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.