big bad birtha's suggestion box 2: secret passions unveiled

[Talon87]

High School DxD:

Why you'll want to watch.

Aww, well that was a short-lived honeymoon. Watched the first two episodes of this. It's ... pretty bad. ^^; Very stupid premise, DINOs ("demons in name only"), and in the same family of shows as ToLoveRu (masturbation fodder for 15-year old boys) without being nearly as good. So why even bother!?

Kinda sad that this is why you might end up staying.

Why bother indeed. Well, it kinda redeemed itself at the very end of Episode 02, showing potential promise as a humor show. This was when the main character hung out with this otaku who usually summons a loli demon to his apartment so they can cosplay together. The otaku was understandably upset at first to see a guy show up instead of his loli princess. But then the two of them discovered they both liked the same manga, but had become fans of it at different points in time, and they proceeded to fanboy it up for the rest of the night. If the rest of the main character's contracting adventures are like this, then it might be worth it just for cheap entertainment's sake.

As for my complaints ... well, ordinarily I'd spoiler tag this, but this is a pretty crappy show, and not only that but I'm only through Episode 02, so, no spoiler tag this time and I'm going to end up spoiler tagging it anyway just because it got longer than I originally anticipated. Click the spoiler tag to keep reading, please:

Spoiler: show

In this universe, there are three supernatural forces which are constantly waging war with one another:

• God and his angels
• the fallen angels
• demons

Whether this is a really weak interpretation of Christianity by Japanese writers or whether this is an even worse merger of Japanese folklore with the Christian story of the war in Heaven, I don't know, but the premise of the anime is this:

• Heaven tries to exorcise the world of demons and also tries to execute the fallen angels
• the fallen angels want to dethrone God in the long run but for now they need a place to hole up so they're waging war with the demons for ownership of Hell
• the demons were the original antagonists to Heaven but now find themselves in danger of being exorcised by two groups: Heaven still, which wishes to exorcise them because demons are wicked; and the fallen angels, who are using their Heavenly powers (a.k.a. control over Light-type energy, which demons are naturally weak to) to exorcise the demons in a bid to seize control of Hell.

"My distinctive features are my red hair and my blue eyes."

See what I mean? It's stupid. ^^; Either the Japanese don't realize or else they don't care to realize that fallen angels are devils in Christianity and that the penultimate fallen angel, the fallen archangel Lucifer, is the king of Hell, Satan. The thing is, the so-called "demons" in this story remind me much more of the "demons" in other Japanese franchises, for example Tsukihime, in that they're demons in name only. The show seems to want us to believe that these girls and boys are authentic "demons" because they're sexy, they sate their life force needs through sexual contact, and one of them has blood-red hair. But these same "demons" go to a regular high school, do people favors that are sinister in principle ("demonic contracts") but seem positively harmless in practice ("cosplay with me!"), and in general don't want to cause anybody any trouble and find themselves fending for their own survival as not one but two different groups try to wipe them out. Those aren't real demons! And they're certainly not the demons one finds in a good hentai story.

This is what I signed up for.

The real sex appeal in this series, for the succubus or demoness fanboy like myself, is to be found in the fallen angels. They're really the only bad guys in this show. Given its weak writing, there's really no basis for Heaven (good hearted) and the demons (also good hearted) to be fighting one another. We're just told that they have been since time immemorial and that we ought to accept it. Lame. But the fallen angels ... there's where you find your sexy "u fu fu" demon queens. Like the girl in the ANN picture I quoted-posted above. Unfortunately, the fallen angels appear so rarely that they can't really serve as a persuasive draw for watching this show.

There's one other reason that this show is dumb that I forgot to mention: the main character's role in this war. So ... we're basically told in Episode 01 (and it's later explained in Episode 02) that God gifts some men with a special power or equipment called Sacred Gear. Whatever the person believes is the most powerful force in all creation, the mental image of that force will then manifest itself as the Sacred Gear. The demons explain to the protagonist in Episode 02 that only a very few people are gifted with this, by God himself, and that usually the men given this gift are (not surprisingly) some of the most legendary people in the annals of human history. So what happens is ... this power, a God-given power, poses a threat to the fallen angels and the demons alike. Yet, the demons don't even bat an eyelash over it. In fact, the local leader of the demons in this town notices what she thinks may be signs that our hero has got the gift of Sacred Gear and tells her girls, "We'll just monitor him for now." (What!?) Only the fallen angels seem to take it seriously and be like, "Okay, this shit isn't good because if it's used against us it could be really powerful." So they make it their job to kill people who have been given Sacred Gear. And that's what they do to this guy in Episode 01. (Spoiler! ) They kill him and take his Sacred Gear leave it behind. (Plot hole #1.) Then they don't stay and make sure the job is finished: they let him bleed out and allow for him to make a contract with the local demon princess. (Plot hole #2.) So he makes this contract ... and is "reborn" as a demon. (I put "reborn" in quotes since his life continues as before and no one else around him notices any difference. It might be more correct to say that he's transformed into a demon.)

Sacred Gear

So ... here's my problem with this, both a complaint about logic as well as me just complaining as a fan. Why didn't God step in to help this poor chap out? Why would God allow one of his chosen warriors, to whom he has gifted the Sacred Gear, to not only die but to be transformed into a demon!? This gets back to the Japanese lack of understanding of what God represents to Christians. They consistently treat him as this Zeus-like character -- powerful but not omnipotent, wise but not omniscient -- and allow for bumbles like these to take place. This shouldn't have happened on God's watch! >o< If God wanted this boy to become a warrior of justice, he wouldn't have allowed him to be so easily turned into a prince of darkness! (And some prince of darkness. Riding around town on his bicycle, chatting it up with otakus into the late hours of the night.)

Hiryuu's translation isn't the greatest -- I've already spotted a few glaring mistranslations (e.g. いやらしい as "creepy" instead of "lewd," "dirty," or "licentious" ordinarily and "lecherous" in this specific context in Episode 02) but there are some other ones which wanna-be fansubbers on the interwebs thought they identified and were retardedly wrong about (e.g. some guy who tried to correct them about 処女 virgin, which they 100% translated correctly, with him saying it was supposed to be "正[something]" which is as huge a giveaway as anything that he's in his third semester of Japanese studies), so don't get the wrong idea. I'd say the translation's 90% (least generous) to 95% (most generous) accurate. It's not bad. It's just not up to our usual UPN snuff. But for a series as bad as this one, beggars can't be choosers. ^^;

Will I keep watching? I'll at least check out Episode 03. I had been ready to drop it all episode long until the otaku scene improved and got funny. Up until that moment, the show had nothing to keep me and quite a few reasons to lose me. But that moment offered promise of something ... so we'll see. I mean, hell: I watched all of Kampfer Season 1, didn't I?

Recommended to: teenage boys
Dis-recommended to: anyone who takes their breast physics very seriously, women

[Doppleganger]

Oh Talon, when will you ever learn that an anime featuring succubus will have about as much intelligence as a spring onion? =3= Let's not forget, we F5'd a few weeks ago and recalled that Goshuushou-sama Ninomiya-kun was about moeblob succubi, too.

I rather like the black-haired girl's look. Sort of a cross between Lelouch's face and Medaka. Her neck is too thin for a chest that wide, though.

So...is this show supposed to be H, or just ecchi? (that sounds so redundant now)

[Talon87]

It's supposed to be just ecchi. It actually shows nipples pretty damn frequently, but it's less perverted than Seikon no Qwaser and devoid of sex unlike Yosuga no Sora and Kiss x Sis. I'd lump it in with shows like Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou (though this is of a MUCH lower quality than that show's first half was) and last season's Maken-Ki!. That stated, this isn't really a harem show. (At least, not from what I've seen so far. It has the semblance of a harem -- one doofus guy, many attractive girls -- but the execution's totally different.)

And I'm not giving up on a good demoness or succubus anime. Just like I'm not giving up on a good TF anime. *shakes fist at Kampfer, why did you have to disappoint me so? ;_;*

[Doppleganger]

I actually read a really good succubus manga called My Balls!, the only problem you would probably have with it is the main girl is a loli. But she was the only one, I think - almost all of the other seductresses were well-endowed and adult.

[Talon87]

Nope. Not good enough.

[Doppleganger]

It actually had a half-way decent plot. Remember when you thought Midori no Hibi had an H-premise? I'd put it maybe a half-step below that. It was serialized in the same magazine as Futari Ecchi.

What I liked about it was it started off ecchi, then went H as the plot progressed. That's something that drives me crazy about normal "ecchi" titles, it's just a tease with no resolution, or expectation of it. That's not natural.

And as far as tease goes, nothing beats Bakemonogatari and that's not even ecchi!

[Talon87]

High School DxD:

Okay. I may just have to drop this. Stupid plot developments are stupid. Spoilers from material not yet aired on television ahead.

Spoiler: show

URGH #1:
It turns out that one of the hotties, voiced by the wonderful Itou Shizuka, is (get this) the offspring of a human mother and a fallen angel father ... and that she later became a demon. Basically,

1. the author is trying to tap the "hurr hurr, she's all three factions in one :3" idea, even though NO, IT DOESN'T WORK; and
2. the author is trying to justify how a demon could use Light-elemental magic

Yes, you heard me: she is a demon ... who can use Light magic ... even though demons are so vulnerable to Light magic that it burns them to even come into physical contact with the stuff (as already demonstrated in Episode 02). It doesn't matter that her dad was a fallen angel: she's a demon now. It'd be like saying, "Well shucks! Issei (the main character) can handle Light-type magic, too! Because he used to be a human!" No. In your own goddamn universe, Mr. Author Dude, you've already established that Issei's physical past has no bearing on his physical present, that Issei can no longer come into contact with Light-elemental weaponry, period. So how come this girl can? Because her dad could? Because she could before she became a demon? Fuck off.

URGH #2:
It turns out that Satan is in this story and that he's the leader of the demons. Which means he's not the leader of the fallen angels. Which means that the fallen angel ... is not a fallen angel. -_-; Fuck. I hate when the Japanese do this. Don't fucking bother picking up the pen if you don't even know what the fuck you're writing about. The author wants us to believe that there was a second group of fallen angels that came after Satan and his posse. He wants us to believe that Satan's crew are alright peeps -- after all, the demons in this show seem positively saintly in practice -- and that the make-believe leader of this make-believe group of secondary fallen angels is such a loathsome badass that the combined forces of Satan and God are only just enough to keep this guy's faction in check. (What. ) It would have been better if the author had revealed that Satan was the leader of the fallen angels and that Enmaou, or whatever other indigenous leader of Japanese Hell we wanted to use, had been the leader of the demons. Still would have been a dumb plot, but not nearly as infuriating as this malarkey.

URGH #3:
Apparently something about a quest for "Excaliburs" plural. -_-;

I still haven't watched Episode 03. I want to give it its promised chance first. But after that, I'll probably drop this. It just sounds ... so, so bad. -_-; I'm not even religious, but this sort of level of getting the facts wrong really makes me want to punt something hard. It'd be like ... it'd be like if an American wrote a television show about "Amy" Amaterasu and "Susie" Susanoo (yes, he's become a girl now) who live in an apartment together in NYC. Their landlord is Bud Dha ("get it!? " ) who has half a dozen character traits that are completely inaccurate. Amy says her dad is the Yellow Emperor in China (what!?) and that her mother is Pimiko (WHAT!? X_x) and that she has two younger brothers, Raijin the Thunder God and Oda Nobunaga the Sengoku period warlord. That bad. That bad. It'd take a show that insulting to Japanese sensibilities to come up with something equivalently awful to this trainwreck of a Christianity-inspired tale.

[Talon87]

Watched Episode 03. They introduced a great character and possible plot thread with her but a readthrough of Wikipedia reveals that the author totally squanders this.

What you get: Issei's ideal woman moves to town. And she's crushing on him too! Aww. But he finds out that she's a priestess and her holy magic and Christian relics trigger fear and physical pain in him.

What I wanted from there:

Spoiler: show

The forbidden love angle / the Gambit and Rogue (X-Men) romance where two people fall in love yet can't touch one another.

-OR-

Asia (her name) is turned into a fallen angel somehow and becomes Issei's enemy and it's all so tragic.

What I got instead: (post-episodes that've aired-spoiler!)

Spoiler: show

Asia winds up becoming a demon in Issei's group just like him. And then she's relegated to Harem Supporting Character status.

Doppel, reading Wikipedia, it looks like I was wrong about this series: it ends up becoming a shameless, trashy, full-blown harem. Every single girl ends up throwing herself at Issei. No fewer than two are indicated as wanting to have his babies. It's the stuff loser guy's fantasies are made of. Surprising that it's gotten so many light novels.

[Doppleganger]

I beat Muv-Luv Alternative Faraway Daybreak II on Super Easy. It's allegedly harder than the first one, which I never managed to win. The game was hard and had a somber end, which made me feel really bad in spite of feeling really good over triumphing over it.

The last two stages before the final stage are insane. No fuel, no ammo, tons and tons of BETA everywhere. They're impossible to win if you didn't keep your troops alive in earlier stages.

OK, hopefully I'll finish the first ten episodes of Fresh now, then finish off the downloaded Yes 5, and finally get back to this PC full-time!

[Doppleganger]

Amazingly, in one day I've actually watched ten episodes of Fresh. This is huge. As someone who struggles to finish shows in any reasonable amount of time, ten episodes - notably of a Pretty Cure title, which don't showcase my time efficiency - is stunning. I'm really having a good time watching Fresh even if it's not substantial. It's dumb and silly, but not spiteful.

I made another surprising revelation, that Cure Berry is voiced by Eri Kitamura. I don't expect many people to be familiar with her, but she's young (24, same age as me) and extremely talented, and is proof positive that someone with skills can rise to notoriety VERY quickly. She was completely unknown prior to her break-out role in the VN Chaos;Head, where she displayed some impressive acting. Yes, she had big roles as Saya Otonashi and Kokonoe Rin, but Chaos;Head gave her massive exposure by virtue of 5pb. hawking its maiden title everywhere. Studios like young CVs and she found herself spontaneously employed, but was able to work into major roles because it didn't take studios long to realize that 1) she is an excellent actress, and 2) has equally excellent range. That versatility allowed her to assume any number of roles, which, combined with her youth, might allow her to be consistently employed without having to rely on a type-cast.

Of the CVs in Japan, the longest lasting or prolific CVs are either solid if recognizable (Norio Wakamoto, Tesshou Genda, Takehito Koyasu), versatile (Jun Fukuyama, Ayako Kawasumi, Tanaka Rie), or both (Tomokazu Seki, Nobuyuki Hiyama). Most others need to rely on a strong type-cast (Kugumiya Rie, Romi Paku) to keep work, despite range or other talents, because studios won't give them the chance. Kikue Inoue is an all of the above type actress.

It's hard to tell if Eri Kitamura's recent production is due solely to recent hype, as was the case with Aya Hirano, but she keeps a low profile and is talented enough to keep up with the work-load. I hope she doesn't flame out, I think her career has the potential to mirror Yui Horie.

Now that I think about it, Horie, Kitamura, and Rie were all leads in Toradora!, but that was before Kitamura spring-boarded into the stratosphere. How portent.

[unownmew]

Episode 4 of Moretsu Pirates:
Slow pacing, and not much action yet (promises of action in episode 5), but I'm still enjoying it greatly. The plotline seems to be essentially Marika's growth as she determines to be a Space Pirate Captain, and the show plays out like an actual book, which I really enjoy. The OP and ED are phenomenal IMO, and the show builds the world incredibly well. There's also only been old-school fan service, and a very restricted amount so far, it's very refreshing. The one and only panty shot you'll never see unless you play it on slowed speed and know what to look for. (I never saw it myself, just the screen capture in a thread discussing it on another forum)

To be honest, Moretsu Pirates is the only show I actually look forward to watching each week. The rest are just so-so.


Nisemonogatari ep 4:
They've now delivered severe fan service for every old character save Senjougahara and Hanekawa, and a little bit for his sisters.
Episode 4 features Shinobu well.

The plot is well underway, and there's none of the irritating images that popped up in Bakemonogatari. It's quite entertaining. I'm just a little surprised they've extended a single arc into 4+ episodes, which is different then usual.

[Doppleganger]

What do you mean by irritating images? Like those sign pop-ups?

That's one of Akiyuki Shinbo's cost saving techniques. If you recall, I ratted on Dance in the Vampire Bund's tendency to focus in on Akira's eye, which was another of his antics. Things only ultimately imploded in that Nadeko episode.

It's kind of amazing what Shinbo can do with limited budget, I don't think he's as good as Ikuhara, but few of his SHAFT anime have good budgets (I guess Nisemonogatari must be the first).

One could even say that Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei made as much as The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya cost to make. :V (I don't know if this is true, but it sounds good!)

[unownmew]

Originally Posted by Doppleganger

What do you mean by irritating images? Like those sign pop-ups?

That's one of Akiyuki Shinbo's cost saving techniques. If you recall, I ratted on Dance in the Vampire Bund's tendency to focus in on Akira's eye, which was another of his antics. Things only ultimately imploded in that Nadeko episode.

It's kind of amazing what Shinbo can do with limited budget, I don't think he's as good as Ikuhara, but few of his SHAFT anime have good budgets (I guess Nisemonogatari must be the first).

One could even say that Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei made as much as The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya cost to make. :V (I don't know if this is true, but it sounds good!)

Yeah, those sign pop-ups and such. Yuki and I both mentioned their evident lack after the first episode, and I'm just restating how pleasant it is to not have them. The abstract is still quite nice though.

I seem to remember you telling me it was a cost saving technique, and it seems to work quite well, putting a coherent and enjoyable story together without continous animation. I'm glad Nisemonogatari was given a good budget. Shinobu and Nadeko fanservice is excellent, the story is great, and the animation excellent, I'm actually liking the abstract stuff too. ^^;

Wasn't there a prequel to Bakemonogatari? I seem to remember it discussed, but can't remember the name.

[Doppleganger]

Originally Posted by unownmew

I seem to remember you telling me it was a cost saving technique, and it seems to work quite well, putting a coherent and enjoyable story together without continous animation. I'm glad Nisemonogatari was given a good budget. Shinobu and Nadeko fanservice is excellent, the story is great, and the animation excellent, I'm actually liking the abstract stuff too. ^^;

Most Shinbo shows get budget added back in the DVD releases, but we have to remember Bakemonogatari was the highest selling DVD/Blu-Ray anime series...ever. Adding budget back is usually more expensive than animating it right the first time, so I can imagine SHAFT re-invsting some of Bakemonogatari's earnings to save cost later.

Originally Posted by unownmew

Wasn't there a prequel to Bakemonogatari? I seem to remember it discussed, but can't remember the name.

Kizumonogatari. That's the one I'm really gunning for, I actually haven't watched Nisemonogatari at all. I think Bakemonogatari ended pretty well but KizuMono really adds another layer of depth to Araragi's relationships. From what I've been told, it's basically the ceiling for Tsukihime, meaning if Nasu brought out the fullest potential of his Tsukihime story, he'd have gotten Kizumonogatari.

[big bad birtha]

Keroro Gunsou
I've gotten to the changed OP. Basically, I'm at episode 52, so I figured this would be a good bookmark to start talking about it. After 52 episodes, I've really gotten attached to this show. The cast is great, and the relationships between all of the characters are pretty well done. What I found surprising is that I've gotten to where I really like the development between Natsumi and Giroro (not crazy about inter-species, which is why the mascot relationships in Yes 5 bugged me). I look forward to seeing where that ends up. As far as issues go, I only have a small one. I'm not crazy about the shameless Gundam model advertising by Sunrise. It's not series ruining, nor is it something that really even bothers me that much, but something I figured I'd mention.

[Talon87]

Now that you've made it through Episode 52, you've basically seen what I would call "one full Keroro Gunsou." From here ...

(episode 53 spoiler, sort of)

Spoiler: show

Don't be alarmed that they more or less hit the Reset Button (which they did at the end of Episode 52) and they now come up with some new justification for why the platoon is still on Earth (1) not promptly conquering the planet but also (2) not being called back to HQ for their failure to do so. They do this every 26-to-52 episodes from now on. (IIRC it's usually every 52. I think I've seen three different Keroro Gunsou "over-arching series" and I'm in the 130s, so ...) And each time they do it, they'll up the ante in ever more extreme ways.

I hope that the show won't lose its magic for you before you get to the 100s. It'll be nice if you can make it far enough to where you're on target to watch the first two movies.

I asked you a week ago who your favorite member of the platoon was. I never told you mine. Like you, my favorite is Giroro. I think our similarities end there (since Tamama is my second least favorite ^^; ) but Giroro is hands down who sells the show for me. I'm an especially big fan of Giroro x Natsumi and it'll only get better as you continue to watch more episodes. Though from where you are in the show, I think you've already seen the episode where Giroro has to whisper "that password" into Natsumi's ear? (Episode 38, according to this Youtube upload, so that's a yes. ) That was probably one of my favorite episodes of the series.

As for my favorite character of the series, no question, it's gotta be Angol Mois. One of very, very few characters I'd actually say is a Mai Waifu for me. She's just ... so awesome, so cute, so awesome, so cute, so awesome, so cute ... But not far behind her in second place would be Kogoro. He'd get old if they used him too much but thankfully they don't and as a result he is just fucking awesome every time he shows up. That face! That laugh! So creepy, so hysterical, so amazing. XD Then right behind these two would be Giroro and Natsumi. After which point my list kind of tapers off. There are other characters I like, but these four really sell the show for me.

Also: Adult Natsumi is ridiculously hot. It's a crime that there aren't more doujins with her in them but unfortunately Keroro Gunsou isn't the sort of show which lends itself to getting very many doujins in the first place. :\

[Doppleganger]

Freaking Episode 25 of Fresh. What the heck? I didn't watch any yesterday because I was practically dead - I hadn't eaten anything since Friday, and did my usual killer work-out on Sunday - so I literally couldn't muster the strength to watch anime. But today, I ate some doughnuts (heavily featured in Fresh, fat city baby!) and watched a lot of anime.

The day passed very slowly. I've always considered listening to music/blogging/posting to make time fly a lot more than watching anime (since, hypothetically, I should be capable of watching 3 anime episodes/hour) but it's kind of amazing, during a marathon, how slowly the clock runs.

[big bad birtha]

Quoting's a pain, so in response to Suigin:

Mois's verbal quirks are incredibly cute. I don't really know enough about her to really like her or dislike her. The episode about the model for her Earth form was really good, though. I guess really liking Mois would lead to not liking Tamama much. For me, I love Tamama's "cute face masking a monster". I think his is done much better than Momoka. Also, Tamama's fucking adorable!

556 is just amazing. Like Tamama, he's another character I love the voice actor to (GAOGAIGARRRRRR!) I also love that god damn wide-eyed smile and laugh. It's even better when he's freaking knocked out while still having that expression, and everyone's trying to guess whether he's awake, asleep, or dead.

I also like Aki, but they haven't really gone over her much. Her behavior in the episode where she piloted the mech was great.

[Talon87]

Just watched three four raw episodes of Keroro Gunsou on Youtube. Well, fragments.

This one is half of episode #245. It starts off with 556 depressed over not being able to get a 10-yen piece. Lavie asks Keroro to help out and after they identify the source of his trauma they take him back to HQ to help give him a new heart. Kururu invents a new gold helmet for Kogoro that makes him a new man. His "Adhesion!" transformation is different. His demeanor is different. He's a completely new 556. He no longer smashes through doors, collects color boxes, or picks up 10 yen coins. Lavie begins to get concerned after Kogoro not only abandons picking up a 10 yen piece to pick up a 100 yen coin instead but even tells Lavie that there's no need to bother going back to pick it up. Later that evening, he tells Lavie to throw away his old helmet, declaring that he's a new 556. One afternoon some time later, Lavie finally confesses to 556 that she doesn't like the new 556. She explains that 556's old helmet was a gift he got from their mother. Even though they were poor, she worked hard, saved up her money, and bought the helmet for her son. Lavie tells him, "What makes you happy makes me happy. But ... an older brother who doesn't pick up 10 yen coins, who won't collect color boxes, and who doesn't treasure his helmet isn't the older brother I know. ;_;" So 556, after some meditation at the pier, gives up his new helmet and his new lifestyle in exchange for his old life. Keroro says that since they threw away 556's old helmet he won't be able to Adhesion anymore, but Lavie then reveals that she wasn't able to throw it away after all. The episode ends happily ever after with a classic 556 Adhesion transformation and a successful 10 yen GET.

This one is of Keroro's illegitimate child. (Spoiler: it's not really his, but everyone keeps thinking it is. LOL @ poor Mois! LOL at Giroro @ 0m57s! XD) In the end, it turns out that the baby wasn't even a Keronian and he leaves the nest after sufficiently maturing.

This one is a user-edited "abridged version" of episode #247. They took the choicest 5 minutes of footage necessary to convey the episode's basic plot and stitched them together. Mois gets lip stick and Natsumi tells her it makes her look very adult. Mois then wonders if this means she'll be able to finally up her relationship with Keroro to something more adult. The episode's pretty edited so it jumps around quite a bit, but Keroro comes home and, after Mois asks him what he thinks of her lipstick and he disappoints her with his answer (he says something about lacquer but we don't get to hear what, only Mois repeating the word "lacquer? "), Natsumi pulls him outside and lectures him about a maiden's fragile heart and all that. So Keroro naturally compliments Mois on her lipstick (reading cues off of Natsumi's sign) ... and then Giroro walks in. And sees Natsumi. And is completely destroyed by how sexy she looks. At which point Keroro realizes -- MWAHAHA, Pekopon Invasion Plan #247. Things escalate and Mois, in an attempt to be more adult, places a seal on her forehead she got from her mother. (The rest of the details are lost to the edit.) The seal unexpectedly transforms Mois into her Angol form against her will. Things spiral out of control, culminating in one of the cutest Angol Mois moments I've ever seen when Keroro saves Mois and Planet Earth from destruction. (Her reaction at 4m12s is priceless. )

And then while writing this post, I watched this episode fragment here. This one's got English subs so no need for me to summarize. It's pretty funny and worth watching if you're a Tamama fan but really it's all about funny scenes for each of the main characters in turn. LOL @ 5m36s. And then at 1m07s here in part 2, meoooooooow at Mois.

If you didn't blaze through anime so fast, I'd be sorely tempted to make a Keroro Gunsou thread for us. But by this time next week, I imagine you'll have lapped me and be well on your way towards 200. So I guess there's not much point.

[Doppleganger]

I watched Talon's videos out of curiosity, as BBB has been advocating Keroro lately. Still not my cup of tea, but in the first video I had a bit of a challenge identifying 556's CV. On the one hand, when he wears the mask, he sort of sounds like Nobuyuki Hiyama, but it's hard to tell...without the mask, he sounds nothing like him. It was possible someone was imitating Hiyama's speech style. I double checked on ANN and sure enough it's Hiyama. That was tough!

...

After the slow day that was Monday, I slept most of Tuesday, and woke up at 6:00 PM. There was some weird stuff that happened that day anyway so it was destined to get fudged up anyway. Haven't watched Fresh since Monday, but on 25 now and I'm disappointed in it.

Something I don't like is when a strong, assertive, girl becomes meek and timid. Oh, it's possible when the girl loses confidence, but it's not a personality change so much as a period of doubt. What's happening with Setsuna is quite the opposite, I have a bad feeling she lost her personality as Eas after she died, and that makes her feel out of place in the colourful and bubbly Fresh. She was much more complementary as she initially was - sharp, aloof, and distant. Kind of the hallmarks of a late addition. Please regain form, Setsuna!

[Doppleganger]

Wednesday has come and gone and I've made little progress. A big part of that is due to these episodes being a bit sluggish. Low on comedy, big on melodrama. I'm going to have to close my heart and turn off my brain for a bit.

I picked up on something, though. Episode 25 was a shameless promotional episode featuring the real-life manzai group "Audrey". The guys got to play hero, and show off their trade-marks, but what struck me was the big guy Kasuga was HUGE.

Or was he?



Kasuga's Wikipedia page claims he's 176 cm tall, or 5.7 feet. He's slouching just a bit, but Setsuna is standing up perfectly straight, so we can assume she's 151-153 cm tall, somewhere in the neighbourhood of 5.0 feet. That's the height of a below average Japanese woman (5.2 feet).

Fresh's characters came across as tall, although it might be the effect of the entire world being catered to shorter people (we don't see people struggling to get through portcullis because they're adjusted for height) although they're definitely tall in comparison to the other PreCure.

I've often expressed the view that Fresh's cast feels like high school students because of their height and relative maturity (they talk about love, romance and boyfriends a bit casually, compared with the utter innocent of Futari wa and Splash Star's casts) and the height argument supported it, but even in the All Star DX movies, they're adjusted so that they don't tower over girls who look noticeably younger due to stylistic differences. BUT, if the proportions can be trusted, this means that most of the girls are below 5 feet in height...supporting the idea they're middle schoolers and not high schoolers.

Except for Suite's cast, who tower over even Fresh's cast in the DX movies. There's no getting around it - they might be middle schoolers in name, but they're high school students with the brains of elementary school students.

Also, BBB, Cure Marine is a full head shorter than Cure Aqua, who is about Setsuna's height. On the extremely stingy end of estimation, she's 3'11. On the generous side, she's 4'7".

[big bad birtha]

Precure can sometimes be inconsistent with character height. In some scenes, Love is just as tall as her mom, but in others, she's a head shorter. Hell, in one scene, Miki towered over Love's mom.

Episode 74 of Keroro Gunsou was amazing. It was mostly random skits, but they were all freaking great. I liked the previous episode as well. Any Aki episode is a good episode! EDIT: On a related note

Also, while not immediate, I decided to watch Kodomo no Omocha. Luckily, I found downloads to every episode on mediafire (obviously torrents won't have any seeds.) I'll give it a shot sometime, since I hear it's hilarious.

[lilboocorsola]

Daily Lives of High School Boys

Lol. After spending so long dictating to my friend just why I admired the second episode, the fourth goes and implements the exact type of characterization I applauded them for avoiding. That being said, I don't mind this development either, as I can personally relate to that type of situations. It does seem that after the initial laughs, the show could be setting itself up for a slightly more serious tone alongside the chuckles. Again, like School Rumble.

It is a bit grating how hard the series tries to be increasingly self-aware, particularly when it comes to the differences between genders. The petty role reversal sequence returned with a vengeance, not to mention the introduction of several new female characters whose only purpose is to further prove they're on the same clueless level as guys, if not dumber. I'm not offended by any of it, just disappointed the author feels the need to repeatedly make such a statement (really curious as to whether it's a male or female). I was happy just watching the boys' antics take center stage while the few girls remained as little more than cardboard scenery, to the point where the sister(s)' eyes aren't even shown despite frequent appearances. Going out of one's way to villify them just makes the source material seem insecure.

Persona 4i

Episodes 16 and 17 were pretty good. 16 was an example of filler done well. Just... So hilariously awkward I don't even. Episode 17 starts up what feels like an epic arc. I accidentally read a major spoiler so I was expecting the reveal, though I had my doubts about how it would be dealt with given the poor handling of a previous character's similar issues. So far the execution seems promising, but we'll see...

Nisemonogatari

Almost forgot about this one, caught up on episodes three and four on the weekend. I'm also immensely enjoying this. Though honestly I think I'd prefer Aya's voice for Shinobu over whoever her VA is now. Her annoying "ka ka" got on my nerves.

Hikaru no Go

I haven't mentioned this yet, but I started watching a couple weeks ago. Already gave my initial thoughts to Talon over Skype, which were mostly regarding nitpicky differences from the tiny manga preview I read. Already well past that point in the plot and enjoying it, so hopefully looking forward to more this weekened. (If you want I'll probably have time to play that game you were asking for, Talon.)

[Doppleganger]

Mahou Sensei Negima! is ending. The well-read part of the shounen manga community is starting to cry.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Doppleganger

Mahou Sensei Negima! is ending. The well-read part of the shounen manga community is starting to cry.

Haven't read it so I can't judge whether it's good or not. Therefore, don't consider the following statement a value judgment: just take it for what it is.

"All good things must come to an end."

Whether they overstay their welcome like The Simpsons or whether they go out at the peak of their popularity like Seinfeld, all series have to come to an end at some point. (Well, besides Sazae-san, but she doesn't count. And hell: even her manga came to an end eventually.)

I'd like to see Akamatsu Ken work on his drawing abilities. His style is so simple, it'd be nice to see him step it up a bit. Then again, most mangakas' styles are so simple compared with their eromangaka cousins. I guess it's just the nature of the media. (The more visuals matter, the prettier those visuals will be.)

Even if he keeps drawing the same way as he has for the past ten years, though, I'll admit I'm interested to see if he's got anything planned for after Negima. While I loved Love Hina, Negima's premise turned me off, so I've been without Akamatsu Ken in my life since around 2005 or so. Amazing how time flies. But yeah: I'd like to see him do something that isn't centered around school, whether it's getting into one (Love Hina) or attending one (Negima).

I'd also like to see him try his hand at a non-harem for a change. Romance is great, but we don't need harems. If he wants to still have a lot of girls for the readers to pick and choose from, perhaps try what Kobayashi Jin did and have numerous guys too? Perhaps that's one reason why School Rumble was such good fun: it had the hijinx and misunderstandings of most harem comedies but without any of the problems of most harem series (e.g. chauvinism).