AnimeNfo

[cranston (#84421)]

After finishing up the last 3 eps of Nogizaka Haruka, I went on to the first 3 eps of Sister Princess. Unfortunately, I didn't get the satisfaction I was looking for. After that, rewatched first 4 eps of Princess Lover.

[isukianime (#138403)]

Usagi Drop 11 - A nice ending I suppose. Wish there was more.

[cranston (#84421)]

Usagi Drop ep11 - This ep may have had Rin at her cutest yet. I was surprised they finished at 11 eps when the norm is 12 or 13. It was a good note to end at as it didn't leave on a cliffhanger or some unrevealed mystery or something. One of the advantages of being "plotless" slice-of-life. This series has been one of the nicest I've seen in a while. I hope someone will pick this up for a season 2 someday.

Ro-Kyu-Bu ep11 - Woot! One last basketball match to finish the series! I'll be sad when this is over as the characters were very endearing. However, I have to complain about the censor glare used in one scene during this ep. It was very annoying and ruined the quality of the ep in general. Don't even get me started on nekkid lolis.

Mayo Chiki ep11 - A number of nice scenes and cuteness. I'm rather confused about my impressions of Mayo Chiki. On the one hand, it seems generic and forgettable. On the other, each ep is enjoyable in and of itself, and if I were to run it from ep1 until the end in one sitting, I've no doubt I would enjoy it. Anyway, the next and final ep should be interesting with Subaru showing up in school as a girl.

3 eps wasn't enough of an anime fix, so I went and found myself Starship Operators, and sat through it from start to end over the weekend.
This series had a stupid mix of hard and soft physics.

Lets start with the obvious: gravity. A lot of the ship seems to be zero-g environment, they seem to use magnetic boots, and they have a rotating section in the middle of the ship which provides an artificial gravity environment. Plausible. On a space station! This is a bloody ship! Add in the thrust from the main propulsion, and when the maneuvering thrusters fire, and then think for yourself how plausible it is for them to have a rotating ring.

And what's with all that zero-gee anyway? Don't they ever turn on the propulsion? Here's another thing wrong in that they can ignore inertia as and when they want. Look at the girl floating down the hall on inertia! How come she's not holding onto anything? How is she going to stop moving? Hey! She stopped! A case of mind over matter? What about that part right in the first episode? "The engine output is dropping. We'll stop before reaching Kiba." Say again? Now you ignore inertia? The proper way to stop the ship is to turn it around and apply thrust in the opposite direction.

And what about the way they ignore light speed and distance? Most obvious silliness is the instant galactic communications. At one point, they handwaved it with some mumbo-jumbo about quantum synchronization, but then how do you explain the studio producer making a cell-phone call to his reporter when he was on the run?

Or what about that stuff about lasers moving at speed of light so that by the time you noticed, it's already past? How then do you explain waiting 20 seconds for your particle beams (almost light speed) to reach a target? 20 light-seconds away! That means that the image you see on your targeting screen is 20 seconds old! In the 20 seconds between then and now, where do you think the target has moved to? Then factor in the 20 seconds for your beam to reach wherever and you have a total of 40 seconds to compensate for! On that kind of scale, it's impossible to hit anything!

[SupraGuy (#92823)]

@Cranston: Re physics in anime, I generally try to turn off that part of my brain, since about the only thing that I've seen that gets it right enough of the time is PlanetES They do talk a lot about targeting computers and miss percentages though. Apparently you can figure out where your target will be in 40 seconds with enough computing power? For the rotating section, 2001 also featured such an area on a ship. As long as the axis of rotation is along the ship's axis this is fine, while the ship is not manoevering. If you want to turn the ship, the rotation has to be stopped, or else the gyroscopic forces will tear things apart. Other than that, it's fine. There exist various kinetic energy storage systems which could make this plausible. At least they didn't try to explain some of this crap. (This might also be a reason that I don't remember much about the plotline, it occurs to me...)

Hetalia Seasons 1 and 2. Short little tidbits with real history mixed in for grins. Cute characters, but I can give another watch a good long time. (My daughter really likes the series, even cosplayed as Lichtenstein for a local anime convention. I figured that I should see what she's watching.)

Ro-Kyu-Bu 11. Aoi is cute, and Subaru's a dunce. I think that she spelled things out really clearly, if he doesn't get it at this point, it's clearly a case of willful ignorance. Not sure if they'll win this match, but they'll at the very least make a good showing for themselves. Probably in heartwarming fashion change the attitude of the other team.

No. 6 11 (end). Rushed. Felt like watching a movie mutilated for television with too many large chunks cut out to make it fit in too short a timeslot with too many commercials. Lots of promise to the show, fell short on delivery.

Usagi Drop 11 (end). A very nice story about not much in particular. Kouki's mom is still pretty good looking. (He actually used her name, and now I can't remember it. D'oh!)

iDOLM@STER 11. Kept going on inertia.

Kamisama no Memochou 11. Leading into the big finale. I didn't expect her to live, which was very sad. This isn't necessarily that much better though.

Oh yeah. Finished Tytania. Wow, what a non-ending. Nothing resolved, some "great changes" foreshadowed, which never came to fruition. Characters which seem to have great significance, but never got to actually DO anything. Feh.

[SupraGuy (#92823)]

Let's see...

Ro-kkyu-bu 12 (end). Cute. I actually like the result of the game, it makes for a better endpoint, to me. Looks like there's still more story, and Aoi is still pretty cute.

Kamisama no Memocho 12 (end). Good ending, a strong finish, with some nice possibility. A bit of understandable violence, but more than I thought. Interesting.

iDOLM@STER 12. And somehow, I keep watching this...

xxxHolic 13-24 (end). Seriously, I keep thinking of the kid in Willie Wonka who got put in the taffy puller machine. The character designs in this are so wierdly proportioned. I suppose that this is somewhat normal for CLAMP, some of their stuff can be like that, though this was a bit more extreme. Stuff spotted throughout, Chobits ears, Cardcaptor Sakura's wand/staff, The sword from X. I'm sure that I misses stuff, since I have by no means seen all of the series that CLAMP has done, and there's probably even more in Manga, which I've got no clue about at all. Anyway, very difficult to get a sense of proportional sizes in that.

Oh, and got to the last few extended episodes of OreImo to the end.

Most of what I was following for this season is now done, so I guess the next few weeks will see what replaces it.

[cranston (#84421)]

Ro-Kyu-Bu ep12 - A decent enough end. That last basketball match went about how I predicted it would. Exception is that I didn't think the score would be that close, and I expected the opposing team to bring in their reserves (which they didn't). The latter would have emphasised the gap between the two (being able to bring in fresh players). Finally, Aoi's violent tsundere personality is a very good contrast against the generally soft and gentle younger girls.

Mayo Chiki ep12 - What a lame non-resolution return to status quo. One more ep to go, and I don't expect much from it.

Meirou no Croisee ep6-12 - Light entertainment and cuteness. Whilst the setting and story has potential, the series failed to exploit. All the supposed problems they face are too shallow and too easily resolved. There's just no meat here, only sugar cream frosting. Despite cute Yune, I can pretty much guarantee I will never watch this again.

[cranston (#84421)]

Mayo Chiki ep13 - The last ep is a filler? What a disappointment.

[SupraGuy (#92823)]

Not much new to watch...

Went through season 2 of xxxHolic. I still think that the characters look like they've been through a taffy puller.

Solty Rei up to Ep 12. Not sure where to file this. My initial impressions were that it's be a cop/detective story, but that is definitely not the case. I then expected some sort of vendetta involving Roy's lost daughter, but that doesn't seem to be shaping up at all either. Closest thing so far is a sort of Pinocchio story around Solty.

Against my better judgement, I watched Fairy Tail 97-98. Yep. Shouldn't have watched that, so now I'll be going through another arc week to week.

iDOLM@STER 13. Y'know, this is actually starting to grow on me somewhat.

[Zefiris (#127560)]

Just finished re-watching Toradora, I love it as an anime but I do think there are better ones out there. That being said I do think the last episode will always be one of the greatest slice of life episodes very. The way it fuses reality, emotion and obviously comedy as it is Toradora

I did seem to like the romantic parts and understand them a lot more than the first time round I watched it but I think thats because I'm not as heartless as I was back then

[cranston (#84421)]

Fate/Zero ep1 - A well done episode introducing each of the major "master" players of the war. Despite jumping from scene to scene, the drama was well maintained. Also, I now realise Ilya calling Shirou "onii-chan" in the first series had significance. I surmise that she knew of their relationship via Kiritsugu. Which, additionally, made her fate in Unlimited Blade Works even more sad, and the Berserker-Archer battle even more heart-wrenching.

C3 ep1 - Bad. And I'm not just talking about the inhuman girl with no common sense. I'm referring to the weird "camera" angles, the odd color palettes, the bright flashes, etc. Did this whole trend start with ef and Bakemonogatari? Well, I don't like it.

Majikoi ep1 - I wonder if we've just seen the best ep? It was good. I was expecting something different of the protagonist, but the tactician angle could work. At least, it does in games like Fire Emblem.

Senjou no Horizon ep1 - Exciting 1st ep, but with loads and loads of characters. Will we ever be able to know them all? Too bad the main character is so indescribably lame...

[SupraGuy (#92823)]

Fate/Zero 1. Looking forward to more of this. Still trying to make a few pieces fit into what I inferred from the first series. I'll probably re-watch the first series again, and probably the movie, too while this is airing.

C3 1. Ugh. I kept wondering if there was something wrong with my codec. It's like a visual analog to music that's been autotuned to death. (I didn't associate any of this with Bakemonogatari, which I actually liked.) Add in that it looks like far too many thin plotlines that have come before it, and I can come up with a much better way to spend a half hour. I may watch the next one, just to see if they finish off introducing the cast.

Finished off Solty Rei. Nice story, with a few overlookable holes here and there. Interesting with how they managed to give the world a mid-70s feel while in a futuristic sci-fi setting.

Finished off Hanasaku Iroha. Didn't see that ending coming.

Something that I've been staving off for a long time, because it looked like it was just going to be bad ecchi, but with one more recommendation to me, I decided to start on Daphne in the Brilliant Blue. Yes, the outfits are skimpier than there could be any reasonable explanation for, but it doesn't have any kind of sexual tension whatsoever, probably due to the lack of any important male cast member whatsoever. With the complete and utter lack of any kind of romantic interests at all, the only time any of the females are trying to garner attention comes off as completely comedic in effect. I won't say that there's anything even remotely deep as a plot, but there is something running through there, though it advances at a snail's pace. In general it comes off much more as an action series than as ecchi. In any case, I'm finding it watchable in a brain shut-down sort of manner.

Edit: Finished off the show. Another case where there was about enough story for 1/2 the episodes, really, and the "surprise twist" at the end I'd already guessed well before they started with the obvious hints, so it didn't come as much of a surprise at all. (Actually more of a surprise that I bothered figuring out where things were headed. I guess there was enough of a plotline to keep my brain from shutting down entirely while watching.)

[cranston (#84421)]

Persona 4 ep1 - I can't say I ever thought the introvert personality is a possible attribute of the protagonist in the game. Such a person wouldn't go and seek out people and build social links which is integral to the game. In the anime... Well, I'm starting to think it may be possible. Genki Chie helps him into the company of her group of friends, and his experiences in the TV help him grow. Surely there isn't anything more confidence-building than actually being able to say "I am a badass!"

I found the first ep rushed. I think they should've spent more time developing the background and events. As it stands, it doesn't seem friendly to people unfamiliar with the game.

The inclusion of the original game soundtrack was a good surprise. Really enjoyed it. However, I wish they had used "Never More" for the ED. The lyrics of that song and Pursuing My True Self (the OP), when considered in the context of the Persona 4 game, are very meaningful.

Finally, the persona summoning was awesome!

Maken-ki ep1 - More or less as expected. Similar to Sekirei, but the guy is accident prone ala Love Hina's Keitaro.

[cranston (#84421)]

Majikoi ep 2 - Just saw the second ep and had a WTH moment. Throw out all previous expectations, for this isn't Majikoi, it's Majikoi After Story. Seriously, anyone who has seen the VN or the manga (I've only checked out 1st ep of the latter) would not be expecting this. Way to screw with my mind.

So basically, the first ep really set the intended tone. Lots of action, an established harem, and, now in the 2nd ep onwards, some ecchi. (Miyako's late night antics were so totally in character but she could've done it while still clothed. On second thought, doing it in the nude is so totally in character I can't really complain.)

The main concern as I see it know is how the creators intend to flesh out the characters and make them memorable? (Do they even intend to do so?) It's already the 2nd episode, but how much do we know about the characters? Here's a list of the main people:
The guys:
Cap
Moro
Gakuto
Yamato
The girls:
Momoyo
Miyako
Christiane
Yukie
Kazuko

So far, I can confidently say that only Yamato, Miyako and Momoyo are fleshed out characters. Maybe even Moro. The rest are just placeholders.

[SupraGuy (#92823)]

Fate/Zero 2. Not much to say about it, but it's building an interesting web of relationships.

Fate/Stay Night 1-5. Re-watch to refresh.

C3 2. Ow, my eyes. Well, there does seem to be an indication of something that isn't loli pantsu crap coming up. Maybe. Anyway, so far it looks like it won't be worse than OreTsuba.

Working!! 2. More fun and games with the Wagnaria gang. The gags are still the same, but haven't gotten old yet.

Long weekend marathon (unintentional) of Shinryaku! Ika Musumune (Squid Girl). 1-12 (End of season 1). Uh... Well, the kids got a big kick out of it, thus the marathon. Very generic, kind of weird, but not bad. There's a lot of background stuff on people's disregard for the environment. Even though it's the title character's stated purpose getting things kicked off, it really hardly ever takes center stage. It's just sort of present in the background without getting preachy. Overall, what you get is a fairly amusing family-friendly comedy.

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai 1. Other than the fact that I couldn't seriously believe that the first two girls wouldn't be immensely popular (And draw tons more males into the club besides) the premise looks... Well, paper thin. The end result is starting to look a lot like Haruhi, but without the sci-fi bizzareness. This will work or utterly fail based on the characterisation which will follow.

Shakugan no Shana III 1. Tsundereiffic! Well, really, we know more or less what to expect from this. Interesting start though, so it's not just more of the same.

Fairly Tail 99-100.

iDOLM@STER 14. Plot? We don't need no stinkin' plot...

Spent WAY too much time in front of the projector this past while...

[cranston (#84421)]

Finished last few eps of Hakuoki season 2. While the first season was quite decent, the 2nd season seemed rather pointless. It could easily be summed up as Chizuru and Hijikata

[cranston (#84421)]

Mahou Shoujo Nanoha The Movie - Basically a retelling of the series. Probably nothing extra, but I watched it on Blu-Ray so it was good eye candy for me. I'm impressed all over again at the ability of a little girl to level a city. One thing though, while the credits were rolling, the background showed the various promo poster images. Those were awesome! I wish I had 'em.

Mashiro-iro Symphony ep1-2 - This season's normal highschool harem eroge-adaptation series. Despite the dozens I've seen, I never tire of this genre. Although these days, they're mainly to prick my interest towards the visual novel. So far, the girls seem interesting enough to make this a keeper.

Gundam AGE ep1 - Is that a 12-year-old who first developed the Gundam and then piloted it in battle? Talk about adults are useless! Ambivalent about this.

Chihayafuru ep1 - Not bad.

[SupraGuy (#92823)]

Let's see. I finally opened the DVDs of Jinki: Extend and watched volume 1 (1-5). Seems pretty generic for the giant mecha genre, it seems.

Ah, My Goddess: Itsumo Futari de 2. K1 needs to ask for clarification sooner. Really. Plus the Mentos + diet coke FTW.

Also ep 1 of Dragon Crisis. I don't have a lot of expectations of this, but a cute girl who can ignite several city blocks in all directions seems worth watching more.

[Zefiris (#127560)]

I rewatched Code Geass, don't really have much to add to my opinions the first time around other than the fact that the after emotions didn't last as long this time not matter how much a tried to cling to them. to put it bluntly

[SupraGuy (#92823)]

Blitzed through Dragon Crisis. Good thing that I didn't have much in the way of expectations: I wasn't disappointed. Lots of interesting things getting started, but nothing ever became of them. In the end, it was a bunch of cute girls doing cute things, dime a dozen series.

Shakugan no Shana Final 2. Wait, what? I think that I missed something with the last series, so I'll have to dig it out and re-watch. It has been a while, after all.

Fate Zero 3. Ready... FIGHT!

Volume 2 (6-9) of Jinki: Extend. I've been watching this late, and I think that I must have dozed through an important plot point somewhere, so I'll have to watch it again.

Star Driver Ep 7. Again, I've been watching this late, so I'm not sure that I have that solid a grasp on things.

[cranston (#84421)]

[SupraGuy (#92823)]

You'd be surprised at what you can watch if you 1. Aren't paying much actual attention, and 2. are making fun of what you are paying attention to. that said, I'm taking it in very small doses. I was looking for something else with (I think) a similar title, Star something-or-other, then got sucked in by the bunny-girl and nekomimi maid outfits, sad to say. Sadder to say that I don't even think that they're major characters.

Oh, and I discovered that the Princess Lover 2 ep OVA was incorrectly filed as "ecchi" -- It really should be filed as "Hentai: censored". I saw more of Sylvie than I expected. If I'm going to watch this whole thing, I'll have to pick a time when nobody else is home. The audio track is definitely not something that I need overheard.

Guilty Crown 1. Interesting first episode, but I'm not sure that it's got that much to deliver. Well, time will tell, but I'm not sure. @Cranston: Personally, I'm preparing for that backbone to be shark-like... Made of cartliage.

Mirai Nikki 1. I'm pretty sure that this is what a paranoid drug user's life must seem like. The "Imaginary friend isn't so imaginary" bit has been done before though, but it's kind of an interesting twist to kick in the time paradox aspect.

Shakugan no Shana S Skim through re-watch to refresh my memory of events leading to the Final series. Oh yeah. That.

[Zefiris (#127560)]

Highschool of the Dead

Didn't go into this with many expectations which was good because I loved it!

[Sasha (#288021)]

[cranston (#84421)]

[cranston (#84421)]

A bit of a busy weekend. Unlike the previous season, I'm following way too many series this time around. I think I'll file Fate/Zero away for until the 2nd season is released, and Shana for until after the season has been completed. I'm definitely dropping Gundam AGE, and maybe Chihayafuru. However, I still have to evaluate Horizon and Last Exile.

Guilty Crown ep2 - I think I liked the 2nd ep less than the 1st ep. 1st ep was interesting because it introduced the setting, but 2nd ep was just pointless carnage and deus ex machina. Seriously, pull out a new weapon from an unknown person, and it miraculously works in such a way as to fit into the plan? How the hell did Gail even know how the thing was going to work?

As for Shuu, while I'm impatiently waiting for him to develop a backbone, I'm glad that he didn't join La Resistance. For one thing, as he is right now, he'd only be subservient to Gail, an expendable tool.

Working 2 ep2-3 - A fun watch as ever. Utterly meaningless but for the laughs. Although... Is working a 4-koma? I don't recall it being quite so random in the past. No, wait... Seitokai no Yakuindomo was even more random, so Working probably isn't a 4-koma.

Persona 4 ep3 - For once an ep which didn't feel rushed. In terms of pacing, this ep was probably the best. However, with the way the theme of accepting one's inner self has been portrayed up until now, it feels rather superficial. Different from when playing the game.

Maken-ki ep3 - Fan service and nothing much else.

Mashiro-iro Symphony ep3 - Not much to comment on.

[Zefiris (#127560)]

[SupraGuy (#92823)]

@Cranston: Working was a 4-koma, actually. I went and looked for it after the first season.

Guilty Crown 2. Devolving into the generic. I suppose that somehow they had to know what the weapon would be, via some otherwise unexplained mechanism.

C3 4. After the first episode, I was expecting some pretty generic loli/panstu crap, but this looks to be headed in a different direction. A bit of existentialism, some debate on the nature of humanity creating these "cursed tools" and a helping of bloodspatter.

Fate/Zero 4. Rider seems to be reversing the Master/Servant thing, but he's entertaining. I think he's going to get his ass handed to him, but he'll do some interesting things on the way, I'm sure. Don't know the reference as to who Lancer is/was, but he's pretty badass. Pretty straight-up fight here, I was expecting this match-up as more of a climactic battle, though given what I remember from the first season, Saber/Archer is very likely going to be there.

Shana Final 3. Dun dun DUUUUUUN. Well, it's still in establishing the scenario. Since this is the "Final" episode, I'm pretty much waiting for the happy ending.

iDOLM@STER 16. Episode centered on Hibiki. Cuteness and improbable animal camraderie abound.

Boku wa Tomotachi ga Sukunai 1-3. Okay, the one Tsundere is so totally stereotyped that she's pretty much one dimensional, but the rivalry between her and the other girl is amusing. I suppose that this series is designed to make the socially awkward feel better by observing those who are impossibly socially challenged (And of course the almost possibly socially challenged male is going to be surrounded by a bunch of super-hot girls. Go figure.) Should be good for a laugh.

Gravion 1. Uh... Okay. Maybe this will make sense by Ep 4. (This is generally about when anything this messed up to start with starts to come together.)

[cranston (#84421)]

Horizon ep2-4 - Caught up with this series in the hopes of deciding whether or not to drop it. While I still don't really like it, it's interesting enough not to drop. The drawbacks are obvious enough: Too many characters and the setting is too rich. Like Tolkien's Middle Earth, you need a few books to explain the background to the book. So, with this anime alone, I've no idea what is going on. However, something exciting is happening, so I will keep plodding on in the hopes of reaching enlightenment.

[cranston (#84421)]

Last Exile - Fam ep1&2 - Looks nice. Although I feel I should rewatch the first Last Exile series and refresh my memory on the background. I don't understand why the main characters are all young girls.

Guilty Crown ep3 - What a harsh ep. I wonder how long more Shuu is going to be a wet blanket. Not that this ep helped him build character in any way.

Mashiro Iro Symphony ep4 - Nice and sweet.

Maken-ki ep4 - Decent enough.

Persona 3 ep4 - A pretty good ep. Pacing was right, action was right, drama was... Well, maybe a little shallow.

[SupraGuy (#92823)]

@Cranston: The reason that the main characters are all young girls? Really? I thought that part was somewhat obvious. I'm trying to place this relative to the original series, and am having trouble. It seems to be several years later than the original series, with no major changes in world tech (Though the characters seem to have higher expectations of their drinking water than Lavie and Claus did.) There seems to be no Guild, and none of this silly broadside fighting with musketeers in their "Here I am, shoot me" uniforms. Dio seems to still be Dio, though. I've seen 1-3 of this Last Exile.

Lessee...

Carnival Phantasm 5. Seemed to be mostly Fate characters this time 'round. Funny. This show keeps me amused, but I don't know about re-watch value. (Though Arc as a magical girl is still wholly WRONG.)

C3 5. Considering how crappy ep 1 was, this is turning out way better than I'd expected.

Fate Zero 5. Best line: "This idiot conquered the known world?"

Shana Final 4. Back to confused. I think I may have to track down novel translations, as I hear that these might actually have some explanations for what's going on...

Mirai Nikki 4. Wow, I suspected that things would go this way, but seriously... Yandere much?

Never did get back to Gravion, though I do intend to.

Did watch Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora. 1-12(end). I got the distinct feeling that I was watching a shoujo/mecha hybrid, but more shoujo. Not what I was expecting, but not too bad.

Working'!! 4. More Wagnaria fun.

iDOLM@STER 17. Meh.

Guilty Crown 3. Told ya that they had to know what it was. Info-dump episode.

[cranston (#84421)]

Working!!' ep4-5 - As amusing as always. Although the jokes about unrequited love are kinda painful. Can't help feeling sorry for those people.

Majikoi ep3-5 - Odd direction. Zero story progression, instead opting to fill out character personalities and back-stories via narratives. Well, at least Miyako's antics are amusing.

Mashiro-iro Symphony ep5 - More sweet fluff. My cuppa tea.

Carnival Phantasm ep5-6 - Wonder when they'll show the results of the ep4 poll. As for these 2 eps itself, the Berserker goes shopping thing (I'm reminded of Chii goes shopping in Chobits) was silly, and the Sakura's feelings thing was painful. Anyone who's seen ep1 of Fate Zero would undoubtedly find nothing humourous about Sakura's environment.

[SupraGuy (#92823)]

Mashiro-iro Symphony ~1/2. Fell asleep shortly afterthey met up at the park. I'll have to try this again when it's NOT 3:30 AM. Even after the fall Time change, that's kinda late to be up.

Carnival Phantasm 6. This was my least favorite of the series so far, though I did enjoy the line about Shinji's value to the cast. (Makes other people look good by virtue of being such a loser.) Rider's "slips" were also amusing. Oh, and forget about the circumstances of Fate Zero, even by the end of Fate/Stay Night, Sakura's situation is certainly inenviable. Even without that, I'd find that kind of abusive situation less than amusing.

Working'!! 5. Ouch. Gotta say that I really don't get Satou.

Guilty Crown 4. Y'know, I don't really go for the pink haired that much, but that moment in the OP when Inori says "I'm yours" I'm pretty sure that my heart skips a beat at that. Gotta look up who's voice that is... Other than that, some more inexplicable action sequences. Seems Shu's spine is coming into shape, though.

Most of the episodes of Strike Witches. I see that they hired Kusanagi Motoko's tailor. (My daughter comes in, first thing she asks: "Why aren't they wearing any pants?" I couldn't give her an answer.) Actually too bad, as it seems that there's actually a decent story that would have worked just fine with out the characters running around in shirts and underwear (Or swimwear). The added ecchi elements were mostly just distracting, and not necessary to the story at all, which actually seems fairly good.

[cranston (#84421)]

[Shiru (#135861)]

Haven't posted in a very long time, but I've started watching One Piece again. I was waiting for the filler arc (I call it that, but it's part of the manga. I guess you could say it's a filler in the manga, so it is a filler in the anime ) to end. Loving it so far. Not too happy with the new way that Nico Robin looks, but so excited to see them fight.

[cranston (#84421)]

Haven't been watching much lately, although I've been downloading a lot. Maybe there'll be a slack period in future when most airing anime are not worth watching and I'm taking a break from games and visual novels.

As for what I have been watching:

Maken-ki ep7 - A whole troop of girls from outside join the cast this ep. Perhaps we're finally moving into a plot. So far, this has proved a very weak and forgettable series.

Majikoi ep6 - Another entertaining ep. Sure the whole Metal Phallus Festival thing is ridiculous, but it's so audaciously ridiculous that it's hilarious. On another note, what do casual viewers think of Yamato's rant about his father abandoning the country? A serious scene in the middle of an otherwise senseless comedy. For me, it nostalgically brings to mind the original VN. However, I'm sure others would just forget this scene within seconds of it occurring.

Mashiro-iro Symphony ep7 - Another nice, soothing ep. There's something about this series that just makes it a much more pleasant watch compared to other harem-eroge adaptations. I may well add the VN to my collection.

[LoStSouLs (#17272)]

I just finally got around to watching Summer Wars the movie. Words cannot describe just how amazing this movie is. Also I am watching Guilty Crown, and loving every episode of it.

[SupraGuy (#92823)]

Let's see...

I'm up to 20 of iDOLM@STER. I actually remember more of the girls' names than I thought that I did, but really, there are too many of them for me to keep straight most of the time. There are 2 that I actually pay attention to and a few others that I sort of notice when they're on. This isn't going to be one of my favorites for the season, but ... Interesting enough to watch.

Guilty Crown 5. In terms of female cast, this is all about Shinomiya Ayase. Not only is she hot, she kicks ass. The fact that she does it from a wheelchair is just that little bit more impressive. Too bad the story line is such a mess at the moment. Tons of wasted potential there. And yeah. The singer being age 15 is a bit of a bummer, but I don't know that it's entirely audio at that moment that gets me. It struck me as something of an anomaly though.

Working'!! up to 7. Two very good episodes in a row. This last one, pretty much every time Souma was struggling to hold back the laughter, so was I.

Carnival Phantasm up to 8 (End of season 2). One really good one, one less so. Still well worth the watch.

Mashiro-iro Symphony 1-5. Lots of cute girls, not a lot of substance. That animal looks like someone did something unnatural to a cat, a guinnea pig and a pet rock. Not too much focus on Inui Sana so far, but I'm kinda looking forward to that.

Last Exile ~Fam up to 5. Still trying to place the timeline relative to the first series. I'm sure that Dio is the key to figuring this out, but I haven't got a handle on it yet. There have been references to the Grand Race, but the time since seems inconsistent. I'm reasonably certain that this is the one that Claus and Lavie won though.

Fate Zero up to 8. Well, knowing some things about how this all turns out takes some of the edge off of things, but still interesting.

Mirai Nikki 5. WTF?! Is Yukiteru NUTS?!

Shana Final up to 7. Less angst, more slicing things with flaming swords, please. I mean the interpersonal stories are important, but it's a good thing that I'm watching this as it comes out, because I don't think I'd be able to watch more than 2 episodes in a row without wanting to switch to something else. Still, the story does have some interesting ramifications, which seem like they'll actually get developed.

Un-Go up to 6. The visual style is interesting, as are the characters, but I can't say that I'm impressed by the writing.

[cranston (#84421)]

Mashiro-iro Symphony ep8 - More low-key moe. Still enjoying this much

Persona 4 ep7 - Positively the best ep so far! They'll likely never match this level of funny ever again.

[cranston (#84421)]

Persona 4 ep8 - Another humorous ep, though not as funny as ep7. Narukami's facial expressions (or lack thereof) is worth mentioning.

Majikoi ep7-8 - Seems like the funny is over and it's time to get serious. Quite decent, these 2 eps.

Gundam00 ep1-3 - I'm thinking of getting the 2nd season which I've not seen yet. However, I've pretty much forgotten the events of the 1st season, so I'm going to try and rerun the 1st.

[SupraGuy (#92823)]

Been a while since I posted.

Lessee...

Mashiro-iro up to 8. Cute and fluffy.

Mirai Nikki up to 7. This is fun to try to guess what's coming up. Good show.

Carnival Phantasm Illia's Castle special. Wow this was funny. In general, I continue to be amused by the series.

Fate Zero up to 10. The loli-Rin episode was cute. Otherwise lots of action.

iDOLM@STER up to 22. Yeah, there are a couple of those girls' names that I'll never remember no matter how much of this I watch.

Shana Final up to 9. Looks like Shana is finally about to get some action.

Guilty Crown up to 8.

Un-go up to 8. I'm not really sure about this one, It's going to depend on what they do with the plot. It could be pretty good, or it could be terrible.

C3 up to 10. It wavers. It's had some pretty good stuff in there, and some loliriffic fluff.

Last Exile up to 8. Looks like things are getting started out.

[cranston (#84421)]

Persona 4 ep9-10 - Pacing of ep 9 seemed good, but not so for ep10. For some reason, I thought Kugimiya Rie can't sing, so ep9 was a pleasant surprise. Also, loved the low-key humour of Narukami's attempt to record the midnight channel.

Carnival Phantasm Ilya Castle Special - Kinda funny, but there was so much text on the screen, and everyone was talking so fast and at the same time I had difficulty understanding them. But maybe I shouldn't even have tried to understand.

Mashiro-iro Symphony ep9 - A love square? Maybe even a pentagram? I still think Shingo will get together with Airi in the end, but it seems that some things will have to change in his relation with Miu before that. Frankly, I wasn't expecting him to show such interest in Miu, nor so many of the girls to develop strong romantic feelings for him.

[SupraGuy (#92823)]

Mashiro-iro 9-10. Poor Sana. Shingo surprised the hell out of me. I don't think that I'll forgive him for that. I was expecting that he'd end up with Airi, but I can't see it from this point.

Re Ilya's Castle, I agree that it was difficult to keep up with everyone talking so fast. I needed to concentrate fairly hard, and it still worked best to watch each segment of the game twice, once reading the subs, and once watching the game. It was short, and worth the effort.

Mirai Nikki 8. 4 down, 7 to go.

iDOLM@STER 23. Poor Haruka. Lots of tears in last night's viewing. Kind of a downer.

[Avalanche (#92065)]

Shiki 1-6: Very nice creepy atmosphere. And the buildup is awesome as well. Lets see where this ends up going.

[cranston (#84421)]

Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon ep3-8 - Went through these in one sitting. Getting significantly better in the later eps.

[cranston (#84421)]

Persona 4 ep11 - So-so. There were some good moments, mainly with Narukami being boke.

Mashiro-iro symphony ep10-11 - A real ending where the guy actually chose a girl! And everyone else accepts! How long has it been since I've seen this in an anime? Further, he didn't choose the main girl! Wow!