Otakuism

As almost everyone probably knows by now, due in part to how fast news moves in the blogosphere, Genshiken is going to get an actual second season instead of the OVA release it’s been enjoying on the Kujibiki Unbalance DVD’s. I must admit I’ve never watched Genshiken, even though I enjoy the manga immensely and have all its english volumes. Still, more Ohno and Ogiue in anime form can never be bad, so I’ll give this a look when it comes out. Personal prediction on a release in the fall.

Now for something completely different. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, another new series tentavily scheduled for the summer, will be directed by Akiyuki Shinbo, one of my favorite directors, and will be worked on by most of the Studio Shaft people that were working on Negima!?. While Negima!? was a flop, I still respect Mr. Shinbo’s skills and hope to see a style more reminiscient of PaniPoni Dash and Tsukuyomi used for this. Though, I wish he would tackle a serious series for once. The action scenes and dark overtones in Tsukuyomi were amazing, and I’d love to see something similar again. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is based on the manga of the same name, which Andrew Cunningham, my favorite translator, did a nice review of at his site here. Also, here’s the official site.

Hell Slap!

Kotetsu Jeeg has one of the most awesomely crazy attacks I’ve ever seen a giant robot wield. It grows a bunch of spikes on its palm, an afterburner appears on the back of the hand, and he literally pimpslaps the hell out of the enemy at mach 5. It’s the ultimate weapon against emoness. Oh, and Jeeg also has a giant bazooka twice its height and just as big. Probably fires nuclear missiles, too. No idea how that thing fits on the Big Shooter, though. So yeah, Kotetsushin Jeeg is crazily awesome, in an absurd way. And Kana Ueda voices the main girl, which is another plus. Now the wait begins for Gurren-Lagann 4 subs and more mecha action. Or I could just download Dancouga Nova.

Teh Truth.

Once again my soul burns for hot-blood and mecha action, and after some searching I found this super robot show that just premiered this season, even though I never heard of it. Kotetsushin Jeeg is the sequel to Steel Jeeg, another super robot show from the seventies, both of which are created by Go Nagai. Not that it matters that this Jeeg is a sequel, since it’s a whole new cast. In a Japan sometime in the future, Kyushuu lies completely enveloped in a magnetic storm cloud, shutting it off from society. This is apparently a result of Jeeg’s final battle fifty years ago. None of this matters to Kusanagi Kenji, a hot-blooded, if slightly stupid, high schooler and motorcycle racer. There’s also his friend/rival Misumi Kyou, pretty boy extraordinaire. Tamashiro Tsubaki serves as Kenji’s childhood freind, probable love interest, and miko at the local shrine. For an unknown reason, the storm around Kyushuu activates and a Haniwa Genjin appears, a monster composed of clay statues. Build Base, commanded by the old man Senjiro Shiba, immediately moves into action.

Kenji, however, is clueless, and after driving to Tsubaki’s shrine to rescue her is met by an old lady who gives him a brand new, hi-tech bike. Kenji uses this new bike to flee from the monster further, but it is useless. The monster is unstoppable and has already taken down fighters and battleships sent after it. Three futuristic looking fighter jets appear, apparently to rescue Kenji, but end up shooting at him instead. The pilots are also incredibly hot girls in weird leotards carrying katana. One even wears an eyepatch, just so you know. Another jet appears, to save Kenji for real this time, and is piloted by Tsubaki and Ryou. It launches the Jeeg parts that combine with Kenji’s new bike, forming Kotetsushin Jeeg. Kenji uses Jeeg’s strength and flexiblity to get out of a tight spot and is now ready to fight the monster and take him down.

I’m already a super robot fan, so it doesn’t take much to make me happy. Hot-blooded characters, nice mecha design, and a lot of yelling work. Nice looking girls also help. Since this is a Go Nagai project, I’m sure to get all of these. Jeeg doesn’t really feel as epic as Gurren-Lagann, more like a retro series redone, which it is I guess. Right now there’s a lot of mysteries: What happened fifty years ago, who is attacking now, who were those hot girl fighter pilots, etc. But I’m sure that will all be cleared up soon. Jeeg has an alright design, very retro, but the colors seem odd. He also looks to be very mobile and powerful, more flexible than other robots. The rest of the animation is good, with usual Go Nagai character designs. Men with thick, curly hair; women with large breasts, very non-descript background characters, a retro feel overall. The OP is by Jam Project, but it’s not their best work. I really didn’t like it at all. I’ll probably enjoy Jeeg, but I’d only reccomend it now for people already familiar with the super robot genre. It looks to be a winner in that department.

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS is shaping up to be a pretty good series. Most of the cast is introduced now and all in one place, and we even have hints of the ultimate evil the gang will have to face. But aren’t the relics just like the jewel seeds? We might have an evil-doer of the week format coming up. I would like it if some of the older characters, like Chrono, Arf, Lindy, and Yuuno would show up, or, hell, just be mentioned at all. I guess that NanohaXYuuno relationship hasn’t moved anywhere in four years. Probably Fate’s fault. Other really random thoughts:

Oh god, Small Boss has a small desk! So moe I’m gonna die! But seriously, what kind of paperwork is so small Rein can even work on it? And where did they get a working lamp that small?

I found Fate and Signum’s reunion funny. I get this idea of ex-lovers, since Signum can’t help but keep egging Fate on with what to call her, with Fate just blushing and pushing it aside. Fate can’t help but accept her true love for Nanoha. Signum already has Hayate anyways.

Small Boss is angry! Don’t make her mad or she’ll fly down your throat and choke you. Or blow you to atoms with all that magical power she has. The choking death would be cooler though. It’d be awesome if Rein changed into her adult healthy form when Hayate releases all her power, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. Healthy Rein vs. Small Boss would be the greatest moe battle evar.

When I was watching this I was thinking “Man, Elio and Kyaro are really short.” That and “Teana has big breasts,” but that’s not the point. So I checked wiki and just realized Elio and Kyaro are both ten-years-old. Now, Nanoha and Fate fighting at that age are fine, since they were both special cases, but how does any army accept little kids as soldiers? I wouldn’t think that the TSAB lacks applicants, since everyone and their mom seems to serve in it. Sad thing is, Elio and Kyaro could still kick most adults asses.

Nanoha in training mode is awesome. She’s just so smug and arrogant. “Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you your magic won’t work at all. Have a nice landing, Subaru. And were working at this till midnight, just so you know. Now what’s my name, bitch?” Now I can only think of her as the R.Lee Ermey of magical girls. “Now get up maggots and blow the shit out of those robots! I don’t care if your only ten! I was destroying interdimensional witches and unstoppable, uberHAX magic before you were even some sperm in daddy’s nutbladder!”

Elio, for being a shota who wears short-shorts, is surprisingly badass. His level of destructive power seems to be up there with Subaru and Teana. Must be all that extra tutoring from Fate. I think everyone would respect him more if his outfit included pants.

Subaru is still awesome. She takes down a robotic drone larger than her just by flipping it onto its back and beating the crap out of it. Real magical girls fight with their fists of fury. And I still find that ribbon oddly sexy. Most anticipated moment of StrikerS: Subaru taking Ginga’s left hand Revolver Knuckle and performing her own HELL AND HEAVEN attack. She’s already used Broken Magnum. It would be the greatest attack evar. Now, if they could find her a golden hammer…

Oh god, Small Boss lives in a small box! And eats food larger than her! So moe I’m gonna die! When Hayate asked Vita to get a small plate I immediately thought they had an actual really small plate, with really small utensils, just for Rein. I was disappointed when it turned out just to be a regular size small plate.

Wow, that’s a really big bed. Too big a bed for one person. Apparently Fate/stays the night every night. The most blatant piece of fanservice I’ve ever seen in Nanoha. It’s like the director is are saying “Yeah, they’re a couple, but it’s not like we’ll ever tell you that.” Curse you Director! All I want is one kiss! On a side note, I wonder how large Hayate’s bed is…

Contains some manga spoilers. You have been warned.

The second episode of Bokurano was rather “disturbing” to me. No, not because of Waku’s unfortunate ending, I’ve seen that before, but because of several minute changes Gonzo made to the story, that only serve to weaken it as a whole. Bokurano is, at its heart, a psychological story, one more concerned with the characters than any mecha of the week. In the chapters of Waku’s story most of the time is spent in his head and figuring out what makes him tick. Things like deciding to keep Zearth a secret and the introduction of Dung Beetle are actually done quickly, unlike the half episode length that was spent for them. Also, the mecha was changed from a bulb-like creature to a praying mantis robot; why, I have no idea. Waku’s skills as a soccer player are the deciding factor in both battle’s though.

Waku’s story was deprived of its emotional value in its shortening. Waku is a kid who questions whether it’s right for him to be liked by people. After winning the soccer tournament he finds out his dad did the same when he was a kid, but now his dad is a salaryman who enjoys baseball. What does this say about Waku’s future? Waku finally denies the course of overthinking instead for a course of action when he fights in Zearth, deciding that his actions will decide his future. This makes his death all the more unfortunate, because this kid had just decided to change his life. Maybe the full complexities of Waku’s story could not be fully conveyed in one episode, and lengthening it to two wouldn’t of worked, as Waku’s story lacks a cliffhanger. Other kid’s stories are longer though, so I hope full attention will be paid to them. Maybe I’m just a nitpicking purist, but Bokurano is too good a story in my eyes to be plagued by half hazard changes. Right now Gonzo if focusing on Bokurano as a mecha series with some sad elements. Hopefully this will change shortly to show its true strength.

For those of you who don’t visit TM’s website everyday, like a certain fanboy, they’ve been releasing a lot of new fan images to celebrate Realta Nua’s release, which I’d thought I’d share. This first set was used to countdown to Realta Nua’s release, with a new image appearing everyday (notice the lolicious Rin and “so moe I’m gonna die” Sakura).

They’re all really good I think. These other three images go with the new synopsises of each scenario: Fate, Unlimited Blade Works, and Heaven’s Feel. I’ve included the wallpaper size for the one’s I have.

1024 X 768

1024 X 768

As you can see, two of these images are made of FUKKEN WIN AND EPIC while the other just fails. That’s the ugliest Saber and Shirou I’ve ever seen. I can’t believe TM would bother putting something that bad on their site. The awesome UBW and HF images make up for it, though. I have more art from the artist who did the HF image. Great work. Well, that should be the end of my Realta Nua posts, unless something amazing comes up. Or I can’t think of anything to post for another day.

…Sort of.

While the official release date for Realta Nua is supposed to be the nineteenth, early editions are already showing up online. Another one of TM’s crazy typo’s appears in the manual with Saber called Saver. This typo has shown up before, but wouldn’t someone of picked it up by now? How hard is it for TM to ask some random white guy on the street how to spell? Oh well, Rancer and Sader are funnier anyways. Here’s the Akiba Blog post with more images. Damn, I really want that Tiger/Illya game for the PSP.

And the new OP is still made of mediocrity and fail. The full single, Ougon no Kagayaki, came out today and I gave it a listen, but I still didn’t find it that great. Kind of odd for a song composed by NUMBER 201. Then again, the only songs from them I really enjoyed were on the Fate/another remix album. THIS ILLUSION, and its many remixes, was such a great song. It embodied FSN in my eyes, or at least the earlier mysterious parts instead of the later epic parts. It doesn’t help either that these are the same scenes we’ve seen animated before. The only new one was Archer using Rho Ais. At least add in some Dark Saber or True Assassin. Of course, this is probably the only bad aspect of Realta Nua. Can’t wait to see all the new CG’s and expanded scenario’s.