WillTRikers Anime Universe

Sora no Woto

2010-01-10T23:02:00.017+01:00

What? A new post? And so shortly after my last? And a series from the season that just started as well? The end must be near.

Well, to be honest. I figured I might try and at least post about a series that's currently running instead of trying to clear away my backlog ... which probably is a futile effort, but I'm going to try anyway. This season however might 'help' me get at least some of my backlog out of the way .... if my rl work at least stops overloading me .... as the number of anime that I plan to watch (or at least check out) this season is less then half from the previous and as a matter of fact it's very likely that 2 of the new series of this season will almost surely be headed for the trashcan on my PC. Not this one however.

Before however I go about the story / setup of this series I'll mention that I've seen Sora no Woto been dubbed as militairy K-on! Now I haven't watched K-on! .... it's on my backlist, what else? From a quick peek however I understand somewhat why. Not only is it an all female cast and has it do about music, but the character design for at least 3 charaters from Sora no Woto are lifted straight from that series, but there any comparison ends.

We start off with having our main female lead, Sorami Kanata, an aspiring bugle player, on board of a militairy freight train heading off to her assigned station: The Time Telling Fortress in Trois, Seize.

Okaaaaayyy ..... what's wrong with this picture above is that Kanata looks like a kid. The fact that her hair isn't exactly militairy style, her sloppy uniform (notice the belt) and her duffelbag (not shown here) is almost as big as herself even enhance this feeling. According to the story there was a war which has ended with a truce just 6 months ago so seeing a kid, a female at that (male chauvinism +1) leaves some odd impression on me.

Seeing she has to report at 15 oh hours and since she is early she decides to take a walk in the village as there happens to be a festival. During the festival she becomes caught up in a water-mixed-with-dye throwing 'fight' and becomes soaked (it actually reminded me somewhat at La Tomatina in Bunyol). She is 'rescued' by Kazuymiya Rio, a member of Kanata's platoon who takes her to her house to get herself cleaned up.

After a bath Rio and Kanata stand on the balcony and Kanata lets an owl steal a small bell that belonged to Rio's father. While Rio has business to attend to, Kanata is about to head off to the Time Telling Fortress as she hears the bell again (she IS a Klutz, but has very good tone hearing) and decides to go after the sound hoping to retrieve the bell.

I'd rather prefer you go watch the episode yourself and only read on if you don't mind spoiler or have watched the episode already.

Spoilers ahead (click here) It turns out that Rio is lead actor in the re-enactment of the story that is the ground for the festival. In fact, she got somewhat suckered into it as the captain of the platoon (Felecia) had everyone draw straws to determine who was to be leading actor, but orchastrated it so that Rio would be chosen (the drawing of the straws you saw during the opening).

While Rio is busy with her acting work, Kanata gets into all kinds of trouble scaling of a cliff in order to get the bell back in which she proves again not be soldier material as she is past the time she should have reported for duty. Also she lackes a serious dose of common sense scaling a cliff with her oversized duffelbag on her back. Unlucky also as jumping a gap between, what looks to be an ancient stone stair, the part she lands on gives way and she plummets into the water.

Lucky for her whatever in the duffelbag isn't heavy as she manages to reach dry land. Not however before seeing the bones of the headless winged dragon that she is told about and that was part of the story from the festival. Alone, cold and lost she uses her bugle to signal for help which also nicely fits into the story from the festival. From what I gather Kanata is also an orphan ... I assume that this is the reason for her being in the militairy.

The episode ends when later .... much later, Kanata awakes in the Time Telling Fortress and she finds out it's called that as, by the looks of it, the day begins with a serenade from her just before sunrise to signal the new day.

I wonder if they didn't spoil to much during this first episode and especially with what they showed during Rio's monologue about the ancient story of the fire maidens. One of the things was that you see a picture of what I suppose are the (5) girls from the ancient story and except for the hair they're the spitting image of the 5, now Kanata has arrived, girls of platoon 1211.

Also looking at the world you get a feeling of early 20 century europe .... except for the couple of glimpses you get from one of the platoon members busy with maintainance on a mecha which looks seriously out of it's own time. From another short glimpse during Rio's monologue we have to conclude that a major catastrophe happened a long time ago as there is evidence of a more highly advanced civilisation shown .... of which the mecha must be a remnant.

I do wonder if this tank couldn't have been used in the war that just finished? I'm sure that the side that had this at it's disposal would have had no trouble defeating everybody else. I also find the Mecha a little out of place grapics wise as it looks more crisp then especially the beautiful backgrounds ... but this could be intentional.

It stands to reason, at the moment at least, that the spider from the story is the mecha we got to see a little off. What I found odd though is that the dragon from the story seems to be a real dragon. A bit of a mismatch.

Let me first say that, sofar at least, I rather liked this even if it isn't all making sense to me as what looked to be initially a story about learning to play music, got darker undertones with the story about the fire maidens and the dragon that once caused much destruction.

We only really have met 2 of the 5 girls that make up platoon 1211, but I think this is shaping up to be a rerun, or better a rematch, of the original battle with the dragon (whatever it may turn out to be in the end). Wether or not Kanata playing music has much to do with this remains to be seen. Who knows, we might get not any mecha action at all (not a terrible loss imho).

Leaving character design for what it is I like both Rio and Kanata even though the latter is a real klutz. What really shines though are the background and details that went into it. It's been a while that I watched an episode twice ... first time for the characters and dialogue, a 2nd time for the background. It's not the only the outdoors scenes that are wonderfull, also inside houses there is a lot of eyecandy to be had.

The OP and ED as usual don't do much for me, but the music during the episode is quite good and I like the french song (starts at time-index 13:20 Nekomimi version) which sadly isn't translated.

All in all. Likeable characters, good music, GREAT backgrounds. Only the story can still go either way, but for the moment there is nothing wrong with that.

Temporarily verdict: 8 out of 10.

Kämpfer, never a fighting chance

2010-01-07T01:06:00.020+01:00

I knew when I gave that 7,5 as a temporarily verdict that I was trying to use some esper power trying to make this a good series. Unfortunately though the producer had premeditated homicide in mind.

Now I know it's never fair to judge an anime against it's manga counterpart, because depending on what you read or saw first it will influence the opinion you will have of what you read / saw last and usually that influence is not positive. And anime often getting the short end of the stick so the speak as with a manga you often have had more background and the average graphic quality because of it's relative cheapness to produce is often better the the anime counterpart.

Still one would argue that as long as at least they honestly try and do as much justice to the original story as possible then both can basically be equally good ... in their own right. The keys words being "honestly try" as really, there is no way that's the case here. I higly suspect the producer getting all the current volumes of the manga in single sheets, threw them off a 12 story building and based the story on what landed directly before the front entrance ..... and that in the order he picked the sheets from the ground.

I just finished Kämpfer yesterday (last december I had a month in hell thanks to my job so I am even more behind then ever) and let me start by giving you a sincere warning. Make that 2 warnings.

One. Do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT for any reason watch episode 12. In fact, do not even download it.

Seriously. Don't. It has nothing to do with the story at all and can only be considered as a bad joke for a christmas special in which the entrail animals switch places with their respecitve owner. The producers must have eaten some ill prepared poisonous blowfish and had a collective delerium tremens to come up with this retarded excuse for an episode and that's all the time I'm willing to spend on this.

Two. Like I suspected in my first post about this series there is no conclusion whatsoever. Nada. Zilch. Niente. In fact, with my knowledgde of the clusterf*** that is episode 12 everybody's reaction would be to wonder where the rest of the episodes are as you're being marooned in the middle of the story.

On with the final analysis. Oh man, where to begin.
Warning, spoilers, for both anime and manga are to follow

I do have to admit that I'm a little in the dark about how far the manga has gone. There are 15 chapters that have been translated making up 3 complete volumes. The thing is that quite a lot of what makes up the anime isn't in those chapters and I gather that the anime is based on the light novel that was based on the manga. In any case the anime and manga differ almost day and night from each other with the anime coming out on the losing side.

What the manga and anime both have in common is that early in the series Shizuku kidnaps Kaede in order to force the blue Kämpfer to fight her. Shizuku looses the battle though and while Akane is all business and wants to finish Shizuku off, Natsuru prevents it and makes a deal with Shizuku that she'll be spared if she leaves Kaede alone and he also doesn't like the idea of killing Shizuku. It's one of the few moments I actually approve of Natsuru (more on him later).

In the manga we still haven't got a clue as to why Kämpfer should fight however in episode 11 of the anime we learn from the first original entrail animal that Shizuku stole from Kaedes house that they fight as proxies for 2 parties somewhere in the universe that have become locked in eternal combat. The moderators managed to have both parties agree to pick representatives (the Kämpfers) to fight for them. Having learned that I couldn't help noticing a glaring plothole because Shizuku herself told that she defeated enemy Kämpfers so it seems that if a Kämpfer is defeated then another is picked .... in essence one could argue that the eternal struggle continues but on a smaller scale. So much for resolving the issue.

Another difference is that in the anime the childhood friend of Natsuru (Mikito) becomes the 2nd red Kampfer which being childhood friend and all is hardly surprising. What is surprising though is that in the manga a completely other girl becomes the 2nd red Kämpfer and that this one remains hostile and is in the end defeated. Well, Mikoto might end up as red Kämpfer after that, but at the moment in the manga we're back with Shiziku being the only red Kämpfer again. In the manga we also get an answer to what happens to defeated Kämpfer .... they are erased from existance.

Also in episode 11 of the anime we get confirmed that Kaede is either in league with the moderators (possible a moderator herself which is more likely) or is controlled by them. I honestly can't say which, but as I don't want to think to badly about Kaede I opt for the latter. From what I gather it seems she intended to make sure that either the red or the blue team would take the opposing team out after which her white Kämpfer would finish of the remaining team. As it would seem the moderators have their own agenda. However because of the red and blue team refusing to fight that plan went out the window and 'Kaede' now wanted to use the female Natsuru to reinforce her and her white Kämpfer because, hardly surprising, it seems like feelings of love enhance the Kämpfers combat abilities. With 'Kaede's' ability to control Natsuru and force him in his female form Kaede could use Natsuru to enhance her powers and of the white Kämpfer to defeat Shizuku, Akane and Mikoto who need the male Natsuru.

Speaking about Natsuru. Our male protaganist annoys me .... a lot, a whole heck of a lot up to the point that I'm actually to be ashamed to be a guy myself. For someone who suddenly has to fight for his life he is not taken things even remotely serious and only the fact that he is the male lead prevents him from being killed half a dozen times over. Also his, beyond stubborness, going after Kaede makes me want to scream. Hell, in episode 9 Kaede tells his female form in no uncertain terms that she has absolutely no feelings for the male Natsuru and that he basically is apperently to stupid to notice that she isn't interested at all. Any man with a shred of self dignitiy would call it quits after that, but not this guy.

Sigh. As icing on the cake, even after Natsuru learns from the entrail animal Shizuku stole from Kaede that Kaede is either not who she pretends to be or being controlled by the moderators, he still goes over Kaede's place, not being able to belief the broad as daylight evidence. He promptly gets possessed by 'Kaede' and is almost forced to kill off Shizuki, Akane and Mikoto. As usual it's a small thing (in this case a cell phone chain he gave Shizuku on their date) that makes him come to his senses and alltough he still loves Kaede (wtf?) he chooses for the other 3 girls instead as he loves them as well and doesn't want to hurt them.

As for the other lead characters in this anime and I'll skip Mikoto as she has hardly any screen time.

I can't get my head wrapped around Kaede. Is she being controlled by a moderator or not? I have a dual feeling about her that makes me think that some of her actions are outside her normal behaviour. Her freaky hobby of collecting stuff from the animal entrail series is not helping either and while in the beginning I was on her side as her being the cute childhood friend my cheers went quickly to another girl when Kaede became obsessed over the female Natsuru.

After Kaede I turned my attention to Akane, or to be more precise, her Kämpfer personality. While spewing vulgarities like a marine drill instructor in Kämpfer mode she is really, really cute. To bad that her normal looks aren't half as good and what after a while got kind of old was her somewhat odd personality. Mistaking almost anything for an ecchi remark, but never able to follow things through because of her shyness. And while shyness has some merit, sustaining it doesn't score points allthough in truth she finally manages to land a kiss at the end.

If anything, my viewing experience was saved by the chair lady of the school and the first red Kämpfer, Shizuku. God knows why, but after the initial fight between them Shizuku takes an interest in him. I suppose it's refreshing for her to meet a boy that's not returned to a puddle of drool in her company and who is not immediately head over heels with her.

She is devious, underhanded, a tad mean, as she quite regularly gets Natsuru into trouble (one teases the one you love, ne?) but also honest, sweet and caring and, which works in her favor, there is basically no difference between her personality as chairlady and her being a Kämpfer. She is the most honest about her feelings and also does ACT on them.

Alright, time for me to be wrapping this up.

If you have read the manga you can only wonder like I did how people can massacre a potential interesting story. It almost defies belief in how badly this was executed. Even if the manga perhaps wasn't fleshed out enough storywise it could have been so much better if they had actually done something with the basic setup instead of using it just for planting a guy between girls.

Also there a couple of scenes in the anime that are .... lame I guess is the word I'm looking for. Most memorable would be Kaede's stage performance during the beauty contest with her godawful entrail animal story. The other one would be in episode 11 with the red and blue Kämpfer entrail animals singing by way of supporting them during their fight against the white Kämpfer and Kaede. Seriously, I wish I could unsee and unhear those parts as even as I'm typing this now it still makes me want to bang my head on my desk.

As for the characters. Kaede is an engigma to me, Mikito gets way to little screentime and Akane is for almost the entire series stuck in her shy-mode. Natsuro is an indecisive blind idiot who really doesn't deserve to be even on the same planet as Shizuku who is awesome, but not even she can save this trainwreck of a series. Still, if it weren't for her I would have rated this 2 points lower that's how awesome I think she is.

Final verdict 1: 5 out of 10.

The best laid plans / Happy New Year

2010-01-04T21:23:00.007+01:00

Sigh, just when I thought up I'd pick up bloging if not just for the sake of 'hearing' myself talk, my work piled up to such heights that I had to put it in overtime for a full month just to be able to finish .... most of it .... in the nick of time. The fact that one of my motto's is "Don't stand if you can sit down, don't sit down if you can lie down." should tell you something about how much I enjoyed that.

Also I honestly have to admit that this blogging is costing me WAAAAAAAaaaaayyyyy more time then I had figured it would. This further compounded by the fact that I'm a grade-A nitpicker so my posts, even as they are, take a considerable amount of time so I haven't nearly posted as much as I had intended. I wish I could say I'll improve on at least the number of postings, but the fact of the matter is that, again, it's going to be very busy at work for me, but at least I'll try and make more of an effort.

Furthermore I think that next to making an introductionary post of a series ..... and if all goes well a final grading post .... I might take a shot of following a series reporting on most, if not each, episode.

Well, enough of my whining and let me wish you a belated, but still meant, happy New Year and may only good things come your way. And just for my own amusement a cutesy xxx-mass ? picture.

Sora no Otoshimono

2009-11-24T20:57:00.011+01:00

I was made aware of Sora no Otoshimono after a post on Cartoon Leap Anime Blog that had picked up on this shows rather unique ending. An ending that turns out to belong to the 2nd episode as so far they have a different ending for every episode. After getting some marginal info from Anidb I figured I might like it even though I was a bit dubious, but since it was about an angel 'descending' to earth I figured it had some Oh! My Goddess ring to it and seeing that's one of my favorites I thought I'd give it a shot. Alas, this isn't as good in MY humble opinion ... and that's pretty much the only thing that counts around here.

Our male lead, Sakurai Tomoki, has had a dream since early childhood in which he sees a girl he loves who loves him back but at the end heaven always takes her away leaving him behind, often in tears. The story begins with one of the stereotypical scenes of a childhood girlfriend (Sohara) trying to wake up our male lead and trying to get his attention by pulling away his sheets and finds that he is paying more attention then she bargained for. And for another stereotype we learn that Sohara comes equiped with a karate chop that would instill fear into the hearts of strong men.

The only thing Tomoki wants is peace and quiet, but little does he know that those days are all but over and gone. After a nap at school where he has his dream again, he is woken up, again, by Sohara who is worried as he is crying again. Sohara wants him to visit the hospital, and when he refuses that, go see the upperclassman Eishirou Sugata to which Tomoki objects even more vehemently. Not entirely without good reason as even Sugata's childhood friend (Mikako) describes him as knowledgable, but somewhat creepy, severely perverted, a weirdo and a freak with glasses.

Ofcourse in the end Tomo goes to Sugata and with reasons that come from thin air Sugata makes the assumption that the floating hole and Tomoki's dream are connected. As it just happens *cough* the floating hole will fly over their hometown at midnight so he suggests they all go to a somewhat famous local cherry blossom tree to watch it. Due to various reasons though Tomo ends up sitting alone under the cherry tree and he is about to go home when he receives a call from Sugata warning him something odd is going on. Naturally that warning is just to late and after a fairly good sized blast Tomo finds an unconscious girl in a crater. A girl with wings no less.

With a sharp instinct Tomo correctly assumes this stinks to high heavens (pardon the pun) of trouble and makes for a quick exit of the scene while seemingly some part of heaven is raining down around him. Good guy that he is, and giving us a story in the process, he decides he can't leave the girl lying there and darts back. 10 out of 10 for the gentleman perk, 1 out of 10 for common sense though. Luckily for him the girl regains consiousness and saves him instead before things turn out badly after which the girl bonds with him and introduces herself as being an Pet-class Angelroid, ready to fulfill his every desire.

I'll leave at this. Read on if you don't mind spoilers (or have seen this episode already).

[Spoiler]
Tomoki gets a little on my nerves which is not because of his standard role of somewhat perverted boy, but at times his laughing has all the charm of nails going over chalkboard (something which I find almost impossible to stomach) and because of the superdeformed way he often is portrait. Now SD has it's purposes, but here it seems either done at random or it is supposed to be funny and perhaps I don't get it, but I find it distracting, no annoying and that's not really the way to go. To be honest, others are put in SD-mode in seemingly random fashion as well, but Tomoki more and it grates on my nerves.

Kudos for Tomoki though for (ab)using his new found powers getting some revenge on Sohara for all her karate chops on him. My only question though is: "if you're invisible then why do you need the invisible making ninja blanket (Naruto fans should know what I mean)?"

I have wondered before about the sanity of japanese animators and one of the things Tomoki does when finds there is basically no limit to what he can do, makes me wonder again. Really, if you're basically omnipitent is one the things you do go naked onto the street? Sigh, invisible or not, I doubt very much many people would see the fun in that.

I also need to give credits for the last part of the first episode in which Tomomki is misunderstood by Icarus (the name of our Pet-class Angelroid) and he ends up erasing all of mankind. It reminded me a lot about an episode of the X-files in which Mulder finds a genuine Genie in the bottle (actually a carpet if I recall correctly) and he whishes for worldpeace and the genie, who has somewhat of an evil stride in her, also erases humanity entirely. Luckily for Tomoki things are reversed when Icarus takes the remark that he wishes it was all a dream as a request for a wish.

As for Icarus. She is cute and follows what she thinks are commands/wishes of Tomoki blindly. She seems to be naive, not stupid though, but naive which most likely is because she has very little to no prior experiences. She also does remind me a lot of Chobits with those thing on her head next to her ears. Her cuteness at times is a little diminished as another annoying trait of japanese animators pops up which would be that womens breast should be in size large, extra large and extra extra large. Thankfully they don't take it to extremes here, but I sure wish that the combination of a skimpy outfit and large breast would be given a rest ..... for a couple of decades.

I've read about the manga a little and it seems your general harem anime with more heaven visitor coming down .... not all friendly though and from what I can gather without having actually touched the manga (though I WILL be downloading them) there is some action, some rather serious action actually, to be had. I doubt very much though we'll see much of this in the anime with half of the series having aired already without any real progress in the story at all.

As last thought something that has been puzzling me. Tomoki has been dreaming about a girl, but this girl is NOT Icarus. In fact he has a dream later in episode 1 in which he sees this girl again and she tells him to treasure his angel and never leave her. I'm wondering if, in both the anime as well as the manga, we'll ever get to see her and what part she'll play.

So all in all what we have here is your basic romance harem anime (the harem part still to come sort of). Guy gets an angel(roid) to live with him, childhood girlfriend gets jealous and an male lead, that's oblivious to the the girls feelings. The art is pretty good, but I really don't like the overuse (at least in my eyes it's over use) of the superdeformed style. The male lead has it's good points, but also his bad which in particularly to me detract from the experience. So far, and I have seen up till episode 6, there is also not an inch movement in what you could call a plot which is a pity because the manga does seem to have one. In short, it watchable, but I've seen this done better.

Temporarily verdict: 6,5 out of 10.

Tatakau Shisho The Book of Bantorra

2009-11-10T00:16:00.022+01:00

Ugh. If you have read a couple of my pieces you know I'm not that hard to please (my wife might take offense at this remark though).

I don't need great graphics, nor great voice actors. Hell, I can even forego a coherent story, if, and I repeat, IF only they manage to keep me entertained in one small way or another. Unfortunately, or perhaps, looking at the backlog and the number of series from this season alone I'm following already, I should say fortunately, Tatakau Shisho The Book of Bantorra fails in doing so.

I wondered if I would give a synopsis or keep it general and in fact, while I'm typing this I still am unsure which way to go so I'll just start things and see where it ends.

Apparently in this world people that die, have their souls turn into books. If you can call a stone tablet a book that is, but let's not go into semantics as there is plenty more seriously wrong with this anime. These 'books' are being stored in a library which is protected by the Armed Librarians of which Hamyuts Meseta is it's leader, or Acting Director as she is called in the series. Another faction in this world is the Shindeki Church, allthough evil Cult would be a much better description as you'll notice very soon.

Right of the bat this series gets in boatloads of trouble as the creator of this series, mistakenly so, assumes that people have read the light novels this anime is based on, and makes assumptions on how much the casual viewer actually knows already. In the first episode you are almost bombarded with terms as "True men", "Mock men", "Shindeki Church Clergymans book", "Dragon Pneumonia germs", "7 ancient warmachines" and apparently the audience is supposed to know what this all means.

The series begins with the Armed Librarians making an assault on a ship from the Shindeki church in order to investigate and find evidence. Again, no explanation at all what it is that the Armed Librarians are investigating nor what evidence they are supposed to find.

On board of the Shindeki Church vessel there are a great number of so called 'Meats'. Basically a human, but one that has been brainwashed making them believe they are not human, and in this case a lot of them have bombs surgically implanted in them and have been instructed to kill the leader of the Armed Librarians, Hamyuts Meseta.

One of these 'Meats', is basically the male lead and is Colio Tonies. When the attack of the Armed Librarians starts, the higher ups (the True Men) of the Shindeki Church, who were having a meeting, are teleported of the ship and the rest of them get slaughtered by the Armed Librarians.

While the librarians are busy finding the undisclosed evidence and rescueing the 'Meats' a cryptic message ("Vend Ruga is alive in the heart of Olivia Litlet") is found. And I'll be repeating myself here, but again you won't get a single clue as what this is supposed to mean.

Hidden bombs go off which sends the ship and the 'Meats', who aren't at all interested in saving themselves, to the bottom of the ocean. Colio Tonios is also busy with drowing when a fragment of a book lands on him which actives so he sees a part of what's in it. He sees a beautiful girl who gives him a cryptic message. The scene ends with seeing him sink deeper. Much to my surprise though Colio appears in a town somewhat later, apparantly having saved himself which is rather odd as his fellow 'meats' just gave up and let themselves drown. So far consistency I suppose.

We also learn that the Armed Librarians managed to save a piece of a book of one of the leaders of the Shindeki Church, Shiron Byacornise. We learn that 280 years ago a plague (Dragon Pneumonia) hit a dukedom and that Shiron Byacornise was the only one that knew how to make a cure for it. This she did, but not before letting the disease spread so she could make a huge profit by selling the cure. She also possessed a magical sword, Shlamuffen, that was always laughing which she used to kill all that dared to oppose her. And that basically wraps up the important stuff in episode 1 and basically left me with a "wtf did I just watch"-feeling.

To make matters worse at times the conversations are so utterly ridiclous that it almost makes my eyes bleed reading the translation. A perfect example would be that totally pompous and meaningless talk the higher ups of the Shindeki church have during their meeting aboard their ship. Lord almighty spare me. It's at times like this I remember a line from one of my favorite TV series Star Trek, "Others talk much, but say little". The leader of the Armed Librarians doesn't fare much better though with her 'comments' on overhearing the Shindeki meeting with her special ability.

The characters also aren't to be a redeeming feature as to put it bluntly they are for the most part still strangers (even after watching 6 episodes), some shallow, some obnoxious, some completely uninteresting and others plain annoying.

From the group of Armed Librarians we meet in the first episode 1 dies just after 6 minutes and another dies after 9 minutes in the second episode. Not that you really care as you know next to nothing about them. Probably a sentiment that is shared by the leader of the Armed Librarians as she also couldn't care less if one of her subordinates lives or dies, which is made especially clear in episode 2. Besides being very strong and having some kind of super spy ability she has also the power to transform as seen below.

The only interesting ones of the club are Volken and Mirepoc who are a couple even if they don't know (or want to know) it themselves. I think Volken had the best line in all the 6 episodes I watched, when he said that Hamyuts Meseta lacked a heart.

The villains are nothing better. We have a mystery guest who was on board of the ship of which we haven't seen a face. There is an old geezer who is in dire need for some dentist work and then there is Cigal Crekessa, the main villain for the first 4 episodes. Sigh, I doubt if they could have portrait him any more cliche then they did with his uber exalted mannerism.

For those that haven't had enough, or have but still are interested in what I learned watching some more of this series you can read on the spoiler tag as I will disclose some more stuff which I've learned watching up till episode 6.

[Spoiler]I really intended to make a coherent story out of the first 4 episodes, and in fact I had a full page written out already when I realised that the plot is so over the place and events are stringed together by such coincedance that it simply isn't worth my time and effort.

You'll get explained where the Dragon Pneumonia comes from, how the ever-laughing-witch and the Shindeki Church fit in all, well, most of this. At the end of episode 4 Cigal and Colio Tonios are dead with the first actually killed by the second. I have to admit that Colio killing Cigal is a case of poetic justice and I'm all for justice. Also the reason, as I understand it, why he could do what Hamyuts Mesata couldn't is that Schlamuffen wielded by Cigal obeyed, for a better word, the wish of it's former owner and lowered its defense allowing Conio to make the kill.

Episode 4 apparently ends the first 'arc' as now that the Shindeki Church has been dealt a blow with the defeat of Cigal and the loss of Schlamuffen, we suddenly have Volken take off in order to try and save people which he apparently failed to do in the past. This after getting a book from a mysterious person who also has a weapon of the Gods. This person also collects the book of Cigal which we, as far as I can tell, see ending up with the higher ups of the Shindeki Church.

Volken taking off without permission, with a plane and one of the weapons of the Gods are tantamount to treason although the director of the Armed Librarians doesn't seem to get worked up at all over this. In order to complicate things we have Meripoc erasing her memories and feelings for Volken through a magical procedure.

Also we have a new player, who by the looks of it, is equal of an Armed Librarian and one of the lesser characters is being attached by Hamyuts Meseta to that person so I'm kind of guessing we're going again on two seperate paths here.

It's not often that I can't find any redeeming qualities in a series, but this one manages to pull it off. A fair word of warning also that the pretty picture and the synopsis on Anidb are giving this trainwreck of a series way to much credit not to mention that it is partially wrong as Colio does not fall in love with Hamyuts Meseta.

From the getgo you're thrown into a series as if you're supposed to already know everything about it which is okay if you have read the novels, but for newcomers this is immensly annoying. Sure, (partial) explanations are given later on, but it makes for a very disturbed viewing experience if you get terms explained 3 episodes after you first heard them.

There is a fair number of characters, but even after 6 episodes you know hardly anything about them and the fact that 4 characters die in the first 4 episodes doesn't make it easy to develop any attachement to them. A fact that is emphasized by the fact that basically they come over as bland, cliché and downright annoying.

I've seen people lamenting about the CG that's used and do I admit that for the attack on the Shindeki vessel in the first episode the CG looks so terribly off that one almost could wonder if this wasn't orginally made for another series. I haven't seen anything that obvious (and bad) after that though.

I don't give much about openings and endings. Usually I watch them once and after that I skip them. I have to say though that the opening of this series must have been the most bland I've seen in ... forever. Godalmighty help me, but I could have done something better blindfolded.

Another thing that's irking me is that the story doesn't seem to go anywhere or is all over the place ... or both. Cigal has been defeated and the story of Shiron and Colio is finished, but already we're back at 2 tales again with the mystery newcomer and Volkens treason, but for some reason this feels more like sidestories then a continuing plot as the premise of the story, which in my eyes is the conflict between the Armed Librarians and the Shindeki Churchm, is suddenly (seemingly?) abonded.

The final nail in the coffin is that, while I am able to take a fair amount of coincedences and illogical stuff for granted, this series drives it to far. If you take into account the odds that Colio is hit by a fragment of a book while busy drowning, and especially knowing that this book is one of the most important ones the Shindeki church had in it's possession you would logically conclude that the "True Men" that were evacuated of the ship would have taken it along with them. The way Colio manages to 'read' other parts of Shirons book also are way to farfetched for my taste.

Perhaps I'll download the last episode just to see if they have any kind of ending and if there is any development in the situation / relation between Volken and Meripoc, but this series is dropped as of right now.

Final verdict: 3,5 out of 10.

Kobato

2009-10-28T23:04:00.013+01:00

Wai-wai. It's magic time.

Honato Kobato has arrived in the human world together with her stuffed toy Ioryogi. Ioryogi isn't your regular stuffed toy ofcourse (after all, this IS a magic series) and he serves as her instructor. A stern instructor I might add who is impatient and prone to losing his temper. In his defense though it has to be said that Kobato, while sweet, lovable and cute, is also extremely naive and not to mention a first class klutz.

The reason that Kobato has come to the human world is because she has a wish she wants granted. In her case she has a place she wants to go to, but we aren't told what place exactly nor the reason she wants to go there. As nothing is for free, in order to get her wish granted she needs to collect broken hearts into a special flask. That special flask has also to be earned though and she can earn it by proving she can blend into the human world and seeing we're talking Kobato here this is not as easy as it sounds (well, if it wasn't we wouldn't be having any fun right ;-)

This first episode is about Kobato earning the flask she needs to collect the broken hearts. Needless to say that on various, no scratch that remark and make it, nearly all occassions Kobato ends, or even starts with screwing up. During one of her mishaps she has a short meet with the male lead in this anime, Kiyokazu Fujimoto. Short of the fact that he seems to be working several part-time jobs we don't learn much in this first episode.

It's obvious that if you make another version of Sakura and Toya that those two will have more interaction with eachother later on and having seen up till episode 3 I can confirm that this is the case. I'll pause a minute to let the reader recover from the shock of this totally unexpected development.

Having seen more then the first episode I also can see where the relation between Kobato and Fujimoto will be headed so the Anidb synopsis is probably right on allthough they give away to much imho so I think that someone read the manga already.

Okay, could somebody please arrange an non-fatal accident for the lead designer at Clamp so they stop doing crossovers for at least a little while? Sakura and Fujimoto are in fact not the only figures you'll find familiar. Having seen up till episode 3 I'll just say that unless I'm way off, I spotted more of Tsubasa Chronicles characters and definitely some Chobits look-a-likes. I know crossovers are popular in certain corners, but if you do it in nearly every show you produce it smells like laziness to me.

It's a bit early to tell for real, but it looks like basically a 'capture a new broken heart every week' kind of show. Short and sweet 1 episode stories with some humor and perhaps a touch of romance here and there. It's not terribly deep, but especially Ioryogi losing it makes me chuckle everytime and I have to say the choice for his voice actor is epic. Graphics wise it's ... generic for the latest clamp series I'd say.

Temporarily verdict: 7,5 out of 10.

Kimini no Todoke

2009-10-25T19:55:00.028+01:00

Uwah, this is hard. I can't really give a synopsis without more or less rehashing the entire episode, because of the way they really let things fall into place. I'll leave it at a short introduction and will put the rest in the spoiler tag.

Kuronuma Sawako really wants to make friends. Unfortunately for her she is seen by all as extremely terrifying which has earned her the nickname Sadako (for those that don't know (and I had to google it as well), it's a character from The Ring in which if you watch a certain videotape you'll die 7 days later and Sawako is rumored to have similar powers, albeit less deadly). It's kinda hard to make friends if anyone you talk to goes deadwhite and takes off with a speed that would make an olympic athlete jealous.

Her rolemodel is Kazahaya, a guy who is cheerfull, lively and always the center of attention and one of the few, make that VERY few, people that actually isn't afraid of her. He has been her rolemodel since the day of the high school entrance ceremony when she gave him directions and he reacted normally and wasn't afraid of her and ever since that day she has tried and to be more like him. Obviously, seeing that the series starts at the end of that same schoolyear things haven't exactly (queue award for understatement of the year) improved.

Things are going to take a turn for the better though, but I'll be rehashing the episode if I were to tell you about that so read the spoilers only if you have watched already (or don't mind spoilers).

[Spoiler]I like the intricate setup, or the string of coincedences depending on how you look at it, of this series already. Because Kazehaya happens to overhear a remark from Sawako to Shino (a girl she knows from her previous school and therefore unafraid of Sawako allthough she still calls her Sadako oddly enough) Sawako and Kazehaya end up talking to eachother for real for the first time.

This talk in return leads to Sawako deciding to sign up for the courage event Kazehaya is organising later tonight, but having decided that, it's Sawaka's turn to overhear two classmates (Yano and Yoshida) saying that the courage event would be really good if Sawako would play ghost. Sawako, being bolstered by her earlier talk with Kazehaya, manages to talk to Yano and Yoshida and because of that these two now also start acting normal towards her.

Later that night Sawako is shaving off a couple of years of the life of her classmates with her performance and ends up with Kazehaya as he had to go alone as, because Sawako didn't show up even though she signed up, Kazehaya ended up with no partner. Again Sawako and Kazehaya have a good talk and we now learn that while Sawako may admire Kazehaya, Kazehaya actually likes Sawako. Yano and Yoshida who knew that Sawako was playing ghost also show up to thank Sawako for her job. Because they 'catch' Sawako and Kazehaya together, and being girls, the whole class knows the next day that they spend time together.

The next day Kazehaya is to be 'punished' as he didn't get to the finish of the courage event and his punishment is having to date Sawako for a week. Yano and Yoshida voice their disagreement with this 'punishment' and Kazehaya flatout refuses and calls it insulting towards to Sawako. Sawako afraid of him ruining his status in the class for her sake explains that her meeting with Kazehaya wasn't anything special and she does actually manage to make the entire class feel ashamed about this punishment (having seen episode 2 I can't say their behaviour towards Sawako in general unless Sawako's classmates suffer from early Alzheimer as they seem to have forgotten their lesson already).

Sawako did the right thing, but now she is afraid that her actions will have left her alone again. On her way to school in order to help out with summer classes though she finds Kazehaya waiting on her with an apology on behalf of her class. He also has come to the realisation that Sawako doesn't realise his feelings (even if she thinks she does). The episode ends the scene of the first meeting between Kazehaya and Sawako again, but this time seen through the eyes of Kazehaya and we learn why he has fallen for Sawako. Beautiful and that's all that I will say about this.

Sigh, like I said in my personal info: "I'm a sucker for romance". And for a nice change this romance doesn't need a mass of cute girls, no pantsu, no double E-cups, no childhood friend, no neighboring girl providing wake-up service and name whatever cliché you can think off which usually features in anime romance series. For that alone I'll be giving extra points.

What we have here is a genuine feel good, slice of life romance which is being also rather original if I dare say it. Basically we have a guy that has fallen for a girl, a girl that for once isn't the idol of the school (allthough if people saw her like Kazehaya has that might change) and which because of her social clumsiness really stands apart. A girl, who because of that clumsiness, also hasn't got a clue about how the boy feels and in fact isn't quite in tune with her own feelings as well. It's up to the boy to support her getting confident in herself and hopefully then accept his feelings.

If I had more thumbs I'd put them up, but I think that for this season in the romance department we have a winner.

Oh, forget crisp graphics. I've seen people compare it to Bokura ga Ita and not unjustly so, but the graphics here at a notch above that. The only thing I don't like that to often they go into SD mode for Sawako and I particularly dislike the balloon face they give her often. The OP and ED are not memorable, but I think the music during scenes itself is good enough and I think the voice acting is spot on.

Temporarily verdict: 8,5 out of 10

Nearly forgot. Subs taken from Eclipse Productions.

More Sora no Manimani

2009-10-22T23:28:00.004+02:00

Well I have watched a little more .... well, up to episode 8 thanks to the people of AonE of whom I get my fix for this series. With this number of episodes we have some more characters thrown into the mix so without further ado (warning some minor spoilers ahead):

Makita Hime or just Hime for short. A classmate of Saku that isn't happy with Mii-chan barging into the classroom all the time, but we soon learn that in reality she doesn't like it as she has a major crush on Saku (I wish girls would really fall that easily in real life for a guy as it would have made my life easier if not more interesting, but I digress). Oh, don't be fooled by her name as Hime sure can get unprincesslike.

Anyone who has watched a few romantic comedies can spot from a mile away that it won't take long before Hime joins the astronomy club. With her addition they have 5 members which grants them an official standing. While this is good news for the club, it's not so much good news for Saku, as Hime and Mii-chan start competing over Saku with him caught in the middle .... not that Mii-chan and Saku have a clue about the reason for the competition though.

Another person that is decidedly unhappy is the super strict female student council president, and head of the literature club, Kotodzuka who despises the astronomy club and isn't shy of making it abundantly clear either. She is called Fumin, which she really doesn't like and for some reason I haven't figured out yet.

And then there is Edogawa. A male classmate of Saku and not unlike Saku he basically is a stranger as no-one in the class comes from his former school. He is a member of photograpy club, but hangs out a lot with the astronomy club as Mii-chan and Yarai Sayo (the last member of the astronomy club and good friend off Mii-chan with which she spend the last 7 years) are considered the most cute girls from the 2nd year and Edogawa isn't beneath sitting in with the astronomy club just to get close to them. He often manages to loan stuff from his club to the astronomy club in exhange for some secret snapshots of the girls.

As for the story. Up till episode 6 it all calmly flows from one episode to another until things between Saku and Mii-chan get a little more interesting as Souma Nozomu shows up. He is the new homeroom teacher for Saku's class and we soon learn that he has ties to Mii-chan as well. Saku is going to have to deal with jealousy issues, and since he IS jeaulous also has to figure out what he exactly does feel for Mii-chan. Mii-chan also has to deal with her feelings that are unfamiliar to her so I think the rest of this series will be them coming to the realisation they are more then friends.

As a sidenote. In episode 2 after a stargazing sessions that's ruined by rain Mii-chan gets the gang invited to Saku's home and at the end I wonder about something. Saku's mother bids them goodbye and tells Mii-chan to tell her parents she said hi. Mii-chan, uncharacteristically, falls silent for a moment and Yarai also has an odd look. Seeing I have watched till episode 8 now I know there are frequent remarks to her father, but only to him, so I'll lay odds that Mii-chans mother is not doing well.

I'll keep it at this and will reserve final judgement when I've finished this show.

Kämpfer

2009-10-20T23:17:00.035+02:00

Gah. I've been at this article for 3 days now and rewritten it twice and I'm STILL not really happy with it, but I'm starting to think I never will so here goes.

Poor Natsuru. The girl he has a crush on, Kaede Sakura, likes him. Or to be more precise, she likes his female side ..... I'll let you reread the previous line and let that sink in a little.

Still there? Excellent. Let us rewind a little and see how this came to pass.

The series starts off with Natsuru Senou having a weird dream in which one girl is being pursued by another girl. The chase ends when the first girl falls / leaps / is shot off (take your pick, but I vote 2) of the top of a building and just before the girl hits the ground, a voice is heared telling that the bracelet the girl is wearing is proof that she has been chosen by moderators to become an elite fighter, a Kämpfer (german for fighter) and that she has to fight.

Waking up doesn't exactly improve things as Natsuru Senou finds himself being turned into the girl he dreamt about (luckily for us guys she is damn pretty good looking) and his plushie Harikiri Tiger talking to him to boot. His tiger explains that he is a messenger from the moderators and that Natsuru has been chosen to be a Kämpfer. Also he is informed that all Kämpfer have to be female so that's the reason he has been turned into one and that his bracelet will glow before he transforms. Natsuru thinks he is still dreaming and goes back to sleep.

Oookay .... I suppose it's time for a gender bender series again with a shaky setup, but never mind that. Cute girls and violence with, I suppose, some harem elements, might be worth checking out.

On with a little more of the setup.

The next morning Natsuru thinks he has dreamt really weird, but is very quickly dismissed of that idea when the girl he has a crush on, Kaede Sakura, notices that he is wearing a bracelet (how the hell he missed that himself is beyond me as he did check to see if his 'little friend' was back, but doesn't check the other obvious sign?).

Things are going rapidly down hill for Natsuru as his bracelet starts glowing indicating he is about to transform. Before he does though another Kämpfer, the other girl in his dream (later introduces herself as Akane Mishima), shows up and starts shooting at him.

During the small altercation that follows they are disturbed by Kaede who has followed them looking for Natsuru. She actually finds him, but ofcourse doesn't reckognise him in his female form. When Akane wants to take out Kaede for getting in the way, Natsuru saves her which makes such an impression ... well, look at the first picture again and you can guess what kind of impression.

More about this series along with some of my comments inside the spoiler tag as I'd be giving away to much otherwise as it's based on having seen episode 2 and 3 as well.

[Spoilers]Actually Natsuru makes an impression on both girls it turns out, but while Kaede likes the female Natsuru, Akane is more into the male Natsuru and isn't happy AT ALL about Natsuru (the male one, you're still following this right?) having an intrest in Kaede. So we have 2 girls liking basically the same person. I suppose some kind of tag team is out of the question right?

/Sherlock Holmes skill +1 ..... yeah, right. It doesn't take a genius to see that the messengers dolls, the Harikiri Tiger for Natsuru and Black Seppuku Bunny for Akane, are dolls from the same series (what's with those charming names anyway?) and it stands to reason that every Kämpfer has one. In episode 3 though we learn that all these plushies in fact have been handed out by Kaede. I don't think however Kaede is aware of the nature of her gifts. It's also very convenient as it (so far) keeps all the Kämpfer close to together so they're very likely to bump into eachother.

And to add another 1 to my Sherlock Holmes skill, or rather not having to subtract 1 for the common sense skill; as soon as I learned about the strict seperation between boys and girls at Natsuru's school I knew that it was purely done for the excuse of female Natsuru getting over there. And lo and behold, in the 2nd episode he already sneaks into the female side and at the end of the 2nd episode he even gets transferred to it permanently. To Natusuru's defense I have to state that it wasn't his idea and he is not to happy about it .... and with good reason and you know what I mean when you have seen episode 3.

Also bonuspoints for getting the german words actually to sound like german and not butcher it like almost always happens when a japanese speaks english. Bonuspoints stripped though for not being consistent as why calling magic Zauber? sword Schwert? but gun is gun? Details people, details. Feurwaffe would have been the most correct, but a little awkward to use so Pistole would have sufficied as well.

I'm torn between which girl I like best. Kaede is the typical sweet and cute girl and ofcourse one of the school idols. There isn't really anthing that be said other then the fact that she is quite bold in going after her love interest, but I actually like seeing a girl going after her boy ... err ... girl.

On the other hand there is the rather plain looking and shy Akane, our glasses wearing librarian. Shy as she is though she is really quick in interpreting stuff in an ecchi way. Usually while totally misunderstand things. It's rather in line with her loud badmouthing Kämpfer personality so I guess we could say that her Kämpfer personality is normal Akane surpressing herself. Her Kämpfer looks though however increases her attractiveness A LOT.

My last thought is about what exactly would happen if a Kämpfer is killed. I doubt to be honest that in this kind of series, which is more about comedy and romantic entanglements because of the gender bending then actual battles, that there will be some actual killing. Having said that; the Kämpfer Akane would have left behind a path of bodies if her violent tendocies weren't surpressed by Natsuru. Still, would a kill mean the end of the Kämpfer alone or would it kill the original human as well? Question, questions. No choice to watch more to see if they are answered.

Groan. This is one of those animes that you shouldn't like, but still do.

It's defenitly a series for guys as the whole setup is so that it's basically one giant excuse for having almost exclusively girls (all cute ofcourse) in sight with one guy in the middle. The school uniform for girls therefore are as usual more like belts then a dress that covers something .... allthough, I haven't seen a panty shot yet, which now that I think about it defies all logic.

Having a guy turned into a girl ofcourse is almost a guarantee that at one point we'll probably have the obligatory onsen / swimmingpool episode, but oh well, it's not really a punishment to look at cute girls.

There are two things that irk me about this series. One of them being that it's a little over the top. Well gender transformation in itself is already pretty well over the top, but my reservation is directed at how the female Natsuru Senou is treated by the female side of the school when she transfers to it at the start of episode 3. I know this is anime so the reality factor isn't a real debate here, but please can we have the girls act a little more realistic? I sure hope that things settle back to being a little less over the top soon which also would do wonders for getting on with the plot.

An even more glaring plothole in my opinion though is that the Kämpfer don't know the reason they are supposed to fight and in fact neither do their stuffed mentors (and for whatever reason, the moderators aren't telling). I don't know, but even if you're asked to fight I would be damn sure that I know the reason I'm supposed to do battle and perhaps even kill or I wouldn't move a finger. In that respect it's odd that apparently it never occurred to the battling Kämpfer to ask eachother why they are fighting, because if they would, any fighting would be over as neither would have a clue as to why they are fighting. This part is a little addressed in the 2nd episode when Akane and Natsuru defeat their student council president who turns out to be an Kämpfer from the other side and basically decide that they all want to find out what this is all about.

So where does this all leave us?

We have a boy being able to turn into a girl stuck with a 2 way love intrest (3 ways if you also take into the account the childhood friend who shows up in small intermezzos sending him letters all over the world telling him she'll be back). One girl is vying for the love of the female side of the boy and another girl is vying for the male side while all being 'stuck' into the all female part of the school. The artwook is pretty good and the girls are all cute and there is quite the number of sexually related double entendres which provide for the comedy part. The weakness lies into the core story as I fail to see why they are made Kämpfers and why they are supposed to fight eachother and I suppose it will be left unresolved (even unexplained) and all this will turn out to have been is a cute girl watching fest.

Well, there is no rule that you have to have a deep / good plot in order to watch a series and seeing I'm a sucker for the romance genre I'm curious enough to see how it will turn out. I'll lay odds though on the unresolved ending, both in the romantic department als the battle department. Since I consider myself still relatively new I'm generally quite lenient in my grades so:

Temporarily verdict: 7,5 out of 10.

Bakemonogatari

2009-10-17T14:43:00.011+02:00

Yeah, yeah, the fall season has started already, but since I've only recently started watching anime again there will be more then a fair couple of entries on this blog from older series. Actually, I'm getting this series from Koharubi who are lagging a little behind with this as it's actually already finished, but I have high hopes that they'll release the rest of it shortly. So Bakemonogatari it is.

First of all I like to remark that this anime is a classic example that great graphics are not needed to make a great series. Oh, don't worry, the characters are done well enough, but all the rest is strictly CG. Easy and repetitive CG at that. I don't know if this was because of lack of funds or because they wanted you to focus on the characters, and more particular, their conversations, but either way for eyecandy you'll have to look elsewhere.

It's not only the background, but the whole animation concept is a sure winner in the weird department as it employs split second text messages which you only can read by pausing, sudden stops, odd color schemes (I like the red/orange glow of the one above though), some cardboard stuff here and there with a little sprinkle of RL pictures. So this is definitely one odd anime animation wise, but I'd recommend sitting through the entire first episode anyway as not to judge it on looks alone.

So, on with the plot then.

Our male lead is Araragi Koyomi a 3thd year high schooler is late for school and running up the stairs as he notices a girl from his class (Senjougahara Hitagi) falling down and he catches her.

Much to his surpise Senjougahara almost weighs next to nothing and after being threatened (and trust me, this is not your typical girl threatens boy anime threat and bonus points for this scene alone) by her not to reveal her secret Araragi offers his help. Or rather, he offers to take her to someone that can help. This person is Oshino Meme, but honestly, the name aside he is about as japanese as I'm native American, but never mind that. The main thing is that he somewhat specializes in dealing with 'other world' situations.

In the first 1,5 minute of the first episode you'll be told in a machinegun fire like way how Araragi became acquainted with Meme, but you'll need to pause a lot to be able to get all this. It's not entirely necessary though as later on in the episode (and series) you'll be told about this in bits and pieces as well. Looks like we don't get to see this part animated for real though which imho is a real shame.

There is no major story and this series is setup in a such a way that it takes 2 to 3 episodes to handle a case. It reminds me a lot about Mushishi in the pacing and presentation of the supernatural.

The main attraction of this series is the interaction between Araragi and the people he meets and helps, but especially the interaction between him and Senjougahara is, to me at least, a delight to follow.

As for the comedy and romance tags to this post. You can guess, but you're going to have to watch this series in order to whether or not they're justified.

Temporarily verdict: 8,5 out of 10.

Nyan Koi!

2009-10-16T22:44:00.017+02:00

Man, I really need to get a move on as to watching stuff as I'm so far behind that it's not funny anymore and not keeping up with even the current season is definitely not helping things either.

So my first fall 2009 series is to be Nyan Koi.

Our male lead (Junpei Kosaka) is you average guy who is unlucky enough to be really alergic to cats in a family of cat lovers. His day starts of bad as he is having a good dream about the girl he has a crush on (Kaede Mizuno) which ends really awkwardly as he gets wakened up by his family cat (Nyamsus). Even more distressing is that he can hear what Nyamsus is thinking.

A little later on this particular day he is walking back from school and he passes a little shrine dedicated to a cat who once helped out the village and in a backflash we learn that a day earlier he accidently made the head of the cat statue come off and his troubles start from there.

He learns that because he broke the statue he now has a curse on him and if he doesn't make up for it he will turn into a cat. His first order of making amends is putting a stop to a person that is molesting cats who turns out to be the girl he has a crush on. Molesting is maybe a bit awkwardly put, but let's say that there is a thing a to much love.

After being forced by Nyamsus and Tama (the shrine cat who informed Kosaka earlier about the particulars of the curse) he accidently snaps and makes Mizuno run off, but thankfully Mizuno later apologies for the way she went overboard with the cats and much to the delight of Kosaka even asks if she can come over once to play with Nyamsus. Kosaka's delight however is not long lasting as he comes to realise that him making amends will entail more then just this one job.

Ah. Cats. What was the saying again? Dogs have owners, cats have servants? Basically the same thing here as poor Kosaka is being treated a servant, an unruly one, but still. I also have some suspicions about whether Kosaka actually broke the statue or that it was already broken and he got suckered as looking how it came to pass that statue wouldn't have broken by what Kosaka did even it was made out of glass.

So far I really like this one. It has nekos, lots of humor, one cute girl (sofar, but more are on their way) which automatically means a love interest so it's right up my alley. I'm almost never a fan of the OP and ED and this one is no exception. Graphics wise it's pretty good. There probably won't be a deep story as it will be one cat problem per episode with some added characters to keep us entertained. Besides, the series won't be anywhere near the number of jobs Kosaka is supposed to be doing so I'm curious to see how they'll end it.

I've also seen episode two also already and it actually reminded me a lot about the setup of Sora no Manimani where a misunderstanding in the past causes years and years of enmity between friends.

Oh, nearly forgot. I'm getting my fix from Frostii.

Temporarily verdict: 8 out 10

Sora no Manimani

2009-10-08T00:07:00.002+02:00

Well, let's get this blog finally started for real.

Meet Saku Ooyagi. He just moved back with his mother to a small town he lived in 7 years ago, but he is not really happy with this as he has some bad memories here that he'd rather forget.

These bad memories have everything to do with the girl (Mishoshi Akeno, usually shortened to Mii-chan) that was one year older then him and who lived in the same apartment building. Back in the days she dragged him all over the place to play while all HE wanted was some peace and quiet so he could read a book. Even worse for him: her father loved the stars which had rubbed off on Mii-chan so poor happless Saku was dragged around day and night. To top it all off, just before he was about to move 7 years ago Mii-chan caused him to break an arm in another of her nightly expeditions and ever since Saku has a towering resentment.

Well, this being an anime it shouldn't be much of a surprise that the first day at his new highschool he 'runs' into his living nightmare while she is busy trying to recruit members for the astronomy club.

I'll leave it that as an introduction and put a few more thoughts in the spoiler section before I'll reveal so much you basically wouldn't need to see the episode at all ... which would be a waste as it's pretty funny and even has a touching moment.

[Spoiler]
The mother reminded me more then just a little off Naoki's mother in Itazura na Kiss with her foto fetish and I had to laugh about Mii-chans frantic tries trying to get into contact with Saku, who ofcourse is doing anything he can to avoid her. Naturally at some time Mii-chan finally gets a hold of him and we have the moving movent of the week as Saku totally chews out Mii-chan only to find out that much of his resentment is unjust.

This realisation coupled with some tears from Mii-chan get him suckered in becoming the newest member of the Astronomy club with it's near dead president who more then a little freaks me out.

Graphics wise it's okay I guess. The characters and basic background are done well enough, but clearly there was only enough money for that and not for some more action in the background as except for the main characters nothing usually moves. There is no ecchi and while I don't have anything against ecchi it's not a requirement for me to enjoy a romantic comedy.

As for voice casting I think it's done pretty good especially for Mii-chan who sounds hyper like her character usually is and also the club president whose voice reflects his bodily condition. Can't say I'm really thrilled about the opening, but I like the ending.

Temporarily verdict: 7,5 out of 10.

About Me

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My favorite subject ;-)

Beware, some mild exaggeration in order to make me look good. Grains, or bags, depending on your level of paranoia, of salt are advised to be taken digesting the following.

Just to rehash my profile a little. I'm a male, born under the astrological sign Virgo and in 1970 which makes also makes me a Dog. And yes, that's not a typo, that's really 1970 there, which in general lands me in the 'around-from-before-the-dinosaurs' age segment of the typical anime fan.

My first contact with anime was, and while I can't pinpoint an exact date, in my early teens. Back in those days I didn't have 100 channels on my TV (most of those I do have now are 100% worthless so not that it really matters, but I digress) and I happen to see in the TV guide that an anime movie (Akira) was to air late on BBC 1 and I managed to get permission from my parents to see it. I can't really tell what an impression it made on me ... you know, old age an such ... but suffice to say it was a profound one. It wasn't to last long though.

This television airing marked what I think was basically the first, and from what I can tell also last, anime wave that hit Europe as pretty soon afterwards the local video rentals began sporting anime titles. Only a precious few though and the whole hype lasted maybe six months, a year tops, before anime was virtually nowhere to be found yet again. During the time that there was a little to be had I can remember renting Oh! My Goddess OAV. It's probably my shy nature that since then, till this very day, I have a real soft spot for romance anime (yeah, yeah, sue me).

When the hype was over it also spelt the end of my interest because, back in those days, internet didn't exist, so if you weren't a real fan back then and had knowledge of fansubbed tapes on VHS, you were pretty much stuck on empty and it would take about a decade for me to find my way back again. This time I was heavily into FPS gaming and it was around when the father of all FPS online shooters stood up, i.o.w. Counterstrike, that someone pointed me the way to the light again.

A fellow clan member, and I'm unsure if it was in the CoFR (Crusty old Fossil Rockers) or in the CGA (Certified Gamer Alliance) that a member on the forum sported an anime signature. An Initial D one to be exact. And while I'm not really into cars his signature called onto some almost forgotten dark part of my soul and I ended up asking where that signature was from and, after he told me it was from an anime series, where I could download episodes of it. The rest of it is history as they say.

I downloaded a few episodes and before I knew it I ran my PC for days on end (shudders remembering using Direct Connect) just to be able to get it all. Pretty soon I discovered there were more series then I almost could shake a stick at and I started my anime obsession in earnest. In my search for ways to download the most in the shortest amount of time I stumbled over a small forum that had access to anime stored online. You needed a paid account, but the price was ridiciliously low compared to what I could my hands on and in no-time I ended up with a year account as my monthly account couldn't handle the strain. Very shortly after that I was asked to become admin on this board and if I'd like to help out maintaining the anime archive. Well, they didn't need to ask twice and so I entered my service to the streamload anime community.

Sadly though earlier this year this service ended rather abruptly when the service that followed up streamload, The Link Up pulled the plug (actually in between them was another service called MediaMax, but it was all the same company) despite our, probably against our better judgement, efforts to try and make it develop in a service yet again the envy of all. It was in this twilight period I ended up as a contributor on a blog trying to keep things afloat.

When they pulled the plug they also effectively destroyed all that we had collected over the years with basically no chance to save it except for what we could download in the little time we had left or what we already had in our own personal archives. And while I have over a TB of stuff at home it's only a fraction of what we had online.

Next to this service ruining our archives, the non-functionality that had sprung up a couple of years ago, also ruined the community. In our best days we had 100ds of people coming to us for their fix, but only a handfull remained in the end. It's actually rather depressing, even after a year or so, to think back about it. In fact, it led to me giving anime a wide birth for about a year. A year in which I spend my time playing some games again and Fallout 3 in specific for those that are interested.

Recently though I've given myself a slap in the face and I'm slowly finding my way back again. Hence this blog.

Blog Info

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At the moment I'm typing this I've signed up with Blogger for 2 years and 3 months as I was a co-contributor author at another blog (mediamaxusers.blogspot.com more on that in my personal info).

This blog itself though I have for about a year now, but never got around to do something with it, but recently kicked myself in the ass to get a move on with it. To be honest, the first couple of months I spend trying to decide on a lay-out and tinkering with it mainly in the form of simple scripting. Yeah, I'm a cut and paste artist to the bone. If you want to see how things are really done I all invite you to take a look at this one cartoonleap.

The base lay-out I got from here pimp-my-profile but since then it's been fairly modified true lots and lots AND LOTS of trial and error (especially error I might add). In no particular order:

- altered the dimensions of the page elements
- added my own menu bar
- made some adjustments to make the Blognavbar hide itself (doesn't work properly in MSIE though)
- replaced the standard archive with a neater one
- added a recent comment script (like I'm going to need that)
- replaced the standard comment page with one that has the same theme as the main page

With a little help from the google support helper forums and at times the authors of the scripts I was using I managed to get it to look and work as it does now. In case you're an as clueless idiot as I am with this kind of stuff I VERY much recommend you setup 2 blogs with the 2nd one being the place you test out your modifications first. Believe me, you'll thank me later.

Oh, almost forgot. The pictures that I put in posts are usually bigger then they appear, but a script auto shrinks them to make them fit into the confines of the page. You can click on them tough to see their actual size.