Motto Bijutsu, Isogu!

Well, I’ve a had a new sketch and a wallpaper waiting on the sidelines for a little while now, as I didn’t want to break up the flurry of previews just for this, but now that the First Impressions posts are over (and I had to end on such a sour note), I feel that now is the ideal time to immediately throw this out there, since hey, it’ll also cheer me up a little. So yeah: More Artwork, Hurry! (Motto Bijutsu, Isogu!) LOL

First up, its a brand new grown up Carlie!! (squee!!)

I thought she deserved a newer, better sketch. (The older one can be found on the Miscellaneous/Unsorted Page, near the bottom, as its pretty old). I’m especially impressed with this rendition of her, though I’m using the prior costume I made for her rather than inventing something wholly new again.

As I explained before, Seiken Densetsu III is one of my all time favourites because of its most excellent party creation system and 4 pronged class change possibilities. And of course, I quite often pick Carlie for my teams, though in the game, she looks much younger. She is actually 15 in the game, but being a half elf, this means she actually looks like a 10 year old. This version of her is my rendition of how she would appear at, oh, around about 24, though I toned down the puffiness of her hair in favour of curly/wavy.

You may have gathered I seem to enjoy drawing girls with excellent hats. Why? I have no idea. Personal quirk, I guess. I love hat wearing girls almost as much as I love tsunderes. In fact, a little silly fact for you: one of the (rather daft) original ideas for the name of this blog was actually “The man with H.A.T.” (Hige, Anime Obsession, Tsundere Love). Probably because that describes me. Though I don’t have a stupid Hige (beard) at the moment.

Anyway, heres a new wallpaper as well:

Yessiree, its another ToraDora wall. Whilst its slightly old news, I found the three panel colour manga about Taiga and Ryuji sharing Pocky on the left and thought it was so mind-numbingly cute and awesome that I HAD to do something with it.

I also combined it with another couple of my favourite cute Taiga X Ryuji pictures to make this, and despite the fact that it was a fairly quick job that only took a half hour or so, I’m still pretty happy with the result. Just looking at it makes me continually go “Awwww!”. I think the Palmtop Tiger and Chibi Dragon censoring really makes that strip, doesn’t it?

As always, click the images to see them bigger!

Anyways, yeah, that has cheered me up a little. Hope you enjoy the stuff, and keep tuned.

P.S. Oh yeah, nearly forgot:

Marisa stole my 10,000 hits precious thing!

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Winter/Spring 2009 Anime

Well, I’ve been immensely busy…

But, here I am, finally, with a ‘what’s cooking this season?’ post, having finally got around to watching all of the initial episodes. Let me state immediately for the record that I’m not blogging all of this. I’ve still got to catch up with the blogging of last seasons shows for crying out loud. If only work didn’t consume a ludicrous amount of my time…

Also, the format will be:

• Title
• LOLCaption

• Genre
• Summary
• Screen Caps
• Likeliness of me watching/pursuing…

Anyhow, without further ado:

White Album

Ah, the romanctic eighties pop-scene (no really…)
Romance

Well, this looks to be the winter romance entry. Its been a while since theres been a good one. I took up Akane-Iro under the false pretense that it could have been something, but it devolved into mind-slop (in a good way, mind you, I still mostly enjoyed that series). So, again, the last proper romance focused series I finished would be True Tears. Which was probably this time last year. Jeez. Though I suppose Toradora is partially filling it currently in a rather quirky little way.

Anyway, this is set in the eighties, and follows our male protagonist and his love for childhood friend Yuki, whom has recently become a pop-idol. However, she has become friends with an already famous idol, Ogata Rina, and evidently, a love triangle forms. I also think Yuki has a thing going on with her manager, whom I believe is Rina’s brother. And then there’s the other friends hanging around. Who knows what could happen.

What is interesting in this is how character thoughts are articulated through on-screen subtitles, which is an interesting direction choice that I’ve not seen before. Usually, the characters have monologues to themselves. I also suck up a good sappy piece of entertainment every so often, so thats good. That said, this hasn’t done anything to totally grab me yet, much to my surprise. Its felt, I dunno, wishy-washy? Even after two eps.

Yuki does look very ‘eighties’ here with the weird hair, doesn’t she?

Yeah, maybe, but its in a cute way, right? The subtitle is of him watching her (above) on the telly.

I did? Well, I guess it never hurts, right?

Likelihood of Watching/Pursuing? : 7/10 ~ I’m interested since I like this stuff, but it hasn’t grabbed me yet.

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Maria + Holic

How to take traps to new extremes…
Yuri/Mindfuck

Eh, well what can I say? The LOL caption sums it all up. Its an anime about traps. If you’re not up to date with your 4chan vocabulary, a ‘trap’ is literally a guy whom is so beautiful that they can easily get away with being a girl, and is hence skilled in trapping poor innocent hearts (and crotches). They naturally wear clothing of the opposite gender and its very hard to tell the difference. The classic example is ‘Jun’ from ‘Happiness’, but there are innumerate others.

In this case, however, our trap goes to new extremes. She goes to an all girls school and everything. I have no doubt weirdness will ensue. This is definately one of those times where you get confused as whom in this Girls school is ACTUALLY a girl… (sigh…)

When I first watched this, I thought I had a very poor copy, but I eventually figured out that the animation is supposed to be favouring a pastel like, patterned effect, a bit like Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. The animation style certainly reminds me of that, along with the questionable sense of humour. Eh, its not my cuppa tea, but I know alot of people like this stuff.

Our premium trap, above, gets revealed in the first episode.

The catgirl landlady has a most excellently dressed dog. What the hell did I screencap this for?

Ah, the overflowing Yuri (or is it?) begins…

Likelihood of Watching/Pursuing? : 4/10 ~ Not really my thing….

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Asu no Yoichi

A Samurai learns the wonders of fanservice.
Harem

Again, not much to say here. Its the obvious fanservice show of the season, and it doesn’t even try to hide that fact. I laughed when the little girl is asked about the defining features of her older sister, and replies ‘She has huge breasts…’

Its very much a face-palm moment, I’ll agree. But at least it doesn’t pretend to be intellectual. Also, it does have the rare benefit of having a stronger than usual male lead. He actually appears to be a pretty adept swordfighter, rather a total loser as is often the case in these scenarios. I also sympathise with him getting lost in a department store. They are a terrifying place. And, he manages to get nicked by the cops at least three times in the episode, which is refreshing given how the perverts usually get away scott-free in anime.

So yeah. It might have potential if approached with low expectations.

Well, trust the man with the bow. Just do it!

Indeed. A wise choice. Who knows what that handbag thief could do with it.

The cops have some dirt on him. Brandishing a weapon in public, (supposed) kidnapping of a minor, and perversion. But then, he also stopped a thief, rescued a lost child, and apologised for his actions, so they have to let him go.

Likelihood of Watching/Pursuing? : 5/10 ~ Maybe. Depends on how bored I get.

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Kurokami

Dopplegangers galore and thirty-hit combos.
Fantasy Action/Mindfuck

See the below post for details of this. I’m definately watching it, and probably blogging it.

Likelihood of Watching/Pursuing? : 10/10 ~ Hell yes.

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RIDEBACK

Transforming mecha-motorbikes learn to do ballet.
Mecha

Well, this is last one I watched, since I’m not normally a mecha lover, but I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. Basically, there are psuedo-sentient motorbikes, called RIDEBACKs, which can operate in three dimensions more easily than usual, going into standing modes, having arm like attachments, and even understanding voice commands.

Its set a bit into the future, where the superpowers were apparently taken down by a band of freedom fighters using superior technology. Sounds a bit like a Command & Conquer plot to me with a weird high tech terrorist organization taking the reigns from the UN. Presumably this techology was the RIDEBACKs, but this is not actually stated.

Anyway, our protagonist is the grand-daughter of Ogata Rina, and is hence expected to be an entertainment star. I had to do a double take on that. Yep. Its true. IS IT ONE HELL OF A COINCIDENCE or is this show is related to White Album, above, huh? The generational gap is correct and everything since thats in the 80’s and this the 2020’s. LOL.

However, our protagonist goes in ballet, but tears a ligament, crashing face first on stage, ruining her career before it ever really takes off. Now at college, she accidently gets involved in the RIDEBACK club, and find her old dancing skills are surprisingly cross compatible in making the machine move like a dancer. Some amusing chereography here.

The GGP has taken over the world.

A thunderstorm leads our heroine to seek cover in a club building…

Wow, she has a pretty orgasmic face riding that thing…heh…

Likelihood of Watching/Pursuing? : 8/10 ~ Despite initial reservations, I’m quite interested in this…

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Akikan!

My girlfriend is a can of Melonade. I like to slurp her.
Fanservice

Well, that quote really sums it up. This is an obvious fanservice anime that follows the old ‘a strange object actually turns out to be a girl’ premise. Of course, you can do this right, and you can do it wrong. The right way is making a cool series like Demonbane, with its ancient Lovecraft ties and magical tomes that are girls. The wrong way is this way.

This guy randomly buys a can of melonade. He gives it a slurp, and it transforms into a girl. He believes this is a dream and tries repeatedly to do questionable things to her (sigh…). Then we have the ridiculous side-plots, like you must drink from this girl every day (kiss her), re-fill her from time to time (with extra cans from the machine), and make sure that she doesn’t lose her carbonation and go flat, because this kills her (so you need to put her in the fridge).

Despite the rampant objectophilia, there’s really nothing going for this series. Unless total mindless fanservice is your thing. Personally, I need a little more most of the time (even AkaneIro had more, thats as low as I go…)

And I wonder why anime gets a bad rep from the un-educated… (sigh…)

Wow, yeah. Everyone has hobbies like that.

Down the toilet, apparently…

Likelihood of Watching/Pursuing? : 1/10 ~ For the sake of my sanity. No.

---

Ah yeah, I’ll also continue to watch Toradora, Index, and Tytania.

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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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Toradora 9

Woah, I’m so ludicrously late on this it’s not even funny. I also have no excuses since I watched this last week and really enjoyed it. Oops…?

After the wonderful progress of the last episode, episode 9 opens with Ryuuji having a nightmare where he proposes  to Taiga. She accepts, but puts him in a huge kennel and then finds that she has given birth to many puppies:

Whereupon she says that these puppies are his, impliying he’s their father (whilst wearing a dog costume herself, like Yacchan, of course).

Anyway, turns out Taiga had the same nightmare and despised it. Also turns out today is the day when they all go to Ami’s villa. Taiga and Ryuuji arrive at the train station to find:

Yeah, Kitamura and Minori are doing some kind of syncronised dance whilst shouting at the tops of the voices in a public train station. Definately lunatics, I knew it all along! (its still pretty funny though). What’s more, Taiga and Ryuuji are dragged into this craziness, and when Ami comes along she pretends not to know them after seeing them perform some kind of many armed effigy of vishnu between the four of them.

On the train, we learn of Taiga and Ryuji’s plan to scare Minori witless with various horror based things, as Taiga knows she doesn’t like them, and thinks this is the ideal plan for Ryuuji to step in as the ‘protecting hero’. We also flashbacks of the competition of badminton they had before to decide who got the relationship focus during the summer. (Ryuuji won because a large friendly dog mauled her)

They arrive at the beach house, but Ami says it hasn’t been used in a year so is probably quite dirty. This sets Ryuuji’s absurd cleaning sense tingling:

So everyone else runs off to the beach whilst Ryuuji cleans the place in glee…

Later, everyone does pitch in. Then Ami wants everyone to buy some supplies and stuff, so Kitamura offers to go out on the bike in the shed. Ryuuji tries to get Taiga to go with him, but she ruins the chance, and Minori goes instead. (doh!) She says this does give them chance to prepare the house with spooky stuff. Whilst investigating the house, Ryuuji finds the bathroom. And apparently:

Ami is in the shower. He tries to leave, but she says ‘its okay, if you want to do it a little with me’. Wow, tease!

Whereupon she draws back the curtain and she’s fully clothed and is actually implying they should clean the bathroom. Poor Ryuuji. He runs off sobbing downstairs. Taiga seems to understand his whines (despite them not being coherent) that the ‘stupid chihuahua’ was toying around with a guys pure heart.

So Taiga goes upstairs, seeing this as an excuse to punish her. But, in the background we hear a scream. This time she was actually taking a shower so Taiga gets a vicious slap. Whereupon she returns to Ryuuji amazed about the ‘boing’, and gets quite literally ‘panned’ for her lewditidy. (is that even a word?):

When Minori returns from shopping, Taiga and Ryuji play their wet sponge prank on her, making her go wild with fear (supposedly)

Later, Ryuuji is preparing a curry for the group. There’s various arguments over whether it should be spicy or not. Almost finished, we hear Kitamura come in, offering to set the table:

Only, he appears to have forgotten to dress. This scene is comedy gold. Talk about a Naked Lunch, haha.

Minori goes into paparazzi mode with her camera phone, calling him a lewd guy, when Kitamura goes ‘oh please’, inadvertantly dropping the towel in the process:

You can Ryuuji starting to do his rugby dive to catch the towel and flip it back into place; but that doesn’t prevent Minori seeing something she wasn’t supposed to see…

Hence, Taiga and Minori are broken… Ami just calls him an idiot (she’s obviously used to him doing crazy things like this as his childhood friend, I guess…). As a result, Minori feints, believing the sight to be a result of the evil seaweed ghost, and requests ultra hot curry to recover. Ryuuji obliges:

With the ultra-spice-deluxe (as I call it…) which sends Minori into a barmy frenzy of delight (it just turns everyone else red). Later, Taiga is feeling ill from her curry sample. Kitamura says he has some stomach medicine in his room, and Ryuuji urges her to accept it, as its another chance to spend some time with him.

Meanwhile, Minori complements Ryuuji on his cooking, and they have a scene out on the balcony with the stars, where Ryuuji talks about the seaweed ghost. Ryuuji also pops the question of whether she’s ever had a boyfriend. She gives a long convulted answer that basically amounts to no, and admits she’s not ever felt the feeling of love before…

Even later, Taiga wanders into Ryuuji’s room, now with a recovered stomach. Its so recovered, that she’s somehow become hungry again. So Ryuuji makes her seconds. They then discuss what to do tommorow with regards to the plan. Taiga also comments she thought it would be great to spend a whole day with Kitamura, but in fact its just been tiring. She also remarks on how silly it is that:

I found this scene to be remarkably charming, with Taiga rubbing her feet against Ryuuji’s back.

Even though they refuse to be romantically attached due to their respective reverse crushes on their best friends, they really do have a strange and deep relationship all their own going on in the sidelines, and this episode really helped showcase that, which I thought was tremendously encouraging.

So yeah, sheer quality this episode. Since Ep 11 just came out, I’ll probably do 10 and 11 as a double whammy when I get round to watching it.

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Toradora 8

To quote Mark Twain: “Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” I had a stack load of things to do over the weekend that had been piling up. Not to mention Touhoumon still has its wicked claws in me. So yeah, late, blah etc.

Its actually a shame that all that delayed my viewing of this episode, which was, I think, absolutely awesome!

Carrying on from the proposed contest of sports last week, Minori is drawing lots:

Of course, being Minori, she manages to make a bizarre noise whilst doing so.

The selected contest is…wait for it…more swimming!

Of course, this leads to various bets. Ami says that if she wins, Ryuji will go to her villa for the summer break. Taiga says if she wins, Ami will have to do her recital of 100 impressions non stop and humiliate herself in front of the class.

There’s also a side bet going on around the class, that seems to somewhat favour Ami since Taiga can’t swim. However, this betting slip ends up on Ryuji’s desk by accident. He makes it into a paper airplane and strikes Taiga with it (with the amendment that he’s betting 300 on her, LOL).

Her rage after this is quite hilarious.

It also turns out Kitamura bet on Taiga. He gives Ryuji & Taiga some tickets to practice her swimming too. Ryuji tries to use this oppertunity to set Taiga up with Kitamura, but she gets embarrassed and the plan falls apart.

He then later finds Ami sat between two vending machines:

She apparently feels comfortable in narrow spaces. (what?!?) He tells her to stop pulling pranks on Taiga, but she thinks jealous Taiga is cute. She also says the Villa idea isn’t a prank.

He also finds Minori, who goes on about how she can trust him with Taiga again, though he denies that they’re having any relationship (though cannot deny her accusation that he ‘enhanced’ her bathing suit).

Fast forward to tommorow at the public pool:

LOL. Ryuji eventually drags her out of the kiddies paddling pool to practice. He tells her just to kick, and finds that she has immense extreme kicking power that applies just as well to swimming (no surprises there). After this revelation, he determines she might be able to win. She was apparently convinced of the opposite before.

However, the rain begins before they can continue to practice. Taiga wants to stay. Ryuji thinks its because of Kitamura; and then because of not wanting to lost to Ami. However…

Awww…looks like she’s actually doing this for Ryuji. But, being a dense idiot, he doesn’t realise. Of course, she can’t easily express this either. Eventually, the umbrella gets kicked into the air and she storms off, screaming that she won’t participate.

Ryuji reflects on his actions later, and stays up late enough to see his mother return. Taiga didn’t come over for dinner. His mother gives him some surprisingly practical wisdom before collapsing in the kitchen. He drags her to bed.

Next morning, Ryuji makes a peace offering with a lunchbox in the morning; and apologises. Taiga takes the food, but his fate still seems uncertain.

Ami shows up in a two piece, giving nosebleeds to all the guys. Time passes, and it almost looks as if Taiga’s not gonna show to the challenge, when…

LOL at all the floatation aides. However, all but one of these are decoy weapons. Taiga throws them out at the start of the challenge, distracting Ami. She then attacks her underwater and removes her bikini top, throwing it out, before grabbing her remaining float and swimming off at light speed:

Taiga gets a huge headstart whilst Ami is trying to defend her modesty. (What great tactics, lol) However, Taiga crinks her ankle when making her turn after a length. Ryuji leaps into to see if she’s okay. She tells him to shove off and be grateful shes doing this; before continuing, resisting the pain.

However, Ami has now managed to retie her strings and actually get going, making for a fast speed at starting to catch up. But, in the madness of lost top incident, the guys have gone balmy, and some of them fly headlong into the pool as Taiga sets off again, smashing Ryuji in the nut.

He sinks…

Taiga notices and shouts at him. He sees a vision of her and passes out.

He comes to…

Taiga is screaming at everyone because they were all cheering for Ami’s sudden turnabout victory and no one noticed Ryuji drowning. She even tells the PE teacher to get off him, because…

Woohoo! Progress!

Great stuff…

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Toradora 6-7

Yeah, I know, I should stop that. But I for some reason missed out on watching Toradora last week and instead decided to marathon episode 6 and 7 today.

Anyhow, Episode 6 was further development of our favourite evil idol, Ami. Taiga and Minori are determined to make her slip up and reveal her true personality. We also see the reason for her transfer to this school (to escape this creepy stalker guy). However, this didn’t work, and the guy is still following her.

Eventually, she does indeed take some cues from Taiga; and rather than cowering from the guy, she goes on a daemonic transformation, shows her true personality, and totally busts up his camera…

She also tries some seduction techniques on Ryuji, though refreshingly, they aren’t tremendously effective on him (he’s probably immune to such whimsy because of his lazy mother).

What the hell!? Minorin’s special move hits you with a powerful instant noodle attack, I take it…

Taiga Strike!

Well, thats a good thing.

<Commercial Jingle> Look at the effectiveness! Our product can help turn this:

Into this!:

Its a miracle for only $1.99! You too can corrupt an idol! Lines are open now!

—

Episode 7 shows more of the beginnings of Ami’s evil personality, now that she’s decided to drop the act. Its also the token pool episode; though surprsingly, it manages to avoid some of the usual cliches and become a pretty hilarious experience. Naturally, Taiga is insecure about being flatchested, so Ryuji embarks on the ‘fake-breast special ops’ as Minori describes it…

Fast forward to the next day. Kitamura somehow manages to become popular with the girls at the pool by just being there (he’s the old classic glasses guy with stupendous muscles. I wonder if he’s actually Shiki Tohno in disguise…) but the operation appears to a success, as the guys are in awe of Taiga’s supposed ‘growth’ over the past year. Kitamura actually can’t see a thing without his glasses; but complements Taiga’s hair in any case. But then, Ami throws Taiga about 20 Feet into the air (WTF?) and into the pool. She can’t swim, so Ryuji tries to rescue her. But she’s more worried about the fact that she’s lost a pad and refuses to be rescued. So Ryuji pushes her underwater and reinserts the errant thing. Unfortunately, this is just as humiliating for her by the sheer merit of having her chest touched…

Later, Taiga is upset at Ami for the throwing incident and is feeling humiliated. Their argument won’t stop, so suddenly, Minori reappears in her baseball uniform and proposes a contest of sports…

Minori being her usual balmy self; using Taiga for weight training…

Whilst buying swimsuits, Ami is wonderfully frank (and evil), suggesting Taiga should have a 10-year olds suit.

LOL. Taiga is impressed by Ryuji’s mothers assets.

Ryuji needs to stay up late sewing breast pads. That poor guy…

Haha. Ami’s internal thought process was fantastic…

Kitamura shows off his biceps. Fanservice!

Minori realises the truth of the matter straight away, though the guys are fooled.

Uh, yeah…

Well, that was a fantastic set of episodes. Toradora is great fun to watch and blog…

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