Death’s Notes and Thoughts

Archive for June, 2009

a picture of how it could look

Saitama prefecture (home of the anime Lucky Star) is currently considering a proposal that should make the schoolgirls of the prefecture wearing school uniforms which follow the design of the ones found in the hit anime “Lucky Star”. Here are are more pictures, one from the Uniform and one from Lucky Star.

The Uniform

Kagami wearing the uniform

The “Prefectural Anime Tourism Investigative Commission” came up with the idea behind this and also submitted this proposal. They’re a group of professional in the anime/manga industry which thinks when this is taking place it should definitly help to boost the popularity of Saitama for anime/manga orientated tourism. That would result in even more money for the local economey as they already earn with other stuff in this direction. Also they plan more meetings to find futher ways to improve the anime/manga tourism in the region. The final results can be awaited in 2010. The prefecture’s tourism board is non-committal: “We’d like to consider the results of their deliberations for events and so forth.” Well, i personally wouldnt disagree on that proposal ^.^

The reaction on 2ch (maybe also intresting in this context) are however mixed:

Saitama has started up!

Saitama is just too amazing…

These will probably encourage sex crimes.

Aren’t these uniforms unsightly? Their colours are designed for anime after all.

The uniforms are ripped off of ToHeart anyway.

The colours are totally unrealistic.

Whichever way you look at it, these uniforms are from an eroge…

Tourism is for people coming into the prefecture. These look a huge nuisance to students.

Let me just go get my little sister transferred to a Saitama school…

Well, we’ll see what comes out in the end.

Sources used for this article: Sankaku Complex

Enjoy, Death

Magician’s Academy revolves around Takuto Hasegawa, who attends a magic academy that is not marked on any map. During a summoning spell exam, he accidentally creates a girl named Tanarotte, who happens to hold enough magical power to destroy his country, but fortunately Tanarotte professes undying loyalty to her “creator.” The universe separated in three worlds: Heaven, Human World (Earth), Demon realm. The Gods & Demons are not seen fighting among themselves in the human world and try to keep their existence a secret from them. The human world is only source of entertainment and enlightenment to both the demons and the gods to the point of smuggling human goods to both realms. (taken from Wikipedia, and shortend to remove spoilers) Also it should be said that this anime is based on a game for the Playstation 2. Its really a feast of catgirls and cuteness, it begins with Tanarotte and goes on with the other girls. I also to a big liking in Falcé, especially when she is in the “small” mode. She appears later on and follows Takuto around, often in form of tools like pens and stuff. And there is that scene in the cafe where is she a small chibi sipping some kinda soda. Its so damn cute~. Its not much special about this one besides the pretty high catgirl/nekomimi and animal ear appearence. Take that away from it u get a more or less normal anime with the topic “magic” spiced with some small potions romance and some parts school. The romance part is more used as a base for jokes and fun then beeing too honest with it, so it dont become annoying as in some other anime. It fits my latly intrest in more comedy/fun orientated animes, and so u shouldnt expect anything “special” or “great” from it. Also some may say it contains a lot of loli, that a point where I say NO. That isnt what I call loli, at least not in the terms when loli gets used as “bad” attribute. hmm… but stop, one thing is a bit outstanding here… I actually never saw the higher ups from the demons and angels going along, where the Gabriel is a goth loli and both are hardcore otakus for anime and stuff. OK, so I should correct here my further statement it lacks something special, but its maybe still something not everyone consider great. Anyway, I could tell u more about the other chars that are part of the regular play but that would kill off the fun factor for u. There is quite some parodise in it. I add some pictures to show a few scenes i refered to in the review earlier. So, those who search for something to have fun with, and not for a great honest romance story or something other more “real” thing, should enjoy it.

Trailer

The chibi Falcé (bottom of the picture)

Gothic Angels and the Deamons

hm~ this cube is somehow familar, dont something run in the cinema these days….

Anyway, lets end it here. I really suggest if u dont have a problem with loli and like fun stuff to watch it. There is so many stuff that everyone probably find something for himself.

-Death

Padudu is a young girl who travels to Sweetland, from her own land, Sea Heaven. Once there, she competes with many others, in ranging from winning simple contests to fights. These earn them ‘Hanamaru’, which are simple designs from a stamp, and when enough are collected, the girl will get the right to become a Magical Girl on earth. (plot summary taken from Wikipedia) I must say a weird but somehow fun series. What i should tell u from the start, it have no real ending, at least not in terms Padudu finish her task or something. In that sense it follows Mahoujin Guruguru which also lack a real final ending where they finish the task they’re assigned to. Anyway, if u’re ok with some a bit random fun anime without any end, this one is one u will have lots of fun with. It features a bunch of also unusual fellows like that girl named Myumyu, which have two cats as clothing (which is a reason for fun, since Padudu is having a fish as her partner). Most of the characters feature some animal as “partner” for life and as helper that support him in some way. Uokichi (Padudu’s partner) is used by her as cloak and also as foot supply (also something that get parodised later in the series, but we wont spoil the fun, don’t we ?). It’s a fun concept as this not get used every magical girl series, more the normal give some animal as instructor along (we remember here negima with that hermit, or maybe some of u know Nanatsuiro Drops, where the instructor is a stuffed animal), so its also one of the points i liked. Also they as earlier stated make up many reasons for fun. The temper and targets of the individual characters do their addition too. All together it seems a bit random at time but not in a too annoying way. Its also pretty short, the individual episode is around 8 to 9 minutes plus a 29 minutes 3d OVA. The 3d ova is not really something i enjoy, since it feels so unnatural to see anime characters (2d) in a game-like optic (3d), but if u can get along with that factor, it isnt too bad, through altogether the series was better. Ah, and before I forget, the OP/ED is wonderful wacky music… I just loved it, it goes straight into your head and becomes an earworm. So becareful! With that it’s up to you to figure out if u wanna watch it or not.

Trailer (english)

Source: YouTube

This trailer shows nicely shots from the 2d (series) and the 3d (ova) versions of the anime. Enjoy,

-Death

Since we spoke just about it in the channel over at Animepath (one of my fansub groups), I thought that I could throw in some impressions here. Just let me foreclose… it was a heaven for the maid fans. Here u have a few pictures:

Those 2 were great, i have tons of pics of em. They had really fun with their role, u can see that when u look up the pictures.

We also had a madio cosplay cafè there.

When one consider it was the first event and was created out of a “just for fun” idea it was a great con. It was great to see all the ppl again u normally just meet when u’re at those events and also I had the chance to snatch some stuff again ;). Got me a japanese limited edition box of Memories (which even included english subtitles) for a good price. Also like I stated earlier, great for me was the big amount of Madio cosplayers. I have a certain weakness for those, and I think my pictures in the gallery shows that. But also fun was their stage programm, which had some bands (not my taste but hell, they werent too bad), a real good comedian dude making fun of serveral anime (buddy, keep it at this level!!!) aswell as a quit funny cosplay competition and cosplayer auction (where u could bid on a cosplayer so he be at your side for some hours). The money they made was used to cover costs and all thats left after that got donated to social services. I hope they make another one next year, maybe with a bit better planning at some ends. I even think of attending it as a “helper” or staffer if u wanna say so. Another thing I think of is maybe making a small scale subtitle workshop to show the ppl how its done and give ‘em also an idea what amount of work and time is involved in fansubs. But thats future music, thats not realism yet, but if we turn it into realism i will surly cover it with foto or video footage ;). If u wanna now see more pictures, u can click on link in the right side bar, its filed under “Pages -> Galleries -> Dokomi 2009” or just click on the link here.

Yours, Death

PS: ah, forgot the link to the page of the DoKomi, here it is: http://www.dokomi.de/de/ and when u wonder what DoKomi stands for, its Doitsu Komiku Market.

The series is a parody of Neon Genesis Evangelion, in which the entire cast of the original series are now everyday students going to junior high school together at Tokyo-3. The series features three “Rei sisters”: one is a child younger than the rest based on “Rei 1″, the second is based on “Rei 2″ (the Rei seen for most of the normal series), and the third Rei is actually based on the hyperactive and klutzy “Alternate Rei” seen in the alternate-reality dream sequence from the final episode of the original series). Further, Evangelion Unit 01 itself is one of their classmates, but this time as a human-sized robot who acts as something of a class bully. Even the Jet Alone robot is re-imagined as a character on the series.(took it from wiki) My comment about “…if u can accept it that is…” in the title is meaning that some ppl see this series as insult to Neon Genisis Evangelion. Thats a point where I rather say, its just another insult in a long row of already existant failures. To me is anything that came after the original series not original anymore. Even the movies altered the course of action already, since they couldnt accept it that the ppl have their own way of interpreting this series, and that it could perhaps a different image from what the author imagined. But exactly that is what makes NGE so great for me, that everyone have to find his own interpretation of the events that happend. But lets go back to the present time and this series we got here ;). My idea’s about NGE and stuff i will lay further out when I do the movie reviews, thats more suitable for that. In fact when u’re like me and go say whatever… they already trashed it so lets have fun, its a good one. The chibi design alone is fun but having Gendo doing the school principal that hardly leaves his desk… its so… matching ? Dunno, it was an image I can accept since he is the kind of guy. Also Unit 01 is fun, sometimes he is your nice guy another time he is a kinda punk guy. Its a really fun mix out of the main chars from NGE in a relaxed school enviroment. There is also evidence that there is a game to this series (i prefer call it a series even if some pages might say its considered as OVA, i mean a 24 part ova ? noooo), on the Nindendo DS but I think it will be like always that it wont make it out of Japan. The only thought it left in me is “i wantz more…….”. Also great about it was it that there are not really subtitles needed since they dont “speak”. When they “speak” its like back in the days with the teacher of Charlie Brown (some might remember that), where u know she says something but its not meant to be understood. So the only subtitles i would like to have (throught they’re not essential) is for 3 scenes where something is written, but thats all. So if u can get a hold of it somewhere, just grab it and have fun with it. Normally i would have a trailer here but thats impossible since all i found was the series parts and a DS trailer which not really shows much (well… 15 sec CM, what do I expect?), so we have to pass on that. On the other hand that means u just can open your prefered video page and watch it probably there complete as the individual episode is pretty short, and so they will get uploaded to all kinda places.

With that we end, have fun with it, Death

“Let’s begin a new myth, sweet battles, and a miraculous love story…” declares a man on the top of a building in New Tokyo in 2020.

It is a signal of the start of the Sekirei Project. 108 beautiful fighters called Sekirei are dispatched to the world to seek Ashikaba, their masters, in order to be the last surviving Sekirei and realize his or her dream. Sabashi Minato is a high school graduate who failed his college exams last year. He is a loser; he doesn’t have any goals nor does he have any friends, let alone a girlfriend. He failed all his exams this year, too. On his way home, a beautiful girl suddenly falls from the sky. Her name is Yui. She identifies herself as one of the Sekirei and has chosen Minato as her Ashikabi, her fated partner. (stolen from Fansub.tv) And he instantly fell for her… I mean, i guess every single man would fall for a girl like her (yea yea, there are always different tastes but the most ;). But well, this is the anime which made me understand why its sometimes not just called a trap but a “Boobietrap”. I mean its quite some time since I had last an anime with this much boobie fetischism thats not entirly dumb, but putting that aside the chars are also quite intresting as u can feel they hide something, but they dont let u get it too fast. They reveal the things bit by bit, still leaving enough space for another 12 episodes as Sekirei isnt finished with this 12 episodes. There is already a OVA but I didnt watched it yet, aswell as a 12 episode series planned which is supposed to finish it. The char i liked the best besides Yui (more or less the main char i would say) is Tsukumi followed by the Landlord. On Tsukumi i like her tusundere behavior, at first she hates Minato but then she wont let go of him… she is really a wicked one^.^. The landlord lady is just fun as she is the good old “one look and its solved” type… a char with the evil “look”. I love that. Where the story might go… I wonder, i just fear we get an emo battle royal ending, but since season 2 isn’t out yet, I have to wait and see…

Sekirei Trailer

Source: YouTube

Enjoy, Death

And here we have one of the lulz. I found this old video (finally subbed!) of MiniMoni (a subgroup of Morning Musume) doing some funny stuff with lockers and the fact that they’re just 1.50 m. Here we go:

Source: YouTube

Enjoy, Death

In a future world where an organization called the GGP has taken control of the world, Rin Ogata was a promising up-and-comming ballet dancer, but suffered a serious injury and decided to quit. Years later in college she comes across a club building and soon finds herself intrigued by a transforming motorcycle like vehicle called a Rideback. She soon finds that her unique ballet skills with balance and finesse make her a born natural on a Rideback. (stolen from ANN) Its a quite intresting one, to combine a motorcycle with a kinda mecha structure. The story begins slow but then gains speed. Our man char is a more quiet type but then when she got used to the ridebacks she gets pretty agressive at some point. I like that development since its realistic, sure its kinda fast, but thats needed as the series isnt too long. Also its not too unrealistic that she have a certain degree in balance and agility from her ballet dancer carrier, so i dont pick on her fast learing too much ^.^. Also from a mechanical point of view should it be possible within 20 years or so do make something like this, so its not ultra futuristic, also the enviroment is pretty “normal” from our point of view, not extreme weird and ultra tech style like some other series. So u can say regardless of all SF in it does it stay on the bottom of realistic development of humanity ;). So, enough word, here is some video feed for u to help u to decide if u like it or not.

Opening

Source: YouTube

Ending

Source: YouTube

Trailer

Source: YouTube

And to make things a bit funnier, there is a lil parodie pic.

Have fun,

-Death

The story is set in Goshiki where the Totensha alchemist, Iyo Takahara, has created a rock in the shape of a wolf gargoyle that is rumored to be linked to a legendary Philosopher’s Stone. The rock, nicknamed Gar-kun, was won by Futaba Yoshinaga in a lottery from the sweetshop owner who somehow obtained it from Totensha. After taking it home, Futaba learns that Gar-kun can talk, speak with animals, teleport and combat at a high level. (stolen from Wikipedia) The Anime is based on a 14 volume lightnovel series, written by Sennendou Taguchi, illustrated by Yuji Himukai.There is a additional related series with 4 volumes. I must say it was a enjoyable one. It reminded me a bit on some Cartoonseries that ran here on TV years ago about some Gargoyle series. What irritated me a bit in the beginning is that Gar-kun never moves. I mean he can fly, teleport himself and such but still… on the other hand its a nice difference from the usual image of a Gargoyle that u get sometimes from other series/movies. It brings us some ecchi/comedy with various other stuff like some adventures in the old days (in one episode gar-kun goes back in history). Its not too long, more it feels too short somehow, but isnt that a feeling the 12 episodes series give u often ? The DVD bonus episodes do a funny parodie on Alice in Wonderland (seems the japanese are a bit obsessed with that story taking into account how many parodies or alternative variants u get, i mean we have serveral animes that completly take part in the Alice world or have it as main theme). All together a light and fun anime.

Source: YouTube

When u need something to have fun with, this is the one.

-Death

Hi everyone out there, u probably think “this dude is a goner” or “this blog is dead”, but NO it isnt. In fact there was some real life which was taking my nerves and attention so I was unable to write. Anyhow I will go back to my usual self and write more again, since stuff keeps piling up otherwise ^^. We begin todays show with the great Lucky Star/The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi opening parody I found over at www.sankakucomplex.com (i just love their stuff).

Source: YouTube

You might notice that i use now a different player for the video. I like this one better as i can control its propertys way better then the one I used before, so I will use it from now on I think. Also i will switch from FLV (FlashVideo) to MP4 videos, so i can present u better quality video when I have a source that offers MP4. So i hope your internet connection is fast enough to keep up.

-Death