Arrr! I can’t believe International Talk Like A Pirate Day snuck up on me again. Didn’t even have time to get an eyepatch. Oh well. In commemoration you can get more hot pirates Robin and Nami here (he also does Bleach and other characters). And I’d definately a plunder that booty.
Dynamic light bulb replacement!
Dynamic table repair!
Dynamic sweeping!
Dynamic table cleaning!
Dynamic fire!
Dynamic failure!
Just poppin in to say I’m still lovin MKM and 10 was the best episode yet. Kankurou vs. Megumi was DYNAMIC! (and the best animated fight yet I think). It even had the cliche line ” If we had met differently we could have been friends. ” so awesome.
While searching Hongfire for the Demonbane fanbook (which I did eventually find somewhere else. Great stuff) I stumbled upon the completed translated Kanon manga, which I eagerly read up in a day. As you can guess this manga was probably released back when the first anime aired so it’s pretty old. Still an excellent read for Kanon fans though. You can get it here.
If you don’t know by now Kanon is the story of Yuuichi Aizawa and his return to his always snowy hometown after eight years. The problem is that Yuuichi doesn’t remember his time there and all the people he met, so he has to gradually begin to remember everything. Of course this being a love story Yuuichi meets several girls including his cousin Naiyuki, the taiyaki obsessed Ayu, the silent Mai, the cute yet aggresive Makoto, and the terminally ill Shiori. The manga is split into two volumes with a prologue and epilogue with four chapters, one for each girl. I’d be lying if I said this manga offers a complete version of the story. It’s cute none the less.
The most endearing part of this adaptation is the artwork and humour. The parts I loved the most was all the funny moments interspersed throughout the work, made even better by the incredibly cute (or moe I guess) artwork. At first I though all the characters looked to young, or short really, but after awhile it really grows on you. Now for my complaints. Before I said this doesn’t hardly cover the whole story and that is very true. Keep in mind though I’m comparing this to the anime. The only charcters that get a complete story are Shiori and Ayu. Shiori’s I think is complete because it follows the anime and her story is pretty short anyway’s. Ayu’s is of course complete because it follow’s her scenario and ending, just like the anime. That leaves Mai and Makoto with the short end of the stick. Mai gets off pretty lightly, as they include the dance scene, but then it ends there. There’s none of the crazy sequence with the kid in the wheat field. Personally I never figured out what that was about but I figure it’s important to her development. Now Makoto get’s shafted completely. Her story is fine up until right after the part where she runs away and Yuuichi finds her. You see the manga ends her story right after that. No her getting sick and having to leave, or Yuuichi realizing she’s the fox he saved as a child. Her story just ends and she’s a background character through the rest. It never even tells why she hates Yuuichi at the beginning. That really annoys me as a Makoto fan. Also I guess you could say Naiyuki get’s shafted as well because Akiko never gets hit by a car and there’s none of the Ayu jealousy, but I was never sure what Naiyuki’s story was. Is her’s really a full scenario in the game? She still appears predominatly throughout though for those who like her.
See? Humour.
In the end even if this isn’t the best adaptation of the Kanon story it’s still a great read none the less. Will definately keep you occupied for a couple hours. Man I’m really starting to get into the Kanon spirit. I’ve rewatched those promos and have been listening to the ED theme on loop for awhile. Kanonism will beat Haruhism yet I say! 18 days and counting.
In lieu of my usual weekly music review, seeing as how there are no releases this week, and me being the Fate fanboy that I am, I’ve decided to talk about some of the many Fate/Stay Night remixes I found over the week. First things first, I must pimp out Dies Irae for it’s awesome selection of every fate album released, all in easy download format. This is literally where I got everything. Also check out their gallery for all the CG’s from fate and ataraxia (nice for me since I never saw all the ataraxia ones). At first I was gonna review all of the 10+ cd’s, but then I realized how stupid that was and decided just to review my favorites, the remix albums Avalon and Fate/another remix.
Awesome wallpaper version here.
First is the Fate/another remix album. This is the quintessential remix album which basically collects all the tracks from Number 201 released. Including both fate and ataraxia remixes several of these songs have already been released before. EMIYA #0 is from the emiya remix album (and the best EMIYA remix evar), and Outbreak and Wars are from the Broad Bridge Relive album (most awesome album name evar). All of the tracks are awesome in their own right, the only weak track being King of Heroes, but then again Golden King wasn’t that great a track to remix anyways. This was the first taste of Fate’s music I got and everything else just sounds weak compared to it.
Avalon was the first remix cd put out after the original game soundtrack. Being the first also means it’s one of the better ones. Beginning with the prologue track, which is basically the UBW chant in english, you’ll find all the usual songs here. Highly recommended are the tracks Avalon, Excalibur, Come Across the Nightmare, and Unlimited Blade Works, the first remix of EMIYA. Also an awesome track is Sadness, which I can’t tell what it’s a remix of but halfway through it transforms from poppy electronic to full on classical fugue. Great stuff. However the best part of the CD and why it is my favorite are two tracks. The first is an english version of the opening THIS ILLUSION, and this isn’t engrish either but actually understandable english. I had no idea how beautiful the song was until I heard it in english. The other is an original track called Heaven’s Feel. If you’ve ever heard the Turn Back Time theme from End of Eva this song sounds just like that, with clapping the whole time and a nice, easy pop feel. Have to mention it’s also in english. Hard to believe it’s named after the most depressing scenario in the game.
Here’s the other CD’s gotten from the site, in case you need one to fill out your collection:
Fate/Stay Night game OST: It’s always nice to go back to the original once in awhile.
Wish: Various remixes and Jpop tracks featured here. Definitely check out ” Over the Mountain ”
EMIYA #0: I really didn’t find anything great here besides the first appearance of EMIYA #0 and the awesome Moving the seasons, which I really thought was on another remix.
THIS ILLUSION single: I’m really enjoying this more than disillusion.
And here are the Fate/hollow ataraxia tracks listed:
Hollow single: it’s too bad they don’t have the better ataraxia single.
game OST: it’s amazing how much the ataraxia ost blows fate out of the water.
Broad Bridge Relive: Just two tracks here for some reason.
Broad Bridge Relive remix tracks: the actual cd really. Still nothing all that great here.
Also for those interested there is the Anime OST album also.
God I love Demonbane. It never fails to thrill me with lovecraftian mumbo jumbo and mecha harem comedy. Face it people you can’t make this shit up. Spoilers and zingy one liners below.
I like where this is going. We need more anime with bdsm chicks with guns.
You wake up with a loli on top of you. What do you do?
A) Politely ask her to move.
B) J-J-Jam It In!
Kurou apparently chose to jam it in many times over. And then invited Al for the fun.
He’s a pedophile with a hair color complex?
Now I’m a gothloli kinky amnesiac catgirl with a fang who may or not be a bdsm expert. Turns you on eh?
USODA!
Kurou’s livin the life! and he forgot to mention the wealthy tsundere Hadou Gay.
Ok sure I’ll buy that. In Utah.
Ok different situation. A loli in a school swimsuit appears inbetween your legs. What do you do?
A) J-J-Jam It In again more fiercely.
B) Invite Al for more fetish fun.
Oh it seems Kurou goes for B again. He quite likes the ole “school days” scenario eh?
Ok what the hell is that orange thing with a mind of it’s own? I know it must figure into an H-scene somwhere. This is what makes Demonbane awesome. It doesn’t deny it’s roots. NO dragons here.
Jesus Christ it’s a clown and a shota! Quick get in the Demonbane!
Gomu Gomu no JET Gatling!
Oh snap! Loli vs. Rock! Rock Wins!
THESE FIST OF MINE GLOW WITH AN AWESOME POWER!
THEY TELL ME TO SHOOT YOU!…wait what?
Yeah I spend way too much time on 4chan…
It’s been a slow news week anime wise, leaving me very little to talk about. I’ve also had nothing to review this week, my leviathin torrent stopped working at 96% (dammit!) and I’ve had little time to read anything anyway’s. There certainly are some drawbacks to not choosing the anime episode/figurine review style blog. Oh well. So instead I thought I would talk about some of the subs I watched this week and what I liked. Unsure if this we’ll be a regular thing or if I’m just wasting time till next season starts (How many days till Kanon Jeff?).
I love how surprised Takemoto is that he actually landed a hit.
For some reason the guy yelling for sake just cracks me up. I laughed for minutes after this.
Honey & Clover II 11: BOW BEFORE THE LORD OF ADOLESCENCE! Takemoto vs. Morita proves H&C should of been a manly fighting series the whole time. Who needs that emotion and relationship stuff when you can see two guys fighting on a riverbank (as the old guys say). Seriously best fight animation since Saber vs. Assassin, and that’s kind of sad really. I don’t need moe anime #342 just give me a solid action series dammit! Moving on when did Shuuji become the main love interest of the series? I always thought he was the jaded mentor type and supposed to be Mayama’s rival, not Takemoto’s. That really leaves a wierd feeling with me, closing the series with Shuuji shouting a love confession about his lolicious surrogate daughter. That was still a funny scene though. The old men of H&C need thier own series, perhaps about their youth. Now I would watch that.
Ouran High Host Club 22 & 23: Ouran this week is made of MANLY FRIENDSHIP (not yaoi) and Oh Shi-! it’s a reverse trap! Ouran has really managed to up the hilarity factor this week, returning to the earlier episode style of helping a guy/girl/shota and letting madness ensue. This times it’s the reverse tsundere yakuza Bossa Nova-kun. It was awesome seeing Mori with some expression in his face, that mostly being shock and horror. Also the whole ” Lovely Item ” and ” Demon Nekomimi ” was great! Ouran’s humour is at it’s best just showing outlandish situations. The whole yakuza setup was great with Bossa Nova just wanting to kick the can with everyone. What kind of gangster wants to kick the can? The best thing was Bossa Nova falling for guy Haruhi and freaking out. Haruhi is the Jun of reverse trap. Every man wants her, or should that be every girl wants her? Eventually he does find out Haruhi is a girl though.
Best Renge expression EVAR!
Things get even better in 23 though, with Bossa Nova visiting the Host club and aksing for Haruhi. This gets all the crazy yaoi fangirls coming out and Renge even appears. I love how all the girls call her ” Renge-sama ” she’s the goddess of yaoi. Man that’s contradictory. Anyway’s we finally see the breakdown of Tamaki’s father complex when he begins to realize that he likes Haruhi in a non-parental way. Can’t believe I typed that. You know when you think about it Tamaki and Shuuji are the same with their love of surrogate daughters (I think I’m gonna get some hate mail from Shuuji fans now). Best part is the end though where Bossa Nova is shot down by Haruhi before he even confesses! I feel for ya Bossa Nova! Your still gar in my book! It ends with everyone wondering who gets Haruhi, with Haruhi saying no one :). And I just want to say Ouran has the best voice acting I’ve ever heard. It wouldn’t be half of what it is without those awesome VA’s.
Hinaichigo X3 is never a good thing.
Coyote Ragtime Show 9: I keep hoping beyond hope that CRS will pull a futakoi alternative and be insanely awesome in it’s final episodes. Sadly it doesn’t look like that will happen. I’ll stick with it till the end though just to see what happens. I must be the worst otaku ever if I’m continuing to watch CRS but have dropped Zero no tsukaima completely. this episode was midly entertaining, not much though. Actually kind of annoying since all the characters are back where they started with the same goals and same time limit. Ufotable shouldn’t try to infuse it’s shows with politicial intrigue. This isn’t exactly Ghost in the Shell you know. But I must say what the hell was up with that space fight! April and the three annoying Hinaichigo rip-offs went in two ships and mananged to destroy and entire space fleet! What the fuck are they flying, the fucking Vic Viper in Godhax mode?! Oh CRS you had so much promise…!
Still watching Muteki Kanban Musume and Akagi and their both a’rocking my socks. Now I’ve got some Demonbane 6 to go and make fun of. If it’s as good as ep. 5 it’s getting it’s own post.
Not important to anything, just needed a radom picture.
I don’t know if this is old news or not but an article on IC tells about Seven Seas making a new exclusive light novel line for their releases and also showed some of the titles they’ve licensed for it. Now I knew about Shinigami no Ballad but I had no idea they’ve licensed so much other stuff. So far they have Pita-ten, Vamp!, Strawberry Panic, Kankokan, and Gun Princess. I’ve only heard of the manga series for Pita-ten and the strawberry panic anime, but the other titles I have no clue about. With all this new stuff, Viz’s release of Shakugan no Shana and Tokyopop’s new novel line (and their license of Trinity Blood which I’m infinitely happy about) it’s gonna be a good year for the growing novel market. Shouldn’t be long till Haruhi comes over…
