Fri Oct 2 2009, 05:37 PM
Here we go again:
October 1st: Boys transform into girls, girls have personality changes and fight. 99 cats to save in this town, 99 cats to spare, save one cat from danger...98 cats left more to save.
Kampfer Synopsis above pretty much summarizes this series, except for the fact that there is an all-girls and all-boys side of the school. Rest assured, the male lead is voiced by a female voice actor, rather pretty much the whole cast features very well known voice actors. I'll probably recon this one for an episode or two more to see how it fairs out.
Nyan Koi! Definitely a cat per week show, only 99 more cats to go. I like the fact that at the end they displayed Kobayashi Yuu's famous drawing talent. It's well known among her fans and those who follow seiyuu news that Kobayashi has a rather, err, interesting drawing style. Ahem.
October 2nd: Name that reference, railgun and armed librarians.
Seitokai no Ichizon Wow, there were a lot of references and parodies in here. Off the top of my head, there was DBZ, Lucky Star, Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, Kuroshitsuji, and K-ON as a start. The first episode was enjoyable, especially since the only male in the student council, Ken, wants to have a harem end with all the remaining four female members as well as the identification of those references - I managed to ID some but not all. I've decided to put this on my watch list, but I'll see how it goes...
To Aru Kagaku no Railgun: Or To Aru Kagaku no Choudenjihou by its longer name; Raarugan (ラールガン) is just the alternative reading for Choudenjihou. I read a couple of chapters of the manga a few months ago and although I don't remember much of it, regardless of whether this adaptation does it word-for-word or scene-by-scene, I'm impressed by J.C. Staff's own adaptation of the manga's first chapter. The first episode featured only the OP sequence so I'll have to wait until next week to listen to that ED sequence. The OP song "only my railgun" by fripSide certainly is a high-energy song and I can't judge it yet until I hear the ED song. I've been waiting for this series since its announcement in the last episode of To Aru Majutsu no Index (A Certain Magical Index) for quite some time now, I can't wait until Touma first comes in. Production side, there is some noticeable character style changes since Index but it should take only an episode or two to get adjusted to it.
Tatakau Shisho: I'm having mixed reactions from watching the first episode. First of all, there are human bombs, led by the Shindeki Church, who are called "Meats" who are essentially brainwashed, lifeless beings where their only purpose is to find their target and blow up. Armed Librarians on a boat intercept and attack a ship owned by the Shindeki Church, but barely making it on board the ship as the Shindeki Church, as a defensive measure, cast off several dozen Meats overboard as literal human mines/depth charges. The Armed Librarians attempt to rescue the Meats off the ship, but are mostly unsuccessful as the Meats descend down underwater lifelessly - even more so after the ship explodes. From the evidence found on board the ship and find a book fragment regarding events occurring 280 years ago about a Shiron Byacornise who was the only person who created a cure for Dragon Pneumonia, a type of deadly disease, who spread it throughout in order to sell the cure.
I'm guessing my mixed reactions occurred at the beginning of the OP sequence, primarily the song. At first I was thinking this was a nice song to start the series off with, until I heard a familiar tune...the ALI PROJECT sort of affair. Once you hear one of the group's songs, you've pretty much heard them all. The story has potential to it, so I'll see how it goes next week but I don't know if I'll finish this series or not.
October 3rd: Knights and Blacksmiths; Letter and Letter Bee.
Seiken no Blacksmith: All is well for Cecily Cambell (official spelling) until a man began swinging his rather large sword endangering both boxes filled with vegetables and nearby bystanders asking why he can't find salvation, Cecily comes in to try and to stop the man. A duel engages between the two, with Cecily experiencing her first battle the man nearly defeats her when her family sword is broken into two pieces and was saved in the nick of time by a man named Luke with a mysterious sword - a katana - that easily cut the man's sword into two and leaves with an elf-girl named Lisa after defeating the man. Cecily learns of the location of a store Luke stays at from a local blacksmith shop hoping that he can forge her a new sword that can slice another sword as easily as his own katana. However, Luke informs Cecily that the store no longer accepts orders for forging swords ever since his father passed away. Lisa accidentally tells Cecily that the katana he used in battle earlier was forged by Luke himself, but Luke reinforces his position by declaring that he only forges katana's for himself. After hearing this, Cecily tells Luke that she, being the only daugher, decided to succeed her father by becoming a knight after his passing a month ago and the history of her now broken family sword that has been passed from generation to generation protecting every trade city. After an accidental confession (really, she didn't mean it! She even called Luke boring!) emergency bells begin to ring and the three arrive on the outskirts of the city to find that manipulated monsters have attacked a caravan. Luke saves Cecily's life once more when she dashes into her second battle, but this time instead of another human it's a monster. Luke easily defeats the monsters until a ice-form contracted devil monster appears and breaks Luke's katana into two. Before a few more shards come flying toward Luke, Cecily jumps in to save Luke - thank goodness for breastplates, eh? As Cecily distracts the monster, Luke with the aid of Lisa begin to forge a new katana...with a magic spell that was ready to use within one minute of casting. It then leaves us in suspense with a cliff-hanger ending, until next week!
Luke's eyes were bothering me while watching this whole episode, there must be a story behind that one because Cecily and Lisa don't have any differences in either eye like Luke does. A note about Lisa and the ED sequence song, both are done by Toyosaki Aki (voice of Yui in K-ON!) and the ED song/sequence is very happy and cutesy, perhaps a little too much for my liking. I should have seen it a mile away had I read what the song title was, "Miracle Happy Day". The sequence features a chibi-Lisa with various facial expressions and then features Lisa running over backdrops and tripping over a rock that comes in her way. I feel that this series has potential, but being 12 episodes long (maybe), I can only wonder how the pacing will fair out, but I'll stick to it for another episode or two.
Tegami Bachi: I liked the OVA special of Tegami Bachi very much and this remains unchanged at least with the first episode of the TV series. As expected, after reading a chapter or two of the manga a while ago the pace will be slow but it's a rather relaxing type of series. Regardless, I've been waiting for this to be animated after hearing it was getting adapted and promptly watched the OVA special to get the general gist of it.
The first episode pretty much follows the first chapter or so of the manga and as noted before in the list there is no requirement to watch that OVA special before watching the TV series. Pretty much let Lag Seeing get most (if not all) of your questions answered in this first episode and Gauche will answer them, but I'll sum it up: Letter Bees deliver important letters (no matter what it is, a letter, living object, etc) to its citizens in the world of Amberground. Letter Bees carry guns, or shindanjuu literally meaning heart-bullet gun, that fire empty bullet shells with power borrowed from the user's own heart thanks to the aid of a spirit amber stone located on the gun itself - it's self explanatory once you see in action. Letter Bees carry these guns to defend themselves from armored insects, or gaichuu, who have thick armor that conventional weaponry can not penetrate. There's also some similarities between Lag and Gauche, both have their own purposes for becoming Letter Bees (for Lag's case, he'll become one later in the series) primarily related to their family - Lag for his mother, Gauche for his younger sister.
Both opening and ending songs, Hajimari no Hi (Day of Beginnings) and Hatenaki Michi (Endless Road) are both quite good songs to open and close this series. I have to note that the artist singing Hatenaki Michi is the Canadian singer HIMEKA who, if you can recall, won the Valkyria Chronicles series competition to sing the opening song for that TV series that debuted back in January. But, I'm favoring the OP over the ED song - at least until the full versions of both songs come out. Oh, heh, just noticed that Koshimizu Ami is in this cast as well, together with Fukuyama Jun the two are back again in this series as the potential love interests of the Gauche x Aria relationship (others include Lelouch x Kallen, Lawrence x Horo, etc, etc).
October 4th: An angel comes down from the sky and five guys named after train stations.
Sora no Otoshimono: If you read the manga and then watched the TV series, it's about the same as the manga. Except, in the manga, at least you don't hear the male lead's somewhat annoying laugh. Plus he looks like Itou Makoto from School Days. With that aside, let's talk about how the series looks visually. Coming from the production of Bamboo Blade, director Saito Hisashi and AIC ASTA pair once again to produce Sora no Otoshimono which is beautifully animated. They even go into moe-blob (chibi) forms during comedic events. I like the character design of most characters, primarily the student council president whom she has very little screentime in the first episode - but don't let her humble behavior fool you though! In this first episode, the ED sequence was presented, so folks will have to wait until next week for the OP sequence.
Miracle☆Train: Yes, I seriously watched the first episode. No, really. And...don't ask why - sometimes even in instantly under-rated shows can be hidden gems. Perhaps, err, Miracle (star) Train can be one of them? Basically it's five male representations of Tokyo's Toei Oedo line - and that's Touchou (terminal station), Shinjuku, Ryougoku, Tsukishima, and Roppongi - who help dames in distress and help resolve the problem of the week. The first episode wasn't what I was expecting it to be: five guys prancing around the train doing...whatever five guys do on a train. Instead, the first episode was rather informative including, but not limited to, attractions near the five forementioned stops. In addition, it's not limited to JUST five males in the cast. There is Akari who is the female guide who helps the five guys with a customer's problem. Anyways, first episode was helping Ms. Chinatsu finding her dog Kotaro who is lost somewhere on the train she's on. I feel that this series is only good, ignoring the fact that this is aimed toward the female watchers, if you want to learn more about the most heavily used train line in Tokyo - especially to familiarize yourself with the 38 train stations on that line. If not for that information, then you may be bored with the plot of each episode - I must admit that I was yawning a couple of times throughout the episode at least until I learned something new which was once or twice in this 24 minute show. As such, I will most likely not be continuing this series, regardless of the fact that it features some very well known voice actors - unless if there's some good news about it.
October 6th: Closet otaku.
Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu Purezza: Starts off with a double hitter: the obligatory hot spring episode with fanservice. Not to mention the at a certain time at night the male and female baths switch places trick they threw in there. Oh, Yuuto, you somehow get into those type of situations. Further more, Noto Mamiko makes a cameo appearance in this episode who voices herself in her natural voice (she voices Nogizaka Haruka, the series' female lead). As stated before, I'll be watching this series for sake the of continuation as I enjoyed the first season when it aired.
October 7th: Reaching you.
Kimi ni Todoke: Here's the lowdown of the episode: Kuronuma Sawako is often misunderstood (for example, she can "summon ghosts") and looks like the girl from The Ring, as such whenever she tries to say something her classmates see her in a different light and run away as fast as they can. However, Kazehaya Shouta is her only classmate who doesn't cower in fear or try to avoid her, instead he remembers her name and even the day they first met when he seemed lost and didn't know which route to take to their high school and she gave him directions. Kazehaya is the only person who has ever thanked Sawako. The episode then moves on to Kazehaya wanting to volunteer over the summer break to help their teacher since Sawako is usually the one who gets it, but in the end Sawako gets the job after insisting she wants to do it. After receiving some advice from Kazehaya, Sawako builds up the courage to speak to two of her classmates about wanting to be apart of the test of courage, Kazehaya announced earlier in class, as the ghost. In the end, she is successful in scaring everyone except Kazehaya who went last. The following day, Kazehaya is teased by his classmates into getting him to go out on a date with Sawako for a week, but he refuses citing that it would be insulting to her. In the end, Sawako clears up the misunderstanding and thinks that Kazehaya will no longer speak to her again. To her surprise, while walking to school during summer break, Kazehaya is waiting for her at the school entrance and gives her a bag of candy the class bought as an apology. Although she cleared both from any misunderstandings about them earlier, he feels that Sawako still doesn't understand him, but he would like to continue meeting Sawako during the break. Someday, Sawako wonders, if she'll be able to reach Kazehaya...
So, the long-awaited adaptation of the popular manga, Kimi ni Todoke, has finally aired. Let me just summarize the art and animation in as little words as possible: it's magnificent and as expected of I.G. Productions. Moving on, Noto Mamiko did an excellent job voicing Sawako while voicing both her side of the conversation and her classmates' side of the conversation - especially during the time when her character has a dark aura around it and she voices it beginning with that low-toned voice. Now, I haven't read the manga until after I watched the first episode and as such this episode follows the first chapter of the manga pretty closely. Kimi ni Todoke does have some cute moments especially when Sawako is in chibi-form. However, comparing Toradora!, which aired last fall, it most likely won't have a comedy aspect to it. Rather, I feel that Kimi ni Todoke will be strictly on the romance part about a girl who has very few friends who meets perhaps the school's most popular guy and eventually she develops feelings for him. Since Kimi ni Todoke is speculated to have 12 episodes (then again, Toradora! was speculated to have 12 or 13 episodes until a few months before it ended to have 25 total episodes) but I won't mind if it turns out to be a 24/26 or even 52 episode series. In the mean time, I'mma read that manga a bit more. Lastly: ED song > OP song (even though it's rough, it grows on you).
October 12:
Not putting any impression on Fairy Tail, since I didn't watch the episode yet. First thought that came to my mind while seeing the promos/skimming over a few pages of the first manga volume was, "that main character looks sorta like that guy in One Piece". Other than that, it's yet another shounen series that may drag on for quite some time, like Bleach or, as said before, One Piece. I'll probably not watch it for quite some time, but maybe on that one random day I'll pick it up.
October 15: Acid trip.
Kuuchuu Buranko: Yeah, this one's coming two days late. I'm sorry but I'll be blunt here: this show was friggin' trippy as anything. Whatever they're smoking/drinking/injecting seems to be affecting the show. Toei Animation, animating this show, seems to take a hint from SHAFT Animation by using live-animation objects in scenes. The difference, however, is that in Kuuchuu Buranko they use it pretty much the whole episode through turning it into an ADHD/psychedelic wonderland. They use live-action footage, real people (mainly for the main characters), objects, etc all over the place; with the exception of background characters who appear to be made out of cardboard. You can tell who's a secondary character when they don't have that cardboardy-ness to them. Not to mention, there's a doctor (real?) who pops in occasionally giving medical advice to us viewers. The show starts off with one patient who has insomnia and goes to a psychiatrist and gets in (vitamin) injection from a nurse, cue in the real(?) doctor, and then we see the effect of it. It appears that the said psychiatrist gets his patients from other patients he previously diagnoses who meets other potential patients in their daily lives doing whatever it is they do during the day. This show being on the noitaminA network, I'm going to give it another few episodes to see how it plays out. Also, that's some nurse, whoo! Helloooooo, nurse!
October 1st: Boys transform into girls, girls have personality changes and fight. 99 cats to save in this town, 99 cats to spare, save one cat from danger...98 cats left more to save.
Kampfer Synopsis above pretty much summarizes this series, except for the fact that there is an all-girls and all-boys side of the school. Rest assured, the male lead is voiced by a female voice actor, rather pretty much the whole cast features very well known voice actors. I'll probably recon this one for an episode or two more to see how it fairs out.
Nyan Koi! Definitely a cat per week show, only 99 more cats to go. I like the fact that at the end they displayed Kobayashi Yuu's famous drawing talent. It's well known among her fans and those who follow seiyuu news that Kobayashi has a rather, err, interesting drawing style. Ahem.
October 2nd: Name that reference, railgun and armed librarians.
Seitokai no Ichizon Wow, there were a lot of references and parodies in here. Off the top of my head, there was DBZ, Lucky Star, Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, Kuroshitsuji, and K-ON as a start. The first episode was enjoyable, especially since the only male in the student council, Ken, wants to have a harem end with all the remaining four female members as well as the identification of those references - I managed to ID some but not all. I've decided to put this on my watch list, but I'll see how it goes...
To Aru Kagaku no Railgun: Or To Aru Kagaku no Choudenjihou by its longer name; Raarugan (ラールガン) is just the alternative reading for Choudenjihou. I read a couple of chapters of the manga a few months ago and although I don't remember much of it, regardless of whether this adaptation does it word-for-word or scene-by-scene, I'm impressed by J.C. Staff's own adaptation of the manga's first chapter. The first episode featured only the OP sequence so I'll have to wait until next week to listen to that ED sequence. The OP song "only my railgun" by fripSide certainly is a high-energy song and I can't judge it yet until I hear the ED song. I've been waiting for this series since its announcement in the last episode of To Aru Majutsu no Index (A Certain Magical Index) for quite some time now, I can't wait until Touma first comes in. Production side, there is some noticeable character style changes since Index but it should take only an episode or two to get adjusted to it.
Tatakau Shisho: I'm having mixed reactions from watching the first episode. First of all, there are human bombs, led by the Shindeki Church, who are called "Meats" who are essentially brainwashed, lifeless beings where their only purpose is to find their target and blow up. Armed Librarians on a boat intercept and attack a ship owned by the Shindeki Church, but barely making it on board the ship as the Shindeki Church, as a defensive measure, cast off several dozen Meats overboard as literal human mines/depth charges. The Armed Librarians attempt to rescue the Meats off the ship, but are mostly unsuccessful as the Meats descend down underwater lifelessly - even more so after the ship explodes. From the evidence found on board the ship and find a book fragment regarding events occurring 280 years ago about a Shiron Byacornise who was the only person who created a cure for Dragon Pneumonia, a type of deadly disease, who spread it throughout in order to sell the cure.
I'm guessing my mixed reactions occurred at the beginning of the OP sequence, primarily the song. At first I was thinking this was a nice song to start the series off with, until I heard a familiar tune...the ALI PROJECT sort of affair. Once you hear one of the group's songs, you've pretty much heard them all. The story has potential to it, so I'll see how it goes next week but I don't know if I'll finish this series or not.
October 3rd: Knights and Blacksmiths; Letter and Letter Bee.
Seiken no Blacksmith: All is well for Cecily Cambell (official spelling) until a man began swinging his rather large sword endangering both boxes filled with vegetables and nearby bystanders asking why he can't find salvation, Cecily comes in to try and to stop the man. A duel engages between the two, with Cecily experiencing her first battle the man nearly defeats her when her family sword is broken into two pieces and was saved in the nick of time by a man named Luke with a mysterious sword - a katana - that easily cut the man's sword into two and leaves with an elf-girl named Lisa after defeating the man. Cecily learns of the location of a store Luke stays at from a local blacksmith shop hoping that he can forge her a new sword that can slice another sword as easily as his own katana. However, Luke informs Cecily that the store no longer accepts orders for forging swords ever since his father passed away. Lisa accidentally tells Cecily that the katana he used in battle earlier was forged by Luke himself, but Luke reinforces his position by declaring that he only forges katana's for himself. After hearing this, Cecily tells Luke that she, being the only daugher, decided to succeed her father by becoming a knight after his passing a month ago and the history of her now broken family sword that has been passed from generation to generation protecting every trade city. After an accidental confession (really, she didn't mean it! She even called Luke boring!) emergency bells begin to ring and the three arrive on the outskirts of the city to find that manipulated monsters have attacked a caravan. Luke saves Cecily's life once more when she dashes into her second battle, but this time instead of another human it's a monster. Luke easily defeats the monsters until a ice-form contracted devil monster appears and breaks Luke's katana into two. Before a few more shards come flying toward Luke, Cecily jumps in to save Luke - thank goodness for breastplates, eh? As Cecily distracts the monster, Luke with the aid of Lisa begin to forge a new katana...with a magic spell that was ready to use within one minute of casting. It then leaves us in suspense with a cliff-hanger ending, until next week!
Luke's eyes were bothering me while watching this whole episode, there must be a story behind that one because Cecily and Lisa don't have any differences in either eye like Luke does. A note about Lisa and the ED sequence song, both are done by Toyosaki Aki (voice of Yui in K-ON!) and the ED song/sequence is very happy and cutesy, perhaps a little too much for my liking. I should have seen it a mile away had I read what the song title was, "Miracle Happy Day". The sequence features a chibi-Lisa with various facial expressions and then features Lisa running over backdrops and tripping over a rock that comes in her way. I feel that this series has potential, but being 12 episodes long (maybe), I can only wonder how the pacing will fair out, but I'll stick to it for another episode or two.
Tegami Bachi: I liked the OVA special of Tegami Bachi very much and this remains unchanged at least with the first episode of the TV series. As expected, after reading a chapter or two of the manga a while ago the pace will be slow but it's a rather relaxing type of series. Regardless, I've been waiting for this to be animated after hearing it was getting adapted and promptly watched the OVA special to get the general gist of it.
The first episode pretty much follows the first chapter or so of the manga and as noted before in the list there is no requirement to watch that OVA special before watching the TV series. Pretty much let Lag Seeing get most (if not all) of your questions answered in this first episode and Gauche will answer them, but I'll sum it up: Letter Bees deliver important letters (no matter what it is, a letter, living object, etc) to its citizens in the world of Amberground. Letter Bees carry guns, or shindanjuu literally meaning heart-bullet gun, that fire empty bullet shells with power borrowed from the user's own heart thanks to the aid of a spirit amber stone located on the gun itself - it's self explanatory once you see in action. Letter Bees carry these guns to defend themselves from armored insects, or gaichuu, who have thick armor that conventional weaponry can not penetrate. There's also some similarities between Lag and Gauche, both have their own purposes for becoming Letter Bees (for Lag's case, he'll become one later in the series) primarily related to their family - Lag for his mother, Gauche for his younger sister.
Both opening and ending songs, Hajimari no Hi (Day of Beginnings) and Hatenaki Michi (Endless Road) are both quite good songs to open and close this series. I have to note that the artist singing Hatenaki Michi is the Canadian singer HIMEKA who, if you can recall, won the Valkyria Chronicles series competition to sing the opening song for that TV series that debuted back in January. But, I'm favoring the OP over the ED song - at least until the full versions of both songs come out. Oh, heh, just noticed that Koshimizu Ami is in this cast as well, together with Fukuyama Jun the two are back again in this series as the potential love interests of the Gauche x Aria relationship (others include Lelouch x Kallen, Lawrence x Horo, etc, etc).
October 4th: An angel comes down from the sky and five guys named after train stations.
Sora no Otoshimono: If you read the manga and then watched the TV series, it's about the same as the manga. Except, in the manga, at least you don't hear the male lead's somewhat annoying laugh. Plus he looks like Itou Makoto from School Days. With that aside, let's talk about how the series looks visually. Coming from the production of Bamboo Blade, director Saito Hisashi and AIC ASTA pair once again to produce Sora no Otoshimono which is beautifully animated. They even go into moe-blob (chibi) forms during comedic events. I like the character design of most characters, primarily the student council president whom she has very little screentime in the first episode - but don't let her humble behavior fool you though! In this first episode, the ED sequence was presented, so folks will have to wait until next week for the OP sequence.
Miracle☆Train: Yes, I seriously watched the first episode. No, really. And...don't ask why - sometimes even in instantly under-rated shows can be hidden gems. Perhaps, err, Miracle (star) Train can be one of them? Basically it's five male representations of Tokyo's Toei Oedo line - and that's Touchou (terminal station), Shinjuku, Ryougoku, Tsukishima, and Roppongi - who help dames in distress and help resolve the problem of the week. The first episode wasn't what I was expecting it to be: five guys prancing around the train doing...whatever five guys do on a train. Instead, the first episode was rather informative including, but not limited to, attractions near the five forementioned stops. In addition, it's not limited to JUST five males in the cast. There is Akari who is the female guide who helps the five guys with a customer's problem. Anyways, first episode was helping Ms. Chinatsu finding her dog Kotaro who is lost somewhere on the train she's on. I feel that this series is only good, ignoring the fact that this is aimed toward the female watchers, if you want to learn more about the most heavily used train line in Tokyo - especially to familiarize yourself with the 38 train stations on that line. If not for that information, then you may be bored with the plot of each episode - I must admit that I was yawning a couple of times throughout the episode at least until I learned something new which was once or twice in this 24 minute show. As such, I will most likely not be continuing this series, regardless of the fact that it features some very well known voice actors - unless if there's some good news about it.
October 6th: Closet otaku.
Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu Purezza: Starts off with a double hitter: the obligatory hot spring episode with fanservice. Not to mention the at a certain time at night the male and female baths switch places trick they threw in there. Oh, Yuuto, you somehow get into those type of situations. Further more, Noto Mamiko makes a cameo appearance in this episode who voices herself in her natural voice (she voices Nogizaka Haruka, the series' female lead). As stated before, I'll be watching this series for sake the of continuation as I enjoyed the first season when it aired.
October 7th: Reaching you.
Kimi ni Todoke: Here's the lowdown of the episode: Kuronuma Sawako is often misunderstood (for example, she can "summon ghosts") and looks like the girl from The Ring, as such whenever she tries to say something her classmates see her in a different light and run away as fast as they can. However, Kazehaya Shouta is her only classmate who doesn't cower in fear or try to avoid her, instead he remembers her name and even the day they first met when he seemed lost and didn't know which route to take to their high school and she gave him directions. Kazehaya is the only person who has ever thanked Sawako. The episode then moves on to Kazehaya wanting to volunteer over the summer break to help their teacher since Sawako is usually the one who gets it, but in the end Sawako gets the job after insisting she wants to do it. After receiving some advice from Kazehaya, Sawako builds up the courage to speak to two of her classmates about wanting to be apart of the test of courage, Kazehaya announced earlier in class, as the ghost. In the end, she is successful in scaring everyone except Kazehaya who went last. The following day, Kazehaya is teased by his classmates into getting him to go out on a date with Sawako for a week, but he refuses citing that it would be insulting to her. In the end, Sawako clears up the misunderstanding and thinks that Kazehaya will no longer speak to her again. To her surprise, while walking to school during summer break, Kazehaya is waiting for her at the school entrance and gives her a bag of candy the class bought as an apology. Although she cleared both from any misunderstandings about them earlier, he feels that Sawako still doesn't understand him, but he would like to continue meeting Sawako during the break. Someday, Sawako wonders, if she'll be able to reach Kazehaya...
So, the long-awaited adaptation of the popular manga, Kimi ni Todoke, has finally aired. Let me just summarize the art and animation in as little words as possible: it's magnificent and as expected of I.G. Productions. Moving on, Noto Mamiko did an excellent job voicing Sawako while voicing both her side of the conversation and her classmates' side of the conversation - especially during the time when her character has a dark aura around it and she voices it beginning with that low-toned voice. Now, I haven't read the manga until after I watched the first episode and as such this episode follows the first chapter of the manga pretty closely. Kimi ni Todoke does have some cute moments especially when Sawako is in chibi-form. However, comparing Toradora!, which aired last fall, it most likely won't have a comedy aspect to it. Rather, I feel that Kimi ni Todoke will be strictly on the romance part about a girl who has very few friends who meets perhaps the school's most popular guy and eventually she develops feelings for him. Since Kimi ni Todoke is speculated to have 12 episodes (then again, Toradora! was speculated to have 12 or 13 episodes until a few months before it ended to have 25 total episodes) but I won't mind if it turns out to be a 24/26 or even 52 episode series. In the mean time, I'mma read that manga a bit more. Lastly: ED song > OP song (even though it's rough, it grows on you).
October 12:
Not putting any impression on Fairy Tail, since I didn't watch the episode yet. First thought that came to my mind while seeing the promos/skimming over a few pages of the first manga volume was, "that main character looks sorta like that guy in One Piece". Other than that, it's yet another shounen series that may drag on for quite some time, like Bleach or, as said before, One Piece. I'll probably not watch it for quite some time, but maybe on that one random day I'll pick it up.
October 15: Acid trip.
Kuuchuu Buranko: Yeah, this one's coming two days late. I'm sorry but I'll be blunt here: this show was friggin' trippy as anything. Whatever they're smoking/drinking/injecting seems to be affecting the show. Toei Animation, animating this show, seems to take a hint from SHAFT Animation by using live-animation objects in scenes. The difference, however, is that in Kuuchuu Buranko they use it pretty much the whole episode through turning it into an ADHD/psychedelic wonderland. They use live-action footage, real people (mainly for the main characters), objects, etc all over the place; with the exception of background characters who appear to be made out of cardboard. You can tell who's a secondary character when they don't have that cardboardy-ness to them. Not to mention, there's a doctor (real?) who pops in occasionally giving medical advice to us viewers. The show starts off with one patient who has insomnia and goes to a psychiatrist and gets in (vitamin) injection from a nurse, cue in the real(?) doctor, and then we see the effect of it. It appears that the said psychiatrist gets his patients from other patients he previously diagnoses who meets other potential patients in their daily lives doing whatever it is they do during the day. This show being on the noitaminA network, I'm going to give it another few episodes to see how it plays out. Also, that's some nurse, whoo! Helloooooo, nurse!
SimsHsia
EZS Web Services
"I've reached field capacity!"
EZS Web Services
"I've reached field capacity!"
