Death’s Notes and Thoughts

Posts Tagged ‘Seinen’

Kanuu and Chouhi’s group rescue a mysterious girl, who is actually the real Ryuubi, her name and heirloom sword stolen after the events of the last season. The group sets off to recover Ryuubi’s sword. At the same time, a group of street performers, the three Chou Sisters, are given a mysterious magic book that may be more trouble than they think. (taken from AnimeNewsNetwork) It’s bascially a continuation of the ways and the story that begins in S1. In this one we get a hint that we get a S3, since pretty early the introduce a character we see later again and that truns out to be evil, but not getting beaten in the end. Well, if they keep it like that I don’t mind to see more. They gave us more boobies, more sexy scenes and a lot of fun scenes again… I liked the episode with the boob-contest the best^^. I mean I dont remember any other animes where they tried to catch eels with their… oh well, I shouldn’t spoil the fun. So, if you like ecchi, and enjoyed S1, go for it. I dont have really much more to say^^.

Shin Koihime Musou OP

Source: DailyMotion

Shin Koihime Musou ED (uncut)

Source: DailyMotion

As far as I can tell, the difference between the 2 versions of the ED is that the cut have a row of houses behind the chibi’s. Dunno, I liked it better that way. Have fun with Koihime~.

-Death

Anime adaptation of Chunsoft’s visual novel mystery game 428 ~Fuusa Sareta Shibuya de~. Two years ago, Shibuya was ravaged by a biological terrorist attack using the deadly Ua virus. Maria Osawa was saved when her father inoculated her against the virus, but is left with partial amnesia from the shock. Now working as a cameraman, she reunited with her friend Canaan in Hong Kong. Canaan is an assassin gifted with synesthesia, and she’s being targeted by the terrorist squad Snake. Meanwhile, numerous groups converge on Hong Kong, all after either Canaan or Maria. [taken from AnimeNewsNetwork] It was a good one. The anime may use some scenario points the regular anime watcher may already reconise but still they manage to give it a fresh and new touch as they found a pretty intresting explanation of the way things started. Sure one can argue we had already viruses and biological weapons (Venus VS Virus, Black Cat, and many more) but yet I liked the way this one works and what its side-effects are. Its was enough to get me into a good mood and the anime kept the promise of beeing intresting through sometimes I got a bit lost in the specific types of the “affected people”, also it also take a while until they fully explain things. But thats not the main point the anime wanna get on, its just a mark on the way to the real point which they kept good until the last 2 episodes. Some may figure out the deal earlier then those but I don’t think it will have a bad effect on the overall experience. Also the anime was also pretty sarcastic in some way which I would descripe as pretty harsh but still we shouldn’t forget it’s not your daily school girl anime but a rather violent (but not overly) one. It says what it means through non-sugarcoated pictures, a point which I also liked about it. Especially since latly I often feel like they over-/missuse violence and sex appeal to cover that the story and scenario behind is extreme weak. Something I find rather discuthing so this one was compared to those a refreshing one. It wasnt too long and not taking side walks to fill gaps in the storyline. Another rare thing I found in this one was the really good drawn picture of the psychotic submissive follower thats so blinded by her love for her “nee-san” that she fail to see the reality anymore. Unlike other animes did she kept it up until the very end, even going as far as enjoying to get killed by her loved. Thats a point where most other animes let the char turn love into hate as they feel betrayed. Thats something that is one possiblity but it got overused and so as for me lost impact. Here I was rather suprised that his didn’t happend and I must say it was a match. The character was perfectly acting out his ill-love along with the sardistic tribes. It made me reminding Perfect Blue somehow, where they also drew the picture of the psychotic sardistic stalking lover. All together I must say I liked it, through like stated earlier it was for me a bit confusing at some points of the storyline.

Trailer

If someone wonder why it says music video, its the offical promo trailer for the Comic Market 75. Source: YouTube

Opening

Source: YouTube

Ending

Source: YouTube

-Death

GA is a class that specializes in the arts at Ayanoi High School. Kisaragi, Nodamiki, Kyoju, Tomokane and Namiko are a group of five friends who have colorful adventures and learn about art techniques. Its the anime adaption of the ongoing slice-of-life manga series “GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class” by Satoko Kiyuzuki, which premiered in 2004. Its one anime to like as it have quite intresting parts when the characters go about color type, what they made of, or what techniques all there. The technique are real stuff and usually good enough explained to a new comer to the topic to understand how it works. Also if you like to draw or to create things u might get a new impression what you can do or whats possible. But also the characters are a funny bunch. There are the hyperactive two, namly Miki Noda and Tomokane (we never got the familyname during the series). Noda images herself often as some colorful magical girl featuring a paint brush, also she love to play pranks on others, especially on the more settled Kisaragi. She also love fashion, getting alon with her small and cute looks, but on the other hand she is pretty spoiled. Tomokane is also quite hyperactive, and also does stuff together with Noda (while Noda is beeing the initator of that action for the most part), also she is also pretty tomboyish (she made me wonder for quite a while if she is maybe a trap, like a dude wearing girls clothes^^). She tends to get often into trouble during her rather explosive temperament and beeing impulsive. Then there is Namiko Nozaki, she is the tallest aswell as the oldest of the bunch. She behaves more adult then the rest and so act as the “older sister” character. She often offers assistance or scold when its needed (well, Noda and Tomokane gets it usually, but I think that was forseenable ^^). Kisaragi Yamaguchi is the opposite with her rather soft and sometimes also childish personally. So she becomes the target for the hyperactive tag team or at least gets affected by the actions of those. Matching her personality she likes natural cats (Sunekos), and so u often see her drawing them. Last but not least we have there Miyabi Oomichi (usually called “Masa” or by her family name), a shady person. Her expression seems to be the same the whole series, and no matter what she always come up with a solution or have the right thing at hand. But not enough with that she also posses strange powers like natural magnetism or the ability to control animals. She is the mysterious character, reminding me a bit on Ichijo from PaniPoni Dash!, which also was behaving pretty strange. Also speaking of weird chars, I found the idea of the Lord Chickens in G.A. pretty weird but somehow fun. The chickens are the lords of the land so are allowed to do anything and you’re not allowed to do harm to them. Also the animation styles like using those eyes without pupils which often gets used on Noda, I liked it as it made me even more lul since her expression gets so wonderful strenghtend by it. Sure it might sounds a bit scary but when you saw it you realise what I mean. All together its a quite intresting and also entertaining anime with a bunch of funny chars and lots info about art. The art infos arent getting you annoyed, rather they worked it pretty good in so it fits right into the flow of the series itself rather then making it too much like some teaching movie. I really consider to get the manga to get on with it and hope you got some intrest and check out this real good piece of anime to find out that you have the same amount of fun with it as I did. Also watch and hear the endings, they switch every episode. Every episode another char from our crew sings the ending song and so the songs vary, also there are 4 different endings. So dont just skip it like usual, also thats why I only feature one single ED this time.

Opening:

Source: YouTube

Ending:

Source: YouTube

So, and now watch it.

-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

This is the first year of high school for the four girls, looking for that very special club. The healthy and energetic Tainaka Ritsu (club president, drums) decides to join the school’s Light Music Club, only to find out that the club is about to be closed — due to the lack of members. Without much ado she drags along her childhood friend, the shy, mature, and sensitive Akiyama Mio (bass). That leaves only two more members, required to keep club from closing. Luckily the gentle, calm, warm, and cute Kotobuki Tsumugi (keyboard) stumbles into the club, only to be “convinced” by the pleading Ritsu to stay. The last member, the easily distracted klutz Hirasawa Yui, can only play castanets, even though the club needs someone on the guitar, but she is “bribed” — with cake — to stay anyway. Will Yui be able to learn to play the guitar — the special one she just bought and loves so much — before the four girls graduate? [stolen from AniDB] I must say unlike many other animes with the genere music/band I liked this one and enjoyed it. It wasnt focusing too hard on just the band-thingie but also featured some life outside the band, making it more balanced. Also the characters are something one can enjoy as they sometimes a bit typical but also have their own cute behaviors. Funny was definitly Tsumugi (Nickname: Mugi-chan) with her big eyebrows, a very unusual attribute for a girl in anime (and reality aswell?). Normally I would expect her to be some bad-ass angry something, but its more the other way round. A bit quiet but lovly person. Through my favorite unlikes the masses opinion is still Yui, as she is just so wonderful clumsy, but also is just great when she is set on something. Its like she goes on fire but well… she lacks a bit planning ahead sometimes so… u can imagine what comes out^^. Mio is nice, and have a good makeup for a moe-char that pleases the masses (shy, easy to scare, easy to embrass, nice body). Ritsu is the impulsive and a bit hyperactive one of the quartet, but the same amount she is hyperactive she is lazy at other times and keep forgetting her forms for things (bad bad ritsu), and so causing Nodoka (the representative of the student concil) pain. At some points I feared it might end up in some worse drama (I cant stand drama stuff too much currently, having too much IRL drama around me) but thankfully they didnt choose that way. It always just was some lil “panic” event that get resolved within an ep. Also fun was their club supervisor, which i would call “metal teacher sawakawa”. Boy… she was definitly evil, also have this nice cosplay fetisch. (why i call her metal teacher sawakawa, u have to find out yourself, i already spoil too much^^) If this all is to your liking, watch it. The only thing I would have liked to be different would have been the amount of songs. 1-2 more songs would have been nice, but well, you can’t have everything, right?

Trailer

Source: Youtube

Opening

Source: Youtube

Ending

Hopefully u enjoy it as much as I did. I suggest to watch Frostii’s version.

-Death

Chiko, who had been leading a lonely life because of her parents death. Together with the Phantom Thief Nijū-Mensō (20-Faces), she sets out on a journey into the real world. She gradually changes as she encounters new friends and places. But strange events start happening revolving around the mystery of “Legacy of the 20-Faces”. So Chiko has to move forward, regardless on how checkered her life will become. (the plot descroption is taken from AnimeNewsNetwork) It was a good anime. They builded up the mood pretty good, especially Chiko’s stepmother was made very good. She really builded up hate against her and her actions in me, and that was definitly needed to get into the mood. It wasnt a fail hate more a “go just die and leave our Chiko alone” hate. Many other animes that attempt this raise more a “u fail” hate in me then the kind of hate and angery they want to archive. Also the drama was good distributed over the series, not all in one point but rather spread over the series and so it felt more as part of the whole instead of beeing the whole. What I dislike on many other animes where some chars u learned to like die is when the complete drama focus on one point, and before that all happyness. That kinda plot feels too much artifical to me. If we would have one or two anime using such a way of initating drama, it wouldnt be bugging me, but many does it, so it does bug me. But lets go back to the point, this one here definitly doesnt do that. It kept a good balance between drama and action parts spiced with some nice (funny?) scenes. But its not focused on fun, thats a side part and like i say just a spice to make it intresting and let u relax for a sec. The characters as stated earlier build up a good mood, and take u into their world. You really feel along with Chiko often and not getting this “dow~ why dont she do this, why dont she do that” feeling, which u sometimes get when characters get the ultra opportunity but don’t take it. Its a bit dark mood-wise, so if one prefer happy anime maybe u shouldnt try this one. For all others, give it a try and hopyfully enjoy it as I did.

Opening

Its a pretty much relaxed and calm op, but dont let it fool you.

Source: YouTube

-Death

Having lost her family to bandits during night raid, Kanu swears, she will not let others share the same pain. She quickly becomes a well-known and feared by villains bandit hunter. During her journey she comes across others, who wish to join her cause. One of them is a girl Rin Rin, who had similar experience with bandits in the past. Additional Infos: Adaptation of the BaseSon eroge. Koihime†Musō re-imagines the classic Chinese historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms in action/love comedy form with an all-female cast. The game itself featured upwards of 30 female characters. The male protagonist who filled the role of Liu Bei in the game is absent from this version. Liu Bei makes an appearance in episode 11 of the series. (butchered together from anidb) It was a nice one, first u think “oh shit, your daily loli crap”, but later it the funfactor surpress that. Sure its a bit ecchi (i mean with that breats of kanu…) but focus not too much on beeing loli and showing skin around/pantsu shots, its rather less. No, instead it let u enjoy a comedy action with only female main characters (that dude in the end dont count as main char for me, as he never is part of the group). Also was nice the unusual scenario/place as we were in the chinese histroy instead of the usual japanese/unknown general asian histroy. So who enjoys such a scenario and likes comedy, should give this one a try. Also i liked that they didnt put too much on that aristocratic stuff, the amount was necessary but not annyoing as i find it in other animes, its a thing i personally heavy dislike. All together a funny and disportive anime, one can watch it pretty fast.Also i kinda must admit i liked the op/ed pretty much, they’re nice~.

Opening

Ending

I suggest to watch both, as they show nearly all important chars (as normal/chibi). And a lil side note in the end, if u watch it, keep an eye on Rin Rin’s hair pin :p.

-Death

Still working to get his wish complete, Watanuki finds himself into more mess than he can handle when certain facts about his everyday life gets revealed and when he needs to learn the lesson of Yuuko the hard way. (stolen from anidb, short but it brings it to the point!) I must holic Kei rocked, it was really enjoyable. I needed sometime to get into the whole thing again but still again we got a good, intelligent story with many moments to fear whats coming and others where u can laugh. I liked how they added slice of life between the supernatural stuff, also finally they solved some mysteries, for example whats with Himawari. I really suggest to watch it if u liked the first season. How good its compared to the manga i cant tell as i was too lazy to get me the newer bands of the manga (shame on me, hai! i fix that attitude soonish).

Trailer

Have fun, death

On the planet Aqua lies the watery city of Neo Venezia, a tourist hub in which people travel around in gondolas. Professional gondoliers known as Undines are well-revered as they act as tour guides for the people. Akari Mizunashi is a gondolier in training and also an employee of Aria Company. She gets to meet all sorts of people as she takes them on the gondola rides, from friendly mentors to special individuals, all this admidst the beautiful scenic backdrop of the entire city. (description from anidb for S1, it shall give u an idea how the story begins) Its actually a wonderful series with a real nice scenery and lots of intresting characters u meet along the way to the target, becoming a gondolier. One get pretty fast dragged in the world of a futuristic city of venzia. I really enjoyed the italian flavor of the series and i must admit i never check but i think most of the imporant places they name in the series are really existing places, aswell as some of the feast. Not all, at least some of them. Also the topic for this anime, its something really out of the usual but still they managed to turn it into a calm but intresting story with many fun moments. From the President Aria with his flabby belly, over the girls, the people of the City to the seniors of the girls, u get many different and unique characters. Its a nice anime for relaxing and having fun, without romance drama shit and stuff. Also whats good for you as viewer is the fact, that with three seasons and one ova the series is completed. So u can enjoy it from the beginning to its end. I really can suggest to watch it.

Trailer for “Aria – The Animation” (its coming on dvd from ADV soon, thank u ADV!)

Trailer for “Aria – The Natural”

OP for Aria – The OVA (Arietta)

OP for Aria – The Orgination

Enjoy, Deathy

The show is based on a light novel series by Katayama Kentarou, illustrated by Yamamoto Yamato. 16-year-old Shinkuro Kurenai is a Mediator – a specialist in settling squabbles between people. Despite his youth and easygoing nature, he is a man of some skills when it comes to protecting both his clients and his client’s interests. And then one day he is assigned as a bodyguard for Kuhouin Murasaki a seven-year-old. [stolen from AniDB] Desprite the kinda easygoing start of the series it gets pretty intense later, especially when the stuff around our lil girl gets revealed more and more. It shows not some random s-f stuff like one maybe wanna expect but rather some of the darker sides of tradition and idea’s of the people in japan. Through its probably not complete realistic i came to think that still some part of it are true while watching this show. I dont wanna go too much into detail here or i will spoil it and thats not what we want, right? Once again they produce a good story which shows characters that emotionally and mental evolving in a way that feels realistic, through a lil girl with the attitude of Murasaki is rare. But this way of beeing give her presents and also is a important part of the story. What i like is that she isnt that annoying as lil girl with that attitude in other series could be, but that probably comes from the whole situation that give it a different picture from what one is used to. Basically it’s not your nice happy sunday evening series but rather a honest series with some nice parts but a dramatic through still happy end. It keep ones emotion in continious motion from happyness from sadness and to anger. It made me feel a wide range of emotions and let me think a bit about the so called “upper class” after i finished it. Also it a bit of two worlds colliding. So, who like this kinda stuff or wanna give it a try, should watch it.

Trailer (particular subbed):

Short CM (raw):

-Death