Guilty Crown - 11

This episode was almost decent...

Dan's a screwball, but at least he was amusing...

Guilty Crown - 09, 10

My favorite part of the episodes? This.

Gundam AGE - 11

I'm beginning to suspect (and hope for) NTR end for this arc, considering how Flit's been obsessing over Yurin.  Either that or a bad end, which I really don't want to happen to the one decent character in the show.

Still carrying around her ribbon, wherever he goes.

Series Review: C3

Within this world, there are many cursed items which bring misfortune or death to their owners.  With time, some of these objects become self aware and able to take on human forms, not unlike a tsukumogami.  Fear-in-Cube, later renamed Fear Kubrick when she is introduced to a normal life, is one such cursed object, seeking to remove the curse that drives her owners to use her and the many torture tools her box form contains to torture and kill others.  To fulfill this desire, she lets Yachi Honatsu send her to live with his son, Haruaki a relatively ordinary high school student, whose main redeeming value (for the plot, at least) is his total immunity to curses, and whose home is built on a plot of land with an especially large concentration of positive energy, which, will help remove the curse.  Also living in the house is Muramasa Konoha, who, as her name implies, is a cursed katana

I wish we saw a little more of this Konoha. Her normal personality's a little too bland.

Medaka Box: Goodbye Fourth Wall

Manga isn't something that I've been posting about (though I have wanted to start including a "manga" section to the blog), but the latest chapter of Medaka Box was just so epically fourth wall breaking, I'm going to do it anyway.

Winter 2012 Anime Preview

The first show of the 2012 winter season starts in a little less than two weeks, so here's the preview!

Gundam AGE - 10

This was the most hilarious thing that I've seen in a long time.  It was just that bad... which really shouldn't be the case in an action episode.

The UE battleship was firing for the entire episode and still managed to hit absolutely nothing

Gundam AGE - 09

And after one episode, Gundam Titus is obsolete.  Joy.

Gundam AGE - 08

As usual, Gundam AGE disappoints with a mix of bad writing and laughable physics.

Let's start with the heavyweight arms being supported by that tiny joint.

Guilty Crown - 07, 08

Wow, I'm really behind on GC now... time to catch up! Since it's only a little late, episode 9 will get its own post.

I'll say it again, forget all the other characters in the show, Ayase and Tsugumi are the best reasons to watch Guilty Crown.  The other characters?  Nah.

Bite-sized mid-season review

We're right around the midpoint for the current season, and there are a lot of shows that I'm watching, but don't have the time to cover properly.  So here's a quick mid-season review of what I'm really watching, and my thoughts so far.

Guilty Crown - 05, 06

I stopped caring about Inori... Ayase's the best female character in the series.  Being voiced by Hanazawa Kana is just an extra plus.

TV Tropes would call this "Handicapped Badass"

Gundam AGE - 07

Almost nothing actually happened in this episode, other than plot device (read: AGE Builder) to the rescue... kind of.

The Gundam is wounded. You can tell because it's clutching its arm for no reason.

Random things: Bad Apple, traditional style

Bad Apple, performed in a traditional style.

Gundam AGE - 06

It's like they're not even trying any more (if they ever really were)...

This is my shocked face

Guilty Crown - 04

The line's a tad overused at this point, but it still sums the episode up perfectly.  GRAVITY DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY.

Gundam Age - 05

You smell...

The Diva finally makes it to the Tordia colony, but as always, trouble isn't far behind them.

Friday AMV #10 - Gundam 00

Gundam 00... what's there to say about it?  It's the second most recent Gundam show (before AGE), and the first to be set in the real world's timeline (though since they're using Anno Domini instead of CE... technically not).  Far into the future, an armed group called Celestial Being use their four Gundams (or five if you count Nadleeh, or six if you count Nadleeh and Fereshte's units) to intervene in armed conflicts around the world in a centuries old bid to bring about world peace... of course, being a Gundam series, it's nowhere near that easy.

Song: Indestructible

Gundam AGE - 04

Why are you all suddenly three feet tall?

Argh. This episode.  Just... ARGH.

Guilty Crown - 03

Sad to say, the third episode was quite a bit weaker than the first two.  Let's hope that the rest of the show isn't like this.

Wanted criminal/terrorist transferring in.

Friday AMV #9 - This is Halloween :)

Well, it will be in a few days, anyway.

Gundam AGE - 03

The show's getting a little better, moderately resolving some of the more egregious problems I've identified so far, but it's still far from great.

Battleship beamspam... with almost none of them pointed at the attacking unit

Last Exile Ginyoku no Fam - 01

And the last show to air (I think) finally makes its appearance.  I never got around to finishing the first Last Exile, so it's possible, maybe even likely that I'll be missing details from time to time.

The show opens with Fam sleepwalking her way out of an airship's exterior door, stopped only by a rope tied around one of her ankles.  Apparently, she does it often (though one wonders what happened the first time...).

Guilty Crown - 02

Back at GHQ base, medics are scrambling to pull the pilot of the unit that Shu wrecked last episode out of the pod that all the mech pilots remote-control their units from.  Back at the action, that pilot's squadmate charges his unit forward, furious over his partner being taken down, and fires a spread of missiles, which Shu manages to avoid by subconsciously tapping his newfound powers.

All fighting done by remote control.

Friday AMV #8 - Time to dance

Taking a break from the single-series AMVs I've been posting.  This week it's a couple multi-series AMVs based around those with dancing OP/ED or insert songs.

Gundam AGE - 02

Episode 2 continues right from where episode 1 left off, a UE missile attack on the Nora colony... and runs straight into the type of problems that the pilot had.

The missile is bigger than the MS...

Tamayura Hitotose - 02

After waiting a week for another look at this series I finally get the time to review the second episode of Tamayura Hitotose. Like i mentioned before this anime genre really sits well with me, i love its kawaii characters and their simple life creates this very realistic environment being represented throughout the animation.

Friday AMV #7 - Super Robot Wars

SRW is a long-running turn-based strategy game by Banpresto, which combines the characters and storylines from a multitude of mecha series, from real robot series like Gundam and Macross, to super robot series like Getter Robo, Dunbine, Nadesico, and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Over the years (and games), they created and introduced a multitude of original characters and plotlines, then, eventually spun all of them off into the Original Generations series. The series was popular enough to warrant a three-episode OVA, then full two-season adaptions of both OG1 and OG2 (though the RX-78 Gundam Huckebein was left behind in all but the OVA).



Second video over the fold.

Guilty Crown - 01

As I wrote in the fall anime preview, this series feels a lot like Code Geass.  Ten years prior to the start of the show, a pandemic caused by the Apocalypse Virus caused so much damage to Japan that it was forced to take so much foreign aid that it became, in essence, owned by other countries via a governmental body called the GHQ. Inori Yuzuriha is an idol singer with the in-universe Egoist, and a member of the resistance group Undertaker, who manages to steal the void genome from a GHQ facility.  In her escape, she, the minibot Fyu-Neru, and the void genome go missing after being blown off a bridge in a clash with GHQ forces.

Gundam AGE - 01

One good point, the enemy mechs look pretty good.

Even not counting the main character designs (which no one really seems to like), there's so much wrong with this I don't know where to begin...

14 years prior to the start of the show, an unknown force called Unknown Enemy or UE attacked and destroyed the space colony Angel.  Seven years later the colony Asuno Flit is living in with his mother is similarly attacked, and she is killed moments after giving Flit the AGE device, a memory unit containing data on a certain mobile suit.  In the present day, Flit, now 14, and still in school, is working for the military as the head of the project building the mobile suit Gundam based off of the data in the AGE device.  On the day the unit is finished and ready for its trial runs, the UE attack the colony and are forced to retreat after the Flit sorties in the Gundam and destroys one of their units... the first ever human victory.  The episode ends as the UE launch a retaliatory missile attack against the colony.  My main issues with the show below the fold.

Friday AMV #6 - Haruhi Suzumiya

What if god was an eccentric high school girl, and you had to do everything in your power to keep her from realizing she has the power to remake the universe as she sees fit?  That's the plot of Haruhi Suzumiya no Yuutsu (the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya) in a nutshell.  Even if you've never watched it, the dance version of the first season's ending theme, Hare Hare Yukai, was a convention staple for years, until it was supplanted by Carameldansen and... come to think of it, has anything replaced that yet?

Anyway, on to this week's videos.



A second video over the fold

Tamayura Hitotose - 01

Tamayura Hitotose comes from "TYO Animatons" as a very generic but warm slice of life depicting the life of protagonist Fu Sawatari and her experiences the years after the passing of her dad who seems to had been a great inspiration for her, specially in the area of Photography.

Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon - 01

It was fun, but...what on Earth did I just watch?

In a post-apocalyptic world, nearly the entire Earth has been rendered inhabitable to people.  However, humanity retains its advanced technology and, in an attempt to rebuild, rewrite and copy their history.  The world is currently entering a period where they are rewriting a 30-year-war era, and are seeking out conflicts.

Maji De Watashi Ni Koi Shinasai - 01

Looking at the first episode, Maji De Watashi Ni Koi Shinasai (Please Love Me Seriously, abbreviated Majikoi) reminds me of a combination of Real Bout High School, Bakatest and Dog Days.

Complete with maid army

C3 - 01

We'll be showing this one at the screening next week, so this will be a pretty basic episode review. (Click "read more" for the rest of the post)

Ro-Kyu-Bu

It's about basketball, I swear.

What do you do if you're the aunt of a star basketball player whose high school team was just disbanded because its leader got into a relationship with their advisor's elementary school-aged daughter?  You blackmail him into coaching the girls' basketball team at your elementary school, of course.  Hasegawa Subaru is put in that position, initially agreeing to only coach them for three days, to prep them for a match against the boys' team, but after "losing" a bet with his aunt and the team, he stays on and continues coaching.

Mayo Chiki

Maybe it's just a reflex.  If my nose bleeds,  they'll leave me alone...because the room would get dirty otherwise.

Due to years of constant use as a sandbag by his pro-wrestler mother and younger sister, Sakamachi Kinjirou (Jirou) now has a body that nosebleeds whenever he is touched by a female.  Konoe Subaru is the (female) butler of Suzutsuki Kanade, who is allowed the position only under the condition that no one figures out that she is a "she".  Needless to say, that doesn't even last five minutes into the first episode, as Jirou walks in on her in the restroom, and in the resulting chaos quickly finds out the truth.  Kanade then offers him a deal.  They will help him cure his phobia, and in exchange, he won't tell anyone the truth about Subaru (and if he refuses, he's a dead man walking).

GOOD MORNING NII-SAN!

Blood-C

"What do you think people are made of? I'm not talking about blood or flesh. We do care about what's on the exterior, but we want to focus more on what people even now still call the "inside." You can also call it "nature." I guess you are either born this way or raised to act this way. Are people born like this or do they become like this? The answer is..."

Kisaragi Saya is a second-year high school student and miko at her family's Shinto shrine.  During the day, she's a normal (if klutzy) student, while at night, she uses the shrine's sacred Goshintou katana to kill furukimono (translated as Old Ones or Elder Bairns), monstrous creatures which eat people.

Charlotte, is that you?

Yuru-Yuri

Anyone who has become an Anime fan that goes above your average “English” dubbed Naruto watching idiot (No offense intended), into actually watching anime in Japanese audio, should be able to tell what “Yuri” is. Yuri is basically “ガールズラブ” or Girl’s Love, which is a genre in novels, manga, and animation that involves, obviously, girl on girl action... just kidding but as the name suggests, this genre is driven by stories, usually romantic, in where both partners are females. Having this in mind, I went ahead excited to see what crazy ecchi shenanigans Yuru-Yuri had to offer.

Friday AMV #5 - Strike Witches

Strike Witches was a rather unusual series, in that it managed to mix a decent storyline with copious amounts of fanservice... most of which comes from the simple fact that the witches do not appear to be wearing pants.  That said, the storyline is pretty solid, and the battle choreography is fantastic.  Ignore the unending panty shots (surprisingly easy to do after a couple episodes), and enjoy a good show.

Series: Strike Witches
Song: Snoopy vs. The Red Baron (The Royal Guardsmen)



Bonus video below the fold

Kamisama Dolls

La la lalala lalala lalalalala.... 

This is Kukuri.  You'll be seeing it a lot.

In Karakami Village, a small town in rural Japan, are a number of ancient devices known as Kakashi.  A few special individuals, called "seki" are able to control the Kakashi and control them remotely.  Kuga Kyouhei is a former seki, who resigned and gave up control of Kukuri after an incident in the village.  He then moved to Tokyo to go to college and get away from the village.

Ikoku Meiro no Croisée

Looking back before Sumer 2011 anime season started, I was able to find an appreciation for animes which stories bring the viewer to non-modern times and although their settings might not apply to the actual history, they still deliver a very warm/simple view of what those times used to be like, in example “Gosick” which started back in winter of 2010. Ikoku Meiro no Croisée from this past summer 2011 season is another great example of animes that are able to deliver the viewer a very interesting take of how life used to be before modernity.

Shinryaku!? Ika Musume - 01

Ika Musume, invading the blog!

Well, here we go!  The first series of the new season (not counting Working, which pre-aired their first episode a few weeks back) is finally here.  Shinrakyu!? Ika Musume is the second season of the anime adaption of the yonkoma (4-panel) manga series by the same name.  It's a slice of life comedy centered around the titular Ika Musume, a squid girl who wants to conquer the surface world in retaliation for humans polluting the oceans.  Needless to say, it doesn't work, and she finds herself stuck working in a beachside food stand/restaurant.

Friday AMV #5 - Angel Beats

All I'll say is that this one perfectly puts together the drama side of Angel Beats.  I think I've already watched it more than a dozen times since I found it a little while ago... it's just that good.  One can only imagine what this show would have been like if the executives had actually let the originally planned 26-episode version air.

Anime: Angel Beats!
Song: Iridescent (Linkin Park)

Friday AMV #4 - "Befriending"

befriend (v.): to use mecha-class beam weaponry to inflict grievous bodily harm on a target in the process of proving the validity of your belief system. 

What do you get when you take the tropes and archetypes most commonly associated with hotblooded super and real robot shows and use them to make a mahou shoujo (magical girl) show instead?  You get Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha (nicknamed by some in the fandom Ma Hou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha, or "Demon Cannon" Girl Lyrical Nanoha for some of the pyrotechnics that get thrown around).  And when you combine footage from that show with music from JAM Project,a group who is most well known for producing hotblood songs for several big name anime and games (SRW comes to mind), you get this.
Anime: Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha (all three seasons, mostly the 3rd).
Song: Jam Project: Skill

Fall Semester 2011: First Screening

I have just been informed by the room and course scheduling office that our request for a screening room has (finally) been approved.  Our first official screening of the semester will be this Saturday, September 17, from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM in Chavez 103 on the University of Arizona campus.  As the fall anime season will not be starting for a few more weeks, we will be showing episodes from recent and current shows. (Tentative anime list: Kamisama Dolls, Bakemonogatari, Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, Infinite Stratos.)

Also note that there WILL be a home football game this Saturday.  People driving may want to consider carpooling or alternate means of transportation, as parking WILL NOT be free during the game (unless you go to the Park garage, assuming the map is correct), and the lots may be crowded.

Friday AMV #3 - Past to present: Mobile Suit Gundam

Mobile Suit Gundam is, hands down, one of the biggest anime franchises out there.  Before it started branching off into alternate universes, all of its series were set in the Universal Century (UC), from UC 0000 (the prologue of Gundam Unicorn) to UC 0153 (Victory Gundam).  Within those 153 years, the most well known are the 14 years between UC0079/0080 (Mobile Suit Gundam, 08th MS Team, 0080) and 0093 (Char's Counterattack). 

And so, this week's first AMV: UC Gundam (0079-0093): Konnamon Janai

Fall 2011 Anime Preview

It's about three weeks to go until the the Fall 2011 anime season really gets going.  A couple shows have released either first episodes or pre-air versions of their first episodes, so now's a good time to post a quick introduction to the season.  What shows are you most interested in?

Friday AMV #2 - Going old school

Macross (originally brought to the US as the first season of Robotech) is, I think, only second to UC Gundam in terms of having a number of series set in the same universe.  In this case, spanning the 60 years from 1999, when the SDF-1 Macross crash landed on Earth, to 2059, when the most recent series, Macross Frontier takes place (compare the UC Gundam continuity, which, if the prologue to Unicorn is included, starts at the beginning moments of U.C. 0000, and goes to U.C. 0153, at the end of Victory).

And so, the AMV: Series: Macross (all), song: Macross (original TV series opening theme).  Hop over the fold for the original OP.

Screening Update: No screening on Saturday, September 3 (Updated)

Update: We're taking advantage of the long weekend to have a get together at Yoshimatsu (2660 North Campbell Avenue). Meet there by 5:00 PM.

-------
Unfortunately, due to the University's official recognition process taking longer than originally anticipated, we will NOT be able to have a screening this weekend.  We are currently working on alternative plans, such as a possible group dinner (leave a comment if you may be interested), and will update when we have a more set plan, hopefully within the next day or so.

Friday AMV #1 - Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica - Bad Apple

Welcome to the weekend!  To help celebrate, we're kicking it off with a good AMV.  First up, Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica (Spring 2011), done to Bad Apple.



There's also a second version that someone else made using an English version of Bad Apple. Normally I wouldn't recommend it, since translated versions of songs tend to be far inferior to their originals, but this one is quite good.  See it over the jump.

Welcome new members!

First of all, a warm welcome to anyone who may be coming to this site after our really successful day at the University of Arizona's club fair.  We gave out around 60-70 cards, and got about 30-40 people added to our mailing list.  If most of you (and our current members, don't worry, I haven't forgotten you) show up to our screenings, we'll have to move to a larger room, which would be absolutely great!

 Next up is asking for input on what people would like to see here.  As I said before, I am considering doing some fairly casual anime/manga reviews, season previews, and posts on TASS activities at a minimum, but I'm also willing to take up suggested topics as time allows.

Starting up the TASS blog

To be completely honest, I'm not completely sure what to do with this space, but at a bare minimum, you can expect to see updates on TASS' activities and operations.  Maybe I'll expand it to include anime and manga reviews, and other updates as time permits.

It's my first time running a blog, so please don't be too hard on me while things get going! :)