Dog Days 09 - Enter Saber Millihore


We finally got to the start of the real battle. Anyone else notice how none of the generals ever fight each other? They are all nub-stomping and avoiding each other; these are some quality pub-stomping generals. Heck, the generals even run around in groups while avoiding each other. Ha-ha-ha. If that isn't pub-stomping, then I don't know what is.

Nichijou Eps05-08

I really can't wait for this season of anime to end, although for completely superficial reasons. My Ongoing Anime folder is at 23GB+.

What game is this even?

Perhaps I'm in a better mood today (I did just buy and eat double-chocolate ice cream...), but Nichijou was incredibly funny. It's giving me more and more and more of a School Rumble feeling, since characters that were previously only in the background now have "chapters", but that's not a bad thing at all. I'm not going to expect story (though it might be setting up for it); it's actually nice to have something so random with a great lot of characters.

30-Sai no Hoken Taiiku Eps05-07

After quite some delay (this should have been up a week ago), here's the second batch for 30-sai~ (This post made me realize that the "x" key on my keyboard is pretty stiff.)

Macaron's pretty much a cosplayer by hobby.

I don't know what it is, but 30-sai has been really growing on me. The story is running forward and every episode generally has a good mix of random humour with lots of development. This batch of episodes dealt with the aftermath of Imagawa's rejection from Natsu (I had to Wiki those names...) and then the eventual getting together.

Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi Eps07-08

After the placid story-telling of AnoHana and the rapid randomness of OreTsuba, it was a nice change of pace to watch this. Isn't that what BL is all about?

Does it get pinker and flower-ier every week?

So, ep07 dealt with more about Ritsu and Takano, specifically with the direct interference of Yokozawa. On the other hand, ep08 shifted the story completely to the tertiary couple, Kisa and Yukina, even shifting the timeline back to circa ep03 (which means that, should Kisa and Yukina be super happy with each other, it's already been shown in recent episodes with Kisa in the background). Try as I might, this batch doesn't encompass all of Kisa's story, which will continue into ep09. The "cliffhanger", as usual, makes it worth looking forward to.

Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai Ep08

Suspiciously enough for an ecchi anime that I never really actually cared for, this almost has me attempting to determine more about the story beforehand. I must say, visual novels weave an intricate story (note that I didn't say "well done").

Maybe I should stop using ecchi pics as the lead-in...

This episode cemented a lot of what I thought, especially in it that this most likely is a story about a psychologically-disturbed kid. This episode had Chitose and Narita at the very beginning, but then once again featured Haneda, which was pretty annoying to watch because, once again, it was a cock-sucking fest (in one scene, quite literally). Despite this, it was still an interesting episode because - surprise, surprise - we got to meet Boy #1, Haneda Youji.

Hansaku Iroha 08 - Beta as...Lollipops

A nice out-of-context line. Yay~

I'll keep profanity out of the title. Ha-ha-ha-ha. It was the only way to describe this episode, as I watched Ko-chan fail miserably. This episode seemed too anti-climactic to warrant a two-episode span complete with a full minute-long recap. What were they thinking, anyway, with that recap?

AnoHana Ep07

I've become quite backlogged on my posts, due to lots of time spent procrastinating the working on the blog code (and then some working on the code). The question of why I'm trying so hard does come to mind, since Pearz has announced her intentions to master Flash in order to make things easier and prettier all in one go, but on the flip side, the Banners Page is now fully functional, as intended~

Row, row, fight the gravity~!

This week's AnoHana episode was pretty slice-of-life, as the group continued to attempt to both figure out and fulfill Menma's wish. (Jinta's response to Yukiatsu's question of why he just didn't ask Menma was that it was scary. Sigh.) The little bits of development were interesting to watch, even though the story didn't particularly move forward so much.

Tiger & Bunny 09 - Olfactive Babysitters


Our feature character this week is Dragon Kid.  As per usual, the hero-centric episode adds little to advance the plot.  Although I feel that this is one of the weaker episodes of the series, I still enjoyed it nonetheless.

[C]amouflage 07 - The Not-So-Hidden Foreshadowing

Yes, if you were fugly, he would have just left you to die.

This anime never ceases to amaze me. With 20min in, three consecutive full minutes were dedicated to repeating scenes from previous episodes. I just wonder what they were thinking when they made this anime; it is mind-boggling how this idea got passed, much less in the Noitamina timeslot. I blame the example that was Fractale.

Kaiji S2 08 - Pinzoro!!


Aww, yeah.  If I were to describe this episode in one word, it would be this: glorious.  It's nice to see Kaiji in total control, for once.  This episode picks up where it left off last week, which is when Kaiji grabs the die.

Steins;Gate 08 - The Ripple Effect


We finally got into the main plot of things. It seems that Ookarin can't travel back in time; he can just distort the reality around him while the date doesn't change. This makes you wonder how he changed the fate of Kurisu in the first episode from death. Many unanswered questions arise as we learn more.

Dog Days 08 - Just As Planned

I have always had a thing for archers...

After a couple of days after airing, the subs are finally out. It sucks that Ayako is busy with exams, causing Dog Days to be delayed; at least this other subbing group is getting faster. I digress from the main point of the post though. This episode was nice and witty, with the master plan of Biscotti going off without a hitch.

Opinions Needed to Settle a Dispute~

So, we hit a dispute over the new About the Author thing that I coded into the page. This is a section native to Wordpress but not Blogger, which I found as very useful, so I started working it into the template.

The Witcher 2: A Ploughing Good Time!

"Moral ambiguity has never been so sexy; unfortunately, the softcore didn't stop there."

It's been quite a few years since I've played a strong RPG, and the first installment of this series left me longing for more. Now that I have finally experienced the sequel, I can safely say that although The Witcher 2 was not the perfect continuation that I'd hyped myself for, it was still the best game I've played in years, and certainly worth the wait.

Hoshizora 07 - The Inexperienced Archer


Ibuki only got screentime during the second half of the episode, but I found the chat between her and the Kazuma at the end of the episode to be extremely well done. This made for one of the better episodes of this anime because of it.

Sengoku Rance In Review [8.5/10]


So, for the past couple of weeks, I've been playing an ero RPG, Sengoku Rance. Now, this is my first one, so I have nothing to really compare to when reviewing, but I played it more like a strategy game anyway. I enjoyed it quite a bit, sinking lots of hours to see all the endings and try all the difficulties.

Tiger & Bunny 08 - Depressed Doppelganger


This week's instalment of Tiger & Bunny is centered on one of the resident heroes of Sternbild, Origami Cyclone.  Up until this point, Origami was usually found in the background (quite literally), so it is nice to see his actual character and backstory.

Hanasaku Iroha 08 - Ohana Becomes Assertive


Finally, it seems like they were running the same arc over and over again for the last few episodes. Almost every episode so far has been self-contained, with the huge "dilemma" solved by the end of that episode. It is refreshing to finally get a longer story.

Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai Ep07

A little bit late, but that's only because sushi called. Being full of tempura and unagi, I'm ready to talk about the ecchi-ecchi OreTsuba.

I genuinely have no idea who she is.

So, this episode was entirely narrated by Itami (finally we see him), and I was extremely pleased. He hasn't overthrown Narita as my favourite male character, but the fact that he was in Narita's domain (with most people mistaking him for Narita) added him some points. In its typical nonsensical way, this episode explained a lot, added some more questions, and solidified the pairing of Itami and Kobato.

Pearz' Smurfing Adventure


For the past week in HON, they've let anyone create free accounts to play with the matchmaking system. Now, I am not extremely pro (1670 MMR at this time), but I do excel at taking down the other mid player, even among my own bracket. So, mid-ability wise, I am playing better than the average player of my tier.

[C]opout 06 - The Soul Possibility of a Crappy Anime


It would have been perfectly fine to end the anime here, with Kimi's incompetence. It's better than the train wreck it is now...

Lately, I don't know what to think about [C] other than that they have no clue what they are doing themselves. This episode started dabbling in more philosophical questions, with a major copout on the battle at the end. This is probably the epitome of what you shouldn't be doing in an anime.

AnoHana Ep06

There was no [C] episode to be forced into watching with Rho this week, so I'm sure my mood is much better. Either for that external reason or actually because of the episode's own charm, I found that it was actually much more than bearable.

That's a little disturbing on a few levels.

Like a slice-of-life anime, the pace suddenly slowed, despite the fact that nothing has been solved (so previous episodes' climaxes were kind of just ignored). I don't mind slow-paced anime, although the fact that problems that could so easily be avoided and/or solved are just dragging on is pretty annoying. Nonetheless, it was a good episode to return to the gentle relationships between the former friends. As Poppo said, people change little by little.

Denpa Onna 06 - The Life and Times of Ryuuko


It was a very Ryuuko-centred episode this week, which was vastly different from the Erio-centred episode from last week. Does this mean that, next week, Maekawa will be the star? I was relieved to see that Erio wouldn't be the focus of this episode, but the setting and such is feeling so stale lately. I think I'm just growing bored of the humour they're throwing at me. D:

Devil Survivor 2 Coming to DS


So, I learned yesterday that a second Devil Survivor was coming out. I would've posted yesterday, but my hand hurt, so I didn't want to type. This is different from the already-announced remake of the first Devil Survivor on the 3DS (which I am interested in too).

The game will feature an all new cast of character fighting back mysterious invaders known as the ‘Septentrion‘. To stop the threat, our heroes strike up a pact with The Devil becoming the 13 Devil Messengers. Players will have a time limit of 7 days to defeat the Septentrion before they wipe out humanity.

Here is the new trailer for the game and the official page. This is one of my favourite games (my other top games would be Advanced Wars, The World Ends With You and Knights in Nightmares) for the DS, so seeing a second installment is awesome. It's set to come out on July 28th, but that's the JP release date. I hope the English localization doesn't take too, long since the first NA version did remarkably well. Here's some extra info if you're interested in more details.

~Pearz

Kaiji S2 07 - The Mind Games of Chinchiro


This is perhaps the slowest moving episodes of all in the entire season so far, as it only spans the time of three dice rolls.  However, that is not to say that this episode was uninteresting.  We get to delve into the mind of Ohtsuki when his back is against the wall.  The roller coaster of emotions shown during his inner monologues prove to be quite entertaining.

What Are Girls Made Of? - Musings on Hourou Musuko

I thought that maybe Hourou Musuko would quietly go away after I finished watching it, since I didn't really have much material to rant about it or anything. However, I just found out that it was from the Winter 2010 season, which means that my OCD kicked in and I just had to do a proper review.

I watched the CMS version.

The topic of this anime - cross-dressing - was something that I was really interested in seeing done in a serious manner. It shows up very frequently in anime, but those reactions and acceptances are all falsified, due to it being a story device rather than a plot point. I was pretty excited to begin the anime, but ended in a drugged-out haze. Overall, it ended up being nothing special, almost mundane and times, and it's not a stretch to say that it could have been done better in several ways.

Dog Days 07 - You Gotta Play Catch with Your Dog


Glomp~

Well, we got the start of that peak towards the climax of the anime in this episode. Everything is starting to set in motion for the huge battle between Biscotti and Galette. Things are really shaping up for this anime to be one of my favourites of the season. I wouldn't have been able to guess from the first episode, which is a nice surprise. It is always nice to be impressed with the way things have been going.

Steins;Gate 07 - Time to Win the Lottery


So, it has been quite a few episodes, but finally the gears are turning. Things have moved in a favourable direction, since it seems to follow Ookarin in his time traveling. It means we will get to see him make the mistakes, send a message back, and try to fix it himself. This is much better than just receiving random messages that set him on the right track.

Boku Wa Tomodachi Ga Sukunai Gets Green Light for Anime


This is one of the manga that I started following a couple of months ago, one that seemed to explode in popularity. I am ecstatic to see that an anime adaptation will be coming out for this. It's definitely my favourite manga to follow right now and seeing an anime adaptation is awesome. Even super-pessimistic Rho liked it, which is rare. I can't wait!!!
[Source]

By the way: if you aren't reading the manga, do it; it is awesome.

~Pearz

Rant From The Past: Kurenai

Warning: This is chock full of spoilers and walls of text.

Apparently, I ranted to Rho enough to go beyond her threshold, and then she cunningly convinced me to blog about this so she would no longer have to listen. Devious.

Here, I'll be offering my thoughts (supposedly, I have many of them) about series (that I just finished watching) that are a little too old to get proper reviews, but affected me in some serious ways.

I wonder if these corner buildings really exist...

Today's installment is Kurenai, the 2008 series spanning 12 episodes. I'm attempting to get the 2010 2-episode OVA, but I hear it's completely unrelated to the main series.

Kurenai was a series with a good premise, some really interesting concepts, but extremely poor execution, serious (and unexplained) deviation from the original work, and ultimately a terrible ending that made sense only if you threw away a lot of logic.

Hoshizora 06 - Bringing Fanservice to a New Level


I have been informed by Aaro that if I post more borderline hentai pics, I can get more viewership. Well, I refuse to do that, but with so much fanservice this episode, I might as well post the borderline stuff. XD It was a slightly amusing episode, much like every other anime that visits a hot spring mid-season, with even more fanservice than those ones. XD (Well, maybe not as much as Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka...)

Tiger & Bunny 07 - Vigilante Justice


In the seventh installment of Tiger & Bunny, we get more on the character Lunatic, who made his appearance at the end of the previous episode.  This is a rather well-paced episode; I'm glad that they're not going too fast with the story involving Ouroburos because this show is running for two cours.

Hanasaku Iroha 07 - The Tomoe Filler Episode


We got an episode entirely centered on Tomoe. This episode felt like filler more than anything, due to Ohana doing pretty much nothing the entire episode. Then again, slice-of-life feels like filler to me to begin with. *evil jeer* I guess anime like these rely heavily on liking the characters to push you to continue watching.

[C] 05 - Maybe It Does Have Something To Do With Economics

I agree,  Kimimaro overestimates himself, like every other shounen hero. It is pretty staple.

So, I am finally picking this one back up now that Rho got bored of making posts went crazy watching this. I'll be posting about it for the rest of the season instead of Rho, after getting it jacked for four episodes. This episode was the first real attempt to show any sort of economics in this show, through the actions of the guild. It leaves me to wonder if that was just a fluke or if they actually have an intention of weaving more economics into this anime, like it was originally intended.

First Look at Dragon Nest


This MMO was first brought to my attention by Rho. I had intially heard of it, but didn't look too deeply into it at the time. I assumed it was like many other Korean MMOs that haven't entered the NA market. Rho pitched the game as an anime-ish Vindictus, which caught my attention. I soon learned that there was an English patch for the CN/KR version, so I could try it out.

A Channel Eps04-06

In the interim, I skipped ep05 since I wasn't going to be writing about it, and I almost completely forgot what A Channel was about. Such is the fate of this kind of anime; I mean, I haven't seen Lucky Star in two weeks and I can't remember a thing about it.

Fanservice in an anime that's geared towards females...?

So, the three episodes in this batch were pretty unrelated, as usual. Ep04 revolved around Nagi's desire to lose weight, ep05 on Run's desire to go to the beach, and ep06 on Yuuko's desire to finish her questionnaire. Essentially, it's the same type of slow-paced randomness that we've come to expect from A Channel. As Rho eloquently put it: "It's hard to make fun of this, because they don't do anything wrong. ...They don't really do anything."

Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai Ep06

After the terrible nature of last week's episode, I was a little gun-shy to watch this week. (Of course, that's not why I waited a day; it was because of Gurren Lagann. We've already been over this with AnoHana.) Nonetheless, it was a good episode.

I have nothing but adoration for her.

The best part of this week's episode was that there was no appearance of Haneda. I hate him. This episode, once again, focused on the Chitose-Narita duo, with cameos by their respective love prospects. It ended with a surprising turn that I didn't expect - the appearance (finally) of Itami, Boy #2! Overall, the plot moved pretty fast with this episode, although not a lot of new information was given; this was still preferred over the last episode, whereas a lot of new information was given but it felt pretty forced since it was all about Haneda.

Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi Eps05-06

Time for more of the BL Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi~ I was pretty excited to blog about this batch, due to my inner fangirl being extremely satisfied. (With all my attempts to kill her, why won't she just die?)

Secondary couple, Tori and Yoshino.

In classic Nakamura-sensei style, this pair of episodes was dedicated to Pairing #2, Hatori Yoshiyuki (one of the editors in the department) and Yoshino Chiaki (his childhood friend and a mangaka of the publishing house). The arc left us with a couple...and a third wheel (it was seen from a mile away). We don't know where the third wheel belongs, since it hasn't been confirmed which one in the couple he likes (if either), but at least we were left with feel-good mush before heading back to the still-torrential main couple.

Kaiji S2 06 - MAKSUUU

Dat grin

This episode talks about the beginning of Kaiji and his group's counterattack against Ohtsuki and his lackeys.  In usual Kaiji fashion, there isn't much going on; most of the episode is about just adding the tension to the situation.

AnoHana Ep05

Despite looking forward to this episode since last week (the cliffhanger was great~), I took my sweet time watching this. For one thing, my router here is terribad and it takes special coaxing to even let me on the Internet. For another thing, Gurren Lagann had my undivided attention for all of yesterday. But, anyway, here we are~

At a point, they're just doing it due to popular demand.

The first watch of this episode caused me to be pretty annoyed the entire time. However, I had just watched [C] with Rho (hopefully, the last time I have to), so I calmed down and tried to really see the episode. After a second watch (or skim, basically), I stand by most of my initial thoughts: I really started to see the characters in new lights, have new hopes for the direction, and Menma is freaking annoying.

Denpa Onna 05 - So...What Happened?


Now, I was planning on turning this anime into a 2-episode posting system due to content, but I guess I have enough to say about this episode. The big question after watching this episode is: what happened? It went from humourous to awkward all in one episode; of course, it could be related to the fact that I was watching this episode while half-asleep, though.

About: Bern

Pic that's sort of related.

Hello. A couple of weeks ago, Pearz invited me to help write for this blog.  I took her up on the offer, but I didn't really have the time or motivation to write anything. (13 May 2011)

A little about myself:
I'm some random guy from the Bay Area in California, half-assing his way through university.  I met a cool bunch of people on the game Allods Online and eventually joined the guild Rain. After quitting Allods, I ended up lurking this blog because I didn't have much else to do. You'll usually find me lurking in the chatbox at the bottom of the page, albeit sometimes afk.

The transition to a more anime-esque direction for this blog came as a pleasant surprise for me. I've watched anime for a couple of years now, and started following the ones currently airing in Japan during the Spring 2009 season (the first one I followed was Toradora). As for my taste in anime: I don't really have a definite preference. If the show has something that will keep me attached, I'll probably end up following it all the way through. If I were asked to name my favorite anime off the top of my head, I'd struggle to come up with one title. Here's a random 3x3 I put together. They're by no means my top 9, but I think they cover a decent genre range.



-Bern

Hoshizora 05 - The Creative Athletic Meet

Penguin Ui is so awesome; I wanna take her home... *insert random Rena pic*

Hur hur hur. It wasn't hard to guess, but I was right about the green-haired girl winning the race because the main character would help. Like most episodes in an anime like this, it only served for some fanservice, humour and for the main character to solidify his grip on his harem.

Steins;Gate 06 - Nostalgia Drive!!!


That name was so awesome that they should have stuck with it over D-mail. Anyway, it was another rather slow episode; they seem to be taking their time building a foundation for the story rather than just rushing in. I can't say this is necessarily a good thing; we won't be able to tell until closer to the end. when things start to come together. The problem I see is that, eventually, things will feel boring. For now, though, I'm still pretty drawn in to this anime.

Dog Days 06 - Mirror Mirror on the Wall

In other words, she is a tsundere.

Well, we finally got our first "real" show of the grimdark turn of events. It was presented in a pretty straightforward manner, which was something I did not expect. How often is a huge change to the tone of an anime presented so directly? This is like blasphemy. I guess they opted out of the shock factor to win over fans.

Hanasaku Iroha 06 - We Need to Lengthen the Slits!


Oh, Ohana~ How you make everything more interesting. It is hard to compare this with Anohana this week, but it was definitely a good episode regardless. We got to see the cast in a few different costumes, rather than just the same old stuff. It's nothing near the level of MM! but it is still good to see that the characters can change clothes.

Moshidora In Review [5.5/10]


So, I heard that things picked up in the final two episodes of this, which led to me picking it up again, as it just finished airing. Over the past two days, I've struggled through the episodes to get to the final two. Things were not unexpected, but it was more to my liking than the beginning.

Yondemasu Yo Azazel-San Eps01-04

With my exams over, I have a lot more time for the summer, so I decided to look into some of the series I didn't have time for before. That said, I don't know what I was thinking, picking this one up. Every episode, I oscillate between despising it and liking it. In the end, I'm just really not into slapstick...

It's a trap!

The episodes are half-length, at 12min (including OP/ED), and it's basically crude slapstick (incorporating lots of gore, shock factor, and quick-paced jokes). I can't think of something to compare it to at this moment, but I can note that it's pretty devoid of story. Without losing too much, you can skip an episode and move on. Onto the recapping~ (Warning: covering 4 episodes, it's probably pretty long.)

Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai Ep05

Disclaimer: Aaro is not in a good mood.

It was such a long wait for this episode~ HorribleSubs was later than usual and, as of writing this, Shikkaku has yet to release it. *sigh* Of course, a part of me almost wishes that this episode hadn't come out at all. But, anyway, on with the (stupid) show~

One of the few ecchi scenes and it's not even that great.

Before I begin, please note that I don't hate this show. I just didn't like this episode. It was (probably) necessary to the story, but I really detested it. It raised more questions than it answered, and it even focused on my least favourite character. I was dreading this episode for quite some time now; we finally got to see Haneda...and it was not worth it.

[C]onversion

"It just means that someone bought stocks from an Entre who had no chance of winning. Guess it's better to be a big dog's uke than to be smart. Har har~"


This week on [C], we got introduced to some new terminology and had a couple of burning questions cleared up (primarily questions like, "How much money does Mikuni really have?" "What is meant by your 'future'?" and "Why is Rho is watching this terrible anime?").