Death’s Notes and Thoughts

Posts Tagged ‘Magic’

The Summer of “Anu”: In a summer once every five years, demons in the mysterious Tower of Druaga lose their powers due to the magic spell cast by a god named “Anu”. King Gilgamesh, ruler of the kingdom Uruk, uses the appearance of demons as an excuse to invade the tower and find out the construct’s secrets. As 80 years passed, the Uruk army managed to fight back the demons and built a fortress city and safe haven on the very first floor of Druaga – Metz Kier. Thus begins the story of a warrior named Gil who, finding companions along the way, embarks on a quest for the fabled Blue Crystal Rod, a powerful artifact rumored to be in the highest floor of Druaga. However, other competitors, including the kingdom of Uruk itself, want the treasure, all for their own reasons. [stolen from ANN] (if u wanna know the desc of the 2nd series too look it up here) I will write down here the impression on the complete series instead of the individual parts as they should be watched together now that u can grab both. I must say i enjoyed this series. It was a good mix out of parodie parts, some more or less comedical parts and some good old action parts with epic fights. Sure probably the the hardcore fantasy fan will say that this series suck as it have too much “side stuff” from his point of view, but that was something I liked since it made the series lighter. Lighter in a manner that a non-hardcore fan can also have fun at it. Also I liked how the story was turning unexpected sometimes since ppl was changing sides, just in the 2nd series it got a bit confusing *yare yare*. But thats one of the less points where I say “meeh”, another is maybe the sometimes bad implented 3D cgi action. But on the other hand it gives it a slight game feeling which is also enjoyable in its own way, right ? Dunno, it entertained me so I tend to see things positive. One of the best jokes was still the episode which Jil beeing the “figure” in a arcarde like fantasy automat. Man, that was made me lulz a lot. Also fun is the joke they made with ep 1, make sure to grab the alternative version and watch it later on. They also didnt overused the usualy “god” topic like some other series tend to do. I mean this series goes around a god myth so there is influence by god figures but in a moderate manner. Dont wanna go deeper into this otherwise I spoil. Hm, I say for the casual fantasy fan its a good one, for the hardcore it can be good or not, depends on his individual expections I think. Make your choice ;).

Opening S1

I should say here, the op’s are a bit missleading since they show the chars in a School/Daily Life like enviroment. Through the op of s1 is a kinda crossover, while the op of s2 have not that feature. But it is a fantasy anime, dun worry, no school/romance one ;).

Opening S2

Ending S2

Have fun,

-Death

Yuusuke was just a normal kid going to high school. Then one day, the cute and behaloed Noelle fell, quite literally, into his life, naked as a baby and every bit as innocent. Before he can even fathom what’s just happened, Yuusuke is inducted into a rather odd family of otherworldly beings straight out of The Munsters. Papa is a Frankenstein monster with a taste for calisthenics. Mama is a gorgeous lady with a penchant for “round objects” — really! The eldest sister, Sara, is literally invisible; the brother, Gabriel, is a teenage vampire with an attitude problem; and the youngest sister, Ruka, loves inventing things. There’s a disapproving Grandma, who’s a witch to the nth degree, and her vulture familiar. All Yuusuke wanted was for the beautiful Natsumi to even notice his attention, but now he has an angel-in-training to follow him wherever he goes. And Noelle, too, has a guide on her path to being an angel, the mysterious Michael (or Kaeru-san). [from Animenfo.com] Well, it was fun until like 6 episods before the end where the anime started implenting a very weird, selfcentered logic without any explanations “why” things happens. Another angel related anime, namely “Ah! My Goddess TV” tended to explain to the viewer why things happens like they do. But if u get along with that fact and annoying logic, go and read further. The chars in this one are quite a out of the normal bunch as we got a bunch of “daemon” class chars. A witch, a vampire, a cat daemon, a girl with the ability to get invisible, an other witch with her weird bird companion and more. I personally took a liking in Miruru, the neko daemon. She is like u want your catgirl but just a bit… well, wicked at some times. Also she goes damn hot for the poor Gabe who have his probs with her love as he is allergic to cats^^. But those two arent our main chars, those are Noelle and Yuusuke (god… i cant hear that name anymore). No, this is not a harem anime, even if some might smell harem here. I agree he hangs between two girls in the later story but thats it. And two I dont call harem. Whats annoying about Noelle is her constant screaming of Yuusuke’s name. After like 10 episodes you wanna erase the name from the anime, I kinda think of rewatching it with doing a count of how often she screams his name. Her childish and “i trust them all” behavior is for a while fun but then it also looses a bit its impact as you get used to it a bit much. What I more found intresting since it was giving this weird and dark feeling off since u dont understand it until a certain point is the side stuff with Dispel-sama and Silky. I dont wanna go too deep into this as I would end up spoiling a part of the story. But Dispel was definitly an intresting fellow in terms of beeing the evil dude that takes the angel to the darkside (hmm, describing it this way make me kinda wanna say “Luke, I’m your father. Join the dark side!”). Oh well, Also fun was the enemy the face later on, Muse-chan. That lil one is trying really hard but faces always the problem that she is too shy and always seems to regret her actions fast, which give her a own “i dont have trust in myself” charm. Like u just wanna cuddle her and say “It’s all ok”. Also its every time again fun to see into what she transforms next, just to fail short after it again. Man, thinking over it afterall it maybe wasnt so bad, but I disliked that non-explained and with selffish irrlogic soaked end of it. That and Noells constant “Yuusuke” screaming. But like I said in the beginning, who can get along with it, go and watch it. You will like it.

Opening

Source: Youtube

Ending

Source: Youtube

To watch or not to watch, thats the question for you ;).

-Death

Set in a city of scientifically advanced superhuman students, but in a world where magic is also real. Toma Kamijo’s right hand, the Imagine Breaker, will negate all magic, psychic, or divine powers, but not his own bad luck. One day he finds a young girl hanging on his balcony railing. She turns out to be a nun from the Church of England, and her mind has been implanted with the Index-Librorum-Prohibitorum – all the magical texts the Church has removed from circulation. [stolen from AniDB] Well, this anime is something. You have a chibi that knows every magical book and stuff, a dude with a Hand that kills all supernatural, a girl that sends flashes behind you or use her eletric powers to speed up things. Also u have have a army of clones and more weird people coming up in it. What is weird is the title if u think about it when u have watched it (its no harm if I explain it) since the most time all chars besides Index plays a bigger roll then Index. At least when the big action begins it is like this. This might be also the reason why we got a side anime featuring Biribiri. Desprite that the anime is not too bad since u have lots of fun when Biribiri gets angry again since she is lovly dovly for Toma but Index is having a big problem with that. She think of Toma as her belonging^^. But well, Biri isnt the type to admit what she feels either. Also there is there Kuroko who also have a problem with Biri getting together. Ok ok, this is a side story but its one of the lulz things and well it probably gets merged somehow into the To Aru Kagaku no Railgun anime. Damn yuri-anime, stop entering my thoughts. Back to Index, what I missed in it somehow is the big end-fight to give it an end. They fight serveral enemys during the show once Index is freed from her fate. Even they announced that there will be a big end fight but it never happens, at least none that I consider as final fight to end it all. So this anime have the problem of feeling un-finished to me. Who can get along with that feeling and still wanna have fun, should watch it. It combines good action and some comedy/romance storyparts. But it focus more on action, so dont worry about too much lovlydovly shit. Thats rather side stuff to add more fun to the whole thing. And this anime made me ultra intrested in To Aru Kagaku no Railgun, as u might figured out earlier^^. So be sure to look forward to my review of that one, and also let us hope they give us more Index one day so it gets a proper end. Til’ then, enjoy the videofeeds and make your decision about to watch it or not ;). And before I forget, you also can check more of the index parodies in this article I wrote earlier.

Promo:

Source: YouTube

Opening:

Source: YouTube

Opening 2:

Source: YouTube

Ending:

Source: YouTube

Ending 2:

Source: YouTube

So, thats it.

Your Death-chan

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

When I was watching episode 19 of Index I kinda got “wtf??”. You had this scene with the girlie president and she goes “Yes, we can!”, which gave me flashbacks on the Obama spam in the news (I personally dont have anything against him but at some point all this stuff begins to get annoying if u dont have real intrest in it, dont ya think so too ?). Anyway, without further comments and rather with the new “tube” plugin, we go:

Source: YouTube

Its a longer version, bringing along some context. I thought its probably better in order to fully enjoy the scene. And i found this other vid where they overlayed the speech scene with some obama and music^^.

Source: YouTube

And here, from Air Gear we got another incoming Obama:

Have fun with it.

-Death

Its the first series i spend the time i found in my week off from work on. It is based on a light novel series by Sanda Makoto, illustrated by pako. Itsuki Iba is the cowardly president of a ‘for hire’ magic company called Astral. Always in need of money, Itsuki’s company rents out magicians to perform misc jobs. His company features many magic schools such as Solomon (Demon Magic), Shinto (Prayer Magic), Onmyodou (Spirit Magic) and Celtic (Ritual/Paper Magic). Not the only company out there looking for work, but Itsuki’s company has an ‘ace’ in the hole which happens to be Itsuki himself. If things become more than they can handle, Itsuki will remove his eye patch. As a side note, most of these people are grade schoolers and 2 of them happen to be classmates of Itsuki’s. [description stolen as always from AniDB.] It was a good anime but with a little weak ending (sadly). What i quite liked was that we here got not only the typical japanese “magic” but also western stuff like Honamis Celtic Magic, which also is a type of magic i dont remember seeing before in any anime i watched. Also new to me was Adelicias Solomon magic, which is basically a type of demon magic but still different to the usual type. Through she need to have a special item i rather woudn’t it call demon magic but summoning magic as she calls her servants as she needs them. Also u get a little love triangle in this series but i guess that is used to add a little spice and comedy to this series. I hope they give us a 2nd Season as i still have some stuff that i want to know, most of it small things but well. The end was a bit weak to me as it was rather short and not well prepared enough as the story reveals. It feels a bit too sudden.

Trailer (net version):

Opening:

Ending:

I choose the net trailer, as it is longer and so shows more of the actual show.

-Death

Happy Seven is a 13 part TV-Series thats based on the manga by Kawasaki Hiroyuki. The story starts with Sakogami Amano, a high school girl that attends Shitennoji Academy. She is a pretty unlucky girl. Everything she does backfires at her. One day she have a weird dream, but when she wakes up she dont remember it anymore. When she enters next day by concidence the clubroom of the Kaiun Kenkyukai (A society for the study of improvement of one’s fortune) her life gets a turn. The members are seven girls who have power of Shichifukujin (Seven Fortune Gods). They give her the advice to pray to become happy. While she do so a monster appears and try to assault her. At this moment one she dreamed of the night before comes to help. Happy Seven is a really funny anime. They use often chibi-versions of the chars and that give extra fun to various scenes. Especially the scenes with Amano as chibi are wondeful, when she gets pissed again cause she couldnt do this or that… Ah yes i had much fun on it. Its a light magical girl anime with a wink and some slapstick.

Enjoy the fun,

-Deathy

When i was searching yesterday for some parodie/comedy/slapstick stuff on aniDB i was hitting this good old one called “Magic School Lunar: Secret of the Blue Dragon” (Mahou Gakuen Lunar! Aoi Ryuu no Himitsu). I had forgotten this funny short animation but now i have it finally again. Here i want to thank Tomo-chan, she showed me this one in first place! THX TOMO! The story reveals around a guy named Barua. He is from the Magic Race (Vile Tribe) and kidnapped some students of the Magic School. The headmaster of the Magic School asked 3 of his students, by name Elie, Rena and Senia, search and rescue them. Along their way they get involved into intresting and crazy thing, and like always get into trouble. When they finally found the students, they realise that their magic isn’t strong enough to fight the evil but then they get help from some unwanted friend… ^^. This short animation was shown along with Shinseki Evangelion: Shi to Shinsei” (Neon Genesis Evangelion – Death and Rebirth) in the Japanese Movie Theaters and got drected by Daichi Akitarou, who is known for the “Kodomo no Omocha” animated TV series. All together it makes a funny little short animation that’s worth watching. Thanks to the guys from PAZU we got it translated, and i can show it to you here.

I also have put it on Stage6, so u can enjoy it in the original Quality, and be able to download it easy.

Enjoy,

-Death