Fortune Arterial

You all remember Yoake Mae Yori Ruriiro Na, right? Terrible anime, pretty game? Well, you may have heard that AugustSoft's new game, Fortune Arterial, comes out on January 25th. Stick with me for a moment and I'll show you all about it.

Yoakena was based upon one interesting, original girl and a bunch of other stock characters. This one is too, although instead of a moon princess moving into your house, we have a vampire transferring into the classroom next to yours in this prestigious institute. She keeps asking to drink your blood, and it's getting kind of creepy. So why are you actually starting to like her?

Well, it could be because she's Sendou Erika, a beautiful, graceful, superintelligent main character. She also looks to be pretty original for a vampire. She's not drywall or angsty or some combination of the two; she actually smiles, laughs a lot, is very curious and makes friends easily. Her voice samples are energetic and fun. I was worried a bit about August coasting off the vampire wave, but they're doing something new with it, so that's all right.

The first thing I noticed is that one of the characters looks like a loli Feena. Look up there. Sorry to disappoint you, but they did not actually recycle Feena. Her name is Tougi Shiro, and apparently she's a fourth-year in school, even though she looks about fourteen at the most. (Yes, I know that's not loli, but I said at the most.) She's shy, doesn't say much, and is part of the student council, along with her siscon older brother. So yeah, not Feena. She is cute, though.

The other characters are pretty standard, too. There's Kuze Kiriha, the lonely, ethereal drywall classmate, whom, if you didn't speak Japanese, you might think was the real vampire; Yuuki Haruna, the childhood friend who's been dying to confess to a "mystery person" (yeah right), and Yuuki Kanade, Haruna's doting older sister. The game also has a high percentage of male school friends: siscon student council guy, Erika's older brother (voiced by a foreigner named Kevin Spicy, but has decent pronunciation), and your rebellious slacker friend Tsukasa.

The CGs are on par with Yoakena's. Sample CGs are also a good indication of how good the game is; the fewer percentage are hentai, the better the game's story, and vice versa. Only three HCGs here, about the same as Yoakena had. Overall, looks good.

Yeah, thought you might be interested in that. I think the game looks pretty, myself. If they animate it, it needs to be better than Cabbage Love.

Kanon dub: Thoughts.

Yes, The Anime Network (ADV's privately-owned digital cable network, in case you didn't know) has put out a preview of Kanon, which will premiere on the 28th. (The first DVD comes out on New Year's.) The scene they use for the commercial, available on their site, is from the first episode; Nayuki goes grocery shopping and Yuuichi gets dragged off by Ayu. Naturally, I felt compelled to review it.

Good. And bad.

Good objectively, or at least as objective as I can get with something like Kanon. The actors are obviously professional, and they seem to understand their characters well enough. They've also taken new directions with their characters, instead of copying the Japanese versions. Anyone that watches the dubs (yes, I know that's not most of you) will have no problem with it.

But the bad thing is also, well, the new directions. I love Kanon 2006 and I've seen it a million times. I even liked the original Kanon, styrofoam snow and all. This whole time, just as the rational side of my brain was praising the voice actors, the rest of me was wailing and clawing at the screen. "Why doesn't Nayuki sound slow and sweet? Why isn't Yuuichi sarcastic enough? WHERE'S HORIE YUI?" Suffice to say, with a show that gets you as emotionally invested as Kanon, you get used to the original and don't like change.

Of course, getting exact copies of the original voice actors would not only be impossible but counterproductive, so says the rational side of my brain. Then there's the rabid fan side. Good as the dub is, this is not the show to choose when you want to convert an avid sub-watcher.


Now I want taiyaki. Or ice cream. Preferably not "jam".

The Tagcloud Mystery

Everyone loves CLANNAD, right? Well, I do, and I know a lot of my readerbase does, too. (Or what's left of it. I haven't posted in forever.) But I know you're all wondering one thing, and that has to do with the Anime Nano tagcloud. Within its first week, Kanon 2006 completely dominated the thing, and did so for the remainder of its airing (although Code Geass managed to stay almost equal upon its introduction). Now, why didn't CLANNAD do the same? I've got a few possibilities.

Let's get this started.

Option 1: Was Gundam just too strong?

This seems the first obvious choice. After all, it's a huge franchise, and it's been very, very popular on the image boards, especially that one girl in the Chinese dress (hey, I haven't watched it yet, okay?). Not to mention, last year, when Kanon was airing, there was no member of said franchise running against it. Sounds like a solid theory, right?

Too bad. CLANNAD is also very popular on said boards, and actually, I can't tell which they like more. Not to mention, if you look on the tagcloud at this very moment...

The CLANNAD tag is bigger than the tag that encompasses not only Gundam 00 but any other mention of the Gundam franchise. Looks like that's out.

Option 2: Is it because we're not familiar with the game?

"It's just not as good." The same whispers came around when Kanon 2006 first aired. People that weren't used to the slow pacing we were all anticipating, well, they didn't like it. They wanted something like the rushed (but still amazing) AIR TV. The reason that so many people stayed on may have been because they fell in love with the characters, or because they liked the slow pace, or in faith of Key... but the biggest "because" is probably the happy cries of those that had either seen Kanon 2002 or played the original game. There is no CLANNAD 2002. Watching it, although I loved the characters, I began to feel the same way as the people that I had renounced last year as heretics. Of course, I realized this, and started to (as I should) appreciate it for the way it is.

But a lot of people here HAVE played the original game, or just like the way it's going so far. I do, even though I lapsed, as previously stated. And last year, there were a lot of first-timers for Kanon that watched it and loved it. That's out.

Option 3: Are we just bogged down with finals and Christmas shopping?

Not likely. Kanon aired at the exact same time last year.

Option 4: Are we lazy?

Think about this for a moment. Last year, Anime Nano was brand new. We all jumped on it, and a whole lot of people began creating blogs, seeing a new way to get their stuff out there. Animeblogger might be great, but Anime Nano wasn't tied to a specific domain, and it was new, so everyone could get attention instead of just the few already-popular blogs. A few of them died after a month or so. More died later on. If you want proof, this one is one of the casualties. (Let's hope my skills at raising things from the dead have improved. I usually don't do so well.) Less blogs means less people posting about CLANNAD.

Yeah, I'm going with the fourth one. If anyone has any better ideas, please tell me.

Oh, and the Riders won the Grey Cup.

Soukou no Fake

You want Soukou no Strain news, you get Soukou no Strain news. There hasn't been that much of it recently, besides the fact that somehow, the Sara and Lottie figures were featured in last month's Newtype USA (which made it sound like a harem comedy, but that's a story for another article). But I've come across something very interesting, and by interesting, I mean ridiculous. I thought S-Strain wasn't very popular, but I guess it was, or at least enough to warrant an...

OBVIOUSLY BOOTLEG ENGLISH DUB!

Shocking, isn't it? Well, let's do what I do best (besides make lists and thwack people that try to look up my skirt in chatbox), and mock this thing to death!



Signature font logo in white. Come on, you people can do better than this. I could do better than this, and you've all seen my "lovely" rendition of Sara. At least keep the nice original logo on there, it'd look better. And put "Soukou no Strain" in English somewhere next to it. A lot of real licensed releases do that anyway.

On a related note, "The Beautiful World"!? Clearly, this person needs to learn something about title cliches and when to use them. The S-Strain body count isn't nearly high enough for it to be called Beautiful World anything.



Hey, what's that? It's the picture on the official site, just smooshed. You probably couldn't tell, because you were distracted by the ugly watermark. "Hey, look, I stole this! You can't steal it from me!"



Way to take the premise of the show and word it so it sounds like some kind of pioneer movie. And you could at least make the text readable. Lens flare is not to be used for evil.



Certificate of not-so-authenticity from the "Censorship Board". Bye-bye, Episode Seven, you will not be missed.


That's all I have time for. So you see, pandering to your subscribers is fun!

Why aren't I covering Saimoe?

Simple. Nanoha and Rozen Maiden sweep the thing every year. I am covering it on my personal blog, but as long as everyone else is covering it on their anime blogs, why should I? That being said... HOW did Princess Tomoyo lose to the likes of the Strawberry Panic girls? I'm disappointed in you, boys.

Men make no sense!

Yes! Precure 5 Movie Trailer

Yes! Precure 5: Kagami no Kuni no Mirakuru Daibouken released a trailer today. Therefore, I must make note of it. Basically, it has some guy that turns himself into an apparently sentient kowainaa. His name's Shadow, and he's very obviously evil. And apparently stalking the Precures. Coco and Nuts get dragged into the mirror world, and it's the job of Precure 5 and Milk, as well as two more add-on mascots, to get them back. The mirror world, though, is tyrannized by evil Precures.

I would just like to say one thing: Anti-Nozomi (as the evil version of Dream is referred to, at least on the Precure community) just reminds me of Anemone from Eureka seveN. From the silhouettes, Anti-Komachi looks like she'll be far creepier. (We all know that Komachi's the real mirror image, anyway. This person is clearly a decoy.)

Reused animation, we love you...

The cast of the Negima drama.

As far as I know, this is legit.

The good news first. Chao and Setsuna look perfect, which is great because Setsuna's my favourite character. (Love the expression.) The costuming department also did a good job making Chisame actually resemble the dorky-looking reject she's supposed to be, something that neither !, !? nor Akamatsu-sensei did with any respectability. And Sayo seems to have her character down perfectly, giving an expression that could easily be mistaken for fearsome but, when you think about it, is actually full of harmless cuteness. Kazumi also has her character down, even though her hair is a disaster. Mana looks like the twins that were in my grade 9 before transferring out.

There were some I didn't like, though, which is to be expected with 31 girls hanging around. First of all, KUU FEI. She doesn't look childish or energetic. In fact, she looks like a man! I will not get used to her as long as I live. The other problems I have pale in comparison to her, which is a good thing. Makie, though, comes close; she looks like she has to go to the bathroom, and she's got a bad hair day that cannot be cured. Konoka seems a little plain; maybe I've been seeing her through Setsuna-o-vision so long that I've forgotten what she really looks like, but she just looks boring. Kaede's hair also sucks.

Oh, how could I forget the main characters that matter? Asuna has the quirky-tsundere thing down, but she seems to have gone to Makie's hairstylist, and the ribbons are terrible. Nodoka looks creepy and standoffish, not shy. Wrong character type, people. And why didn't they make Eva a foreigner? Or at that, a loli!? I imagine some serious retconning, or something.

And that concludes What Not to-- er, my very relevant post on the Negima drama cast! Now why don't they reveal the rest of the cast?

This is what Nodoka REALLY looks like, in case you forgot. I'd post a Kuu Fei picture, but the contrast between cute and ugly would fry your brain.

Tokyo Omocha Show stuff.

Check out this stuff from Tokyo Omocha Show. I'm a little late, but nothing new there.

A lot of Gundams, of course. I assume this is the new series. I do like the light show.

Those are the clunkiest controls I have ever seen. I still wonder if it's fun.

Shounen hero fun for all.

Apparently, the "Precure Dream Live" game includes dressing up in these gaudy things. I can't help but laugh at Karen's expression.

And what would this blog be without occasionally mentioning the older shounen stuff that everybody says they don't watch to distance themselves from the kawaii-spouting hordes but secretly do?

I am soooooo late.

I'm usually early for my season previews... sorry about that. Well, it's June 21, better late than never? And besides, some of my readers only keep up with my blog and don't know what's coming out. (Which should be enough incentive for me to stop being lazy.

Begin... now!

School Days

Otherwise known as that one H-game with the yandere and the saw. Main character guy's female friend tries to set him up with a girl that doesn't know he exists. Of course, she likes him too. This game has about a million endings, some of which are very messed up... wonder if they're going to pull a Higurashi and do them all?

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

Ever wanted to get inside the head of Osaka from Azumanga Daioh? This is the next best thing. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei revolves around spins on a word or phrase that end up being very slightly related. Based on the manga dubbed "The Least Translatable Manga Ever", which means this probably won't get subbed.

Nanatsuiro Drops

It's so in Japanese. In the town closest to the stars, a quiet, nervous boy must find a magical girl who can collect the "Drops of the Stars" to undo a curse upon him. Magical girls and renai game romance? I'm in! As long as it doesn't suck like Happiness! did.

Sky Girls

Wasn't that OVA supposed to be terrible? Now they're making a show about it?

CODE-E

The pictures look cool. Twenty years in the future, a girl with the uncontrollable power to stop electronics from working is so afraid of herself that she takes notes on her power. She meets up with a scientist, a miko and a mysterious girl that work together to study her. But someone else is after her, too... This sounds interesting. Might watch.

Zero no Tsukaima: Futatsuki no Kishi

Why did everyone like Zero no Tsukaima, anyway? Is there some hidden depth I'm missing?

Doujin Work

Based on a 4koma. A girl is sucked into the world of doujinshi and meets a bunch of fun people. A lot of people have been comparing this to Comic Party based on premise, but I don't know. It looks a lot more fun. I didn't really like Comic Party...

Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan 2

Murder mayhem and resurrection rebounds. And alliteration... um... allegory? No, that doesn't work.

Kenko Zenrakei Suieibu Umisho

Ugly art and fanservice galore. Transfer student guy tries to join the swim club to make friends, but they're all weird. Then in comes transfer student girl, who's even weirder. Guy likes her because she reminds him of a mermaid he saw once. Other guys like her because she likes to swim in the nude.

Mushi-Uta

Based on a light novel series. Told you there were going to be more. Anyway, in this one, there's a guy with a gun. And giant killer bugs. Yay? Or not yay? Not yay. Basic shounen stuff, if you're into that.

Zombie-Loan

Guy dies. Guy decides that he does not want to be dead and that this is Not Good. He makes a deal to be alive again, but it's not so much alive as undead, hence the name "Zombie-Loan". He holds up his end of the deal by killing bad zombies that go around doing zombie things. Personally, I liked Hung's summary better.

Tokyo Majin Gakuen Kenpucho Tou Dai Ni Maku

Didn't watch the first season.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai

I read spoilers so I wouldn't have to watch it; season one gave me nightmares. For those interested, we learn what the government's got to do with it, what Oyashiro-sama is, and what on earth is going on with Rika.

Baccano!

1930s America is an automatic ping no matter what the show's about. Nuns with guns and alchemic battles don't interest me, though.

Shigurui

Competing with Higurashi and Dokuro-chan for the blood-spiller title, but unlike the mysterious Higurashi and the comedic Dokuro-chan, Shigurui is an epic about samurai. A fighting tournament is held, and for the first time, the contestants are allowed to use real weapons. A blind guy and a one-armed guy that trained under the same master both want to become the champion.

Buzzer Beater

Apparently this is a remake, but I had no idea what it was. Based on a webmanga that was later published professionally, Buzzer Beater is about a basketball team, as the name would imply. Sports anime's not my thing.

Moetan

This has generated a lot of publicity. It's comedic educational TV that teaches otaku how to speak English. The phrases taught? Common moe catch phrases and random things that no one will ever need to use. Personally, I think it sounds amusing. I wonder if anyone will sub this and bring it full circle.

Mononoke

I cannot find anything about this without bringing up a million search results for the movie Mononoke-hime.

Tetsuko no Tabi

Based on a very old manga, and therefore with very unique art (that is, half of you will find it ugly). It's about a man that is obsessed with trains, a publisher that accompanies him on a train road trip and the flustered mangaka they drag along, as well as the many things they find on their journey. Looks interesting and calming. Might watch, might not.

Potemayo

Based on a 4koma, and apparently fantastic comedy. The art is nothing short of amusing.

End.

AIR TV site up!

ADV Films has posted the English site for AIR TV. For your reference, here it is. There's the usual fare, such as character profiles, a trailer (non-voiced) and a cast list. And since it's my job, I'll check it out.

Front Page

It takes a while to load the trailer, so while I was waiting, I checked out the layout. Very pretty, although the cut under Misuzu does look a little odd. The sky and 3 girls look great. The big ADV logo would ruin it, if not for the fact that you can only see it when you scroll down. On top is the AIR logo, which appears as it does in the OP, fading in and out. The only thing is, if you're on there too long, it loads faster and faster until eventually, it's going way too fast and becomes a distraction.

The trailer is pretty. It's set to the karaoke version of Tori no Uta and, like all ADV's trailers, features clips from the OP and episodes. If alarm bells are going off in your head, don't worry. ADV has far improved from their hideous, thrown-together trailers of a couple years ago. (Did anyone see the one for Angelic Layer? Terrible.) It's interspersed with various pieces of AIR-related philosophy like "We don't know which path to take" and "Breathe Deep." Pretty good.

The one thing they didn't need: "From the creators of The Melancholy of Hurai (sic) Suzumiya!". First of all, Kyoani created neither Haruhi nor AIR. Both are adaptations. Second of all, what's with "Hurai Suzumiya"? Did they not want to get sued? I'm getting flashbacks to last year's hentai game about Asamiya Haruka and her UFO-dan.

Story

"The Girl in the Sky" is capitalized. I guess that's because it's important, but I feel off about it. Maybe because the fansubs didn't capitalize it. And why is Kano important, but not Minagi? Not that I'm complaining. Kano's my favourite AIR girl. I roleplay her over at LJ. Either way, besides leaving Minagi out, the promo fits the tone of the series very well. Pass.

Trailers

Nothing to see here. It's just the one from the first page. I assume there'll be a voiced one later.

Extras

This loads oddly. Look at the buttons. We've got screenshots (which includes the shot of the Kanon girls. A hint for the next license?), character profiles, icons, wallpapers, and the like. I wonder at "BitTorrent (coming soon)". What would they put there?

There's an English cast list and interview. Personally, I think Haruko is the only one that's almost certainly well cast. Monica Rial as Misuzu and Vic Mignogna as Yukito are a bit iffy, but I'll give them a chance. There's an interview with Vic, and he seems to be very excited about the role, in any case.

Reviews

Two short snippets from Newtype and Newtype USA, respectively. The ADV-owned Newtype USA. Honestly, since AIR is so well-loved, can't they collect more reviews?

Buy

This just takes the top menu off. Understandable, since the DVDs aren't out yet.

Well, that's it. Overall, a nice site, and they seem to really be excited, but there are some things off. But come on, it's AIR! I'm excited too.

The Key 3, sponsored in part by Suzumiya Haruhi Hurai.

Worst Sequels Ever...

Now, I know we're all looking forward to Higurashi Kai. It promises better animation, better explanations, and of course, more keeping you up for five days straight sleeping with a bat. But as with everything, there's also a chance to be let down. What to do? Well, I've got just the thing for you! Here I'll remind everyone of the nine worst anime sequel series I can think of. That way, when July comes around and your eager awaiting of lolis killing each other pays off, you'll be happy -- because at least it won't be any of these.

9)Triangle Heart 3 ~Sweet Songs Forever~ OVA

Blasphemy, you say? Maybe. And I admit, I actually liked this one, which is why it's lowest on the list. There is a bad thing, though. This OVA was made for fans of the games and only fans of the games. That would, too, be fine, but it was released concurrently with Toraha spinoff Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha, a title with which you are no doubt familiar. Seven Arcs didn't count for Nanoha's explosive popularity, especially with those out of Japan or who can otherwise not get their hands on the games, and the lack of information on them outside of Japan leaves many people confused and believing more irregularities than the average Raging Lunatic.

For causing Nanoha fans to believe that Kuon is a prototype of Fate that turns into Yuuno, not to mention no focus on winning girl Shinobu, Triangle Heart 3 ~Sweet Songs Forever~ OVA gets number nine on the list.

8) Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon SuperS

I might be unfair in assessing this. After all, it came right after S, which was nothing short of amazing at the time. But this is another instance of Toei's poor judgment (remember the forged ratings chart?). We've just had a great season with more mature themes and lots of publicity, so what do we do? Take out all the new characters and focus on the younger side of the audience, throwing in more little girls and giving the starring role to the pink fluffy kid. I like Chibiusa as much as the next person, but after usurping the series, it was no wonder they shuffled her out of the way next season. It's like what's happening to Sesame Street, according to some kids'-show fan friends. In a grab for the youngest demographic, who liked them well enough before, they focus exclusively on the character meant to represent said little kids and alienate everybody else. Redeeming qualities? The Amazones Quartet were cute.

For following up a powerhouse with a ratings grab for five-year-olds and shutting out everyone else, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon SuperS is struck with number eight.

7)Digimon Adventure 02

I'm going to get shot here. I admit that this season took a great villain and turned him into a greater hero, and faced everybody up with their inner fears in a good pre-finale. But everything else suffered in turn. The new characters weren't as interesting, and the old cast, with about two exceptions, was turned into a pile of cardboard cutouts. Ignoring the previous seasons' lessons of independence, Sora and Jou suddenly and inexplicably turned into their parents, which they had spent their elementary school lives resisting, and us cheering for them. The ending was a complete mess that came out of nowhere. And as for Archnemon and Mummymon, the control towers, Black WarGreymon, the Four Gods, the video game tie-ins, the scrapped plotline with Hikari being stalked by a giant sea monster, and the creepy small children with plants growing out of their heads... what was that?

For discarding plotlines halfway through, not explaining much and warping the characters we came to know and love in Adventure, Digimon Adventure 02 attains seventh place.

6) Yes! Precure 5

I actually kind of like this one, too. (I'm fandubbing it!) But honestly, taking into consideration the other Precure series, it's a disgrace. There's not much but pile upon pile of cliches, whether it's character types, powerups, or storylines. Sometimes the combination works, but sometimes it doesn't. And, of course, Akimoto Komachi is completely ripped off Midorikawa Retasu. The series also loses points for being part of Toei's now-infamous ratings chart forgery.

For taking the Precure name and reducing it to average, as well as lying to gain popularity, Yes! Precure 5 becomes 6.

5) Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch Pure

And let me clarify that this only applies to the anime. The Pichi Pichi Pitch manga handled this arc beautifully, if quickly, and maturely. The anime, however, somehow forgot to tell a story in between seasons. Much of the series was filler, mountainous, pointless, and bad. They dragged out Kaito's amnesia too long and rushed the ending, cutting out part and making it confusing. They rarely foreshadowed or did anything interesting, and the crime committed to the secondary characters was tragic (they could have at least used all that filler to develop their characters!). The animation cut too many corners, with formerly adorable loli Seira looking like one of those starving children from foreign countries with tiny limbs and humongous heads. And did I mention the filler? Bowling for chibis, running over to Antarctica for errands and turning into old women. Even the beautiful music and good voice acting on the part of Lanhua and the returning cast couldn't save this.

For bad animation, bad storytelling and bad pacing, Pichi Pichi Pitch Pure reaches number five.

4) .hack//tasogare no udewa densetsu

Another anime-only entry. The manga was an interesting and emotional conclusion to the story of the first The World. The anime, however, went one further than that of Pichi Pichi Pitch: after a first episode that made a few suspicious changes, it threw out the story completely. Becoming a goofy ripoff of //SIGN without the emotion, it exaggerated all the characters, went in circles, and just didn't do anything interesting. Oh, and the character changes. (Hotaru a crossdresser? Shugo and Rena living apart? Okay...) This piece of garbage is still one of the very few members of the franchise to be kicked out of the canon.

For taking altogether too many liberties with its manga counterpart and betraying its powerful predecessor with unoriginality, dumb gags and rampant siscon, .hack//tasogare no udewa densetsu is attached to number four.

3) Galaxy Angel Rune

Did nobody get the memo? The Galaxy Angel anime is supposed to be a parody of adaptation decay, with a purposeful lack of continuity, dearth of gags, ignorance of the games and character exaggeration. Instead, Galaxy Angel Rune became a straight usage of all that its predecessor mocked. Casting a bad light on the Galaxy Angel II games, it reused other series' jokes to little effect, threw in too much fanservice and dragged on when it was supposed to be funny. The highlight of the series was the return of the Moon Angels, which makes sense, but it's sad -- those of us that know the series know that the Rune Angels can be funny and endearing. Here, they just weren't.

As Hinano said, Galaxy Angel Rune is an insult to the original Galaxy Angel. This gets number three.

2) Kanon Itsumo

Yes, I'm putting it on here. For those not in the know, "Kanon Itsumo" was a hoax perpetuated by an attention-seeking fandubber. By the time it was proved to be false to her unsuspecting public, it had revived Makoto, spawned three games and an anime, and added about five Mary Sues. Its saving grace from the number one spot is only that it wasn't real.

A fake sequel made by a girl that also claimed to have three pools, a professional acting career, enough Air Miles to travel the world and have met Johnny Depp, the Kanon Itsumo hoax gets her attention all right -- as number two of the worst anime sequels of all time.

Here it comes.

The number one spot.

Tokyo Mew Mew a la mode

Yep, it's only a manga. But it's terrible enough to earn spot number one on my list. After Yoshida Reiko left the Tokyo Mew Mew project, illustrator Ikumi Mia decided to do a sequel without knowing the first thing about writing. The result shoved the original cast into the background and brought in the very definition of a Mary Sue. The resulting story of the irritatingly perfect Shirayuki Berii read like a bad fanfic: doubly powerful and everyone's instant best friend, she and she alone was targeted by the new bad guys (who were a clumsy but commendable allegory on racism, but couldn't beat the original KPT) and saved the day all by herself. What about Ichigo, you ask? Well, she was depowered for no reason and only served as Berii's living weapon powerup. I am not exaggerating.

For letting down waiting fans with a story out of fanfiction.net, a new main character that defines annoying to anyone, and an overall lack of research and a climax that came out of nowhere, Tokyo Mew Mew a la mode is the ultimate bad sequel.

Disagree? Tell me! Who would you put here, and why?

The ultimate Mary Sue.

Negima live action.

You may or may not have heard about this, but it seems there will be a third Negima TV adaptation... and this one's live action. Oh boy. Thoughts? I dunno if it'll be good or not. If it is good, though, we better get the whole thing subbed. (I'm looking at you, Mahora...)

I'm running out of Negima pictures for relevant posts. I should stock up.

Pichi Pichi Pitch vol.5

Now that I've got through it again (this time, the official English translation), I remember how much everybody reading it with me hated Michal. There's seriously something wrong with this girl. For those that haven't read the last one, pick up on the hints in this; there's a reason that she feels empty enough to be as desperate for attention as she is. But come on. Maybe it's just that I'm a girl, but how much longer could you put up with this?

So, I'm asking my mostly male readership: read on and be the judge. Amagi Michal circa volume five: irritant or cute?

Amagi Michal, second arc love rival.

Cute, huh? Well, let's see what all she does.

*She allows the boy that she saved to keep thinking that she was the girl from his past. Now we all know how these childhood meetings go, and perhaps she was just trying to increase her chances. But even if he didn't find out in this volume (which he does), he would have found out some time.

*She does this even after she has seen many pieces of evidence that the actual girl is both right in front of her, and his girlfriend.

*She chains him in when he wants to risk his life - or when he just wants to have fun once in a while. If Michal weren't so sickly, she'd have Kaito forcibly attached to the house.

*"Oniichan, you're terrible!" What has her poor brother done? Why, it's suggest that she let Kaito go home. To his house. Where he lives.

*She sees that his memory is back - and instead of being happy, she's scared enough to try and force him to be with her.

*Not above blackmail, she starts taking off her clothes when he rejects her, and when that doesn't work, she threatens to jump off the balcony. If I hadn't read the next one and didn't sympathize with her motives, I would be screaming do it. As it is, I simply said it in my head.

*She's not that nice to other people, too.

This is my take. But I always seem to disagree with you guys. (Yandere creep me out and maids are hard to find appealing, for example.) So, what do you think? Are Kaito and Rihito saints for putting up with this girl, or do I need to put down the shoujo manga and realize she isn't that bad? (Although I could do that by reading the next book. I don't feel like it.)

The twins, however? They're cool.

Haruhi again.

What is with Anime News Network? You have to open the link twice before it actually lets you in. Something about an internal server error. Anyway, got some Haruhi news.

Sorry, it's not about the Shoushitsu anime. It's the ninth book, entitled Suzumiya Haruhi no Kyougaku (The Surprise of Suzumiya Haruhi), for those that didn't know. It seems that the book's June 1 release has been delayed, and they're not telling us why. Now, this isn't the first time a book has been delayed, of course. Still, you have to wonder.

No, I am not suggesting that they are attempting to release it in the fall, when CLANNAD TV is on and we are all wondering about the future, along with an announcement about the Shoushitsu anime. I am simply speculating such. Still, I just thought I'd share.

No, I have not suddenly begun to like maids. Sorry.

I knew Toei wasn't that good, but...

Check it out. Toei's released a chart that supposedly shows the TV rating success of all four Precure series. And by supposedly, I mean...





Listing everything that appears suspect would be quite a chore. The biggest tipoff: the most recent season has the best ratings. This would be a blindingly obvious clue for anything, but especially the one season that, in many friends' experience, the least people like? Seriously, now. Another point is that this most recent season is the only one where the climactic moments were accompanied by a spike in ratings. Not only that, all previous series' climactic moments were shown by a massive drop. Do they really expect people to believe that the population of Japan, for the past three years, would rather watch filler than something important to the plot? This isn't neurosurgery, people. (Although the Toei publicists that released this might need some.)

For the record, I don't hate Yes! Precure 5. I like it, even the parts that are blatant ripoffs of other, better mahou shoujo series. But it's not that good, and the Futari Wa series were anything but bad. Now, before I get less than six hours of sleep, signing off.

Go go sixtieth post since the move.

AIR got licensed, check it out.

I'm sure you've already heard about this, but ADV has licensed AIR TV and the movie. Too bad they're giving it a regular DVD release. One of my all-time wishes was to have AIR TV on prime time television and marketed to regular TV audiences. If anything, the right marketing with it would chase off certain people's perceptions, but yeah. Well, at least I'll be able to do another voice actor review. They'd better not mess up one of my favourite shows.

Oh, and Higurashi Kai comes this July.

S-Strain DVD covers! (Bonus: this blogger reveals her secret talent.)

Nobody's covered this yet, although that's not surprising. Still, since I love S-Strain so much (although, as I must put in every post, the fanservice episode sucked), I must cover this even if it is late.

DVD covers! Personally, I think they look awesome.

In celebration, I looked for S-Strain fanart. Guess what. I have seen two S-Strain fanartists, and neither does it exclusively or nearly enough to post so often. So I decided to try my own.



Remind me never to plug my art accounts over here.

Excuse me while I fangirl.

So I've been busy with this random Kanon/AIR doujin game, sue me. Running around as Kano throwing giant magical stars at people is just too fun! But then it reminded me that I really should update my blog more often... Anyway. Galaxy Angel II Mugen Kairou no Kagi OP.



So pretty... and did I just see Ranpha? Anyway, preorders begin today, I believe. I should really play the first GAII...

Expected another Rune dance line, didn't you.

...

So Jigoku Shoujo got licensed. Is it just me or are all the "unmarketable but well-liked" series getting picked up lately? Haruhi, Rozen Maiden, Higurashi... yeah, it's not just me. Now all we have to do is wait for that Nanoha announcement.

...yeah, news is slow lately, save for all the new series. I just made that post so I wouldn't forget how to use HTML.

The Odds: CLANNAD girls face off

Nagisa or Tomoyo? When Fall rolls around, which one will win? Who do you want to win? And for some of you, who do you want to lose so you can have her? The stakes are much higher than Ayu VS. Nayuki was last year, as the merchandising queen and the sequel heroine face off! I should really write sports columns.

Challenger One: Furukawa Nagisa

A sweet girl that has been away from school for a year, and wants to start up the drama club again. She was the main heroine of the CLANNAD game and movie. And she seems to like wearing cute nekomimi!

Points for: It's like last year's debate with Ayu and Nayuki; the latter might be on some covers, but the former is the undisputed heroine. Queen of the merchandise, biggest part of the OP for herself, the story that makes you cry the most. This would be no contest, except...

Challenger Two: Sakagami Tomoyo

There's her. A new transfer student with rumours all around her, she's tough, disrespectful and can beat any classmate up. She's also got a talent for cooking... someone please think of a tough-girl renai game character without a secret domestic talent?

Points for: Well, there's one. She had her very own H-game sequel. Everyone's been going around saying that the Toei-Kyoani duo (or just the latter, actually) has to animate every Key game (never mind that One: kagayaki kisetsu e already had its own OVA, didn't it?). How can they do so if Tomoyo doesn't win? If she does win, I bet either Tomoyo After will get its own anime, or it'll be referenced in an epilogue.

So... who do you think it'll be? Personally, I dunno. I just wanted to have some fun. (My bet's on Nagisa, but if I say it, Tomoyo might attack me...)

The compiled Haruhi/CLANNAD theories

I'm sure we're all thinking our brains out about the disappearance, as it were, of Suzumiya Haruhi's return. Or we have already. My silent observation (sort of) has allowed me to compile all the theories I can think of, and some I just made up, about just what is going on. With commentary, of course!

1: CLANNAD will come in fall 2007, and Haruhi will air in Spring of 2008.

Comments:Possible. After all, something that was given a preview is almost certain to come first. But you seem to have forgotten that CLANNAD is another of Key's "season" works, and is based around spring. If it airs in fall, it will end in either fall or winter. So far, the Key/Kyoani collaborations have aired in their own respective seasons.

2: CLANNAD will come in summer 2007, and Haruhi in fall, right on schedule.

Comments: Doubtful, if only that Kanon got 24 episodes and did well with them. AIR cut a lot of things out (although it was still really good), and though some people complained about Kanon's slowness, the majority of people appreciated it (myself included-- who says this blog isn't biased?). Considering Kyoani's policy of one show per season, Haruhi would have to be bumped back to winter.

3: CLANNAD will air in spring 2008, and Haruhi on schedule.

Comments: A few problems with this theory. For one, the TV network wouldn't have announced this series yet if it were airing over a year later. The other is that if Haruhi's coming earlier, why hasn't it been given the same announcement? Unless...

4: Haruhi is coming this year. However, its sudden lack of official information is a publicity stunt.

Comments: My favourite theory; it makes a lot of sense. Kyoani has had a lot of fun with this series and marketed specifically to those that have read the books. If you're not familiar with the next book, its title is Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoushitsu, and it revolves around Haruhi suddenly vanishing, with nobody but Kyon acknowledging that she ever existed. Don't you think that draws just a bit of parallel to this situation?

5: Haruhi is being delayed to allow more novels to be printed.

Comments: Also plausible. After all, we all hate when the show overtakes the source material -- it never ends well.

6: Our sources were wrong, there will be no second Haruhi.

Comments: Possible, but not likely.

I'm pretty sure you can see what I'm leaning towards. This was a fun exercise. Until there's more news...

Fufufu...

Ikimashou yo we love you...

So, I picked up some interesting news about Bandai's inevitable and recently announced licensing of Galaxy Angelrune. One, they're collaborating with Geneon, who's doing the actual distribution. Two, no English dub. Sorry for all those that might have wanted to see Rico and the Rune-tai in English. I'll have to hunt down a fandub or something.

Personally, I didn't really like Galaxy Angelrune at all, even though I'm not one of those people that automatically hates anything with a cast reboot -- I actually really want to play the GAII games (haven't yet) and like the characters so far. The anime, though... is just awful. The only good thing it contributed to the world was the famous dance line pose that has been copied for every series in existence. And the theme song's fun to sing...

I've done what, three of these?

The end of NWA filler?

So, I haven't updated lately. Sorry about that. There just hasn't been much news outside of CLANNAD (and yes, I'm looking forward to watching it!) and I've been job hunting at my parents' insistence. I'm pathetic, I know. In any case, I'm back now, sorry about that. Um... Next entry will have a point!

Yeah.

In cars! (Image-heavy)

I was looking for a story to post on and thought I'd read up on how the CLANNAD movie promotion in Akihabara the other day turned out. Then what caught my eye was the CLANNAD-themed bus bringing the cosplay models, which got me thinking about the anime-themed cars like the Nanoha car, which was seen out in Akihabara again the other day...

So I decided, here's the discussion today. What do you think about anime-themed cars? Is it cool, or just weird? Would you want one, or be scared that it would get vandalized? Is it just plain cooler when fans do it than when the company does, or is it about the same?

Some images to start you off...

This you can find at Dengeki Online's article.

Actually, all these are taken from other blogs and other sources. You've probably seen them before, this is just a refresher.

The lesser-known Nanohamobiles.

And their more famous... sister? Is that how cars work?

Sadly, I couldn't find that Galaxy Angel car or the Haruhi semi.