Well it’s the time of year when the new animes come out. Usually short series of a mere 13 episodes or so come out during the mid-Spring season which is right now. Here is a brief look at 3 of the animes i’ve seen thus far. Will you try them? Will you watch them? The decision is up to you.

As for the first anime I bring you the second season of the most anticipated anime of the year to return The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Suzumiya Haruhi no Yūutsu). This can’t be so much said as a second season but a second helping. Much like the jumbled order of the first season the second season is loosely fitted among a retelling of the first season which has been playing for quite some time, but actually in order. The first episode of the second season is in true Haruhiism style. It is so far the more recent episodes that make it fall flat.

Currently running the “Endless Eight” arc which can be most described as similar to the movie, Groundhog Day, we see our S.O.S. Brigade having an endless summer that continues to loop over 14,000 times. The funny thing about this is “Endless Eight” has so far continued on for 5 episodes. Fans greatly hope that this arc will end in the next episode. Although this happens in the novel series as well, the anime is making it lack the power of the previous season by this redundant series of episodes. If the arc doesn’t soon end I fear that this anime may not only be the flop of the season, but very well the end of the Haruhi anime franchise.

The next anime coming up to bat is Taishō Yakyū Musume (roughly translated “Taisho Baseball Daughters“) is well about girls playing baseball. The story takes place during the Taisho era in Japan, 1925. During this time Japan is slowly Westernizing but not everyone is caught up with the times. Girls are starting to go to school and wear Sailor uniforms but some still wear the traditional Kimono. After being told by a Baseball player that women should be housewives instead of going to school, two girls decide to prove everyone wrong and start a baseball team. They know nothing of the sport and learn the rules all while hiding that they are doing it from teachers and parents. Afterall, even running is considerd too vulgar for women during this time. My first reaction to it was that it sounds like ”A League of Their Own”. In fact it’s really not all that similar.  This seems like a nice slice-of-life anime that will make you want to root, root, root, for the home team and enjoy learning about baseball in the process. I’m always all for an “overcoming all odds” story.

My final anime for this post is Tokyo Magnitude 8.0. This anime follows a sister and brother as they attempt to get back home to their family after a devastating earthquake hits while they are on summer break. Mirai is a girl who knows her summer vacation will be nothing new. Her parents are each more concerned with work than spending much time with them, let alone a vacation. When Mirai’s little brother drags her to a robot exhibition the earthquake hits and now they must get back home, despite the fact that all public transportation is down and they are on an island off of the mainland. I supose this anime will touch on the base as family being important, and that one small girl can make a difference kinda thing. So far i’ve just watched the first episode and the action has only just begun. I can’t wait to see how Mirai will change as the series goes on. She has a lot of growing up to do and if this is the only vacation she gets, well she at least deserves something.

Part 2 will examine 3 more animes: Bakemonogatari, Needless, and a third I have yet to choose.

After almost 2 years of inactivity I have decided to reopen this site. But it’s not going to be how I originally intended. Originally I planned to showcase animes before they made it out in subbed format. With everything I am doing and am interested in that is just too much work. For now on I am going to talk about manga and anime in a more general form. That is I will review things I like and don’t like. I might talk about something in the anime/manga fandom that I feel is news worthy. I hope you enjoy whatever it is that I post.

 ~ mata aimashou (see you later)

Episode 11 starts out where we left off from the end of 10 and changes quickly to Risa playing a dating sim game. Cain her ideal boyfriend from the game makes her faint as her friends come into the room. Everyone goes off to the New Years festivities and meet up with the guys. At first Risa is still mad about Christmas but as soon as she sees Otani her heart melts. Risa wishes for the new year to be filled with happiness, perhaps a little too extremly, and after Otani saying it was funny they get into a fight. The groups of couples split off and Otani and Risa decided to go sing some Umibozu karaoke.

The next day at school Nobu gives Risa some more advise and tells her to use her comedy to win Otani. So Risa jumps out of a broom closet and uses her comedic feminine wiles on him but it just freaks him out even more. After their school ceremony Nobu tells Risa that her boyfriend found out that Otani’s ex-girlfriend broke up with her boyfriend. Of course Risa freaks out wondering if Otani will go back to his ex. Only a short while after Risa and Nobu are walking out of school when they run into his ex, who invites them to the next basketball get together.

That Sunday Otani, Risa, Nobu, and Nobu’s boyfriend (sorry I forgot his name) all go to the basketball meet up. No sooner than they enter the door than Otani’s friends already want him to go talk with his ex. Risa trying to keep the two apart thinks of the first thing and that’s to throw a ball at Otani’s head.  But his friends still try to get him to talk to her. As Otani wanders over Risa jumps out and grabs his arm. Her expression on her face stops Otani until his friend once again comes over and pulls on Otani from the other arm. Watching the happy scene between the two Risa leaves the party and Otani turns around to watch her leave. As Risa visualizes what might be happening inside, Otani comes out of the building. He tells her that he thought she might be crying. When Risa asks him about the ex he says that maybe he’s suited for someone more like Risa. Nobu and her boyfriend thinking the two have made up see that they are still bickering on the level above them.

Impression: This episode was much funnier than it’s manga counterpart. Risa’s intense wishing/praying wasn’t in the manga to that extreme. In fact the characters expressions were much funnier in the anime. I especially liked the scene where Otani was getting pulled by Risa and his friend. This wasn’t in the manga at all. But for the ighter side of things I enjoyed the simple snow fall at the end. 

This site is now going to be updated once again. The first anime that’ll be updated today is Lovely Complex episode 11. I’ll be updating this anime as well as maybe some others i’m wathcing that my old favorite blogs don’t seem to be covering  

Yamato Nadeshiko Shichihenge may also be known to you as it was to me as either Perfect Girl Evolution or The Wallflower. The story is of 4 bishounen who are forced to turn a gothic girl, Sunako into a lady.  The story stats out where the 4 guys are talking about how Sunako is suposed to be at the house soon. In a flashback we see that Sunako’s aunt is the owner of the house the guys are staying in and she promises them free rent if they can turn Sunako into a lady and if they can’t they have to pay triple the price. Of’course this is a real motivation for free rent until they have a quite scary introduction with Sunako who is more like the girl from The Ring than the princess they imagined.

After they show Sunako to her room and make fun of her clothes and bangs the guys go to a diner and they give girls nosebleeds because they are so good-looking. The guys come back and bring Sunako some food and she takes it from them even though they mentioned eating it together. The guys want Sunako to make food since they aren’t good at it themselves but are afraid to ask her. After taking a shower one of the guys, Kyouhei, decides to go ask her about it. But since he comes in with no shirt on Sunako is freaked about by his radiance and screams. The other guys come running in wondering what is the matter and they all see that Sunako’s room is quite creepy. Sunako yells at them to get out and seeing that she can’t live with them, takes off.  

Outside all of the people call her a ghost and an ugly girl and chase her around. She gets so tired of running from them and just sits down looking at the ground. Kyouhei comes and rescues her believing it was his fault that she ran away and drags her home. Back at the house the guys are all fighting over who shoud cook and as a thanks Sunako cooks for them. Since the guys think the worst they believe her to be hacking up food and blood puring everywhere. When they actually look to see her cooking, they realise that she actually looks like a girl when she cooks and her cooking is really good. The boys then decide to make Sunako show her face and Kyouhei jumps on her to tie her bangs up. When they first see her face she is covered in flour and looks really pretty but when the flour is gone she is coverend in dry skin and zits. The boys attempt to give her advie on skin care but it doesn’t really work. In the end they receive a call from the landlady and they tell her that Sunako is coming along nicely but as they talk to her see that Sunako has in fact started to cover herself up even more than before.

Impression:
Well I actually read the manga for this a while ago so it’s hard for me to remember this chapter that well. So far I think I like the anime better. It’s much more funny than the manga. I actually like that we don’t see Sunako as a chibi character as much as we did in the manga because I often got tired of that. But what is ironic is that we see the guys in chibi format more. Sunako acts a little bit less like herself from her manga version. She seems a little bit sweeter somehow. I wonder how true they will stay to to manga. I don’t know how long this is going to be yet but here’s hoping at least 26 episodes. I think this anime beats out Tokimeki for my favorite comedy anime this season.  

The story of Tokimeki Memorial is actually a sequel to an original OVA which is based off of a game. This is the story of Riku Aoba who transfers into a new school. The school as told by the chairwomen celebrates “freedom” and that is something he will soon figure out. When Aoba goes into his homeroom class he is surprised that all the students are wearing animal ears and horns, and they all welcome him a little too happily. Just like the students the teachers are odd as well. The chemistry teacher likes doing experiments on his students, the lit teacher is practically dying infront of them but still continues on with his lecture, and the music teacher looks to be a drag queen. Yet through all this craziness Aoba finds a radiant beauty in the school known as Sayuri Amamiya.

Throughout the anime we keep seeing Aoba getting chased by students in a pair of pink cat ears, but that will be explained shortly. At lunchtime Aoba is eating near an animal pen and happens to see inside a not toohappy little chicken whom he sharees his lunch with. Then two of his classmates: Itta “Icchi” Suzuki and Yuusuke Kayama introduce themselves to him. Yuusuke asks Aoba if he likes any of the girls. Apparently he has data on all of them and Aoba tells them he likes Amamiya. They explain to him how she has become the light of the school and also how no one has her email address. Then Aoba is approached by the student council who give him a pair of cat ears and tell him it’s very important that he wear them. He tells him that because of them everyone will know who he is and welcome him. The student council actually send around text messages to all the males in the school telling them that whoever catches the pink ears will get Amamiya’s email. After remembering that he over heard Amamiya say she was going to the library Aoba takes off in there and helps out a girl until he is spotted by the students he want to catch his ears.  

When he finally believes he has eascaped all of the students one of his classmates, a really touch looking guy, finds him. Aoba thinks he is going to get pounded but is saved by the little chicken that he gave bread to earlier. The chicken basically pulls some moves on the guy knocking him the the ground. Of’course after he takes off everyone believes that Aoba actually beat up the guy. As Aoba is now exhausted from running around he plops himself under a tree where Amamiya also happens to be. Then the student council approaches them and tells Aoba that he “won” and for Amamiya to give him her email address for winning. Amamiya replies that she doesn’t need to because she had nothing to do with the student councils game and takes off. All the male students then chase after the student council president because they think he made her angry, while Aoba wonders whether or not he can survive this school.

Next Episode:
Some girl named Tsukasa believes she has met her destined man. Is it Aoba?

Impression:
At first after just getting done with Ouran High School Host Club it was difficult for me to watch an anime with the main male lead in that be the main male lead in this (as well as Death Note). I also didn’t know what to expect from this. I do like the crackiness of the whole episode and yet I would expect to see more expressions from Aoba. The animation is not really good but not bad either. Maybe if I had a better raw of this I could tell because the one I was watching was quite blurry. I think i’ll really have to give it another episode before I can determine much about it. I’d really like to know more about Amamiya as it seems right now she can be sweet but is really an princess type. Why do guys have to fall for someone like that then?

One of my current favorite manga-ka is Hino Matsuri. She was originally a bookstore owner who decided to become a manga artist. Two of her titles have been picked up by VIZ Media: MeruPuri and Vampire Knight. She is known for drawing very good-looking bishies (male characters).

MeruPuri – A simple girl named Airi dreams of nothing more than a handsome boyfriend who will be a good husband. Her simple life is changed dramatically when the young prince Aram comes out of a mirror that has been in Airi’s family for generations. As Airi takes care of the prince until someone comes to get him she discovers that Aram has a spell on him that turns him into a teenager whenever he is exposed to darkness. He may look like an adult but Aram is afterall just a child on the inside, even if he is a prince. This is a romantic-comedy of fairytale proportions.

Toraware no Minoue – Kuroshi Megumi was living the good life all thanks to the disappearance of the Kougami family who his family had served for generations. Now that an heir has been discovered Megumi’s family has to go back to serving this heir just like all his ancestors. What Megumi didn’t know was that he was cursed to serve them. Many years ago his ancestor the legendary “Black Cat” stole a scroll from the Kougami family and their ancestor spirit put the curse on the Kuroshi family. As Megumi starts having feelings for her, they must ask themselves is it true or is it the curse.

Vampire Knight - Yuuki’s earliest memory is of a stormy winter’s night when she was attacked by a vampire…then saved by another. Ten years later, she has grown up a guardian of the vampire race, protecting her savior, Kaname, from discovery as he leads a group of reformed vampires at an elite boarding academy. But at her side is a boy called Zero, who burns with hatred for the creatures who destroyed everything that he ever cared for, and is determined never to trust them. Have the vampires truly renounced their murderous ways, or is there a darker truth behind their actions? Is Kaname’s infatuation with Yuuki the beginning of a forbidden romance? Or is it something in her lost memories that draws him to her? Because in this world of secrets, nothing is as it seems, and nobody is who they say they are. And the price of misplaced faith may well be worse than death. ~actually taken from StormInHeaven

WANTED – Armelia was a young orphaned girl who sang for money. She met a youth named Luce and fell in love with him. Unfortunatly Luce is kidnapped by a pirate named Scar. Armelia swore she would save him and years later goes undercover as a boy to find him. But what she believes took place all those years ago may be more fiction than fact.

Impressions:
Well I had written one before but somehow it got erased. Basically i had said… Currently i’m reading Vampire Knight and Toraware no Minoue. The other two I have already finished. Th great thing about Hino Matsuri is she can cover almost any genre in shoujo manga. Two of the manga are historical, one is very dramatic, and the other is just a silly romantic-comedy. Her design is nice and if you follow her books in order you can see an improvement in story as well. Vampire Knight is very well written and full of questions to ask and answers to be discovered. She is certainly a manga-ka to pay attention to.

Angel Diary is one of the first manhwas to come out of the new (as of Nov 2005) publisher Ice Kunion. At first glance the larger size of the pages may be a turnoff but don’t let that keep you from discovering their titles. Angel Diary was created by the same people who brought you Demon Diary, go figure right, but the two stories are unrelated. Angel Diary is everything that was good about Demon Diary only better.

The story of Angel Diary is that of Dong-Young, a princess of Heaven who escaped an arranged marriage with the King of Hell and is now hiding out on Earth as a 17 year old boy. She attends high school where many of the students are not normal either. She is friends with Bi-Wal who is often confused by people as her boy-boy lover for their closeness. She is watched over by two guardians of heaven, who attend the school as well.  Dong-Young has her share of problems when she is possessed by a crazy ghost at the school and is saved by two classmates, the other guardians of heaven who are actually searching for the escaped princess but don’t know it’s Dong-Young. In fact no one suspects her to actually be the princess except Bi-Wal who is up to something.

Impression:
This was the first manhwa I decided to read and i’m glad this was the first one. I used to be very picky about drawing styles and I didn’t like all the manhwa I had seen because of it. When I read this one I was pleasently surprised on how well it was drawn and how fun and comedic it was. The creators like to make the characters say things that make you realise that they realise that they are just characters in a comic. Dong-Young also has a wide range of character personalities that change with the situation. I actually love how no character suspects her as a girl even though she makes comments like “eh a male ghost was inside of me”. I think what drives the story the most is the fact that their is always something to make you wonder and guess. Also the whacky comedic moments make the story entertaining.

Beauty Pop is a recently new title added by VIZ Media to their Shoujo Beat line of girls manga. Currently I can’t deduce what the genre is other than just shoujo and comedy. The main female lead, Kiri who could care less about the schools ever so popular Scissors Project, a club made up of good looking males who all know how to glamour up a girl. The head of the S.P. is a guy named Narumi who has high confidence in his skills but still is quite picky with the girls he chooses to makeover. Kiri overhears a conversation between a girl and one of the S.P. members who tells her she couldn’t be made pretty. The girl was actually intending to confess her feelings for the guy instead of asking for a makeover which he believed to be the case. Kiri ends up giving the girl a makeover. Now the S.P. knows they have a rival on their hands at the school, who in fact may be better than Narumi.

And so Kiri goes around masquerading as a character known as X fixing up the girls that the S.P. deems impossible to make beautiful.

Impression:
At first I believed that VIZ may have picked up this title because Kiri’s character seems to act a lot like Haruhi from Ouran High School Host Club. Kiri acts quite similar to her in a “whatever” kind of state of mind. But as you continue on with the series you will learn why she acts this way. Since I like seeing shows where people have makeovers this manga has been very interesting to see how the characters have changed physically. This manga slightly stresses a few points like “it’s the inside that counts” and “as long as you take care of yourself, you will be beautiful”, both which I believe are good lessons to take away. So what I believed would be a superficial manga actually turned out to cover these lessons quite nicely. The other side of the manga is that we learn about the characters and their backgrounds. So far it seems there is no romance between Kiri and any of the male characters in the story, but this doesn’t need to be in there to drive the story. Beauty Pop is a fun, delightful read for any shoujo loving fan.

Well I said this wasn’t going to be another anime blog and honestly I haven’t figured what that is yet. I believe this blog will cover both manga and anime since most blogs out there only cover anime right now. I’m also probably going to be writing about animes when they are subbed for quite sometime until I get back in the mode of watching original japanese format.