Charts for Summer 2011

Since it's the end of the month, I decided to look around to see if there were charts up for the Summer Season. I found two, so here they are:

Credits go to the chart makers, which is listed in the chart. These are only the confirmed ones; more anime will probably show up.

Of these, I have definite interest in: Appleseed, Baka to Test, and Blood-C. This is mainly because they are second seasons of anime I have watched.

(Aaro Note~ : I'm definitely going to be watching Natsume Yuujinchou San. Other than that, I'm probably interested in checking out a good half of that list.)

I'll do a better preview post when it is closer to the Summer Season, since by then the list is more likely to be solidified. This was just an initial list for those interested...like me.

~Pearz

Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi Eps03-04

I'm having a hard time getting a shortform for this anime. The tag feels too long... Anyway, here we are, catching up to the latest episode that's out.

Truly the office of shoujo manga associates.

This pair of episodes dealt with the introduction of a third point in this triangle, Yokozawa (a pretty difficult name for me to remember, for some reason). Based on how one would look at it, there was no real development. On the other hand, there was lots of seme-ing of the uke by the seme, which counts as development when dealing with yaoi. It's all semantics~

Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi OVA + Eps01-02

Onto my great project of this season's anime blogging: Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi~

I tried to get more sparkles and failed.

Now, for anyone that doesn't know, this is BL. ...that means it's Boy's Love. It's shounen-ai. Saying it's yaoi would be a stretch, because it's not really as graphic as the "yaoi" tag has come to encompass; however, a lot of people use that word to describe just blanket BL, so okay, it's yaoi too. I was very hesitant to blog about this - not because it would mean having to watch it (if you've read my About page, then you must know that I'm not a stranger to this stuff, sadly), but because Pearz and Rho giving me shifty eyes was getting really annoying.

But this post being here means I sucked it up, reclaimed my ever-contested manliness, and here we are. Let's go~

Random Update on Various Things

Random Madoka pics 'cause I can~ :3

There's lots of random stuff to post about, mainly pertaining to the blog in general. This post is actually more like my older posts, with random points that have little to do with each other. It feels kind of nostalgic doing a post like this...

AnoHana Ep03

I had to wait so long for this to finish downloading - and since Pearz finished first, she watched it without me. Selfish~ Not wanting to bother Rho, sitting in the middle, with the same anime playing at the same time with a few minutes' worth of delay in between, I went off to pack/sleep/eat. Anyway, long story short, here we are~

Don't scare the cat with your crazy shouting!

This episode continued at the same pace that it always did, finally bringing together all 6 of the Super Peace Busters. It also introduced some more about the creepy side of Yukiatsu, who is getting creepier without fail every episode that he's in. This is around the time that some might choose to drop the anime (or maybe one more episode, to cement just how creepy Yukiatsu really is); Pearz had a lot of moaning, groaning, and laptop-closing during this one.

[C] Presents Satou and Wolf!

Q. What is the effect of Midas Money on the real world?

A. Micro-flation
B. Mezzo-flation
C. Macro-flation

At this point, I genuinely think I'm being trolled. Not more than five minutes into the episode, they already started kicking you in the shins. Honestly, if I hear about another NGO named Organization that is bent on saving the world, I'm just gonna end it all with a Pocky!

AnoHana Eps01-02

After many things occurred, I managed to get AnoHana back from Pearz. (Mainly, she watched ep02 and couldn't take it anymore.) This was an anime that I wanted to watch because it was just the type of thing I'm usually into; it hasn't really been what I expected so far, but it's definitely something that's interested me a lot.

Such a long name...

For the sake of consistency, I'm covering ep01 along with ep02, even though Pearz has technically done the first episode already. I had thought that I would do a batch with ep03, but there actually is a lot to talk about, so I'm breaking it up. That was surprising~

Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai Ep04

Ah, look, this one again. I'm actually really excited for OreTsuba after this episode.

Where could her nipples possibly be? Damn mutations...

I'm glad I waited around for the story; the "twist" introduced was really good. Truthfully, I didn't see it coming...because there wasn't any real foreshadowing that could possibly have led to this. Either way, this episode was by far the best so far, introducing the story (finally).

Hoshizora 3 - When You're So Good Your Brother Joins Your Harem

I realized yesterday that no one else is really blogging about this show. I am thankful that another group has picked up subbing this anime since Crunchyroll doesn't seem to sub it until about 5 days after the raw comes out. I feel like this anime doesn't get as much credit as it deserves.

Steins;Gate 4 - Don't Do It, Kurisu; IT'S A TRAP!

I actually enjoyed this episode quite a bit. I'm starting to see how Okarin really brings this anime together to make it amazing. This episode was more about expanding on his quest for the IBN machine and less about expanding the mystery.

Hanasaku Iroha 4 - We Now Know the Name of The Flower We Saw that Day

This post was slightly delayed compared to my usual speed because I've been stuck in post-Madoka lull. Everything seems to be a bit dull in perspective at the moment, so that's making it hard to blog unless I have extremely strong feelings about an episode. This episode fits that category.

Moshidora 1: Business + Baseball = Brutally Boring

I was semi-hyped up about this anime before it aired. I mean, it's an anime based on management principals, which seemed intriguing. Concepts that interest me wrapped in an anime seemed like a nice mix, but they've done it horribly.

Dog Days 4 - It's Like They Can Read My Mind

Bunnies ears = cats now?

This episode felt like a troll episode. We were under the impression that we would get the fight between the hero and archnemesis, but it doesn't actually happen in this episode. I forgive it, though; throughout the episode, it was essentially a mindfuck. I was thinking, "Hey, wouldn't this be kool?" ...and then, BAM, it happened. They've seriously got to stop with the mind reading; I think it causes cancer.

Nichijou Eps01-04

All right, it's finally time to do Nichijou, the other comedy anime I'm picking up this season.

The title screens of this anime are pretty blase...

Even more than A Channel, I was really hesitant to blog about this, and still am. I sincerely think there's nothing to talk about, really. It's slapstick comedy, while being slice-of-life; the best examples I can provide are Lucky Star and School Rumble. The former I'm still watching, but I can really see the comparisons, with the super-quick scenes and constant punchlines. The latter had plot that showed up; I see signs of that in Nichijou, although I can't tell if it'll pick up like School Rumble did or not.

A Channel Eps01-03

After much nagging from Pearz, I've decided to blog about this anime. I was watching it anyway; my only gripe was that there was nothing for me to write about. After waiting until the third episode, I might have things to say now.

It was so hard to capture an acceptable shot of the title...

Pearz compared this to Lucky Star, but that's kind of wrong. (Nichijou is more like Lucky Stars.) In a nutshell, this is slice-of-life comedy, the kind that shows random daily occurrences with plot as a side note. The other kind would be slapstick, with flashes between scenes relatively quickly (this is what Lucky Star and Nichijou both fall under). There is a story (like making friends), but we're generally treated to the everyday moments in the lives of the four main girls (with other girls thrown into the mix from time-to-time). After making it sound so mundane, it feels a little weird to say that this is definitely a genre I like.

Spoiler-Free Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica Review [9.6/10]

So, my final (I hope) Madoka post will be this, which is spoiler-free. This is mainly for archiving so that when someone actually wants to watch Madoka in the future, they won't be spoiled immediately. The plot is a huge element for an anime like Madoka; my hope is the anyone about to watch it won't get spoiled beforehand so they get the full enjoyment from it. Anyway, random blurb aside, time to get with reviewing.

[C] - The Rulebook of the "Financial District"

These rules actually surfaced on Thursday, but my overwhelming need to rewatch Madoka and talk about it overpowered my need to point out the flaws in [C] (yes, that will come after the rules). I didn't intend to make a [C] post after Rho made one, but the rules surfaced up almost immediately after it was posted, which changes a large number of things. I'll split the post into two parts: observations about the anime after knowing the rules, and some final thoughts.

A Deeper Look Into Madoka Magica's Ending

Homu Homu is still the best character in the series.

I guess it's time to tackle all the big questions this series left us with. There were many things people found unclear about the episode and the general different direction the ending took. Quite obviously, this will be spoiler-ific, so you have been warned.

Denpa Onna 02 - Freaks Attract Other Freaks

At least we finally get to see her roll up.

I'm relinquishing posting about Anohana to Aaro, since I'm lazy and I stole posting about the first episode from him anyway. I guess I'll start with the easiest post of this mass spam I'll make (or, at least, attempt to) today. We got to meet two more characters this episode, both equally as weird as our cast so far.

Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai Ep03

Oh, look, ep03 of this super ecchi harem anime that I'm watching for reasons that I can't really understand~

So, Tamaizumi last episode and Kobato this episode. Naru, you're a maniac.

This episode was much better than ep02, although it followed the same formula (show snippets of the boys, with minimal ecchi scenes throughout after a super-ecchi scene at the very beginning). In retrospect, I still think that ep02 was slow for some reason, while I thought this episode flowed a lot better. I'm still waiting for the story, although I wonder how deep and intriguing it'll even turn out to be, but episodes like this make this series really acceptable as a pass-time.

[C] Me Hate [C] ... No, I'm Just Kidding

Apparently, serious hatred for [C] has brought Rho to the point of needing to blog about it. Maybe you can expect the weekly [C] post from her now. I think she's far more vicious than Pearz (or, at least, just more vocal), so good luck if you like [C].

Go, go, unrelated picture~

On that note, though: I haven't watched [C]. I don't really want to; I'm one of the rare breed of people that not only does not understand economics very well (...or, at all...), but also doesn't want to. I know my vices; this is not even a potential one. From what I've seen of ep02, this is proxy battle using economic terms (and some rules) to name everything. For example, the battles are called deals, the Pokemon are called assets, your life points (or total worth, I guess) are stocks, and so on. I get the feeling they won't teach you much, which is +1 for the me that does not want to learn.

(There's very little [C] after the break; it's more anime in general. You've been warned.)

Mahou Shoujo Godoka Magica 11-12 - Breaking the Rules of Wishing

There are spoilers abound in this post. I'll be doing a second (of three final Madoka posts in total) post as a review post for the anime as a whole, so that'll be spoiler-free. A series like this getting spoiled before you even watch it would really suck. The third will be a deeper look to further explain the anime more. So, anyway, onto the month-awaited two-episode finale.

[see] Episode Two and Find Out What C Really Stands For

"As far as I can recall, he's the first person to win a Deal without knowing anything about it since you did. Sorry, Mikuni-sama, but your days are now fucking numbered!"

[C] stands for crap! Full-on grade A shounen-by-the-book garbage!

This sentiment will be the undertone of this entire post; if you can't take your guilty pleasure getting shredded apart, then run along.

Hoshizora 2 - A Walk Around Town

Since gg is busy trolling, I guess I'll finish doing this post now. (Btw, episode 11's sub file [.ass] can be downloaded at Nutbladder's website, and then you can just load it onto the raw to watch.)

We got to officially meet more girls in his harem. I wonder, though: since this anime airs at 9:00am on Monday, just who is it aimed at? This clearly isn't a kid's show, and generally everything else airs after midnight, so I'm kind of lost. Random note aside, it was a pretty humourous episode.

[C]ing For Myself What All the Commotion is About

"My dream is to have a fixed income with a fixed lifestyle. All I want is to live a modest life with my wife and kids. Yes, of course I'll sell you my future for five hundred thousand yen."

Anyone that knows me knows that I am ridiculously picky about the things that I watch, and nothing is exempt.

That is your one and only warning; read on at the risk of your own emotional health.

My Heart is Ready

Less than 24 hours remain (actually, much less than that) before the airing of the Madoka finale. I'm loaded up with tons of snacks in preparation for this. This, combined with the abundance of other anime that air on Thursdays, will make tomorrow amazing. So today, when I was buying food, I saw those drinks that you always see in anime (maybe it was always there and I just didn't notice until we had a conversation about them this week). I bought one~

Rho and I both agreed that it tasted like crap, but Aaro apparently found it amazing. (Aaro Note~ : I said it was drinkable. Not amazing.) Well, I realized why there is that indentation near the neck after actually drinking it; experiences explains, I guess.

I wanted to add a Madoka Countdown, but couldn't find one, so I guess there will be no countdown. It's highly probable that Aaro, Cody (who lurks/troll our blog to hell), and I will watch it together at the same time; if you want to join in, then drop a line and we can wait a bit longer (though, not too long, I hope).

Anyway, back to doing my Hoshizora post...

~Pearz

[C] - The Sole Possibility is Failure

A nice picture I can look at when I rifle through the posts since the rest are...

I guess the initial shock was pretty big for this anime. A couple of days later, I think I'm ready to tackle this abomination. The general consensus amongst almost every blog is that [C] is amazing; I think this is the first time that my opinion vastly differs from the norm.

Steins;Gate 03 - "Who'd eat a pervert's banana anyways?"

It's another very informative episode, which I love. We also got a couple of lines that referred back to Kurisu's lecture about time travel; I wish I could've seen the original debate between them. There're no translation packs for the game, yet; I checked. Tsk-tsk. You got a lot of small explanations of how things seem to work, but nothing too concrete on how this plot is going to progress.

Rest of the First Impressions of This Anime Season [Part 2]

Random Madoka pic, again 'cause I can...

The only three anime I missed talking about that hadn't aired yet are: Aria, Deadman Wonderland, and Ao no Exorcist. At least they aren't as horridly bad to me like the rest of the ones I reviewed about a week ago. I tried watching the Tea anime, but I couldn't last 3min and the screencaps I looked at didn't seem too interesting.

Hanasaku Iroha 3 - Confirmed as Slut?

She was fine with being tied up...

This episode made it excruciatingly hard to deny the massive amount of accusations about Ohana's slutty-ness, although it was an extremely humourous and entertaining episode at the very least. It's still hard to say which is the better slice-of-life this season, this or AnoHana. Although, AnoHana has only one episode to think about. It is way too early to judge against a 3-episode anime.

Dog Days 3 - Not Enough Hot Pants

At least the summoning circle had a warning label.

After a long delay, Dog Days was finally subbed. This episode wasn't as amazing as the last one, but it shows that this series is turning out be a nice light-hearted fantasy anime. Inb4 random grim-dark plot twist to make everyone go WTF.

A Conclusion to My Random Madoka Fanfiction

It has been over 12 hours since Dog Days aired and there are still no subs; damn Ayako. As I sit here, bored and waiting for the subs to appear, I've decided to finish up my fanfiction. Here is first part of story, which I started on Thursday.

Aaro usually edits posts like these, since I'm pretty bad at this kind of thing. I spent as much time editing it as I did writing it, so I hope I got almost all the errors. Either way, before Aaro removes this comment, it was only edited by me, which means it might not be as well done.
(Aaro Note~ : I apologize for sleeping. I'll be better next time.)

Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai Ep02

Finally. It's been 11 days since I watched the first episode; what kind of blasphemy is this? But it had to do with "early screenings" and "fail groups failing hard" and all... (More at the very end, if you're really curious about the second thing.) I'm watching HorribleSub's 720p version, by the way. They (by which I mean Crunchyroll) seem to have translated the blue names, so I'll check out ep01 by them too. I really need visual guidance for the characters.

OP and ED were completely different. What was that in the first episode, then...?

Overall, it was a pretty slow episode that didn't really advance the plot, and only showed two of the male leads slightly more in-depth. (I'm not complaining; Narita is by far my favourite right now, so it was good to focus less on Haneda. Lines have been drawn.) With far less ecchi scenes this time, I wonder if this anime might fall a little flat...?

AnoHana 01 - The Not-So-Well-Hidden Secret

I don't get why everyone is so butthurt about Shaft's head-tilting; they're everywhere.

This is the final new anime airing today that is worth watching, and it's finally subbed. I wasn't expecting much from this anime since I generally don't enjoy slice-of-life, but I found myself liking it. So...there's been two slice-of-life shows that genuinely peaked my interest this season; that's pretty rare. I can't tell if it is my taste changing, or maybe they're actually just getting done better. It's probably a bit of both.

Denpa Onna 01 - A First Look at Futon Girl

Well, I was pleasantly surprised with this anime. This is the second of the anime airing today that show promise (only AnoHana remains), and I can say that it was clearly up my alley (as Aaro predicted). It's definitely something to add to my list of episodic blogging.

First of the New Anime Airing Today - [C]

So, both Nutbladder and gg finished subbing this at same time, along with Denpa by Underwater-Commie. I found it humorous to download them all at the same time. I'm doing [C] first, since I watched it off the Funimation rip before rewatching it. There's one thing for certain: it was definitely not what I was expecting and, at this moment, I feel like I got trolled by this anime.

The Final Madoka-less Thursday

By now, most Madoka fans know that the anime is airing again next week. I, for one, will be anxiously waiting for it to come out. Hopefully, gg will be fast with their subbing.

Poor Sakura.

There was a Madoka-related rant, but I hated how it turned out so I just scrapped it. It's my first time scrapping a 3/4-finished post due to the quality. Either way, I'll instead write some fanfiction for Madoka. There'll be some small spoilers, so be sure to have watched until ep10 of Madoka.

Porno Gaijin - Musings on Level E

So, after a few days of watching (few days due to several distractions), I've finally finished watching Level E. The picture on BakaBT was not alluring at all, although the description made me curious (and the little I allowed myself to read on Wikipedia added to it). After watching the first episode, I was seriously hooked.

If anything, this image was a solid reason to NOT watch, all on its own.

Pearz warned me that others had reviewed this anime badly, saying it started off well but died down around ep6. With this in mind, I was prepared to be let down - but, surprisingly, I actually really, really enjoyed this anime. When ep12 (the last one I had) ended in a cliffhanger, I went into a rage-filled confusion...and then found out that I had forgotten to get ep13. I think it's safe to say that my interest hadn't died down by the time I got to the final episodes.

Rest of the First Impressions of This Anime Season So Far

Totally unrelated Homura pic 'cause I can.

To make things simple: I hated pretty much every anime that I didn't post about, so why not bundle them up together? I didn't even make it through the entire episode for most of these. You sometimes just hit that point where you go, "That's it, I had enough." Since I took some time to watch it, I decided to just include all the ones I watched but didn't like together.

Hoshizora E Kakaru Hashi 1 - Another Harem is Formed

Yes, he saw everything.

What is with these long names for harems this season? At least make it easier to type out... Surprisingly, this first episode caught my eye more than expected, with the small details that I liked. After doing Infinite Stratos, I didn't want to write about another harem-ish anime, but this one peaked my interest enough (at least for now).

Steins;Gate 2 - The Harem is Formed

So, another episode of Steins;Gate is out. I think this is the first anime that will get a guaranteed weekly blog post. I kind of didn't want to do all the super-anticipated anime this season, but it looks like it's shifting that way. I really liked this episode; it was mainly introducing the new girls to add to his harem. It had a really nice plot development near the end, which left me wanting more.

Some Madoka Shimeji I Came Across

So, my random browsing today has led me to the discovery of Shimejis. I am now wasting system resources and having them over-running my desktop. They are so fun to play around with; I mean, you can throw them around the screen. XD Since I found them so awesome, I decided to share them with you people.

Here is a screenshot of all the ones I included in the zip (packed them together cause I'm too lazy to create separate files):

I use the HomuHomu and Kyoko (this is the best done one, in my opinion) ones, but I guess some people might like sub-par characters, like Sayaka. Either way, enjoy~

File name: Madoka Shimeji.rar
File size: 23.44MB

On a side note: I guess no one cares about my random poll about Aaro's post length. I don't care if no one cares about Aaro, but I'm sad that no one picked the option for me. D:

Edit: If link becomes broken, leave a comment and I'll reupload it

~Pearz

Hanasaku Iroha 2 - Ohana Shows Off Her Skillz

Crazy poses ftw.

Finally, another episode of this; felt like I was waiting for an eternity. I can say that this episode wasn't as "strong" as the first episode, but it was still good to watch. I am slightly worried, since the second episode makes it feel like they are turning more towards the slice-of-life genre. I don't particularly hate that, but it gets boring at times. I guess I prefer plots that have at least a good amount of advancement...or something that can make me laugh.

The Long-Awaited Return of Madoka~!

I wanted to wait until Pearz was up to post this; she can provide better Madoka pictures. So...sorry if my pictures suck; I'm not into Madoka-fandom. *cough*

The official website of the Puella Magi Madoka Magica television anime series announced on Sunday that the anime will resume with its 11th and 12th episodes — the final scheduled episodes — on April 21. [source]

That's right, Madoka's back~ The final two episodes will be broadcast back-to-back (so no waiting time in between); apparently Tokyo missed out on the 10th episode too due to TBS' earthquake coverage news, so they'll get all three in tandem.

I hate how I'm fully on the Madoka bandwagon, but I do love how at least Madoka will finish on the air instead of in the BDs.

~Aaro off

30-Sai no Hoken Taiiku Ep01

After first hearing of this in Pearz' Spring 2011 Anime Preview post, I was genuinely intrigued. For one thing, what genre was this anime? For another thing, how do you get a series out of a guidebook? For a third thing...oh, there's no third. Those two reasons led me to watch it this morning. (I'm using Doki's 720p version.)

This shows the relationship of the introduced characters pretty well.

I can't say I regret having watched it. The episode was over before I knew it, there were no points where I had to pause and breathe (for example, due to sheer insanity), and this first episode answered both of my questions really well. I'll watch the second episode to see what direction (if any) this series will take, but it'll really be purely for curiosity. That said, this anime does have its merits.

(My recap will be shorter this time, after getting chastised by the Rho-Pearz Combo last time with OreTsuba ep01.)

Dog Days 2

I'm quite sure she was the one in the way.

It seems unlikely that this will be an anime I'll blog about episodically, but I think that I might give it the full 12-13ep chance. The second episode showed much more potential than the first one, being less on the info dumping side and pretty much becoming fully-focused on their battle for the area.

Yumekui Merry In Review [4/10]

WTF was with that air trombone?

I would like to start by saying, "I FEEL SO TROLLED BY THIS EPISODE!?!??!?!" I feel a need to rant heavily about this last episode. To summarize, this is the worst ending that I have seen in a long time. It was a good 3-4 episodes' worth of building up for a fight that barely happened, along with a shitty ending.

Yamamoto Yutaka Admits his Fractale Failure

According to Otona Anime magazine, director Yamamoto Yutaka has decided to leave the anime industry for the time being. He has been at a loss what to do because the audience didn't accept Fractale and he couldn't understand other TV anime. He wondered whether he had gone insane or the world had gone crazy. [from, source] 

I personally didn't watch Fractale after Episode, 2 but I hear the ending is amazing~ XD

If people remember, Yamamoto claimed that moe was the cancer that was killing the anime industry and Fractale would change everything. Clearly, he failed his insane boast, at least he's following through to the end. It would be pretty shameful to just keep going as a director and sweep this under the rug.

Just some humorous stuff I saw while writing my Yumekui Merry review~

~Pearz