Otakuism

Ayasaki Hayate (307) defeats Dango (249) and Rossiu (182). Not even that vicious blob of hidden fury could stand up to the pure butlery skills of Hayate. He also has the loli, which helps.

William Antonio Zeppeli (320) wins against Amasawa Yuuko (143) and Yagami Kazuma (175). Gotta love Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure for some weird names.

Nabeshin (312) barely grasps victory from Sergei “The Bear” Smirnov (302) and Ninomiya Shungo (90). Really? A cameo character beats Sergei. Maybe Sergei hasn’t done anything exactly GAR, but he is still one fuckawesome guy.

Simon (591) destroys Kurado Oishi (208) and Sakai Yuuji (54). Hardly a surprise there.

Orange-kun (309) beats Seto-san (220) and Takahata T. Takamachi (96). Still has no dignity, though.

The big, bad Anti-Spiral (345) Big Bang Storms Franky (199) and Raki (92) into oblivion. That is one deliciously sexy evil voice.

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You bastards!

Jin actually does something useful! He punches Asim, finally shutting up that smug bastard. I didn’t think Jin had it in him, but he just had to go and surprise me. Ok, so Gio saved his ass the rest of the episode, but still, that’s progress. Now save Toa already so we can get this plot moving and the show can spend more time focusing on how hot Sieglinde is.

So I was reading the wikipedia article on H2O ~ Footprints in the Sand and it mentions a rather unique feature of the original game, perfect for when you are caught in the *ahem* act.

There is an additional “emergency” button that can be activated if the player does not want other people to know they are playing an adult game. This option shows a random piece of artwork unrelated to the game’s content out of around one-hundred images. These images are rather bizarre, one such image containing a black and white photograph of a toy horse head with red “blood” splattered around the edge of the image

Cause as everyone knows, violence = good and sex = bad. Not even a severed horse head can change that. Instead of a questionable emergency button, I think Hayami has already shown us the correct reaction for anyone caught playing an eroge:

Truer words have never been spoken.

I will defeat Kamina! I must defeat Kamina!

Kittan (712) soundly defeats Daimon Masaru (52) and Sakata Gintoki (212). Can’t beat a Gurren-Lagann character in GARness, except Rossiu.

Akasaka Mamoru (332) wins against Sanji (283) and Luck Gandor (309). One Piece characters just can’t catch a break when it comes to Saigar.

Lunar’s Papa (347) defeats Isaac Dian (301) and Nakajima Masayuki (109). Seto no Hanayome characters sure do have some weird names. Still needing to watch that show.

Viral (545) secures a surprising win against Raoh (250) and Tomitake Jirou (114), winning against Tomitake no so surprising, though. Not even manly martial arts can stand up to the combined power of MOEGAR.

Jonathan Joestar (412) easily beats Yagami Light (280) and Nara Shikamaru (129). No character from Naruto will ever be GAR, and Light is just…no.

Giovanni (531) punches out Negi Springfield (124) and Aurion Kratos (137). Yay for awesome joke characters. Negi is pretty GAR in the manga, though.

Continuing on to Group F we got the epic appearance of the badass blob Dango, Simon the hobo, Sergei the manliest communist ever, the deliciously evil voice of the Anti-Spiral, and Orange-kun. ZEROOOOOOO!

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Story:

Aruto Kirihara is completely obsessed with the Alice books written by Alternative L. Takion, going so far as to even write his own sequel to them. His sister Kiraha Kirihara can not understand his passion at all and constantly tries to interrupt his work to impress him. Late one night Aruto sees a mysterious girl flying through the air and thinks she must be Alice. Later he sees her again at school but finds out she is not his Alice but Arisu Arisugawa. She does have a secret about Alice though, about the secret third book, Never-ending Alice, that was never published. She fights other girls who love Alice to steal the stories of their hearts and complete Never-ending Alice. There’s also another secret, that whoever completes Never-ending Alice will have their wish granted. Aruto is drawn into the dark world of the Alice-users who stake their very lives on obtaining their hearts’ desires.

Impressions:

I reviewed the first volume of Eternal Alice Rondo last January and have finally read all of it now. Looking at the whole thing, I have to conclude that this is a very surprising and messed-up story. The moe-archetypes and mahou shoujo cliches that fill the work on first glance are completely turned on their heads in later volumes, exposing dark jealousies and sick personalities. Broken dreams and sexual fantasies dominate the characters till you realize there’s more insane people here than even Evangelion. One could even see the story as a criticism of moe ideals with its portrayal of the harsh real world vs. fantasy and pleasure. Fantasy and the role of a creator are also big themes in the story, taking up a big chunk of the fourth volume as the characters discuss writing and its implications. It’s hardly academically ground-breaking, but interesting in its own way and the way its applied to the story.

However, that’s probably the main flaw with Eternal Alice Rondo. The story isn’t exactly anything new, but is executed in a very surprising way, to the point where I was reading more to find out what dark secrets would come up next. On the other hand, most of the plot is ridiculous when deeply thought about, with the back stories of the characters given more thought than the actual characters. The many fights are rather boring and confusingly drawn. There’s definitely a lot of fanservice here that is fine at first, but seems really incongruous with the story later on. The manga does end with some closure and a lot of surprises, but features a cop-out on the last page that I’d rather not think about. In the end I enjoyed Eternal Alice Rondo a lot, but that’s based more on my own preference for weird, dark manga. It’s a good manga for people looking for something very different, but you have to read past the first volume to really see the story for what it is. I doubt you’ll look at bunny girls or Alice the same after reading this manga.

Story:

In this volume AX agent Abel Nightroad teams up with prisoner-priest Leon to investigate vampire killings in the English Channel, meets tragedy in Barcelona, and has to stop a plot by the Rozenkreuz Orden to destroy all of Rome while protecting his own back from political enemies within. A side story also focuses on the swordsman Hugue’s continuing efforts to avenge his murdered family as he confronts the man who betrayed him. This volumes is a sequel to the “From the Empire” novel and its events take place before Reborn on the Mars V.1. This volume also corresponds to the “Never Land, Silent Noise, and Overcount” episodes of the anime.

Impressions:

The third volume of Trinity Blood really doesn’t change my opinion on the series at all. It’s still a fun adventure series with some great characters and unique concepts. The flow of the stories was a lot more integrated than the previous volume and the plots themselves were just more exciting than shown in the anime. The best part of the book was the Hugue short story, mostly because it wasn’t in the anime and thus a completely new experience for me. Hugue’s story in itself is very exciting and could easily fill a whole volume. Revenge, redemption, and love are always exciting to read about. More beautiful THORE’s artwork is featured and I still lament the fact Tokyopop won’t do full color inserts.

With this being my third Trinity Blood novel, though, I am beginning to notice some flaws in the writing. Certain scenes just don’t seems to flow together and the only real background we get on some important things is a sentence or two. Some of the action is almost too brisk and it’s hard to tell what exactly is going on. A little more detail would help a lot in some scenes. As with any light novel it’s hard to tell if this is because of the translation or the original writing, but I’m thinking this is more Sunao Yoshida’s fault. Trinity Blood’s writing is still better than something like Scrapped Princess, but it’s no Kino no Tabi or Boogiepop.