Minami-ke:Okawari : Going, going...

You know, going off to study in a foreign country can be quite saddening...

(Well, sad for the unhouse-trained members of the family you leave behind perhaps)


Minami-ke: Okawari (which aired last season for anyone who forgot, and yes I realize this post is probably only relevant to myself who took until yesterday to finish the series) is literally a second helping of sorts to last year's successfully hilarious slice-of-life comedy Minami-ke. On one hand, we got back most of what we already loved in the first series (Mako-chan's gender confusion, Hosaka's self delusionsbeing Hosaka, Kana being BOSS, the Bible Black SRS BSNS faces, and have I mentioned Mako-cakes?). On the other, with the studio change came other bits of extras (new hair colours, creepy blacked out faces, Fuyuki... Yea, Fuyuki) and for all the extra toppings Asread added, some may have found that this second helping pales in comparison to its predecessor.

Of course the first series had the advantage of being a sleeper hit of sorts that did admirably well without relying on high expectations which this sequel probably came with. Asread did manage to tap into the key LOL elements of the first season and played them out for more laughs - poor Mako-chan being the most severly unspared :P, but along with it came their own original additions to the story, probably in the hopes of making the series 'their own'... Only they didn't do much in increasing the appeal of the series - Fuyuki's presence in the story ended up being less apparent than those unseen faces in the background.

Until the episode he left that is.

I was rather surprised that despite the decidedly low impact Fuyuki had on the actual story (oh wait, what story? Fine, maybe I was just disappointed that he was hardly 'broken' to begin with/by the end - unlike us readers of Derailed), his eventual exit was handled in such a subtly sombre fashion (underneath all the Sports Festival hijinx going on) that despite some part of my mind going "*yawns* Is he gone yet? Oh, finally", I was actually impressed that a Minami-ke with comedy as its main forte could pull off something that's vaguely touching (or was meant to be).

Of course, this kind of 'sap' in comedy does occur elsewhere (like a a gazillion times in Ranma 1/2 and once or twice in Galaxy Angels where they didn't really work. In comparison Gintama has managed to pull some of these surprisingly well - damn, I just remembered I missed the conclusion of the current Shinsengumi uproar arc!), but is often very jarring to the comedic aspect of the show. But it's less of a case with slice-of-life comedies like Minami-ke or Azumanga Daioh.

And what they did in the last episode, having KANA actually thinking of 'sending off' Haruka with a smile (fine, only Kana would think of that and execute it the way she did - or rather got all her minions to) leading to the eventual true tears segment (to use another season-old joke).

I dunno if it's me actually being away from home that's doing this to me *sniffs*, but that usual "ACK, SAP ALERT" gag reflex the cynical me would usually have didn't come on at all. Yea, you could see from a mile away that Chiaki would break down first, followed by KANA before Haruka reveals that she's not going anywhere, but there was that genuine aspect of sadness at the prospect of Haruka leaving her sisters to go abroad (actually, it's a rather horrifying aspect now that I think about it, how Chiaki and Kana would survive I don't know) coupled with the fact that the show is ending. All in all, despite it being a somewhat cliche slice-of-life type finale, it was again played out well by Asread (the inserted first ED song was a nice touch - again borrowing from the success of the first series).

**Actually it's my second time this far away from home pursuing that 'necessary' yet incredibly tiresome asset called an education, so for my family and friends back home as well as myself, there's not so much to be as sappy about this second time around -_-"

Final verdict? Okawari did offer a good amount of laughs to balance out whatever else Asread put in that you might want to complain about - so it neither falls into the category of sequels that suck nor those which greatly surpass their originals. Yet another 'solid' comedy series overall, for the lack of a more interesting description.

Now if you excuse me, I've got to go book a ticket to San Fransisco, I here there's this new place that's just opened that serves the best pasta...

P.S. Happy 21st to Shin over at atalude (And a Happy Birthday too to everyone else who seems to have been born on this same day) Get your cake before Kana does =P

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The Trouble with Watching Too Much Anime and Having Japanese Teachers

Despite what it seems, this is going to be a gimmick post :P

So our weekly class schedules have more or less been fixed, and though I'm pretty free to blog on Mondays since I only have class till 12, the rest of the days classes go on till 4, 5, or 6 *shudders*. And 90 minute periods of classes aren't the most conducive when you're as sleep deprived as I am (okay, so maybe we shouldn't have gone for karaoke till 5 in the morning the other day... -_-").


Every day starts out with 3 hours of Japanese SP ('Sentence Patterns') classes where I get to catch up with that boatload of grammar I neglected god knows how long ago, and on Tuesdays we get back to back Japanese Culture and Conversation classes. Ironically, the Conversation class is the only one so far where our sensei speaks to us mostly in English -_-" Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays we have our other 'compulsory subjects' that we need to enter uni. For us Science majors that's Physics, Maths and Chemistry *groans* while Arts majors do Politics and Economics, History and Mathematics (for Business and Economics majors). Future doctors and those doing anything Bio related are probably studying in Tokyo right now (not that I'm jealous of their higher living expenses proximity to Shinjuku and Akihabara or anything... We have Umeda and Den Den Town here=P).

Anyways, point of this post? (Besides making up for the probably lack of substantial posts over the coming days) You know how sometimes when you hear a name you automatically associate it with a fictional character you've seen/read somewhere or perhaps some famous celebrity? (I've not met any Britneys but I do know an Elvis, :P) Take for example, Mickey, or Donald. Okay maybe they're not as common names nowadays post-Disney. What about anime characters then? Of course back home where I seldom met anyone with a Japanese name, it's never been a 'problem', but now...


Today we got our class placement results for Chemistry. Till now, I'm not exactly sure how they're splitting the Iries from the Kotokos and I'll probably not know till those classes start. What concerned me more, was the name of the teacher for our class. What would those who've watched Moyashimon think if they found out that their Chemistry (or Microbiology XD) class was going to be taught by one Hasegawa-sensei? My first thoughts...

OH SHI- (I think most have seen the rest of this infamous (one of many XD) scene in Moyashimon :P If not, do yoursef a favour and go watch it NOW)

Uh-oh... Not looking forward to those lab lessons...

It turns out of course that I need not worry. This Hasegawa sensei's a guy. *phew?* (An Itsuki sensei would've been awesome though :P)



I'll ignore Physics for now since it's not my favourite subject (far from it really) and it seems devoid of anything for my anime addled mind to chew on right now. As for Mathematics, we've not gotten our placements yet since they're still busy giving us bloody placement tests for 3 weeks. WTH, it's like they're more concerned about testing us instead of teaching us when we've not even started classes! Gah.

I took a look at the list possible teachers for Maths though, and I've got to say, I'd be more miffed about all the drawn out testing - if I wasn't too busy being amused at the prospect of ending up in a class thought by a certain Hosaka-sensei...

Talk about 気持ち悪い... (For the full picture...)

DO NOT WANT(?)

Fortunately (or not? XD), after seeing Hosaka sensei first hand, I'm 'glad' to report that he's light years away from what we've seen in Minami-ke. Though, now that I think of it, if you put some glasses on Hosaka senpai, ruffled up his hair more, buttoned up his shirt, and age him a bit, the resemblance is sort of there... OH SHI-

Please don't hurt me 'cos my kanji sucks >.<

And while I'm at it, I might as well mention that we get a different teacher for our S.A. SP classes each day (why? Maybe they're overstaffed *shrugs*). Mondays we're taught by Abe-sensei, lolz. No prize for guessing who popped in my mind instantly. Though our Abe sensei's really quite a funny guy, he's a bit nit picky about how we write our kanji (in fact, the only one of our 5 teachers that is, when they're not marking our kanji tests of course). At least he doesn't fly into rages over my misproportioned characters, thankfully, but then again I've not given him the "Please don't hurt me" look every time I'm asked to go up on the mound board to write something... yet.



Last but not least, each of us foreign students gets a student tutor (usually a local student who's actually studying in Osaka University) to help us with our language and university life here on campus. While I've not met mine yet, (our first meeting is scheduled for Thursday) our class adviser has given us details concerning our tutors in class today, and the one thing I do know about the guy is his name:

_____ Youhei
(I can't just give out a person's family name when I've not even met him, can I?)

Err... Needless to say, I can't wait for our meeting this Thursday... OTL


(Names used in this post been changed to protect their privacy. Oh wait, they haven't. But I guess it's okay when I only reveal half their names? Anyways the rest of it is mostly products of my delusional mind anyhow ;P)

In other news, nominations for The Anime Blog Awards are closing... today? Okay, so I'm rather slow on the uptake. If anyone with an anime blog who hasn't nominated and wants to, you better do it quick since every vote nomination counts/your one vote nomination could tip things in your favourite blogger's favour, etc (or just because it's your obligation as a citizenblogger of the community and that's how democracy works!). If my own nominations didn't turn out to mirror the common denominators of just about every category (except in the 'Most Influential' category where I just tossed in my then personal favourite blogs :P), I'd probably do one of those "why I nominated so-and-so" posts. But instead, you got this :P

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March Madness Round 2 continues

.
The next set of 8 series vying for your vote are here! Previously we had Azumanga, Fumoffu, Higurashi and Honey & Clover advancing (T_T for Mushishi. It was a close fight against the killer lolis of Hinamizawa, but Higurashi had the edge all the way), which were all pretty much expected results (with the only real 'upset' for me being Ginko's loss. Yes, I'm actually more disappointed in this than the string of supposed upsets in the Malaysian general election yesterday -_-"). Anyways I'm a little less excited over this batch of series since a lot of them I've not watched and they're all going against the big guns later (Gurren Lagann, Haruhi, Black Lagoon, School Rumble which have pretty good to humongous followings on Jason's blog), but here's a look at part 2 of Round 2:


1) Shakugan no Shana VS Cowboy Bebop
Nope, haven't watched either, but from what I hear these two shows are popular for rather different reasons. Cowboy Bebop has 'must watch classic' going for it (and it's the only so called 'before Bittorrent' anime that made it into the final 24) while Shana has.... melonpan? Frankly melonpan doesn't do anything for me (if it's anything like the polo buns here which I'm not too fond of... yes, it's the bread I'm referring to here for anyone who thinks otherwise) and I get the feeling Cowboy Bebop would make for a more worthy contender to Gurren Lagann later on, so that's how my vote was cast in the end.

2) Fullmetal Alchemist(FMA) VS Full Metal Panic The Second Raid(FMP TSR) Again, no actual contact with either of these series *shakes head at self* Though I've watched FMP Fumoffu (and currently somewhere halfway through the first FMP), there's a practical reason why Jason included Fumoffu and TSR separately since the two series serves up different aspects of the popular franchise. I picked up Fumoffu solely for the humour, which was what it was focused on, and based on what I've seen of the first Full Metal Panic! it does seem that my interests lie more in seeing Sagara blow up the school and incurring Chidori's wrath than Sagara using the Lambda Driver to kick ass =P (though this may eventually change). Since I can't judge TSR using Fumoffu, I decided it would be better not to vote at all.

3) Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complex VS Kanon (2006) Finally, something I can vote for, albeit with bias: I've watched and enjoyed both versions of Kanon (2002 had more Nayuki drama, 2006 had the spectacular snow rendering) whereas I could hardly sit through half of a GiTS movie during a viewing at an anime club (I walked out just after the Tachikoma's blazed on screen - just wasn't for me).

4) Minami-ke VS Otome wa Boke wo Koishiteru
Ah, the 'long awaited epic battle of the traps', in-depth analysis can be found here. Besides the fact that I've been watching Minami-ke (now Okawari) consistently while I only sampled one episode of OtoBoku , based on trap factor I'm giving the vote to Minami-ke's Mako-chan anyways since we actually got to follow his(?) gradual journey into trapdom spanning 2 seasons, whereas Mizuho 'onee-sama' simply can't be a trap since there's 100% no way there's a penis on him her, and this we know from the very start of the show! (if listening to Horie Yui voice her doesn't convince you, there's this, something Mako's years too early to try out XD)

A quick survey of the polls now show Cowboy Bebop, Full Metal Panic TSR, Kanon and Minami-ke in the lead, with only Kanon looking to be in any danger at all from GiTS but still with a decent lead (nothing as close as Mushishi VS Higurashi yet) (Mako-chan and the Minami sisters are decimating Mizuho with 90% of the vote LOL). In the end after flipping a coin fishing for good comments from a friend who's watched both shows, I decided to toss a vote to Fullmetal Alchemist to help it out since it's currently being underdog-ed by TSR. Of course like Azumanga VS ef, the outcome doesn't really bother me since I'm pulling for Ouran and Black Lagoon in the Sweet 16 later. Voting for Round 2 (part 2) ends at 11PM PST March 11th. Can't wait for Round 3 >.<

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2007 Flashback: The Rundown

Run, Mihashi, run...

It's already 3 months into 2008... And I'm still stuck writing posts about yesteryear (This is what happens when you restart your blog at an odd time of the year -_-"). Perhaps not the best time to publish this, but what the heck, this list has been sitting in a word file for much too long.


The 16 anime that made my year in 2007 (no real significance to the number, just so happen 16 of them I considered above average by my technically loose standards. And no series continued from 2006 or continuing into 2008 either, it's a purely 2007 list), in ranked order (good to great to best) :

The Good:
16. Dennou Coil (spoiler: RIP Densuke T_T)
15. Nodame Cantabile (Mukyaa~!)
14. Lucky☆Star (L-O-V-E Lovely~Tsukasa!)
13. Claymore (The Idiot's Guide to Self Mutilation)
12. Seto no Hanayome (Masa-san!!!)
11. Lovely Complex (All Hanshin-Kyojin BANZAI!)
10. Darker than Black (BONES)

The Great:
9. Sketchbook ~full color'S~ (Slow down world...)
8. Hidamari Sketch (Sorry ef and Bamboo Blade, the Miya of the year is here)
7. Moyashimon (The "You Absolutely HAVE to check this one out for yourself" show of the year)
6. Minami-ke (KANA IS BOSS)
5. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (~Burebureburebure~)
4. Potemayo (Honi, honi!)

Top 3:
3. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
2. ef ~a tale of memories~
1. Seirei no Moribito

Ranking done by the more serious, rational, and supposedly objective side of me that's supposed to judge the overall aspects of the show (Story, characters, presentation, blah blah blah) though obviously influenced by the whimsical, instinct-following, impressionable me (an indication of how much I felt the show impacted myself as a viewer, whether it tickled me silly or made me go "HOLY SHI- THAT WAS AWESOME , now I just have to sit down and let the other side of me think why...").

Of course anyone who's read this blog lately will probably notice the omission of one particular title, which at the time of this list's conception (a few months ago, mind you) was done on purpose since I wasn't done watching the series in question... But in the back of my mind there was no doubting its place on the list - the question is where? If serious, rational and objective had more of a say, this series would probably rank 4th pushing the current #9 to #4 a position back (and Gurren Lagann would have to switch places with ef). But based on my sheer enjoyment of this series and how it really changed the perception I had of its genre, I'm giving the 2007 top honour of personal favourite anime on Tondemo Nothing! to...

0) issa-sa's personal fave of 2007: Ookiku Furikabutte

Which neatly rounds up the Top 10 standouts series (#s 9 to 0) on my list with OoFuri coming out tops. *applause* A similar situation arose the year before that: Mushishi was easily the best overall 'serious' anime of 2006 (this time, it's Seirei) and Haruhi to me was best in just about every other respect (and was no doubt the iconic series of its year -whether you liked it or not- much like Gurren Lagann), but my personal favourite Ouran High School Host Club won me out anyhow. Call it personal bias or 'bad taste'/'good taste' or whatever, but what can I say, my blog my pick =P When you have strong shows colliding at the top, I'm the kind who'll pick the one that just feels right, and there's no denying that Ookiku Furikabutte is that series for 2007. Even back when I was only halfway through the series starved for subs, OoFuri had already impacted me so positively that I just knew it was the year's Ouran for me. I'd like to say more about the show now that I've officially completed watching it, but that'll be another post for another day.

It's also interesting to note what others ranked as their best show of the year: Specifically, Jason chose Gurren Lagann, Kurogane went with Seirei, Jeff Lawson pulled pleasant surprise by crowning Potemayo ^^ while the guys at Epic Win championed the best of the best: Mushishi! (Okay their real choice I wasn't as excited about). Besides these that come to mind, there was quite the Minami-ke love as well if I remember correctly.

I won't be debating why one series is better than another (or explaining why I didn't include/watch/finish watching series XXX not on the list) since this post is quickly becoming dated material. As a whole, I think 2007 offered myself many surprises in terms of series I liked (and utterly disliked) and though there were less hard-hitting sure-hit shows than 2006 and more average fodder running around (which even if I completed watching, did not make the top 16) there was generally enough to impress me at any given time during the year. So here's hoping for as good/a better showing of shows this year.

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Winter 2008 Watch List

Smack dab on the equator, seasons don't really count for much here in Malaysia. Sure we have sweltering heat, high humidity and the prolific rain all year round, but at this time of year elsewhere, low temperatures and freak weather tend to bog down the daily proceedings. The Winter season (generally at the start of they year) is thus associated as a slow time for anime, and not much hype is attached to the titles released at this time of year. Which suits me just fine since I can take this time to compose actual opinions on shows without being giddy over a huge wave of new titles that tend to surge around the Spring and Fall seasons.

Last year's Winter only saw me following 3 titles from that season (In order of awesome, just short of awesome, and meh: Hidamari Sketch, Nodame Cantabile, Tokyo Majin Gakuen Kenpuchou:Tou). This year's pool sees me doubling that number (and with any luck the number will stay this way, since there's only the risk of me dropping one series and picking up one more =P). So here goes, from most enthralling so far to least noteworthy...

1) Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (So Long Mr Despair, Extreme!)

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei pits a schoolteacher who is the epitome of negativity (with a penchant for paranoia and suicide) against the world's most optimistic girl - and her class of dysfunctional (to say the least) classmates. There's the hikikomori, the stalker, the tail fetishist, the bipolar exchange student, the illegal immigrant, the yaoi fangirl, et cetera X (who knows how many more they'll be introducing). This 'Extreme' addition basically carries on from last year's hit (or miss, depending on how well you tolerate SHAFT's crack-like style) dark comedy, and as the name suggests, takes it to higher levels of insanity.

Thoughts (based on 3 eps) : Preference towards the first season's OP/ED (though Kusou Runba's ~RunbaRunbaRunbaRunbaRunba~ is constantly ringing in my head), but other than that, am loving the fact that ZSZS is at least twice the level WTFBBQ of all out schizophrenic proportions the first installment had already achieved. And though SHAFT's latest gimmick (layering multiple chapters simultaneously into one scene) makes my head hurt sometimes reading the multiple subtitles (the scribbles on the blackboard still remain), the show's immensely over the top humour and characters keep the show going strong, despite its tendency to be incredibly erratic (never knowing what SHAFT is going to pull off next is actually one of the reasons I love their work so much, though it also earns them their share of haters =P).

Also kudos to a.f.k. for doing a marvelous job subbing everything SHAFT overloads both seasons of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei with =P

Left/Right: Before/After: Doumu/Asread: Minami-ke/Okawari

2) Minami-ke: Okawari

Another sequel to another of 2007's best comedies, Minami-ke, which tells the tale of 3 Minami sisters and how they both intentionally and unintentionally wreak small-time havoc on one another and the rest of the otherwise innocent bystanders in their lives. Okawari ( = seconds in Japanese) sees a production studio change (and mixes up the casts hair colour for some reason) but otherwise keeps everything else about the show intact to give us a second helping of tough sisterly love, mind manipulation, and gender-bending hijinx.

Thoughts (3 eps): Despite coming from the infamous Cabbage Love production, Minami-ke from last year is definitely a comedy of high calibre, consistent with its epic humour and clever use of recurring jokes. General fears that the production change to asread have been mostly allayed and fans of the original can rest assured that Okawari still packs the good punches. Sure the different hair colours take a little getting used to, but its all worth it just to hear "bakayarou!", follow the legacy Haruka-banchou, and see those Bible Black faces (which make up for the strange blacked out faces of the background cast) once more :D

As for the new neighbour that just moved in, I'm giddy anticipating how and which sister is going to mess him up for life, *snickers*.

3) Shigofumi

Fumika (voiced surprisingly grimly by Ueda Kana) is a postgirl for the dead who is tasked to deliver letters from the deceased (termed Shigofumi) to the living with the help of her snarky talking staff and trusty gun (which doesn't talk btw). The show is episodic in nature, giving us somewhat unorthodox views on death every episode, though there are signs of a recurring overarching plot element regarding Fumika's past and the agency she works for.

Thoughts (3 eps): Wow. Am awed - I can hardly recognize Ueda Kana as Fumika AT ALL here, Fumika's low serious tone is a far cry from the usual Kansai-ben or 'girly' voice Ueda Kana employs, which is impressive. Besides that, Shigofumi probably has the first episode to remember of all 6 shows here, with its 'shocker' ending (in retrospect, all the signs were there, but I guess J.C. Staff's involvement dulled my senses. =P Plus the ALI PROJECT OP wasn't featured in the 1st ep) that sets the pace for the episodes to come. From what I've seen so far, it can be expected that every episode will feature a different story, with at least one death, some sort of intriguing development peppered with visual clues to the surprise finish in the end. Yes, I agree it's very Jigouku Shoujo meets Kino's Journey (though both these series I've only watched an episode or two of) in setup. I'd say it's only fair I watch something dark serious to balance off the dark zany of ZSZS, so Shigofumi is a prime pick this season.

4) true tears

One guy + 3 girls + other miscellaneous side characters. Standard formula for your standard harem romance, but keeping in mind that this genre can be further split to "serious romance" to "trashy harem", true tears obviously belongs to the former, thankfully.

Thoughts (4 eps): Despite being a relatively small time production , P. A. Works blows the competition this season away in terms of production quality in true tears. This series is hands down the best thing to watch aesthetically this season (unless you're a Kyoto Animation worshipper very much caught up in Clannad), which is good as true tears doesn't initially grab your attention with its story as quickly as the other series in the lineup. However I believe this is one series that'll reward the viewer as the story and characters develop, and it already shows in the first couple of episodes. Though at first I was only interested in the kooky chicken loving Noe, the rest of the cast is slowly but surely coming to life and adding the necessary conflict to the story. *thumbs up*

(The only down to true tears for me is that I always end up cracking up in laughter whenever they show the scene in the OP of the two guys gaping 'in awe' of the girls - all it needs is drool dripping from the corners of their mouths LOL)

5) Spice and Wolf

Travelling merchant meets Wolf goddess who tags along for a journey through post-medieval Europe-like world(?). Cue nakedness and economics lessons (in that order).

Thoughts (4 eps): I will definitely commend Koshimizu Ami's performance as Horo, the wolf goddess, who is both wise as she claims and a foxy tease of a character (As for Fukuyama Jun's Lawrence the merchant, I'm thinking he must be pretty excited to reprise his role as Lelouch in Code Geass later this year - so am I =P). As for the story so far, it's decent enough, but I'm not exactly as 'sold' on it just yet. Coupled with some inconsistent and relatively weak animation, I'm getting the vibe of 'decent but not exactly memorable' from Spice and Wolf. We'll see if the show proves me wrong by the end.

(But if there's one thing I love about this show, it's is the Engrish folksy ED :P)

6) ~They Are My Noble Masters~

(or KimiAru - shortened from an unnecessarily long Japanese title) Butler comedy of the lowest denominator (fanservice and fetishes being the main focus).

Thoughts (3 eps): Serious viewers will definitely have to give this series a pass. Incredibly low calorie humour which has its LOL moments stemming from the flashy fetishes, but overall screams inferior all round. I know I've definitely seen better, but heck I'm not expecting anything big of this show, and it's either this or Rosario + Vampire + (Yes, yes, we know) Pantyshot...

(I can't believe I'm not watching Hayate no Gotoku anymore but I am this...)

Obviously the show to drop here is KimiAru, and if that does end up happening (subs seem to have stalled lately), I'm thinking of substituting it with Zenryoku Usagi =P I definitely feel a Animal Yokocho-like vibe from it, though I'll have to try it without english subs for now...

Finally there are the shows I'm still following through from Fall 2007: Bamboo Blade, Clannad, Kimikiss ~ pure rouge. But I think I'll leave those for another post for now.

(P.S. This season's "Dropped after one episode" list: Persona-trinity soul-, Rosario+Vampire, H2O, Hatenkou Yuugi)

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