Spring 2008 Part 3 : It's like longer than Parts 1 and 2 combined

Ouch. Now I know why we're an endangered species -_-"

I think I've watched enough first episodes this season to last me... a whole season. There are still some shows I've yet to check out, but considering most of my classes will be commencing next week, I'll probably be giving Amatsuki (Fukuyama Jun again?), Blassreiter, Real Drive, Neo Angelique Whatever (There's probably enough bishounen here than in every other show this season combined. And that's no small number), xxxHolic Kei (sorry, didn't get past the 1st episode of the 1st season), Wagaya no Oinorisama and Nijuu Mensou Musume and Kyou Kara Maou (technically I'm only a few episodes short of finishing the first 2 seasons, but I have enough on my plate now as it is) a miss for now. Otherwise, there'll be a final(?) part 4 some time later. For now, this is it for sampling series this season as I move into the unpredictability of 2nd episodes...


Zettai Karen Children : It’s like Ground Defence Force! Mao-chan… with older lolis!

I've actually only watched 2 short episodes of Mao-chan before (the Love Hina homage episode). The show features 3 lolis whose task is to protect the world from 'cute' aliens. (Remove the inverted commas, they really are cute XD). Zettai Karen Children or Absolutely Lovely Children (WTH?) features 3 slightly older lolis with psychic powers who have to take down bizzare villains like a hard-gay wannabe in the first episode. Rather amusing really, with Hirano Aya basically reprising her role as an ero-jiji Konata and that other loli giving Kodomo no Jikan vibes in the way she looks at Konata...

Continue watching? Probably not intentionally, but I can still catch it on TV Sunday mornings.

The GARness... It burns!!!

Golgo 13 : It’s like James Bond. Supposedly.

I had zero intention of watching this. Then one late night while flipping channels I find an anime about plane hijacking and gratuitous sex. Was pretty stoned at the time and wasn't really paying atention so I booted out quickly. Wonder what the person next door thought of the static interjected moaning from my room *swt*

Continue: Nyeh. If I really want to watch gratuitous sex there's always Junjou Romantica XD

Wait till you hear the 100th. Then you'll be in despair.

Allison & Lillia : It’s like Sisters of Wellber… without the talking tank

Actually I couldn't really think of a show to compare Allison & Lillia with so the closest I could get is Sisters of Wellber that had a similar non-shounen good-feel adventure vibe to it.

Continuing? While I didn't continue Sisters of Wellber after the first episode, I certainly will (egads, unintentional pun) be with Allison & Lillia, no less because of Allison and Lillia Will themselves (Yea, so I love Mizuki Nana :P Also I need to clean my ears out for not recognizing her in Itazura na Kiss -_-" Will's voice was rather familiar too, and it turns out to be Shaoran from CCS) who make a decidedly 'normal' yet ragtag team of adventurers.

Nabari no Ou : It’s like 2X2 Shinobuden meets Loveless

What's this? Kugimiya Rie makes a more convincing boy than Noto Mamiko?? What I love about her performance in Nabari though is that it sounds much less of her usual Nagi/Shana/etc roles and more of her awesome Kagura from Gintama. And I wonder how many Nico users typed "Nii-pah!" during Tamura Yukari's eerie voiceover...

Continue? The rather funny BL-ish jokes (unlike the downright disconcerting ones of Monochrome Factor...) and fluid action in the first episode (it's a modern day ninja show after all, and the serious kind - unlike 2X2 Shinobuden or Ninja Nonsense in English) earn this Nabari no Ou a spot on my watchlist.

And speaking of Nico Nico and Tamura Yukari...

Da Capo II Second Season : It's like Da Capo II & Da Capo SS in one... Uh-oh...

Jeff Lawson isn't the only one with a 'soft spot' for the original Da Capo series. It was probably my first foray into an actual 'harem' anime of sorts - though the end girl was decided pretty much halfway through, I liked how they still gave the other haremette some sort of closure still in the second half. Unfortunately, the less said about the next two anime incarnations of the Da Capo the better (Aisia alone ruined DCSS, as for DCII, Koko is the prime example of why her shy girl archetype makes for a lousy lead heroine... There was potential for something different than your usual tsundere there, but it's like the creators didn't even try to make her unbland). What of DCIISSWTFBBQ (shouldn't acronyms be short?) then? Like it's 3 predecesors, it starts off in its usual decent non-offensive way that only non-fanservicey harem shows can that lulls you into thinking, hey, this may not be half bad... only it's from where the DCII left off (only the robot girl is nowhere in sight, yay?) and the SS suffix is sounding alarms off in my head already...

Continue watching? I suppose I'm somewhat invested into the series already, so yea . At best it may help reclaim the 'magic' of Hatsunejima lost in the previous installments, at worst, it'll still make good raw-watching practice.

Kyouran Kazoku Nikki : It’s like Rizelmine meets Kamisama Kazoku

It's hard to say anything coherent about this show. It's like the creaters just pieced together whatever idea they could get their hands on for quirky characters and tossed them together in what could be the funniest comedy this season... Or at least the second most bizzare (After Penguin no Mondai XD). And as far as shows employing the WTF ploy of Japanese government endorsed forced marriages, Kyouran Kazoku Nikki takes the cake from Rizelmine (and the downright awful Final Approach).

Continue watching? As a comedy junkie, I'm not missing Satou Rina's jellyfish ED for a thing XD

Kaiba : It’s like ??? (Err... the only thing I can think of is Cat Soup... and maybe Starship Troopers)

So called experimental anime isn't exactly my thing. Though I think there's a lot of good one can say about Kaiba's 1st episode which I can agree with in the most part (the rather short cast list on ANN isn't short on impressive btw), I'm not sure I'm personally ready for this kind of viewing experience since my thoughts after the episode was "That was one awesome ostrich... thing!".

Continuing? Thanks to Sat-chan Owen S for the summary/analysis which helped me with what I missed from watching the raw (I understood so far as the amusing yet slightly disturbing scene where the kid decides that his brother's memory is of no use to the world, lol/"..."). Though I do like the funky art and the deliberately bizzareness of the world, I don't think this show is for me after all. Those who loved the episode and plan to continue will probably be personally well rewarded in the end so I will recommend this episode out for yourself.

Crystal Blaze : It’s like Hataraki Man meets El Cazador de la NoirLax (the heroine, that is)

Crystal Blaze is rather intriguing really. I checked it out since it's labeled as mystery (which I love) only there's probably SF/supernatural elements in it (which I don't like so much). Of course if you want a superficial reason to check out the first episode, a good part of it has the mysterious female character running around nekkid and involving herself in unintentionally hilarious situations that only clothed people should (carjacking, gunfights, etc.) And yes, she reminds me Matsukata from Hataraki Man (with a lip reduction) XD

Watching still? I'm slightly curious, despite it being one of the less 'spectacular' looking series this season (there's freakin Code Geass and Library Wars after all), so I'll put this one on a sort of watchlist waitlist for now.

Vampire Knight : It’s like Zombie Loan… with vampires (duh)

Some people I know will watch any show with vampires, and some will watch anything with bishounen, regardless of anything else in it. Well this show has both, and I'm not in either of those two mentioned groups. But of course I had to check it out if only for Horie Yui and Miyano Mamoru (who could use at least as many roles as Fukuyama Jun IMHO... Oh shit, he's in here too???), and I have to say the episode tickled me for being so blatantly generic in so many ways - the cheesy character names (Yuki Cross and Zero - Zero!), the token gothic atmosphere of the setting, the grainy flashbacks, the emo bishie antics of the emo bishies... The only thing missing is an ALI PROJECT OP/ED.

Continuing? Despite myself, the first episode did entertain me to a certain extent (then again, so did Zombie Loan's), but methinks no. If it wasn't for Ryuu and Tajima (I can't even remember his actual name) in S.A., I'll probably watch the bishie vampires over the bishie anorexics this season.

Monochrome Factor : It’s like Loveless… without the Love (Har har. There'll probably be an inordinate amount of 'love' in this one actually)

This post already summed up my impression of Monochrome Factor. I'm not really sure why I watched it even despite since there's hardly a positive comment for the show around, but I guess curiosity killed the panda OTL. I could've sworn though there was a half decent high-school monster-killing romp somewhere amidst the (MJ class, LOL) WTF-ness that is Shirogane, but with Soul Eater and Junjou Romantica this season, who's going to watch this?

Continue? Dropped. Though will someone inform me if this was meant to be blatant BL (I wanted to say BL satire. Right...) and if Shirogane gets his way with that other dude in the end? XD

Kamen no Maid Guy : It’s like They Are My Noble Masters… only they’re not very noble at all

I think I enjoyed Kamen no Maid Guy's first episode more than I should have... It's hard not to, unless you're against erroneously placed frontal nudity *gasps, it's the new Shuffle!* or just find the concept of a maid GUY (actually when I first heard the title, I was convinced it's be another Kamen Rider type show -_-") too kimochiwarui or just plain lame. Though Kogarashi takes the cake with his utter disregard of the delicacies of male female interactions (Jason's post sums up his best lines in the episode), all the other characters join in the fun in providing their bit to the humour (It would be awesome if Fubuki was voiced by Tanaka Rie though :P).

Continue watching? YES. Kanokon and To-LoveRU be damned. Maid Guy 4tw!

Himitsu - The Revelation : It's like CSI with mind raep.

This show give 'mind raep' a total new meaning. It's another pseudo mystery show this season, more in the vein of CSI as the characters analyze the brains of murder victims to unearth their memories to unveil the killer. *Sigh* Whatever happened to the good old days of solving mysteries Sherlock Holmes/Hercule Poirot/Ms Marple style (I've not watched the kiddified Agatha Christie anime adaptation though. I'm sticking to the novels, thank you very much) instead of relying on the powers of science?? Maybe I should go back to Detective Conan -_-"

Continue watching? Ranting aside, I do love CSI and Himitsu - The Revelation is intruiging to me as Crystal Blaze is, though it looks to be episodic in nature so I'll probably forget to watch it anyways. On the plus side there's Seki Tomokazu and Nonaka Ai in he cast, so this goes into the 'pending' list as well.


(Extra) Tower of Druaga (alternate version of ep. 1) : It's like the first version of episode 1... without the tentacles.

Not much to say about this one. Had to watch it literally side by side with the actual first episode in the same video on Nico Nico and the conflicting audio made it rather confusing. It amused me though that every line Jil said in his sleep corresponded nearly exactly to the lines in the original episode.


*Phew* And that's about it. I'll post a firmed up watchlist sometime next week.

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Spring 2008 Kimochiwarui Rankings

Hosaka has nothing on these guys. And penguin.

There's just something about each of these following characters from this season that creep the bejeezus out of me... But for the most part it's an okama ranking (*coughs*gimmick post*coughs*) more than anything else =P (Sorry, I haven't watched the trap show of the season, Wagaya no Oinorisama). So in increasing order of 'kimochiwarui'...




8) Beckham (Penguin no Mondai) - Yes, I'm recycling images, but seriously some of his other facial distortions are a little too disturbing to screencap -_-" There are some very off-putting elements in this penguin which goes against the kiddy look of the show, but works with the gag portion of it.



7) 'Chinese' Ruler 'Dude' (Code Geass R2)
It's more the way he(?) sounds than looks.



6) Porilyn (Crystal Blaze)
Is (s)he going to be a recurring character?



5) Ginka (Kyouran Kazoku Nikki)
There's nothing really kimochiwarui about Ginka really... Besides the fact that he's in love with his 'dad' and all... (Egads, Papa to Kiss in the Dark!!) You can watch his ED on j1m0ne's blog. And it's no wonder she predicted Ginka's seiyuu correctly, Fujita Yoshinori voiced Kaoru in Ouran and Masumi in Nodame Cantabile (whose real gender I still cannot remember for the life of me -_-"), lol. Oh, and that pathetic student council dude(?) in the second episode of Special Anorexics.



4) Muscle Okama (Zettai Karen Children)
An okama villain (that shoots Iyo-pe! p3nis beams!) in a show called Absolutely Lovely Children?? Now that I think about, quoting from my last post:

"(What kind of warped blogger talks about a 'kid's show right after forbidden boys' love you ask? Welcome to Tondemo Nothing!)"

...it's funny that I didn't blog this episode, lol.




3) Golgo 13Duke Togo (Golgo 13)
Too GAR for me. Well Shin likes him (which is why I stole the image from Atalude :P Gomen!), hopefully not for the reason above...




2) Kogarashi (Kamen no Maid Guy)
Cannot... Resist... Laughing... The concept of Kamen no Maid Guy is just so over the top - gar male meido? The humour in the show is a little over the place, but everytime Kogarashi appears on screen I find myself struggling really badly to suppress the LOLz while my mind screams "WHY??? WHY????"- he's just so WTFBBQ and has such blatantly inappropriate lines to rival Kanokon. This is going to sound so wrong, but if I do continue watching Kamen no Maid Guy it's so see more of this dude XD




1) Shirogane (Monochrome Factor)
Noone is more 気持ち悪い this season than Shirogane here methinks. So he doesn't raep the main male character in the series in the first episode like that one other show, but he comes real close... There's just too much disturbing going on with this guy(???), the hair, those lips ("The better with which to kiss you with..." EEEEKKK), that freakin figure and everything he does and says... The thing is the first episode of Monochrome Factor didn't seem as bad as I've read at first, if a little unoriginal (emo schoolkid VS supernatural beings? *yawns*), but the moment Shirogane appears on screen, it's OH NOES all the way...



Ranking done based on first episode of each show. I could've sworn there were more than 8 when I first thought of this post... Ah well.

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The Problem with Penguins... And the Truth behind Gintama's Elizabeth?

Got 10 minutes to spare? Well you could always watch 3 episodes of Chi's Sweet Home... Or this.

(Edit: I just realized that Zenryoku Usagi's finally gotten English subs! Bunnies GIVING IT ALL THEY'VE GOT sounds way better than "Bunnies doing the best" though, IMHO :P)

I wasn't really paying attention at this scene, so for a moment I thought it was a joke sub -_-"

Penguin no Mondai is about... a blue penguin named Beckham (seriously, who comes up with these names?) who's purpose in life seems to be annoying the wits out of his supposed best human buddy, Naoto. A first glance it looks very much like a kiddy show... Which is why you're seeing it on this blog :P

Too many BL jokes this season...

(What kind of warped blogger talks about a 'kid's show right after forbidden boys' love you ask? Welcome to Tondemo Nothing!)

I wouldn't remove that (suit?) if I were you...

Well, to say this is a kiddy show can be rather misleading really. Zenryoku Usagi from last season managed to be funny and child friendly a the same time. Penguin no Mondai... I wouldn't recommend to the younger audiences personally. It's more of a gag show that's more suited for people over the age of 10 or something since the humour can be rather... disturbing sometimes. Like when Naoto is asked to pull Beckham out of a hole in the wall in which he inexplicably got stuck in, only... Well think Elizabeth from Gintama with a twist, and you should be able to guess what happens. There's a lot of character deformation involved which is ridiculously exaggerated and a lot of exasperated shouting from the characters (Naoto and Beckham have kind of a love hate relationship going on XD), so it was a pretty funny first episode all in all. Just, the humour is rather... warped so it takes a slightly twisted sense of humour to enjoy it (*points to self*)

Penguin no Mondai : It's like Zenryoku Usagi... with one insane penguin...

At first I wasn't even really sure that this is a Spring 2008 show since the animation is rather perplexing. At first glance everything looks like it's in a joyful colourful 2D but when Naoto or any of his human classmates move the effect seems 3D-ish... It's kinda hard so you just have to see it for yourself :P I'll take back what I said about this show being for kids though, it's as much a kid's show as Animal Yokocho is... Meaning it kinda is, but you can't be too sure when there's an Iyo-class 'evil' character in it XD

Continue Watching? Heck, it's only 10 minutes per episode, and it makes the perfect replacement for Zenryoku Usagi this season (Maybe I'll change my catchphrase to "Gopen-nasai!" now. Maybe not). And if you're already filled with the fuzzies from watching Chi's Sweet Home... Well, Penguin no Mondai may just bring you back to the dark side =P

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Junjou Romantica and the Subject of Forbidden Boys Love

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Toshokan Sensou : It's like Lovely Complex meets R.O.D. ... And it's AWESOME that way!

Kimi + Boku = Library War Love?

Instead of part 3 of Spring 2008 First Impressions which I promised once I got to Toshokan Sensou (which I obviously have), I'm holding that back for a while and branching out to give this awesome show the love it deserves in an individual post of its own!


I do want to do my own small part pimping out this show but usagijen has done a mighty fine job so far and Impz has joined the bandwagon and provided a much needed summary (Omni too, as usual) for the Japanese impaired like me :P Sad to say I understood almost next to nothing of the dialogue when I watched the first episode of the highly anticipated 1st episode of Toshokan Sensou, courtesy of Nico Nico Douga. I did manage to get the gist of the character interactions and I just had to snicker whenever "seigi no mikata" (allies of justice) was spouted out, but the whole 'Library Wars' aspect totally flew past my head (where are the subs???) so I won't be judging the setup as much as I would usually and just go with my gut instinct that any show called LIBRARY WAR has got to be awesome :P (Nerds rule!)

The lulz of watching Toshokan Sensou on NicoDouga

And even if the concept may require a high degree of belief suspension... Who cares, it's way more awesome than fanservice aliens from outer space =P And the first episode did a good job meeting my expectations, but was still short of surpassing it (perhaps if I actually understood what went on, it would have -_-"). What I do know is that I'm already loving the characters and there's a definite chemistry in their interactions, and I'm actually looking forward to the possibility of light romance (Iku's Prince Charming subplot is so Utena XD) mixed with all the military hoo-hah over books (god, I can't get enough of this concept!). Inoue Marina wasn't what I expected to hear from Iku, but she works (LOL at all the "KANA" comments on NicoNico, though not as lulz as the "DAN-KUN" coment when Ishida Akira's character spoke) and it's a pleasant surprise to hear Sawashiro Miyuki at work here as well as in Kure-nai. Maeno Tomoaki seems to be a newcomer but does a good job with Doujou, who is giving the S.A. guys a run for their money as my favourite male character this season =P

Production I.G. at the helm invariably means that the production quality is top notch, and much deserve praise has been lumped to the art in the show (though I'm no expert on the use of darker outlines, it's hard to disagree that the show looks pretty damned good) and the humour is well complimented by the SD-ish segments. Like the OP and definitely love the ED just because it's by Base Ball Bear :P I'm now ridiculously tempted to fork out cash and buy the novels whenever I visit a bookshop here... but the hardcover ones are almost 1000yen each and I wouldn't be able to comprehend much anyways so I'll wait a while and hope to see one in the second hand bookstore some time later(it's a hassle having to look up almost every other word in a sentence... But it's a hassle I now have to get used to *sigh*). I know it's not too smart to be ridiculously pumped about a series based on just one episode, but I just have this feeling that Toshokan Sensou is going to be one of my top favourites this year *fingers crossed*

*stops gushing* (Here's another positive review for the record :P)

There's one more series this season I think I'll be doing a separate post on while I lump everything else I've watched/will watch into a final(?) First Impressions post. The virtual manwhore voucher still stands for anyone that's willing to take a shot at guessing what it'll be... Oh, that might have just given it away =P

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Special A : It's NOT like Ouran, Damnit!

I "just" (Edit: last Friday, been busy over the weekend) got my (Japanese) placement test results!!! And they're... so not like this, lol.

Actually we didn't really get our results, but we can fairly guess how we did by the classes we were sorted into. Considering that or the placement tests I didn't finish the multiple choice grammar portion (I read slow, okay), managed like one page of the kanji portion without guessing (a surprising achievement really, guess furigana in manga does help somewhat :P), absolutely flunked the essay (90% of whatever kanji I do remember I can't remember how to write) and was probably the only person in the room who didn't speak in a grammatically 'correct' manner during the interview... I'm surprised I didn't get put in the last class (close enough to last really, which is a relief since I get to relearn everything I shouldn't have forgotten about the language -_-"). There are two Special A... I mean advanced classes for the students who are ridiculously fluent enough in the language to pass off as locals, and I supposed that inspired this separate first impression post for Special A.

(Edit: This is all last week's news btw, this week I have placement tests for subjects like Japanese Culture and Science ORZ)

I keep mistaking the dude on the left for a girl... It doesn't help that he's voiced by Yonaga Tsubasa of OoFuri fame =P

Special A is this season's 'uber' shoujo offering this season, which many have labeled as a successor of Ouran High School Host Club of sorts... but I say nay, because that's an insult to my favourite comedy of all time! Kidding. Ouran isn't my favourite comedy of all time, but it's close (You get a virtual manwhore voucher if you can guess what is =P). The comparison is probably inevitable though, since most people hail Ouran as the premiere shoujo show in recent history, but though the setup and stylings of Ouran is very much catered to the shoujo market, Ouran's success to me wasn't that it was an awesome shoujo series, rather it an awesomely hilarious comedy that managed to make fun of many things including its shoujo trappings. In fact I think those who aren't usually into shoujo anime enjoyed Ouran because it was funny in both intelligent and whimsical ways and more so because it didn't delve too deeply into the intricacies of romance and fluff that supposedly 'bog down' the 'girly' genre.

Just for fun from a geek by any other name :P

But I suppose the comparison has more to do with the 'special students' sitting around drinking tea in a lavish setting concept (why can't school be like that in real life?) than anything, but I just wanted to rant a bit =P But instead of saying "It's like Ouran..." I'd say the setting is more that of the student councils in Utena (the garden etc. Though technically Ouran is reminiscent of Utena too, so S.A. being similar to Ouran seems reasonable... gah, there goes my point...) or even Code Geass. Kei can be Lelouch, Megumi can be Nunally, Akira can be Millay and Hikari would be Shirley, lol. Tadashi can be Rival(z) and Ryuu would be Mori-senpai... Oh wait... D'OH!

My main irk with comparing S.A. with Ouran based on its first episode is that Ouran had one of the most brilliant first episodes to remember ever (I will forever love the lightbulb gag :P) whereas S.A.’s just was just... okay (not “Special” enough?). I tried to like the show as much as I could (it was one of the few shows I had in mind this season), but there were sill things that rather annoyed me when I watched the first episode. Mainly the noodle thin character designs (seriously, the characters here make CLAMP’s look fat!) which I wouldn’t have minded so much if they didn’t make Hikari and Kei wannabe wrestlers - I keep thinking that they’d snap like dry twigs in those scenes -_-" Besides the fact that they’re trying to play him up as the token ‘perfect’ bishounen who’s a little too proud for his own good (Hmm, where else have we seen that this season...) Kei is a big annoyance in that he just screams Geass (Fukuyama Jun should gargle some salt water or something in his future roles, I’m in despair hearing Lulu’s voice everywhere). I actually find him more irksome than the guy from Itazura na Kiss (it helps that I don’t recognize Itou Makoto’s voice as well). Gotou Yuko as Hikari, I don’t mind as much since she’s okay in my books as long as she keeps to her Kaede/Abiru voice rather than her high pitched Mikuru (It doesn’t change the fact that I don’t like her singing the insert song >.<).

Now that I think about it, the twins do remind me of CLANNAD's Kotomi - if she were split into 2 halves.

Sloths are awesome because they get away with being, well, sloths :P Now who wouldn't want to get away with that...

Karino Tadashi : He's just like Tajima... (seriously, they're both hilarious) Let's hope we don't hear about his masturbation habits -_-"

But enough of the ‘hate’, let’s go on to the positives, and why I will continue watching Special A. (Besides the fact that I'd take a shoujo anime any day over stuff like Kanokon and To-LoveRU) The setup may be slightly generic and the main characters are only passably likeable (well I seldom take to main characters anyways), but there's nothing really bad per se about it all. What’s tilting the scale for me is definitely the entertaining side characters. Yea, so quirky side characters are a tried and tested gimmick to increase the likeability of the cast and better the impression of a show. It worked for Itazura na Kiss, and it’s working in S.A. as well though it feels slightly more gimmicky here (see girl who can’t talk but can end the world with her singing… Reminds me of Kotomi -_-“). Ryuu, the sloth guy (who reminds me of Mori-senpai, only he talks lol) seems pretty cool (because sloths are cool! And that he has the twins literaly eating out of his hand :P) while Tadashi is a riot (casting Tajima’s voice = brilliant!) especially his chemistry with Akira. Overall there’s an enjoyable chemistry between the characters as well that works in the show’s advantage. Story-wise, nothing spectacular yet, so I’m still seeing how it develops. Overall, my impression of S.A. is still a positive one.

Continuing? Yeap, especially if the sloth returns :P

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Spring 2008 Part 2 : It's Like Part 1... Only With More Fanservice

3 more series sampled. Only one passes the test. The other two get the above reaction. And yes, I'm continuing the lame excuse to add as many anime references into the series description as I can.


Kanokon : It's like Rosario + Vampire + Spice + Wolf + Negima + Inukami + Kawasumi Ayako + Noto Mamiko

Well, I kinda knew what I was getting myself into when I watched this, and I really had no intention of touching the show (fox-girl fanservice extravaganza? Sorry, wrong demographic). Until I saw the seiyuu cast, and then I knew I had to check out at least one episode. Predictably enough, one episode is MORE than enough for me of the foxy adventures of Kawasumi Ayako and Noto Mamiko, the two seiyuus' collaboration being the sole reason for me watching (Please tell me they've teamed up in better series than this and Fate/Stay Night (lol) Oh yay, there's Nodame Cantabile!). And I have this feeling the show is currently being marketted to those who fancy this, uh, coupling, since Noto Mamiko doesn't even bother trying to sound like a shouta and Kawasumi Ayako has the most foxy lines...

Second helpings? Thanks, but no thanks.

To-LoveRU (or however you want to spell it) : It's like Katekyoushi Hitman Reborn... with aliens. (because their main male leads look similar, methinks)

Urgh, can I ask Xebec for my ２４ minutes of my life back? (If asking for 48 minutes is too much, that is, I'd unwatch Kanokon too, but this comes first) In my zeal from finally getting access to the internet, I started watching as much of the new season and somehow I inexplicably watched this too despite telling myself to steer clear from it after reading previews for Spring. The fact that it has 'Love' in its title for unclear reasons and the title itself is seriously 'HUH??' inducing (apparently it's pronounced 'Trouble' *facepalms*) was reason enough. Generic story with generic fanservice and it loses to Kanokon marginally in terms of 'interesting' characters. It is still passably funny (The elephant scene was taken straight out of Utena :P), but if you're like me and not too into blatant fanservice, there's not much point hanging around for more.

Continue? Hell NO. (To To-LoveRU's credit, someone thought it worth the time to reference it on the episode of Gintama I managed to catch today- spoiler: Hijikata (robbed of his GAR-ness by a 'cursed' katana) seemed to think that this series featured in JUMP looked interesting, LOL*self reminder to catch Gintama at 6 every Thursday*)

Tower of Druaga: Aegis of Uruk : It's like Record of Lodoss War... only I didn't sleep through it.

Perhaps it wouldn't be fair to criticize Lodoss War considering I never finished it, but yes it fairly bored me to sleep when I was watching and I couldn't help thinking it would be time better spent reading Lord of the Rings. Considering that I'm not into the whole serious RPG adventure type of shows, it's funny that I was looking forward to Tower of Druaga at all this season. Possibly it struck me as a 'serious' adventure worth looking into (like Seirei no Moribito). Well, the first episode tossed that impression out the window:

Tower of Druaga (ep 1): It's like Mahoujin Guru Guru... with tentacles! (another RPG parody show worth checking out)

The first episode I must say, was freakin' hilarious! And intentionally too (unlike Code Geass XD) which is always plus EXP points to me =P Basically they spent the whole first episode making fun of the RPG genre while paying hommage to everything from NicoNicoDouga to Gurren Lagann. Some of the jokes may have been dated and done to death (Star Wars anyone?), but they still worked brilliantly mostly due to the surprise factor of the episode (Seriously, did anyone actually expect this? The awesome OP itself was unpredictable already). Too bad it looks like the rest of the series isn't going to follow the whole RPG parody thing, and it's going to be the whole serious (mis?)adventures of our party of heroes after all

Watching more? Hell YEA - with the hope that the series doesn't treat itself too seriously in the coming episodes. (Please GONZO? I'm actually considering staying up to 2 to watch the next episode now XD)


Part 3 coming... Once I get a taste of Library Wars!

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