Death’s Notes and Thoughts

Posts Tagged ‘manga’

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

Source: YouTube

Its maybe not the best quality and dont show tons of stuff but still its a funny lil tease, thanks goes out to Jd-, who gave me the link. I think we all look forward to this one.

-Death

Based on a shounen manga by Haruaki Katou. Hyakko is a manga whose main heroines were four girls when the story started. But as the story goes, many unique classmates show up. Those girls sometimes twist the heroine around their little finger or vise versa. In many situations, they all have noisy get-togethers with each other, and that is really fun. (stolen from AniDB) Hyakko is kinda weird in the beginning, since unlike other animes of this kind we dont start in the middle of the whole thing but really at the beginning of it. The 4 ends up all together cause they’re lost and finally beat up the teacher with glues em even more ^.^. The chars are colorful and differes from the usual pairing. Sure u have the shy one and the more agressive one but here u got 2 straight forward ones instead of the usual single one. Then u got the silent but .. hmm… “useful” is probably the best description for Suzu, boy she’s a glutton. But this fresh combination give the thing more intrest, at least i like it pretty much when those anime types still come up with something new. But this also was the first anime with a girl openly admitting she’s bi-sexual, which also opens a lot space for funfactors. I mean why not ? We live in a modern world, besides this was a nice why to evade too much contact with the guys and the need of a open romance. OK, here in different to similar type anime like Hidamari, u got guys, but in my eyes they play just a side roll to fill a bit and open new rooms for fun. It’s not like there is any serious romance coming up, which is better this way. I can’t stand romance stuff too much latly, so i tend to evade stuff with that kinda genere attached. But dunno, i cant get Suzu out of my head, she is a fun character. Great was that episode where u see her making a kind of “tour” around in school, and get just by showing up already all kinda sweets and candy, i mean it was totally lulz for me. The end brings a bit drama along but nothing too serious, its ok, uncalled for or better said unneeded but well… that must everyone decide for himself, right ? So without further words we go over to the Trailers and stuff, then its up to you if u wanna see it or not ;).

Hyakko PV

Source: YouTube

Hyakko PV2

Source: YouTube

-Death

Based on a shoujo manga by Nakahara Aya, serialised in Margaret. Risa and Otani are always being laughed at as the comedy duo. Risa, a girl, is taller than the average girl, and Otani, a boy, is shorter than the average boy. The two are always bickering and even their teacher sees them as a comedy act. But as their friendship develops, so does Risa’s feelings toward Otani. [taken off AniDB] It was a funny romance anime, which brought a fresh feeling and new fun to me. Here you have not the “I know him from my childhood and now still love him” or “I love him because he helped me with something” or similar. No, here those 2 had in the beginning not even the slightest intention to get together, but develop a relation in a quite “normal” way, so not some extreme stuff happends, no psychic drama. Its just a story of a romance developing over the time u spend in school in a way that I consider as not too unrealistic. That means not its getting boring, instead u get lots of fun. It begins with the lil problem already meantioned in the description, that they always get considered as the comedy duo “all-hanishin kyoshin” (forgive me if i wrote it wrong). That comes from Risa beeing like 1 1/2 head bigger then Otani, and the concidence they act at some times similar, like its a practiced comedy (but it isnt). It goes on with the stuff u can drag out of this difference in high but not limits itself to it (this is where the “complex” in the title comes from^^). You have also her friend Nobou (which damn reminds me on Ren from Super GALs) and her boyfriend (he is not the brightest but well…^^), they also cause a lot of situations and try to help Risa and Otani (mainly Risa) to develop the romance.What you shouldnt expect from this one is any fanservice scenes as its no fanservice anime. That makes it in my eyes even better and refreshing, since i watched too much of those romance fanservice comedy stuff… Another thing is that one should watch this one with an open eyes as you can find here and there some little parodies again on other animes^^. All together a nice and entertaining romance anime, so if you like this genere you probably want to give this one a try.

Opening 2 and Ending

Here you get OP2 and the Ending. I personally like the song of OP1 better but i couldnt find it. Seems the japanese cried once again cause ppl putted the op/ed on youtube… *sight*

Enjoy,

-Death

Based on a manga by Fujishiro Takeshi, serialised in Monthly Shounen Gangan. Ikuto Touhohin just had a fight with his old man, one that led him to make a rash decision to run away from home. He boards a ship, deciding to take a vacation, but the ship is suddenly hit by a huge storm – one that sends Ikuto overboard! When he regains consciousness, he realizes he is still alive… on some island. An isolated island. An isolated island with nothing but girls. Beautiful girls. Stranded on an island with only girls, no electricity, gas, radio, television… like he was back in the stone age. [stolen as always from AniDB] Its a quite funny anime out of the harem/comdey/romance genere. I had at first my probs, since it felt like some overdone harem anime that get unnatural (like Ichigo 100%, it was so… artifical and dumb… *shiver*) but after some episodes this feeling was gone and the fun really begun. Also the setting through it feels old is unusual and i must admit i never had such a scenario for a harem/comedy/romance before. Still i cant get a rid of the feeling i had something like this already… guess i don’t remember that anime anymore. I had the most fun on Suzu and Machi-nee. Suzu for just beeing cute and lovly, and Machi-nee for her evil behavior. She is quite wonderful in her ways of beeing evil^^… poor Ayane (her lil’ sister). But there are more characters that have their own intresting points like for example Chikage and her obession with research everything. The chars also grow slowly, not in a physical way but in a mental way and also as lovers (through they never actually said they loved each other the for the whole series^^). Also funny is the fact that they can communicate with the animals, and many of them have their friends. Like Suzu and the pig Tonkatsu. Tonkatsu is a quite funny one and looks like a ball with a face and 2 ears. But that not all, but for the more u have to figure out for yourself. Also what i digged up was the sweet stuff that Suzu goes nuts for as i was intrested in what this is. Its named Mame Daifuku and consist of a soft, chewy dough surrounding which covers small sphere of sweet red bean paste. I must say i never got the chance to taste it myself so i took the discription from the blog where i also found the recipe how u can make it yourself. You can find the recipe along some pictures in akatsuki talks rot’s blog entry “mame daifuku”. Also i found later a second guide how to make Mame Daifuku at the “To Short Term Memories” blog, which is a bit more detailed and also includes pictures of the process. It sounds quite yummy and make me understand why Suzu loves it so much through it looks a lil bit weird in reality. So all together we can say that Nagasarete Airantou is a funny and entertaining anime just i have to say that i dont like the final solution for the prob of his lil sister in the end, but i wont say more ’bout this as it would spoil too much. See for yourself, i just say they could have solved it better.

Trailer (raw):

Opening:

And as for the Mame Daifuku, here u can see some pictures i took also from akatsuki’s blog:

Mame Daifuku on a plate

Mame Daifuku on a plate cutted open so u can see the inside

So, thats all, i hope u enjoyed it.

Your Death-chan

Innovative world view and elaborate set drawn by Shirow Masamune popular manga by the Appleseed, based on the aspirations of Aramaki Shinji, manager of the 2004 “Appleseed” after re-animated feature of the sci-fi action. John Woo served as a producer, including the various sectors of the global creator is in the lap of luxury concentrate on the original view of the world gargantuan scale visualization along. In the year 2138, half of humanity is nonnuclear War by death, conflict and chaos the world over. Born in a neutral city with a cease-fire (Olympus), and human cyborg, and the human gene built in, the anger and hatred to control the tribe, “Danger” is coexistent. Olympus belong to a special unit ES.W.A.T. BURIAREOSU Dunant and the battle when the partner, but with lovers. Past BURIAREOSU wounded in battle and became cyborg body is still Dunant love to change that. But one day, during a campaign was moribund BURIAREOSU serious injuries, signs of improvement have been invisible remains in a coma. Meanwhile, Dunant`s new partner as assigned by the BURIAREOSU genes designed, a cyborg before him in the face and body with the substance, terreus. Meanwhile the time, in many parts of runaway cyborg is a terrorist mirabilis, the highest level of vigilance will continue Olympus was …. [stolen from AllCinema and translated by Google]. They keept going in the same manner as the first movie but what i missed was the great music like the first had. Again i was irritated by the CG, it is good done but still it dont feel natural enough for me. I liked in cases of CG the first movie effective better but i guess that comes from the fact that it was somehow “smoother” and not as sharp as the 2nd which probably have covered the unnatural feeling of the CG a bit better. As for the story itself i quite enjoyed it through it got a bit weak on the end, it could have been a bit more thrilling. But overall it was ok and worth watching. The characters grown older and got a gained a better presents from that, especially i was noticing that on Hitomi as she wasnt acting and looking like a child anymore but behaved more mature. Also u saw the maturing technology-wise as Buriareosu got a improved cybernetic body and a somewhat different lookout with that. Also i sense difference in his agility. Well, to sum all up it wasnt perfect but ok. It had some good point but the CG again caused me some problems. Also the music somhow lacked the hightligh’s from the first movie, as there was not great track in my eyes.

Trailer:

US Trailer:

Enjoy, your Death-chan

Kasumi Kogen, the so called Village of Mist, is a town located somewhere in a tasteful and rural place in Japan. In this town, there is a training school. Surprisingly, it is the Sinobi Gakuen, a training school of kunoichi, or the female ninja. It gathers competent students from all over Japan to train them to become kunoichi. Needless to say, the villagers are alumni of the school, and they run and jump, appear and disappear, as if the whole town were a big ninja house. To this strange town, there came a girl and a man. The girl is Himawari who wants to be a ninja and respect “Ichikawa Raiso” as her master, and she came here to enter Shinobi Gakuen. The man is a new assigned teacher Marikoji Hayato. He was deceived into paying money and came here to repay his debts. They encounter in this Village of Myst. Whether their encounter is by chance or inevitable? A teacher and his student. Forbidden Love? Other students like Azami, Skimi, Himeji, Yusu wait and see their situation secretly. Whether can Himawari become a full-fledged Kunoichi? Whether can she protect her master? Well i must say usually i dont like ninja animes too much but this one was just hilarious. The mix between the characters is pretty good done as u have the stupid one, the “superpower” ones and the victim that gets targeted by the stupid one^^. It reminded me somehow on 2×2=Shinobuden! where u had a bit similar constellation (a ninja setting, a complete failed ninja, etc). Its quite enjoying to see what Himawari will undergo to please her “master”. I think if u like the ninja comedy type this should me a nice funny series. There is also a 2nd season coming as the first one i here speak about have 12 episodes and much stuff left to make fun of. Sadly it seems that the english fansub group that have picked the 2nd season dont really make progress… sigh. Well lets hope and see. Here is the opening since i couldnt get a hold of the promo yet, but it should help to give u an idea how the chars look like and stuff.

Enjoy, Death

When i was on the hunt for new pictures to add to this blog i came across this one:

I didnt thought too much about it, added it to the blog along with some other pics but still it bugged me somehow… So when i was bored i begun to ask a bit around and got a hold of more pictures:

When i saw the last picture it even raised more my interest in it as it looked it is some book. So i begun to ask around and got some response in the internal channels of my groups. This books are english instruction books for japanese people with a manga style. But their image of words one should learn to speak proper english with other peoples seems to be rather weird. Sure this ones target at young people but still… especially these should learn it proper. On the other hand this stuff gave me lots of laughs. The figure we see (the red haired one) is Maritan. There are also 3 other girls, and its all styled to imitate some military akademy or similar. Maritan is the sea drill instructor (what ever this have relation to learn a language). As for the other i found this picture here but still figured out their names:

It seems that Maritan is even so popular that its not limited to english instruction books anymore but also get used to advertise other products:

Well, i hope they have also some real english instruction books there… anyway, i will definitly get me Maritan books and will have some fun with them. If u also have deeper interest in them:

Maritan to hanasou
ISBN 978-4-89425-534-0
2100 JPY

Das ist Maritan
ISBN 4-89425-440-9
1524 JPY

and  there is more to be found in the internet or on yesasia.com if you prefer originals like me.  Enjoy the fun,

-Death

It starts with some action by ADV UK division to move their anime release to a so called “yet to be named” local publisher [more here]. Why should they shutdown their label in UK ? Is it so unintresting to sell their licenced stuff in the UK on their own ??? Another worrying fact to your friends in the UK is that many of the sale pages on ADV UK’s site give an error message… Beside shouldnt one first handle the details of the deal with the local publisher before announcing such facts and having the publishing on ice ? Well this behavior could also a have a different background which i will review in detail in a seperate entry since it dont only affect UK anime publishing and distributing. But another fact is that is sad to me and on the other hand worry me is ADV Germany and Tokyopop are shutdown their anime publishing according to Japanator and AnimeOnDVD. Tokyopop says they leave the game cause of the high amount of illegal downloads in Germany even if there is “enormous interest on anime by young media consumers”. AoD points out that Tokyopop Germany had been releasing DVDs at high prices, with 8 discs for a two-season show (24-26 episodes). Another fact i want to add here to this is that here only younger ppl have intrest in anime/manga so the problems lies also in the target group they tried to have buying their stuff. Instead of trying to get older people interested in their products by having some series for more grown up people in their program they instead of series targeting on kids or too “girly” stuff. Beside they didnt do anything to improve the image of anime/manga so people would reconise it as more then just Sex/Gorefest as which most people think about it. So as parent thinking that would you support your kid in having such a hobby ? I guess not. The only anime the normal non-anime fan see’s around here is often some anime targeting at kids in the timeslot around from 1 pm to 5 pm or some really old anime in late night (around 1 am). And when the late night stuff runs u also having advertisment for so called “manga porno” or “anime porn” games for your mobile running alone which greatly improves the way of thinking people have about that theme. But its not only the price or the image anime have here, also its a matter of content. I for example buy rather the US/JP dvds instead of our local since they have bonus stuff like clean op/ed, interviews and more. Sometimes even T-Shirts, soundtrack packaged with it, and similar. But here ? If you’re lucky you maybe get the clean op/ed, and some trailers… Also i miss on newer DVDs the jp dub. I dont like your local dub voices but well thats a matter of taste i think (ok there is some rare stuff but that really rare). Beside they release often no boxsets like u have for example in the US when an anime is out for quite some time. If they would have released for example slim box sets for half the price of the big one they would have sold more then they did. Also to think on bashing the fansubbers for having their overpriced stuff not getting brough is lame. The fansubbers created the customers of them but they forget that. When I think back how small the anime scene was like 6 years ago and how big its now and also the intrest in anime… Rather than bashing the fansubbers they should have releasing faster, a bit cheaper and also better quality/more content. Maybe also some more efforts in direction of high quality digital content distribution they could also have drawn more people to their stores.

Think about it, also its sad… but what should i say ? In my eyes its not the fans fault, its the comanpys.

-Death

I dont get why all the ppl love to dance the haruhi dance but well… its a international thing by now it seems (the german clip is from the AniMagic i belive).

If you want to see one of the clips used in this one, go to the youtube page of this clip, there is a list of all the clips he used for this one with links. But I cant help myself… ppl cosplaying as Haruhi or another char of the series always look wrong, extreme wrong… :ermm:

-Death