to pass the time and feel all fuzzy inside doing it. Not in the way that means you just ate mold, but... aw, man, I ruined it again. Forget that last mental image. Let's move on to Jisu's Master List of Seasonally Appropriate or Universal Things with Which to Pass the Time!

*Watch the worst Christmas special you can find and laugh at it. Classic.

*Wrapping paper tube wars. If no one else is around, challenge your door or your hug pillow to a duel.

*If you think you are pathetic for spending Christmas alone with your anime, play this game and be reminded that you, at least, would not fall to the level of the laughable protagonist. Even for Misato.

*Throw snow at people's garage doors. Garage doors are pretty stable and won't break or get you sued.

*Try to get your Merry Christmas entry in before everyone else! (I fail at this.)

*Play "guess what your clueless family got you". (No offense to clueless families. Mine at least is made of very nice people. Even my brother can be nice when he wants to be. Which is still rare.)

Alternately, you could watch a bunch of Christmas episodes. Here are my personal favourites.

*Tokyo Mew Mew (2-parter) Score one for canon pairings!

*Kaitou Saint Tail What a cute series.

*Digimon Adventure 02 Remember that one?

*Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's (Most of the second half) Not really a typical "Christmas special", but that series rocked.

Now that I have effectively wasted your time, merry Christmas, everyone!

Freedom- First Impressions

The picture has nothing to do with Freedom. I should probably find one that does.

So here we have my first "first impressions" post of the winter. I actually have no idea what this is or even if it's new, though. I was just minding my own business, wondering why no one was seeding Digimon Adventure, when I came across this download and figured I would check it out. Turns out Freedom is a racing anime set in a restricted society on the moon. Fun!

300 years in the future, Takeru dreams of racing a... weird-looking vehicle he and his friends are working on, and of impressing his longtime object of admiration, Chiyo, and beating his rival, Taira (who has a bandage on his nose all the time for some reason). He's about to graduate from a school that puts a curfew on its students enforced by monitor bracelets and reinforced metal gates, takes career aspiration sheets from students and puts them in completely different fields for the rest of their lives, and treats every step out of line as a major Crime Against Society. Citizens' lives are completely regulated once they're in their jobs, just like in the school. The period in between is called freedom, for obvious reasons: it's the people's one chance to do what they want to do. Oh, and... they're on the moon. Turns out that 160-some years ago, global warming killed off everyone on Earth. The colonies on the Moon created their own messed-up society called Eden, which will forever remind me of EDEN from Galaxy Angel. It's supposed to be a replica of the live-on-able Earth. (Brain too tired to conjugate.)

Takeru's got a bit of trouble with his modified vehicle, making him crash- the higher-ups force him to do community service for "endangering the colony". There was no one else on the road!- An old man with a love of the past shows up and gives him a new engine. Takeru almost wins! ...of course, he uses the unstable boost, goes down the wrong path and loses to Taira right in front of Chiyo-Blob. Next time. In a fit of anger, during solitary community service, he looks up to rant out the sun... and sees a tiny metal pod fall from space. Inside is a note that reads "We are safe. Is anybody out there?" On the back is a picture of a girl looking after a bunch of kids... and Takeru seems to have forgotten Chiyo already. Men.

The animation for this is really unique. Very western, and cel-shaded. If I saw this on TV, I wouldn't mark it as anime. It's more like that Skyland thing on Teletoon that I need to get around to watching because it looked cool. The animation's decent, too, besides being unique. There was just something about Chiyo's character design that struck me as off, though. Well, she's a moe blob, whatever.

That was an interesting excursion. This OAV better stay this good, or get better. Until next time~

Conversations on... a topic covered by everyone else today

So she scares me. Still.

Jisu says:

So it turns out Kadokawa's also got Bandai. Did you see the promotional video?

Hane? Kawaii Hane! says:

thatwas the most retarded thing ever

Jisu says:

That's why it was so cool!

Hane? Kawaii Hane! says:

....

Jisu says:

BECAUSE it sucked. XD;

Hane? Kawaii Hane! says:

no it wasn't

Jisu says:

Was so.

Hane? Kawaii Hane! says:

the girl was lame

Jisu says:

Come on. Yuki sucked, but Haruhi was awesome. Maybe a bit over the top, but awesome.

Hane? Kawaii Hane! says:

right when she tried to say otaku i had to turn it off

Jisu says:

You suck. I liked it. XD;

Hane? Kawaii Hane! says:

meh


Clearly, Leo-chan, you suck. In a way that means you are still awesome.

In other news, I finally got added to Anime Nano. Praise to the first person that guesses where my blog icon's from. I need to make a new one. Updated with one from my Yoakena icon claim.

My amusement for the day

More fearsome than the cabbage.

So I was looking for something to do when I found this. It's a fighting game. You put two names in, click the start button, and they start fighting each other. Of course, I had to play with it. Check out my results...

Perfect Isn't Easy

Feena Fam Earthlight VS Takamizawa Natsuki

Take that, perfect princess! Now if she could only beat the anime production team.

Ugu~ asa da yo!

Tsukimiya Ayu VS Minase Nayuki

Of course, we already knew this.

Long-Standing Battle

Me VS Peppers

I suppose I will still have to eat them now...

So yeah, an interesting diversion. It amused my friends, anyway. And by that, I mean that my boyfriend thought it was a riot and the one other person that was on kept putting herself in to face the rest of us and tackled me when she lost to me.

Next Year Picks

Hey, my brother left ten cents in my room.

Sorry for the slow updates, but seriously, now. There's pretty much no news to cover, except maybe Gundam Pocky. Oh, and vote the cabbage for SaiGAR. The sucky animation compels you.

I guess now that I did a preview for next season, I should say what I want to watch. So why not have a watchlist for all of next year? Everyone else is doing it.

I'm looking out for...

Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight!

Cute. So, so cute.

Winter Garden

Dejiko in love! Puchiko in a generic uniform!

Strike Witches

Maybe. If only for the "Tokyo Mew Mew with military weapons" factor.

Yes! Precure 5

I'm in magical girl withdrawal.

Saint October

Maybe. If it doesn't suck.

Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS

Please be as good as your predecessors. And more megane Yuuno-kun.

Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoushitsu

No explanation needed.

Kamichama Karin

That manga is so darn cute.

This is obviously going to grow, what with the rumoured 70+ titles coming in Spring. Let's hope for a good year!

Suzumiya Haruhi wills a mass publicity stunt today

Yuki is amused at best.

Two pieces of Haruhi news which I'm sure you've heard already (darn Yoakena icon challenge, taking up my time before I can post): the viral marketing of the mysterious possible licensing, and the protesting little girl. Finally, the official site is down on purpose. If I could get my hands on that French article, I'd translate it, but sadly, my own publicity stunt has been thwarted. It appears, though, that all of this was orchestrated on the same day on purpose... according to Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoushitsu, the basis for the next season, December 18 was "the day" three years ago. These guys are having a field day with us, I'm sure.

Still, one thing's left, and that's wo wait til Friday to learn officially that Haruhi got licensed, and by who. My bets are on ADV (apparently they've done viral marketing before, they've already got Full Metal Panic, and what else would the A stand for?), but we'll have to see. I just hope it's someone good. If it is ADV, I hope they have better communication in their production team (remember Angelic Layer's "Alice"?) and they teach their voice actors to pronounce the names. (Still, don't dump on the ADV/Funimation voice actor team. Everyone's been doing that lately, and I actually like these guys. I listen to the commentaries and recording videos with pride.)

I forgot what else I was going to say. It'll come. Eventually.

Portable Moe: Cliche at the push of a button

She won Saimoe, she gets to be this entry's poster girl.

I thought I knew what ridiculous was, until this day. Bandai is capitalizing on eight well-known moe stock characters with Soundrop Moe, a set of eight keychains, one for each girl. Press the button and the imouto squeals for her oniichan, the catgirl nya-s like she just saw a fish and the childhood friend asks you if you're awake yet. Along with those three, the set also includes a maid, a tsunderekko, a clumsy girl, a rich girl, and an underclassman. The maid looks suspiciously familiar, but I can't place it... I guess that's my ridiculous quotient fulfilled for the next three days. They should make some of these for girls. Who wouldn't want to have a keychain on her purse so she could hear "That doesn't concern you", "Are you all right?" or "I've been working on something lately..." Give the last one glasses and cute hair and you've got yourself 200-some yen.

Wild, Ridiculous Nanoha Speculation

Cute...

Of course, I'm looking forward to Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS. However, all we have to learn about it are promo pictures, the A's epilogue and the manga (which has mainly just provided us with ChronoxAmy anyway... I never liked that pairing. It's like saying a girl and a guy can't be friends without dating). As such, I hopped on my dear computer Makoto and went looking around for fan speculation. I added a bit more of my own original content, too. I now present to you my convoluted findings in point form. Once information on the series is finally released, I hope to look back on this and point out what people have guessed correctly... and laugh at the rest. Fun, fun.

Jisu's Completely Fan-Based, Probably Totally Inaccurate Findings on Nanoha StrikerS

*The series opens with a duel between Signum and Fate; Fate wipes the floor with her.

*The new evil comes to destroy the world without alerting the magical higher-ups until it's too late; therefore, they involve themselves in government conspiracies and such, dealing only with the physical world. Kyouya, Miyuki and possibly Shirou investigate this with their cool sword fighting power. Halfway through the series, they team up with Nanoha and the Bureau because a combination of physical and magical fighting is necessary to defeat the enemy.

*If Shirou is not fighting alongside his kids, he has died like his Toraha alternate.

*The first sign of magic comes from a sighting of a ghostly little girl. The spirit of Alicia has come, blaming Nanoha and Fate for her mother's insanity and death. Fate is afraid to fight her original/sister, but Nanoha puts her heart into it and defeats her. It turns out that this spirit was a fake meant to keep the girls from wanting to fight. They are left wondering who would know them this well.

*The Wolkenritter's past and the Belkan culture are delved into for a whole three episodes' worth of flashback, possibly involving time travel. The Wolkenritter turn out to have been human knights who wished for immortality and something to devote their lives to, and were transformed into programs by the yaten no madousho. Shamal had a love interest in the past who returns with Nanoha and the crew to the future to fight.

*The cast is fleshed out with at least three more magical girls, two magical boys on the side of the enemy, their cute familiars, the great evil leader, and Fiasse Crystela.

*Nanoha finds a mysterious kodachi in her family home and uses it to dual-wield with Raising Heart's new Sword Mode so she can be like her older siblings. The sword turns out to be legendary. Somehow.

*There will be a badly animated swimsuit episode that looks like any other for the first 3/4 of the episode, but then incorporates some major plot point at the end.

*Chrono gets a squad car. Or space pod. Something like that. Everybody stops mooching off Suzuka for rides.

*Yuuno and/or Lindy start to notice something strange about Suzuka and Alisa. They turn out to have a weak magical aptitude, and participate in the final battle, even if it's just throwing sparks around and hoping something hits.

*Precia's mysterious unseen husband resurfaces when he learns that a clone of his daughter has been running around on Earth for the past 7 years. He proves a valuable source of exposition.

*Fate, as an investigator, is called in to solve a mystery that eventually ties into the main plot.

*Hayate is kidnapped by the enemies, leaving the Wolkenritter without a master. (This probably leads into the time travel arc.) Hayate may be possessed or duplicated while kidnapped; this turns the Wolkenritter against the Bureau, who regret that they have no choice to fight their friends.

*That white coat that Fate is wearing over her barrier jacket in the promo spread in Megami? Either it's got some sentimental value (Precia's labcoat while working on either Project Yggdra or Project Fate?), it's an upgrade to her barrier jacket, or she has to wear a lab coat on duty for some reason... Let's hope she's not been dissecting things.

*One of the magical boys on the enemy side has the power to jam the Bureau's communications and/or telepathy.

*The trio will be separated and have to fight their way out of a trap or maze alone.

*Hayate finds a Lost Logia that can destroy the world; the bad guys want it.

*Reinforce II flashes back to the destruction that the yami no shou caused.

*The main bad guy isn't the real main bad guy. He/she is being manipulated by the spirit of Precia, robbed of the way to Al Hazard and seeking revenge against Nanoha.

...Wow, that would make a great fanfiction. If someone thinks this is real, I will laugh at them, but if Seven Arcs does this, I will more than likely be awed. Keep going, everyone!

Mai is wonderful, glasses are too. What could go wrong?

Well, it's that time again. Time to preview the coming anime of the winter season. Of course, I'll still be keeping whatever's on my watch list that spills over. So, everyone, keep an eye out for these!

Amazing Nuts!

An OVA coming this month. The art is really interesting, postmodern and colourful. But what is it? I have... absolutely no idea.

Genshiken OVA

Never seen Genshiken.

CATBLUE: DYNAMITE

Catblue, a catwoman with a blue tail firing three guns at once. The entire trailer's in English, and at least the main character seems to be voiced by a native English speaker.

Winter Garden

A serious version of Di Gi Charat? Well, we've had an overly cute one and the regular kind, so why not? Puchiko looks like a generic shoujo heroine, but Dejiko just looks weird... still, I may very well pick this up.

Rozen Maiden Ouvertüre

I must finish the series on time for this dark, shiny-looking OVA featuring Suigintou.

Strike Witches

This is the winter of OVAs. Or is it always like this? Hm, what's Strike Witches about? Take Tokyo Mew Mew, add fanservice, cross with military weapons. Girls born with magic have weapons installed in their bodies to fight an alien invasion, and they transform and gain weapon parts (this one girl has missiles for legs). The art reminds me of Ichigo Mashimaro.

Saint October

Why they didn't air this in October is beyond me. It's a "neo-gothic action story" with three gothloli girls that solve paranormal mysteries. The main girl, Hayama Kotono, is a cheery girl with a dark secret. Hijiri Misaki, a pink-haired girl with Old West guns, gets my vote for best character design.

Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora

Pink! And feathers! And a megane-kun, although the "I will take over the world" kind rather than the cute and quiet kind. They have a maid, too. Bleh to maids. Story! In a post-apocalyptic world, there's a giant city where people aspire to study (we know this because it is called Academia). Shiratori Ku keeps dreaming about a prince. Then he shows up. Wait, this is based on a shounen manga?

Deltora Quest

Based on a series of Australian children's books. This is a fantasy about a group of travelers searching for 7 jewels, one for each letter of the country's name, something like that. That Lief kid looks weird...

MAJOR

I've never heard of this, but apparently it's moving into its third season. Baseball, what more do you need?

Kamisama Kazoku

I've heard of this before. Family of gods from classical mythology moves into the human world, along with the son's guardian angel and close friend. The son tries to make a classmate like him without using magic.

Les Misérables: Shoujo Cosette

Mandy, are you reading this?

SHUFFLE! MEMORIES

I still need to see the original SHUFFLE! since I heard it's good.

Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight!

Why Manabi Straight? Why not Manabi Crooked? Or Manabi Kinda Circular-Ish? Anyway, this looks like an adorable comedy to get into. It's in the future, where people have managed to slow down the birth rate... but now there's too few children. Geez, if it's not one thing it's the other.

Project BLUE Chikyuu SOS

Must be the second part of that OVA series.

Nodame Cantabile

The manga's licensed by Del Rey, anyone read it? A talented musician with a fear of traveling and a history of being overlooked meets a wild girl who shows him that music is for fun, not prestige.

Hidamari Sketch

A slice-of-life series set in an art school. Look at that art. It's really cute, but a bit overly so. Hey, that one girl has Cider's hairstyle!

Venus Versus Virus

A girl finds a brooch that gives her the power of a demon. Action, guns and a creepy blue-haired person with an eyepatch.

FLAG "Channel"

Don't quote me on that. Darn katakana. Anyway, it's a second season of FLAG.

Koisuru Tenshi Angelique ~Kagayaki no Ashita~

Yes! Someone please sub this. e-e;

Tokyo Majin Gakuen Kenpucho Tou

More demons. A school full of demons. What's the draw of demons? Tell me now.

Today In Class 5-2

What happens in Class 5-2? A bunch of grade fives that look like they're thirty having random adventures... wait, didn't this air last spring and no one noticed?

_summer

Those character designs look familiar. I guess this is the only ren'ai conversion series brave enough to air after this fall made people sick of them? Well, Kanon's continuing, of course, but you get my drift.

Okane ga Nai

Here you go, yaoi fangirls, I mentioned it. Now get out.

Maria-sama ga Miteru OVA II

Have any of you even seen this? Me neither.

Getsumen Toheiki Mina

Kujibiki Unbalance did horribly, what makes the Genshiken people think this one will work?

Himawari!! sequel

A sequel. To something. I have no idea.

GR -GIANT ROBO-

Well, you can tell what this is about.

Master of Epic The Animation Age

More like Master of Engrish. It'd still backronym to MOE, and it would make more sense! Based on an MMORPG. The art looks fun though.

Tengen Toppa Gurren-lagann

Hello, generic shounen series. Guess that's what's taking over this season?

Hello Kitty

For those of you that like your cuteness fix.

Juso Kiko Dancouga Nova

Mecha. I do like the uniforms.

Yes! Precure 5

Futari wa Pretty Cure is running out of titles...

Rocket Girls

Finally, we have three girls in space. And one of them likes to run around in a hula skirt and bikini. What?

Also! Dengeki Daiou has stated that they will be publishing major Suzumiya Haruhi news at year's end. I think we all know what it is...

Ugu!

All, right, everybody, tenth entry! Woohoo! Now I can submit this blog to RSS things. Of course, technically I had more than ten entries before the move, but whatever. To celebrate, I figured I'd immerse us all in the spectacle of the current season (and by that I mean fall anime, but I don't want to say fall, because it's winter). I need to get myself organized, too. So, I present...

Things To Do Before I Die New Year's Comes, And With It, Winter TV

1) Make like Hinano Ayu. Go to the Asian grocery store and pick up some taiyaki. Go to every Asian grocery store in your area if you must to find some. Then warm it up, get a paper bag and carry it across town, eating some as you go. Note: stealing the taiyaki is not encouraged.

2) Dye your doll's hair blue and dress it in red Victorian clothing.

3) Get out the caution tape from Halloween and tape it across your door when you're changing.

4) Prank call Pizza Hut asking about their support of the rebellion in Japan.

5) Get that plastic sword from when you were a knight in the play in grade four, hide in a random classroom until everyone has left the school, and roam the halls hunting demons.

6) Take your brother's million-candle watt flashlight, aim it at the moon, and spell out "Take your princess back, please" in Morse code.

7) When you beat everyone else in an exam, whisper "Niisan" and walk off. Offer no explanation.

8) Burn an ugly flag with a lion and a snake on it in front of the nearest legislative building.

9) If you are in band, play your instrument in the school hallway. If you are not, I would say to borrow someone else's, but I was in band and can tell you that that is just unsanitary. Even with clarinet cleaner, my clarinet left a weird stain on my dresser that is there to this day. So you get off free on this one.

10) Wear a pink toque and squeal "Onegai Monster Ball!" at small animals.

11) Sneak up to someone in a cardboard box, throw it off and declare your everlasting grudge against this person. Double points if it's some kid from your old elementary school that you haven't seen in years or something along those lines, since you probably can't conform to the actual, spoilerish (even though it's been revealed now) situation.

12) Force your friends to do the Galaxy Angelrune line dance in public.

13) With the caution tape.

14) Play "guess the crossdresser" with random people on the street. Point out random girls and say they are guys when they are clearly not, and vice versa.

15) Dress your significant other's younger sibling as a younger version of you, and turn yourself into an older version of them. Gauge his/her reaction.

16) Cower in fear of small, cute baby chickens. Alternately, feed them and see if they will beat people up for you.

17) Pack your schedule full of intense physical training. When questioned, reply that you want to pilot your mecha in sub-light speed.

18) Record your alarm clock singing "Asa~ Asa da yo~ Asagohan takete gakkou iku yo~".

19) When your friend falls asleep in class, try and make them jump up and give a welcome speech from a restaurant. If they do not do this, fake it yourself.

20) Wear animal ears around school and try to get everyone else to do so.

21) Bother me because I haven't seen enough fall anime to do a more comprehensive list.

Got any suggestions? Send them here~