B Gata H Kei – 09

Kanejou getting worked up when thinking about Yamada...again

I know I skipped quite a few (7…haha…I blame the insane workload in my 3A term) episodes, but here’s where I’ve reached in this series. It’s been progressing very nicely week by week, from Yamada and Kosuda still trying to move their relationship forward, and with the introduction of characters like Kanejou Kyouka, pictured above. At this point, Yamada sees her as a maximum-level rival, and the same goes for Kanejou as well. But you already knew that after you saw the picture.

Either way, from that point on, Kosuda did the unthinkable, and in this episode, Yamada and Kosuda’s relationship was on very flakey terms at this point. Either way, the episode progressed and eventually led to the school having a sports festival. Without spoiling too much, Kyouka’s brother, Keiichi, finally made his long awaited (from the shot in the ED with him and Kyouka herself). In a previous episode, it was mentioned that he was a world-class magazine photographer. If you’ve kept up with the series, you’ll know that Kosuda owns a more vintage-like Nikon F3. I’m no expert on SLRs or dSLR cameras, but I have been reading up on them a bit more recently. He ends up appearing with a Nikon D3s and Kosuda felt beyond overshadowed in more ways than one, as implied below.

They're just Nih(k)on cameras! There are no innuendos here!

I had a really good laugh when I saw this too. Kosuda really can’t compete with that at all.

B Gata H Kei has given me quite a share of laughs so far this season. Even from the onset of Yamada’s (wait, I just realized we still don’t know her first name yet! O_O) crazy plan to get that many partners, 9 episodes later and she’s still at ground zero. Well, maybe a little bit higher than that with Kosuda around, but the ride has been great so far. I expect a few more amazing antics to surface over the last few episodes, especially with Kyouka and Keiichi and I’m sure Kosuda’s looking forward to them too:

She's doing this for him! And us kekeke!

Angel Beats! – 01

It’s no doubt that Angel Beats! is a series on many people’s anime watch lists this season. With the original story done by Visual Arts/KEY, and animated by PA Works (not Kyoto Animation, mind you), the series is highly anticipated. I believe a lot of it comes from the fact that the main female character looks a lot like Haruhi (somehow, I personally don’t think so) and for the story’s premise. The story opens up with the main male lead, Otonashi, waking up in a very unfamiliar school ground with no memory of how he got there. He gets up to see a girl with a sniper rifle taking aim at another girl walking in the lower grounds.

Otonashi (back left), and Yurippe (right, with sniper)

Otonashi comes to realize that he and everyone in that world are actually all dead, continuing on from their previous lives. Some have retained their memories, and some haven’t. He’s one of those who hasn’t. It turns out that Yurippe is the leader of a type of resistance, made up of students who have died and are resisting against Tenshi, the girl who Yurippe was initially trying to shoot. The story is a lot more complex and I don’t want to spoil too much of it, but essentially, the resistance’s enemy is Tenshi, who seeminlgy tries to interfere with the resistance’s ‘survival’, in terms of acquiring food, etc.

Tenshi, voiced by Hanazawa Kana! She doesn't agree with the title of 'Tenshi' that she was given.

Angel Beats’ first episode has beautiful animation and the story developed at quite a reasonable pace. There were some very beautifully done sequences, especially the band, GirlDeMo’s song played during one of Yurippe’s operations.

GirlDeMo, one of the main attractions in the Angel Beats! student world.

I expect many of the questions I have to be answered, and many more developments to take place over the next few episodes with many twists different from what I predict right now. It’s definitely a series anyone should check out.

Kaichou wa Maid-sama – 01

Meet Misaki (pictured in the middle).

Misaki (middle), her coworker (right), and her manager, yes, manager (left)

She works at a maid-cafe since her family is pretty poor, but manages to make more than average at the cafe. Not to mention she’s pretty cute, so this job is a snap for her. However, that’s just her appearance when she’s working. This is her at school, for the most part.

If you're a male at Misaki's high school, be prepared if you plan to break the rules. She'll go AKUMA on you.

She’s recently become the President of her high school that was previously an all-boys school, which is still made up of 80% male students. The male population causes nothing but trouble for the girls, and are all very rowdy. Misaki aims to change this by making the school more girl-friendly. And  I don’t blame her one bit. The males at her high school do some pretty retarded things. But since she’s mostly an enforcer who’s seen as a demon (see above) she needs to maintain her status. However, we all know that she works in a maid cafe.

As you’d expect, she ends up in trouble when boys that she’s yelled at find her at the cafe and she ends up in a pretty bad spot. However, she’s saved by Takumi Usui, who was the first to find out but never exposed her secret.

Usui. Eating at the maid cafe. Stalking Misaki and driving her into a mental corner. He's such lulz.

Kaichou wa Maid-sama had quite an enjoyable first episode. It certainly reminds me of the manga chapters I read months ago, and now I can see it animated in HD by JC Staff. Definitely check it out if you need your maid-moe romance comedy fix for this season.

K-ON!! – 01

Next up in my backlog is…

KyoAni Moeblob success K-ON returns...IN HD!!!!!

First up, the animation in the K-ON!! OP is quite awesome. The entire series is now airing in lovely HD so viewers can get their moeblob fix in high resolution. The story continues from the last season where the girls are all one year up in high school, all being in their final third year with the exception of Azusa who is now entering second year. In the first episode, Yui’s airheadedness makes a full return along with Mio and Azusa’s serious character personalities, Ritsu’s antics, and Tsumugi’s calming, tea-serving lackadaisical nature, all of which I missed from the ending of Season 1 last year.

Now, I’ll let you know that K-ON! wasn’t something that you’d watch for any complex story or anything deep at all, nor would you normally care to rewatch it. It’s a series that you want to watch every week solely for entertainment and not for any wow-factor whatsoever. But it does what it does extremely well, making it a very fun watch in S1. I hope they continue this through for Season 2, as uninvolving as it feels, you still feel compelled to keep watching. I guess that’s KyoAni’s magic at work right there.

The girls trying to get new member's for the Light Music Club!

If you’ve watched K-ON! Season 1 and need your moe-injection for the week, definitely K-ON!! will be on your list. For those of you who haven’t seen it, check it out, regardless of what I said about it being more of a weekly treat.

B Gata H Kei – 01

I’ve been really slacking off on my episode posts for the new season due to work, but now that my term is over, it’s time for an update! First on the list, B Gata H Kei!

B Gata H Kei has one of the most awesome female leads ever. Ignoring the fact that she, Yamada, is voiced by Yukari Tamura whose voice I absolutely adore, Yamada’s main goal in the story is to get ONE HUNDRED, yes, I repeat, ONE HUNDRED sex partners. Though, if you look below, her inexperience makes this one hell of a comedy.

Yamada Imaging Lewd Things

As you could probably tell, she has ZERO experience with relationships thus far, yet she wants to have ONE HUNDRED partners despite her limitations having not gotten to ecchi points in a relationship. Either way, she ends up first targeting a standard male in her class named Kosuda in a bookstore, and the first thing she says to him is “You’re a virgin aren’t you?”, and this doesn’t help him understand her any better. See, Yamada makes lulz comments of EPIC proportions. She never speaks her mind clearly, and either goes about things in the most roundabout way possible, or cuts straight to the point in a way that would make you feel like you’ve been hit by a train. The antics that then ensue are  just brilliant.

By the end of episode one, she ends up in his house while his sister leaves to give them alone time (who, by the way, is voiced by Mamiko Noto in one of the best voice styles I’ve ever heard from her), and since I remember the description saying she wants ONE HUNDRED (I’m not getting tired of typing this in caps mind you) partners, I was very surprised when they got this far, but then more epic lulz ensued.

Yamada's just too awesome. She wants that many partners yet she gets scared just seeing an erection

she then proceeds to shove him away, jump down half a flight of stairs in less than 0.5 seconds and run away screaming. Epic. Really, it’s just so epic. I highly recommend anyone looking for a great romance comedy this season to definitely check B Gata H Kei out.

Baka to Test to Shokanjuu – 13 (End)

Himeji, you're just too cute.

And this was the result of their fruitless endeavours. Himeji being unable to do her work since her breasts are so massive that they perfectly rest on the board, obscuring her view of any learning materials presented in front of her. Oh what a dirty tactic. But seriously, I really love this series. Baka to Test was one of those amazing series that comes around every once in a while. It was very well executed, quite original in its overall design and is a joy to watch for its random and madly entertaining antics. This last episode is a testament to that, leaving viewers with at least some sense of closure before the second season. Yes, there is a second season planned, and it is most certainly going to be on my watch list when it airs.

Himeji may be just too cute, but Shouko...she's just too amazing for words.

Baka to Test has too many lovable characters, and Shouko is a testament to this. I absolutely enjoyed the developments to her character and the crazy stunts she pulled off. I think I can even go as far to say that she’s my favourite character in this series so far. She tries so hard to win Yuuji’s heart (albeit in the most absurd ways, usually by extreme force), and below is the result.

Ouch...shot down there eh Shouko?

Well, she tried. And she almost won too. I’ll really be looking forward to more of her in the second series. But let’s not forget the main baka of our series, Akihisa. Faced with a daunting task, he emerged…victorious!

Akihisa speaking with Himeji after his duel with death

Too bad he’s still the biggest idiot there is. I mean really, it’s what makes him, him. But bloody hell, he’s just too dense. And blind. And oblivious to the world around him. I’m sure if you gave him a trillion dollars he would probably burn it all thinking it was some scam. But he too, is lovable, even though the other characters share my sentiments of his being the biggest baka of all time:

Dead on Himeji, dead on

And she’s right.

I’ll say it again. Baka to Test to Shokanjuu was one of the best series this season, and one great comedy that I haven’t seen in a while. It was the series that I looked forward to every Saturday morning after a long week at work to put me in a workable frame of mind before I and before I did my PDENG assignments (shudder). I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it to anyone. I’ll feel a bit empty every Saturday morning from now on without this series, but with Season 2 coming up, I’m not worried that I’ll be rofl’ing harder than ever again.

Ookami Kakushi – 12 (End)

So, I haven’t updated in a while, but here’s the first of a string of Winter 2010 anime series’ conclusions that I’ll be going through. I hope you’re all prepared!

Nemuru in an Usa-Eru costume! .... K, I don't know. Just watch the episode.

The final episode of Ookami Kakushi had nothing to do with the main storyline, save for one attack on Hiro. It was made up of two main mini-arcs, each that tried too hard to make the viewers laugh. To be honest, I have no idea why this episode was even put in, as the series itself wasn’t even that involving. The entire series was pretty much a letdown in terms of story, and could have done much, much better in terms of story development and execution. Let’s not even talk for the insane number of plotholes along the way that did nothing to make the story more interesting or solid.

Actually, maybe the above is the sole reason why they designed the last two episodes as it did, to make up for the failure of a story that was delivered. On a good note, the episode was mildly entertaining, but nothing extraordinary. The one highlight for me was the fact that Nemuru’s seiyuu sounded very much like Rie Kugimiya during the scene that took place in the above screenshot. This scene was part of the first arc with Nemuru as Usa-Eru, and Hiro becoming trapped in an alternate universe that Nemuru misunderstood from Mana, Kuzumi’s sister (who, by the way, is played by Saki Fujita, the voice base for Hatsune Miku! She also played Tomoko in Sora no Otoshimono in episode 11.). After this first arc, the second arc involving a cafe occupied the second half of the episode.

Alright! Alright! I'll buy the bloody iced coffee already!

Even if they were trying to force laughs out of us, this was really pushing it. It was completely stereotypical and unoriginal, but was still mildly amusing, until they did the following:

Kuzumi getting suckered into cross-dressing

Yes, that’s Kuzumi. You can see from this example that they were really, really trying too hard here. I’ve seen better traps Kuzumi. You’re going to have to do a lot better than Ciel from Kuroshitsuji for me to earn your respect for how useless you’ve been throughout this entire series.

Overall, Ookami Kakushi was a real let-down in story. The final episode just reinforces this fact and I wouldn’t recommend that anyone really watch this series at all for the story. On the good side, the characters were designed by Peach-pit, and have dangerously high levels of moe, and the art is absolutely gorgeous to look at. If it’s one thing that Ookami Kakushi did right, it was in the technical field of production quality. Backgrounds were very well detailed, and characters were very pleasing to watch. I mentioned it before that I place art quality higher than story in general, and this is one of those series that, even if I were informed ahead of time that the story was sub-par, I would still watch based on the lovely screenshots that I saw. If you’re like me, feel free to watch the series, but be cautious that you’re going to have a very hard time ploughing through the episodes even with the high production quality.

Sora no Otoshimono – 12 & 13 (End)

Just to let you know, Tomoki didn't lose his clothes this time by choice.

When I think of all the diabolical, err…I mean, awesome things I could do if I had an Angelroid, I end up really wanting one (especially if it were like Nymph). However, if it puts me in a situation where I’m put in a situation like Tomoki’s where I’m at a zoo running away from a giant herd of zoo animals, including cheetahs, elephants, grizzly bears and tigers, I rethink wanting one at that point……

Alright, I change my mind. Even if that did happen, I still want one. Japan! When are you going to make us some of them? I know you have realistic looking robots already, so what’s taking you? Truth be told, I do remember reading an article one day where it said that we won’t have true Artificial Intelligence for at least the next 100 years, and we need Quantum Computing to do it, but that’s a whole other story.

Back to my Sora no Otoshimono marathon and finale!

Episode 13, the last episode for this series’ season was quite awesome. And no, it’s not just because of the following picture either.

I think I can too, after seeing the Uranus System, but it quickly disappeared when the characters I wanted dead didn't die.

The episode ended up being quite awesome for Icarus/Ikaros (however you want to spell it) and Nymph as well, to some extent. I wont spoil it, but I have to say that there was a certain sequence in the middle of this episode that made me rage. And when I say rage, I mean that I was screaming at my monitor almost in tears and swearing at the top of my lungs for the way a certain scene played out. Which brings me to my next point. Do you ever have those series where two very important events are taking place at the same time but the director decides to distract you by swapping back and forth between them, losing your focus, and ends up dragging the whole bloody thing out to the point where you feel that you’ll never get to see the conclusion? Well this is one of those ending episodes. Worse yet is the fact that you absolutely long to see some characters obliterated, see everything leading to it only to have that small ray of hope disappear in the horrendous storm system that approaches.

Aside from that, I liked the outcome for both Nymph and Icarus, but since I really want to know what follows from this point, I’ll be starting to read the manga. Overall, a very awesome, fun, and ecchi-filled series with a surprising set of bittersweet and serious sequences that just begs for another season.

Sora no Otoshimono – 11

Tomoki - Man amongst men! I mean, Tomoko! - Man amongst...women?

My, my. This was quite an enjoyable episode. Tomoki, you are the man. And I mean it. You really are. It was just a matter of time before he came up with a plan as awesome as this, and I’m glad they waited until now to show it.

Oh Tomoki...I bet there are. If you haven't already, hit up the episode to see what he does. You won't be disappointed!

In case you’re wondering, when Sora no Otoshimono was initially airing, I followed it up to episode 4 and stopped for some random reason that I cannot recall right now. To be honest, I don’t even know if there was a valid reason in the first place. Either way, I decided to blitz the remainder of the episodes today.  Only two more to go for the conclusion of the TV anime! I’ll have to pick up the manga when I’m finished to see what other elements I wasn’t able to see in the anime.

Oh and another note, seems I forgot to disable FRAPs when taking that first screenshot, but was too lazy to take it again. Recently, I’ve been needing to monitor my FPS with some of these videos as I’ve been having random frame drops with some types of video content. I know it’s because of my ‘special’ video card I have in my PC, but now it seems I have another thing to add to my list of issues, but I can’t complain since I got it for free ^_^!

Ladies versus Butlers! – 12

HEADSHOT! DOUBLE KILL!!

Oh Akiharu, you so deserved that double slap from Selnia and Tomomi.

So with that, my ecchi/romance/comedy/slice of life of Winter 2010 is now over. Ladies versus Butlers was quite a mediocre series. It didn’t do anything new and the art was average, character-wise at least (let’s not even talk about those knifeblade chins. The last time I saw chins that pointy was when I watched Code Geass R2). As for the backgrounds, they were nice to watch when there weren’t giant breasts bouncing on screen or lolis with no clothes trying to molest each other. Did I mention girls undressing for no apparent reason and maids who always screw everything up? Yeah. It also had an unbelievably dense male lead (see the above screenshot for superior retribution delivery). Despite all of these issues, I still enjoyed it. The series accomplished nothing as far as I was concerned, but it was a nice way to pass the time every week. I’ll have to see what other series Xebec has in store for the next season. Actually come to think of it, nothing on the Spring 2010 list has Xebec on it….