I’m not dead! (No really…)

Yeah, sorry for the distinct lack of…well…anything…over the xmas and new year period. I was mostly at the folks; and was technologically impared whilst I was staying over for the holidays. Though I had internet access of a sort, it was far too slow to consider doing any blogging, and I was also pretty busy.

Suffice to say, this now means I’m somewhat behind, yet again, with my anime blogging. In the interests of playing catch-up over the next few days, I’ll likely dispense the large scale, full plot posts for snap-shot type things.

I’ll also put up a ‘what I’m watching post’ for the new anime season. Kannagi and Akane-Iro have finished airing now (Toradora, Index and Tytania look to be carrying on). So I need something to fill up the slots!

From my initial look at the new season, I’m most interested in Kurokami (reminds me of Shana) and White Album (potential for a good new romance?), but I’ll have to evaluate their first episodes to be sure. RIDE-BACK and Maria+Holic might also be worth looking into, though they’re not my usual cups of tea. (the former has motorbike mecha and the latter involves a TRAP!).

And, as my New Years gift to those whom are interested, have a new wallpaper:

Its Alice Margatroid from Touhou, the mistress of dolls, sometimes known as the seven coloured puppeteer. Which I’ve taken literally in this design (LOL). As per normal, click the image to see the full size version…

Keep tuned!

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Kannagi 8

Kannagi, you say? What is this phonomenon?

Eheh, yeah, its true that I’ve actually not watched any of this since way back in November. I’ll try to catch up with this and other stuff. No really!

Anyhow, this episode starts with atrocious weather. There’s a knock at the door, and its:

Oh shi-! Scary Daitetsu attack!

Anyway, turns out he was locked out of his home, then arrested for climbing on his own roof. Unlucky! So he turns up at Jin and Nagi’s place soaked instead.

Interestingly, this ep establishes alot of facts. The main one being that Daitetsu and Jin are childhood friends of some degree; and evidently, Jin envies Daitetsu’s muscularity (as well as his art skill):

Nagi can only make a bizarre face.

In any case, after Daitetsu dries himself up; he starts to blow his own mind trying to figure out Nagi and Jin’s family relationship. He remembers the scene Jin made in the maid cafe, which obviously brought up the issue that he sees her a woman despite the fact she’s his alleged sister…

Personally, I just think Jin’s a bit of rampant hormonal driven pervert (like many cliche anime guys). But whatever. Anyway, Daitetsu’s imagination scenes are full of hopeless Nagi fanservice and manage to be so ludicrous that they manage to be amusing…

Of course, given the usual anime rule, it doesn’t matter if its your sister anyway. But its enough to disturb Daitetsu. So he drags Jin out to try and confirm things. During this, Jin manages to shoot himself in the foot repeatedly, proving that he is an awful liar. As a result, Nagi intervenes with a scissor kick and drags him away, citing his poor memory and that Daitetsu should dry himself properly.

However, in the time honoured anime tradition of eavesdropping, Daitetsu overhears Nagi saying she’s not his sister at all. (as is the truth) He then believes she is obviously a woman abusing Jin’s love for her.

During dinner, Daitetsu tries to ask a question again, and freezes in the process. Coincidently, a blueprint for the goddess wood carving Jin was trying to make before flaps out of the cupboard. Daitetsu uses this as material.

“Doesn’t this look like Nagi-san?”

Amazingly, he has of course accidently stumbled upon the real truth. Nagi decides the only way out is with the truth now. She says she is the statue. But…Daitetsu interprets this as meaning that Nagi was indeed the model for this work. Jin uses that misinterpretation to redirect the conversation into an apology over how he didn’t finish it even though Daitetsu got him the wood.

Whereupon we get the revelation that the wood wasn’t given to him. He actually stole it from the shrine, preventing it from being ritually burnt. Err….

Well, it was an obvious reaction. But Daitetsu just thinks she’s being a psycho occult nutcase as she beats him up and instead grows to hate her. She also gives him a speech how he’s going to be cursed from now on.

He has nightmares as a result, and runs out screaming into the rain, running to the shrine to apologise. The electrics in the house have also gone. Jin sees Daitetsu run by and thinks Nagi scared him. He goes to check on her, but finds her gone from her room.

Up on the hill, Daitetsu bows and apologises to the gods. Lightning strikes, causing a stalagmite to appear. Along with…Nagi?

Uh…evil version?

She even talks in a different kind of voice. Whew…

The next day, Jin gets angry at Nagi for not remembering yesterday. She collapsed and Daitetsu brought her back. Jin also tries to probe Daitetsu for what occured, but he cannot put it into words. He goes around the whole day scaring people off as he falls deeper and deeper into thought.

This cumulates into a face-off between Nagi and Daitetsu, which is misintepreted by the Sempai’s as being a fight over Jin’s love (oh dear…) after they saw Jin and Daitetsu arguing earlier…

Uh oh… and so that episode closes.

Well, it was MUCH better than episode 7’s cack filler. I probably shouldn’t have left watching it so long. I’ll get up to date with episode 9 and 10 soon.

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Kannagi 7

Whats this, I’m actually vaguely on time with this Kannagi post? LIES!

Ahem, anyway. This week is… a total and utter filler episode.

Nagi spends 90% of the time locked in a closet, apparently just because she was upset that Jin recorded over her finale recording of her favourite magical girl anime. Ludicrous. Are you, like, a three year old, Nagi?

This was also primarily an excuse to gather all of the current characters together and see what happens. Maybe I’m becoming jaded, but this episode defeated itself with the most epic facevault in the history of man. They spend most of the first five minutes implying Jin did something perverse to her, only to turn full circle and introduce that this upset was all about a video recording. <headdesk>

(sigh) I don’t know why, but that ruined the episode for me; and kinda offset the minor amusement derived from Zange chan molesting Jin off camera.

In fact, it ~almost~ seemed like this episode was deliberately created for product placement. (of Sony , in case you were wondering). Whilst Code Geass could get away with its needless Pizza Hutt advertisements (because in that case, they were actually just tossed in there nonchalently and managed to be amusing), this kinda seemed just…off…

I know, I know, I should appreciate the randomness. I would have, under normal circumstances. But you can’t go painting something out to be a serious episode only to deflate it. If it started as an obvious filler, I could’ve taken it…

Its a shame, considering how much I’ve enjoyed things up to now. I’ll still keep watching, mind you, and hope we don’t come across other iron turkeys! (most anime seasons have one, so its okay!)

Personally, I thought it would’ve been better to just leave her there, Jin…

Not what a hardcore Hikikomori wants to hear, Tsugumi, heh…

Yes Zange, please do…

Tsugumi’s dirty expressions from the strange sounds eminating from Zange and Jin was the only moment of true comedy in the episode, I thought…

I got reminded of american pie here. “But its okay, I have spares!”

Sadly, Jin is not a true man. He only managed to discharge blood rather than semen.

And its a needless Yaoi moment taken to new extremes…

See, she came out by her bloody self in the end! So what was the point of all that angst in the episode?

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Kannagi 6

Yeah, late as per normal, I know. Been a busy week. No really…

This week on Kannagi; buying clothes for goddesses and the infection of maid cafe’s.

We begin with Jin sneakily calling up Tsugumi. She misinterprets that he wants to have a date with her when he asks if she’s free in the afternoon. So when Nagi arrives at the meeting place, she becomes shocked. Turns out she was conned into a shopping trip to buy our favourite goddess some clothes. Poor Tsugumi. Then she asks about the budget Nagi has, and she proudly presents her 10,000 Yen note, thinking Jin has given her free reign with a fortune…

Now, to me, that’s actually still a fair bit of money for clothes shopping. (106 dollars or 69 pounds!) But apparently, Tsugumi must have come to a designer shopping mall or something, since everything is way expensive; and Nagi can only afford like two underwear sets and a T-Shirt.

Apparently this would make me a cheapskate. Meh, probably true. I can’t even begin to comprehend the fortunes that girls spend on clothes shopping…

We also get the usual jokes at the expense of the flat chest:

No, the red circling is actually part of the scene…I didn’t add it or anything…LOL…

After various showing off/should I show off pseudo-angst moments from Tsugumi and Nagi, both girls are given the smackdown seeing a large chested 14 year old girl entering the shop and talking embarrasingly with the shop clerk about her size. (Large chested 14 year olds? Why am I reminded of Gurren Lagans stupidity here?). We also have Nagi wondering whether she needs a part time job… CLICHE! <cough>

After that, we switch to some indeterminate time later with the art club. The meganekko sempai wants to go a maid cafe that has recently opened, being the Yuri enthusiast that she is… and she asks our Otaku friend for tips, which gets him irate as usual for being stereotyped:

But anyway, consensus is eventually reached, and they decide to go there for an obviously anti-curricular trip. The costumes manage to immediately break Daitetsu:

And naturally, Tsugumi and Nagi just ~happen~ to be working there. (It was pretty obvious given the foreshadowing in the previous scene). Various embarassments follow.

Having played some old-school DOS Bishoujo games myself, I gave a chuckle seeing Nagi’s 256-colour VGA sprite rendition:

I particularily recommend ”Season of Sakura”, by and the by. Excellent game.

Hearing about Nagi at the Cafe by looking at the Nagi fanclub blog (LOL), Zange also decides to get in on the gig, since after all:

So she says. That said, by the time she arrives, Nagi has already quit at Jin’s urging, so poor Zange has to pick up the slack and can’t escape either…

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Kannagi 5

This week on Kannagi, the means of gathering power, and the brooding conflicts which await. Having seen Zange-chan’s introductory episode last time, this week we have the comedy of Jin finding out about the Official Nagi fanclub which has somehow sprung up at school.

We also see the hilarity and issues that Zange has with controlling her possessed human, Harua. This begins with the cooking contest that Zange challenges Nagi with. Sadly, Harua decides to not help her at all in this situation, so Zange ends up making a piece of charcoal. Nagi’s dish on the other hand looks like an exceptional gourmet, and is prepared with skill and precision. If only it didn’t taste all wrong…

Nagi also gets to ‘power-up’ because all of the students at school give her their support. This manifests in the ability to make a bright beam of light shine from her magical girl stick. The scene of her shining the beam of light off the bald head of the educational advisor was pretty funny.

Heh, if you want advice on how to play a good god game, look here… Nagi has her technique down…

Why they had a statistic eyecatch this week is beyond me. But its still pretty amusing…

That you are, Nagi, that you are…

LOL, a cliche POWER-UP FMV scene.

Hahahaha… thats actually pretty impressive, his head’s like some kind of prism…

Yes Jin, get used to it…

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Kannagi 4

Yeah, I know, I’m behind everyone; but I’ve been remarkably busy this week. I’ll try to do a splurge of posts tonight.

Anyhow, this week on Kannagi, its Zange-chan’s introductory episode! Nagi is talking about being an idol in order to gain followers since her power is going to be reduced by the tree being cut down. Jin is distracted by this thought at school, and is picked on for it at the art club. However, he does in the process hear about the town’s latest idol, Zange, a girl who cosplays as a sister and wonders the back allies accepting confessions for 100 yen. In any case, he’s sent to buy some supllies for the club, and decides to take a shortcut through a back alley. He hears a commotion, and sees Zange being troubled. So, Jin, displaying a greater sense of nobility than usual, saves her (partially) from the random anime backstreet thugs ™, somehow dodging a punch in the process. He gets licked in the face as compensation. 0_o He then sees Zange-chan on the TV doing an interview the next day and points it out to Nagi, whom of course gets a bit pissed off and explains the fact that they’re sister goddesses originally born from the same tree. Nagi goes to look at the tree on the other side of the river, only to find it intact, unlike Nagi’s tree, which brings up the puzzle of why and how she’s manifesting. After some searching, Nagi is threatened by Zange holding a spider impurity to her face whilst engaging in some hostile banter, and we learn Zange is possessing the body of a human (which is a taboo, according to Nagi). Jin randomly arrives with Hula-Hoops (WTF?) in the nick of time to see this incident. However, the next day, Zange decides she’s gonna move into Jin’s house too… (oh lord)

So yeah, plot, zomg. And an almost Ah! My Goddess vibe going on with Zange deciding to randomly move in with Nagi and Jin. Surely the world will explode if you concentrate the world’s various divinities into one place? Lol. Oh well, we got to see all the sides of Zange’s character, including her split personality (though her’s is a true one shared with her possessed body, rather than a hilarious fake one like Nagi’s). This included her frankly nasty side.

Still, she’s the perfect counter for her onee-chan. And they’re both lunatics, I tell you. Oh well, I’m stil greatly enjoying this nonsense, so yay.

Nagi ‘I need to become an object of worship’. Well, you know what they say about your body being a temple and all that. I’d leave you an offering. Bwahaha…(good lord I’m full of innuendo today…)

Jin imagines Nagi in Idol mode whilst trying to sketch a roman emperor statue. Lol.

Now, now Zange-chan, Jun basically did nothing to save you besides dodging a random punch.

But apparently it was worth a good licking…
Am I the only one who see’s something wrong with the idea of healing via holy spit from a nun/goddess…?

Yes.

.

.

.

What? Don’t look at me like that…

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