Nic's Anime Blog

Anime Festival Asia X (AFA X)

2010-11-20T23:20:00.000-08:00

I'm sure you all know what the 'X' behind AFA means right? For those who have no clue about it... X = 10, in the roman numeric system... I think that's what the system's called... :S

Anyways, I'm back! ... For quite~~~ some time actually, just that I was lazy to blog... anyways, here's my review of this year's AFA, also known as AFA X! The name this year's cooler than last year's...

This time around, I attended AFA X for 2 days, unlike last year's 1 day experience... due to the fact that I had to lead my friends around... (Not really, but oh well...)

And this time (actually cuz I'm lazy), I don't really feel like uploading every single photo I've took, so do check out my albums at Facebook for well... the photos. XD

Here are the links:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2067329&id=1116663526
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2067381&id=1116663526

Day 1

AFA's doors opened at 9:00am, so I tried getting there by 8:20am to buy the tickets but ended up failing and I got there by 9:20am... (The bus... The freaking bus came at around 8:45am as we missed the 8:30am bus...)

Here's how the ticketing booth looks like...

The crowd near the entrance...

And at any rate, we managed to get in.

Well now, I think I should just review yes? The internet's starting to hate me... so posting photos will be a drag...

For the 1st day, we pretty much looked around everywhere and attended some of the events on the brochure... notable stuff we did were...

1) Cosplay Meet & Greet: Kaname★

Envious now fangirls??? XDD Just joking. At least my friends and I got to take photos WITH-- yes, not just take a photo of a cosplay celebrity but WITH a cosplay celebrity. XD

And this celebrity is none other than Kaname★!

He was cosplaying Gauche Suede from Tegami Bachi for Day 1. I'll be watching that anime sooner or later to do a review on it as well.

2) Rapid Culture Booth Incident

I passed by this store by myself and saw a deck of K-ON! Precious Memories Trial Deck which I saw on the net, supposedly has a seiyuu-signed card in it... so I immediately decided to get one. The counter guy told me it was the so-called last deck of the day, so I said sure I would buy it... and right while I was paying, I didn't expect he would shoot me a question as awesome as this.

"Hey uh... which character do you like in 'K-ON!'?"

I solemnly said Ritsu... and he went all nuts. Singaporean style. XD

Counter guy #1: NAH! YOU SEE?! Someone in this world actually likes Ritsu!!!
Counter guy #2: Shut up lah you... Mio's the best lah!!!
Counter guy #3: What oh... Azunyan bah...!

And the argument continued until I said "Excuse me..." since I wanted to pay... He immediately apologized and gave me the cards right after saying thank you after receiving my payment. The argument supposedly continued for quite awhile as I left with a wide smile on my face. I'm really happy that there are people who actually appreciates Ricchan's existence in this world and not just the overrated Mio & Azusa...

3) 'Culture:Japan' Screening

I was able to see Danny Choo-san on stage!!! And got to watch the latest episode of 'Culture:Japan' on a big screen with lots of anime fans too! It really feels better watching with a group of people who share the same interest with you. Don't you agree?

I lol'ed when the video stopped working properly halfway through and Danny-san starts telling us how his Mac Book Air fails him at important times and he'd prefer using the good ol' Windows XP while fiddling with his Mac Book Air. That was epic!

I left halfway through the screening since my cousin had to leave to walk around with her friends... I'm sure Animax would reply this so I wasn't the least bit worried I might miss something. :D

4) Moe Moe Kyun Cafe Experience

[Photos will be uploaded sooner or later]

Yeah well, I didn't get to EXPERIENCE this last year, so I this time, since my friends were around, why not?

While we were queuing up, a girl who was semi-cosplaying (like me! XD) a student from Vampire Knight's Night Class (I think?) wanted to take a photo of me and my friend... so we gladly allowed her to take our photos and in return, hers.

When we got near the entrance of the cafe... I saw...

DANNY CHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *insert fangirl squeal here*

... Yeah, I just SAW him... having his meal with his friend... while the people sitting next to him didn't even care. (LEMME SIT WITH HIM THEN!!! >:O) 'Course when he left, we were still queuing up... (sucks...) but when he was about to leave, the MMK team posed for him and lots of cameramen took his photo on his way out... some people were able to take a photo with him too, and even get his signature... (Must be awesome... TT^TT) Welp, after ordering our food, we went into the cafe...

... Though I felt that a video camera was near us...... (Which is actually true. We got 'filmed' into one of those AFA X Official Review videos... ^^;)

We got to our seat. And since I bought that deck of K-ON! cards, I couldn't wait to check it out and ultimately the result, which was pretty unexpected, (since I have a 'curse' to get lots of Mio freebies for God-knows-what reasons, I thought I would be getting Hikasa Yoko's signature...) was~... *drum rolls*

SATOU SATOMI'S.

I was so happy that I started yelling like mad in my heart and talked to my friends to calm myself down... so no wonder that guy at the Rapid Culture store asked me that particular question...!!! Wait... does it mean this was opened before? :S

Anyways, the maid who served us was Moe... she did the power-up stunts and stuff and we kinda froze... since well... we didn't expect it to be that... awkward... while having our food... I noticed that no one was coming in even though lots of people were leaving, leaving plenty of empty seats... plus, the songs in the cafe suddenly turned 'SCANDALISHY'...

I didn't feel it was anything out of place. Maybe they wanna change shifts or something? Until my friend who sat opposite of me voiced out something weird...

"Hey Nic, there's a group of girls wearing the same uniform sitting a table behind us? Do you think it's... you know... SCANDAL?"

... I immediately stopped eating and acted like I wanted to stretch to look what's behind... and what do you know...

IT'S REALLY 'SCANDAL'.

I tried calming down and my friends weren't making it better... we started eating quite slowly... seeming as if we wanted to stay a little longer... but of course, it'll be weird if it's our table only... and with SCANDAL.

Thinking about it, they really look pretty cool up close... they had that 'BAND' feeling around them... and they really looked like teenagers... (Which they are right?)

... After finishing our food and drinks, we decided to leave... of course, we had no idea how to leave, either through the back door (which my friend suggested since she saw a group leave through there) or through the entrance (which the crowd's curious on what's going on) or some exit that's somewhere else... Luckily one of the maids (I dunno who she was...) came by and guided us out through the back door asking why we didn't want to stay longer with SCANDAL...

'Course, we had other things to do... so... we answered her with a few dry chuckles here and there (COURSE WE DON'T WANNA LEAVE) since it was really gonna be awkward if we stated our true reasons right? So yeah.

5) Animax's Dubbing Booth

Without trying to dub at least once at these kind of events, how are you able to experience an event like this to the max?

Like last year, I dubbed Hirasawa Yui. And I dubbed her Second Season role this year... and boy~ was it epic fail this year... I was a bit TOO nervous, thanks to a cameraman who appeared in front of the dubbing booth snapping away... thanks to him I blew it...

My friend dubbed Rukia from BLEACH. She laughed halfway through... I lol'ed.

6) JAM Project & Ichirou Mizuki Appearance

We wanted to watch Hanazawa Kana though... but we were a bit too early and got caught up in this event...

I'm not too familiar with these guys, so... I can't really elaborate further... I only know that the crowd was yelling like mad... so yeah. ^^;

7) Hanazawa Kana Q&A and Live Dubbing

Which... TOTALLY converted me into a Hanazawa Kana fan from that day on. The first seiyuu whom I saw the whole event through, without missing anything... My other 2 friends had to leave early, so only my other friend, 'Lelouch' & I, attended this thing all the way.

Man, I never knew Hanazawa-san looked like Toyosaki Aki if you look at her at certain angles... and she was very cute. Well, ACTING very cute I mean... but she is very cute. :D

Oh and! As opposed to having not really pro-level translators for last year's K-ON! girls since Danny-san couldn't make it, he made it this time, as Hanazawa-san's on-stage translator.

As for the Q & A.. here's a link for it. Credits go to the guy who owns that blog.

http://deremoe.com/2010/11/16/hanazawa-kana-afax-stage-event/

Q1: Which role was the most similar to yourself?
A: Ryoko from Zegapain. (She continued saying other stuff but I kinda forgotten what she said...)

After that question, she dubbed one of the most notable scenes of anime 'Angel Beats!', which is the final episode 'Graduation's', confession scene. Her timing was off by a lil~ bit but it wasn't noticable, so of course I'll let it slide. Seeing her doing this role live made my day... it's really cool! Well... I wished I could've seen the K-ON! girls do it though... TT^TT

I also noticed that when she dubbed, she looked very very serious... o_o

Then this producer dude of a very popular series, Black★Rock Shooter came out made an appearance talking about Black★Rock Shooter related things. And even announced that there'll be a sequel to the anime movie. Well now, isn't that just great... I'm not on the very interested side (I'm sure you've seen my review on it...) but I'll give B★RS another go. Especially this time for Hanazawa-san's sake. XD

After a while, she dubbed one more scene. This time, as Kuroi Mato of B★RS.. the scene where she gives Yomi a keychain. I was surprised that she could really change her tone of voice... from one soft-spoken one like Kanade, to an energetic teen like Mato... yup, she definitely is one of those seiyuu I'm gonna start looking out for.

Ah! And this time when she dubbed, she was smiling a lot. At least it was better than 'serious face' Hanazawa-san... XP

After the dubbing, back to Q & A panel.

Q2:How do you manage to do great on your voice acting?
A: I practice the script at home as soon as I receive it. (Insufficient info to elaborate... sorry...)

Q3: What is your favorite line and from what series is it in?
A: “Kobato, Gambarimasu~”~! (Again, insufficient info... ><;)

Q4: How do you maintain your good health and voice?
A: I do it by having a good food, enough rest and would sometimes sleep with a mask.

Q5: If you were to make your own ‘skill’, like the ones found in 'Angel Beats!', what would be it’s purpose?
A: She would make one to cut vegetables.

LastQ: What are your future and career plans?
A: I want to have a separate flat in Singapore.

And after the dubbing, there was the famous autograph giveaway... which was for 5 lucky people... only this time, they get to go on stage, witness her signing it and shake her hand as they leave the stage. 'Course this was for people who had seats, so... *sighs*... Danny-san was funny as the emcee though.. he was like, "If you don't come out in 10 seconds, we will choose another person. NOW HURRY UP~!" and "Okay, you've done well. Guys, tie him up at the corner over there." XDD

That was the end for Day 1.

------

Day 2. Would I be lying if I said we didn't do much? Well, no. I wouldn't. 'Cuz we've done most of the things we should be doing on Day 1. -_-; But we've missed doing some of the important stuff on Day 1... And we've been in the hall for half of the day on this day.

1) Kareshi Kanojyo no Mise & COSPA Sea Shopping Failure

... Let's just say, it was sad to see everything I wanted being sold out on the 2nd day. But we got into the shop real quickly and didn't have to queue long. (For KKnM) Bought a few stuff at least... better than nothing. As for COSPA, I really~~~ wanted to get a Misaka Mikoto T-Shirt... but, it got sold out... go Railgun...! *sighs*...

2) Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoushitsu screening

I got to watch this with my friend Chantelle. And it was epically awesome! I missed parts from the front as we arrived a bit late but the movie was awesome. She was clinging onto my arm at the climax and I was getting a bit anxious to know what's going to happen too... really thrilling. Unlike Endless 'The Crap' Eight. XD The crowd was being very considerate... they weren't making noise and all those stuff. And when they laughed, my friend and I laughed too. XD

3) Back to COSPA Sea!!! For Haruhi!

Yeah, we wanted to buy a souvenir after watching the Shoushitsu movie but we were out of luck as the 'Haruhi Ruined My Life' T-Shirts were all for guys, so the size of the T-Shirts were too big... making it futile even if were bought it. So we decided to get a Sasuke T-Shirt for one of our dear friends. (My best friend, for that matter. ^^)

4) Regional Cosplay Championship

We managed to catch the finale of 'Team Thailand' when my friend and I got back in. I had 2 other friends but we kinda got seperated... :S Anyways, there were 4 Teams. 'Team Malaysia', 'Team Thailand', 'Team Singapore' & 'Team Indonesia'.

My 2 other friends (who were actually in the hall without us knowing) told us 'Team Malaysia' did a scene from anime 'Fairy Tail'. 'Team Thailand' were doing a scene from the game, 'Monster Hunter'. 'Team Singapore' did a scene from manga, 'Defense Devil' and finally 'Team Indonesia' were doing a scene from... umm... I'm not sure about that... Tonkatsu or something... I dunno...

I'm unable to elaborate fully here since I'm not really sure what was going on (My friend and I were at the far back of the hall before locating our 'lost friend' (another one left early).) so yeah...

Oh! The judges are Kaname★, -aira-, Alodia & Clive. Kaname★ was cosplaying Black★Rock KAITO, -aira- as Black★Rock Shooter, Alodia as '???' ('Cuz I really dunno...) and Clive as Nobunaga Oda of the Sengoku Basara franchise.

Before announcing the winner, last year's winner Clive and Animax presenter, Alodia bought the judges some time as they started to vote who should be the winner this year... They didn't really do much... just talk about random stuff, and posed for the cameras here and there. Some Malaysian dude (... He really ruined the image of our country for goodness sake) started yelling random stuff like 'MALAYSIA SHOULD WIN!!!' or 'ALODIA YOU'RE SO SEXY!!!!!!' and stuff... really~~~ annoyed me and my friends and we didn't wanna yell 'Malaysia!!!" if the emcees started asking who would win...

Well... in the end 'Team Indonesia' won due to their props and costumes. Really well made... Alodia even wanted to take the two Indonesian cosplayers home with her... resulting to the crowd's cheer and the Malaysian dude's "TAKE ME HOME TOO!!!!!!"... ugh.

Next section...

5) angela, SCANDAL & May'n Appearance

The event that we've been waiting for! The appearance of SCANDAL & May'n!!!!!! Uh... we don't really know who angela is so yeah... ^^; I apologize for that.

My friends were brave enough-- no, scratch that... practically the whole hall decided to ignore the 'No photography allowed!' rule and quickly snapped photos of the singers on the main stage. I wasn't able to since my camera's pixel thing had a very annoying limit... so I had to leave it to my friends for the photo-taking... *sighs*...

SCANDAL was as awesome as yesterday. May'n seemed very courteous (or nervous?)... but she was very gentle when she talked, not like when she sings with that powerful voice of hers. I didn't catch any of these events last year since I wasn't that interested, but this year I was able to, and I'm really glad to.

6) Kaname★ & -aira- Panel

My friends just wanted to take photos of their Kaname★... so that's why we stayed for a bit before leaving... we didn't get to enjoy the panel to the fullest.

6) 'Cotton Candy' Animax Cosplay Group as the 'K-ON!' girls Performance

Outside the hall, we were able to catch the 'Cotton Candy' team performing as the K-ON! girls in their maid outfits... they were doing a dance with the song 'Gohan wa Okazu' as the background music... it was a bit~ random but... oh well... their cosplays were fine... I guess... ^^;

And that pretty much wraps up most of the notable events for both days!

As for what I managed to buy... well, here they are!

[Photos will be uploaded at another time. So please tune in till then! Or, you can vistit my Facebook photos... :)]

Overall... this year's AFA wasn't as awesome as last year's for some reasons... I just didn't feel like it was really as fun as last year's... not much oomph I guess? Hmm... but with my friends around, I let that feeling slide for just a bit. ;)

My mom already gave me the "Okay!" for next year's AFA, so I'll be sure to attend it and of course, review it in due time!

So till next time! :D

AFA '11! Here I come!!!!!!! >:D

"Tehepero~!" ~ By Pikasha Yocchan. XD

Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin

2010-11-04T01:25:00.000-07:00

Summary: The Waldstein Academy is an institute devoted to studies on paranormal disciplines, thus becoming known as the Occult Academy. Maya Kumashiro returns to this place to attend the funeral of the former principal, Junichiro Kumashiro, her father. Maya, a skeptic who hates the occult, meets with Fumiaki Uchida, a time agent from the future sent to 1999 to prevent the apocalyptic Nostradamus Prophecies from happening. The predictions state that the school will be ground zero of the cataclysm that will destroy the world. They must team up to discover not only what actually led to her father's demise, they have limited time to find out what is the key that triggers the beginning of the end.

Yay! Yet another awesome series to review on... Especially when it's the 3rd Anime no Chikara project and there's Hikasa 'The Awesome' Yoko as the main protagonist! ><

Reviews:

Storyline: Occult, action-packed and magic near the end... add in drama and tsundere-ism by Kumashiro Maya and you'll get an awesome series that can't really be described by words. The ending was sweet too... but it felt slightly weird though... near the end. Hmm... maybe due to the length? The comedy was pretty funny as well especially when it's centered around

Graphics: Top notch. I really liked the art... it felt more... realistic... unlike those moe anime we watch for entertainment. Hahaha! A1-Pictures & Aniplex did a good job delivering this kind of artworks for us to enjoy.

Music: Very... 'occulty'? Hmm... BGM I meant. And that's also one of the main highlights throughout the anime. The BGM's perfect for every scene that needs a BGM. I lol'ed at the BGM for the character Chihiro as it was 'La Campanella', and it's freakin' epic. XD The Opening theme 'Flying Humanoid' by Nakagawa Shouko's nice and the ending theme 'Kimi ga Iru Basho' by Takagaki Ayahi changed my viewpoint of her singing. She can seriously sing very well and now I'm able to identify her singing parts in the songs Sphere sung. :)

Voice Acting: High class!!! Hikasa Yoko's freaking awesome!!! Chihara Minori made me wanna slap her character, Nakagawa Mikaze, like mad, in a good way, it means she did her evil-cutesy role very well. No Nagato Yuki or Tsuchimiya Kagura characteristics shown! Mizushima Takahiro as Bunmei's impressive too, since the only role I know from his character list is Rolo Lamperouge... Kobayashi Yuu's freaking pro too! And I lol'ed the whole time her character, vice principal Kawashima Chihiro, acted like she was in love. Takagaki Ayahi also managed to surprise me not only with her singing prowess, but her voicing of Kuroki Ami, Maya's best & childhood friend. Then there's Hanazawa Kana's idiotic impersonation of Naruse Kozue and that's the first time I've seen her done a role of an idiot. XD The others done a good job too lol.

Recommendation: To anyone who enjoys the Occult!!! And for graphics, and music, and... Hikasa Yoko goodness? A recommended anime for anyone to watch!!!

Rating: 4.7/5 (Recommended)

"I hate the Occult~!!!!!!" says Maya, but does she really mean it hmm?

Black Rock Shooter (OVA)

2010-11-03T08:26:00.000-07:00

Summary: Mato Kuroi just got into junior high school, and on the first day, someone catches her eye; her classmate Yomi Takanashi. The two meet.The innocent and naive Mato. The mature Yomi. Seemingly opposites, but the time they spend together only strengthens a growing friendship. But as they go into their second year at the school, they get placed in separate classes, and they begin to grow apart. But somewhere simultaneously... In another world, a young girl, blue fire residing in her eyes, Black Rock Shooter faces another young girl; this one holding a jet-black scythe, Dead Master, and a battle to the death begins to unfold.

Alright, alright... one last one before I go to bed... 'cuz I have nothing much to say about this OVA anyways. 1 anime down from my 'have to review' list.

Reviews:

Storyline: ... Highly anticipated~... yeah~... Just what the heck is with the storyline? It's so screwed up that it was freakin' random... and I can't believe I watched the whole thing... with the 'WTH' face on the whole time. Firstly, it felt like some fantasy-fighting kind of story. Fine. Then suddenly in the next scene, some random slice-of-life story pops up... then back to the fighting story... then back to some jealousy over my best friend being taken (insert Episode 11 of K-ON! here, Ritsu~ Mio~) story plot... then more fighting... then jealous girl goes missing, main character desperately wants to save her... then at some park, she turns all "I'm Black Rock Shooter." mode... I mean come on! The story has it's meaning but this is really~ random! And there's the ending that makes it feel like 'To Be Continued'... -_-; Ugh!!!

Graphics: ... As everyone has mentioned, the graphics are top notch but not REALLY top notch... and also, due to the crappy storyline, the graphics are wasted~... Good job 'Ordet' for the graphics but Tanigawa Nagaru-san & Yoshioka Shinobu-san... just what on earth did you make us watch? What kind of storyline WAS that?!

Music: ... Nothing special, really. Ending song called 'Braveheart' that's composed by Ryo and sung by The Gomband couldn't even let me say "Wow!" throughout the beginning of the OVA to the end... -_-;

Voice Acting: ... I feel sorry for the voice actresses hired to do this... seriously... at least the voice acting is something I can praise on. Hanazawa Kana as protagonist Kuroi Matou sounded like Taketatsu Ayana at first... really. (It made me check to confirm who's voicing her...) And then veteran Sawashiro Miyuki as Takanashi Yomi was like... Mamiko Noto... in a good way, of course. Other than that... uhh... since Asumi Kana as Yuu didn't appear that much (vocally), maybe I'll just give a 'good job' to her eh?

Recommendation: HIGHLY..... NOT recommended. Unless you're into crappy storyline OVAs like this then it's fine with me. Or, you can just watch this for the graphics, that's fine.

Rating: 0.5/5 (DON'T. WATCH. THIS. CRAP.)

Angel Beats!

2010-11-03T07:51:00.000-07:00

Summary: In a world after death, angels fight for their fate and their future. Yuri, the leader of the Shinda Sekai Sensen, rebels against the god who destined her to have an unreasonable life. On the otherhand, Tenshi, the chairperson of the student council for the world after death, battles against the SSS members. SSS members utilize armed weaponry to battle it out against the angels harnessing supernatural powers.

I just felt like reviewing 'Angel Beats!' tonight before I sleep so here goes nothing~...

Reviews:

Storyline: The story's a mix of drama, action, tragedy and of course, comedy... so it was quite enjoyable to watch. Also, as it was highly anticipated, I suppose this is the fruit of it... but midway, the story felt rushed... and the ending, well, yes it may be sad but unlike K-ON!! (which 'ripped my heart out'), it... didn't really push the right buttons. Their ending is also 'Graduation themed', as many may put it... (What's with anime characters graduating this year?!) Well, the anime itself is QUITE religious in a way... the retelling of their past were easy to understand why their trying hard to live now and hmm... what else is there... the character developments were interesting? At any rate, if this is from Key (Maeda Jun's so-called 'company'?), it's obviously good... but it should've been a BIT~ longer to make the story much more... acceptable, than it is. Since there's rumours of a 2nd Season already, that's fine I guess. And there's an OVA too at the end of the year...

Graphics: Key decided not to allow KyoAni take this series most likely due to the fact that it's busy with K-ON!! at that time, so it went ahead with P.A. Works. The graphics are smooth and nice, action scenes were done well and it's surprising since I (think) seldom watch P.A. Works works... lol. Graphically, as expected, this anime's good.

Music: Woots~! I guess this is the anime which has ability to rival against K-ON! only in terms of music... Girls Dead Monster (GDM) vs. Houkago Tea Time (HTT), which band is your choice? As for vocalists, Iwasawa Masami & Yui or Akiyama Mio & Hirasawa Yui? 'Course, I would support HTT with my whole heart... Anyways, their music is on the 'superb' level as their sung by Marina (Iwasawa) and later on LiSA (Yui). That's their 'lost' point, they should've made the seiyuu sing the songs instead to make it more original, like K-ON!, not get someone else to sing it... (Macross Frontier's Sheryl Nome's no exception! May'n's awesome but Endou Aya's great too when it comes to singing!)... welp~ least they didn't sound awful but instead, awesome. BGM's done by Maeda Jun himself & a group called Anant-Garde Eyes, so the BGM's very good. This is what you can expect from Key, good music and well... good storyline I guess?

Voice Acting: ... Hmm... mostly verterans... so you can expect the goodness of the voice acting. Ah, Sakurai Harumi's surprisingly fitting for Suzumiya Haruhi look-a-like Nakamura Yuri a.k.a. Yurippe, which is a good thing. And Hanazawa Kana definitely did herself a good job with Tachibana Kanade a.k.a. Tenshi. I'll be expecting to see her dubbing Tenshi at AFA X... Anyways, Kamiya Hiroshi made Otonoshi Yuzuru felt like a Okazaki Tomoya (done by Nakamura Yuuichi) near the end, so that's great! XD The others did a good job too.

Recommendation: It's one of the highly anticipated anime this year... so of course, do check it out. It may be good to some and well, it was pretty good to me, but like I said, this anime has lots of pros & cons... though, it's still recommended anyhow. So do check it out if you're into action, comedy-drama, fantasy and not forgetting romance.

Rating: 4.5/5 (Recommended)

K-ON!! (Review + News Updates)

2010-11-03T01:41:00.000-07:00

Summary: It's the final year of high school for Yui Hirasawa (guitar), Ritsu Tainaka (drums), Mio Akiyama (bass), and Tsumugi Kotobuki (keyboard); the founding members of the Light Music Club. Together with their junior member Azusa Nakano (guitar), they spend their days after school in the music room enjoying tea and sweets, and practicing music. Amidst band practice, preparations for the new student orientation performance, scouting for new members, and student responsibilities they still have time for "After School Tea Time".

"...And with this, it's goodbye... 'Houkago Tea Time'..."

HELL NO!!! K-ON! won't end just yet! I'll tell you the reason why AFTER I've finished this review!!! >:O

Reviews:

Storyline: Just like the first season, it's a slice-of-life series about music, and 5 (once 4) girls bonding together. And no it's NOT yuri!!! S-Sorry... anyways... umm, the story may NOT be emphasized solely on the music in this season... but lots of dramas ensues... nah, calling it 'drama' sounds a bit weird... maybe... 'touchy moments'? Well... the second season focuses more on the 'fun' that they're having than just the music... which is relaxing. Then near the end, starting around episode 20, I wasn't able to hold back my tears as it was so freaking touching! Episode 24 was one of the episodes that 'killed' me as well. The storyline, overall, was enjoyable, and I'll really miss these kinds of stories as they're closely related to our school life. (... If 'Nichijou' can beat 'K-ON!', I'll be speechless by then.)

Graphics: It's Kyoto Animation!!! But I noticed that they've enhanced the art of K-ON!!... unlike it's prequel, the colours seem more vivid. Which is better... Azusa's hair colour has also been slightly modified... and the shading's better, compared to the prequel... KyoAni must have been on budget on the first season... and now that K-ON! brought them money, they have no more restrictions and decided to provide us with greater graphics. Nice job there, KyoAni!

Music: The openings of K-ON!! hmm... To be honest, when I heard 'GO! GO! Maniac', it felt so 'chipmunk-ish' that I really disliked it... but after a while, it got to me. Just like what happened with 'Cagayake Girls!'. As for 'Utauyo!! Miracle', I disliked it too but in the end loved it as it was catchy like both the previous opening themes... does Toyosaki Aki have the ability to make people love the song only AFTER listening to it for like... 10 times? o_o; Anyways onto the endings... now this, I'm sure anyone & every K-ON! fan would agree with me that the endings were superb. 'Listen!!' was an immediate love for me (though when Hikasa sang 'Listen~!!", I heard "Ritsu~!!" instead... o_O;) and 'NO, Thank You!' is the most splendid sing out of the 3 ending songs released. The lyrics were meaningful at that and I quickly fell in love with the song after like... 5 seconds? Due to the awesome graphics and also, the 2nd version of school outfit they wore. BGM by Hajime Hyakkoku. Still as suitable as ever. Insert songs... well... the school anthem of Sakuragaoka High School was nice, 'Pure Pure Heart' that was used in Episode 7 was catchy and 'Mio-ish', 'Gohan wa Okazu' was retard-- I meant the tune was nice... I'm not sure about the lyrics though? 'U&I' were touching, as that song had a special meaning to it and finally 'Tenshi ni Fureta yo!!' was the best song of the series (other than NO, Thank You!) being able to make me break down to tears right after listening to it... it was so meaningful that it touched both me and Azunyan... XD

Voice Acting: I think a lot of people noticed this by now but all voice actresses of the series (I meant those so-called newbies) have finally felt comfortable with their roles and sound better in a way... (I don't know but, that's how I felt too... :S) Toyosaki Aki, Hikasa Youko, Satou Satomi, Kotobuki Minako, Taketatsu Ayana & all the other voices actresses & actors have done a splendid job voicing their respective characters. They were once newbies and unknown to the world, but look at 'em now! Excluding Sanada Asami, who's the only veteran seiyuu of the anime... LOL.

Recommendation level: AT MAX!!! My gosh, who in his or her right mind won't wanna watch this anime?! Unless he or her doesn't like watching these kind of anime, then well... I apologize... but still! This anime rocks anyones socks off! (Even my non-anime lovers friends and family watch this anime and liked the series a lot!)!!! This anime deserves a high recommendation from me as it's KyoAni's best work so far! ><

Rating: 6/5 (Recommendation: MAX. I mean, look at the rating... XP)

----

And now for some news regarding the said series~...

K-ON!! Exclusive Premiere on Animax!!!

Usually Animax wouldn't even do this but I guess this is the power of K-ON!! eh? FYI, it'll be broadcasted at 9:30pm every Wednesday on channel 715! That is... if you're in Malaysia and you've subscribed to this channel. And also, the dubs much better than the 1st Season's, so it's acceptable to watch in both English & Chinese dubs... :)

K-ON! Movie & Bonus OVA Announced!

More info will be posted once announced...

International Saimoe League (ISML) & Saimoe 2010 Winners!

Akiyama Mio & Nakano Azusa!!!!!! They defeated their rivals Misaka Mikoto & Sanzenin Nagi respectively.

K-ON!! voted 'BEST TV ANIMATION' award once again!

And this is how awesome they can get... XD

K-ON!! Gets 2nd Live Event!!!

The 2nd Live has been announced!!! Now should I review the 1st or not...? Hmm...

"For now, this is goodbye K-ON!!... Let's meet again in the near future~!!!"

To Aru Kagaku no Choudenjibou (Railgun) + OVA

2010-11-03T00:39:00.000-07:00

Summary (Anime): Academy City is a highly developed place in terms of technology. It is said to be 20 to 30 years ahead of the rest of the world. 80% of it's 2.3 million residents are students. The focus of studies here is directed towards esper powers. Misaka Mikoto, one of the top level espers in town, shares a room with Kuroko Shirai, another high level esper who is a member of Judgement, a law enforcing agency composed of students. Both attend to Tokiwadai, a private school reserved for the high-leveled and the rich. Kuroko's partner at Judgement, Kazari Uiharu, is a low level esper who studies at Sakugawa middle school. Her best friend and classmate there is Ruiko Saten, a level zero (no esper powers). Together, the four encounter several adventures in the exciting scientific town.

After watching 'Index' I just HAD to watch 'Railgun'. After all, I wanted to know more on the Science side than the Magic side... and I had no regrets! Plus, it's better and it shows how much 'Index' sucks compared to this. I would like to add that Misaka Mikoto, the protagonist, is not as annoying and 'tsundere' as she was (and is) in the Magic side, so that's a good point in the Science side.

Reviews:

Storyline: First thing I thought was that this could be rivaled with another slice-of-life series, namely 'K-ON!', whose 2nd season I'll be reviewing on later. 4 girls having fun, CHECK. Hirasawa Yui as a computer pro, CHECK. Well anyways, the storyline's normal slice-of-life story that's enjoyable with action elements in it which is interesting, thus giving it a good storyline. There are lots of touchy moments here and there but it didn't really hit me at the right spot... then there are moments were the perverted Shirai Kuroko tries to get her way with her Onee-sama that makes the story funny. And Saten Ruiko's skirt-flipping habit on Uiharu Kazari makes it funny too. Serious moments too are serious, but not as serious as 'Index', making it more relaxed and enjoyable. 'Course, it ended with a feeling of 'I'll have a 2nd Season soon, so don't worry!', so seeing how 'Index' gets a 2nd Season, why wouldn't 'Railgun' have a '2nd Season'?

Graphics: It's J.C. Staff doing it, so why wouldn't it be awesome? LOL... The graphics are just like 'Index's' with a few enhancement here and there, so no complains here!

Music: Well... this is one of those times where J.C. Staff decides to go with variety instead of repetition of artistes like Kawada Mami and KOTOKO and I thank them with all my heart for that. Instead, they used 'fripside', who so happens to be the voice actress of Maria from my previous CANAAN post, Nanjo Yoshino and as the ending theme singer, they used ELISA (who so happens to be the singer of J.C. Staff's Hayate no Gotoku!! Season 2... repetition here, J.C. Staff?). Both opening themes namely 'Only My Railgun' & 'LEVEL5-Judglight-' were awesome and catchy whereas the ending themes 'Dear My Friends ~Mada Minu Mirai e~' & 'Real Force' were perfect for an ending theme. Iuchi Maiko's handling of 'Railgun's' OST's nice, so no complains here.

Voice Acting: Satou Rina has done it again as Misaka Mikoto! As awesome as always! Arai Satomi as the mischievous, perverted yet cool when it comes to 'Judgement' work - Shirai Kuroko really done her voice acting well and is the true comedian of the 4. Toyosaki Aki voices Uiharu Kazari, Kuroko's assistant in 'Judgement', and she did her job as well as she did in K-ON!... only less... 'moe' and 'cutesy'. Well, scrap that, she's still freaking 'moe', no matter what roles she takes up (excluding a certain role which I'll emphasize in my reviews for another anime)! :S Then we have Hinamori A-- uh no... I meant Itou Kanae as Saten Ruiko who really makes Saten-san sound like Amu sometimes... but did a great job, emotionally and personality wise. Kudos to the main voice actresses and the extras too... lol... (Oh yeah, since Toyosaki & Itou are both Su & Amu in Shugo Chara!, I couldn't help but imagine Amu flipping Su's skirt! XD) Oh! And a bonus thing I noticed is that except Hikasa Youko, the main 4 seiyuu of K-ON!! appear in the anime. Satou Satomi as Edasaki Banri (Railgun version of Ricchan? XD), Kotobuki Minako as Kongo Mitsuko, Taketatsu Ayana as the so-called 'bag girl' that appears in both episodes 6 & 7 and finally Toyosaki Aki, who we know very well that she's one of the main casts.

Recommendation level: HIGH! Especially those who have watched 'Index' and thought it was awesome... (Well, it WAS awesome. XP) And those who love slice-of-life series with action-packed stories installed with it too!

Rating: 5/5 (Highly Recommended, A full score it deserves!)

------

Summary: After the Level Upper incident, Misaka Mikoto has a strange sensation that someone is watching her. Different from the usual attention she gets, this piercing sensation that makes her feel like the electricity in her body is flowing backwards starts to disturb her greatly. Committed to help her roommate, Kuroko Shirai asks their mutual friends Kazari Uiharu and Ruiko Saten to help solve this mysterious case.

... And on 29/10/10, an EX OVA (as they called it), was released. And it was awesome. XD

Reviews:

Storyline: More Railgun, more epicness! The OVA was like... 35 mins long... Anyways, the story was funny at times and cool too! This 'Someone's Watching' arc of the series was nice and good enough to keep us on our toes for a 2nd Season...! The ending ended nicely with a happy moment and a 'Kuroko killing' moment, if you know what I mean. XP

Graphics: Just like the TV series of 'Railgun', nothing special to add here.

Music: "Fuwoo... fuwoo... Try to glorious believer.. Just to... go on... realize soulful heart...!" -- Were the lyrics of the extremely awesome opening theme 'future gazer' by fripside once again!!! The opening scene felt like 'K-ON!' (and kudos to J.C. Staff for that) and melancholic at the same time... as if 'With this, 'Railgun' ends.'... Well whatever. The ending theme, 'Special ONE' by ELISA, wasn't as good as the other 2 ending themes from the TV series plus, the ending scene was just bunch of promotion art and in-anime art being used... BGM by Iuchi Maiko, nothing to add there.

Voice Acting: No drop in standards and Arai Satomi brings this OVA to life the most! XD

Recommendation: 'Course after you've watched 'Railgun', you would definitely pick up the OVA right? It's recommended after all. :)

Rating: 4.8/5 (Highly Recommended after viewing TV Series)

AFA X Preperations... ON!!! :D

2010-11-02T23:03:00.001-07:00

Today's post... well... I suppose it's about the coming AFA X in 9 days at the Suntec Convention Centre in Singapore...

Unlike last year, as you've seen in my previous post about it, I had to beg like mad to go... but this year, I asked my dad if I could attend once again since my friend invited me, he immediately gave me a yes and we booked the ticket to Singapore. My parents & I will be leaving on the 12th of November till the 15th of November. Talk about a surprising answer! :O But now I've learnt from my mistakes and regrets and as a blogger, I will-- no-- MUST take more photos!!! >:O

Anyways, here's the website for you all to view what's goin' on this year...

http://animefestival.asia/

Hmm... I'm not a big fan of Kana Hanazawa-san... I know she's Nadeko Sengoku from Bakemonogatari, Tachibana Kanade from Angel Beats! & Sonohara Anri from Durarara!! but still... well whatever, last year's was epic, so maybe this year I'll just be going to get some merchandises and well... see May'n? XD

This year, I'm geared up for it! And by geared up, I meant my attire for the festival.

For Day 1, I'll be 'semi-cosplaying' as Tainaka Ritsu from K-ON!! in her 'NO, Thank You!' outfit. No, not the one with the hoodie... the school uniform. ^^;

And FYI, I'm not a cosplayer. So this will be my first time 'semi-cosplaying' a character... IN PUBLIC. And if you ask "What's up with the 'semi-cosplaying'?", I meant I won't be wearing a wig, contact lens and yes, I MAY have Ritsu's headband as it was a present from my friend, but NO, I won't be putting it on! >:(

Here's how she looks like... well... side view... :S

And here's my version of it...

Well... here it is... the general layout of it. Since Ritsu has her sleeve folded, I'll be folding it up too... and she didn't button her coat, so that's a good thing for me as I'm sure it'll be seriously hot in the convention... thankfully I'm a Ritsu fan... if I was a Tsumugi fan... I think I'll faint since she's wearing like... 3 layers of clothing. :S

A-Anyways, moving on...

A close-up of the upper clothing... (I dunno how to express this part of the clothes... :S)

And if you thought I'd forgotten, this is the skirt used in both the manga version of K-ON! and the ending theme itself. Of course, if you're a real hardcore K-ON! fan, you'll notice that this is Mio's version of the skirt... the others have a different colour scheme... well... it's quite hard to express in words...

As for Day 2, I've decided to wear a custom-made anime T-Shirt with a short-sleeve hoodie to make it less embarrassing... XD

The front of the T-Shirt... as you may know, she's the main protagonist of anime & manga 'To Aru Kagaku no Railgun (Railgun's also known as Choudenjibou in Japanese)', Misaka Mikoto. I'll talk more about the anime itself after this post as I'll be reviewing it.

Surprised it isn't a K-ON! T-Shirt huh? Railgun needs some love too, you know? XP

A close up on Mikoto...

The logo of the prestigious Tokiwadai Middle School where Mikoto & her friend Shirai Kuroko are schooling at...

Finally on the right sleeve, the title 'logo' of 'To Aru Kagaku no Railgun'. A nice finishing touch to a T-Shirt.

Welp~... That's about it! Thanks for reading! I'll be sure to do a review on the coming AFA X so do tune in for more!

Ah... before I sign off, here are two videos of the two anime mentioned above!

NO, Thank You! - 2nd Ending Theme of K-ON!! by Hikasa Yoko.

future gazer - Opening Theme of To Aru Kagaku no Railgun OVA by fripside.

A'ite~! Time to sign off! Do enjoy the vids!

My Awesome Taiwan Anime Merchandise Loot!!!

2010-10-29T19:09:00.001-07:00

Man oh man it's been so~ long since I blogged, so I guess I'll start of with a post called 'My Awesome Taiwan Anime Merchandise Loot!!!'. XD

I wasn't able to go to Taiwan since I had public exams during that time (curse you, exams...)... so I ended up giving my parents a list of merchandises from different anime but in the end, I got stuff that weren't really in the list, and what's more, they're seriously more awesome than whatever I wanted on the list!!! :D But I've been to Taiwan, encountered an earthquake there and did buy stuff... but they were like... just 3 art books, K-ON! Vol. 1 & 2 manga and a packet of K-ON! trading cards...

And so, I shall post whatever they managed to get me whilst their trip to Taiwan, they got back today, so of course I should post something as memorable as this here!!! :)

Alright~! Let's start with the non-K-ON! related merchandises... XP

A free random brochure I suppose... from either Animate or KT Comics......

The 1st Season of 'Hayate no Gotoku!'s' official art book! The box beside the book has the same exact replica of Katsura Hinagiku's PE T-Shirt (XD), a pin of the school's logo and that's pretty much it... I prefer the 1st season's art, so yeah. :)

The official development art book of a PS3 game called 'Valkyria Chronicles'! No, I don't own a PS3 but I do like the drawing styles and stuff... I'm playing its sequel, 'Valkyria Chronicles 2' on the PSP though... so that's my reason of wanting this development art book. Plus, it's printed in Taiwan I think, so it's supposedly cheaper than those Japanese imported ones... ><

Yes! The official 'CANAAN' art book! I really enjoyed the series. Please refer to my 'CANAAN' review to see my thoughts on the anime. :)

AND NOW~... For the moment you've been waiting for... The K-ON! loot my parents got for me!!! >< I was so freaking happy that I was stunned at the sight of all the K-ON! merchandises stacked in front of me!

Firstly for the figures:

My very first Figma! FIGMA NAKANO AZUNYA-- I meant AZUSA, by... Max Factory? Good Smile Company? I'm confused about that but at any rate, YES!!! I needed her to complete the Mobip K-ON! set (Yui, Ritsu, Mio, Tsumugi) that i have and I guess the members are all in place, with Azusa having the best quality out of the 5! Houkago Tea Time, zutto go nin de!!! Saikou da yo!

Woots! One of the unexpected figure sets that my parents got for me! Banpresto's Summer uniform K-ON! set called 'Houkago Tea Time! Shuugyou!' also known as 'Afterschool Tea Time! Gather!' in English... As expected, awesomeness. And their bases to hold the character even has a drawing with the names of the character on it! If that isn't awesome, I dunno WHAT is! ><

More unexpected Banpresto company figurines... this time, they're something like Nendoroid Petits, only that they're adapted from the Houkago Live! game... I wasn't able to get the name of this series of Banpresto figurines, so I have to apologize for that... ><

And finally~ yet another unexpected Banpresto figurine. The 'Fuwa Fuwa Time' PV costume ver. of Tainaka Ritsu! The box may be a bit dented but I'm sure the figurine inside's still in top shape... I'm sure my parents got me this since I'm a Ritsu fan. So thanks to them, Ritsu's FFT PV costume figurine, SCORED. :D

And now for the merchandises~... ;)

The November 2010 issue of Animage, featuring K-ON!'s YuiAzu combo on the front cover! Another unexpected buy from my parents... the contents well, the front few pages are all about K-ON!, the seiyuu etc.. but since it's in Japanese, I seriously need to brush up on my Japanese skills in order to fully understand what it means... also with the magazine are 3 A4-sized clear folders featuring K-ON!! (duh... XD), Durarara!! and Kuroshitsuji II! Very worth it in a way... :)

Next, a few--no-- TONS (to me! XD) of key chains!!! More unexpected buys from my parents and at least I have something to attach to my handphone now... ^^

I 'OMG-ed' at the sight of the note pads that my parents unexpectedly (I've been using this word a lot, haven't I? XP) bought! My dad told me he bought this because the note pads have different kinds of paper that are colourful and nice, very suitable to take down important notes for the prefect board and stuff... he says that but do you think I would use these awesome note pads for the prefect board or for anything else? Yeah right, dream on!!! XD (Unless it's REALLY REALLY important. ><)

My 3rd packet of Trading cards from the said series... bought my 1st one (like I said above) myself at Taiwan, bought the 2nd packet at AFA 09 and finally, the 3rd packet's what my parents bought. :) I checked who's character profile card I got and now I have 2 Mio profile cards... sucks. -_-; But I'm not complaining! At least I have Mugi's in my 2nd packet... (So... WHERE'S MY RITSU?!!!)

The Limited EX-shijitaki set of K-ON!! !!! Unexpected! My dad told me that these were the last 3 left, so one of the shop keepers recommended him to get these 3 before it gets bought by someone else as the shop keeper noticed that my parents were specifically looking for K-ON! related items! Woots~!!!

OMGNESS~!!! I remembered cursing AFA 09 as I wasn't able to get a clear folder of Ritsu nor 4 of the girls... instead, I gotten myself a Kotobuki Tsumugi one... NOW, I don't think I even need anymore K-ON! clear folders unless they're limited editions!!! Awesome buy, credits go to my parents!!! ><

I LOL'ed that my dad got me the Japanese version of the 4th volume of K-ON!... I thought he would get me the Taiwan-printed version... oh well~... I can download the translated version and read the manga while the translations are on the computer screen... :)

Finally~ my parents said they got most of the stuff from~...

Animate, the awesome place for anime goods. And of course, KT Comics...

Once again, I'm really grateful and I thank my parents a lot for the after exams gifts! The figurines are actually for my Birthday & Christmas present though LOL... Anyways! That's all for now~! Since I'm really free now, I'll restart my anime reviewing pretty soon~! So do tune in for more reviews!

Last note, ARIGATOU OTOO-SAN!!! OKAA-SAN!!! YOU TWO ARE THE BEST!!!!!! SAIKOU DA ZO~!!! ^^

Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance

2010-05-15T08:35:00.000-07:00

A picture or two will be posted up sooner or later... but I just want to quickly write about this great experience I had at Cathay Cineplex at KK on 15 May 2010... the cinema that screened a box office hit anime-movie, Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance.

Actually... I never thought of watching this movie since... I have yet to even watch the anime nor the 1st movie, Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone... but by some fateful coincidence, I managed to get a ticket that was offered by a church anime fan (who's also my friend of course and is in her 20s! XD) to go watch this movie with her... so of course, I said yes and I just came back from it. ^^ If it weren't for her, I wouldn't have been able to experience this epic yet fantastic movie, so thanks!

It was scheduled to start 'round 9:15pm and end at 11:15pm... so yeah, it's a premiere, so of course I would go for it! (Though my mom was about to kill me for it... since I went with friends (?) to a late night movie...)

Well... before the movie screening... I stayed outside with my friend while waiting for the hall to finally open till I saw cosplayers. There was someone cosplaying as Kira Yamato from Gundam Seed Destiny, Kawachi Kyousuke from Yakitate Japan, two awesome characters from the movie (and also anime) itself Asuka Shikigami Langley and Mari Illustrious Makinami + two others that I wasn't able to identify...

At 'round 9pm... we gathered into Hall 2 and the so-called organizer did a short speech before screening the commercials and of course, the movie that lots of EVA fans around were waiting for. It's also the first time seeing a hall practically fully packed with people. Around 200 or even more? Wow... EVA power it is~.

Enough of that... time for my review on the ani-- movie.

Storyline: I wished I had watched '1.0' before even coming but I had no regrets... the story plot is really awesome. Funny at times, serious at times, frustrating at times & depressing at times... The story writer of the remake's obviously hyping up the whole franchise from his previous work... I'm sure lots of improvements were made and mended for the story. I was really enthralled. Really. But... I'm still pondering on WHY THE MOST TSUNDERE CHARACTER HAD TO LIKE... DIE... HALFWAY THROUGH THE MOVIE?! AND WITH A VERY... CHEERFUL-KIDDY LIKE SONG! I don't really like her but she piqued my interest due to her tsundereness... XD Then the 'gay' scene was really funny that everyone actually laughed like mad during that scene! Ah yes, I will watch 'Neon Genesis Evangelion' probably when I'm free to really understand what's going on.

Character Developments: Wow... I... I'm impressed with how the characters develop within just one movie that lasted for 2 hours... The main character Ikari Shinji, from a normal student, to some hopeless dude, to an emo freak and lastly to a warrior who wants to save who he loves... I mean like wow... it's like he matured in 2 hours. XD Secondly, Ayanami Rei, who's a bit robotic at first but slowly starts to open up and becomes more human. (Especially towards Shinji...) And then there's our tsundere hime of the movie, Asuka Shikigami Langley. She piqued my interest cuz she was tsundere so I wanted to see how old anime executed the term 'tsundere'. And she was really really REALLY tsundere... tsun-tsundere. -_-; The so-called final main character is Mari Illustrious Makinami or just Mari. She wasn't really explored throughout the whole movie other than risking her life and going 'berserk mode' just to get rid of the 'Angels' in sight... she's actually the character I enjoyed watching the most other than well, Asuka. LOL. There are others too like Misato-san whose practically the strategist of almost every battle plan except the finale but I won't further elaborate since well... there are lots of characters... I guess? (I admit, I'm lazy. -_-)

Graphics: A-W-E-S-O-M-E-N-E-S-S. I mean the graphic was full of 'win' in it. Though the eyes may be old fasioned eye style but the overall mecha art, sceneries, battle scenes everything! The graphic was really top class. Maybe because it's a remake, that's why the screen directors had to make it top notch. Or maybe because I was in the cinema, so it made everything feel so real...? Hmm...

Music: The background music's ok... the sound effects were really good due to the quality of the cinema. I mean come on, who wouldn't feel the realisticness of the sounds from a movie when you're at a cinema? But the only thing is... I don't know what's up with the sound director... but during every single climatic moment, there's bound to be some light-hearted cheery song or some... kids singing... or old songs... like 'Tsubasa wo Kudasai'. (K-ON! remixed it into a rock song but EVA kept it as it was supposed to be: A children's song.) Seriously... they should put some suspense music or whatever not some random old song... I dunno... I really don't get it. The ending song by Utada Hikaru called 'Beautiful World -PLANiTb Acoustica Mix-' was nice. ^^

Seiyuu Performance: Do I even have to review on this? 'Cuz it was brilliant! The new character, Mari, happened to be voiced by the awesome seiyuu who recently turned 30, Sakamoto Maaya! She's really REALLY good. Almost all of the main characters were yelling like mad and Sakamoto-sama owned and it sounded just like Ryougi Shiki (Kara no Kyoukai) who was yelling... or Ciel Phantomhive (Kuroshitsuji) instead. Ogata Megumi who voiced Shinji and tsun-tsun hime Asuka's seiyuu Miyamura Yuko were just as great. Ogata-san managed to act out Shinji's character as he slowly changed step by step whereas Miyamura-san did her best in acting out a really tsundere girl who thinks she can do everything on her own and needs no one's help. Hayashibara Megumi's Ayanami Rei was good in a way but not as appealing as the stated 3. The other seiyuu were ok. Overall, I enjoyed their performance.

Overall thoughts: The ending made me want more of EVA... though I can understand why every single ending would be left with a cliffhanger since there'll be 4 movies altogether. Though of course, I left the cinema and back home with a few things left unanswered for someone who hasn't watched the original anime series nor the first movie... so I suppose I have to watch the anime + the 1.0 movie! Though this movie may be a bit too gory for otakus who can't stand the sight of too much blood and uh... yeah, those stuff... well... this movie isn't really recommended for you. But those who can ovbviously stand these kind of stuff, this movie's in my highly recommended list, especially if you're an EVA fan! And recommended place to watch it is obviously the theatres near you since you can 'feel' it more than just watching it online or whatever! ^^

Rating: 5/5 (I may not understand what's going on fully but I can assure you that it's AWESOME. ^^)

Random Anime News Updates II...

2010-03-12T06:35:00.000-08:00

The second part of my "Random Anime News Updates" series. XD

1. 4th Annual Seiyuu Awards Results!

The results are split into categories, so here's the result you all have been waiting for! (Though this post will only focus on the SEIYUU and not the other categories... so if you want to know all about the actual results, do go find it yourself. XD)

Best Lead Male Seiyuu: Ono Daisuke (小野大輔)

Best Lead Female Seiyuu: Sawashiro Miyuki (沢城みゆき)

Best Supporting Male Seiyuu: Namikawa Daisuke (浪川大輔) ; Miki Shinichirou (三木眞一郎)

Best Supporting Female Seiyuu: Inoue Kikuko (井上喜久子) ; Horie Yui (堀江由衣)

Best Personality Award: Onosaka Masaya (小野坂昌也)

Best Singing Award: Houkago Tea Time aka HTT (Toyosaki Aki (豊崎愛生), Hikasa Youko (日笠陽子), Satou Satomi (佐藤聡美), Kotobuki Minako (寿美菜子) & Taketatsu Ayana (竹達彩奈) )

Overseas Fans Award: Saiga Mitsuki (斎賀みつき)

Best New Male Seiyuu: Abe Atsushi (阿部敦) ; Maeno Tomoaki (前野智昭)

Best New Female Seiyuu: Toyosaki Aki (豊崎愛生) ; Itou Kanae (伊藤かな恵)

I'm REALLY glad that Toyosaki Aki managed to get two awards this time around since I actually voted for her. XD Other than that, the results are pretty uh... normal? Compared to last year's...

2. K-ON! is SERIOUSLY turning Animax upside-down...

Link: http://www.animax-asia.com/k-on

Just a few pictures to show that Animax is really bringing down the house with one of the current hottest anime, K-ON!. They even made about... 17 + TV Commercials including the seiyuu interviews, a really neat homepage for K-ON! at their official website whereas Animax have never done such a nice homepage for the other anime and well... their HIGHLY expected English dub that'll première soon on March 16. I have high expectations for the English dub, so I hope Animax won't fail me! Do check out their K-ON! homepage for neat stuff... seriously. ^^

[To Be Continued...]

Random Anime News Updates...

2010-02-19T06:41:00.000-08:00

As you have noticed, I haven't been updating my blogs recently due to my laziness of actually typing whatever I think/feel. And I apologize for that. Now I bring you news, yes, they're old news by now, but who cares... I'm still updating this blog! And I'll prove that it isn't dead yet!!!

1. K-ON!!

The 2nd Season of the moe-music anime, which is currently my Top 1 favourite too, K-ON!. It's called K-ON! 2nd Season but it's now known as 'K-ON!!'. Notice the additional exclamation mark? I think they got that idea from Hayate no Gotoku!!... which is kinda lame. At any rate, I wonder what kind of slice-of-life story the 2nd Season would turn out to be due to the lack of resources. I guess KyoAni might do an original storyline which will amaze us all though I hope they won't try anything stupid like the 'Endless Eight' horror. XD And of course, new music, which is a very good thing. I guess this is in my most-anticipated anime of the year list. Go~go~ K-ON!! ! ^^

2. May'n BIG☆WAAAAAVE!! Asia Tour

Yay! It's May'n! But sadly... I can't go!!! It's the so near yet so far thing... *sighs*... even if I wanted to, I would be having exams by then... gaah! Stupid exams! Anyways~ for the major info, look at the pic above and for some minor info on the concert... here it is. Credits go to Yamaki-senpai for actually looking up on the concert. Arigatou~! ^^:

"The price of the tickets are at RM198 for early birds, and those who opt to get them at the door will have to pay RM218. Singaporeans can get a better deal by going for the SGD200 package which includes:

1. Two-way return trip to KL Live on coach
2. 1 night of accommodation in Concorde Hotel (10 minutes walking distance from KL Live)
3. Concert ticket to May'n BIG☆WAAAAAVE Asia Tour 2010 KL Concert.

(or SGD135 minus the accommodation, or SGD85 minus the accommodation and the transportation, i.e. the tickets only)"

3. 2010 'Spring' Anime

Uh yeah... here's the 2010 Spring Anime list but of course, the pictures, along with the info are way too small too see clearly so... if you all don't mind, go check out other websites for a clearer view of everything! ^^

4. K-ON! Premiering in Animax Asia as 1st KyoAni anime!

Talk about popular and a dream come true! The first season has been green-lit for an Animax airing which will premiere on March 16, 8pm in Animax's very own English dub which I hope, they won't screw the dub up... the fully Japanese dub with English sub version, also known as the encore, will be at 12 am. K-ON! sure is taking over the anime world by storm huh? More K-ON! news up next! Ah yeah, wanna see the interview on their seiyuu at AFA 09? Go ahead and click the link. It's also proof that Animax has taken K-ON! in. ^^ (Though the subs are Chinese... but that's the best I could find! TT-TT)

Youtube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fZe66pwBwY&feature=related

5. K-ON! takes home the 'Best TV Animation Award'?!

K-ON!'s SERIOUSLY OWNING IN ALMOST EVERYTHING! o_O; Yup, they won the 2009 'Best TV Animation Award' at the Tokyo International Anime Fair. Omedeto, KyoAni! I mean they seriously did a good job executing the anime just right enough to even get a Best TV Animation Award... and yes, their best single, 'Don't Say "Lazy"' by Hikasa Yoko & team also managed to win 'Animation Kobe's Best Song Award'. Keep on going! K-ON!!! ^^

6. TOP 10 BEST SEIYUU IN JAPAN!!! (2009. XD)

Females: (Pictures Avaliable for Top 1-3)

1. Hirano Aya (平野綾)

2. Toyosaki Aki (豊崎愛生)

3. Nakajima Megumi (中島愛)

4. Mizuki Nana (水樹奈々)

5. Endou Aya (遠藤綾)
6. Hanazawa Kana (花澤香菜)
7. Kugimiya Rie (釘宮理恵)
8. Noto Mamiko (能登麻美子)
9. Paku Romi (朴璐美)
10. Sakamoto Maaya (坂本真綾)

Males: (Pictures Avaliable for Top 1-3)

1. Kamiya Hiroshi (神谷浩史)

2. Nakamura Yuuichi (中村悠一)

3. Sugita Tomokazu (杉田智和)

4. Fukuyama Jun (福山潤)
5. Hoshi Souichiro (保志総一朗)
6. Ono Daisuke (小野大輔)
7. Irino Miyu (入野自由)
8. Miyano Mamoru (宮野真守)
9. Wakamoto Norio (若本规夫)
10. Masakazu Morita (森田成一)

I'll update more stuff if I hear or see anything special. ^^

Princess Lover!

2010-02-19T06:21:00.001-08:00

Summary: Teppei Arima is a second-year high school student who lost both of his parents in a traffic accident on their way home from a family trip. His grandfather, Isshin Arima, happens to wield the puppet strings in Japan’s vast economy and demands that Teppei becomes his successor as the head of the Arima Group. To prepare for his debut into high society, Teppei enrolls in an elite academy for the scions of the rich and powerful.

I've seen this anime while looking for new anime, never wanted to watch it, never bothered to even see the reviews, it just looked hentai.

That's what I thought... in the end I bought this anime due to the recommendation of a friend of mine, codename 'Miku'... ok, I rather call her 'Mio' instead... She said the anime's nice, so why not? I'll give it a chance to impress me.

Review time.

Storyline, boy meets princess, boy from rich family, boy surrounded by beautiful ladies, boy saves princess. You know. The usual plot you all know so well. Yes, I agree the plot's nice... but it didn't impress me at all... it was well... umm... obvious... like if this guy turns out to be a new character and he feelss sinister enough even with his handsome looks, you know that this guy's the bad guy no matter how you try to doubt it in your mind.

Graphics, what... Shugo Chara!'s Satelite team produced this? Gaah! I'm wrong! But still... it looks like it. The graphics are smooth and yeah, the graphics emphasizes on the girls more than the guys... it's like the girls are sparkling while the guys are just plain simple.

Music... due to the fact it's a 'fantasy' like, school life anime... The OST feels just the same. The opening 'Princess Primp' felt like I'm really watching some 'fantasy' anime... and I didn't like it. 'S.S.D!', the ending theme on the other hand was really nice! That's the best music of the whole anime. XD

Seiyuu... well, let's just say... nothing that special... the performance wasn't bad... all of them have done a good job. The seiyuu are:

Takuma Terashima as Teppei Arima

Emiri Katou as Seika Houjouin

Juurouta Kosugi as Hartmann Bezelheim

Kaoru Mizuhara as Erika Takesono

Kaya Miyake as Maria van Hossen

Megumi Toyoguchi as Sylvia van Hossen

Minoru Shiraishi as Haruhiko Nezu

Norio Wakamoto as Isshin Arima

Nozomi Sasaki as Ayano Kaneko

Ryoka Yuzuki as Charlotte Hazellink

Takehito Koyasu as Vincent

Yousuke Akimoto as Alfred

Yuki Matsuoka as Yuu Fujikura

Atsuko Tanaka as Josephine

See any familiar names? Of course you all do! XD

Well... onto my final and overall score.

Ratings: 2.8/5 (Thanks, but no thanks... I admit I enjoyed it for the slapstick comedy but other than that... meh...)

Ga Rei -Zero-

2010-02-19T05:37:00.000-08:00

Summary: Ga-Rei: Zero is directed by Ei Aoki and animated by AIC Spirits and asread. The show is aired on AT-X, Chiba TV, KBS Kyoto, Sun TV, Tokyo MX TV, TV Aichi, TV Hokkaido, TV Kanagawa, TV Saitama and TVQ Kyushu Broadcasting Co., Ltd.

The adaptation was announced on the promotional sleeve wrapper of Ga-rei's sixth volume regarding the green lighting of the show. A Ga-Rei: Zero television ad was soon aired to promote the show's upcoming release, followed by 30 second commercials that were on the Ga-Rei: Zero websites. Originally, it was announced that the anime would be an original story, suggesting that it had nothing to do with the manga except its setting; however, after the first episode aired, viewers were confused as the entire cast was suddenly killed off. It was only later revealed in the second episode, and still later in a radio interview with cast members Shiraishi Minoru, Mizuhara Kaoru & Chihara Minori, that the anime in fact tells the backstories of Yomi and Kagura before the events of the manga thus making Ga-Rei: Zero a prequel which hence explains the 'Zero' in the title.

The final scene of the anime takes place two years later, and ends by showing Kagura and Kensuke about to battle a giant monster stuck onto the Tokyo tower, just after Kagura gives Kensuke Michael 12. This coincides with the first scene shown in the manga.

To be honest, I had this anime in my anime cupboard for like... 3 years since I bought it from Jakarta, Indonesia... and never wanted to touch it till a month ago.

I bought the anime since the shop vendor gave me a quick peek on the first episode and since I wasn't that much of an anime professional, I just bought it, not knowing what it's about.

A month ago, I found a anime for PSP site, so I felt like downloading an anime into my PSP to enjoy late night... till I saw the anime 'Ga Rei -Zero'. It looked interesting since it was action, supernatural... and for some reasons, I came by this anime through viewing Minorin's wikipedia page. And it seemed like she earned big credit for this anime in some way other than Nagato Yuki... so yeah, downloaded 6 episodes, liked it a lot, then used the disc I bought from 3 years ago to finish the remaining 6 episodes.

Ok, enough blabbering. Time to review. ^^

Storyline, the first episode was actually boring... seriously. But starting from the second, it started getting interesting... though it kinda confused me in the front since they were talking about the present then past then present again. The final episode kinda made me touched... Yomi's sisterly love for Kagura's the main highlight of the series from what I heard. And that their cell phones hold a strong meaning in this anime as well. Well, it was a BIT yuri due to Yomi's idiocy but there were lots of logical but indirect moral values (to me) in this anime which kinda drew me into it.

Graphics, well... nothing spectacular since it's a 2007 anime. Not all 2007 animes are bad with their graphics, mind you! Ah yeah, WHAT'S 'MIO' DOING IN THIS ANIME DISGUISING HERSELF AS YOMI?! Here's a pic to prove I'm not turning psychotic... This is also one of the reasons I knew about Ga Rei -Zero-... The first-gen Mio, with PURPLE eyes...

Other than that, I don't really know how to elaborate, seriously...

Music... The OST's nice enough to make me download it. ^^ If you're a Minorin fan, you should check out 'Paradise Lost'! That's one of the best songs that I've heard her sing so far! The ending song... 'Yume no Ashioto ga Kikoeru'... ah well... I'm not a Mizuhara Kaoru fan... it was uh... umm...

Seiyuu, MINORIN AS TSUCHIMIYA KAGURA FTW! First time hearing her do a 'semi-genki' role actually... I know there's Minami-Ke but I haven't watched it yet so that doesn't count! Mizuhara surprised me as she dubbed the extremely 'genki' character, Kusakabe Misao from Lucky Star (Kagamin's friend... brown haired... Ritsu?). That's not an issue, BUT the issue here is that her character here, Isayami Yomi, did NOT even sound like that Misao girl! Yes she's 'genki' in her own way but the way she speaks and the voice range is TOTALLY DIFFERENT. The other seiyuus in this anime didn't leave a strong impression on me though the two main heroines managed to surprise me at the best level.

Overall, I seriously recommend this. It's nice. Go check it out. XD I'm going to read the manga somehow to enjoy more Ga Rei! XD

Here's my favourite screenshot of my favourite character, Kagura Tsuchimiya, of the whole series! ^^

Ratings: 4.6/5 (Mostly for story line)

Umineko no Naku Koro ni

2010-01-31T02:07:00.000-08:00

Summary: Umineko no Naku Koro ni takes place in the year 1986, during the time frame of October 4 and October 5 on a secluded island named Rokkenjima. The head of a wealthy family named Kinzo Ushiromiya, who lives on and owns Rokkenjima, is near death, and eight of his family members arrive on the island to discuss how Kinzo's assets will be divided once he is dead. Also on the island are three family members who live there, five of Kinzo's servants, and his personal physician. After the eight family members arrive, a typhoon traps them on the island and shortly after people start to get mysteriously murdered.

Yay! More Ryukishi-07 stories! After watching Higurashi, there's no way I can turn this anime down.

Story plot, like Higurashi, it's really mysterious and uses the arc thing like Higurashi... it resets and resets while Battler and Beato have a 'court-room' showdown in another world which enables them to see everything in the world that's suffering. Each arc has a different mystery, so it really turned on my 'thinking cap' so I can understand what Battler thinks. Though the arc I enjoyed most may be the 'Ushiromiya Ange appears!' arc since she has a cool, calm composure to help her dear brother Battler. Though the only complaint is that it's too serious...

Music, the BGM's nice and mysterious, opening song's sung by Ar Tonelico singer, Shikata Akiko so it's supposed to rock! XD Ending, I never bothered listening to it since it was an old man singing...

Graphics, go Studio Deen! Watching lots of the company's series recently, dunno why. Nicely produced, clean... enjoyable. LOL!

Seiyuu, the veterans are all in this anime, so of course the seiyuu cast is seriously awesome!!! I was impressed with Satou Rina's Ushiromiya Ange though... her ENGRISH was cool enough to impress me. Horie Yui did a good job creeping people out with Maria. Others, lazy to elaborate further.

Overall, nice anime that's can be called the new-gen Higurashi. Though I enjoyed Higurashi more... oh yes, the specials called 'Uraneko'? Wasn't really enjoyable at all. Higurashi fans, it's a must watch for you. As for people who love mystery animes, this is a good choice.

Rating: 4.5/5 (Recommended)

07-Ghost

2010-01-31T01:40:00.000-08:00

Summary: Teito Klein is a former slave sent to attend the Barsburg Empire's military academy due to his ability to use Zaiphon, a type of supernatural power. The ability is rare, and thus highly prized. Teito is an amnesiac and doesn't remember anything of his past, but he has recurring and often traumatizing dreams in which he sees a grand church or castle and a man he feels he may know.

After a year at the academy, Teito takes the graduation exam; it is notoriously difficult with the average pass rate of one in twenty-five and rumor has it that candidates died in the exam. The night before Teito and his best (and only) friend, Mikage, take the exam, they swear they will never abandon the other when the other needs help. The next day, Teito is delivering papers to a professor when he overhears his name. He stops to listen and realizes that the speaker, a man named Ayanami, is the person who killed the man he sees in his dreams, who is his father, the king of the destroyed Raggs Kingdom. Teito is found eavesdropping and tries to attack his father's murderer, but is quickly brought down by one of Ayanami's subordinates and sent to prison. Mikage comes to help him escape, only to find that Teito has managed to fight past the guards by himself. The two flee the building, but are cornered on a balcony. Teito pretends to hold Mikage hostage, threatening to kill him if the guards pursue him, and tries to escape when Ayanami sends a Zaiphon attack after him, which Teito manages to partly deflect. A Bishop in the nearby 7th District takes the injured Teito to the church to recuperate. Because of the law of sanctuary, as long as Teito stays in the church the army cannot enter the place, hence cannot arrest him.

In fact Teito carries the Eye of Mikhail, a powerful talisman that his home country, the Raggs Kingdom, was ransacked for. The tragic death of a loved one catapults him into his quest for revenge against the Barsburg Empire and knowledge about his past, while he becomes entangled with the Gods, Verloren, and the 7 Ghosts.

His best friend's fate spurs Teito into trying to master the Bascule — a powerful weapon that can harness and focus his innate power. Friends become enemies and rivals become allies as Teito begins to fulfill his destiny, and protect his fallen country from the minions of his former masters.

The show with LOTS of bi-shounen... ok, I don't really like watching this kinds of anime but since my best friend totally loves it... I gave it a go and finished it. Here's my review.

Story plot, apart from the massive amount of bishies and practically an all-guy cast anime, the story line's nice in it's own way... I feel that it's a bit yaoi-based but I was able to enjoy the anime... but somehow, the ending's too loose like any Sunrise anime. LOL.

Music, I liked the BGM a lot and the opening song and ending song respectively. So I guess the music impressed me the most.

Graphics, the second thing that gave me a good impression. I really love Studio Deen's artwork, so yeah, the scenes were all beautifully animated though Bakemonogatari still owns in term of graphics... XD

Seiyuu... good ol' seiyuu... ever since watching the Mai Hime/Otome series, I can't help think that Saiga Mitsuki's voicing Teito Klein since her portrayal of Chie Hallard in the Otome series sounds like Teito due to the fact that Chie's a tomboyish character. Namikawa Daisuke's portrayal of Mikage was really good and now I know why Chiba Susumu's quite popular in the male seiyuu category... he is really good at portraying a character. Fukuyama Jun as Hakuren was like a Lelouch all over again.

A pick-up series worth watching for all those bishies lovers out there. Oh well, it wasn't a waste of my time after all.

Rating: 3.8/5 (Worth watching)

Bakemonogatari

2010-01-31T01:22:00.000-08:00

Summary:

Bakemonogatari centers on Koyomi Araragi, a third year high school student who is almost human again after briefly becoming a vampire. One day, a classmate named Hitagi Senjōgahara, who infamously never talks to anyone, falls down the stairs into Koyomi's arms. He discovers that Hitagi weighs next to nothing, in defiance of physics. Despite being threatened by her to keep away, Koyomi offers his help, and introduces her to Meme Oshino, a strange middle-aged man living in an abandoned building, who cured him of being a vampire.

The series tends to introduce only one new heroine per chapter, each involved with a different "apparition". Most of them have an item which symbolises their spectres, such as Hitagi's stapler - the claw of a crab, Mayoi's back pack - the shell of a snail, Suruga's leggings - SARUMATA (the Japanese traditional underclothing. 'SARU' means monkey), and Nadeko's big hat and baggy jacket - the head and skin of a snake. The events of the previous chapters play an important role in the subsequent ones. The series primarily focuses on conversations between characters; it contains a fair number of parodies of other series, as well as Nisio Isin's trademark word play and metahumor.

I'm sure everyone has heard of this awesome series before, right? I mean it beat K-ON!'s Blu-Ray sales by a lot and it's also praised for it's good graphics! This is pretty much the reason why I watch it and actually liked it.

Story plot, talk about a mystery with comedic contents. The story's amazingly interesting. Like some animes, they go by arcs so each arc, to me, are really good. They seem to connect to each other in some way so I'm impressed. The character development of the stories interesting too.

Graphics, before music, AWESOME and much different from any other series I've watched. Shaft, the company which I've never heard of seriously, impressed me. Though I've heard that the Blu-Ray edition looks much better than the DVD edition...

Music, talk about amazing... I heard from my anime pal that the music is amazing, so now I believe her. The openings are sung by different seiyuu for each an every arc. But my favourite for now is the 4th Opening, 'Renai Circulation' by Hanazawa Kana. The most light-hearted opening I guess? 'Staple Stable' by Saitou Chiwa is nice, 'Kaerimichi' by Kagamin--no, I mean Katou Emiri, is too hyper but ok, 'Ambivalent World' by veteran seiyuu Sawashiro Miyuki impressed me and finally the ending song for each and every arc, 'Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari' by supercell rocks! BGM wise, mysterious and creepy... I hope to hear Horie Yui's song for the OVA since it's her character's arc! XD

Seiyuu, one word... WOW. Their portrayal of their characters really impressed me so I really enjoyed the seiyuu performance.

Overall, I think it really deserves to be 2009's best anime... recommended. Seriously. But I declare once again that K-ON! rules!!! XD XD

Rating: 5/5 (HIGHLY recommended for artwork + story line)

Lucky Star

2010-01-31T01:04:00.000-08:00

Summary:

Lucky Star's story portrays the lives of several girls attending a Japanese high school named Ryōō with a very loose sense of humor. The setting is mainly based on the city of Kasukabe in Saitama Prefecture. The main character is Konata Izumi, an athletic and intelligent, but also slightly mischievous and laid-back girl who, despite these attributes, is not in a sports club and has to resort to all-nighter cramming for tests. She would rather read manga and play video games than do her homework.

The serialization began with the four main characters in their first year of high school: Konata Izumi, Kagami Hiiragi, Tsukasa Hiiragi, and Miyuki Takara. As the story progresses, they move on to their second and third years. However, the anime starts the story with them beginning their second year, and the other high school girls that are seen in the opening are only introduced halfway through the series. The storyline usually includes numerous references to popular past and present manga, anime and tokusatsu series.

Lucky Star is an anime that I watched using the English dub till episode 7 and lost my motivation to finish it off like 2 years ago... I decided to take the series back into my watching list, this time in Japanese since it has been compared to K-ON! lots of times... so here is my review on both the series and OVA.

As you all should know by now, KyoAni is the company which forte is producing moe animes for moe lovers to watch and love. Lucky Star, is one of them, and was the biggest 'hit' of KyoAni before K-ON! came by to take over Lucky Star's place.

Story plot of both the series and OVA... it's just random stories, so there's no real plot, though they are connected in amazing ways. XD They have parodies as well, so it's enjoyable. And after every episode, there's a 'Lucky Channel' section which is pretty fun to watch but sometimes just annoying.

Music, I enjoyed the BGM and opening song, "Motekke, Sailor Fuku!" just like any Lucky Star fan in the whole world. As for the various endings used in every episode... I never really bothered listening to all of them except Shiraishi Minoru's version of "Motekke, Sailor Fuku!", "Hare Hare Yukai" and the Mikuru (Minoru) theme song.

Graphics, moe based. I don't think I have to explain about it but the art's nice and enjoyable.

Seiyuu and voice actors/actresses, yes, my first time actually adding the 'voice actors/actresses' section of an anime post... at first I really loved the English dub but when I started to watch Lucky Star in Japanese, it was much more awesome than the English dub. Hirano Aya's Konata-Haruhi is win in the anime. XD Katou Emiri amazed me as tsundere Kagamin at the very least.

Comaparison with K-ON!... new rating, XD. Anyways, I still prefer K-ON! of course but still, Lucky Star is an anime you should watch to relieve stress since it seriously relieved mine. I enjoyed it but still, K-ON! IS THE BEST! LOL!

Rating: 4.7/5 (Enjoyable and recommended)

Seitokai no Ichizon

2010-01-31T00:50:00.000-08:00

Summary: The student council members of Hekiyou Academy in Hokkaido are selected by a popularity contest. As a result the members are usually a group of pretty girls. The sole male member is Ken Sugisaki, who entered the student council by becoming the top-scoring student in the level; which he had to cram to achieve.

The series revolves around the meetings inside the student council room in Private High School Hekiyou Academy. The story (as written in the series) has a metafiction component where, under the student council president Sakurano Kurimu orders, vice president Ken Sugisaki has to write stories to show the other students how brilliant the student council is. Ken negotiates with Fujimi Shobo to publish these stories. The author himself likens the series to that of a yonkoma novel which portrays the characters having comical conversations and parodying otaku culture.

Seitokai... recommended by my anime pal yet again, amazed me.

First of all, it's like Hayate no Gotoku's first season, where they parody various animes but with more funny stuff and rarely serious. Animes they parodied are Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, STRIKE WITCHES and well... others, though I'm not really sure nor do I remember.

Story plot, a slice-of-life series with lots of humour and parodies = Comedic series which is in my recommendation list. LOL. The story plot's not bad, really!

Music... Liked the BGM and opening theme, Treasure... as for the ending, 'Mousou Fetish'... it's uh... not really my cup of tea...

Graphics, I liked Studio Deen a lot after seeing them produce the Rei season of Higurashi, so the art's basically good.

Seiyuu. The main casts are practically amateurs like K-ON!. But like K-ON!, they are impressive! Especially Saitou Yuka's portrayal of Chizuru Akaba. From serious, evil mode to cute moe "Mukyu~" mode, I wish to see more of her in future animes. The others are not bad as well, but Saitou-san was the one who impressed me the most among all.

It's a really fun series, so do watch it! ^^

Rating: 4/5 (Recommended for comedy)

Macross Frontier

2010-01-31T00:22:00.001-08:00

Summary: The new show celebrates the 25th anniversary of the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross TV series (1982-1983), and is chronologically subsequent to Macross 7 (1994-1996). This third TV series introduces Earth's latest main variable fighter, the VF-25 Messiah and a new ship called the Macross Frontier. The show retains the signature space opera theme consistent with all series set in the Macross universe (which intertwine musical numbers with fast-paced variable fighter combat). New episodes aired weekly on the MBS network Thursdays at 25:55 and on the TBS network Fridays at 25:55 (the 24+ hour clock is a common Japanese TV broadcast notation). Three separate manga adaptations have been running in Shōnen Ace and Comp Ace, since February 2008, April 2008, and July 2008, respectively.^[4]

On the Macross timeline, the story is set in the year 2059, 47 years after the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross, 19 years after Macross Plus and 14 years after the story of Macross 7. The series features the 25th New Macross-class Colonial Fleet, dubbed the Macross Frontier, en route to the galactic center. This heavily populated interstellar fleet (consisting of numerous civilian vessels and their military escorts) contains a makeup of both human occupants and their Zentradi allies. As such, many of the Macross Frontier's companion vessels appear to merge more metallic Human designs with organic Zentradi aesthetics. Macross Frontier's plot explores a combination of action/political intrigue/space drama more than previous Macross series have done in the past.

As the series begins, during a mission to an unexplored asteroid belt a reconnaissance New U.N. Spacy (N.U.N.S.) VF-171 is destroyed by extremely powerful and fast insectoid biomechanical alien mecha known as the "Vajra"^, which immediately begin their attack on the rest of the fleet. Unable to stop the new enemy threat, the N.U.N.S. Colonial Defense Forces authorize the deployment of a Civilian Military Provider organization called S.M.S. (Strategic Military Services) which utilizes the new VF-25 Messiah variable fighter to combat the alien menace.

Talk about a long summary... -_-; Anyways, time to start.

What made me watch this anime was the people of AFA 09... they were singing 'Iteza Gogo Kuji Don't Be Late' almost every single hour when I was there... so yeah, the songs in the anime made me want to watch this anime and also, a pastor at one of my church camps talked about this anime and one of the characters in it, Ranka Lee. So those are my reasons.

Story plot! Hmm... MUCH~ better than the Gundam SEED/Destiny series I guess... funny moments are funny, touching moments are touching, serious moments are serious and annoying moments are annoying.

Music wise... REALLY awesome. BGM's normal but what I mean is that the songs that use vocals are awesome! May'n and Nakajima Megumi really made the show worth watching due to their music... oh yeah, Sakamoto Maaya was one of the singers too... umm... well, she was ok?

Graphics... *swt*... I don't know how to say this but I don't really enjoy the art style... maybe 'cuz Satelite, the company behind Shugo Chara!, didn't really bring out their best? Just felt that the art's weird... but still, it's ok... I guess...

Seiyuu! Duh, awesome! Though I was disappointed with Endou Aya... she could've tried singing instead of letting May'n take her place! It would feel more original like that... Nakajima Megumi, this is her debut anime and she was impressive. Others aren't so special like Nakamura Yuuichi... after hearing him as Okazaki Tomoya (CLANNAD) and Tsukiyomi Ikuto (Shugo Chara!), I started to get bored of his voice... LOL.

My overall rating... I guess this is recommended. Highly recommended for Gundam viewers who wished that Gundam had more music in them. Though I watch this anime for the songs and story plot, I enjoyed it all the way. Once I've watched the movies and ONA, I'll post my review here as usual, in a different post of course.

Review: 4.3/5 (Recommended)

Kämpfer

2010-01-30T23:53:00.000-08:00

Summary: The plot revolves around Natsuru Senō, a normal high school boy with blue hair. One day he wakes up to find himself turned into a girl. A stuffed tiger "Harakiri Tora" comes to life and tells him to fight as a female psychic fighter "Kämpfer". Having no idea about what's going on, Natsuru is involved in many battles against other female Kämpfer.

Okay, review time. This'll be quick since I have 5 more animes that I've finished and need reviewing. Seriously. And special K-ON! stuff too... so yeah, REAL brief.

Kampfer... one of the many animes recommended by THAT friend of mine again, is unexpectedly a bit yuri and ecchi in it's own ways... sheesh.

Anyways, story plot... kinda funny but stupid. Natsuru's WAY WAY WAY~ too dense that it's too fake. I only enjoyed the final episode since it was funny and the others are just... lame in their own way.

Graphics, since this is considered the 'ecchi' genre... well... the art's not bad and obviously the art's emphasis is more on the girls than any guy in the anime. Music... I can't recall the BGM but the opening song, Unreal Paradise which is sung by my favourite singer, Kuribayashi Minami disappointed me... the ending song, One Way Ryouomoi's not bad, considering it's sung by Marina Inoue and the all famous Macross singer, Nakajima Megumi.

Seiyuu wise... really good range of seiyuus. Horie Yui made my day in this whole anime! XD

Guess that's all. It's basically a group of girls fighting and the usual stuff... not really in my recommendation list but do watch it if you really have nothing else to watch.

Rating: 2.5/5 (Barely watchable)

Hobbycon 2009

2010-01-02T06:50:00.000-08:00

After actually being able to attend AFA 09, I already had my doubts that this will be as good as it.

Anyway, I attended Hobbycon 09 since it was near my home and also because my friends are going and that I wasn't able to attend previous Hobbycons due to the fact that I never knew they existed... XD

Review, review... First day, December 12, 2009. [Pictures at link below.]

Met up with my otaku friends and well, since this is my anime blog, I'll get to the point.

The booths weren't as special as AFA 09, but I still made the effort to take a look at the booths but didn't buy anything.

Saw lots of cosplayers like Lelouch Lamperouge (Code Geass), Syaoran Li (Cardcaptor Sakura), Ciel Phantomhive, Sebastian Michaelis and Grell (Kuroshitsuji), Ranka Lee and Sheryl Nome (Macross Frontier) and yeah, others.

Hmm... I didn't take pictures with any of them though but still, the cosplays weren't as bad as I had in mind... except the point that the fighting costume Syaoran wasn't complete and Lelouch didn't really look like him in some way. On the good side, Kuroshitsuji were close to perfect, Ranka wasn't bad and she even had her frog cell phone!

We were also allowed to request songs from any anime we like to be broadcasted throughout the mall. So, my friend and I requested songs like Don't Say Lazy (K-ON!), Only My Railgun (To Aru Kagaku no Railgun) and Colors (Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion).

Now for the events. The first event was a dance by 'Happy Chocolate', the cosplay group from my school using the song, 'Love & Joy' by Kimura Yuki for those who wanted to know.

Second event was the singing competition. All I remember right now's that the Ranka cosplayer sang the all famous Macross Frontier song 'Seikan Hikou', a non-cosplayer sang 'God Knows...' from the used-to-be awesome anime Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu, the Syaoran (Tomoeda costume) cosplayer sang that 'Platinum' song from Cardcaptor Sakura and a duet by Sebastian and some guy singing a song I don't know.

Then it was break time and one of my friends left to the airport. I went to the figurine booth called 'MOE MOE YUME' to see 'STRIKE WITCHES' mini nendoroids up and other moe figurines being placed. Took a few pictures too, my other friend helped. LOL. Thanks man.

Well, I'm kinda lazy to elaborate any more than this. If any of you want, you can view the link below to see what I've been through since she and I were together throughout the whole event from the beginning till the end. The pictures taken can be view there too. So yeah.

Link: http://yume-wa-owarase-nakereba.blogspot.com/2009/12/hobbycon-09.html

I wish to see more of Hobbycon in the year 2010... I hope I can and WILL see at least 1 K-ON! performance or cosplay! Seriously!!!

~ Anime Festival Asia 09 (AFA 09) ~

2009-11-25T05:12:00.000-08:00

I'll give you a brief summary of how this memorable trip came about.

It was the exam period, but I ended up using the computer for no reason. Then, I fiddled around clicking on searches in Google about K-ON! and stumbled upon the AFA 09 website... and I saw that the seiyuus of the series will make a special visit to the convention, so immediately I told my dad about it and we went into the 'contemplating' mode. After exams ended, went to KL and my dad officially gave me the "ok" to go to Singapore for this big thing. And for that, thanks to my parents and my friend who helped in convincing my parents to go... I won't state the name here, of course. Anyway, time to begin blogging about my whole experience in Singapore.

------

Arrived at Suntec City's Convention Hall and there wasn't anyone there till I went to the entrance of halls 403 -404. About 40 Otakus were already there queueing up playing games while waiting for the ticket stalls to open... there were two queues actually, one for the cosplay and one for the entry. Here's proof I'm actually there, but to prevent anyone from seeing my face, I used Ritsu's to cover it. XD

Me at the queue... look at how many people there are... of course, there are others

behind me... since I was early... LUCKY! ^^

And well, here's how the flyer looks up close and all... bad photos of them but still...

The front cover, stating that it's the real thing I'm heading to.

The lower part of the back cover, stating that I'm gonna see

the real deal.

Anyway, about 10:15am, the ticket stalls open and my friend arrived just in time and we both gotten our tickets and headed right in! Well, first of all, we were amazed by the size of the whole place. Didn't manage to take a picture of it though, sorry... but we visited a few booths while using our precious map so that we won't get lost.

The entrance of the convention~!

Our 'precious' map, giving us the info on where each and

every store is. Neat huh? (Lame~ XD)

We first went around the Bandai stall where there were lots of neat stuff to look at and Gashapon capsule things. Lots of Gundam models too. Ben 10 stuff as well... -_- On our right was the miniature Bandai store and on our left was AFA 09's Kids Land, for all kids who has yet to be an otaku to play, to rest or whatever~.

Well, after that, we went to the 'Extravaganza' stall which showcased lots of fan arts which were really good! I don't have a photo of that booth, so... sorry.

Then, we moved on to the 'Production IG' booth since my friend's a big fan of it. This is the producer of animes like 'Eden of the East', 'Tsubasa Chronicles' and 'XXX Holic' to name a few. Beside it was 'Storm Lion', a Singaporean booth on publishing and stuff so we didn't really bother. Behind 'Production IG' was IFS and yeah, we too didn't bother to go. 'Madhouse' company was beside IFS and we just went to see a retarded anime that was broadcasted before leaving.

Went to a booth that sold swords like Saber's Excalibur, Rukia's Sode no Shirayuki, Cloud's big sword thingy etc... and beside it a figurine booth which had Tsumugi and Yui... WHY THOSE TWO?! WHERE'S MY RITSU~!!!

The sword booth... yup. Cosplayers who needs any kind

of sword can go there. XD

The outer part of the figurine booth...

WHERE'S MY RITSU?!

The inside and there's STILL no Ritsu~! TT-TT

*ahem*... Moving on, we went to the booths in the middle that were filled with figurines though I don't know what the names of the booths are. We walked around and saw a booth called KKNM a.k.a. Kareshi Kanojyo no Mise and we started to queue for it, since we walked around pretty much everywhere except a few places. There were tons of KyoAni related stuff there and boy were we amazed. Kyoto Animation's work - K-ON!, Lucky Star!, CLANNAD......

While waiting, decided to take a picture of my friend, 'Yui'

for no actual reason... XD

The outside of KKnM. CLANNAD cloth-type posters~!

Tomo-pyon~!!! So nostalgic... XD

After buying a few items there, we moved on to a booth named Bushiroad which sold cards and stuff... I bought Persona 3 and 4 decks there! ^^ We also went to a booth where you can print your favourite character on a chocolate and so my friend bought a Cross Marian chocolate and well, I didn't really care.

Ah~ I'm starting to forget where we went to!!! Hmm~... we went to the Animax free dubbing booth and that's when my friend managed to convince (FORCE! *ahem*) me to enjoy dubbing Hirasawa Yui of the popular 2009 anime series, K-ON!. Here's 2 photos I managed to take after dubbing. I can tell you this, this experience made me crave for being a voice actress even more and from what I heard from my friend, she said the female Animax staff helping us with the programs inside the booth was impressed with my dubbing skills. Real dubbing equipment, FTW!!! The legend of RFD begins~! (Not trying to boast...)

This was how the booth looked like and P.S., that's

NOT me. Right now, she's dubbing Higurashi Kagome from

Inuyasha: The Final Act.

The character I can only dub since the others weren't

avaliable, Hirasawa Yui. Go check out my K-ON!

review for more info about this anime. XD

Nearby, there was a karaoke system which had lots of anime related songs... but I mostly heard 'Bouken Desho? Desho?', 'God Knows', 'Hare Hare Yukai' from Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu and 'Iteza Gogo Kuji Don't Be Late' from Macross Frontier being sung by a variety of people...

We passed by the Moe Moe Kyun maid cafe but didn't manage to have our lunch there since there were TOO many people... heard 'Cagayake! Girls' playing from the inside of the cafe. XD Meh, only took a picture of the sign... sickening~... TT-TT

The outside of Moe Moe Kyun Maid Cafe...

I didn't manage to take a picture of the inside! TT-TT

Since our feet started hurting, we went to a place to have a seat for a while while waiting for the K-ON! Experience thing to start. Since ANIMAX told us it was at their booth, we just waited while looking at the booth... at that time it was already 1:30p.m... Suddenly we heard 'kid-like' voices and fans screaming coming from the Stage Area... and the both of us started feeling uneasy. I had the feeling those 'kid-like' voices were from the seiyuus but... that can't be right...

"Hey Nic, I think we should go check it out..."

I nodded and went to the Stage Area and when we were near the entrance, I heard Tainaka Ritsu's voice... and now I clearly wasn't lying to myself! She and I ran to the front as fast as we can to see them live dub but by the time we got to the middle part of the Stage Area, it was already over... well, I was EXTREMELY disappointed but still, I managed to see and hear them dub a bit before they ended.

This link is pretty much how the whole K-ON! Experience went about BEFORE and during I was there... man...

Link: http://atemonai.com/blog/not-quite-bullet-pointing-afa09-k-on-seiyuu-roundup/

Then the Q & A panel began. And I noticed that Hikasa Yoko, seiyuu of the 'almighty' Akiyama Mio WAS NOT PRESENT, making me more disappointed than ever! Don't get me wrong, I don't like Mio... I only like her seiyuu!

From the link above, I guess the Q & A thing can be covered there but there's only one question and answers that I enjoyed the most. XD

"Please tell us your character's favourite line."

Toyosaki Aki (Yui): "Untan! Untan! Untan!" - The obvious line! XD

Satou Satomi (Ritsu): That promise we made…. was it all a lie!? ["Ano toki no yakusoku wa… uso datta no ka!?"] - THE COOLEST LINE EVER NOW IN THE K-ON! WORLD! XD XD

Kotobuki Minako (Tsumugi): Cheaper~! ["Mou hitokoe~!"] - Only Kotobuki-sama could pull this off! XD

Satou-sama [doing the proceeding line] & Taketatsu Ayana (Azusa): N-Nya~...... [Ritsu: "Nya! Te te mite! Nya~ te!" Azusa: N-Nya~......] - Also one of the obvious lines but never expected that Taketatsu-sama would ask Satou-sama to help her out~... ^^

Hikasa Yoko (Mio): - Currently Unknown, but from my guess, it could be "Moe Moe Kyun~!" XD -

Other than that, enjoyed them answering other questions with their character's voice but Toyosaki-sama's voice was a bit 'rough' that day... I don't blame her since she's voicing characters in most of the animes this year...

Taken by one of the Animax crew, the seiyuus

dubbing a scene of the anime!

THE SEIYUUS!!! Taken by one of

the Animax crew again... ^^;

There was also a lucky draw for the people who bought separate tickets to watch the 'I❤AniSong' concert... and the item was the autographs of the four of them!!! After getting back from Singapore, I then only knew that their autograph was on sale at an unexpected place that we never went to... so gaah! Forget it!

Guess pictures speak louder than words by now... kinda lazy to type my whole experience out now~ XD Here are some photos I managed to take though not really good and some pictures I found at sites like Animax, so yeah...

Found a random scribble of Akiyama Mio at

a place where you can randomly draw

something.I wonder who drew that... XD

Danny Choo's figurines... Part 1.

Danny Choo's figurines... Part 2.

Danny Choo's figurines... Part 3.

Danny Choo's K-ON! Chibi figurines~!

Cho KAWAII~!!!!!!

Danny Choo's Code Geass and Gundam 00 chibi

figurines! Kawaii~...

Danny Choo's Fullmetal Alchemist Chibi

figurines! Kawaii~...

Danny Choo's Ryougi Shiki from

Kara no Kyoukai! KYAA~!!!

Danny Choo's Vocaloid team! I only managed

to take photos of these 3 which are Rin Kagamine,

Hatsune Miku and Len Kagamine.

Managed to take a photo of an Amagi Yukiko

from Persona 4 cosplayer from the side... ^^

See any characters you know? XD

Ikuto's 'Seven Seas Treasure' and

Amu's uh... I forgot what it's called... ^^;

I 'secretly' took a photo of Lacus Clyne

and so this is the fruit of it. LOL.

An air balloon~ Moe Moe Kyun's.

Akihabara Town's air balloon~! They sell all

sorts of figurines but expensive~...

Guess who I'm trying to focus on in this photo. XD

Ooh~! It's the emo duo, Kuchiki Byakuya and Uchiha Sasuke!

LOL.

See any characters you know again? XD

One of Akihabara Town's figurine booths...

The massive amount of people by the time

I was done with the convention...

This was how the ticket looks like. ^^

Came back home on 23/11/09 and settled down. This is what I managed to buy!

Mostly files... but they're worth it somehow. ^^

The MOST worth it item that I got, an exclusive K-ON!

mug. This is actually a 2 in 1 mug, so it's an exclusive item!

And THIS concludes my experience at AFA 09!!! Thanks to my parents for letting me go! Hontou ni arigatou~!!! It was my first time seeing seiyuus before my eyes and yeah, I'm a seiyuu freak. LOL! I really hope HobbyCon 2009 can be as good as this!

CANAAN

2009-11-16T07:56:00.000-08:00

Summary: Two years ago, Shibuya was ravaged by a biological terrorist attack using the deadly Ua virus. Maria Osawa was saved when her father inoculated her against the virus, but is left with partial amnesia from the shock. She works as a cameraman when she reunites with a girl named Canaan in Shanghai, China. A gifted assassin with synesthesia, she is under orders from an unknown organization for a yet unspecified mission.

CANAAN... hmm... this 13 episode anime can be one of my most anticipated anime series in the Summer section of this year's anime. Well, I'll go right into my review on it.

Story line, lots of action packed stuff which made it real awesome... graphics, TYPE-MOON sure knows what they're doing, for sure. Music, awesome! Loved the opening 'Mind As Judgment' but ending well... after the whole action packed drama, I don't mind the slow-paced ending 'My Heaven'...

Seiyuu cast... one word. AWESOME. Sawashiro Miyuki as Canaan + Sakamoto Maaya as Alphard = Seiyuu PROness and goodness! New seiyuus like Nanjo Yoshino as Osawa Maria (and also singer for a certain anime's opening song which rocks) and veterans like Noto Mamiko as Hako own too... but I enjoyed Canaan and Alphard's the most. Tanaka Rie, the veteran, as Liang Qi, annoyed me the most... she TOTALLY annoyed me with the whole sister-complex thing.

Hmm... the only thing that bothers me is the implied 'shoujo-ai' between Canaan and Maria... but that's all.

This series must be watched and I hear that there are three movies that are green-lit for the series, so CANAAN hasn't ended yet!

Rating: 5/5 (Loved it!)

Sora no Manimani

2009-11-16T07:44:00.000-08:00

Summary: 'Sora no Manimani' revolves around Saku Ōyagi, a bookworm who moves back to the town he lived in as a child after seven years. He had had a childhood friend named Mihoshi Akeno who loved astronomy and would always take Saku outside against his will to look at the stars, or do other outdoor activities, whereas Saku would rather have stayed inside with his books. Saku broke his arm the day he moved away after trying to catch Mihoshi falling out of a tree; Saku resented her for this, and that she never saw him off. However, this was a misunderstanding since he was too stubborn to listen to the whole story (the fall had put her in the hospital so she could not see him off), and later becomes friends with Mihoshi again after they meet attending the same high school. Mihoshi convinces Saku to join the astronomy club she is a member of, despite Saku actually wanting to join literature club instead. Hime Makita, a girl in Saku's class who has a crush on him, also joins the astronomy club.

Another series my otaku friend recommended to me. Time to review.

Let's see... a slice-of-life series which is about astronomy which is pretty nice... story line, so-so... I learnt a bit of stuff about space through this anime actually... art well... it's normal art style, nothing to be amazed about... music, enjoyable... seiyuu cast... hmm... even though there's veteran seiyuu named Koshimizu Ami, I just enjoyed Itou Kanae's portrayal of Akeno Mihoshi... the other seiyuus aren't so bad as well... but...

All in all... not bad, not that good either... but if you're interested in Astronomy, go check out this series, you'll love it.

Rating: 2.8/5 (Meh...)

Shugo Chara! Doki!

2009-11-16T07:26:00.000-08:00

Summary: The heroine of the story, Amu Hinamori, is a student at Seiyo Elementary. At first glance, her classmates refer to her as "cool and spicy" and rumors speculate about her personal life. However, her real personality is that of a very shy girl who has trouble showing her true personality. One night, Amu wishes for the courage to show her "would-be" self, and the next morning finds three brightly colored eggs—red, blue, and green—in her bed. At first, she is alarmed, but realizes she must have really wished to change. These eggs hatch into three Guardian Characters: Ran, Miki, and Su. The Guardian Characters aid Amu in discovering who she truly is and help fulfill Amu's dreams. Amu's life becomes much more complex as she struggles to deal with her "would-be" selves and the Seiyo Elementary's Guardians, who recruit Amu as the Joker to search for X Eggs and X Characters, the corrupted forms of peoples' dreams. Meanwhile, the Easter Company is extracting people's eggs in search of a special egg called the Embryo. The Embryo is believed to grant any wish to the one who possesses it. However, the process creates X Eggs and X Characters. It is described as a white egg with a heart and yellow wings. Later on in the series a fourth (yellow) egg is born, this egg contains ththe Guardian Character Diamond.

Yeah well, the summary's the same as my previous post on 'Shugo Chara!', so don't bother to read it.

Anyway... reviewing time. The series so far is still light hearted and fun but sometimes a bit boring... though Doki!'s more on Ikuto, so Ikuto fans, rejoice! *sighs*...Hmm... artwork seemed to have improved... storyline... like I said, still light hearted and enjoyable and also Nagihiko's part of the story's pretty enjoyable. Seiyuu cast, still as awesome as before... Itou Kanae as Hinamori Amu is making me think of a certain character in another series which I'll soon review on after I finish it... music well... I enjoyed most of the songs especially Mizuki Nana's insert songs now and then for Utau...

Other than that well... I won't stop at Doki! but continue on to Party! since I enjoy this series more than I could ever expect.

Rating: 4.5/5

Higurashi no Naku ni/Kai/Rei

2009-11-16T06:47:00.000-08:00

Summary: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni takes place during June 1983, at a fictional rural village called Hinamizawa which has a population of approximately 2,000. The main character, Keiichi Maebara, moves to Hinamizawa and befriends his new classmates Rena Ryuugu, Mion Sonozaki, Rika Furude, and Satoko Hojo. Keiichi joins their after-school club activities, which consist mostly of card and board games (and punishment games for the loser, usually him.) Hinamizawa appears to be a normal, peaceful, rural village to Keiichi. However, the tranquility abruptly ends after the annual Watanagashi Festival, a celebration to commemorate and give thanks to the local god, Oyashiro. Keiichi learns that every year for the past four years, one person has been murdered and another has gone missing on the day of the Watanagashi Festival. Keiichi himself soon becomes drawn into the strange events surrounding the Watanagashi Festival and Oyashiro. In each story arc, he or one of his friends become paranoid, and a crime is committed. Usually, the crime involves the murder of one of their own friends. While it seems impossible to tell their delusions apart from the mystery of Hinamizawa, slowly the truth is revealed.

Yeah, do read the summary or if you want, you can immediately see the review section which starts here. It'll be split into 3 parts. 'Ni', 'Kai' and 'Rei'. By the way, it's genre is drama, horror, mystery and psychological thriller.

Ni: The first season of the series which consists 26 episodes. In the beginning, I thought to myself... "Why am I watching this sick and wrong anime in the first place?!" and I was really scared at some parts of the anime... The murders are all cold-blooded and of course, anyone who watches the first season would be wondering... Why? That's when Kai comes in to explain. Anyway, story plot... ah... I was confused in the beginning but now I understand. They go by 'chapters' and each chapter talks about a character's perspective of the story which is pretty interesting. Animation wise... I don't really enjoy the artwork... for the first season, that is. Music... well, basically for a creepy anime, you should have a creepy bgm right? The opening song 'Higurashi no Naku Koro ni' is ok but 'Why, or Why Not?' didn't really impressed me due to the singer's English. XD Voice acting wise~... one word. AWESOME. Nakahara Mai did a fine job making Ryuuguu Rena sound loli-evil, Hoshi Souichiro Hoshi annoys me every single second, haha, just joking... he did ok, Yukino Satsuki did an amazing job doing the voices of Sonozaki Mion and Shion though their personalities are different, Kanai Mika impressed me with Houjou Satoko and finally Tamura Yukari the veteran seiyuu does Furude Rika which really amazed me, though she actually amazed me more in Kai and Rei.

Rating: 3/5 (Impressed mostly by seiyuu work)

Kai: The second season of the series which consists 24 episodes. And this is also the season where everything becomes clear as this is the 'solution' part of the whole Higurashi series. Anyway, story plot... practically explaining how to solve the Hinamizawa incident, prevention of it and why did those murders happen. In addition, there's a new character named Hanyuu which is Oyashiro-sama and is Rika's so-called 'partner in crime'. The artwork in Kai has improved and enjoyed I basically enjoyed it... the music still stays the same except for the awesome opening song 'Naraku no Hana' and extremely awesome ending 'Taishou.a'. Seiyuus are basically the same and yes, I was impressed with Tamura Yukari's Furude Rika since she was able to do a cute sounding loli to an emo-sounding Rika. With the addition of Horie Yui voicing Hanyuu, the voice acting couldn't have gotten worse! The comedy in Kai's much better than Ni's though... enjoyed those "... kana? Kana?", "Hauu~ Omochikaeri~!", "Nipaa~" and "Auu~..." moments. XD

Rating: 4/5 (Better artwork, storyline)

Rei: The third and final season, hopefully which consists only 5 episodes. The actually 'comedy' part of the whole Higurashi series. Rei, also known as 'salutations' is just random story arcs just for fun... I enjoyed the first episode that was about the day at the swimming pool and last called the 'Daybreak Chapter' as they were funny and I reviewed them a couple of times. As for the 'Dice Killing Chapter' that's on episode two to four... it's basically all about Rika, so for Rika fans (like myself), would enjoy the coolness of how Rika learns about friendship and what's important. Art, the best among the three seasons, music... enjoyed the opening song 'Super Scription of Data' but still think 'Taishou.a' is better than 'Manazashi'. Not much to elaborate since most of them are the same...

Rating: 4.2/5 (For the love of Rika, artwork and Episodes 1 and 5)

Overall rating for the whole series: 4/5 (Check it out if you want, it's not bad)

The Seiyuus of K-ON! appearing at... SINGAPORE?!!!

2009-10-16T04:08:00.000-07:00

Link: http://www.afa09.com/index.html

Calling all K-ON! fans from Singapore and well... everywhere! Mark down your calendars! 21/11/09 (Saturday) - 21/11/09 (Sunday)!!!

The seiyuus from K-ON! (Most likely Yui, Mio, Ritsu and Tsumugi's) are going to be at Singapore and gonna dub LIVE in front of the audience!!! Q & A panels will be on and most likely autograph sessions!!!

This is pretty much the first time they went overseas for an anime convention, so I recommend those who CAN go to Singapore to go no matter what!!!

The convention has what... a maid cafe called 'Moe Moe Kyun' (LOL...), popular singers like Nakagawa Shoko, May'n, Hatsune Miku's singer... Gundam stuff and much more!

I'm gonna try persuading my parents into allowing me to go to Singapore for this once in a lifetime event! I mean seriously... if you can't go to Japan, AT LEAST you can go to Singapore to see a real life seiyuu right before your eyes, right???

TMA Edition of K-ON!... RELEASED?!

2009-10-07T23:28:00.000-07:00

LINKS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR0frRHp62k (Part 1)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYEZ6O3vUb8&feature=related (Part 2)

This is it K-ON! fans... a TMA edition of K-ON!... or should I say the so-called 'Live Action' version. Either you see your favourite characters discriminated by other K-ON! fans from Japan... OR you see your characters at top notch like the anime version.

Obvious lip-syncing since the voices of the seiyuus can be heard. Just that you can see how... 'devoted' these fans are to acting their own favourite characters / roles out.

Thanks to 'ylwong' for the link... truly appreciate it! ^^

Asura Cryin' [Season 1]

2009-10-07T23:01:00.000-07:00

Summary: Asemi-serious school action story revolving around the main protagonist, Tomoharu Natsume, is haunted by a ghostly girl, Misao Minakami, his childhood friend. Tomoharu Natsume takes the opportunity to live on his own when he enters high school in his new place of residence, Meioutei, and starts enjoying a carefree high school life. But his life changed when a beautiful girl named Kurosaki Shuri appears with a trunk which she claimed Tomoharu's brother, Naotaka Natsume, told her to pass it to him. The presence of the trunk causes the appearance of Takatsuki Kanade, a girl dressed like a shrine maiden who is after the trunk. Tomoharu is in possession of the trunk, which reveals secrets about the world they live in.

Hmm~... an anime I was recommended by my anime pal again and it was pretty good. Just finished it today.

Storyline... hmm... pretty good but a lil' messed up... I think they'll explain about the '1st Stage' and '2nd Stage' in it's 2nd Season, so I look forward to that.

Graphically... not to say one of the best graphics... uh... it's so-so... but sometimes the faces are enlonged for some reasons I dunno why. Nice virtual effects though...

Music... meh... I don't really like the oprah-style opening and ending songs... bgm's are well... ok...

Voice acting... very well done. I'm surprised that 3 seiyuus from the K-ON! team star in this anime... (Sato Satomi as Aine, Hikasa Yoko as Shioizumi RITSU and Toyosaki Aki as Oohara Ann). Tanaka Rie did the Kurosaki Shuri/Yukari duo which was pretty awesome... others well... not bad. Oh right, Irino Miyu voices the main hero, Natsume Tomoharu, so I think SOMEONE should watch it... (You know who you are. XD)

Overall... well, it's much better than Vampire Knight, that I can say. I look forward to its 2nd season (unlike Vampire Knight... -_-) so that I may understand more about the two 'Stages'... Genre: Fantasy, Mecha, Action.

Rating: 3.8/5 (Not bad)

Suzumiya Haruhi-chan no Yuutsu

2009-10-05T02:02:00.001-07:00

Summary: The episodes of the original net animation (ONA) The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya were produced by Kyoto Animation between February and May 2009. The episodes are based on a parody manga series of the same name based on the Haruhi Suzumiya series. The series does not fit into the normal continuity of the main series. During the first few episodes, the characters in the series were rendered using computer-generated imagery. Soon afterward, the character animation returned to the standard two-dimensional animation style. Twenty-five episodes were created for the ONA series, with two episodes released each week until the last, where an extra long episode was shown.

A random Haruhi ONA I managed to buy when I was at KL in August. I have not much to review 'bout this special ONA but all I can say is that Tsuruya-chan's fighting scene with Mori's awesome. Comedy around Yuki Nagato and Ryoko Asakura's cute and funny too. The storyline's random, music's the same as Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu except the 'nya~nya~' opening of this ONA, graphics are mostly chibi-style and that's pretty much it.

Any Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu fan should watch it since it's a cute comedy show and it's pretty short.

Rating: 3/5 (For the Tsuruya fighting scenes and Yuki with Ryoko scenes. XD)

Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu (2006, 2009)

2009-10-03T05:14:00.000-07:00

Summary: On the first day of high school a beautiful girl named Haruhi Suzumiya introduces herself as having “no interest in ordinary humans”. She asks for any aliens, time travelers, sliders or espers to join her. Watching her weird behaviour is Kyon who sits in front of Haruhi and is the only person who talks to her. When Kyon comments about Haruhi’s joining every club in school and then quitting he unwittingly gives Haruhi an idea to start her own after school club. Thereafter Kyon and several others find themselves dragged, literally, into the Save our world by Overloading it with fun Suzumiya Haruhi’s Brigade (the S.O.S. Brigade for short).

Everyone should know this anime by this year as its all-famous 'Hare Hare Yukai' dance was on the rave in the year 2006-2007... This is also the first anime I watched from KyoAni. Don't get me wrong, it's not my first anime...

Graphically, just like CLANNAD and K-ON!, I really like the graphics as it is produced by my favourite anime company, KyoAni. Music wise, the re-broadcast themes are better than the original themes... If you wanna know the names of the OPs and EDs, they're 'Bouken Desho Desho?'-'Super Driver' and 'Hare Hare Yukai'-'Tomare!'... the '-' means original to re-broadcast. I love songs like 'God Knows...' and 'Lost My Music' when Haruhi replaced ENOZ's leader during the school festival in one of the eps... one of the best songs from their 'Light Music Club'. XD

Storyline... it's messy if you follow Kyon's POV (Point of View)... but if you follow Haruhi's POV, then you'll understand the story in a chronological way instead of Kyon's messed up timeline. Overall storyline's funny, light-hearted and pretty much action-packed. Though the 'Endless Eight' arc made me frustrated since it's like a repeat of 8 whole eps... recommended you skip from the 2nd ep. of 'Endless Eight' to the last to NOT waste your time.

Overall, it's those 'you-should-watch-it' animes, so yeah... genre: Comedy, Mystery, Psychological, Science Fiction, Slice-of-life, Supernatural.

Rating: 4.5/5 (Recommended)

Asatte no Houkou

2009-10-03T04:48:00.000-07:00

Summary:

Asatte no Hōkō follows the lives of Karada Iokawa, a young girl who is set to join junior high school after summer is over, and Shōko Nogami, a young woman who has just returned from studying abroad, who also happens to be the former girlfriend of Karada's older brother. The day Shōko returns, she is dragged by Karada to the beach with her brother and a couple of their friends since she used to know Karada's brother Hiro several years before.

After becoming irritated with Hiro for leaving her alone in the United States, she purposefully tells Karada that her ribbons are childish. This upset her greatly because she doesn't like to be treated as a child. Later that same day, Karada is found by Shōko praying at a shrine, wishing to become older. Amazingly, Karada's wish becomes true and she instantly transforms into a young woman. Incidentally, Shōko then has her adulthood taken away from her and she reverts back to about eleven years old.

I would say this series' old but with a pretty nice yet interesting story plot... lite-and-easy as well. J.C. Staff did a good job with the art but I have to ask... what's with the Mai Tokiha look-a-like?! If they're trying to compare between Sunrise and themselves, they have no match for 'em... LOL. That's a joke.

Music wise, one word, AWESOME. The OSTs' brilliant and fits the whole story plot. The opening 'Hikari no Kisetsu' is light-hearted and ok whereas 'Sweet Home Song' is a much slower-paced one that's also in the so-so side.

Seiyuu cast, which is mainly the reason WHY I want to watch this anime in Japanese with English subs and not from Animax. Everyone managed to pull of their own appointed roles and I really enjoyed the voice acting.

Not bad, not too great either... but it's a light-hearted series that you can expect. Recommended for Drama and Fantasy genre lovers... I guess?

Rating: 4.2/5 (For the interesting story plot)

HobbyCon 2009~!

2009-09-21T07:43:00.000-07:00

Calling all anime fans in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia!

There's gonna be a 'so-called' anime convention coming near us! Here are the details!

Date : 12th and 13th December 2009 (Saturday & Sunday)

Venue : Citymall, Ground Entrance & Concord Area

Time : 11:00am - 8pm

Website for schedules etc. : http://hobbycon.my/

From HobbyCon 2008, there'll be cosplayers everywhere, performances, real 'maids' (LOL), game stalls (PS3, Wii, Xbox 360 etc...), figurines galore and others...

As for me, I'll be going of course!!! But if you're really an anime fan, I think it's recommended you go... who knows? You might even get to see your favourite character's cosplay stuff and maybe... *ahem*... steal 'em? XD

K-ON! Live Drama Series?

2009-09-21T07:39:00.000-07:00

A rumour? For real? By the voice actresses? By other actresses??? Here's what the critiques say...

"Japanese broadcaster TBS is said to be contemplating a live-action drama adaptation of moe blob anime K-ON!

Since the source is 2ch, the information (and the above image) may be complete fancy or an unerringly accurate leak of insider info, but whatever the case K-ON! fans wasted no time in condemning the mere suggestion that such an adaptation might be being considered.

TBS is currently reeling from a disastrously ill received drama adaptation of long running police manga Kochikame, so this presumably implies they are either foolish enough to go ahead or chastened enough to back away, assuming this rumour is anything more than the crazed ramblings of 2ch…"

To Aru Majutsu no Index

2009-09-21T06:42:00.000-07:00

Summary: To Aru Majutsu no Index is set in a city of scientifically advanced superhuman students, but in a world where magic is also real. Tōma Kamijo's right hand, the Imagine Breaker, will negate all magic, psychic, or divine powers, as well as his own luck. One day he finds a young girl hanging on his balcony railing named Index. She turns out to be a nun from the Church of England, and her mind has been implanted with the Index Librorum Prohibitorum—all the magical texts the Church has removed from circulation. His encounter with her leads him to meet others from the secret world of science and magic and an adventure with his friends where science and magic collide. Tōma's unusual power places him at the center of conflicts relating magicians and science-based espers in Academy City. As Tōma tries to help and protect his friends, he learns the people he knows are not as they appear and begins to attract the attention of magicians and espers alike as they try to unravel the secrets of Academy City and Index.

Yeah well I don't think the summary's needed to express this awesome anime which I happened to pick up since it seemed popular and other than that, it's an anime produced by J.C. Staff. (I'm pretty much a fan of that company now. LOL!)

The story's pretty hard to understand unless your Science and common sense are at top-notch but as for the plot, it's basically the main 'guy' character saving everyone with his all-powerful right hand. But still, it's not too bad but I expected it to be much better.

Graphically, since it's done by the company that did 'Toradora!', the graphics seemed like it and I have to mention but, the hero Touma Kamijyo looks pretty~ much like that Ikki guy from Air Gear, but with black hair and cooler. LOL.

Music wise... singer Kawada Mami sung 'PSI-Missing' as the first opening which was ok and 'Masterpiece' which blew me off since it was awesome! (The PV for it is kinda... creepy though.) Ending songs were sung by Iku and I'm pretty lazy to write the name of the songs since they're long. Inserts like 'Ame' and 'Jellyfish' were also sung by Kawada Mami and were ok... BGM wise, it has that 'techno' feeling to it but I can still accept it.

Voice acting... ah... I've never mentioned anything 'bout this but, the voice acting in this anime's not bad at all... I was impressed with Satou Rina's Mikoto 'Biri-biri' Misaka since she was able to pull off a tsundere to robotic to kid ver. of Misaka Mikoto and her clones, MISAKA.

Now I patiently wait for the spin-off 'To Aru Kagaku no Railgun' which seemed to be about Mikoto and I'm pretty happy it'll feature one of the seiyuus I really like which is Toyosaki Aki! And of course, it's recommended somehow to people who like action and fantasy style stories.

Rating: 4.7 (Recommended)

Shugo Chara!

2009-09-21T06:26:00.000-07:00

Meanwhile, the Easter Company is extracting people's eggs in search of a special egg called the Embryo. The Embryo is believed to grant any wish to the one who possesses it. However, the process creates X Eggs and X Characters. It is described as a white egg with a heart and yellow wings.

Later on in the series a fourth (yellow) egg is born, this egg contains the Guardian Character Diamond.

As for my review on this anime... hmm... I can only say I started to watching after major influences from 2 of my classmates (2009) and got hooked up pretty quick. I wonder why lots of people like Ikuto though...

Hmm... other than that, this is, from my point of view, the successor of Cardcaptor Sakura though much more interesting than it...

Graphics wise, it's shoujo-based but awesome. The BGM as well as the songs in the anime were nice, especially when they have help from famous singer, Mizuki Nana as Utau's seiyuu. The story plot's pretty good and has indirect moral values in 'em. Genre, from wikipedia, is 'Magical girl' but it's still nice!

Nothing much I can further review but this anime which I THOUGHT to be a childish, for kids only anime made my day and it's recommended. At least there's no gore in it and it's light-hearted. Suitable for people who're basically stressed every single day like me. LOL.

I'm looking forward to watching 'Doki!' and it's 3rd Season 'Party!'.

Rating: 4.5/5 (Recommended for CCS lovers or Shoujo-based anime lovers)

K-ON! Albums Download Links~!!!

2009-08-13T23:59:00.000-07:00

Yo~! From today onwards till 21/10/2009, I'll be updating links for K-ON! related soundtracks (only avaliable for 'Bittorrent' and/or 'Megaupload') so you all may find it easier other than looking for it everywhere through my blog post!!! XD

K-ON! OP SINGLE: CAGAYAKE GIRLS! (22/4/09)

Track List:

1.Cagayake!GIRLS
2.Happy!? Sorry!!
3.Cagayake!GIRLS　(off vocal)
4.Happy!? Sorry　(off vocal)

Torrent link: http://www.mininova.org/tor/2508789

Direct download link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=KPF03HKW

K-ON! ED SINGLE: DON'T SAY "LAZY" (22/4/09)

Track List:

1.Don't say “lazy”
2.Sweet Bitter Beauty Song
3.Don't say “lazy”　(off vocal)
4.Sweet Bitter Beauty Song　(off vocal)

Torrent link: http://www.mininova.org/tor/2508790

Direct download link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=WF69QP05

K-ON! INSERT SONG SINGLE - FUWA FUWA TIME (20/5/09)

Track List:

1.ふわふわ時間（タイム）
2.翼をください
3.ふわふわ時間(Instrumental)
4.翼をください(Instrumental)
5.ふわふわ時間(Instrumental【-Guitar】)
6.ふわふわ時間(Instrumental【-Keybord】)
7.ふわふわ時間(Instrumental【-Bass】)
8.ふわふわ時間(Instrumental【-Drums】)

Torrent link: http://btjunkie.org/torrent/Nipponsei-K-ON-Insert-Song-Single-Fuwa-Fuwa-Time-Various-zip/379568e3b93f6e0153479d331dc09c44858772409190

K-ON! ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK (3/6/09)

Track List:

1. Have some tea?
2. Morning dew
3. Isoge ya Isoge!
4. Kawaii Inbou
5. 2 Hiki no Koneko
6. Ii Yumemite ne
7. Cotton candy
8. Virtual love
9. Tanpopo Takkyuubin
10. Ukkari-kun no Tameni
11. Genki!
12. Obaa-chan no Tansu
13. The other side of evening sun
14. Dead soldiers (笑)
15. Hold on your love
16. Falling reinforced concrete
17. Small flashing
18. Kendama-kun
19. Karui Joudan
20. Crepe wa Ikaga?
21. Happy languidness
22. Emerald green
23. My hometown where it snows
24. Ginsekai no Asa
25. Tea at the night of Christmas
26. Koneko no Ensou Kai
27. Patrol of stroll
28. Doki Doki Friday Night
29. Ringo… Ringo… Ringo…
30. 15sai no March
31. Jajauma 3nin Musume
32. Hesitation
33. Pinch Daisuki!
34. Dress ni Crepe wa Niawa nai?
35. Ano Hi no Yume
36. Happy End

Torrent link: http://isohunt.com/torrent_details/98541449/soundtrack?tab=summary

K-ON! CHARACTER IMAGE SONG SERIES - VOL. 1 HIRASAWA YUI (17/6/09)

Track List:

1.ギー太に首ったけ
2.Sunday Siesta　
3.『レッツコ゛ー』（唯Ver.）
4.ギー太に首ったけ　（Instrumental）
5.Sunday Siesta　（Instrumental）
6.『レッツコ゛ー』（唯Ver.）（Instrumental）

Torrent link: http://www.bushtorrent.com/torrents/1062968/[Nipponsei]%20K-ON!%20Character%20Image%20Song%20Series%20-%20Hirasawa%20Yui%20[Toyosaki%20Aki]%20zip/

K-ON! CHARACTER IMAGE SONG SERIES - VOL. 2 AKIYAMA MIO (17/6/09)

Track List:

1.Heart Goes Boom!!　
2.Hello Little Girl　　
3.『レッツコ゛ー』（澪Ver.）
4.Heart Goes Boom!!（Instrumental）
5.Hello Little Girl（Instrumental）
6.『レッツコ゛ー』（澪Ver.）（Instrumental）

Torrent link: http://www.bushtorrent.com/torrents/1054997/Nipponsei%20K-ON%21%20Character%20Image%20Song%20Series%20-%20Akiyama%20Mio%20Hisaka%20Youko%20zip/

K-ON! GEKICHUKA MINI ALBUM HOUKAGO TEA TIME (22/7/09)

Track List:

Disc01『StudioMix』
1.カレーのちライス…唯MainVo.（5人編成）
2.わたしの恋はホッチキス…唯＆澪MainVo.（5人編成）　
3.ふでペン　～ボールペン～…唯MainVo.（5人編成）
4.ふわふわ時間（タイム）…唯MainVo.（5人編成）
Disc02『LiveMix』
1.カレーのちライス（＃8『新歓！』Mix）…唯MainVo.
2.わたしの恋はホッチキス（＃8『新歓！』Mix）　 …唯MainVo.（頭のみ澪Vo.）
3.ふでペン　～ボールペン～（＃12『軽音！』Mix）…澪MainVo.
4. ふわふわ時間（＃12『軽音！』Mix）…唯MainVo.

Torrent link: http://www.torrentzap.com/torrent/522132/[Nipponsei]+K-ON!+Gekichuka+Mini+Album+Houkago+Tea+Time+zip

K-ON! INSERT SONG SINGLE - MADDY CANDY (12/8/09)

Track List:

1.Maddy Candy
2.Hell The World
3.Maddy Candy（Instrumental）
4.Hell The World（Instrumental）

Torrent link: http://btjunkie.org/torrent/Nipponsei-K-ON-Insert-Song-Single-Maddy-Candy-Sanada-Asami-zip/37951063b1341740ef0a4f033832eee971a06a4b4a52

K-ON! CHARACTER IMAGE SONG SERIES - VOL. 3 TAINAKA RITSU (26/8/09)

Track List:

1. Girly Storm 疾走 Stick　
2. 目指せハッピー100%↑↑↑　　
3.『レッツコ゛ー』（律Ver.）
4. Girly Storm 疾走 Stick（Instrumental）
5.目指せハッピー100%↑↑↑（Instrumental）
6.『レッツコ゛ー』（Instrumental）

Torrent link: http://www.mininova.org/tor/2885126

K-ON! CHARACTER IMAGE SONG SERIES - VOL. 4 KOTOBUKI TSUMUGI (26/8/09)

Track List:

1. Dear My Keys　～鍵盤の魔法～
2. Humming Bird　　
3. 『レッツコ゛ー』（紬Ver.）
4.Dear My Keys　～鍵盤の魔法～（Instrumental）
5.Humming Bird（Instrumental）
6.『レッツコ゛ー』（Instrumental）

Torrent link: http://www.mininova.org/tor/2885122

K-ON! CHARACTER IMAGE SONG SERIES - VOL. 5 NAKANO AZUSA (26/8/09)

Track List:

1. じゃじゃ馬Way To Go　
2. 私は私の道を行く　　
3.『レッツコ゛ー』（梓Ver.）
4.じゃじゃ馬Way To Go（Instrumental）
5. 私は私の道を行く(Instrumental)
6.『レッツコ゛ー』（Instrumental）

Torrent link: http://www.mininova.org/tor/2885124

K-ON! Official Band Yaro-Yo! (2/9/09)

DISC 1

1. Cagayake! GIRLS [5jin Ver.]
2. Don’t Say ‘Lazy’ [5jin Ver.]
3. Cagayake! GIRLS [5jin Ver.] -Instrumental- (4:10
4. Don’t Say ‘Lazy’ [5jin Ver.] -Instrumental-
5. Curry Nochi Rice [Studio Mix] -Instrumental-
6. Watashi no Koi wa Hotchkiss [Studio Mix] -Instrumental-
7. Fude Pen ~Boru Pen~ [Studio Mix] -Instrumental-
8. Fuwa Fuwa Time [5jin Ver.] [Studio Mix] -Instrumental-
9. Subtitle Back Guitar 1
10. Subtitle Back Guitar 2
11. Subtitle Back Guitar 3
12. Subtitle Back Guitar 4
13. Subtitle Back Guitar 5
14. Subtitle Back Guitar 6
15. Subtitle Back Guitar 7
16. Subtitle Back Guitar 8
17. Subtitle Back Guitar 9
18. Subtitle Back Guitar 10
19. Subtitle Back Guitar 11
20. Subtitle Back Guitar 12
21. Subtitle Back Guitar 13
22. Charamela #2 [Gakko!]
23. Sawako Sensei – Chouzetsu Hayahajiki! – #5 [Komon!]
24. Sawako Sensei – Chouzetsu Tapping! – #5 [Komon!]
25. Sawako Sensei – Chouzetsushi Guitar! – #5 [Komon!]
26. Azusa no Udemae Hirou 1- #9 [Shinyuu Buin!]
27. Azusa no Udemae Hirou 2 – #9 [Shinyuu Buin!]
28. Isshuukan – #1 [Haibu!]
29. Tsubasa wo Kudasai – #1 [Haibu!]

DISC 2

1. Cagayake!GIRLS [5jin Ver.] -Instrumental (-Guitar)-
2. Cagayake!GIRLS [5jin Ver.] -Instrumental (-Keyboard)-
3. Cagayake!GIRLS [5jin Ver.] -Instrumental (-Bass)-
4. Cagayake!GIRLS [5jin Ver.] -Instrumental (-Drums)-
5. Introduction
6. Guitar – Introduction
7. Ex.1-1: [A] A Mellow Bridge Mute (0:16
8. Ex.1-2: [A] A Mellow Bridge Mute NG Take
9. Ex.2-1: [B] A Mellow Arpeggio (w/ Delay)
10. Ex.2-2: [B] A Mellow Arpeggio NG Take (w/ Delay)
11. Ex.3-1: [B] B Mellow Counter Melody
12. Ex.3-2: [B] B Mellow Counter Melody NG Take
13. Ex.4-1: [B] B Mellow 9 Shousetsume GURISSANDO (Tremolo Picking ari)
14. Ex.4-2: [B] B Mellow 9 Shousetsume GURISSANDO (Tremolo Picking mu)
15. Ex.5-1: [C] SABI Code Backing
16. Ex.5-2: [C] SABI Code Backing NG Take
17. Ex.6-1: [A-2] A Mellow 2 16 Wakatteingu (w/ Wah)
18. Ex.6-2: [A-2] A Mellow 2 16 Wakatteingu
19. Ex.6-3: [A-2] A Mellow 2 16 Wakatteingu NG Take
20. Ex.7: [D] Interlude Gt.-I Solo
21. Ex.8: [D] Interlude Gt.-II Solo
22. Solo Improvisation
23. Ex.10: [F] Modulation
24. Keyboard Introduction
25. Ex.1-1: [Intro.-1] Scratch Sound
26. Ex.1-2: [Intro.-1] Scratch Sound NG Take
27. Ex.2-1: [C] SABI Tone and Rhythm
28. Ex.2-2: [C] SABI (Uwa Part Neiro)
29. Ex.2-3: [C] SABI (Moto Part Neiro)
30. Ex.3-1: [A] A Mellow Glissando & Timbre
31. Ex.3-2: [A] A Mellow (Uwa Part Neiro)
32. Ex.3-3: [A] A Mellow (Moto Part Neiro)
33. Ex.4-1: [D] Solo Interlude (0:22)
34. Ex.4-2: [D] Solo Interlude NG Take
35. Ex.5-1: [E] D Mellow
36. Ex.5-2: [E] D Mellow (Effect Ver.)
37. Ex.6: [F] 8 Shousetsume (BENDODAUN Hit & Sound)
38. Ex.7: [Ending] 5 Shousetsume~8 Shousetsume Neiro
39. Ex.8: [Ending] 9 Shousetsume~ Neiro
40. Bass Introduction
41. Cagayake!GIRLS Setting
42. Ex.1-1: [C] SABI Code Arpeggio
43. Ex.1-2: [C] SABI Code Arpeggio NG Take
44. Ex.2: [Intro.-2] Bass Infill
45. Ex.3: Slap Practice
46. Ex.4-1: [Intro.-2] 5~8 Shoutsume Kara [A] A Mellow Head (tempo 170)
47. Ex.4-2: [Intro.-2] 5~8 Shoutsume Kara [A] A Mellow Head (tempo 120)
48. Ex.5-1: [A] A Mellow Back Beat wo Kanjiru
49. Ex.5-2: [A] A Mellow Back Beat wo Kanjiru NG Take
50. Ex.6-1: [B] B Mellow Drum Tone Combination
51. Ex.6-2: [B] B Mellow Drum Tone Combination NG Take
52. Ex.7-1: [D] Solo Interlude (tempo 170)
53. Ex.7-2: [D] Solo Interlude (tempo 120)
54. Ex.8: Solo Improvisation
55. Ex.9: [C-3] 4 Shousetsume~Glissando
56. Ex.10: [Ending] 4 String Bass Ver.
57. Snare & Toms General Settings
58. Cageyake!GIRLS Snare & Toms Setting
59. Snare & Toms Setting
60. Ex.1-1: [Intro.-1] ~ [C] SABI 8 Shousetsume Fill
61. Ex.1-2: [Intro.-1] ~ [C] SABI 8 Shousetsume Fill NG Take
62. Ex.2-1: [B] B Mellow 1 9 Shousetsume Fill
63. Ex.2-2: [B] B Mellow 1 9 Shousetsume Fill NG Take
64. Ex.3-1: [A-2] A Mellow 2 Rhythm
65. Ex.3-2: [A-2] A Mellow 2 Rhythm NG Take
66. Ex.4-1: [A-2] A Mellow 2 4,9 Shousetsume Fill
67. Ex.4-2: [A-2] A Mellow 2 4,9 Shousetsume Fill NG Take
68. Ex.5-1: [B] B Mellow 2 9 Shousetsume Fill
69. Ex.5-2: [B] B Mellow 2 9 Shousetsume Fill NG Take
70. Ex.6-1: [D] Solo Interlude
71. Ex.6-2: [D] Solo Interlude NG Take
72. Ex.7-1: [E] D Mellow Rhythm
73. Ex.7-2: [E] D Mellow Rhythm NG Take
74. Ex.8-1: [E] D Mellow 4,8 Shousetsume Fill
75. Ex.8-2: [E] D Mellow 4,8 Shousetsume Fill NG Take
76. Ex.9-1: [F] 6,7 Shousetsume Fill
77. Ex.9-2: [F] 6,7 Shousetsume Fill NG Take
78. Ex.10-1: [C-4] SABI Rhythm
79. Ex.10-2: [C-4] SABI Rhythm NG Take
80. Owari.

Megaupload link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1YG64ZBE

~ K-ON! CHARACTER IMAGE SONG SERIES - VOL. 6 MANABE NODOKA (21/10/09) ~

~ K-ON! CHARACTER IMAGE SONG SERIES - VOL. 7 HIRASAWA UI (21/10/09) ~

Hatsukoi Limited

2009-08-01T01:45:00.000-07:00

Summary: Hatsukoi Limited's manga features a series of short stories about eight girls in middle school and high school, plus their classmates and relatives. Each chapter focuses on a different main character. These stories are intertwined and eventually lead to a main story involving most of the cast.

Not much of a summary from wikipedia, huh? Well I'll fill you in then. There are altogether 12 episodes, production by the renowned J.C. Staff. (Shakugan no Shana series, Toradora!, Nodame Cantabile, Hayate no Gotoku! etc.) Considering the 4 volume only manga, 12 eps. is a perfect number for the length of the whole anime.

And AGAIN, it was 'cuz of Cyn C (my idiotic friend, LOL) that I watched this anime and I was pretty much amazed by it. I finished it 3 days ago actually but didn't have the time to blog about it.

The soundtracks are nice. Sphere has done a good job with the opening song, 'Future Stream' and they're actually an all seiyuu cast group. (Wanna know who's in Sphere? Find out yourself. XD) Ah, Marble did the ending song, 'Hatsukoi Limited' and other insert songs like 'Sora ni Mau' which was used in Ep. 6.

Graphic wise... it makes me remember how Ichigo 100% looks like, since the author's the same and production company's the same. Story plot, well, it goes by the famous character arc. But the story arc that I really liked was the 'Koyoi Bessho Arc' since it made me laugh after seeing her famous 'brother complex' and since K-ON! was on my mind the whole time watching the anime, I couldn't help thinking about Yui as she herself has a bit of 'sister complex' and their seiyuu is the magnificent Toyosaki Aki.

What else to say... the seiyuu cast is pretty much in the A-class level and you may hear 3 of the K-ON! members returning in this anime. (Who you ask? Fine. One, the one I said above; Two, Kotobuki Minako as Rika Dobashi; Three, Satou Satomi as Yuu Enomoto. Sadly, Hikasa Yoko isn't in. Don't be sad, Mio fans. XD)

Oh, if you've watched or have not watch Ichigo 100%, it's fine. Hatsukoi Limited rarely has any ecchi areas to Ichigo 100%, so it's suitable to anyone who likes romance and comedy genre stories. I enjoyed it all the way, so I really hope those who read this blog will find this anime and watch it.

Rating: 4.8/5 (Highly Recommended)

It's Not The End Of K-ON! ...

2009-07-30T02:11:00.000-07:00

Just as what the topic of today's post says, K-ON! is NOT and I repeat NOT over yet. There's still a little hope for the 2nd Season of it and I pray that it'll happen.

The news was out a while ago stating a confirmed release of an extra episode of K-ON!, meaning it's the 14th episode. The extra episode a.k.a. the 2nd OVA will be out on the 20th of January 2010 in the 7th volume of the DVD/Blu-Ray set.

Casts and producers remain the same. Theme songs might still be the same, but who knows? Story plot on the extra episode are yet to be known until some random person leaks the plot in the internet. Till then, all the K-ON! fans will have to wait for next year just to watch the final (?) episode of K-ON! and also to pray that there will be a 2nd Season for it.

Vampire Knight

2009-07-27T03:47:00.000-07:00

Summary: Yuki Cross' earliest memory is of a snowy night in winter, when she was attacked by one vampire and was saved by another, Kaname Kuran. Yuki is the adopted daughter of the Headmaster of Cross Academy, Kaien Cross, who is an ex-vampire hunter that now wishes for vampires and humans to live alongside peacefully. She has grown up and become a prefect for the school with one main purpose: for vampires to coexist peacefully with humans. Her fellow guardian, Zero Kiryu, a childhood companion whose parents were killed by a pure-blood vampire, is now determined to kill them all and refuses to trust them. Zero himself is now manifesting vampire traits, having been turned into vampire after he was bitten by a pure-blood vampire, Shizuka Hiou four years before.

Yuki tries to help him fight his bloodlust while also seeking to recover the memories she lost. As the series progresses, Zero's thirst for blood leads to his drinking from Yuki, by her consent, to avoid becoming a level E vampire. To stop this, Kaname gives Zero his own blood, making him a normal vampire which will prevent Zero from going insane and from needing to feed from Yuki. Eventually, it is revealed that Yuki is a pureblood vampire herself, the sister and fiancee of Kaname. To save Yuki from being killed by Rido Kuran, Kaname's uncle, her mother had sealed her memories shortly before her own death. After Yuki reawakens to her vampire nature, Rido again tries to kill her. As Kaname kills the vampire senate, Yuki fights Rido. During a fierce battle, Zero aids her in killing him, but later on tells her, stating he will have to kill her one day.

I can only say that this anime's utterly boring and pretty much a waste of my precious time. I wonder why lots of my friends love it...

Well, it's not really a waste of my time 'cuz the music's nice and the seiyuus the anime used are A-class seiyuus... graphically, shoujo-based. No comments there... story plot, doesn't really impress me at all... even though it says 'Vampire Knight', it wasn't scary at all and it turns out to be your usual romance, action genre story.

Though I dislike the anime, I'll give it another chance for impression in its sequel, Guilty...

Rating: 2/5 (Recommended for shoujo anime fans)

Weekly Shounen Sunday's Hayate no Gotoku!! Character Popularity Poll!

2009-07-14T01:45:00.000-07:00

And now I shall announce the results of the character popularity poll for Hayate no Gotoku!!, not K-ON!, but Hayate no Gotoku!!... I'll also announce the votes each character of the Top 10 list have. Here goes!

1. Katsura Hinagiku (4185 votes)
2. Maria (1814 votes)
3. Sanzenin Nagi (1776 votes)
4. Ayasaki Hayate (1366 votes)
5. Mystery Girl? (1005 votes)
6. Segawa Izumi (905 votes)
7. Nishizawa Ayumu (888 votes)
8. Aizawa Sakuya (881 votes)
9. Harukaze Chiharu (705 votes)
10. Saginomiya Isumi (437 votes)

H.I.N.A. Mankai, Hi Hi! H.I.N.A. Hinagiku, Hi Hi!!!

First of all... WHAT IN THE WORLD IS WITH THE AMOUNT OF VOTES HINA HAS?! I mean Maria's votes are WAY~ too far to even be the 1st runner up... Seriously, what's with 'moe, cool, tsundere' type people? (Imagine Mio, Hinagiku and Shana fighting each other...)

Secondly, the main protagonist Hayate's not even in the 2nd place... he fails as the main character... sad. Even Nagi beats him which is SO unreal...

Guess that's about everything for this character poll... I wonder if they'll have a second one?

Dengeki Polls Top 10 Spring 2009 Animes!

2009-07-14T01:37:00.000-07:00

A poll that caught my eyes and now I'm gonna share about which spring 2009 anime scored which place.

1. K-ON!

2. Higashi no Eden
3. Saki

4. FullMetal Alchemist: BROTHERHOOD

5. Sengoku BASARA
6. Dragonball Kai
7. Valkyria Chronicles
8. Basquash!
9. Asura Cryin'

10. Cross Game

And A.G.A.I.N. K-ON! owns... man seriously, how influencial can K-ON! get? It's everywhere now... It's weird how Cross Game managed to enter the Top 10... I mean, Hayate no Gotoku!!'s much better than it.

All in all, K-ON! rules and obviously, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu Season 2 loses to it. BADLY.

K-ON! 3rd Character Popularity Poll~!

2009-07-14T01:18:00.000-07:00

Whoo~! Finally! The 3rd Character Poll for K-ON! Let's see... the results are as the following (Btw, I had to make out what it actually meant in Thai so if it's not accurate, don't blame me.):

1. Hirasawa Yui

2. Akiyama Mio

3. Tainaka Ritsu

4. Kotobuki Tsumugi

5. Nakano Azusa

6. Hirasawa Ui

7. Yamanaka Sawako

8. Manabe Nodoka

9. The workers at the fast food parlour in Ep. 1

10. Yui with 'husky voice' in Ep. 5

11. Ui in Mio, Ritsu and Mugi's imagination in Ep. 3

12. Sawako in 'wild' costume in retelling of her past in Ep. 5

And that's about~ it. I'm pretty surprised that Mio's in 2nd place and Yui who has officially become Top 1 instead of her... SERVES MIO RIGHT! That's the way it should be! I mean Yui's the REAL MAIN HEROINE, not Mio...

I'm also glad that Ritsu has owned herself in the Top 3 AS the Top 3... she was Top 5 in the first character poll which disappointed me...

And from Top 9 - 12, it didn't really made any sense why any person would vote for those people/scenes. Seriously, it didn't.

Guess that's all I should say for now... maybe posting a Yui pic here should be ok since she's the winner... Congrats, Hirasawa Yui-san and congrats to her seiyuu, Toyosaki Aki for doing a spectacular job in her first main role in an anime!

けいおん! vs. 涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱

2009-07-06T06:15:00.000-07:00

The two most anticipated animes are now in a grand showdown! K-ON! and Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu!

Those two are battling for popularity, 'moeness', music, story plot and so much more.

Don't Say "Lazy" vs. God Knows... , Cagayake Girls! vs. Hare Hare Yukai.

Now, we shall await for the results...

K-ON! ftw~!!!

K-ON! 2nd Character Poll feat. Mio Akiyama~!

2009-07-06T05:58:00.000-07:00

K-ON!'s Mio Akiyama ftw! (Again, ftw = for the win) Don't get me wrong, I'm no Mio fan! I'm a Ritsu fan! A~NY~WAY! The 2nd poll for K-ON!'s out featuring Mio Akiyama and her costumes.

Japanese fanatics of Mio are called to choose their favourite Mio in her uniform, her kimono, her stage costume for the Fuwa Fuwa Time performance, her retarded "Moe~Moe~ Kyun!" waitress uniform, her swimsuit and finally her santa claus clothes.

So much 'moe' emitting from just one character from one great anime. Makes sense right?

Oh and btw... Mio's chosen as the 'best bride' in Japan in the 'If you had a choice, which girl in the anime world would you marry?' poll...

Again, Mio-chuan ftw. I don't think the Mio-ism will subside anytime soon...

CLANNAD ~After Story~: Another World -Kyou's Chapter-

2009-07-02T04:00:00.000-07:00

Summary: In an alternate timeline, Ryou confesses her love to Tomoya and they both begin dating. However, Tomoya then notices that Kyou has been acting strange, and confronts her. Kyou admits that she is also in love with him, but never confessed because she was too scared to risk being rejected or hurting Ryou's feelings. This creates an uneasy love triangle between Tomoya, Kyou, and Ryou. Finally, Tomoya finally admits that he loves Kyou. Ryou, already knowing that Tomoya loves Kyou more, encourages Kyou to work up the courage to confess. Ryou breaks up with Tomoya with no hard feelings, wanting to cherish both the good and painful memories they had together. Tomoya and Kyou then officially become a couple.

I won't be posting CLANNAD and it's sequel ~After Story~ as well as the OVA for Tomoyo's Chapter and so... here's my so-called review for Kyou's special chapter. Ugh...

To me, Kyou's an emotional girl who wants Tomoya all so badly but sacrifices for her sis. Good points: I can learn the bondage and sacrifices among sisters and what having a sis feels like. Bad points: WAY~ too emo, not as eye-catching as Tomoyo's Chapter.

My real review: Not as well planned as Tomoyo's Chapter but still, KyoAni keeps the quality for this anime after CLANNAD ~After Story~ ended for quite a while... (If they could have the quality control for K-ON! & Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu Season 2, I'll love KyoAni forever.)

Kyou's story... it's obviously the path, her path, from the visual novel. I dunno but her path's quite boring and I sighed in disappointment throughout the whole OVA... maybe Kyou doesn't impress me or something. Tomoyo rocks more. XD

I'm not trying to compare Tomoyo & Kyou's paths. Both have their unique story plots and others but Tomoyo wins, story plot wise. It was way~ more better than Kyou's. It didn't even make me shed a tear... (Actually, I ALMOST shed a tear while watching Tomoyo's Chapter. ALMOST. But it didn't happen... LOL.)

Other than that, I praise KyoAni's quality control for their CLANNAD/~After Story~ project and music wise, one of the best apart from K-ON!. CLANNAD/~After Story~'s story plots is and might always be one of the best in my book for the time being. (Since K-ON!'s the best right now...)

There's another anime, 'Angel Beats', by Key (CLANNAD's visual novel producer) that I'll certainly check out. I hope Aniplex will impress me. I HOPE.

Rating (for Kyou's Chapter): 2.5/5 (Recommended for Kyou fans, CLANNAD/~After Story~ fans who thinks CLANNAD/~After Story~ shouldn't end. LOL.)

Rating (for CLANNAD/~After Story~): 4.8/5 (Highly recommended)

Rating (for Tomoyo's Chapter): 4/5 (Recommended for Tomoyo fans such as myself, CLANNAD/~After Story~ fans who loves the anime and drama, as well as Tomoya x Tomoyo.)

K-ON!

2009-06-26T05:40:00.001-07:00

Summary: K-On!'s story revolves around four Japanese high school girls who join their school's light music club to try to save it from being abolished. However, they are the only members of the club, and at first Yui Hirasawa has no experience playing musical instruments or reading sheet music.

This is one-- no-- the best anime I've ever watched so far this year... seriously! K-ON! is, and should be, one of the most anticipated animes this year! I've been yapping about this ever since its start till its end. 'SOME' students at school know about this anime... I just know it.

The production was done by Kyoto Animation (which was also the company in charge of Lucky Star, CLANNAD and Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu). The graphic's are not bad but in episode 12, it went from "wow" to "what's up with their singing faces?!", graphically of course.

There are altogether 13 episodes for this anticipated anime... ONLY 13.

Music wise, they have one of the best OSTs and in-anime songs like 'Fuwa Fuwa Time', 'Watashi no Koi wa Hotchi-Kiss' etc... The opening, 'Cagayake Girls!' and especially the ending, 'Don't Say Lazy' might not be able to leave my head for a long~ time. This is all the work of the company 'Pony Canyon' and the vocals of two hit seiyuus and singers now, Toyosaki Aki (Yui) and Hikasa Yoko (Mio). Sato Satomi (Ritsu) and Kotobuki Miwako (Tsumugi) aren't bad at all it's just that they're not as popular as the two vocalists of the anime.

Story plot, 'ichiban'. Seriously, nice story line. But the ending's well... kinda dissappointing somehow. I just hope that KyoAni will make a Season 2 for K-ON! as it is EXTREMELY, and I mean, EXTREMELY popular in Japan and Taiwan. (Whoa, Taiwan too?) The manga's storyline's basically the base for the anime, it's just that the anime added some stuff and 'oomph' to the original K-ON!. (Mio x Ritsu scenes which made me frustrated, special winter ep...)

Overall, this is an anime I'll review for at least 3 times. It's truly a really nice anime and I recommend it to all people who like slice-of-life, music, humour and most importantly 'moe' kind of animes. Actually, scrap that. It's a MUST WATCH for anime lovers!!! XD

P.S.: Thanks 'Yui' (Cynthia Chin) for telling me about K-ON!! If it weren't for you, this anime won't be in my 'watch and favourite' list! And also... RITSU TAINAKA ROCKS!!!

Rating: 5/5 (Must watch)

K-ON! Characters Popularity Poll~!

2009-06-23T05:57:00.001-07:00

Yup, a character popularity poll for the HIGHLY anticipated Kyoto Animation anime (other than Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu S2), K-ON!!!

According to another website, I guess this poll was conducted BEFORE Sawako showed her true colours and before Azunyan (Azusa) came to the K-ON! universe.

Oh well... but it's already pretty obvious that Mio Akiyama will be the TOP 1 since lots of people and I mean LOTS of people like her. Japan has even released the bass, headphones and handphone she used in the anime. They didn't even do anything like that for the actual main character, Yui Hirasawa! (Doesn't make any sense at all!!!)

I find it somewhat depressing seeing Ritsu getting like, TOP 5 instead of TOP 3... (MUGI!!! *mad*) Personally, Ritsu should've been the TOP 3 instead since she's the one who prevented the Light Music Club from being abolished! Without Ritsu, there will be NO K-ON!!

I guess that's it. Well, I think there's gonna be a 2nd poll. I hope Ritsu's votes would increase...

Hakushaku to Yousei

2009-06-08T07:42:00.000-07:00

Summary: The story is set in Victorian England. It follows the adventures of 17-year old Lydia Carlton, who is nicknamed the "Fairy Doctor" due to her interest in fairies. Her life takes a 180-degrees turn when she meets Edgar J.C Ashenbert, the "Legendary Blue Knight Count" and his crew on a sea voyage to London. Edgar hires her as an adviser during his quest to obtain a treasured sword that was supposed to be handed down to him by his family.

Well... a typical shoujo anime about magical stuff and fairies though the animation's okay... funny that animes like this still exist since everything's so sci-fi nowadays...

Storyline, so-so... overall, well it's not bad... the suspense music rocks though, I might download the OST. XD

Other than that, it's recommended for those who like shoujo animes, cuz seriously... this is a shoujo-SHOUJO anime... 2x shoujo means well... SHOUJO! Sheesh...

Rating: 2/5 (Recommended for SHOUJO anime fans only)

Arrival of Seiyuu, Chihara Minori

2009-05-29T08:05:00.000-07:00

Daicon' Featuring Chihara Minori
Date: 11/7/09 ~ 12/7/09
Venue: Multimedia University, Cyberjaya (The Grand Hall)

A seiyuu's coming to Malaysia, my beloved hometown... AND I CAN'T MEET HER!!! TT_TT

My sadness aside, the seiyuu that will be visiting Malaysia in a convention called 'Daicon' on the 11th-12th of July is Chihara Minori (Minorin as called affectionally by her fans). She's known for roles like Yuki Nagato from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Kagura Tsuchimiya from Ga-Rei Zero, Chiaki Minami from the Minami-Ke series and several others.

At 'Daicon', she'll be performing live, autograph signing, Q/A sessions...

And so, those who're in KL (lucky you...), don't miss this extremely exciting event!

Toradora!

2009-05-29T07:51:00.000-07:00

Summary: Toradora!'s story begins with the male protagonist Ryūji Takasu who is frustrated at trying to look his best as he enters his second year of high school. Despite his gentle personality, his eyes make him look like an intimidating delinquent, so he is utterly hopeless about his chances of getting a girlfriend anytime soon, and does not have many close friends either. After being greeted by his hungover mother in the morning, Ryūji goes to school and is happy to find that he gets to be in the same class with his best friend Yūsaku Kitamura and a girl he has a crush on, Minori Kushieda. However, it is then that he unexpectedly knocks into "the school's most dangerous animal of the highest risk level"—Taiga Aisaka—who just happens to also be in his class, and is a good friend of Minori.

Taiga has a negative attitude towards others and will not hesitate to snap at people. After meeting Ryūji, she takes an instant dislike of him. Taiga comes from a rich family, but she has moved out to live on her own due to family issues. She is coincidentally living in an apartment next to Ryūji's. When Ryūji discovers that Taiga has a crush on Yūsaku, and Taiga finds out about Ryūji's affections towards Minori, Ryūji suggests that they cooperate to win the objects of their affections. Taiga exploits the fact that Ryūji will do anything to get closer to Minori. She makes him her personal servant, getting him to do all her household chores (cooking and cleaning). Taiga spends a lot of her time over at his house, so much that she could almost be considered a member of his family. Since Ryūji spends a lot of time with Taiga, he has opened up to her world and to a side of her that most people do not see. The two also try to help each other improve the way people view them. However people they know from school start to become curious about their strange relationship and rumors begin to spread about them behind their backs.

Ok, long summary... Anyway, this anime's quite meaningful. A slice-of-life, comedy filled anime that I recommend to anyone who loves anime. Graphics-wise, it made me think of Zero no Tsukaima and Shakugan no Shana... the weird thing is why does J.C. Staff like hiring Kugimiya Rie to be the main lead? AGAIN she's a tsundere kid named Taiga... from Shana to Louise to Nagi and NOW to Taiga... how tsundere can she get?

The second opening and ending songs are my favourites in the whole series cuz of Yui Horie (Silky Heart) and a reminder of Vitamin C (Orange)... come to think of it, I've had orange for the weeks I've watched Toradora!... Ah whatever, this concludes my short review.

Rating: 4.8/5 (Highly recommended)

Kamen no Maid Guy

2009-05-19T00:49:00.000-07:00

Summary: Naeka Fujiwara is the granddaughter of a billionaire and the heir to his fortune. She is pursued by those who desire her inheritance. In order to protect her from harm and ensure her proper upbringing, the amazing and fearsome Kogarashi, the masked Maid Guy is summoned.

A really funny anime which is quite 'hentai' sometimes. The story which centers around Naeka's really interesting and funny and well, the anime's comedy parts are mostly cuz of her oversized breast. There are various characters who are pretty interesting in this anime too like the ninja sisters Shizuku and Tsurara and Liz, a 13-year-old child prodigy from England.

Though that's all said, there are some stuff I noticed in this anime. Fubuki's the only one who can really torture Kogarashi for some reasons, making her quite cool at times, hehe. (Fubuki rocks!) Naeka on the other hand's pretty good at Kendo and in one of the episodes (Ep. 7, liked it!) showed off her skill quite well and although she says she does Kendo to make her slim, I think she really likes the sport itself.

P.S.: For those who like seiyuu stuff, Toyoguchi Megumi, [Yukari Takeba (P3), Winry Rockbell (FMA), Kuzuha Kirika (HnG!)] and also seiyuu of Fubuki sounds a lot like Tanaka Rie's [Mitsuru Kirijo (P3), Lacus Clyne (GS/D)] Maria (HnG!). Well, it depends if you noticed, that's all.

Well, this anime's recommended for those who can stand quite a lot of 'hentai' stuff and really loves comedy!

Rating: 3.5/5 (Not bad)

Idolmaster XENOGLOSSIA

2009-05-16T06:39:00.000-07:00

Summary: The show centers around mecha and reimagines the ten prospective idols as fighter pilots of those robots, eight of them also posing as students. The large robots in this case are called IDOLs and their pilots are called Idolmasters. In the show, Haruka Amami, initially underconfident with herself, passes an audition to be a singing idol and she is sent to Tokyo to start a career in the entertainment. She doesn't know that the agency that recruited her is actually a front for a big task force which uses robots to save the Earth from falling fragmented pieces of the moon. Yukiho Hagiwara and Iori Minase, who also want to be idols, are also taken by the same task force. [From Wikipedia]

Yeah, so you've read the summary. (right???) This anime's nice, graphics are like certain animes I've watched since Sunrise is on it... (Mai-HiME, Mai-Otome...) The storyline plots are really good and towards the end it's simply touching. But there's something really weird about this anime, why do the 'Masters' get over-obsessed about their 'IDOLs'? I mean it's sick and wrong, especially Chihaya. She's a psycho, TOTAL psycho hands-down.

This anime's mostly 'bout the love between 'IDOLs' and 'Masters' (Get the pun? Idolmaster. XD -_-;) and saving the world (or should I say Japan) from destruction. It also talks about friendship which really (somehow) touched me. Not trying to be a spoiler, but don't let Yukiho deceive you...

A~ny~way! Guess Sunrise did a pretty good job since this anime was right before Code Geass. Sunrise, BANZAI~!

P.S.: Azusa Miura a.k.a. the Manager and Makoto Kikuchi, the Ace rock!!!

Overall rating: 4/5 (Recommended)

Introduction

2009-05-16T05:44:00.000-07:00

Ok, before I start posting anything on this specific anime blog... first things first, an introduction.

I'll be posting the animes that I've finished ONLY on the day I've finished it. So, I guess that's easy to understand...

I won't be posting any screenshots... (cuz I don't know how)... unless someone teaches me how to do something like that. But till that day, I'll just be posting an image showing the anime I've watched followed by a short review and that's just about it.

FYI: I'll recommend some of the animes in my blog, based on the number I've rated it.

E.G.: 1/5, 2/5, 4.5/5 ...

Guess that's all...