Gunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino- 02

ガンスリンガー・ガール -イル・テアトレーノ- Ep. 02
SPOILER Summary: A young boy named Pinocchio is sent to assassinate someone in his home. While he fails to shoot the man due to the man getting the drop on the boy, Pinocchio manages to kill the man. The man's young daughter emerges to find her father dead. As a tear streams down her face, Pinocchio shoots her. Even though she's dead, he shoots her repeatedly.

Years later, the boy is now a young man who's still in the trade. In the neighborhood that he lives, a young girl named Aurora looks up to him and admires him greatly, wishing him well in whatever he does. Meanwhile, Pinocchio's handler (Cristiano) is meeting with some other people after Pinocchio killed a judge for them. They want a bridge destroyed and thus have arranged for a couple of "independent terrorist" to blow it up. They are to meet Pinocchio at his residences. When he returns home, young Aurora greets him, happy to see him because she thinks he's very cool, even if the description he gives of his job as an errand runner isn't and his general disposition is cold.

The terrorist are a male and female named Franco and Franca. While Franca goes to shower, Franco decides to test out Pinocchio. As they sit roughly 10-meters apart, Franco pulls a gun on Pinocchio and asks him what he'd do about the situation. Despite being at a disadvantage, Pinocchio says that he'd still kill Franco, using the man's previously injured leg against him. Satisfied, Franco puts away the gun. Pinocchio goes out to get some food and when he returns, he again comes upon Aurora, who'd also been doing some shopping. When Aurora says she'll get her mother to prepare him and his guest food, Pinocchio coldly tells her to stop following him as he's only trouble. This naturally depresses Aurora.

The terrorist run over their plans with Pinocchio, who's surprised that Franca is concerned about unnecessary deaths. In his mind, this is a liability, and he says so to Franco when they go to get weapons from Pinocchio's stash of weapons. When asked, Pinocchio tells Franco that his handler Cristiano is everything to him. He asks Franco about his relationship to Franca. Franco concedes that he'd lost his purpose but with her, he has one again.

At the Agency facility, Angelica and Rico are apparently getting ready for a session at the firing range as Angelica's handler Marco talks with Triela's handler Hilshire. With Angelica's recent release from the hospital ward, she's not quite ready for duty in the field yet. Hilshire and Triela are being sent on a mission as some guy named Cohen has gone missing. Cohen had apparently been very interested in an assassin named Pinocchio. Marco tells Hilshire to be careful since this mission is from Section 1, who may be trying to set up Section 2 for a failure. Hilshire says he'll be careful as Triela waits for him by the car.

Thoughts: I know a lot of people have complained about the new moé character designs as I mentioned before. This episode again showed why this was the right way to go. That little girl at the beginning who gets murdered was very moé and I felt so badly because I knew she was going to die. Then there was the very moé Aurora, who is treated so coldly by Pinocchio. Again, I felt so badly for her. Isn't that what the moé element of any anime is about? Its a character (usually young female) who is cute and innocent, whom you'd want to protect (though the moé element has become more "lolicon" over time with the sexual fetish crowd's view washing into the more mainstream anime view). Having such innocence crushed (or otherwise harmed) or killed ads to the horrors of the subject matter of the series, and I believe that's how it should be.

Hayate no Gotoku! 41

Hayate the Combat Butler Ep. 41
ハヤテのごとく！Episode 41

SPOILER Summary: Its a cold morning with Nagi using Hayate as a shield against the wind as they go to school. Hina passes them lost in thought but they finally get her attention. She apparently had received a New Year's present from her sister of ¥500, which was unusual. Katsura-sensei arrives on the scene and is not her normal self, but bright, cheerful, and responsible-seeming. This sets the four of them into shock but as Katsura-sensei walks away, an envelope falls out of her book, which is a letter of resignation.

Nagi and Hayate report this to the Student Council Trio (SCT) who laugh at the very idea. After all, where would Katsura-sensei go. Nagi and Hayate continue to insist which results in more laughter and promises from the SCT's of what they would do if Katsura-sensei actually quit. When they produce the resignation letter, the laughter stops. All of them find her out smelling the flowers in the courtyard and make an inquiry about the resignation, which she confirms. Hina is devastated by this news and after expressing her displeasure, she rushes off. She recalls when she was younger and while other kids got New Year's money, Hina didn't but her sister promised to eventually get her one.

Back at school, the SCT are very depressed about their mentor leaving school. Since today is her last day, the students decide to make it a good one. They interrupt co-teacher Shiori and get her to teach them all sorts of things about history. At the end of the class time, the students all beg her to stay. She's confused but Shiori-sensei becomes emotional and thanks everyone. She'd been having a hard time as Katsura-sensei's assistant but is now going to stay as their teacher. This leads to confusion and a confession from Katsura-sensei that she'd forgotten to deliver Shiori-sensei's resignation letter. When the class asks about Katsura-sensei's odd, pleasant behavior, she states it has been her lucky day. This results in the SCT and others giving Katsura-sensei a beating that forces Hina to have to carry her home.

That evening, Nishizawa has her New Year's post card for Hayate and still can't deliver it. Three large thugs come on the scene and when she accidentally runs into them, trouble is afoot. Maria happens on the scene and remembers her. As such, she thanks Nishizawa for allowing Nagi to stay at her home that one time and her desire for Nishizawa to continue to treat Nagi well. The thugs aren't happy with Maria, despite her being cute and the biggest comes after her. She uses a defensive technique to take two thugs out. The third one plans to get revenge, but the SP's arrive on scene and are even bigger than the thugs. Maria gives Nishizawa a bag of cookies and Nishizawa wants to be like Maria.

Thoughts: Not many laughs here because the writers were playing up the sad aspects at the prospects of Katsura-sensei's leaving. It was nice seeing a bit about Hina and Yukiji.

References! (Note: the site doesn't get 100% of the references, but they do get a very high percentage.)

Shakugan no Shana Second 15

灼眼のシャナ II Episode 15

SPOILER Summary: The armor, silver arm is draining power from Pheles and she wonders who that is since clearly it isn't Johan. Despite her grievous wound, Pheles is still determined to pull Johan out of Reiji Maigo. Wilhelmina uses her ribbons to forcefully pull Pheles away from Yuuji and down to the ground. Shana and Margery race to Yuuji, both of them in their transformed mode, and Margery begins a spell to bind Yuuji, assuring Shana she's not going to kill him, as the only way to get this Silver is to extract it carefully from Yuuji, then take care of it. As Tanaka tries to guard the time-frozen Oga-chan, Margery begins the extraction process while Wilhelmina has to restrain the injured Pheles.

Within the Fuzetsu, Konoe-san and her butler, with large, glowing bracelets, silently climb to the roof where the action is currently going on. At the Bal Masqué base Seireiden, the "professor" Dantalion is working with Fecor as they along with Bel Peol observe a silver suit of armor with the head and right arm missing, held up by cords of some sort. They ponder this as Hecate arrives on the scene and confirms what Bel Peol has concluded -- the original owner of Reiji Maigo has returned. Fecor is worried that their plans might be discovered. Since the vessel Konoe has done its job, Bel Peol suggest it might be time to leave.

Back within the Fuzetsu, Margery is working on extracting the Silver with Yuuji's help. Sato and Yoshida are stunned to see Konoe and her butler walking within the Fuzetsu, something that is impossible. Back at Seireiden, Bel Peol breaks a chain she'd been toying with and that causes the butler to explode. Konoe flies up to where Margery has encased the Silver as well as shielding Yuuji and as Margery marvels at the power, Konoe summons a priest's staff and breaks Margery's spell bindings. She taps the armored head and commands it back within Yuuji. It complies and then Konoe stabs Yuuji with the staff, sealing the Hougu.

Shana races in as well as Margery, only to discover a gigantic cube about to knock them out of the sky. It misses and Alastor seems to recognize it as "Magnesia." A storm of these cube-like particles fall within the Fuzetsu and Alastor orders Shana to retreat as they could seriously damage her. Hecate emerges in a burst of energy, guarded by Fecor, who's unrestricted spell is the Magnesia, which is a defense nearly impossible to overcome. Shana goes to attack and Fecor launches the Magnesia against her, eventually forcing her away. Konoe, having sealed the Reiji Maigo, is then ordered to merge come to Hecate to be absorbed by her. Konoe does, slowly having her memories and experiences absorbed into Hecate. Just before Hecate absorbs Konoe's body, Yuuji calls to her and she turns to look at him before disappearing.

On the roof, Sato and Yoshida struggle to comprehend what has just happened. Fecor confirms they've prevented the Silver from emerging here and sealed the Reiji Maigo. All that remains is to get rid of the Reiji Maigo's container (Yuuji) and so Hecate summons the staff that Konoe had. Shana and Margery try to move in, but Fecor keeps them at bay until Wilhelmina enters the fray, using her ribbons to take Fecor out. Hecate attacks and Shana counters. As the two fight, Yuuji starts to fall and turns into Johan to the delight of Pheles but the surprise of everyone else including Hecate and Fecor.

Pheles and Johan enter her tornado and have a lovers reunion. Hecate and Fecor both attack the tornado, but their attacks are rebuffed. Since Johan wants a moment alone to talk with Pheles in peace, he and Pheles leave the Fuzetsu, with Shana rocketing behind. Johan kisses Pheles deeply and beings (apparently) pouring himself and power into her. Shana is afraid Yuuji will die and tries to stop it, but a blast of energy knocks her back. With this strange turn of events, Fecor inquires of Hecate about their next move. Hecate says they will retreat, to Fecor's surprise. However, since they did the two things they set out to do, Hecate feels it is prudent to leave and they can take care of the rest later.

Meanwhile, Johan has fallen back into the Fuzetsu, pursued by Shana. Johan changes form back into Yuuji and is caught by Shana, who embraces him tightly. This is seen by Yoshida, who can do nothing but wish she were there as Pheles descends next to her. Once everyone is gathers, Yuuji confirms he is OK but weak from the power transfer to Pheles. Pheles is happy to have touched her lover again and Shana states that Pheles won't be allowed to do that again. Pheles says she won't try that again as Johan told her she couldn't. When Alastor tries to get her to say more, she declines, saying that it is for their sakes as well as she and Johan's. As such, she will leave him behind here. With that, she leaves.

The battle over and things returned to normal, Shana and Yuuji talk on the roof about things as Shana promises herself that she will protect Yuuji. Yoshida watches from a distance and looks at a cross she'd been given (by Pheles?). Elsewhere on the roof, Wilhelmina looks off into the distance and Sato asks Margery if it is all over now. Margery thinks that in fact it is only just beginning.

Thoughts: Wow! There was a lot happening here. First, Konoe-san being Hecate, or rather a vessel connected to Hecate, wasn't surprising. The connection I had figured from the start, just how they were connected was really the issue. So really, Hecate appeared to do something similar to Pheles, only it was a superior job in that the Flame Haze actually trying to make the vessel reveal itself as Hecate came up empty. The bracelets were the key but clearly, not enough to give it up to Margery Daw's spells.

The armored thing (The Silver) is obviously tied to Bal Masqué. The thing is, I thought it had to be Sabrac (or a piece of him) because it was Sabrac's battle with Pheles and Johan which causes Pheles to seal Johan in the Reiji Maigo. Sabrac did something to that Hougu as well at that time. However, if that were the case, why would Bal Masqué care about it? Clearly they do because there was the armored thing they had at Seireiden (their base) with the missing head and arm has to be tied with the armored thing coming out of Yuuji. There has been no indication that this Sabrac is anything special to the Bal Masqué, but maybe he is. Margery has never mentioned the Silver as being Sabrac, leading me to think that maybe I was wrong and this Silver is not Sabrac.

Regardless, that silver armor thing explains why the Bal Masqué were so interested in the Reiji Maigo. But why would Hecate be so interested in sealing it back within the Reiji Maigo instead of setting it free or destroying it? And what did Johan tell Pheles that finally made her not only give up trying to free him from the Reiji Maigo, but also made her clam up? Is Johan in the Reiji Maigo as I seemed to get from the episode, or did he completely dump himself into Pheles as some other fans think? There's definately something bigger going on here though and Bal Masqué didn't expected the Johan element in the equation.

Now that Hecate has Konoe's memories and experiences, I wonder how this will impact her, if at all.

Finally, poor Yoshida. I feel bad for her because really, she has no chance at being with Yuuji, not when Shana is a Flame Haze and can fight. All Yoshida can do is watch, unless that cross that I guess Pheles gave her at the end of the episode is something more. If it is, it would have to be a Hougu of some kind and considering how powerful the Reiji Maigo is, it could be something special.

Regardless, this was a kick-butt episode to be sure.

Hayate no Gotoku! 40

Hayate the Combat Butler Ep. 40
ハヤテのごとく！Episode 40

SPOILER Summary: Its New Years and Nagi's going to celebrate it the new Japanese way by reading manga and watching anime. However, when she reads in a manga about a couple watching the first sunrise on the beach together, she decides that this is what she and Hayate should do. He's not convinced that they should do this alone, but Nagi soon "convinces" him to not only do this, but to take her there on a bicycle, even though the beach is 100KM away. As they travel, Nagi's legs get cold, so she buys a wooden wagon-cart from a department store that would normally be closed at this late hour. Now attached to Nagi's bicycle, she can ride in comfort.

As they travel down the highway, the car KITT with Michael Knight inside decide to race the speeding Hayate. Michael has KITT do all the driving and in the end, KITT ends up going off an overpass while Hayate pulls off some racing move from a racing anime title. They arrive at the beach and Nagi is all excited but Hayate is pooped. However, he goes to buy them something warm to drink from the vending machine, only to discover he has no money. Maria is there with money, thanking Hayate for taking care of Nagi and making both of them happy. With that, Maria leaves in a helicopter and Hayate returns to find Nagi asleep. The sun rises on the two of them as Nagi continues to sleep and Hayate wishes her a happy new year.

The next night it is snowing heavily as Maria, dressed in a kimono, reports that Sakuya is planning to come over. The power goes out and Nagi is frightened, with only the light from her PSP and Maria for comfort. Hayate goes out to trip the emergency breaker, which is pretty far from the house considering the blizzard. Since Nagi's battery only lasts a few hours, that's how long he has to get the power back on. As he fights through the blizzard, he comes upon Sakuya with a giant snow blowing machine and a small fire. Apparently, her plugging in said machine caused the blackout. But, when snow starts falling heavily on its own without the blower, its time to get to where the breaker is. However, they get lost but fortunately, a yeti is kind enough to give them directions.

They struggle and finally make it, soaked to the bone, as time keeps ticking. Hayate discovers that there's an onsen in this place as the power plant is geothermal. He suggest a dip in the onsen to warm up, which embarrasses Sakuya. Hayate doesn't understand, so a frustrated Sakuya whacks him good with her harisen, then forces him to the onsen and tosses him in, then dives in herself, still fully clothed. They are close together in the onsen and she, all flushed, doesn't want to be treaded like a kid. After a while talking, Hayate leaves her there as he goes to find the breaker in the cold building. He makes it and with his last strength gets the power on to Nagi's excitement. He's soon found by Sakuya and two of her bodyguards, who get him on a stretcher to carry him out. She's changed her opinion of him because of this adventure, but when he says something to annoy her, she and the guards just leave him behind while Nagi wonders where Hayate is.

Thoughts: Ha!Ha! Who would have thought the Japanese would parody Knight Rider of all shows? Granted, when I lived in Japan 19-years ago, it was on TV, and had a dual-audio transmission late at night (English and Japanese, I had to use the SAP element of my VCR to get the English though). I understand that the voice of KITT in this episode was the same one from the Japanese audio of Knight Rider.

So, Sakuya has a little crush on Hayate now, eh?

Anyway, there was a lot of fun here.

References! (Note: the site doesn't get 100% of the references, but they do get a very high percentage.)

School Rumble Manga Volume 8

School Rumble Volume 8

Summary: Harima and Yakumo are having to deal with the consequences of them coming to school together and Tenma learning that Yakumo stayed with Harima. While Tenma is OK with it in the end, for Harima, it is the worst thing that can happen as she believes even more that Harima and Yakuma are dating and she's OK with it.

Tenma gets Harima to go to Tokyo with him to shop for a present. He's very happy until he learns the gift is for Karasuma. He initially steers her to a bad gift, but when Tenma buys him a gift, he changes his mind and tells her to get Karasuma something from the heart, even if its hand made.

Its school festival time and the class is divided between a maid cafe and a play. With Hanai out of it because of the rumors that Yakumo and Harima are dating, Akira decides to get things going. She gets Harima on the side of the play by telling him he would be the male lead and Tenma the female lead. She gets Hanai fired up by suggesting that should the class do a maid cafe, the Tea Club would assist, including Yakumo. However, her suggestion is for a battle, were the class divides into two armies and have a paintball war within the school. With a band that Karasuma and Karen both belong to being denied entry into the festival, they too enter the fray to take the final slot from Karasuma's class.

The extra chapters have an additional story of Yakumo's and Harima's work on the manga, where when Harima briefly imagines Yakumo as Tenma, Yakumo can read his thoughts for the moment. The second story is of band member Yuuki having her glasses broken and being given a life by Hanai. The final extra story features the characters from the manga set in prehistoric times.

Thoughts: This was a lot of fun. Those who've watched the anime will note that this volume is where School Rumble Ni Gakki started. The thing that stood out to me was how the manga continues to have a stronger emphasis on the potential romance between Harima and Yakumo, aided by the extra story that I don't recall being in the anime (though I admit, it has been a while since I've watched it). The volume doesn't resolve the class battle parody story of such titles like Real Bout High School or Ikki Tousen as that will be continued next volume.

The volume felt thinner to me than before and indeed it is several pages shorter. That appears to be mainly due to the fact that there's only one ad at the end of the manga (verses several pages in volume 7) and no preview as there was before. I can do without the ads and the previews (when in Japanese) are nice but not required. Still, I wonder why Del Rey decided to ax them unless there is a financial concern. I hope the manga is doing well because I really like it and I think others would too.

Minami-ke Okawari 01

みなみけ～おかわり～ Ep. 01

SPOILER Summary: Its New Years and Kana is on the phone, demanding the person on the other end come over immediately. When she gets off and states that she was on the phone with Uchida, Chiaki seems to recall that Uchida was out of town. Kana is bored and gets Fujioka-bear to the face from Chiaki. Chiaki tells her to do her homework (which Chiaki is doing), but of course Kana isn't interested in that. Takeru tries to place peace maker, leading Kana to demand to know why he's at their house rather than at a temple with his girlfriend. Chiaki remarks it is because he has no plans which is true. He and his girlfriend were planning something, but she suddenly canceled and won't return his calls.

As Chiaki continues to do her homework (Takeru having disappeared), Kana complains about the variety shows on TV and challenges Haruka to entertain them since Haruka likes the show. Haruka goes to her room to find some gear while outside, Makoto meets up with Touma to come to the Minami residence. Kana answers the door, but seeing Makoto dressed up as a guy, she won't let either of them in even though she apparently had just called them and told them to come right over. Makoto had so wanted to start the year off coming over as a guy, but in order to be allowed in, he becomes Mako-chan again. Haruka comes to the edge of the door, dressed up in comedy fashion and doing a supposedly humorous dance but no one laughs. Kana reminds her they have guests as Haruka gets embarrassed.

Kana is forced to wear the top-knot cap that Haruka had worn as Haruka serves cheesecake and tells Touma and Mako-chan not to worry about what they'd previously seen. Chiaki absentmindedly takes a bite of her cheesecake Kana weepingly apologizes. Chiaki notices some of her cheesecake missing and demands to know if Kana took it. Kana denies it (still depressed) and then Chiaki notices her notebook containing a list of New Year's gifts she'd received was missing. She starts a desperate hunt for it, not wanting the others to see it, even looking under the kotatsu. She finds it under Fujioka-bear and then has a little conversation with the stuffed animal. When she hears Kana demanding to know who took part of her desert and start accusing others, Chiaki physically attacks her, saying it isn't right to accuse people.

The group then gathers in the dining room to have New Year's Soba. Kana is bored and wants to do something. Mako-chan's idea of kite flying is rejected and Touma also wants to go somewhere. Chiaki tells Kana to just go, leading to Kana attacking her because they don't have a car. Takeru arrives and suddenly the transportation problem is solved. As they drive, Haruka wonders if this is OK, and Takeru assures her it is since he's not doing anything. Kana agrees with this since he doesn't have a girlfriend, leading Takeru to almost have an accident. That causes Kana to apologize, realizing their lives are in Takeru's hands.

Takeru takes note of Fujioka, who had joined the group. He asks Haruka about him, and Haruka says it is a friend of Kana's, whom Kana decided to invite. As Haruka navigates, Takeru wonders about Kana's and Fujioka's relationship. Eventually, it becomes clear that Haruka has gotten them lost, so Fujioka asks for directions and they end up at a onsen resort off the beaten track. As the sisters relax in the indoor onsen, Takeru decides to start grilling Fujioka on his relationship with Kana.

Meanwhile, Touma and Mako-chan have a problem since both are pretending to be the opposite sex. As such, they can't just go to the proper bathing areas. However, since Touma isn't hiding the fact that she's a girl from the sisters, she can safely bathe with them. Makoto isn't having anything to do with that solution since he IS trying to hide the fact that he's a guy. The issue becomes moot when the sisters emerge and Kana is ready to do something. She inquires of the okami (hostess) and gets a hand-drawn map to a spring. However, Haruka leads them to a waterfall instead. Kana tries to play off this, but in correcting Kana, Chiaki accidentally and implicitly slams Haruka.

The group returns to the inn where its another bathing session for the sisters and another issue for Touma and Makoto, who's desperate not to be the only one who doesn't get to soak in the onsen waters. Chiaki and Haruka come out to find them bickering and again, the issue is made moot when Kana arrives, wanting to play ping-pong. First up is Chiaki vs. Kana with Kana not playing seriously but more interested in just slapping a "home run." Chiaki returns the favor by serving up one to Kana's forehead. As Touma and Mako-chan continue to watch and not get to bathe, Haruka squares off with Chiaki and puts a serious game move on Chiaki to show she's going all out to win.

Ping-pong over, Touma and Makoto are back to square one. However, they decide that Touma will head to the women's bath and Makoto to the men's. As they do so, Takeru finally finishes grilling Fujioka, so he heads off to finally bathe. He goes to the men's side and sees "Mako-chan" undressing. Thinking he's made a horrible mistake, he races to the other bath where he finds Touma, whom he thinks is a guy, undressing. Touma has to scramble and state that the baths are about to switch sides so that the male side becomes female and vice versa. As such, Touma goes to "check" on the status of the switch. She gets Makoto to get out of his female hairdo and just pretend to be a local boy.

Meanwhile, Fujioka decides to have a look at the current men's onsen before moving to the other side. He opens the door to find a naked Kana there. He closes the door, all confuses, and the embarrassed Kana, who'd been about to leave, returns to the bath and asks Chiaki what she would do if she accidentally went into a changing room and saw naked boys. Fujioka is standing there in a state of shock, trying to wrap his mind around the fact that girls are bathing in the men's bath (which of course, they aren't).

Back at the Minami residence, Uchida is there outside in her New Year's kimono and with a present, wondering why no one is home.

Thoughts: Well, in addition to character design changes, we got story design changes as well. Gone are the short stories linked by a common theme. Now, we get a standard anime episode and I don't think it works as well. And the Minami sisters get a standard dining room table and a little dining room I guess. They'd always eaten everything at the table in the living room before. Doesn't mean the room wasn't there previously, but it did seem to come out of the blue.

I really didn't get any laughs this episode. I did get a chuckle at the end with Fujioka trying to figure out why the men's side had women in it after he'd seen Kana naked. Mostly, things just seemed to go through the motions but without the heart of the previous series. There was a lot more fanservice too. We'll see how it goes.

Tsubasa: Tokyo Revelations OVA 02

Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- Tokyo Revelations Ep. 02
ツバサ TOKYO REVELATIONS Episode 02

SPOILER Summary: As Sakura hears the voice telling her to awaken, the other Syaoran arrives at Yuuko-san's place to make a wish to be sent to where his other eye is. Yuuko-san hears the message about ending the dream from Xing Huo and seems to understand. Since Syaoran has paid for his wish with the time he spent as a captive in Fei Wong's place, Yuuko-san grants the wish as this is within the bounds of acceptable interference.

Back at Acid Tokyo, Kamui is under his group's HQ building (Tokyo Government Office) at the water reservoir and sees a huge glow within. He jumps into the water to find the glow coming from a giant encasement, which is attached to the various walls. Inside is Sakura and a feather is entering the encasement (and Sakura?) which causes the barrier protecting the building to disappear. Kamui tries to puncture the encasement and Syaoran arrives in the water to protect Sakura. A fight ensues with Syaoran taking damage and Kamui telling him telepathically that he is "esa" or "prey." Syaoran is at a disadvantage because of the water but even still, he fights and his fighting style is recognized by Kamui.

Kamui causes a bad wound to Syaoran, who begins to bleed. Kamui feels that if "Subaru" drinks the blood, he will awaken finally. Syaoran remembers his tutor Seishirou was hunting some vampire twins and realizes that Kamui and this "Subaru" are those vampires. Reading Syaoran's mind, Kamui realizes that Syaoran knew Seishirou as well and so will kill him. He lands another slash on Syaoran to get more blood for Subaru, but suddenly Syaoran has changed and is another personality altogether. A new fight breaks out as Fay enters the water. Kamui wonders if Fay is the master of the soulless creation "Syaoran." Fay denies it, his purpose is to try to preserve the human part of this "Syaoran."

Elsewhere, both Yuuko and Fei Wong note the releasing of the seal on the clone (the one fighting Kamui) as we are shown that Fei Wong had captured the real Syaoran and made a clone of him for the purposes of getting Sakura's feather's once they'd been scattered. However, before the real Syaoran could be fully sealed, he took his right eye and gave it to the clone, thus half of his "heart" was given to the clone to keep it from being a mindless slave. Fei Wong initially tried to remove it, but saw that doing this would destroy the clone and creating a 2nd clone would result in a weaker one. So, providing Clone Syaoran did his part and collected the feathers, Fei Wong decided that it having a personality wouldn't matter and the clone was then deposited in child form on Clow World. The real Syaoran was sealed within a liquid-filled capsule with sealing tattoos placed on his body and a magic seal surrounding the capsule itself. Over time, the original Syaoran's powers grew until he was able to break free, which then broke the seal on the clone's eye, allowing its true personality (cold, heartless, relentless, killing machine) to come through. Fei Wong asks Xing Huo if she sent Syaoran to the witch, but she cannot answer as she's dead, stabbed by Fei Wong's sword. He calls her a failed creation.

Back in Acid Tokyo, Kamui and Fay discuss Clone Syaoran. Apparently, Fay knew this Syaoran wasn't a true human. A portal is opening and Fay knows the real Syaoran is coming. However, he doesn't want the clone to lose the heart given and attempts to prevent the magic from the right eye from leaving. He fails and is attacks by Clone Syaoran as soon as the magic is removed. Sensing that Fay has powerful magic, Clone Syaoran decides to obtain this to continue his mission of regaining all of Sakura's feathers and removing all those who would stand in the way.

Meanwhile, Kurogane carries Sakura down to where the water is, accompanied by one of Kamui's people. He's instructed to leave his sword outside the water room and after doing so, he tries to get Sakura down there, only to have her disappear, apparently returning to where the rest of her was. The water in the reservoir emerges as large drops everywhere, revealing the intricate supporting structure with the encasement in the center. On one of those supports is Clone Syaoran, who's consuming one of Fay's eyes. Kurogane manages to keep him from taking Fay's other eye. Sakura awakens within the encasement as the real Syaoran arrives. He picks up the ying-yang element that had been discarded by Clone Syaoran and absorbs it, returning to full power.

The two battle with Kurogane asking for Mokona to give up a sword for him to use. However, Clone Syaoran takes it and uses it to continue his fight with Syaoran, using flame attacks. Syaoran manages to summon his own sword and counters with lightning magic. Syaoran has the advantage is is about to slay Clone Syaoran when a cry pleading for the life of Clone Syaoran comes from the encased Sakura. Using that hesitation, Clone Syaoran gets away and stabs Syaoran in the leg. He then slashes open the encasement, freeing Sakura and giving her a feather he retrieved from a nearby cocoon. Upon seeing this, Fei Wong opens a portal to allow Clone Syaoran to leave despite Sakura's pleas.

From the cocoon emerges Subaru to Kamui's relief. Kamui wants to leave immediately, but Subaru refuses to do so, despite the danger. Kurogane sees the emblem on Syaoran's shirt and inquires about it. Syaoran confirms it is the emblem of those who slew Kurogane's mother.

Thoughts: I had forgotten some things from the manga, and so when I went back to check it, I was again amazed at the brilliant job of adaptation that Production I.G has done. To have brought such an intense story arc to life as they have done is exactly how I wish all anime adaptations were done. It is unfortunate that too many adaptation producers feel the need to put their own creative stamp on what was a good work and kill it. Heck, even Production I.G is guilty of that with their adaptation of xxxHOLiC (though I excuse them a small amount on their not linking the series to Tsubasa Chronicle because Bee Train had that). But here, Production I.G proves they can do a series right, at least in the OVA format. With only one more episode, I do wonder how they are going to get the rest of the manga story in, but maybe they'll go beyond 30-minutes to do that.

As to the story itself, CLAMP did a great job with the plot twist, that in reality isn't so much of a plot twist. I know most of us, including the Bee Train writers, thought that the Syaoran in Fei Wong's place was going to be another villainous force to face, but to find out that he's the real Syaoran and the one that we'd been following was the fake, well that just took the cake. I found it interesting that this Syaoran used the same kind of magic that the Syaoran from Cardcaptor Sakura used, even down to the sword. I wonder if in the end, he will be that character.

You're Under Arrest! Full Throttle 12

Taiho Shichauzo! Full Throttle Episode 12
逮捕しちゃうぞ フルスロットル Episode 12

SPOILER Summary: Detective Sugihara meets Miyuki in the hall who has a message for his boss, Detective Tokuno. As usual, Tokuno and Kachou are playing Go. While the others finish watching a local high school baseball match online, Kachou loses his match again and Natsumi decides it is time to play some baseball. Thus, a match is born between the Traffic Division and the Criminal Affairs Division with Yoriko doing some opposition research. Natsumi and Miyuki go on patrol where Natsumi attempts to find out about the status of her and Nakajima. Naturally, Miyuki doesn't want to talk about it and makes excuses, but eventually Natsumi gives up. At a stop light, they are greeted by the grade school kids, who've learned about the forthcoming baseball match and wish them well.

The day of the baseball game comes with the tough looking guys from the Criminal Affairs Division talking trash about the "cute" Traffic Division team. One even remarks about a lion going all out when ravishing a rabbit. The pitcher, Natsumi, decides to show him a rabbit and strikes him out with fast balls. That leads the catcher, Nakajima, to ask the batter about how that ravishing was. The game pretty much proceeds along those lines with both sides making advancements and mistakes (mistakes on the Criminal Affairs side due to Yoriko's excellent research and taunting from the kids).

The game is on the line and Natsumi's up to bat when an old, familiar voice rings out and completely interrupts the game. It is the infamous "Strike Man," who's come to challenge Natsumi once more. Natsumi pretends to not remember him at first. Strike Man goes on a tirade, where he remembers all his past defeats at Natsumi's hands, but he goes on so long that the Traffic Division are planning to go eat. Aoi-chan even invites Strike Man to come. Strike Man uses his sure-fire method to get Natsumi to bite, but throwing insults her way and saying she's afraid. Naturally, Natsumi isn't going to take this and so steps in to take whatever Strike Man throws.

Strike Man tells her she'll get three attempts to hit his pitches. Any hit means she wins. His first pitch rockets to her, then disappears at the last second. That baseball was in fact a yo-yo and Natsumi has been had. The next pitch has Strike Man appear to use a secret Ninja technique to have copies of himself, all which throw pitches that Natsumi misses and all which knock Nakajima back. Ah, but the kids see the trick of Strike Man having built a contraption to make elaborate wooden cutouts of himself. Finally, he throws his final pitch. Natsumi nails it, but the ball happens to hit the basket of goods on the back of "Scooter Mama's" new-looking 50CC bike. She gets mad for her special sale items being scattered all over the place and her first target is Strike Man. She then scatters the Traffic Division, giving chase to Natsumi. When Strike Man goes to challenge Natsumi again, Scooter Mama sees the baseball and has her new target. She hits Strike Man and carries him off on the front of her bike.

Thoughts: It just seems wrong to have a baseball episode and not have "Strike Man" show up. It didn't look like he'd even show up at all based on last week's previews and how this episode's 1st half went. Ah, but the writers got me for sure and HE SHOWED UP! I had to cheer for sure. However, for "Scooter Mama" to show up as well, well that was just pure gold, y'all! Heck, even the Miyuki-Nakajima romance got a mention. All of that made this episode a winner for this long-time fan.

Minami-ke 13

みなみけ Episode 13

SPOILER Summary: Kana, Uchida, Touma, and Makoto are looking at a male and female kimono on the bed. Naturally with it being New Years, a kimono must be worn. Realizing what is up, Makoto protests having to wear a female kimono but Touma has no problem wearing a male kimono, to the point of forgetting she's a girl and having part of her chest exposed. Uchida pays a compliment to the way Touma looks but not so with Makoto in the kimono. Kana assures him that Haruka will find him cute though which mollifies him. Yoshino drops by and thinks the kimono's suit Touma and Makoto. However, when she sees that Makoto hasn't removed his underwear, she mentions that traditionally, no underwear is worn under the kimono. He starts to remove them, which Uchida tries to prevent since that kimono is hers as Kana marvels at how a single sentence could make things turn interesting.

Keiko is at Riko's house, with Fujioka's phone number. Keiko finally gets Riko to make the call as she takes a call on her cell phone from Kana. Meanwhile, Fujioka is trying to call Kana as Riko tries to call Fujioka, meaning failures to connect. Fujioka realizes that if he asks for "Minami-san" (how he addresses Kana), that would apply to all three sisters. So he ponders using "Kana-san" but thinks it is too formal. Seeing his championship poster, he gets flustered when he thinks of the "chan" honorific and addressing Kana as "Kana-chan." In the end, he decides that maybe "Kana-san" is best. Meanwhile, Kana yacks at Keiko for two hours while Fujioka and Riko keep failing to connect. Kana is not happy about Keiko having a cell phone for scoring 100's and wonders about Keiko's phone bill for them talking so long. Keiko says the bill will be Kana's, leading Kana to insult the "100-point Monster" before slamming the phone down. Haruka tells Kana that she needs to watch her phone time, which Chiaki agrees with. However, Kana tells them to bill Keiko, and provides an address.

At a soba shop, Hosaka is making soba (buckwheat noodles) from scratch to prepare the traditional New Year's Soba dish. He fantasizes about serving Haruka soba on a Titanic-like ship, complete with standing in the bow with their arms out while the kid Kana and Chiaki fight over the soba. Natsuki and the shop's owner come in to find him laughing in mid-fantasy. The shop owner wants to know why Hosaka is making soba and Natsuki replies it is for the woman he loves. Hosaka has Natsuki sample it, and it is apparently very good. As such, Hosaka loads up a delivery bike with soba and takes off, Natsuki wishing him well.

At the female Minami residence, the girls are watching their favorite drama when the doorbell rings and Kana loses the "jan-ken" match. At the door is Hayami-senpai with some New Year's gifts. Kana takes it and discovers a wide array of weird juices. However, she pours some of the carbonated one and hands them out. Everyone but Kana drinks. Haruka doesn't like the taste of the juice, and asks about it as Chiaki runs to get some water. Hayami says it is imported and Chiaki reports about the tons of suspicious juices in the kitchen. Hayami gets them to play drinking games (as these are alcoholic beverages) and gets drunk as does Haruka and Chiaki, who eventually pass out. So when Maki and Atsuko come by, the now-drunk Hayami gets the sober Kana to pour out more beverages and gets the two newcomers to play games until they pass out. Kana is a little worries about them, but gets more worried when Hayami makes a pass at her and tries to kiss her repeatedly.

Elsewhere, Hosaka gets lost trying to find the Minami residence and so has the soba on top of an overlook.

Thoughts: Yeah, Kana's the stupid genius alright. Too bad she had no clue that Hayami-senpai would be up for a shoujo-ai moment. There was a lot of fun in the episode about New Years in Japan. Its a shame the series is over. The next series is being done by another company and the character designs are going to take some getting used to.

Minami-ke 12

みなみけ Episode 12

SPOILER Summary: Its Christmas time and Kana ponders this with Haruka while under the kotatsu. Apparently, Chiaki had witnessed Takeru-ojisan changing into a Santa outfit and since then doesn't have the same excitement for Christmas. Takeru has been told not to come by, but he decides to anyway. However, Kana has enlisted Fujioka's help with Haruka's approval, and he comes by, witnessed by Takeru. Takeru doesn't know him and so calls Haruka and learns that he's just Kana's friend. So he decides to come by tomorrow. Meanwhile, Fujioka changes into Santa as Chiaki has gone to bed. He leaves a present by her bed and when she awakens to see him, he makes sure to say "Merry Christmas" before closing the door and being spirited away by Haruka. Chiaki is excited because Santa-san came by and it wasn't Takeru, leading Kana to tease her about being "baka" and even avoiding most (but the last) of Chiaki's swings to hit her (Chiaki insisting Santa-san came). The gift is a stuffed bear and Chiaki has sweet dreams about it.

At the other Minami residence, the three brothers discuss what to get for Touma, having been doing so for a week and now its Christmas eve. Touma has stated she wants a soccer ball or spiked shoes, but the eldest brother is not convinced. Even a letter written by Touma (as a letter to Santa, but addressed to her brothers) fails to convince him. After a lengthy, rambling discussion on the subject, Touma has had enough and kicks them all in the face for not doing anything for her for Christmas. Suddenly they remember why Touma's always annoyed at Christmas -- they always discuss things endlessly, though the eldest brother in not convinced.

Its Christmas day and Fujioka didn't give Kana her present. So he heads to the Minami residence to find Takeru standing outside waiting in a Santa suit. Since the sisters are out, they decide to wait. Meanwhile at a restaurant, the girls are splurging on yakiniku (where you cook the food at your table) . Chiaki wonders if it is OK to splurge like this, but Haruka says it is OK because it is Christmas. Kana kids Chiaki for being worried about finances at her age, leading to a tirade back from Chiaki, including a 4-combo "bakayarou" remark. Kana is surprised by this. Back at the apartment, its starting to snow and after making some small talk, Fujioka and Takeru decide to head home.

Touma is over again and Kana ponders her leading a double-life of being Chiaki's little brother and then a little sister at her home. Kana wonders if she should lead a double life, then ponders the different places to eat, including eating dinner at Touma's house and the afternoon snack at Keiko's place. Touma asks Chiaki if it is OK for her to keep eating at their place like this, even offering to pay. Kana comes up with a random figure that she should pay, but Chiaki isn't having that. Haruka comes home and Kana anticipates eating cake as Haruka assures Touma it is fine as Chiaki's (and thus her) "little brother." However, there is no cake for Kana because she's supposedly going to have her snack at Keiko's house. Kana calls Keiko, only to discover she's already eaten her cake. Kana loses.

Fujioka still has Kana's present (hair ribbons) and is walking through the market when he sees Kana walking his way, singing about eggs. However, she doesn't see him as she's come for the egg sale. Kana comes home to find Chiaki with her stuffed bear and Haruka happily states that Chiaki likes the present. Kana's not convinced based on how she sees Chiaki use it as an arm rest and tells Chiaki to take care of it. Chiaki says she is but ends up attacking Kana with it. Kana asks what the bear's name is, but Chiaki seems to think that is childish. However, she does tell Kana to name the bear, and so the bear becomes Fujioka. Chiaki attacks Kana with the bear and Kana asks if the name was bad. Chiaki says it was fine, but the attack was the bear's will. A fight breaks out between Kana and Chiaki with Chiaki using the bear as a weapon, saying it was Fujioka's will. The following day, the real Fujioka sees Kana and she has words concerning the present and considering the feelings of the others. So with that in mind, he comes by their house later and gives Kana a present of three boneless hams as a year-end thank you present. Chiaki reckons the hams are as thick as Kana's thighs, leading to another fight before Kana thinks Fujioka is the "ham guy."

Thoughts: When the bear was named "Fujioka," I thought for sure we'd have one of those misunderstanding episodes, but that never happened (thankfully). Of course we could still get one. Another fun episode to be sure.

And here's apparent commercial for the "ham guy" reference.

Alpha -- Ganbare Sugi DE Night

アルファ-ガンバリスギDEナイト

I found this Japanese rap tune on YouTube a while back and started looking for the CD this song was on. Sadly, all the ones I found were now out of print. However, I did finally find someone on Amazon Japan who was willing to ship to the U.S. and had a copy of the single. So I was a happy guy and the ¥800 shipping cost wasn't too bad either. ^_^



Update: GAH! The person who uploaded this video has now disabled embedding. They also disabled comments and the video rating too. Sheeze. Not sure what this guy's issue is unless he saw a gaijin had embedded the video in his blog and went, "Gaijin no Bakayarou!" Whatever.

Minami-ke 11

みなみけ Episode 11

SPOILER Summary: At the other Minami residence, Touma's three older brothers are discussing how she's been coming home late a lot and spending a lot of time at Minami Chiaki's house. Even though that Minami residence always lets them know that she'll be late, the eldest brother tasks the youngest brother to learn more, so the next time Touma comes by to visit, she informs them of this as he's waiting outside. Haruka is angry at not being trusted, which she feels is due to her higher-pitched voice. However, they bring in the brother, who's name is Akira. He brings a gift of soap bars which doesn't sit will with Kana but surprisingly seems to go over OK with Haruka. After Kana says something she shouldn't and gets punished by Haruka, Akira is invited to stay for dinner. Haruka makes the call to the other Minami residence, only this time she deepens her voice so much that brothers don't recognize her and think something bad is going on.

Akira pays a visit to Kana in her classroom during break and they talk. When asked about his type of girl he says that Kana isn't it. When asked about Haruka, he says he likes her long hair. Seeing the long-haired Riko enter the room, Kana points her out to him and he agrees that she's his type. However, Fujioka sees the two of them sitting together and is not happy about it and decides to try to be casual and pop over to see what kind of relationship they have. Riko sees that look of angry determination on his face and gets all happy about it. Akira sees him coming looking unhappy and asks Kana about him. Learning he's "Banchou," Akira gets afraid and since Riko is following Fujioka, he figures Fujioka is mad because he was staring at Riko, who much be his girlfriend. He apologizes to Fujioka, saying he wouldn't touch another guy's girl and says Kana is his type before running away. Fujioka is not happy and chases him and Riko chase them. Back at the female Minami residence, Touma comments on Akira being depressed, so Kana says she'll cheer him up. Unfortunately, Kana makes things worse by getting Fujioka angry and thus Akira more depressed while Riko gets more excited.

Chiaki walks home from school and comes to an intersection where she waits for the crossing light. A truck carrying gravel from the Yamada Construction Company stops at the red light a piece of gravel falls from the truck at Chiaki's feet. The truck goes on and Chiaki names the small rock "Yamada" before kicking it. She carefully and lovingly kicks Yamada all the way to her apartment building when Kana arrives. Kana gives the piece of gravel a big kick and it comes down into another (or maybe the same) truck of gravel. Chiaki is devastated to lose Yamada and briefly chases the truck before falling and scraping her face. At dinner, she's depressed and when asked why, she says that Yamada is gone and that its Kana's fault. Kana swears not to know a Yamada as Haruka gets on to her.

Touma's middle older brother, Natsuki, was pressured into joining the volleyball club by Hosaka-senpai, though he rarely attends practice, citing the fact that he has to prepare the meals for his family. At lunch one day, Natsuki dumps out some bread products to eat when Hosaka comes by with a bento for him to eat. Hosaka assures him that it means nothing (romantic) as he just wants an outsider to sample it to see if it would be good enough for the woman he loves. While that's a relief to Natsuki, he tries to play off as if he's already eaten. Hosaka points to the bread products, which Natsuki says are for later as he proceeds to eat them anyway, not wanting to eat the bento. He comes home to find Akira on the phone taking with Kana about him, which annoys him. The next day at school, he decides to pay Haruka a visit, explaining to Maki and Atsuko that this is because she's been taking care of Akira and Touma. However, when bringing them together, Maki pushes Natsuki to hard and he face-plants into her breasts. To resolve the situation and allow Haruka to save face, Natsuki allows her to punch him in the nose. So when Hosaka brings the bento over this time, Natsuki eats it, he says its good but he can't smell the aroma as all he smells is blood.

At the mostly male Minami residence one morning, Natsuki lets the others know that he indeed did meet Haruka but there was trouble, remembering the incident which lead to him getting punched. Since Touma is going over that afternoon, she gets Natsuki to come as well. Touma arrives in the afternoon to find Kana eating cookies and reading a manga which Haruka is face-down on the floor asleep. Kana chalks this up to being lazy and even describes how it happened. She rolls Haruka over to show that Haruka had started undressing as now her shirt is unbuttoned partially and her cleavage and part of her bra is showing. Touma shows Natsuki in while Kana tries to wake the sleeping Haruka, whom she's moved to the kotatsu. When Haruka finally awakens, Natsuki sees her bosom he face-plants into the kotatsu. Haruka doesn't realize her exposure and starts to think Natsuki is being rude for face planting, though she does acknowledge that punching him as she did wasn't nice either. She finally realizes her exposure and gets onto Kana for not telling her. However, Natsuki is bleeding and when Haruka rushes over to give him aid, his other nostril starts bleeding as well when he catches another glimpse at her bosom.

Thoughts: You know, sometimes these little stories are just so much about nothing that they become funny as all get out. Often, I find that as I write the summary, I start giggling again, only much harder because I'm remembering the scene and it is much funnier after I'd seen it once. There was a lot of funny stuff here and it was nice to see Fujioka again.

Minami-ke 10

みなみけ Episode 10

SPOILER Summary: Chiaki is informed of another person with the family name "Minami" and so goes to check this person (named Touma) out along with a couple of friends, apparently determined to make this person her little brother. Touma is angry with a boy in her class. He won't fight her so she tells him to treat her like a boy. When she shoves him out of the way, he stumbles into Chiaki. Chiaki shoves him aside and gets an apology out of Touma. The two exchange some heated words with Chiaki treating Touma as if she were a boy before eventually Chiaki decides to make Touma her little brother. After school, Touma is there wearing her red (female) backpack, so Chiaki summons Makoto and makes him exchange backpacks with Touma.

Its cooking class time and Makoto is about to use a big knife on his yet uncooked, unopened egg. He tells Shuuichi that he wants to learn to cook in order to help Haruka-san in the future. In the back of the class, there are sounds of approval as Chiaki is seen boiling three eggs and explaining how to make the perfect boiled egg. Makoto demands to know how she knows so much, and she gloatingly tells him its because she helps Haruka-neesama so much. She further verbally jabs him by referencing the one time he came by as himself (not as Mako-chan) and helped Haruka. He retorts with some nonsense about being a chef's egg and eggs having feelings. No one understands what he's saying, only that the two of them are serious. When he demands that Chiaki boil him, she punches him, saying that eggs have to be removed from their shells before they can be mashed.

Kana and Haruka come home to find Kana horsing around with Touma, who's dressed like a boy. They think Touma is a boy until Touma says she's a girl, to their relief but the Chiaki's annoyance. This leads to more tussling on their part with Touma showing she's pretty strong. Makoto comes in as Mako-chan and while only Kana knows his identity, Touma seems to recognize him, leading to a panic situation. Makoto takes Touma off and reveals his true identity. Touma promises to try not to give up his secret and they return with Touma stating she's a guy (from her talk with Makoto). Kana decides to confirm this out one way or the other and checks under Touma's shirt to find budding breasts, which she she indicates are larger than Chiaki's. "Mako-chan" insists Touma is a boy until Kana decides to show him the proof which shuts him up.

Makoto, once again at the Minami residence as "Mako-chan" decides he's going to reveal himself as a guy to Haruka and Chiaki and says to to Kana and Touma. This leads to the two of them making a play off each other's names, Kana becoming "Kaa-chan" (mommy) and Touma becoming "Tou-chan" (daddy). Chiaki and Haruka arrive with Chiaki announcing they will have curry. Because her lips are badly chapped, Haruka applies some lip cream (essentially chap stick) to Chiaki's lips. Touma and Kana tell Makoto that now is the time and so he gets up to speak. Haruka notices his lips are chapped as well and applies the same balm to his lips, making him beet red and leading Touma to remark on this being an indirect kiss. Kana stops her and Makoto says he's a guy. Chiaki and Haruka seem to accept this with no problem and Chiaki has Touma come to help them make dinner. However, Touma discovers that the two of them think that "Mako-chan" is just goofing because Touma pretends to be a guy.

At school, Touma gives Makoto the bad news that Chiaki and Haruka still don't know that "Mako-chan" is indeed Makoto. Makoto is very depressed by this since it took all his courage to confess so Touma tells him to tell Chiaki now. So he returns to the classroom and screams to Chiaki that he is a boy. Touma pulls him back, saying that this is not the right way to do this and that he should be gentle. Makoto returns to the classroom to where the suspicious Chiaki is, gets down on his knees and tells her nicely that he's a guy. That leads to a kick in the face from Chiaki.

At the Minami residence, Makoto is there with his "transformation" gym bag containing girl's clothing so he can become Mako-chan. He talks with Touma and Kana at the kotatsu about this when Haruka and Chiaki come home, forcing him to hide under the kotatsu. Because its such a cold day, Chiaki is eager to sit at the kotatsu to warm up. So Makoto is trapped with all the girls sitting there and the heat is getting to him, leading him to seek relief by peeking his head out at Touma's area. Kana finds this funny, but decides she needs to help him escape. So after turning on a magic show on TV, she produces Makoto's gym bag and tells Touma to do a magic trick. Realizing what's going on, Touma pulls out a girl's shirt and pushes it under the kotatsu and a bit later pulls out a boy's shirt. Then she puts a skirt under the kotatsu and after seeing something she shouldn't, she pulls out a pair of guy's jeans. Haruka applauds this but Chiaki is suspicious. Touma then puts the hair clips under the kotatsu and produces Mako-chan.

Thoughts: xxx

Shakugan no Shana Second 14

灼眼のシャナ II Episode 14

SPOILER Summary: It is approaching midnight when the Reiji Maigo activates to recharge Yuuji. All that they are waiting for is Shana. The plan is for Yuuji to provide some power to the very weak Pheles so that she can move freely again. However, the Flame Haze are there to ensure Pheles doesn't harm Yuuji and Margery Daw will use a spell to see what more can be learned from the Reiji Maigo as it does its thing. Shana is late because she stopped by Yoshida's house to pick her up, feeling she has a right to be there despite Pheles' previous remarks about Yoshida being a normal human. Flying to the location, Shana tells Yoshida that she'll confess to Yuuji and both acknowledge they won't give up.

Shana having arrived with Yoshida, Margery casts her spell and under the very watchful eye of Shana, some power is transfered. Pheles speaks to Johan and causes Shana to get twitchy, but ends up forcing Yuuji away roughly, thus keeping her promise to not harm Yuuji. Margery is able to determine that the Keeper spell on the Reiji Maigo has been changed in a weird way but doesn't know the cause and doesn't know the link between that and the Silver. Yoshida does the unexpected and speaks to Pheles, admitting she doesn't understand the meaning behind the Tomogara, Guze, or Flame Haze, but she does have a request for the woman seeking the man she loves. She wants Pheles to attend the 2nd day of the school festival, noting that when it comes to love, there shouldn't be a difference if it is human or Tomogara. This touches Pheles and she agrees.

At the school festival, Shana and Yoshida (whom Shana now refers to by her given name Kazumi) travel with Pheles while Wilhelmina and Yuuji observe from a distance. Both Wilhelmina and Tiamat are impressed with Yoshida and even Yuuji notes the change in not only Yoshida, but her relationship with Shana as well. Because they don't completely trust Pheles, Wilhelmina is essentially guarding Yuuji. Meanwhile also at the festival, Oga and Tanaka are going around together hand in hand when they meet Margery and Sato. Tanaka is uneasy around "Ane-san" but seems to take not of the advice Margery gives him about taking time. She then tells Sato that what Tanaka experience was a big challenge for him.

Meanwhile, as Yoshida and Shana enjoy the festival with Pheles, Wilhelmina tells the story of Pheles and Johan. Despite being a Tomogara, Pheles raised Johan from an infant state. As a young adult, the two were at a festival together and on a roof, Johan confessed to not wanting to ever leave Pheles, saying he'd become a Mystes to do so. He kisses Pheles, completing his confession to her and thus began their love affair with Pheles constructing the Reiji Maigo to ensure that as a Mystes, Johan would never die and thus they could be together forever.

The festival comes to an end and all of the parties involved meet on the roof. Pheles thanks them all, then casts a Fuzetsu and creates a barrier around Yuuji as the real Pheles descends. Apparently, they'd been communing with a piece of the real Pheles (created through an unrestricted spell) which acted as an avatar for her and let her know the exact location of the Reiji Maigo. Since she apparently can't get the Reiji Maigo, she's going to have Johan emerge from it. However, a large, silver arm emerges instead, punching through a shocked Pheles while down on the ground, the bracelets for Konoe and her butler react to this.

Thoughts: So, Pheles was distracting them with the old lizard's tale trick while the real her comes a calling. Now, Pheles is aware of the entire situation, including the fact that there are three Flame Haze along with the lords they are partnered with and still can't see past the end of her nose. One would think that she'd want to be cautious in light of the battle she had with Sabrac. What if Sabrac placed a piece of himself in the Reiji Maigo, much as Pheles sent a piece of herself out to find the Reiji Maigo? That would certainly explain the silver flame and the silver arm that emerged from Yuuji.

Interesting how Konoe and her butler's braclets lit up within the Fuzetsu. Despite apparently being hidden from the Flame Haze (except for appearance), I still think this is Hecate (or at least part of her), though her butler is more of a mystery to me. Still, if true, will Hecate's experiences as Konoe influence her any? If Pheles is any example, the answer would be no.

Finally, the relationship between Yoshida and Shana continues to be of interest. Even Yuuji noticed that Shana no longer uses the family name "Yoshida" when addressing her rival, but rather her given name of "Kazumi." The deeper Yoshida gets into this world, the more I wonder if she'll attempt to become a Flame Haze herself or the like to be with Yuuji.

Hand Maid May

Back when I first truly got into anime in 2002, one of the anime titles I chose to view was Hand Maid May, which clocking in at 10+1 episodes ensured that my investment of time wouldn't be that great and I would get to see an anime to see how a then 2-year old title stood up to me. Not only did it play a large role in convincing me to check out more anime titles, Hand Maid May remains one of my favorite anime titles and likely should be in my top-10 list.

Story-wise, Hand Maid May doesn't break any new ground (SPOILERS follow). The story centers around male college student SAOTOME Kazuya, who lives in a small apartment and is working on the Doraemon Project, where he is creating an Artificial Intelligence squid robot (looking like a stuffed animal) called Ikariya. His neighbor in the building across from his is Kasumi, the daughter of the landlord (her mother). Kasumi is a year or so younger than Kazuya and is also in college. Because they are friends, "Kasumi-chan" uses a ladder attached to both of their balconies to visit "Kazuya-kun," making sure to wear more revealing clothing when she visits because she's attracted to him. While Kazuya does enjoy trying to get a look at her, because he's a typical nice guy, he doesn't make a move on her.

Kazuya's long-time classmate Nanbara (who often calls himself "Nanbara-sama") also attends the same college as Kazuya. Despite being extremely rich, he finds himself envious of Kazuya, whom despite his poor upbringing, managed to upstage Nanbara without even trying to do so. As such, Nanbara is obsessed with the naive Kazuya and under the guise of being being his long-time friend, hands Kazuya a disc for some secret website. In fact, the software on the disc is a virus that will activate if Kazuya doesn't enter the password the animated Nanbara on the screen says (which is an incredibly long, wordy thing). This somehow causes Kazuya's computer to access a website and place an order for a Cyberdoll, which arrives almost immediately, delivered by a courier.

The Cyberdoll is about 1/6th the size of a normal human and is named May. She's dressed as a maid and is programmed to cook and clean, though at such a small size, one wonders exactly how much she can do. She insists on being addressed only as "May" and after providing Kazuya a list of options, she addresses him as "Kazuya-san." Because her recharge pack was accidentally damaged beyond repair, Kazuya improvises a way for her to recharge by attaching a USB cable to her nether regions and providing her a special port on a USB hub attached to his computer.

After a week together, the Cyberdyne Company sends Sara, who's also a Cyberdoll but a human-sized one, to collect the money for purchasing May, which is quite steep. It is here that Sara encounters Nanbara, who uses the promise of ramen (something Sara loves very much) to get in on the action to see Kazuya suffer. So using Nanbara's mansion as a base, an effort to recover May is taken. First, a child-styled Cyberdoll named Rena-chan is dispatched to collect the doll but ultimately ends up deciding reject her mission and moves in with Kasumi. A second Cyberdoll is dispatched to do the collection. This Cyberdoll, named Kei, is highly gifted in probabilities and so if figured calculate the best way to retrieve May. However, after learning that May's programming is evolving (something that should not happen), she too switches sides and moves into Kazuya's closet, after making some major modifications to it.

In the end, Kazuya reluctantly gives up May to Sara but thanks to a mysterious cyborg-looking person named "Cyber-X" (who works for Cyberdyne), May returns, having her memories transfered to a human-sized body and thus gives Kasumi a true (but friendly) rival for Kazuya's attention. Sara's mission changes to observing Kazuya, so she continues to reside at Nanbara's residence. However, she becomes personally interested in Kazuya because of his saying and treating Cyberdolls as if they were real humans. Nanbara falls for the human-sized "May-chan" and does what he can to woo her.

The final Cyberdoll to enter the mix is "Mami-san" (sounds like "mommy"), who is a kindly, mother-like Cyberdoll. She sauces out that all of the Cyberdolls and Kasumi are attracted to Kazuya and ends up setting up a contest for a date with Kazuya that May ultimately wins. Mami implies forthcoming disaster and sure enough, all of the Cyberdolls go down everywhere, including at Cyberdyne, except for May. Nanbara, having received a visit from his descendant from the future, named "Commando Z" retrieves Kazuya and May, where Kazuya learns that he is the designer of the operating system for Cyberdolls. Because the Cyberdolls are infected with a powerful virus, Kazuya learns that it was Nanbara's original virus and along with May (and eventually Cyber-X, who's a descendant of Kazuya) , he manages to purge the virus at the cost of May's memories, which are restored to her by the other Cyberdolls.

Finally, everyone has a little adventure dealing with a baby where it is learned that Cyberdolls can have babies of their own.

Whew! I got more verbose than I had intended.

So, what about this typical harem, artificial girl, romantic comedy makes it so special?

For me, it goes beyond simple nostalgia at one of the first anime titles I watched at the start of my fanhood. No, for me it is simply a sweet story with lovable characters (even the boisterous Nanbara, who despite all of his antics really does care about Sara's wellbeing) that makes it stick in my mind and makes me want to revisit that world. It even overcomes all of the unnecessary fanservice in the series (mostly jiggling breasts under clothing, panty shots, and other peek-a-boo moments) with an underlying wholesomeness. I know that's weird to say in a show with a lot of fanservice, but remove that element and you have a story that is not only one of "whom will Kazuya choose," but of family, friendships, and achieving one's dreams. I consider that to be pretty wholesome and somewhat refreshing too.

Another thing it overcomes is plot holes. Seriously, how does one order something that hasn't even been created yet (a Cyberdoll) because "you" (Kazuya) are the creator of this in the future? There are serious time paradox issues as well. But you know what? The sweetness of the story (as well as the fun) and the likability of the characters made me go, "Oh well" rather than get up tight about it as I might normally do. To me, that says something when something so is enjoyable, you are able to overlook the obvious problems and still enjoy yourself.

With Geneon's apparent demise, obtaining the title will be difficult. Assuming you can tollerate the fanservice, I highly recommend picking this title up. Hand Maid May is one of my favorite anime series and one I pull off the shelf at least once a year to re-watch.

Minami-ke 09

みなみけ Episode 09

SPOILER Summary: Haruka doesn't have to go to school that day and Kana is not happy about it. Knowing her older sister as she does, she figures that Haruka is sitting at home, drinking tea, which is true because Haruka has finished the laundry and the cleaning and is bored. Chiaki hopes Haruka-neesama has a quite, relaxing day. Kana, however, gets more and more annoyed at the thought of Haruka being at home and figures that she'd better have a really good cake made when they get home. Indeed, Haruka does make a strawberry cream cake but ends up eating the whole thing. So when Kana and Chiaki come home, Kana is looking for the cake, seeing evidence of it on the corners of Haruka's mouth. Haruka tries to hide the evidence and Chiaki, realizing Haruka's relaxing day will be flushed because of Kana, gets Kana to go along with the idea that it isn't cake cream on her mouth, but shaving cream. Reflecting on this, Kana decides that Haruka is at the age where she'd grow a beard, which Haruka finds more horrible than being caught having eaten an entire cake.

Kana is tired of being awoken by Chiaki jumping on her back every morning. So, she decides that she will be the one waking an over-sleeping Chiaki next time. That Saturday night around 11PM, Kana wakes Chiaki with the idea of keeping her up talking about things so that she'll then oversleep. In the living room, a sleepy Chiaki wants to know what Kana wants and Kana wants to discuss why Chiaki thinks of her as an idiot. Even though tired, Chiaki is happy to discuss this subject, saying she's long wished to tell Kana just what a true idiot she is (using hundreds of thousands of words), but her tongue can't move that fast. As such, all she can say is "bakayarou." Still, "bakayarou" doesn't really help Kana to understand how deep of an idiot she truly is. Chiaki wishes she had the time to write a 10,000 page report on the subject, and asks forgiveness for being an inadequate sister. While this is heavily insulting to Kana, she has to stick with the plan. She manages to keep Chiaki from going back to bed until they both fall asleep in the living room. When they awake at the same time, it is 3pm and an annoyed Haruka tells them that they won't be getting a snack. The following Saturday night about 11pm, Chiaki wakes Kana up and brings her to the living room. She presents her 10,000-page written report (compiled into several numbered notebooks) which she strongly suggests that Kana read and reflect on. Kana decides to leave, but Chiaki won't let her go.

Kana is very ill and so Chiaki stops in her room to see her. Chiaki's normal insult of Kana's intelligence doesn't provoke a reaction and indeed, Kana believes she sees a bus to take her to the underworld. Chiaki sits with the sick Kana and confesses that she ate Kana's cake the other day. Kana doesn't get mad and says its OK, leading Chiaki to think this is serious. Kana weakly confesses to having eaten Chiaki's piece of cake only yesterday, leading Chiaki to fist-mash Kana's face. Chiaki prepares a damp towel for Kana's head and as the two talk, Chiaki is surprised when Kana thanks Chiaki for all she's doing and tells her its OK to watch her favorite TV show. Chiaki says that it is OK to miss her show to sit with Kana as seeing Kana sick is much more entertaining. That provokes a reaction from Kana who demands an apology, then suddenly discovers that her fever has broken which Chiaki is now suddenly sick. Now Chiaki is in bed with Haruka and Kana looking at her. Kana asks Chiaki if she wants and apple and when Chiaki says yes, Kana pushes it hard into Chiaki's face.

Its dinner time at the Minami residence and Haruka has to force Chiaki to eat her vegetables. When Chiaki and Kana start to fight over this, Haruka becomes like a very annoyed mother. Afterward, Haruka has their clean school uniforms and Kana suddenly decides she wants to try on Chiaki's uniform. However, she's unable to get it on and when she thinks she tears it, an angry Chiaki forces her out of it. Haruka enters and suddenly decides to see if she could try on Kana's uniform, which is still the same design as when Haruka was in Kana's junior high. Kana isn't too happy about that, but she's even less happy when Chiaki tries on Kana's uniform and finds the skirt too loose but the shirt just right.

Chiaki is studying and Kana is eating cookies and thinking about how much she wants a cheese lemon custard chiffon pie. She doesn't think Haruka will make one, at least not immediately. So, she hatches a plan and convinces Chiaki that Haruka wants said pie, and that they should make one to thank Haruka for taking care of them. Chiaki thinks it is too hard for them, but Kana tells her that even if they mess it up, its the thought that counts. Kana's plan is that Haruka will see Chiaki's feeling and then make a proper pie. Chiaki is very impressed this selfless, non-idiot thinking on Kana's part and immediately agrees to help make the pie. In the end, Chiaki does all the work, but to Kana's chagrin, the pie comes out perfectly. Haruka comes home and when Chiaki returns with Haruka to present her the pie, the plate it was on is empty as Kana has eaten it. Chiaki is very angry but Haruka is happy with the thoughts from both of them. This shames Kana, who tells Haruka she's a good person and weeping, tells Chiaki to beat on her. Haruka won't allow it and instead says the three of them should work together to make another pie.


Thoughts: I laughed at how Kana knew exactly what Haruka was going to do, right down to making a cake and yet Haruka ended up eating the whole thing. *lol*

The best laugh I've gotten thus far was Kana having to endure being heavily insulted by Chiaki as part of her plan. I laughed so hard at that because of Chiaki's words and Kana's facial expressions as Chiaki's frank talk carried on. Indeed, I had to watch this part of the anime twice, it was that funny to me.

Hey! Kana is a Bruce Lee fan I guess (or at least, the anime staff are). The third story was getting a little sentimental and I thought, "well, we know the sisters do love each other." The comedy twist on that was pretty funny to be sure.

Kana is the idiot genius to be sure.

Finally, the old "Cheese Lemon Custard Chiffon Pie." I had to Google that and naturally, there is no such beast in the English-speaking world. So, its off to the Japanese world to look for "チーズレモンカスタードシフォンパイ." I found this blog entry which shows a picture of one supposedly. I found another blog where Google had the right Kana listed but it showed in English as "Cheese Lime Custard Chiffon Pie." I checked out the blog and could not find the right Kana for to say this was a "lemon" one so I don't know what Google was hitting on.

Still, I kept looking and found this blog, with a nice picture of a slice of this pie.

I find myself very much wanting to make this pie. As such, I'm going to beg my Japanese teacher to see if she can find a recipe. IF I score one, I'll be sure to share it with you guys.

Update: Recipe --> HERE!

Clannad 14

クラナド Episode 14

SPOILER Summary: Okazaki continues working on Kotomi-chan's yard with the help of Nagisa, Kyou, and Ryou. Somehow, he manages to get new sod laid out and a new flower bed planted in time. He sits at the outdoor table and notices the book with the quote about "Day before yesterday I saw a rabbit, yesterday I saw a deer, today, I saw you." He falls asleep and dream-remembers his time with Kotomi-chan as a kid. He also remembers telling her he'd bring his friends over for her birthday party but when he tried to get them to come, they made fun of him so he didn't go. In the end, he did show up at the house that evening in time to find Kotomi-chan in the study as it was on fire. He tried to put it out and failed, but the "bad man" came in with another person and succeeded.

He wakes up to find Kotomi-chan there, happy to have her only childhood friend back. At school (later that Saturday day I believe), Nagisa, Okazaki, Kyou, and Ryou are waiting for Kotomi to arrive and wish her a happy birthday. They give her a handmade certificate for the broken violin so that when it is repaired, they will exchange the certificate for the violin. The teacher comes out and is glad to see Kotomi returned to school. She says that her godfather wants to see her. Kotomi isn't sure, but the group is there to support her and it is decided that her godfather will meet her in the Theater Club room, where the rest of them will be as well.

Kotomi's godfather arrives (the so-called "bad man") and he has a suitcase that Kotomi recognizes as her fathers. She wonders if her parent's papers might be in there, but her godfather simply tells her to open it. Inside is a now old-looking teddy bear and an envelope, with the words written in English, "If you find this suitcase, please take it to our daughter." Her godfather explains that the suitcase apparently had been found some time back and had traveled the world until he learned of it, claimed it, and immediately brought it to her. She reads her parents letter, which if full of love. She also learns that the papers she burned as a child was in fact a teddy bear catalog.

Sometime in the future, Nagisa, Kyou, Ryou, and Okazaki arrive at Kotomi-chan's house with her violin and she's ready to have a party with them. Kotomi has plenty of sweets made, but Sunohara and Miyazawa are off buying additional foodstuffs. Kyou has apparently "invited" a lot of others to come as well which worries Okazaki. However, Kotomi-chan isn't worried because she has a big yard.

Thoughts: Well, at least we now know why Okazaki didn't show up at the birthday party, but was in her memory for the night she set fire to the papers. I didn't expect for Kotomi to get her teddy bear after all these years. Still, it was very touching as was the letter her parents had written to her. Some birthday present. And she finally got her birthday party, though I'm not exactly sure when the party happened (sometime well after her birthday though).

As I wrote the review, I thought about the innocence of Kotomi's birthday party as a high school girl. Here all these people are going to come, and yet as I watched this, I never thought anything negative. However, as I started writing about it, I thought about that smeg head in Australia who's 16 and for whom the term "party" has made him a celebrity of sorts. I strongly suspect that in Japan, like the rest of the world, high school kids are interested in sex, booze, and the latest tunes. Thus a "party" would imply one or more of those elements. Still, it was nice to think that maybe somewhere, even teenagers would find it satisfying to just gather together, have cake and other foods, and just have clean fun. But I digress...

Kotomi's story was sweet and sad, though not quite as sad as Fuko-chan's. Still, I'm glad for such a happy resolution as it appears that next week will start a new story arc. I kinda figure Kotomi may not be out of the mix. I say this because of her parent's research on an Illusionary World. Considering the purple "firebug" lights when Kotomi accepted the bear combined with that weird girl and robot, it feels like she'll have a role to play again in the future.

Minami-ke 08

みなみけ Episode 08

SPOILER Summary: Hosaka-senpai has Maki in the hall, having learned she and Atsuko are going to Haruka's house. Since he's never spoken to her, he needs a way to quickly befriend Haruka before the end of the day and get an invite. Hayami-senpai comes by and Maki tries to enlist her help in protecting Haruka, but Hayami has a better idea and goes off to find Haruka. Meanwhile, Hosaka runs through "simulations" in his mind, one with he and Haruka meeting in the rain and one with the two of them meeting in the snow. Hosaka asks Maki which is better to say -- "suki desu" (polite way to say you like someone) or "suki da" (more masculine way of saying the same thing). He's saying that over and over to Maki as Hayami arrives with Haruka, so it seems to Haruka that Hosaka is making a love confession to her. Maki sees her walk away and chases her to set the record straight.

Chiaki comes home and finds some bubblegum on the table. Kana comes in and discovers Chiaki blowing a nice-sized bubble. Kana is amazed, but then has to pop it. Chiaki cleans herself up and Kana tries to blow a bubble but fails. Chiaki gets another piece of gum to demonstrate how its done and again, Kana pops the bubble. Kana asks for and received some harsh training from Chiaki on bubble blowing. Chiaki for the third time shows Kana how its done and again Kana pops the bubble. It is here that Haruka comes home and seeing the bubblegum, decides to have a piece. She blows a bubble, but then blows a second bubble within the first. Chiaki and Kana are amazed by this godly technique and praise her. Having finished her bubble, she carefully lets it go down, then carefully removes and disposes of the gum. However, when they ask her to show them again, she pauses, then simply smiles and announces its time for dinner.

Hayami-senpai is "sampling" Haruka's bento before returning to her own classroom and Hosaka, who's again pondering Haruka. She convinces him to get in on some of her homemade bento, so he goes to her classroom. Atsuko is in the classroom with her back to the door waiting for Haruka and Maki to return and knows she's being summoned by Hosaka, who's standing and "sparkling" in the doorway. Outside, Hosaka is disappointed to learn that Haruka isn't there. He's stunned to hear that she's gone to go buy a bread product (pan) but doesn't hear the reason why (Hayami ate all Haruka's bento). As such, he decides that she needs proper nutrition and thus he must learn to cook (taking the time to fantasize about painting crows white for Haruka and undo his shirt and jacket). The following day, Hayami discovers Hosaka pondering two identical bentos. She samples one and finds it good but is horrified when she learns he prepared it and isn't happy with it.

It's Monday morning and as the sisters sit down to eat, Haruka discovers a horrifying thing -- the rice cooker is empty. Kana swears she remembers putting rice in and switching it on but clearly that didn't happen. Chiaki is very angry and so Kana offers to make her some toast. At school, Haruka has no energy because she didn't get her rice. Hayami learns this and rushes to inform Hosaka (who's imagining cooking spaghetti). He happens to have another bento prepared and rushes to bring it to Haruka. Maki spots him in the doorway with a bento and figures he's up to something while Atsuko brings Haruka some onigiri. Hosaka witnesses Haruka's immediate mood improvement at eating the rice and that's enough for him. Back at the Minami residence, Haruka comes home to find Chiaki beating on Kana. Kana had made some rice for Haruka but this was the night they were going to make pasta.

At a supermarket, Hosaka is looking over ingredients. He leaves without buying anything and sees a fish market across the way. He spots a rather large fish and fantasizes about being with Haruka and her two daughters (Kana and Chiaki) as the sukiyaki is almost done. At the end of his fantasy, he has the large fish and is embracing it with his shirt and jacket coming off as he does so. This is seen by Hayami, Maki, and Atsuko, and Maki finds this gross. Meanwhile, Haruka enters the supermarket and finds some thin-sliced beef and decides to make sukiyaki.

Thoughts: Kana's bubblegum training was a hoot followed by Haruka's "godly" bubble within a bubble technique. I guess in Japan, its one bubble and then toss out the gum.

Never underestimate the power of rice, y'all! *lol* Never underestimate the wrath of those denied their bowl of rice with their traditional Japanese breakfast. *lol* Man!

One day, I really have to try sukiyaki, though mine will have more meat than vegetables.

This series is certainly on my "buy" list should it ever be licensed (unless Viz gets it, and then I'll be forced to pass). I'm going to be real curious to see how the next series will be since it is being done by another company (same seiyuu though, which is fortunate).

Minami-ke 07

みなみけ Episode 07

SPOILER Summary: Makoto is back at the Minami residence as Mako-chan along with Uchida, enjoying Haruka's prepared snacks. Kana is proud of how she set Makoto down a new path and decides that maybe she needs to do the same for Chiaki. However, Chiaki is ignoring Kana and reading her book (which just happens to have "bakayarou" in the subtitle). Failing to work on Chiaki, Kana decides to work on Keiko at school by making her remove her glasses. Her thinking makes people wonder if she's OK, so she decides that she needs to look more intelligent while thinking. As such, she borrows Keiko's glasses and doesn't even realize that she's already succeeded in getting Keiko to remove her glasses until Riko asks where Keiko's glasses are.

A group of Chiaki's friends have come over and Kana is educating them on what to do with strangers. Takeru-ojisan stops by, so Kana has Chiaki's friends test what they learned on him. Suddenly, Kana realizes that even though they call him "ojisan" (uncle), she has no idea how he's related to them. Chiaki and Haruka don't know either, making him very suspicious. However, Haruka calls her aunt (their mother's oneesan) who confirms that Takeru is her son, making him their cousin. Haruka and Chiaki are relieved to have this resolved as "Kana-sensei" continues her class. However, the two of them seem to have forgotten something regarding Takeru.

The sisters are watching their favorite TV drama about Sensei and Ninomiya when once again, a car hits them in the rain. Kana complains loudly about this reuse of plot and Chiaki asks Haruka to complain about it to the TV station.

Kana is at the library and runs into Fujioka, aka "Banchou." Two other girls happen by, one of them actually having the official title of "Banchou" (lead delinquent). Sitting at a table, Kana is excited to hear about the the legend of Banchou, which in fact turned out to have originated with her sister Haruka. This excited Kana very much, who then borrows Keiko's notebook and has one of the girls write down the legend therein. The current Banchou and Fujioka have a "rock-paper-scissors" battle where the current Banchou purposefully loses. Kana is not impressed with Fujioka and the girl is happy to be officially rid of the title. The girl asks Kana's name and Kana proudly says she is Haruka's little sister. Back home, Kana reports to Chiaki about finding a book and starts reading aloud from the notebook which tells of Haruka tossing a vase of water on a teacher who was sexually harassing her. Hearing this causes a reaction from Haruka in the kitchen, who very much wants to have a talk with Kana.

Two years earlier, the two girls who'd talked with Fujioka and Kana about the legend of Banchou are talking about it. It seems that Haruka was the class inchou (director, also called "class rep") but her classmates had taken to calling her "Banchou" rather than "Inchou" for a whole host of easons. Haruka doesn't like this and when she gets frustrated, she does appear to act like a banchou. The homeroom teacher calls Haruka to the teacher's room where he's concerned about an apparent banchou being in their class. Because such a troublemaker could cause harm to others, he wants Haruka to quietly discover who the banchou is. Nothing Haruka can say can dissuade him, so she changes the subject by pretending to read his palm. She finds herself over her head quickly and so focuses on the wilting flowers in the vase on his desk. She takes the vase to get rid of the old flowers when one of the guys from her class comes in and calls her "Banchou." She's so shocked by this, she accidentally loses the vase which dumps its contents all over the sensei and knocks him down. Thus the legend of Banchou was born.

Thoughts: Earlier, I had wondered who this "ojisan" was, and then having an episode where the girls wondered the same thing was pretty funny. The banchou story was pretty funny too. I really am enjoying this series.

Minami-ke 06

みなみけ Episode 06

SPOILER Summary: Class is over and Makoto is complaining about the homework they've been assigned. He overhears Chiaki inviting Yoshino and Uchida over to do homework and he gets upset by this as they can just blow threw it with three people. Chiaki states she could do that without the others there, leading to more frustration by Makoto. Eventually, he gets Chiaki to invite him and Shuuichi over, where they find Kana changing in the living room, surprised that Chiaki brought guys over. Being another "bakayarou," he gets along well with Kana who tells him several falsehoods that irritate Chiaki. However, when Haruka comes home, he's smitten with her and takes Chiaki's place at helping her make some snacks, loudly and constantly saying "Haruka-san" in sentences, which makes Chiaki even madder since it is a more casual way to address her beloved older sister. Chiaki gets so angry, she accidentally rips her text book in half. So the next time they are assigned a ton of homework, Makoto gets rejected when he tries to get invited to Chiaki's house.

Its calligraphy class time and Makoto can't help but think that Chiaki is ignoring him. He starts to make inquiries of both Yoshino and Uchida about it, but then decides to go to Chiaki. She's preparing her ink and she doesn't respond to him when he inquires of "Minami," so he tries addressing her as "Chiaki." Getting no response there, he calls her "Hime" (Princess) and gets punched for it. He goes back to Yoshino and Uchida to try to figure out things. They recall the evening at Chiaki's house and figure that maybe what Chiaki writes on her paper will be a clue. She writes "バカ野郎" (bakayarou) , leading Makoto to write a quick apology. She gives him zero points because one shouldn't be bothered when dipping the brush into the ink. He compliments her on her writing but gets the ink set in the face when he calls her "Hime" again.

The girls are watching their favorite drama about Sensei and Ninomiya when the power goes off at the good point. Chiaki tells Haruka to request the TV station rebroadcast the episode and file a protest with the electric company.

Uchida has come over and as Kana brushes her hair, Kana convinces her to invite Makoto over. The following day, Makoto is there, happy to be at the home of Haruka and not sure why Chiaki hates him. Kana has a solution to allowing him to stay there and avoid Chiaki's gaze, Chiaki not seeing what she doesn't want to see. Their solution is to dress Makoto up as a girl and call him Mako-chan. Chiaki comes in and with "Chiaki Vision," we see her identify Uchida (with a 50% idiocy rating) and nearly completely black out Kana (with a 100% idiot rating). This "Mako-chan" she can't ID and so she's friendly with Mako-chan. Haruka comes in and begins to take off her clothing in the living room, which is a little too much for "Mako-chan" to handle (turning beet red), though he doesn't reveal the fact that he's a guy.

Uchida goes into a clothing department store and catches Makoto in the girl's section checking out the dresses. She decides to make a retreat and pretend to see nothing, but he's desperate to explain. Once she realizes that his purpose for wanting to buy women's clothing is so he can see Haruka, she decides to help him. She first lends him one of her outfits because it would be weird for a boy to buy girls clothes. Then disguised as "Mako-chan," he and Uchida return to the store to shop. He's checking out the bras when Haruka shows up. Mako-chan mentions this being the first time buying a bra, so Haruka decides to help. She gets Mako-chan into the dressing room and he figures the game is up when he has to take off his shirt. When she measures him, then gives him a feel, Makoto figures that surely Haruka will figure out he's a boy. However, she tells Mako-chan that Mako-chan isn't ready for a bra just yet but she'll be glad to help Mako-chan when it is time. Uchida is amazed at Makoto's escape and Makoto turns all red again, having overload from being with Haruka. Meanwhile Haruka comes home and gives Chiaki a once-over to see if she's ready for a bra or not.

Thoughts: Oh, this was funny indeed. Chiaki is her normal "win" self, but seeing the lengths Makoto would go just to be near Haruka (all set up by Kana) was just hilarious.

Negima! Vol 21 (Ch 195) *SPOILERS*

魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 21 Chapter 195

Summary: Natsumi recognizes Kotaro as the "Rooster Head" thug and Kotaro square off. Rooster Head punishes the girls again and Negi gets angry, his power levels causing the thug to be forced back. However before Negi can attack, the "teddy bear" called Mama punches the thug since the slaves are valuable and he is not. Ako passes out and when she comes to, she's back in the slaves quarters. However, Negi is there (as Nagi) and she's immediately amazed and flushed since the man she's attracted to has come to save her. Negi tells her that Mama has given her the rest of the day off to recover and that he'll get her out of this. She thanks "Nagi" for rescuing her.

Outside, Natsumi talks with Kotaro, who's surprised that she saw through his disguise. He wants to know why she followed them after he told her not to as this has lead to her now being a slave. She tells him she was worried and because he said the trip would be dangerous, she, as one of his guardians, wanted to make sure he would be OK. She gets flustered though at his older teen form though because she finds it cool.

Meanwhile Akira talks with Negi. Akira is coming to the acceptation that there is a magic world, non-humans "people," and the like. Since Kotaro is using a magical disguise and "Nagi" had said "my students," that means the older teen she knows as Nagi is really Negi. This is too much for her and so Chisame consoles Akira. A little later, Chisame tells Negi to not show his true form to Ako. She tosses the Ara Alba badge they found his direction for him to figure out when Asakura is there and the badge is caught by Sayo (in doll form), as Asakura lost it on an intelligence gathering mission.

Asakura briefs them on Ako being sick and the girls willingly going into slavery to save her. They won't be able to take the girls by force and remove their collars for a whole host of reasons including the life of the girls. Asuna might be able to get the collars off but she's not there so the next best thing is to get the Dp1-million. Kotaro despairs of getting that kind of sum, but a sign on the wall promotes a tournament with a Dp1-million prize. They enter the arena to try out where Rooster Head and Mama observe along with Chachamaru and Chisame. Rooster Head tells them that if they can beat the trainer (who supposedly beat the Thousand Master), they can enter. In walks the big guy that Negi had already defeated and when he sees Negi and Kotaro, he becomes very afraid. Kotaro comments about Negi being sidetracked from his quest to learn about his father, but Negi doesn't mind since the other's problem are greater than his. With that, the two attack.

Meanwhile at the gate port, Takahata and Mana arrive in the Magic World just before the gate closes for good.

Thoughts: Well, Akira and Natsumi figured out the truth of the disguised Negi and Kotaro. Ako still hasn't been told, so that fun is still to come. The Dp1-million prize for the fighting is a tad convenient considering that's the price to free the girls from slavery. Still, the last time Akamatsu-sensei did a fighting tournament, a lot of neat stuff came from it.

Takahata and Mana arriving on the Magic World before the gate shut down was pretty sweet because at some point, there's going to be major fighting going on and those are two I'd want on my team.

Minami-ke 05

みなみけ Episode 05

SPOILER Summary: Its a hot summer's day and Kana is making various comments about it being summer. She decides they should go to the beach and so Haruka asks Chiaki if she'd like to go, which she confirms. This annoys Kana a bit. They go to try on their swimsuits only to discover they are too small. Haruka says they've all grown a bit, which meets with Kana's approval since she feels they certainly haven't gotten too fat for their suits. Kana tells Haruka to make dinner while she and Chiaki go swimsuit shopping, promising Haruka to get a good suit. On the way there, Kana tells Chiaki that they need to get bikini with a string-tie for Haruka. Chiaki objects until Kana says that not getting her a suit like that would cause her ridicule and shame. After dinner, Haruka wants to see the swimsuit that they bought, but Kana refuses. Haruka gets it anyway and Chiaki confesses to picking it out. Haruka is embarrassed by it but won't say anything after Kana remarks on not shaming Chiaki.

Its Saturday night and its been raining for three days and it looks like the Sunday trip to the beach is going to be off. Chiaki and Haruka are enjoying listening to the rain and the cooler temperatures, but Kana doesn't care about that, only wanting to go to the beach. Kana decides to make a Teruterubouzu (a charm to drive away rain) and when Chiaki laughs, Kana makes her the charm, wrapping her in a sheet and hanging her by the waste from a pole they've set up for drying the laundry. Chiaki isn't happy about this, but Haruka cheers her on. So she starts her "negotiations" with "Raincloud-san." That fails, Kana suggests more politeness. That seems to work so the third time around, Chiaki appeals to "Raincloud-sama" and the rain stops. However, it is soon back, so Chiaki's back on the pole. The next day is sunny and when Yoshino and Uchida stop by to join them at the beach, they are puzzled by Haruka's remarks on Chiaki's hard work to keep the rain away. They see her on the pole and when Kana begins trash-talking clouds, they immediately gather, forcing Chiaki to make another appeal, at which they dissipate. Seeing this, Chiaki's friends and Kana being treating her as a deity.

At the beach, everyone is playing but Kana notices that Haruka is still wearing a t-shirt. Haruka is a bit embarrassed and wants more time to prepare herself to be seen in a bikini. So while Yoshino and Uchida work on elaborate sand castles (which Kana somehow keeps destroying), Kana convinces Chiaki that they have to do something to get Haruka out of that t-shirt. However, all their plans fail including taking the shirt off by force, which simply leads Haruka to putting on a warm-up hoodie on. Kana decides that the only way to get her out of those is to douse her with water. However, when Haruka's friends Maki and Atsuko arrive with Hayami-senpai and all are wearing bikini's, Haruka feels more confident and takes her shirts off. This leads Kana to head over to where Haruka's friends are playing beach volleyball to demand to know how they got Haruka to strip.

The group has finished lunch and the tea is out, so Haruka says she'll go buy them some cold drinks. Chiaki, Yoshino, and Uchida volunteer to go along, but Kana forces Chiaki to stay. Chiaki is irritated but Kana has an issue she wants addressed, namely that she is losing value in the eyes of Chiaki and Haruka. Chiaki confirms this, saying she was seaweed, but now she's an abandoned flip-flop. Kana decides to raise her stock by making sure Yoshino and Uchida don't drown, but this is forcefully rejected by Chiaki. Kana tries to make Chiaki an Umibouzu (sea priest) and this too is rejected forcefully, which Chiaki slamming Kana so hard that Kana leaves very depressed. Haruka's friends come back by and wonder where Kana is. Haruka, Yoshino, and Uchida also return, wondering where Kana is. Chiaki figures she was too hard on Kana, only to have Kana rush back with a sea shell, which she places on Chiaki's head and makes a joke about her being a Kappa (both the mythical creature and "rain gear").

The sisters are home from the beach when the phone rings. Kana answers and it is Yoshino. She admits to hurting all over from sunburn, leading Kana to say that this will lead to Yoshino being bald in the future. Chiaki takes over the phone to assure Yoshino this is a lie. Yoshino finds it amazing how different all three sisters are. After Chiaki hands up, she wonders aloud why they are all different. Kana is happy for the differences, imagining everyone being like Chiaki. Haruka imagines them being all like her, but decides that wouldn't be good. Uchida calls and again Kana answers. Uchida admits to peeling and Kana tells her this will make her shorter. Chiaki gets on to assure Uchida and Uchida finds both Chiaki's older sisters fun. Chiaki gets cozy with Haruka and offers her a cookie. Kana tries getting in on the act with Chiaki, who's not having any part of it. Kana places a bowl of crackers on her head and calls her "Kappa," leading Chiaki to hit her with the bowl.

Thoughts: Well, I'm sure the fanservice crowd were at least a little pleased with a beach episode and the fanservice that goes along with it. Chiaki is my favorite character, but Kana is fun too.

Minami-ke 04

みなみけ Episode 04

SPOILER Summary: Chiaki comes home to find a young man that she knows sitting depressed in front of their door. Kana comes home and sees a man's shoes in the entry way, and entering, she sees the man and demands to know why Chiaki let him in. Chiaki explains that he just broke up with his girlfriend, which leads Kana to spout off all kinds of things like how she was too good for him. Haruka comes home to greet "Ojisan" and when she hears of the reason for his visit, she flees to the kitchen to prepare dinner. Kana decides to follow suit, only to get thrown out by Haruka for constantly trying to add weird ingredients to the dishes. As they eat, Ojisan gets a phone call from his girlfriend and all seems well again. Kana tells Chiaki to never let him in again, but the following day, he has returned as it apparently didn't work out with his girlfriend.

Riko-chan is dreamy over Fujioka-kun but has noticed that he and Kana seem to be on friendly terms. She decides to inquire of Keiko about these things, grabbing her skirt to keep her from leaving. Riko tries to listen in on their conversation and is shocked to hear that Fujioka has gone over to Kana's house. Another Keiko-skirt-grabbing later, she learns that Kana prepared curry for him. Things get worse when she learns that Kana's sisters are on friendly terms with Fujioka as Keiko suddenly realizes that Riko isn't using an honorific to address her. Riko tries to grab Keiko's skirt again but Keiko manages to avoid it. Riko has a plan though and it involves Keiko introducing her to Kana. Kana has a nonchalant attitude about it, so when she walks by, Riko grabs one of her pig tails. Kana reacts by grabbing Riko's hair. However, as Keiko tries to sneak away, both end up grabbing her skirt.

Its a rainy day and Kana and Chiaki are home reading. As Kana reads her manga, she comments on how good pudding is and wouldn't Chiaki like some. Chiaki isn't falling for it and says she's fine because she has her soda. However, when she goes to the fridge to get a fresh can, she discovers they are out. As such, it is time for a battle between sisters with the loser forced to go out and make a supply run. Kana has a new game she borrowed from Keiko and it features the sensei and young female student from the drama series. The first item on the game appears to be a fight one between sensei and girl, but when Chiaki (playing Sensei) beats Kana, they get a "Bad End" title. They go through each and every (parody) game on the disc and each time end up with a "Bad End" logo. Haruka comes home, the rain having stopped, and has pudding and sodas. However, she finds Chiaki and Kana deeply engrossed in their game.

At PE, Haruka shows how gifted she is at volleyball. Hosaka and Hayami, watching from a distance, want her in the volleyball club, though Haruka has told her classmates she can't because of the kids (Kana and Chiaki). At lunch, Haruka, Maki, and Atsuko are eating and talking about Hosaka-senpai, whom Maki finds disgusting. As if on cue, he arrives and calls Maki over. Realizing he hadn't overheard their conversation, she pretends to go along with his plan to bring Haruka in as the manager for the guy's volleyball club. It is his fantasy for her to wipe the sweat off him in a loving way. However, Maki tells him she can't join a club because of the kids, leading him to fantasize about her as a mother and wife. This makes him sweat profusely, leading Haruka to wipe the sweat from the dazed Hosaka-senpai.

Haruka rushes off to get home as Maki and Atsuko head to volleyball club practice. They notice Hosaka-senpai smiling at them and even flinging a little sweat and determine he wants to speak to them. Outside the gym, he wants to know how many children Haruka has. Maki gets Atsuko to go along and they say two. This makes sense to Hosaka's strange logic, considering Haruka's charm. Maki and Atsuko try to get away, but he wants to know more about them, so they tell him that Haruka says they are cute, something he understands. He realizes that he'd need to be their father if he wants to be with Haruka. He fantasizes about family life with her and the girls, to include Haruka wiping the sweat from him. Maki and Atsuko tell "Senpai" that they need to get back to practice, but he tells them not to call him that. When asked what they should call him, he says "Papa." Meanwhile Haruka comes home to Kana, who demands food, and Chiaki, who welcomes "Haruka-neesama" home.

Thoughts: This show doesn't make me laugh as hard as Azumanga Daioh did, but it has a similar charm and it is funny. Its hard to comment on the series because while its good, it is just a slice-of-life series and one just goes for the ride.

I'm guessing "Ojisan" is their real uncle considering the girls reactions to him. It would have been nice to have had more information there.

I will say one more thing. The game parody sequence clearly shows "Sensei" spelled out in English. That's going to cause non-FUNimation companies severe irritation seeing as they like to expunge terms like that.

Minami-ke 03

みなみけ Episode 03

SPOILER Summary: Its test time at school. For her math test, Kana is pretty happy with her 65. Keiko scores 100 and Kana finds that a boring score. When Fujioka's (whom she refers to as "Banchou" -- a leader of delinquents) score is better than her's, Kana takes it as a personal challenge. She will win the next test and the loser has to pretend to be a dog. For English, Kana has a 61 and Keiko gets a 100, prompting Kana to tell her to go to America. She alters her test score on the sheet to ultimately say 68, but is beaten again by Fujioka. She refuses to give up (or pretend to be a dog) and so for the rest of the day, she gets her test scores back. Keiko scores a 100 in everything and no matter what Kana changes her score to, Fujioka beats her. When he demands she pretend to be a dog and show him her paws, she kicks him in the face, saying feet are feet.

At home, Chiaki is studying and Kana is reading a manga when Kana decides to ask about Chiaki's grades. Chiaki deflects the question by passing Kana some crackers. Kana eventually catches onto this and Chiaki states that nothing good can come of this. As such, Kana ends up drinking every drop of milk in the place to show how scary she can be, only to become ill from drinking so much, especially when Haruka was going to make cream stew. Kana won't be beaten and so debates Chiaki on the preparation of food, apparently forgetting her own previous disastrous attempt to make hotcakes. The results of her meal look good but are bad. When Haruka gets home and goes to sample some of it, they stop her. Kana goes to buy new milk and when Haruka finishes the meal and they taste it, Kana is defeated.

Kana is sleeping and when she awakens, Fujioka is there. Thinking he's about to attack her, she goes on the defensive but he points out that the next class is music. Since the classroom is empty, he takes a moment to confess that he likes her. She rushes home to consult with "Chiaki-sama" about this. Initially, Chiaki tells her it means Fujioka likes her but when Kana annoys Chiaki, Chiaki changes her tune, twisting Fujioka's words into another challenge. And so after that, Kana is on guard ready to fight any time Fujioka is around, leading him to think she hates him.

Chiaki comes home to see a pair of guy's shoes in the entry way. She finds Fujioka sitting at the table (Japanese style) and asks Kana about it. Kana concedes this is "Banchou" but that she doesn't want to become Banchou be defeating him, so she can make peace with him by inviting him over AND feeding him some curry, which they accidentally made three pots of. Haruka comes home and everything goes well. As Chiaki and Haruka wash the dishes afterward, Haruka mentions that Fujioka reminds her a bit of their dad. So, as Kana and Fujioka finish watching the TV drama about the sensei and his female student, Chiaki comes in, tells him that's where she sits, then proceeds to sit between his legs, leaning against him and apparently enjoying it. Haruka also seems more friendly to him which makes Kana suspicious before throwing him out, but not before making him take a pot of curry with him.

Thoughts: Chiaki-sama RULES, y'all! *lol* I don't think I've ever seen a love confession twisted into a challenge to fight before, but this anime has now done it twice and it is funny both times.

There was a slightly serious moment when Haruka mentioned their dad and Fujioka, but for the most part this was another fun, sometimes funny, wacky episode.

Gunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino- 01

ガンスリンガー・ガール -イル・テアトレーノ- Ep. 01

SPOILER Summary: Hilshire and Jose return from a trip to France where Jose picks up a gift for Henrietta and Hilshire one for Triela. Back in Italy, a terrorist group is causing problems and a citizen protest could be just the thing for them to use. As such, the Agency deploys the teams with Jean and Rico go with Jose and Henrietta to patrol together with Hilshire and Triela setting up elsewhere. After Jean and Rico move through a police line to patrol another section, a bomb goes off, giving Jose a minor injury. Jose keeps Henrietta from shooting anyone, but then she spots someone dressed in riot cop gear making a get-away in a van.

A girl from the Agency arrives on her Vespa, which Jose borrows and with Henrietta, pursues the van (Henrietta happy to be so close to Jose). The Agency decides to set up a trap, so Jean and Rico set up in one location and Hilshire and Triela in another place, so that with some carefully placed Agency-driven cars forcing the terrorist down the roads the Agency wants, the terrorist drive into the trap. Jean tells Rico not to kill but to injure so they can interrogate prisoners. A fight ensues with Henrietta taking out a terrorist, Triela taking out some, and Rico maiming a couple, whom are taken into custody.

Afterward back at their dorm that night, Henrietta writes about things in her diary and decides to pay Jose a visit. His room is unlocked but he's not there. She looks around, then smells his shirt before falling on his bed and embracing it for a bit. When she gets up again, she sees the present on the desk and thinks it is for her. She carefully opens it and it is a small, golden kaleidoscope. However, she is surprised and depressed to see that on the base of the instrument is inscribed in French to a special person named Louise Antoinette Rolle. As such, she flees without returning the gift to the box and without closing the door so that Jose discovers this later.

Back in the room, she tells Claes and Triela this. Henrietta feels that maybe this is Jose's girlfriends but Claes says it is the name of a girl who died in the 19th century who was the lover of a French writer who wrote a story about her with the heroine's name being Henrietta. As such, Claes says the gift was for Henrietta. So Henrietta returns to Jose's room to find him waiting for her. The two go outside with Henrietta happily holding the gift (back in its box) as Jose talks about the starts and planets. Back in the room, Triela calls out Claes on whether that French novel was really a love story, which it was not. Claes assures her that this little lie is OK.

Thoughts: You know, with this more "moé" design, it makes the girl assassins more freaky to me. I know that some have complained about that aspect but the innocent girl look is exactly what makes these girls the perfect assassins in that you never expect it, like how Rico took out two of terrorist.

Other changes are the voices. I did notice it, though its been long enough since I last saw Gunslinger Girl that the changes aren't a distraction. Jean seemed somewhat nicer in this first episode than I remember him being in the first series. His chastisement of Rico was pretty mild, partially due to the change of seiyuu (and partially due to the direction no doubt).

Shakugan no Shana Second 13

灼眼のシャナ II Episode 13

SPOILER Summary: Pheles arrives and speaks of freeing Johan to Yuuji. In an act of self-defense, Yuuji activates a Fuzetsu, who's silver flame immediately sets Margery Daw off. Marchosias, Wilhelmina, Tiamat, Shana, and Alastor try to calm her, but Margery has stepped off the deep end and turned into a werebear (its supposedly a werewolf, but she looks more like a bear to me) to attack. Marchosias continues to try to get her to listen to reason as Wilhelmina restrains Margery's rampage as best she can, activating the Tiamat mask. Shana, under the urgence of Alastor, goes to save Yuuji from Pheles.

Meanwhile Tanaka and Sato pick up Yoshida from the rubble, wondering why Margery has gone berserk. They note the silver flame of the Fuzetsu and know that this is the calling card of the Tomogara she's been searching for, but Sato seems to know the source isn't right. Further, the green flame is from Pheles and there's more going on here than meets the eye. Margery continues to rampage despite Wilhelmina's best efforts and not only is there massive destruction to the school, but Oga-chan gets hit by Margery's purple flames and would be dead were it not for the Fuzetsu. Tanaka is beside himself after witnessing this and Sato has to help him, reminding him that all this can be repaired thanks to the Fuzetsu.

Meanwhile, Shana had been having some problems battling Pheles thanks to her Inbelna unrestricted spell which prevents Shana from sensing her. However, as they battle, Pheles is getting weaker. Margery manages to get to Yuuji and despite Marchosias' pleas, she attacks him. However, a barrier around him prevents the attacks from doing damage. Wilhelmina and Shana decide to do a combination attack with Tiamat's approval and the result takes out Pheles and restricts Margery's beast form, allowing Shana to come in and send Margery to the ground where she's now unable to move.

With combat over, Shana prepares to start addressing some issues but Sato wants to start with the explanation of the silver flame of Yuuji's. However, since Margery is still struggling to free herself from Wilhelmina's binds, Sato addresses her, asking her if she really thought Yuuji was the Silver she'd been looking for and that if she destroyed him, she'd lose a valuable clue. Wilhelmina steps in to say this was the information she was going to pass to Margery. Margery is still not listening and still struggles to get out until Tanaka asks her why she went berserk and as a result of her destruction, Oga-chan was caught in the middle. Hearing this takes the fire out of Margery's rage and she reverts back to her human form, getting some mild chastisement from Marchosias as well.

Margery gets up and comes to Yuuji, confirming that he's not Tomogara. However, she wants to know exactly what he is, something everyone else is keen on knowing as well. Wilhelmina goes to Pheles and inquires as to Johan, someone who was supposedly dead along with Pheles. The weakened Pheles states that in her and Johan's battle with the powerful Tomogara Sabrac, they were beaten and to save Johan, she placed him within the Reiji Maigo to preserve him, then sent the Hougu out, which explains how Yuuji ended up with it. After the battle, Pheles then began to hunt for the Reiji Maigo.

Wilhelmina requests that Pheles not rescue Johan until they've solved the mystery of why Yuuji has the silver flame. She frees Pheles and then requests that Shana not kill Pheles. Apparently when Pheles made a pact with Johan, she stopped the normal Tomogara consumption of humans. Considering how weak Pheles is, Shana confirms that Pheles has not been consuming humans and agrees to the request. Pheles states that there is something wrong with the Reiji Maigo as it shouldn't emit a silver flame and might be the result of what Sabrac did. With that, Wilhelmina prepares to use Yuuji's Power of Existence to restore everything, but Margery decides to perform the task instead as a means of apology, which pleases Tanaka.

With everything back as it should be, Shana is the winner of the costume contest. Yoshida brings Yuuji a soda and he apologizes to her for the problems earlier. Yoshida makes him promise to keep her informed as to everything that happens, promising him that she'll catch up to him no matter how far ahead he gets. They head to Shana, who's having her picture taken by a group of guys in the school. They congratulate her and she them. Elsewhere, a still shaken Tanaka sees Oga-chan and is so relieved by it that he cries and embraces her. Even though she doesn't understand why, she returns the embrace. On the roof, Wilhelmina and Pheles discuss something while in a building, Konoe and her butler discuss something.

Thoughts: Pheles is an interesting Tomogara to be sure. I say this because normally, Flame Haze and Tomogara aren't friends (at least, not that I remember since it is always Tomogara that the Flame Haze are fighting) and yet Pheles is friends with Wilhelmina. Then again, how many Tomogara's make a pact not to consume humans? Marchosias being calm and reasonable as Margery went berserk was certainly different and a nice touch. Another nice touch was Tanaka's reaction when he saw Oga-chan after the battle.

We got an explanation as to why Pheles got right on top of the Flame Haze and they didn't know it (the Inbelna spell). I was glad of that.

Interesting seeing Konoe and her butler at the end. Maybe she has a form of Inbelna on her.

While I'm at it, I will NEVER use the Viz term "Seal" or any other term they've used to protect me from that evil Japanese terminology (I'm stunned they haven't invented other terms to keep all of the Japanese terms used in the original works away from us, but then the Japanese used the actual English word "Torch" and I guess Viz couldn't logically protect us from that). I only mention this because Viz is releasing the manga and light novels in English (which I will not buy, though I will try to buy the Japanese ones one day) and so some wiki-god felt the need to change the Wikipedia entry to match Viz's terms, even if they were different than the Geneon terms used.

Clannad 13

クラナド Episode 13

SPOILER Summary: Okazaki realizes that he had known Kotomi-chan when she was a little girl and that she knew it all along. Kotomi-chan recalls aloud the time when she was a little girl, her parents, and the little boy (Okazaki) who one day was in her yard chasing butterflies as she practiced the violin. She was without friends and he became one for her and apparently came by often to play. Kotomi was very gifted and when her birthday approached, she requested a stuffed "bear-san," not so much because she wanted one, but because she had read that girls went for that kind of thing.

However, her parent's job forced them to make a sudden trip overseas, meaning they'd be gone on her birthday. She's very upset by this and tells her parents she hates them, refusing to be consoled by the fact that her birthday party would proceed as planned with Okazaki and friends coming. They leave and on her birthday, the maid got sick and no one came to her party. A knock on the door is from a strange man (the one Kotomi-chan refers to as the "bad man") who's looking for an important document from her parents. He also tells her the tragic news that her parents died in a plane crash. In anguish, the young Kotomi-chan goes through the house looking for her parents before ending up in her father's study. On the desk is an envelope with what she believes are the papers the "bad man" is looking for, so she burns them. After that, Kotomi made it her mission to follow her parent's footsteps and become very smart while at the same time, collecting every scrap of information on her parents.

The following day at school, Kotomi isn't there and Okazaki learns that from a teacher that she's suddenly decided to accept an offer to study in the U.S.. Okazaki discusses this with Nagisa, and tells her to inform Ryou and Kyou while he plans to return to Kotomi's house. Seeing the overgrown yard, Okazaki decides to start pulling the weeds and the grass. Nagisa pops by and lets him know that she, Kyou, and Ryou are planning something special for Kotomi's birthday on Saturday, giving them four days. However, she won't say exactly what it is they are planning.

The work is slow for Okazaki and so the following day he decides to get some proper gardening and yard tools as well as a book on the subject. Nagisa, Kyou, and Ryou find him studying at a burger joint and they have their surprise. They are now the owners of the violin that Kotomi had played at school, only to have the handle broken when they were nearly run over by someone on a motorcycle. So they spend the rest of the day trying to find someone to repair it, only to learn that it would be cheaper to buy a new one, something that is unacceptable to Kyou. They finally find a shop where the guy says he can repair it, but it will take a month to six-months to do.

The group discusses this on the bus ride back to Kotomi's place. Kyou tries to get Kotomi to respond to them, but fails. The girls offer their assistance to Okazaki, but he turns them down saying that their parents will be worried and that he's just going to clean up and go home himself. They leave but he decides to do some work after all. A few minutes later, the girls return as Nagisa had told Kyou and Ryou that she felt he wouldn't actually go home. This time the girls stay and help. As the work on the yard, Nagisa thinks she sees the upstairs curtain move a bit. Kotomi never shows, so they all decide to keep working.

Thoughts: I see an overgrown yard and my first thought isn't to pull up all the grass and weeds, even to restore the yard to a nice look. But then, what do I know?

Kotomi-chan's story is pretty sad and yet I kept thinking, "How does a little girl like that manage to stay in her parent's home alone after the death of her parents?" Kotomi-chan knowing more than she let on surprised me a bit.

The episode was sad and nice at the same time. The writers decided to avoid an obvious joke on Kyou with the motorcycle incident (she having run into Okazaki twice with her scooter bike) and avoided humor altogether. While I have certainly enjoyed the humor in this series, I felt the writers made the right call by leaving the humor out of the episode. And I like how the writers don't just have Okazaki being the lone hero (which we've already seen) but is having it be a group effort, with Nagisa being a central pillar of the group. Good stuff.

Minami-ke 02

みなみけ Episode 02

SPOILER Summary: At Haruka's high school, she's eating lunch with friends Maki and Atsuko. Maki announces that she's quitting school but because she's been threatening this for a couple of days now, Haruka and Atsuko don't take her serious. When Haruka asks the reason for this, Maki finishes her pan (bread, specifically she has a large bun with a filling in it) and says it is because of their school uniform in that girls have to wear skirts and there's a chance they could flash their panties. Atsuko says she should just wear bloomers over her panties if she's that concerned about it, but Maki is distracted by her missing pan. Haruka tells her she's eaten it, but Maki doesn't listen and goes to look under the desk, where she can see up Haruka's skirt. She decides to loudly announce that Haruka is wearing white panties, but only gets out "pan" as Haruka stops her, making it seem like she's talking about bread. Maki continues to talk about panties and finally Atsuko has had enough and loudly tells Maki to just wear bloomers.

Back at home, the three sisters are eating dinner when Kana wants to know why Haruka came home late. She tells them she had an activity to perform and she was with a boy. Kana wants to know if they did anything "weird" together. Haruka pulls Kana aside to tell her not to teach Chiaki anything weird. Kana tells Chiaki that when guys and girls get together, they are sure to do "weird things," to which Chiaki wants to know what these "weird things" are. Chiaki keeps coming up with questions which Kana deflects to Haruka, to her embarrassment. At school the next day, Makoto invites Yoshino and Chiaki over to join him and Shuuichi to play games. Chiaki wants to know if they are going to do "weird things" and Makoto protests this greatly. In the end, Chiaki agrees to go and when she gets home, Haruka asks her if she did her homework at her friend's house. She confirms it and says that nothing "weird" happened. Kana and Haruka both end up saying she shouldn't do such things as an elementary school girl and confess they haven't even done such things, which then makes Haruka turn red.

At school sometime later, Chiaki and her friends are gathered around. Makoto is telling a story about Typhoon 14 and Localized Downpour amongst others, which confuses Chiaki. The friends and classmates are stunned by this since these are the nicknames that she gave the various sensei's in the school. She claims not to remember this. Makoto says Chiaki should come up with nicknames for the people in the class starting with him. Her first choice is simple -- "Mako-chan." He's not to happy with that so her next choice is "Baka na Kodomo" (Idiot Kid). He's not happy with that either, but for her, its one or the other and he reluctantly chooses "Mako-chan." Shuuichi is next and he gets "Plain Yogurt" (the actual English words). Soon, the whole class has been named and so "Mako-chan" says she has to give herself a nickname, so she calls herself "Hime" (Princess). He protests that very much, so she calls him "Bakayarou" ("stupid idiot;" often sounds like "bakaero"). He protests that, saying his name is "Baka na Kodomo" before catching this admission.

Its time to clean the classroom and Makoto is eager to jump in. So, Chiaki has him use the dustpan but her sweeping ends up sending him back. She tells him he has zero points at using a dustpan and when he makes a fuss over it, she dismisses him from dustpan duties. So they trade spots and Chiaki gets covered with dust. She makes him get two buckets of water, then stand there and hold them (an old form of punishment in Japanese schools). The others clean, then class happens, classes ends, and everyone goes home, but Makoto remains. A teacher comes by wondering why he's still there and he tells the teacher that "she" told him to stand there.

Its evening and as Kana eats chips and goofs off in the living room as Chiaki does her homework. Kana doesn't like this because it makes her look like she's slacking. Chiaki tells Kana that she's aiming for a good junior high school to attend. So, Kana counters by reminding Chiaki that Haruka attended the same junior high school as Kana, thus Chiaki has unintentionally insulted her beloved older sister. Kana decides to quiz Chiaki from a textbook with a difficult question and when Chiaki gets it, Kana demands to know what page the answer is on in the book, which obviously Chiaki wouldn't know. Kana then states that Chiaki is studying in the living room to be praised by Haruka. So, Chiaki decides to quiz Kana, who comes up with strange answers to the questions, but not the right ones.

Finally, Chiaki decides to make Kana write a paper in 400 words or less on the "weird things" that happen when men and women get together. Kana struggles with this before coming up with a non-answer. Chiaki protests this answers, but Kana tells her to get into a good school where they'll teach her those things. Haruka gets home and they challenge her to write a paper explaining "weird things." Her answer on paper is to put this topic aside and talk about what to have for dinner. Kana wants Udon and Chiaki wants Curry, so Haruka skates out of the answer and goes to make Curry Udon.

Thoughts: Sheeze! There sure were a lot of names to try to grab this time, y'all. However, Chiaki totally rules. I had a few good laughs here to be sure. The "chapter" of Chiaki giving nicknames was pretty funny stuff. This is going to become a favorite it looks like.

Not that it matters, but I guess the three girls live alone with no parents. There was a reference to Haruka picking her junior high and high school based on location rather than quality of school.

Dirty Pair 02

ダーティペア Episode 02

SPOILER Summary: An explosion of a ship causes the company that owns the ship to suspect sabotage and to enlist 3WA. The 3WA computer picks Lovely Angels to the case, which doesn't make their supervisor, Gooley, happy. He's looking at the results of their mission on Elenore and the now leaning tower. However, he has a "super" senpai, Nova Grave, to watch them for this case and one who's a criminal entry expert. The company is going to launch their new super-liner ship Theango and it will be up to the three of them to ensure that nothing goes wrong.

Yuri gets to dress nicely which irritates Kei. Neither Kei nor Yuri are too impressed with their senpai and Kei suspects he has a chest full of hair, something neither one of them can stand. As such, they come up with their own plan where Kei will do some searching outside the ship while Yuri does hear own patrol inside the ship. Grave is with one of the crew inspecting some sensitive areas when he spots a couple of suspicious people. He goes to pursue but they quickly lose him. He returns to Kei and Yuri where he learns of their plan to have Kei do some patrolling outside the ship and approves.

Kei soon spots three others in EVA suits and sees them plant explosives. She attacks with her gun and they return fire. She has Namo come and join her, the robot working to disable the explosives that the trio plant as they flee from Kei. Kei realizes she needs help and calls for Yuri, who races to where the space suits are stored to get changed. However, the two guy sneak up on her from behind and knock her out. They move to the bridge where Grave has gone to and while Grave does his best to prevent it, they injure him and knock out the crew with gas. Outside, Kei's attempts to keep any explosive from going off fails as one of them does, causing a large hole in the ship.

Mughi comes upon Yuri just as she's coming to while the two thugs have returned and are attempting to change to leave the ship. Mughi attacks, giving Yuri an opportunity. A third thug enters but Yuri takes them down and Mughi then holds them down. An irritated Kei arrives wondering where her partner has been and reports that she can't get a hold of Graves. They go to the bridge where they learn the ship is in bad shape with the ship on a collision course with a planet and they quickly organize an evacuation of the passengers and crew. Once they've left, Kei and Yuri assist Graves back to the bridge where they learn that bringing the ship down won't be easy as a number of systems are out including some of the reverse thrusters and auto-guidance.

Kei leaves to jury rig a fix for the thrusters to slow down the ship and prevent it from crashing into the city of Dolmate. Yuri attempts to do her best to guide the ship down with Graves assisting while Kei and Namo head out and hotwire the thrusters as the Theango comes in hard. Kei gets the thrusters online and despite their best efforts, the Theango knocks the top off some tall buildings. However in the end, they get the ship down outside the city. Gooley learns what happened and his aid is stunned that Dirty Pair did this. Gooley corrects him, calling them "Lovely Angels."

In the hospital, Kei and Yuri give Graves a kiss on the cheek but before they leave, Graves asks if they can work together again sometime. To boost his case, he unbuttons his shirt to reveal no chest hair, thus meeting Kei and Yuri's approval.

Thoughts: As one might expect, there's no depth to the episode, but it is fun nevertheless. Kei and Yuri are fun to watch and there are comedic moments which adds to the fun.

Negima! Vol 21 (Ch 194) *SPOILERS*

魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 21 Chapter 194

Summary: Negi and company continue their investigation to find Natsumi, whom they believe may have been taken by slavers. Elsewhere Natsumi indeed is a slave complete with a collar, dressed as a maid and thinking about this strange world with flying whales and how she came to be here, having snuck with Yuuna and the others. During her break, she drops in on Ako, who's ill and being nursed by Akira. The three of them had found themselves in a wasteland with Ako ill, but when they tried to get medicine for her, the price was slavery until they could pay off the Dp1-million cost of the medicine. Natsumi and Akira ponder the possibilities of their being in a dream or even a VR game somehow.

Two days later, Negi and Kotaro are angry when they find that Akira, Natsumi, and Ako are officially slaves. Kotaro handles an official roughly and gets the information needed for where they are, but reminds them that if they take the slaves by force, they'll be criminals. Kotaro isn't worried about that since they already have prices on their heads. He tells an agreeing Negi that they should raid the place just he same, but a voice tells them it isn't very wise. That voice belongs to Asakura, who's dressed as a made and has the Sayo doll with her.

Ako is up and while still weak, is working. Their owner is a "stuffed animal" who reminds them that she won't allow any slacking. Natsumi tells Akira that if they were in a dream, a prince would come riding to their rescue. Three thugs arrive and knock Ako over. They do their thug talk around her, leading Akira to come forward and warn them to not lay a finger on Ako. The leader of the trio activates her collar, causing her great pain, and tells them they have five or six years of work to pay off their debt. The lead thug handles Ako roughly but is grabbed by Negi (still in older teen form) who punches him and tells him not to lay a finger on his students. Ako sees her rescuer and recognizes him -- Nagi-san.

Thoughts: Ah. Akamatsu-sensei has to point out where Natsumi was in the earlier chapters. Heh! And now we tie back to the School Festival Arc with Ako and Negi as his cousin Nagi. Well, that will be interesting because as I see it, Negi is going to have to confess somehow that he's not Nagi but Negi. Still, that would be a killer for Ako though.

With the people found thus far, it looks like Akamatsu-sensei is going to spend some time with some people who don't get as much face time, which doesn't bother me.

Minami-ke 01

みなみけ Episode 01

SPOILER Summary: Its a Sunday morning at the Minami home and oldest sister Haruka is making breakfast. Youngest sister Chiaki gets up and assists while middle sister Kana gets up, then figures on going back to bed. When her sisters simply say, "goodnight," Kana had expected them to ask her to help. So Haruka says to help peel the potatoes and Kana botches it.

It is (some) afternoon and Kana is home alone when Chiaki gets home. Kana has been bored and demands Chiaki goof off with her. Chiaki reminds Kana that Haruka won't be in for dinner so Kana is in charge of making dinner. Kana begs "Chiaki-sama" to help her, reminding her of her poor cooking skills which Chiaki would be forced to eat. Chiaki concedes this point but as Kana can't make up her mind and has no skill, Chiaki decides that maybe they should just order delivery. Kana will have nothing of this, and decides that she won't be confined to what is considered a normal dinner. As such, she suggest hotcakes, which immediately meets with Chiaki's approval. However, Kana gets carried away and ends up adding canned fruit and juice to the batter, making is a weird stew that Chiaki forces her to eat as Haruka comes home.

At dinner (which is now a regular Japanese meal), the sisters eat and watch a TV drama where a female student is upset with her male sensei, but he ends up confessing to her, where they then kiss before going to the floor. Haruka changes the channel to something else and Chiaki tries to ask Haruka about a teacher kissing his student. Haruka avoids the question and after dinner as she washes dishes, Kana asks if that was the right thing. Kana decides to teach Chiaki about kissing. Kana goes in with a game plan but Chiaki's question was about a show like that airing on prime time which would make the family feel uneasy. Kana concedes that it would and after pondering things a bit, she asks Chiaki if she wants to kiss. Chiaki doesn't, but Kana has made up her mind. A chase ensues and eventually Kana catches Chiaki. Haruka enters to stop this, so Kana suggests that Haruka and Chiaki kiss. Surprisingly, Chiaki seems OK with that with Haruka all hesitant. So Kana moves in and kisses Chiaki, leading to her getting punched by Chiaki.

Its morning and time for school. Kana doesn't want to get up but finally does after Chiaki tells her that Haruka orders it. Kana goes to have some breakfast but because she slept in, there is none and Chiaki and Haruka have already eaten. Haruka has an onigiri for Haruka and off to school it is. Kana is hungry and as she talks with her friend Keiko, she's not feeling any better. Male classmate Fujioka looks at her and is obviously crushing on Kana, so he decides to write her a love letter.

The following day, Kana sees the letter and so when she comes home, she has to report this news to her sisters immediately, coming in and flinging herself onto the table. She hasn't even opened the letter, which is somewhat crumpled and messed up from her sweaty palm. Chiaki gets permission to read it, and so reads it aloud. When Kana learns it is from the popular Fujioka, she's feeling pretty confident. However, Chiaki has a different take on the letter. Because of how it was written in the original Japanese, Chiaki takes other meanings for some of the Kanji and turns it from a love letter into a challenge letter. Now Kana is insulted to have been challenged when she thought it was a love letter, and so she asks "Chiaki-sama" to tell her what to do. The next time when Fujioka is waiting alone in the classroom, Kana enters. He starts to confess to her, but she does a sweep-kick to him, taking out his pivot leg as punishment for messing with her (to his confusion and pain). She comes home happy about this, not realizing she'd been tricked.

Thoughts: Weird for sure, and certainly an acquired taste. However, there is a feel of Azumanga Diaoh in this. Where Azumanga Diaoh was about a group of female friends going through high school together, Minami-ke is about a trio of sisters making it through life. I will say this didn't have me on the floor laughing like Azumanga Diaoh did, but it was humorous and I am interested in seeing more.

Specifically regarding the series, it is interesting to see how much Chiaki reveres the oldest sister Haruka by addressing her as "Haruka-neesama" while showing her disdain for the middle sister by merely addressing her as "Kana." Kana is a lot like Tomo from Azumanga Diaoh.

Negima! Vol 21 (Ch 193) *SPOILERS*

魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 21 Chapter 193

Summary: Nagi, Kotaro, Chachamaru, and Chisame arrive at the town, which to Chisame's chagrin, looks fantasy-like with the different non-human races there. Nagi starts to plan on contacting Donette when a new broadcasts shows him as a wanted fugitive with a Dp300,000 (drachmas) bounty on his head. There is doctored footage of him destroying the gate facility. The four quickly gather for an emergency meeting where Chisame reminds them they need to make tracks fast. Negi says that the reason they came to this town was because another member of the group was there. Chachamaru does a search and finds the signal to the other badge, but sadly it is just a badge and no one is with it.

In an alley, the group looks over a wanted poster where all of the members of Ala Alba are wanted with various prices on their heads. Negi starts to get onto himself but Kotaro steps in to remind him that the others can handle themselves and that he should believe in his comrades. As they strategize, Chisame sums it up that they'll have to find their friends on their own without support, possibly until they can get back to Earth. Through a process of elimination, they determine the badge belongs to Asakura and so now what to do? Negi has a plan.

Using some age-changing pills that Eva gave Negi, Negi and Kotaro become older teens while Chisame becomes a little girl as does Chachamaru (whether from the pill or through self-transformation is unknown). They enter a bar where Negi has a sheet of all the girls in the class and asks if the bartender has seen any of them. While there, a really big guy challenges Negi, apparently the Thousand Master had beaten him and so he's going to take it out on anyone that remotely looks like the man that beat him. The big guy, Vargas, can't lay a finger on Negi, so he brings magic into play, only to get knocked out by Negi. The bar patrons are stunned and Vargas's crew decides to attack, leading Kotaro to take care of them all.

Negi apologizes to the bartender, who assures him Vargas and crew will pay for the damages. Considering how strong Negi and Kotaro are, he recommends they do some work as prize fighters to earn some money. Kotaro says they are looking for information, not money and the bartender remembers one of the girls on Negi's sheet came in but didn't have a bounty on her head. That girl was Natsumi and the bartender remembers her getting into a dispute with some men and she and another girl got into a carriage. He wonders if they were taken by Slave Traders.

Thoughts: Wow. So now Negi has a price on his head along with the rest of the battle harem. But, now that I've had time to absorb it, this allows Akamatsu-sensei to take more time within the Magic World since they can't get rescued easily. And, this will allow them to explore more to find their comrades.

I hadn't noticed this the first time around, but if Eva gave Negi the age-changing pills, I wonder if they are someone different from the ones Negi used during the school festival.

Finally, Natsumi also tagged along. Now, she was not in any of the other images that I'm aware of, so I'm not sure why or how she got tagged to come along as well. Maybe she was an afterthought, but knowing Akamatsu-sensei, there was some purpose for her coming. Should be interesting.

Hayate no Gotoku! 39

Hayate the Combat Butler Ep. 39
ハヤテのごとく！Episode 39

SPOILER Summary: Hina goes to pay her sister, Katsura-sensei, a visit at her school room, only to find the place trashed, much like Katsura-sensei herself. She puts her sister to bed and leaves to find Hayate on the school ground. Shion, in the older form, also is there and Hina learns they've blackmailed Hayate to join Kuzuha-sensei after his defeat with the picture of said defeat. He either joins or they get the Sanzenin Estate. Hina is not happy about this, but Hayate decides to go along with it to protect Nagi.

Hina calls Nagi to let her know, so Nagi is off in a large Chinook-type helicopter with her SP's. Meanwhile in the stadium where a large mecha unit stands, Kuzuha explains how she and Shion went to the Amazon to get some legendary vanilla beans and instead came upon ruins from an ancient butler civilization and a treasure which was guarded by the giant snake, Jor-kun. It is then that Hayate realizes they are being used by the snake. Shion gets into the mecha unit and the ancient butler's robes emerge from a storage bin (of sorts), only it is a red maid's dress. Kuzuha recites the ancient spell which will force the dress onto Hayate.

Outside, Nagi sees the glowing lights from the stadium and has the helicopter land there. She and Hina enter with the SP's to find Hayate in the red dress complete with cat ears and serving Kuzuha, apparently unable to remember them. When Kuzuha speaks, Hina realizes she's being controlled by the snake and attacks. Shion attacks in the mecha unit and the SP's move in to protect Nagi. Himegami joins the fray as Nagi tries to strip the dress from Hayate, actually happy to do so. Nagi states that she would give everything up for Hayate and that's enough to snap him out of it. The dress transforms into golden armor and he's able to fight and defeat Jor-kun.

The battle over, Hayate is in his normal clothing while the armor is on a stand. Kuzuha and Shion are freed, but still act all shoujo-ai with each other. Outside, Himegami has the armor and Nagi determines that this had all been a setup so that Hayate could get the armor for Himegami. Apparently there are other items he has to get. Katsura-sensei emerges and is shocked to see the destruction of a school facility. However, since she was going to get booze, Hina decides to accompany her. Nagi and Hayate take off before Nagi has the helicopter stop again at the same vending machine area where she first met Hayate. She buys him a hot canned coffee and when she attempts to kiss him, Hayate doesn't get it and thinks something is wrong with her, causing her to hit him and storm off.

Thoughts: So, this was the end of the 3rd season according to the end announcements. I gather that means that the whole "Combat Butler" arc with Kuzuha is completely over (I guess it is since Hayate defeated Jor-kun). Unless we get some sort of indication otherwise, I would guess the 4th season will be the last one.


References! (Note: the site doesn't get 100% of the references, but they do get a very high percentage.)

Hayate no Gotoku! 38

Hayate the Combat Butler Ep. 38
ハヤテのごとく！Episode 38

SPOILER Summary: It is Christmas Eve and as such, Nagi, Hayate, and Maria are going to Nagi's grandfather's place for the big Sanzenin Family Christmas party. To ensure Nagi's participation, Mikado (Nagi's grandfather) includes a threat to distribute a picture of a young Nagi. Maria shows this to Hayate, who understands that this would be embarrassing to Nagi. He also notes someone else in the background of the shot, which Maria identifies as Himegami, Nagi's former butler.

Nagi comes down the stairs wearing the coat that Hayate had let her borrow the year before when they first met. At the party, Sakuya comes by to visit, as does her older brother. Mikado comes by to ask if Hayate has learned anything and gets rescued by Nagi. Nagi hands Maria her present before she and Hayate go for a walk. Mikado asks Maria about Hayate, who tells him he's working out well. Inside, she knows that while Nagi crushes on Hayate, it is still unrequited at this point.

Outside, Nagi feels the mood is just right to take her relationship with Hayate to the next level. She casually mentions the romantic nature of Christmas Eve (were in Japan, confessing one's love on Christmas Eve is a big deal). However, the noise of someone else interrupts her plans and another Combat Butler attacks. Hayate gets Nagi out of harm's way, but finds himself trapped on the other side by Superintended Kuzuha and her giant snake, which holds him enthrall while Shion holds Nagi. Kuzuha's snake has Hayate in his mouth before spitting him out and the Combat Butler then proceeds to kick Hayate's rear. Kuzuha gets distracted by a crepe van and Hayate gets saved by Nagi's former butler, Himegami, who wants to be called by the English translation of his name -- Princess God.

Back at the mansion, the beaten Hayate dreams of his parents before waking up from the nightmare to see a worried Nagi standing by him. After getting up, he goes with Nagi to find Klaus berating Himegami, whom Nagi had fired. Nagi and Himegami often bickered and do so now. As Hayate tries to perform his duties as butler, he finds himself screwing up everything, which leads to Klaus giving him a hard time. Maria and Nagi suggest Hayate take some time off, which he only reluctantly agrees to. On the mansion ground, Himegami tells him that Kuzuha took his butler abilities and Hayate can no longer protect Nagi. To drive home the point, Himegami does a simple punch which Hayate cannot avoid, after which he advises Hayate to leave.

Back in his room, Hayate finds and un-addressed letter waiting for him. When he opens it, he is shocked by the contents. He then writes a letter of resignation and leaves, which Maria discovers a short time later.

Thoughts: So, we finally get to see Himegami and Hayate gets his butt handed to him. An enjoyable episode even if it was one of those evil, American-styled cliffhangers. ^_^

References! (Note: the site doesn't get 100% of the references, but they do get a very high percentage.)

Dirty Pair 01

ダーティペア Episode 01

SPOILER Summary: The city of Elenore is run by a central computer named Brian, who has suddenly started malfunctioning, causing all sorts of problems. In the Operations Center, they attempt to activate the G-Box to override Brian but discover it does not work and Brian continues to causes all sorts of malfunctions. In the city are the 3WA (WWWA) Trouble Consultants Kei and Yuri, officially code named "Lovely Angels" but unofficially known as "Dirty Pair," a name they have earned from all the destruction they seem to cause when resolving cases, but a name they despise.

Kei and Yuri are caught in one of the problem areas where they are having to deal not only with flooding, but high winds, both caused by Brian messing with the water and ventilation system of the tower they are at. People begin trying to flee, but Brian observes Yuri and Kei's every move. They go to take control of the situation but Brian has other ideas and causes another flooding situation. They are seen in Operations as well and recognized by the guy in charge, who wants them contacted. Meanwhile Yuri and Kei override an elevator to go down to Brian's level, but the computer sends them up instead. A rescue team is sent to make contact with Dirty Pair, but Brian destroys them.

From the roof of the tower, Yuri makes contact with their giant cat Mughi, who's just rescued a young girl. They order Mughi to get back to their ship (Lovely Angel) and have their computer unit Namo come to them with the ship. Brian dispatches some automated defense units which has Dirty Pair off the tower and clinging to a pipe. Brian soon rectifies that by cutting their pipe as they see Mughi take the capsule to Lovely Angel. Yuri pulls a braclet-looking device from her boot and a parahute emerges, allowing them a rough landing to where a bunch of air cars are. As Namo pilots the ship to their location, Kei hotwires an air car just as Brian has the automated defenses target and attack them. Kei attempts to elude pursuit by some of the defense units by passing through the furnace area, which has a small window from which they can do a u-turn. Its a good idea until Yuri reminds Kei who's in control of the furnace, forcing them to ditch the air car and make it out the hard way.

Namo is there with Lovely Angel where they communicate with Brian via Namo. Apparently Brian felt betrayed by the G-Box installation and wanted to make the humans pay. Despite the threat from Yuri and Kei to blow him out of the water with their laser, Brian isn't worried and deflects the laser beam, causing great destruction all around the tower and to the humans. Brian finds this amusing as another black mark on the record of Dirty Pair. Kei challenges Brian to answer who's the sexiest between herself and Yuri, so it begins devoting runtime to that. Meanwhile, Kei gets control to warp a ship to coordinates that place it within Brian's core. Brian realizes what they are up to, but is unable to stop it and is shut down by a large ship in its core. Their supervisor Gooley tries to contact them over this incident while the guy in charge of Operations learns first hand why Yuri and Kei are known as "Dirty Pair."

Thoughts: I have a few of these recorded, so since (1) OVA for this series came out when I lived in Japan in 1989 (thus making it stick in my mind big time) and (2) I'm currently reading the light novel that the anime was based on, I thought I'd blog a few episodes for the heck of it. This was just as silly and action-packed as I remembered it, and yet still fun, especially for its age. Too bad it wasn't the story I was reading from the light novel.

Starship Troopers 02

Uchu no Senshi Ep. 02 (OVA)
宇宙の戦士 Episode 02 (Anime)

SPOILER Summary: Basic training is in full gear with Sgt. Zim showing just how tough he is when two trainees volunteer to take him on, and he hurts both of them, one of them being named Hendrick. Johnnie wonders if he's made the wrong choice and Hendrick vows revenge on Zim. Johnnie does poorly in the combat training, often getting killed. During a knife training session, Hendrick questions why in modern warfare with nukes and all that they should have to learn to knife fight. Zim explains things, then brings the point home by practically removing a target dummy's head with his knife.

During the endurance training in the desert with no water or food and a heavy backpack, Hendrick collapses from the stress and is aided by Johnnie and another soldier. As they proceed to move on, they notice the 2nd-year trainees in their armored suits crossing the desert, which Hendrick feels if he had one, crossing the desert would be a cinch.

Finally, their training begins with the armored suits and they all discover that it is much more difficult than they thought to control them. Hendrick has no problem walking, but then accidentally activates the jets and goes face-first into the ground, leading Zim to pull him out of his suit and humiliate him in front of the squad. While berating Hendrick, Zim is stressing how an armored suit adds to their strength, but Hendrick has heard enough and punches Zim in the face. Everyone expects retribution from Zim, but none happens.

At a spaceport, Johnnie's mother Maria meets up with her friend Mary, who was on board the Queen Alexandria when it was recalled to Earth and Mary's not happy about that. Further, the luggage shuttle won't arrive for some time, which also irritates her. When the shuttle arrives, Maria wonders why there was no announcement about its arrival. Further, emergency vehicles are being dispatched to the shuttle as it lands. Mary gets the attention of one of the airport staff, who tells her not to worry, but she's not happy with that answer. Someone notices a glowing on the top of the shuttle and a plasma blast from the glow hits the terminal. Bug-like creatures are attacking from the shuttle, even taking down a fighter and in the attack, Maria is apparently killed.

Around the same time (apparently), a fire starts at a facility some 6KM from their training camp. As such, Johnnie's unit will assist in putting out the fire with armored battle suits equipped with fire extinguishing equipment. Johnnie, Kitten Smith, and Hendrick are the ones assigned to help fight the fire. Hendrick isn't happy about this assignment, but is reminded that things could be worse as he could have been executed for punching Zim. As Zim stays overhead in an Osprey, Hendrick hesitates about going into the fire after Johnnie and Kitten. When he finally does, he exhausts his fire retardant and Zim seems to indicate that he is out of the service. Kitten is working on fighting the fire, but Johnnie does nothing, leading to chastisement by Zim.

Johnnie spots a survivor and as Kitten is being recalled, an explosion causes Kitten's suit to fly to the wall and catch on fire. Johnnie uses the last of his retardant to put out the flames and is ordered to leave by Zim. Johnnie tries to explain about the survivor, but Zim is not interested as his order stands. Johnnie disobeys the order and rescues the survivor, and in the process learns how to better control his armored suit. While he did save the survivor, Zim gives him a beating afterward for disobeying the orders. Johnnie protests, but takes more punishment as Zim tells him he's a soldier, not a fire fighter.

Hendrick is out and the rest of the group goes to see him off. It is then that Johnnie decides to write a letter to Carmencita as basic training continues.

Thoughts: It is interesting for me to see scenes in the anime that I sorta recognize from the movie, such as Hendrick questioning Zim about the need for knife training in modern warfare (Ace in the movie). The anime had Zim drive the point home by sending a knife through the neck of one of the target dummies rather than just pin Hendrick's hand to a wall with a knife.

The bug attack on Earth was also interesting and certainly more believable than the movie attack. I never once believed a bug meteor attack. I kept thinking, "So, exactly how does a meteor travel so far in an apparent short amount of time?" Having the bugs take over a ship on its way back to Earth and THEN attack when it arrives is something I had no trouble believing.

Even though the V-22 Osprey Helicopter has only recently gone into use for the U.S. Air Force, it was interesting that this anime had it being used so that Zim could monitor the training in the fire.

SHIMOKU Kio Interview

Publisher's Weekly scored an interview with mangaka SHIMOKU Kio, the creator of Genshiken. Its a pretty good interview (too bad Shimoku-sensei's question wasn't answered back for the publication) so if you were a fan of the manga or wonder what Shimoku-sensei's thoughts are about otaku, I encourage you to read the article.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6517850.html?nid=2789

Hayate no Gotoku! 37

Hayate the Combat Butler Ep. 37
ハヤテのごとく！Episode 37

SPOILER Summary: Nagi is reading a magazine and calls for Hayate, demanding to know what type of girl he prefers. Maria attempts to provide him some cover but Hayate decides to answer just the same. He wants a normal girl. Nagi ponders this for a while but when Hayate tells her she wouldn't understand, she punches him in the face and runs off. Hayate wonders what went wrong and Maria states that he wouldn't understand, knowing that Nagi's feelings for Hayate are the root of the problem.

Nagi runs off and decides to learn what it means to be normal. She happens upon the "Hamster" Nishizawa and decides that maybe Nishizawa will be someone to learn from. She starts tailing the "Hamster" much to Nishizawa's dismay. As Nishizawa is going to do some shopping, Nagi is going along. They go to the train station, which excites Nagi. However, she's frustrated by the gate system and Nishizawa has to explain that one must pay to get through the gate. They wait on the platform and when an express train roars past, Nagi is stunned at the thought of trying to board a train at that speed. Nishizawa has to explain things, surprised that Nagi doesn't know.

The get on train where Nagi is excited by the ride. She wants to go up to where the driver is, which Nishizawa explains can't be done since this isn't a train video game. When others get on the train and sit on the same bench as they, Nagi is distressed by this because as far as she's concerned, the bench is hers. Nishizawa continues to be amazed at Nagi's ignorance and has to explain normal things again. Nagi gets depressed by this, leading Nishizawa to ask why she wants to be normal all the sudden. Nagi won't say.

They arrive at their destination and Nagi is distressed to learn they have to walk a distance to get to the shop that Nishizawa is going to. They get in line outside a cake shop, which is something Nagi has seen in manga and anime. Nishizawa asks the person taking orders outside if they still have a Koyuki Special Seafood Cake (they only make a few a day), which they do so she orders one. Nishizawa is excited by this since her parents and little brother are away, meaning she can have the cake all to herself. Nagi finds that normal people want boring things which insults Nishizawa and leads her to tell Nagi she won't get any cake, even if she begs.

Nagi is tired of waiting in line and goes down the street a bit where she calls Nishizawa out of line to join her. Nishizawa does and finds Nagi excited at having bought something in limited supply but without having to wait in line. It is a game console made out of 18 karat gold. Nagi is distressed to learn that Nishizawa doesn't want one. They return to the cake shop, only to find that the Special Seafood Cake is now sold out. Nishizawa is forced to go for some left over creme puffs. Nagi is not satisfied with Nishizawa as a reference for a normal person. Nishizawa says she'll call Nagi's people to come get her, but Nagi won't return until she's learned about being normal.

When Nishizawa opens her cell phone, Nagi sees a "print club" photo of Nishizawa and Hayate, which Nishizawa got Hayate to do back when he was still a bicycle currier. Nagi is upset to see this and Nishizawa sees a chance to score points on Nagi. Nagi counters by showing she has Hayate's cell phone number in her #1 slot, something that Nishizawa doesn't have. Nagi stands on the bench to lord this over Nishizawa, saying she'll never give up Hayate. Nishizawa tells her that Hayate will get tired of selfish ojousama's and leave. Despite their bickering, Nishizawa decides ultimately to take the high ground and invites Nagi over to her place since it is nearby, which Nagi reluctantly accepts, especially since her feet are blistered from so much walking.

At the apartment complex that Nishizawa lives in, Nagi is surprised by the smallness of her place. Nishizawa serves Nagi a creme puff, which Nagi likes and thanks her for. Nagi apologizes for her earlier statements which pleases Nishizawa. Nagi decides she wants dinner too, so Nishizawa prepares a frozen dinner. The two play games and when they go to take a bath, Nagi decides that normal is a scaled down version of what she normally does. In the bath, Nagi confesses that the reason that she's hung up on being normal is that Hayate likes normal girls, which gives Nishizawa reason to hope.

At bed time, Nishizawa offers Nagi her bed, saying she'll sleep on the couch. Nagi hints at not wanting to sleep alone, so Nishizawa decides to stay. As a reward, Nagi gives Nishizawa her cell phone so that she can call Hayate and tell him that Nagi will be spending the night. Nishizawa is very happy about being about to talk to her crush and so makes the call. The to go to bed, but seeing that Nagi is afraid of the dark, Nishizawa leaves the lamp on. Nagi tells Nishizawa to call her "Nagi," instead of using her family name, so Nishizawa addresses her as "Nagi-chan." Nagi continues to call Nishizawa "Hamster" though.

Meanwhile, Hayate had tailed the two all day to make sure Nagi was OK. As he goes to return home, Isumi calls to him from the top of a tower structure (smoke stack?). Hayate goes to rescue her when Wataru-kun rushes passed Hayate to save her. Saki is concerned over Wataru, so she goes up to rescue him, but realizing the camera is about to look up her dress, puts her hand in front of the camera. A gust of wind blows Isumi off the tower, so Wataru tries to catch her and falls off. Hayate has to catch them both as they fall, which he does and brings them to the ground safely. Then Saki falls on him, followed by three of Isumi's guards and Sakuya, thus filling up time to end the episode.

Thoughts: A good episode to be sure. Nagi and Nishizawa were pretty funny together. I liked how the writers made up some filler for the end of the episode, bringing in characters we hadn't seen much of recently.

References! (Ah! This is where the evil that is Wikipedia paid off when the wiki-gods deleted this link as a not good enough for them. )

Ah! My Goddess Ch. 227 *SPOILERS*

ああっ女神さまっVolume 36 Chapter 227
Summary: Watson-san (Megumi) is suffering from a terrible headache so Purple-san (Keiichi) goes off to look for medicine. He finds a pill that he can't identify and hold it up. That causes a heart-felt reaction from Moriarty (Urd), who thinks she must be attracted to Purple-san and finds that impossible. Purple-san continues to look and finds a weird gun, which when he holds it up, causes a reaction from Lestrade (Skuld). Her racing heart makes her think she's hot for Purple-san and so she decides to embrace him. Urd does the same and Watson figures to get in on the action when Holmes (Belldandy) sees this and a massive wind blows through the structure and creates a lot of damage.

Holmes is a little embarrassed and wonders what caused that. Purple tries to assure her, but does believe she has some kind of power which she agrees. Purple and Moriarty examine the gun-thing again and their remarks makes Lestrade irritated, but she denies that she would ever own a thing like that. However, when Watson thinks it is cute, Lestrade gets all excited, leading Moriarty to say she knew it was Lestrade's. However, Lestrade remembers nothing, and Purple sees the unease of everyone not knowing who they are.

Holmes sees Purples contemplation and embraces him lovingly, telling him it will be OK. This makes Purple feel better though now Lestrade has a negative reaction to seeing them so close together.

Thoughts: Hmmm. Everyone loses their memories isn't grabbing my goat.

Ah! My Goddess: Fighting Wings 02

Aa Megami-sama: Tatakau Tsubasa Ep. 02
ああっ女神さまっ 闘う翼 Episode 02

SPOILER Summary: Lind does the unthinkable and discards her angel Spear Mint, who's already held captive by the Angel Eater. She breaks the seal on the bathroom to get to Skuld, followed by Hild, who discovers that Mara has been captured by Keiichi and Skuld, using her weaknesses against rock music and good luck charms against her. The Angel Eater attacks, but Lind gets the three of them out to safety, allowing Hild to free Mara and to start the other part of her mission. She takes a Tsukaima egg and implants it within Belldandy.

Outside on the grounds, Skuld is upset with Lind for leaving Belldandy behind. Lind has her reasons and explains her plan to Keiichi and Skuld. Keiichi agrees to the plan which leads Skuld to chastise him as being an idiot. Skuld doesn't believe Keiichi has it in him to pull off Lind's plan. Keiichi counters that he can't do anything, then why is he even here. Skuld is unconvinced since this kind of thing has never been done, but Lind feels sure that if anyone can do it, "Keiichi-kun" can do it.

As the Angel Eater moves to find them, Lind does something to Keiichi. She tells him to be strong as he'll feel power flowing into him. The event has left him staggering and Lind somewhat weakened when Hild finds them. She tells them their is no escaping her. Lind tells Skuld that nows the time to summon her angel. Skuld recalls the advice Peorth, Urd, and Belldandy gave her about summoning her angel and so she does so, causing Nobel Scarlet to come forth from her egg again. The Angel Eater immediately sends out its call which causes Nobel Scarlet to come, leading Lind to understand how it is able to grab angels without their partner's permission. It sends out a distress call that they cannot ignore.

Before Nobel Scarlet reaches the Angel Eater, Lind brings Keiichi in, and he summons an angel, Cool mint, who's also one-winged like Spear Mint, only on the opposite side. Since angels receive power from a megami's love, then Keiichi who's received a lot of megami love can host an angel. Because there are two angels now, the Angel Eater is unable to focus on only one, thus is unable to "call" either of them. This move surprises Hild a lot, who's impressed but has a trump card of her own to play.

With that, Belldandy, dressed in Mazoku attire, arrives and the aura from her Tsukaima is intense. As Hild asks if they can beat her, the Tsukaima comes forth from Belldandy. Lind races to erect a barrier around Belldandy, activating one of her power boosters to assist. Skuld and Keiichi also come to assist by lending the power they have. Lind tells Keiichi and Skuld that she can contain Belldandy as they need to rescue the other angels from within the Angel Eater. Hild asks if that's a smart move considering how powerful Belldandy is, but it is Belldandy who ends up foiling Hild by purifying the Tsukaima, and turning it into an angel of sorts (still looks devilish, only with white wings and a cheerful disposition).

This turn of events surprises Hild but also excites her. However, before she can do anything, Keiichi has Cool Mint attack. Hild avoids it, surprised again that Keiichi could even use that power. However, the attack missed her, but it was the Angel Eater that was Keiichi's true target. Now encased in magical ice, Skuld uses Nobel Scarlet to rescue Holy Bell, World of Elegance, and Glorious Rose. The angels return to their partners, which means that now Belldandy has two angels. All that's left is Spear Mint, so as the Angel Eater attacks, she retrieves Cool Mint from Keiichi.

Hild is still unconcerned even with Lind having Cool Mint back as she feels that Lind can't risk harming Spear Mint. Lind has no intention of harming her other angel and increases the level of her attack to the point that Hild is also forced to raise her power level to 50%. Before Hild can do anything, Mara comes in and takes her out of the combat zone. Hild is very angry about this but when Mara points out that the Angel Eater has gone berserk with energy beams shooting from it all over, Hild decides that the situation has become a bit too dangerous for them and the two of them leave.

Lind is unable to overcome the Angel Eater, so Belldandy moves in to assist, telling her that they'll send it back by opening a gateway. Lind is strongly opposed to this considering the danger the creature poses to them. As such, it must be destroyed to ensure the safety of the angels. Belldandy appreciates Lind's perspective since Lind doesn't want to fight or kill it out of blood lust but out of a strong sense of duty. Belldandy convinces Lind to do it her way and so they attempt to open an earth gate to send the Angel Eater through. It isn't enough so the now recovered Peorth and Urd lend their power as does Skuld.

The Angel Eater has been forced to release Spear Mint and so Lind is able to recall her where now both her angels are now able to come out at the same time. Lind launches herself into space, then comes down with a powerful boot attack. However, the Angel Eater still won't go through the earth gate. As such, Peorth brings out a rose whip, Urd a huge mallet, and Skuld her normal mallet to beat the thing into submission. Seeing this, the Angel Eater decides to go through the gate, leaving the three megami to bicker about the situation, which Lind decides is part of their recreation.

Keiichi comes conscious to find Belldandy over him. He accidentally plants his face between her breasts when he tries to sit up, leading Urd to remark that this is their recreation. With the residence destroyed, Lind and Belldandy begin using magic to repair the place. Peorth, Urd, and Skuld join in, causing the place to no longer look like a temple, but an amalgam of structures, leading those three to beat a hasty retreat. This causes Lind to smile in amusement to Belldandy's delight. As Lind prepares to leave, she thanks Keiichi for his part in allowing her to now summon both her angels. As the gate to the heavens opens, she asks Keiichi if she can call him "friend" which he agrees to. She promises to return on her next time off and is gone. Belldandy tells Keiichi that they are sure to see her again since she always keeps her promises.

Thoughts: The Angel Eater design still stank, but oh well. Really, that was my only real complaint for this 2-episode special (though the final fight between the creature and Lind wasn't animated, which is sure to draw some remarks from the animation crowd). The writers effectively followed the manga story, which is one of Fujishima-sensei's better ones without changing things and making them worse. They did remove Lind kissing Keiichi, which was a bit of a bummer but not something that made me cry, "FOUL!"

Tsubasa Chronicle 51 - 52

ツバサ・クロニクル 51

SPOILER Summary: With Syaoran determined to rescue Sakura, Kurogane decides to give Syaoran some training using his sword. Syaoran's own sword will be repaired. At the same time, Fay and Mokona decide to scout out the castle where they discover that the guards are all called away. Fei Wong's troops have arrived, so Chaos is forced to enter the fray where he makes short work of them. Fay and Mokona come upon Sakura as she dreams (having had another feather given to her) of Chaos, only to realize the things she's saying in the dream can't be real. In fact, she has been given fake feathers and she expels them, though Mokona still reacts to them as if they were real. Sakura awakens and Chaos finds Fay and Mokona with her. He issues a challenge to Syaoran to fight the following day. And so the following day, the two battle. As they do, Xing Huo waits with more troops to advance Fei Wong's plan. Chaos realizes that Syaoran is so focused on Sakura that he decides to end the dual by encasing Sakura's body and soul in ice while his bodyguards prevent Syaoran from doing anything. Chaos transforms into the giant bird and attacks, planning to take her with him.

Thoughts: For a moment, I thought that the writers would REALLY hose things up with the Syaoran-Sakura romance (such as it is) but they didn't. Still, they did totally screw Mokona over with fake feathers. Ugh. Only one more episode to go, y'all.

ツバサ・クロニクル 52

SPOILER Summary: The giant bird Chaos begins attacking, using energy blasts from its mouth. The attacks begin to hit the nearby town as well as his own castle. Syaoran asks Fay and Kurogane to rescue Sakura while he acts as decoy. They agree and Mokona tags along for the ride with Syaoran. Fei Wong has Xing Huo act as her troops go to seal off Fay and Kurogane while Yuuko-san observes from afar that Fei has learned nothing. Fei's plan is to regain control over the party's journeys and so he starts to activate his Syaoran. This causes Syaoran pain as within Sakura's sealed ice, Chaos reveals himself and his true identity, begging Sakura to end this since he no longer can. She escapes her prison and the power of Sakura not only dispatches Fei Wong's forces, but sends his Syaoran back to sleep in his tube. Meanwhile the sword smiths return with Syaoran's repaired sword, which he uses with Kurogane's sword to make a super-sword with which he ultimately defeats Chaos without actually harming him. Chaos is revealed to be a cluster of Sakura's feathers that had taken on a personality of their own and Chaos vanishes to leave one true feather behind. With that, the group goes to travel on while Fei Wong has been foiled again.

Thoughts: So Chaos was Sakura, or rather a clump of Sakura's feathers. Hmmm. Its funny how the writers were fooled like the rest of us about the other Syaoran. They had followed that path which said the other Syaoran had to be an evil agent and well...BWAH!HA!HA!HA!

Well, its over and nothing to do but write my CAR review.

Inuyasha Volume 51 *SPOILERS*

犬夜叉 Volume 51

Chapter 499

Kagome works on purifying Kohaku's shard as the two discuss how Naraku actually purified the shard with Kiyou's power, meaning her power is still within the Shikon no Tama and is the light that Kanna showed Kagome from within Naraku. Since Kohaku is keen on fighting Naraku, Sango dissuades him. Inuyasha thinks the others are being to soft on him. As Miroku ponders his spreading shouki wound, Sesshoumaru is visited by Byakuya, whom Sesshoumaru tries to kill immediately. Byakuya discusses the Tenseiga/Tessaiga issue which irritates Sesshoumaru, but when he grabs Byakuya, he gets a mirror fragment from Kanna's Mirror Monster. By using the mirror shard on Tenseiga, Sesshoumaru can take Tessaiga's power. Sesshoumaru returns to the group and even though he knows this is a Naraku trap, he tells Inuyasha to draw his sword.

Chapter 500

Sesshoumaru attacks with the Meidou so Inuyasha counters with a Kaze no Kizu but nothing happens. Sesshoumaru's Tenseiga transforms to look like Tessaiga and Sesshoumaru uses the Kaze no Kizu. This shocks the group and Byakuya arrives to explain how Sesshoumaru can now do this. To prevent interference from either Inuyasha's or Sesshoumaru's group, Byakuya sends the combatants to a place filled with low-level youkai to Sesshoumaru's satisfaction. As the others ponder what all this means, Sesshoumaru wonders to himself if Inuyasha is truly so weak. He tells Inuyasha that if he is weak, Sesshoumaru will kill him and dispose of both swords. Sesshoumaru wants Inuyasha to prove he's Tessaiga's successor.

Chapter 501

Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha battle in the secluded location while Byakuya's youkai eye observes and allows Naraku to see. Naraku felt that even though Sesshoumaru would know this was a trap, he'd go for it anyway and thus rid him of Inuyasha. Inuyasha takes a beating, but reverts to his youkai form as Tessaiga is seeking his youkai powers as it did when he fought the Mirror Monster. This results in Tenseiga and Tessaiga resonating as Inuyasha attacks and obsorbs the stolen Kaze no Kizu power back into Tessaiga. Realizing this, Sesshoumaru decides attack with a Meidou Zangetsuha for Inuyasha to take if he can.

Chapter 502

Sesshoumaru's Meidou Zangetsuha begins sucking Inuyasha in hell. While this is observed with satisfaction by Naraku, Sesshoumaru decides that if Inuyasha, the supposed heir of Tenseiga, is sucked into hell, he has no need for Tenseiga. He tosses the sword into the Meidou and thus into hell. That causes Tessaiga to adopt the Dragon Scale form and to create a youki swirl within the Meidou sphere. Inuyasha wonders what all this means since the only youketsu to cut is his own, which should, as Naraku notes, kill him. Since his only other option is to be sucked into hell, Inuyasha trusts his sword and cuts to youketsu which causes his own youki force to expand and begin to consume the Meidou.

Chapter 503

As Kagome and the other wonder about Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru, Toutousai arrives to explain that Tessaiga and Tenseiga will soon become one sword. Meanwhile as both Sesshoumaru and Naraku (from his hidden location) observe Inuyasha begin to absorb the Meidou, Naraku decides to end Inuyasha himself by taking control of the discarded Tenseiga via the mirror fragments. Inuyasha is stabbed by huge diamond spears from Tenseiga. Sesshoumaru sees that Inuyasha is weakening, so enters the Meidou to end Naraku's influence and retakes Tenseiga. He attacks Inuyasha but Tenseiga breaks and Tessaiga absorbs the Meidou Zangetsuha power. However, Inuyasha returns to hanyou form and and with his youki force gone, the Meidou is sure to consume both Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru.

Chapter 504

Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha are trapped within the Meidou to Naraku's delight. Inside, Inuyasha is unconscious. Sesshoumaru acknowledges that Inuyasha is only a hanyou despite his not liking Inuyasha's weakness. He removes the large diamond spears from Inuyasha and punches him awake. Sesshoumaru explains that if they are to return to the land of the living, it is up to Inuyasha. Inuyasha sees Tessaiga turn black and remembers the fight with Sesshoumaru and mentions that he felt that Sesshoumaru purposefully broke Tenseiga. Sesshoumaru calmly points out they he doesn't have time to yack since they are fading. Inuyasha begins frantically trying to figure out the solution as he doesn't want Sesshoumaru's death on his conscious. He senses light and the outside world and so cuts the source of the light. A Meidou appears over Kagome's group along with light and Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru emerge. Jaken is stunned that Sesshoumaru isn't carrying Tenseiga, which Sesshoumaru claims to be uninterested in. Toutousai tells Sesshoumaru to take Tenseiga and Inuyasha realizes that the source of light within the Meidou was Tenseiga. Sesshoumaru isn't interested in going around saving people and so leaves, but Rin takes the sword for safe keeping for when Sesshoumaru changes his mind. Toutousai knows that Tenseiga is soon to be not a memento of Sesshoumaru's father but Sesshoumaru's true sword.

Chapter 505

Night falls and before the group can make a camp, Shippou is tagged with a leaf and the number 77 on it. They discover a youkai mansion which Miroku confirms. However, seeing the balcony filled with attractive Japanese women, he forgets that and decides they should spend the night there. An irritated Sango comes but a bunch of slips of paper flow to the girls and they all suddenly get masculine voices and talk about advancing in rank. The in is filled with kitsune youkai who are all taking a test to determine their rankings based on how they can trick people. Upon learning this, Shippou decides to get his friends out of there since they are worth maximum points for tricking. Inuyasha finds him instead and after an argument, Shippou gets away with a giant top and discovers he advances several ranks for it, to the envy of the other kitsune. While the others begin failing in their attempts to trick Kagome and the others, Shippou decides he will take advantage of this situation.

Chapter 506

The kitsune work overtime to fool the group and advance their youjutsu (youkai magic). Shippou gets another one on Inuyasha but because he'd advanced so many ranks previously, he now had to get Inuyasha several times in order to advance again. Kagome gets tricked by kitsune faking tears over Inuyasha and get points. Miroku allows himself to be tricked for the ones that become Japanese women. But then he has some reverse fun as well when he pulls one on a bunch of kitsune, causing them to fail. Sango gets fooled by a fake Miroku. Meanwhile Shippou does what he can to advance at Inuyasha's expense. Dawn is approaching and he's almost out of time to gain the last little bit to get to the next level, but when he tricks Inuyasha into chasing him into a trap, Shippou gets his advancement and a beating from Inuyasha.

Chapter 507

Hitomiko-sama (a miko) is taken by some villagers to a dead body with strange stuff coming out of his mouth. The villagers don't want to take the body into the village and sure enough, a mass of threads spew out of the mouth of the corpse which are deflected by the miko. A few days later, Inuyasha and company arrive at the village, where Kagome sees Naraku's spider webs descending into the village. The villagers report that Hitomiko-sama had died as a thread from the webs spewed at her had attached to her. She asked them to cut off her head when she died, but they refused to do so out of fear. As such, they buried her, but she now stands before them, which Inuyasha senses is a corpse. Inuyasha cuts the now apparent webs and Hitomiko tells him that won't work and is whisked away. Kagome notes that despite being dead, Hitomiko's warning was not from Naraku's control. In Naraku's lair, Naraku notes that controling Hitomiko has been difficult but eventually she will be his and she will then take Kagome's power and kill her.

Chapter 508

Hitomiko's shrine is covered in webs and nothing can get through. Hitomiko appears and chastises Inuyasha's efforts as she is not a youkai. Kagome sees small bells that are serving as barrier markers and shoots one to take it down, but that causes her to be pulled into the shrine. Hitomiko tells Kagome that the person that brought her back to life (Naraku) wants Kagome's life and powers taken, but she doesn't see the the point. Kagome says she came to help Hitomiko, which Hitomiko finds absurd as she places a barrier around Kagome which causes Kagome to be unable to move. Naraku reveals himself, which causes Kagome to overcome the barrier and shoot him with an arrow. Hitomiko now understands that what Naraku fears isn't Kagome, but the power of the bow.

Thoughts: I thought it was time to do another Inuyasha volume, so here goes. Sesshoumaru is always fun to see. However, in the end, we just got another typical Inuyasha sword "version up" moment with the promise that Sesshoumaru and Tenseiga will soon be something special. Shippou's story was pure filler of course and fun I suppose. The start of the new story with Hitomiko and another Naraku plot just makes me weary, though I do admit to turning the pages to see how things will go.

Negima! Vol 21 (Ch 192) *SPOILERS*

魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 21 Chapter 192

Summary: Chisame, now wearing one of her pactio outfits, is stunned to learn that they traveled some 10,000KM (~6214 miles). The impossibility of finding the 11+ people that traveled to the gate with the remaining 15-days of summer vacation they have comes to roost. She recalls the giant land octopus and demands to know how Negi will take responsibility for everything. Chachamaru assures Chisame her life was never in danger as the Cerberus Cloth Eater only consumes clothing, after licking the victims completely naked. Chisame finds that just as bad and returns to rant on Negi, only to find him looking ill as he concedes his role in this mess. This takes the wind out of her rant as Negi worries about the girls who snuck along for the ride.

Negi passes out and Chachamaru places her head against his to discover his fever is at 104ºF. This puzzles Chachamaru who acknowledges Negi is getting worse considering Negi had been completely healed by Konoka. Chachamaru has Chisame go fetch water, who upon returning is shocked to see Chachamaru undressing Negi to dry him off and change him. Chisame has to remind herself that Negi is only 10 to calm down. Seeing Chachamaru take off Negi's pants, Chisame warns that is dangerous. Chachamaru thanks Chisame who seems to get fixated as Chachamaru dries Negi's mid-section, leading her mice to say that Chisame needs to be careful as well.

Night falls and Negi is still out, with Chachamaru depressed at not knowing what is causing Negi's ailment. Chisame tries to cheer Chachamaru up before going to tend Negi again as another person arrives to address "Chachamaru-neechan." Negi wakes up, still in bad shape and apologizes to Chisame. Chisame also apologizes for her rant and acknowledges she agreed to the potential risks of the trip. Negi is frustrated that despite all his training, he was unable to protect everyone and got stomped by Fate. He feels that Eva or his father would have succeeded but Negi couldn't even sense Fates first attack. As such, he wants more and more power.

Meanwhile, the person, Kotaro, has been briefed and presents himself to Negi. He power-punches Negi and starts going off on him for worrying. He taunts Negi, saying that even if Negi had more power, he'd never match the Thousand Master, much less Asuna. He launches his Shikuukokurouga attack on Negi (with all the wolves) . Negi counters but Kotaro tells him he better do more. In fact, should Negi defeat Kotaro, he'll let Negi know what Asuna has that Negi doesn't which makes her better in combat.

The fight rages for 15 minutes, mainly with power punches as Chisame and Chachamaru watch in resignation. The fight over, Kotaro and Negi argue over who won before Kotaro notes that Negi's mood has improved and that his fever has broken. Negi is stunned that this is true, so Kotaro explains that Konoka's healing power placed so much magic into Negi that the power went wild, causing his illness. As such, it needed to be expelled, which is what the fight produced. Negi wants to be told what Kotaro was referring to regarding Asuna. Kotaro initially refuses but after Negi insists he won their match, Kotaro states that the one thing Asuna has is idiocy. This confuses Negi but Kotaro will say no more on the subject. The four decide to head to town before proceeding with trying to find more people.

Thoughts: Hmmmm, so Negi had too much magical energies inside him which needed to be expelled. And Kotaro was the next person to be found. Well, that gives them three major fighters with Chisame's mice that can scout the area. Then again, now that Chachamaru is there and Negi can keep her powered, the mice can stay powered and as they did when Chisame was alone, they can navigate a route that would avoid all conflict. I'm not sure which way Akamatsu-sensei will go, but we'll see.

Tsubasa Chronicle 48 - 50

ツバサ・クロニクル 48

SPOILER Summary: Mokona deposits the group in mid-air where they fall to the ground. Just before they hit, an energy surrounds them, allowing them to land safely. They hitch a ride with a couple on a cart where they learn this is the land of Tao and that everyone has the senriki power, but the ability to fly like that is a very special ability. They come into town where a group of winged troops flies out from Kunlun Castle. Apparently the king, Chaos-sama, knows of their quest to find Sakura's feathers and he invites them to the castle. He has a fan constructed from her feathers and in exchange for returning those feathers, he wants to hear of their adventures. There is suspicion, especially from Kurogane, so as a good faith gesture, Chaos gives Sakura the feathers, and she's out. He then makes a request of them that they take care of a problem for him, a giant bird known as Genkaku. However, to get to where the bird is, there are youkai known as Shiyu that they will also have to deal with. They agree and after a conversation with Yuuko-san, they go out to face the bird. They discover its feathers appear to be Sakura's feathers. It knocks them to the ground where they are surrounded by the Shiyu. Meanwhile, Sakura sleeps and dreams of Chaos.

Thoughts: Hmmm. I'm not sure but I don't think Yuuko-san's White Day gift thread was ever picked back up by the manga.

ツバサ・クロニクル 49

SPOILER Summary: Sakura dreams and recalls a moment when as a young girl, she was rescued by King Chaos, who escorted her back to her residence. Sakura expressed a desire to leave Clow Country to Chaos and made him promise to rescue her if her brother and father forbid her from traveling far away. His price is to be allowed to travel with her as her friend and protector. Meanwhile the boys go to battle but suddenly find themselves separated. Syaoran find himself facing Seishiro, Kurogane his father, and Fay faces Ashura. However, they quickly determine them to be fakes. Back at the castle, Chaos and Sakura go into town for a bit and he tries to convince Sakura to leave the others and travel with him. She refuses, so he places her within a barrier and recalls his shikigami who return to paper cutout form when they reach him. The boys follow and face Chaos as Xing Huo investigates that world to learn the source of a great power that troubles Fei Wong. Kurogane is first, but Chaos not only defeats him in actual sword fighting skill, but in special technique as well. Fay is up next but since he won't use his magic, he is defeated. Finally it is Syaoran's turn, who squares off with Chaos over a lengthy musical piece before attacking.

Thoughts: Man, Bee Train sure knows how to take an action moment and fill it with enough filler to feed a 3rd-world nation for a week.

ツバサ・クロニクル 50

SPOILER Summary: Xing Huo observes as Chaos defeats Syaoran and breaks his sword. Despite proving himself superior to them in battle, Sakura does not wish to travel with him. He places her in a trance to make her travel with him and sprouts wings composed of Sakura's feathers. He is surprised at Syaoran's attempts to reach Sakura. He's also surprised when upon opening a gate to travel to another world, he finds her crying even though in a trance. He takes her back to the castle where he talks with her a bit while Syaoran dreams of his counterpart in Fei Wong's lair. The boys recover with the couple they met in episode 48 but Syaoran is depressed about things and goes off on his own as Kurogane and Fay discuss things. Fay then goes to talk with Syaoran, advising him to not worry about doing things for Sakura, but for himself when it comes to the two of them. Kurogane makes a request of Yuuko-san to have Ginryuu returned to him briefly, but she denies the wish. He's annoyed, but offers his current sword to Syaoran to get Sakura back with.

Thoughts: These past three episodes could have easily been compressed into two episodes. But filler is filler. It is amusing how little the anime writers understood the CLAMP story based on their own interpretation of how things should progress but then that's to be expected I guess.

Negima! Vol 21 (Ch 191) *SPOILERS*

魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 21 Chapter 191

SPOILER Summary: Chisame, recounting her journey as "Chiu-tan" starting from 37-hours before, is typing her experiences in the jungle into her laptop. However, she cannot upload her stuff to her website, which her electronic mice sprites remind her of. In addition to the Calorie Mate she had in her robe, all she has is her laptop, cell phone, and her critters, all of which she finds useless in the jungle. The mice protest, reminding her they found the cave for her shelter and that they are company.

Chisame recalls the events at the gate port where the Forced Transmission spell was cast. Initially Chachamaru had Chisame but in her attempt to grab Negi, she got separated from Chisame, something Chisame promises to remember. They are still 310KM to the nearest settlement and Chisame is not happy to have to trek through that much jungle. She's also frustrated because Negi had promised to protect her if something happened.

The mice do their best to navigate Chisame around all possible dangers, meaning their progress is slow. Unfortunately, because the mice rely on the power of her electronic devices, they have nearly exhausted that energy source. Using the last bit of power, the mouse named "Negi" draws an arrow on a piece of paper pointing the current direction of the town, but of course if she moves the paper, it is immediately inaccurate making it unusable. The mice vanish and she's left alone.

Night falls in the jungle and Chisame needs a safe place to sleep. She again thinks back to Negi's promise to protect her and with a sudden fierce determination, she decides that she'll not only get out of the jungle alive and without help, she'll get back to the school as well, after which she will humiliate Negi. However, a large tentacle beast emerges and grabs her, its slime dissolving her clothing and making her concerned of something far worse that being consumed as a meal happening (a "perversion"). With her clothing mostly gone, she screams out for Negi-sensei to save her at which point Chachamaru arrives with a dual-bladed arm to stab the beast. Negi catches the mostly naked Chisame and the creature gets away.

Chisame is upset and begins wailing on Negi, telling them they were late. Chachamaru explains the delays but Chisame doesn't want to hear it. She even accuses Chachamaru of making out with Negi.

Thoughts: Ah, got to get some more sexual jokes in here, this time with the dread tentacle beast, which long-time anime fans will know seemed to be a staple of hentai stuff years ago (no clue how it stacks today other than it is still well known in Japanese fandom). I like Chisame's mice. And Chachamaru does appear to be able to shape-shift her arms into weapons because now she had two blades. That is a nifty ability.

So now we have one member found and another one should be nearby.

Tsubasa Chronicle 46 - 47

ツバサ・クロニクル 46

SPOILER Summary: As Syaoran, Kurogane, Chun-yan, and Sorata travel with Kishim, she is forced to return to her "pendant" state and tells them that the troubles here began shortly after they left the world before. As Kishim was going to punish the previous lord's son, another of Sakura's feathers arrived, which falls to him and he escapes. He establishes his power by creating Hijutsu Stones, which trap the souls of humans from the other world and which he uses to control the bakemono race of Kishim's world. Syaoran and Kurogane go to storm the castle while Sorata and Chun-yan stay behind since neither have fighting skills and Chun-yan's mirror allows her to use Hijutsu magic. Meanwhile Mokona figures out that Kishim's world is a mirror world and Sakura notices Chun-yan's mirror glowing with power. So Sakura, Fay, and Mokona head out and end up at the same place as Chun-yan, where Sakura's power along with the mirror opens a gateway to the mirror world. As Kurogane and Syaoran remove the Hijutsu Stones from the bakemono, Chun-yan stands up to a group of them who are afraid of a human invasion, but she convinces them humans aren't their enemy. Syaoran faces the lord's son and defeats him to take the feather back. Hashim makes Chun-yan an emissary between the human and bakemono races after which Mokona sends the group to the next world.

Thoughts: Ah, so the writers save Mokona from being a complete idiot by saying a feather arrived in the mirror world just AFTER Syaoran and company left. Ugh. Whatever. Just buy the soundtrack already!

ツバサ・クロニクル 47

SPOILER Summary: They arrive on the next world where winter has set in. They find Sakura's feather for sale as part of a broach and for whatever reason, putting off weak power. They talk with the shop owner who says they can have three days to get the money for the broach. Fay sells some artifacts to give them starting money for a place to sleep and some clothes. The next morning, Fay, Syaoran, and Kurogane head out to find work and ask Sakura to stay put as the city is not safe and Mokona to guard Sakura's feather from the previous world. Mokona does this briefly but then Sakura absorbs it. Sakura and Mokona go out to the Job Center and get a job at a food stand where she works for Touya and Yukito. However, they have troubles with the stand so she has to go back for another job. This time she goes to a warehouse but an accident soon has her unemployed again. Next she gets a job at a bar but some yakuza-types interfere and go after Sakura, leading Syaoran and the others to appear, having been hired by the owner as guards. They earn the money and buy the broach, where Sakura gets to briefly wear it, long enough to be complimented by Syaoran before it is absorbed into her. She then recalls more childhood memories.

Thoughts: So why didn't Sakura absorb her feather from the previous world? Oh yeah because we needed filler time in THIS episode. Nevermind. Have you bought the soundtrack yet?

Androids and Sex

The Houston Chronicle has discovered that by 2050, we'll have androids that will seem very lifelike and for which one can have sexual relations with.

Really?

The article mentions the quiet Japanese research into this very thing and I'm thinking, "Wow. Let me think of how many titles I've seen or read where androids have been life-like enough to spend QT with."

Hmmmm.

Chobits. Mahoromatic. Negima! (Manga.) Hand Maid May. Hand Maid Mai (not a mispelling). Armitage III. Boku no Marii. All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku. Saber Marionette J (and its sequels). El Hazard (I may be assuming some things there, but oh well). There may be more, but that's all I could think of off the top of my head.

I guess this means that those of us who watch anime are ahead of the curve when it comes to future tech stuff, eh?

Tsubasa Chronicle 44 - 45

ツバサ・クロニクル 44

SPOILER Summary: Mokona drops the group on a new world and Kero-chan (from Cardcaptor Sakura) senses their arrival and tries to rush to meet them, but crashes into a tree instead. The group has a meal around the campfire and afterward, Mokona wonders who to sleep with, eventually choosing Syaoran. Not being able to sleep, Mokona communes with Yuuko-san for a bit. The following morning, the group has shrunk in size with only Mokona still at its normal size. Mokona is about to accidentally stomp on the group when Mokona is stopped by Kero-chan. Kero-chan brings them back to his house where they discuss the feather's arrival and how all humans on the planet have been made small. Mokona and Kero-chan decide to hike the mountain and grab the feather. After a period of time, they make it to the top where they retrieve the feather from a butterfly. Returning the feather to the camp, the group doesn't return to full size until the next morning. They leave, but Mokona and Kero-chan are now good friends.

Thoughts: HISAKAWA Aya returning to do the voice of Kero-chan? Wow.

More Bee Train "slow down that pace, ya'll!" stuff though with the hopes you'll buy the soundtrack.

ツバサ・クロニクル 45

SPOILER Summary: Mokona returns the group to Koryo Country to find the villagers all up in arms against Chun-yan for her defending Kishim (the woman with the long fingernails that had been held captive). Some of the girls trained in the same magical arts as Chun-yan attack her and she's rescued by Syaoran. This forces the villagers to retreat. Chun-yan explains that people from Kishim's world have been attacking the villagers and they are tired of it. For her part, Kishim tries to stop her people but gets attacked for it. Chun-yan, Syaoran and the others find her and she changes shape to a pendant to heal. The group returns to Chun-yan's home and the following day some head to market to buy supplies but are refused service. A group of villagers go to attack Chun-yan's home and find Kurogane and Fay there. They attack and Kurogane takes a hit. Chun-yan returns with Sakura and try to bring a stop to things. Kishim revives and opens a portal to her country, where Mokona senses the feather. Syaoran, Kurogane, Chun-yan, and Sorata (a villager) are taken.

Thoughts: *yawn* Lets return to a former world where we'd already picked up the feather, ya'll cause we need another adventure, ya'll. Got to have more than one feather on a world, ya'll and make Mokona dumb as a stump, ya'll cause why would Mokona sense more than one feather at a time, ya'll? Buy our soundtrack, ya'll!

Negima! Vol 21 (Ch 190) *SPOILERS*

魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 21 Chapter 190

Summary: Chachamaru is about to leave for the trip to England and as Eva and Chachazero are seeing her off, she hesitates because she's just a tad concerned for her master. She also wonders about Eva's long talk with Negi the night before and how much Eva truly cares for Negi. That provokes a response from Eva, who then realizes how much Negi has been on Chachamaru's mind. Caught off guard, Eva then winds Chachamaru rapidly, asking her how a 2.5 year old person could outwit someone hundreds of years old. Eva then tells Chachamaru that Negi is in her hands, and then remarks on how Chachamaru would likely protect Negi even without orders from Eva.

Chachamaru comes to her senses with Negi still in the Magic World in the jungle. Using a map of the the world, they plot their location, which is some 10,000 kilometers from the gate port at Megalomesembria. Chachamaru has located three other people nearby, meaning they will have to head south to pick up two of them before going east across a mountain range to pick up the third. Despite it being night, Negi is eager to get started now, but a passing wild dragon overhead is a reminder of how dangerous it would be to travel at night. Besides, Negi is still struggling after the fight at the gate port despite having his wound healed.

The following morning they set out with Negi having his magic ring and wishing he had his staff so he could fly. The two travel a good distance before having to set up camp again. Negi is frustrated that they can't travel faster, but the jungle terrain slows them down. Chachamaru sees that Negi may have a fever but Negi only wants to take a 15-minute break and get to the first person by sunset. However, that plan is interrupted when a Tiger Dragon attacks with an electric bolt. Negi counterattacks but finds the creature has a barrier. He's in no condition to fight, so a very determined Chachamaru suddenly turns her left hand into a large bladed weapon and her right hand into a large gun. She attacks as Negi passes out.

Negi comes to to find Chachamaru providing her lap for his pillow. She managed to drive off the Tiger Dragon but has nearly exhausted her power. While she can recover somewhat by resting, she needs to have her key turned by one with magical power. While Negi has seen Eva do this countless times, Chachamaru expresses some reluctance to have Negi do it, as she was going to have Anya or Konoka do it. Negi slowly winds her which causes her to cry out. He wonders if it is painful for her, but she tells him that this ritual for replenishing her magical energy is the same as a pactio and it feels good to her. Hearing that, Negi winds her hard which results in Chachamaru trembling and smoking a bit on the ground, calling for her master or Chao.

Negi thanks Chachamaru for saving him at the gate port and ponders his own weakness in letting the others down. With that, they head off to find their companions with Negi promising to wind her every day.

Thoughts: The flashback with Chachamaru leaving Eva was very interesting. Remember when Chachamaru's place was always at Eva's side even though Eva gave Chachamaru permission to go on the Kyoto trip? Now, though she is still devoted to her master as a bondslave, her love for Negi is stronger and thus she's going to leave Eva in the hands of her sisters after she has Eva's permission to go.

Another item was the "sex" joke with Chachamaru's spring. Akamatsu-sensei has been wanting to do this joke since he created the character. The closest he got before was volume 6 when Eva winds the spring. Now he gets to use Negi's innocence and the "feel good" aspect for Chachamaru and there you go. I didn't need those jokes but it was interesting to see how Chachamaru recharges.

Finally there is Chachamaru's new body. She now has that realistic covering from Hakase, but also has some other abilities. It seems as if her arms can become weapons (maybe I'll buy volume 21 earlier than expected to check out the clean artwork) and then return to arm shape. That's an interesting new ability for her to be able to shape-shift (if indeed that's what it was).

Oh, and Chachamaru has a copy now in addition to her other "sisters." Interesting.

Shakugan no Shana Second 12

灼眼のシャナ II Episode 12

SPOILER Summary: Yuuji and Shana do katana training with bamboo swords. Providing Yuuji doesn't perform a Fuzetsu, Margery Daw should not be alerted to the silver flame. After spending a moment together, the two head to school and the festival. Meanwhile, Wilhelmina decides to pay Margery Daw a visit, who's laying on a park bench as the festival at the school begins. Margery wonders why Wilhelmina would pay her such a visit and the answer causes a violent reaction from Margery so that her large bottle of sake is destroyed.

The school parade starts and Tanaka and Satou talk about how Margery is likely not to show up. However, it is Shana who points out Margery to them as she's with Wilhelmina on the parade route. Margery is wanting to know information now and Wilhelmina is wanting to wait until the following day and to have Shana and Yuji there as well. Seeing her boys having fun along with Shana and Yuuji in the parade (where they are all in costume) touches Margery and so she agrees to Wilhelmina's terms.

The parade is tough, especially on Ike but they all survive. Yuuji's class mans the crepe booth where Shana makes a special crepe for Wilhelmina, who shares it with a somewhat reluctant Margery. Everyone takes in the sights of the festival and later, Yoshida and Yuuji are manning the History of Misaki City display within one of the classrooms. Since no one is currently viewing the exhibit, Yoshida tells Yuuji that she's no longer satisfied with an unrequited love and wants to share a love with him. However, she will wait for him, however long it takes, for him to make a decision.

The announcements are made as to the finalist for the costume contest from the parade and Yoshida, Yuuji, and Shana are finalist. Shana wins and goes to make her speech. She begins to address Yuuji, but a presence that had been approaching the city since the start of the episode emerges when Yuuji touches the hand of a girl, causing an unrestricted spell to happen. The other Flame Haze look at the tornado that has appeared and Shana identifies the presence therein -- Pheles.

Thoughts: Heh. I liked how Wilhelmina worked on Margery Daw via the festival to hopefully avoid a problem of her turning into an opponent when she learns about Yuuji's silver flame. Interesting that just before Pheles revealed herself, Konoe had a reaction to her wind. So why didn't Wilhelmina, Margery, or Shana detect Pheles before she was right on top of them? That doesn't seem to follow with what we've seen of their sensory perceptions to date.

Thank You Robert Rainey

While the roots of my enjoyment of anime and manga can trace its roots back to my childhood watching my dad create the Sunday comics for the local newspaper, I'd never heard of the term "anime" until I went to Japan. Likely, I wouldn't have paid more than scant attention to anime and manga during my time in Japan had it not been for my friend Robert Rainey. As such, since I lost contact with him many, many years ago, I thought I'd take the time to thank him here and though it is an extremely long shot, maybe he'll see.

I met Robert while I was stationed at Keesler AFB in 1989 for Tech School. We had a few classes together and during breaks, we'd sometimes talk since we both liked fantasy, sci-fi, comic books, and certain cartoons. By the end of my time at Keesler, I no longer saw Robert (I want to say that maybe he'd finished a week or two before me) and that would have been the end of it. However, shortly after I got to Yokota AB, Japan, I was walking back to the dorm from the Shoppette to grab some snacks and ran into Robert on the sidewalk, where we talked a bit. From that meeting, we became friends and when his roommate PCS'd (Permanent Change of Station) out of Japan, I moved in.

As I said, Robert and I had a lot in common but some differences (he was from San Diego, California loved underground heavy metal music and I was from Tallahassee, Florida and liked what's now called "old school hip-hop and electro-funk"). One of the difference was his love of anime (and to a lesser degree, manga). Now back in 1989, the number of licensed anime titles was pretty low. So Robert would rent anime stuff or would record it off of TV to watch it later, all of it in Japanese and without subtitles. Because of this, I was introduced to titles such as Ranma 1/2 (which was on its first TV run when I lived in Japan), Dirty Pair, Project A-Ko, and many more. It was through Robert that I learned that cartoons from Japan weren't "cartoons" but "anime."

I remember coming home from work one night (or morning) and had been planning to watch some Star Trek: The Next Generation only to find Robert watching anime. Well, since our dorm room is a single room with one TV, that meant that we were watching anime. I was annoyed, less at Robert and more at the system that forced us to share a small room together were we couldn't have a little privacy to be able to watch what we want. So as Robert is watching this anime, my irritation got the better of me and I had to say something. (Conversation is a guestimation and not an actual total recall of the original conversation.)

ANB: Dude. How can you watch a cartoon like that when you don't even speak Japanese?

Robert: Its not just about the story. Its about the art, music, and everything. Plus there are some things that come through the language barrier. I like it.

ANB: Don't you want to know the story at all?

Robert: I would, but for now, I'm enjoying the other aspects.

ANB: Ugh. That would drive me nuts not knowing the story. At least some subtitles or something because if I don't know the story, I really can't enjoy it.

Robert: Have you seen Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro?

ANB: No

Robert stopped whatever he was watching and grabbed a video tape he'd purchased from some video store off base. He then popped in the movie and so I thought I'd humor him and watch it. I was annoyed because of the gibberish being spoken because I either wanted to hear this in English or at least have some subtitles. However, I did like the beauty of the movie and despite myself, I found Miyazaki-sensei's work reaching across the language barrier and capturing my attention. I liked the humor situations. I liked Lupin and his gang. I thought the villains were a tad cheesy but in the end, I liked the movie and desperately wanted to see thing thing in English.

So, Robert and I made tracks to the Audio Visual Store on base and but we could find no copy of the movie on tape. But, he did find another movie by Miyazaki-sensei on VHS called Warriors of the Wind. I did find the movie most interesting though there were some problems that I couldn't place my finger on (later, I would learn that this version of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind had 30-minutes whacked from it, which explained some of the roughness) and I couldn't understand why the VHS cover had characters on it that weren't in the movie. However, I told Robert that if anime were in English or at least had English subtitles (back then, I preferred things in English dub) I'd be more into it.

Robert and I briefly considered doing the fansub thing where we'd send a new tape (or so) to a fansubber (or someone making an X-generation copy) along with return postage and get some tapes. For whatever reason, we didn't do that.

Still, there was no denying Robert's enthusiasm and so I accompanied him several times as he went to pick up anime-related items such as cells or whatever. He used to tell me that in 10-years, anime would be huge in the U.S. I wasn't so sure about that, but I figured I'd check back in 10-years to see.

I left Japan in 1991 and lost touch with Robert by roughly 1993. Occasionally I would think fondly of Japan and even of anime and I even picked up the Streamline Pictures dub of Castle of Cagliostro in 1994 (or thereabouts) and a couple of episodes from the 2nd TV series that were directed by Miyazaki (and had been licensed in the U.S.).

It wasn't until 2002 when I found myself suddenly unemployed thanks to an imploding telco that I remembered Robert's prediction about anime being big in the States. So I looked on Amazon.com and was amazed to see the sheer number of anime titles for sale. Robert had been right and I suddenly wished I could talk to him again about this. I borrowed the Oh My Goddess OVA series as well as the Hand Maid May series (because they were short) just to see if anime was any good or not and it was then that the seeds which had been planted in Japan sprouted and I became an anime fan.

So to Robert, wherever you are, thanks for putting up with me for nearly two years as a roommate and for planting the seeds of anime fandom. I hope that maybe one day I can tell you that in person. ^_^

Sasuga Japanese Bookstore

It has long been on my list to buy the original tankoubon volumes for Negima!, partially to make sure I have to real story (and not that Peter David stuff) and partially to practice reading Japanese. Since I had a little Christmas money, I decided to purchase the first two volumes, but instead of going through Amazon Japan, I decided to try another bookstore -- Sasuga Japanese Bookstore. As such, I'm going to review my experience to hopefully help those of you looking to purchase Japanese books.

The website is nicely laid out and selecting a category on the left side opens up a selection of sub-categories to choose from if you are looking to browse. The choice of sub-categories can be many (as it is for books) or few (as it is for movies) but it allows you to browse nicely. The search function works well, but I got to warn you -- don't go looking for English titles. For example, in the U.S., my favorite anime title is known as Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki. However, on the website, the actual Romaji spelling of Tenchi Muyou! Ryououki is used. If you search for Oh My Goddess!, forget it. However, since the official English subtitle in Japan is Ah! My Goddess, you can find it that way, or you could search for the Romaji of Aa Megamisama and come up with the selection of titles. For a title like Fruits Basket, where the Romaji is for English words, you can search for the actual English spelling or the Romaji spelling. That said, there still could be cases where if you come up empty in a search, try the Romaji or use the advanced search option to check by author.

I did several searches of different manga titles and found that there are some gaps. I was greatly surprised to see that while the store appeared to have almost every other CLAMP manga tankoubon published, they had no Cardcaptor Sakura. I did manage to find one of the anime movies (normally, anime isn't sold on the site) but that was it. The store is also not a great place to find light novels either. For example, they carried none of the Scrapped Princess novels, but did appear to carry most (if not all) of the Slayers novels. A search of Full Metal Panic only showed volume 4 of the light novels (and did not even list Gatou-sensei's name as author) but I did some other searches and finally came up with a few other volumes of his work, labeled as Fullmetal Panic. Further searching revealed they only sell the first five volumes, and that in a bundled set (I couldn't find volume 5 as a stand alone title).

So as you can see, searching and finding things can be a bit trying due to inconsistency in how book titles are spelled, or if they even bother to include an author's name. Searching is also frustrated in that a search for "Nanoha" turns up nothing but a search for "NANOHA" turned up several items. That's some bad searching IMO.

If you are interested in subscribing to Japanese magazines, including titles like Weekly Shounen Magazine (which published Negima!) or Afternoon Magazine (which publishes Ah! My Goddess), the site gives you that opportunity. To have it shipped directly from Japan is going to cost you nearly double what shipping it to Sasuga and then to you would cost. But if money is no object and you don't want to wait any additional days, you have the option. Or, if you are looking for an individual Japanese magazine, you can grab those too.

There are lots of other products there, so I'll let you check into those and focus on my actual purchase now.

For my two volumes of Negima!, the list price was $6.20 each. The cover price of the manga is ¥400, or $3.58 with the current exchange rate a/o this posting. So the price per book is much higher than you'd pay at a place like Amazon Japan. However, where shopping at Sasuga puts you ahead is in shipping. For my order, shipping and handling was $5.75 (the cost is calculated by the weight of your purchased items) and shipped Priority Mail, thus making my total cost $18.15. I went to Amazon Japan and checked the prices. The cost for both volumes was ¥800 ($7.15) with shipping coming in at a whopping ¥3300 ($29.53) making my total cost there (had I purchased it from Amazon) at ¥4100 ($36.68). Thus I saved $18.53 getting it from Sasuga and I didn't have to worry about some idiot shipper like DHL handling it (that's another story).

Update (June 29, 2008): Sasuga now has a free shipping option with about $40 worth of product. There is still a handling fee.

Sasuga has a number of pay options, including PayPal which surprised me. Since Sasuga doesn't take Discover directly, going through PayPal meant I could use my discover card if I wanted, and that's a nice thing.

Forget about returns. Unless your book is missing pages or improperly bound, you are stuck with what you buy. Make sure you get your address right too, because if it is returned and they have to mail it to you a 2nd time to get to your correct address, you are going to be charged for that extra shipping as well.

Sasuga also has a frequent buyer program. They send you a card with 10 slots for a sticker with a samurai on it (one of the slots has a color version of the image that's on the sticker). When your order is shipped to you, they send you a sticker amount of your purchase (minus shipping and handling and tax) and the date of purchase, which you then put into one of the slots. Once the card is filled up, you send the card with an order and get a credit for the average amount you spent. If that average is greater than the amount you spent for that 11th order, you won't be getting any change back so make that 11th order count if you know you have a decent credit coming your way. While the program is neat, it is also a pain in the butt since you have to keep track of that card AND your 11th order will have to be done in such a way so as to get your credit (I guess sending a payment in by mail should do it, returning that card that that time). I tell you what, since I do plan to buy more Negima! in the future from Sasuga, I'll try to blog about the reward experience at that time (if you have one, please share it in the comment section).

Bottom line: Sasuga won't have every book currently for sale in Japan, but they do have a pretty good selection. Searching can be trying due to inconsistencies in spelling used, or whether or not an author's name is listed. However, if you can overcome this and find your book or books, it is worthwhile using Sasuga simply from a speed and cost perspective as you'll save quite a bit of money in shipping costs over Amazon Japan.

Tsubasa Chronicle 40 - 43

ツバサ・クロニクル 40

SPOILER Summary: Haganemaru (Kurogane), a young boy and son of a noble and his miko wife, lives a rather happy life. His mother keeps the barrier around their kingdom up to prevent powerful monsters from roaming the lands. However, because she is ill, the occasional one gets through, which the father dispatches. Haganemaru loves his mother very much, so much so that he tries to catch fish for her but refuses to tell his father where he's been and so endures punishment. Haganemaru grows and is trained by his father in special sword techniques and as a young teen, is assigned to "guard" the residence while his mother is ill. However, a particularly difficult monster arrives, forcing the father to return to take the family heirloom sword Ginryuu to battle the beast. Haganemaru's mother manages to get up to give the sword a blessing and the father is off with his men while the mother performs her miko duties as Haganemaru stands watch. An arm comes through the wall and slays his mother while the creature arrives with the arm of his father still clutching Ginryuu in its mouth. The boy goes into a rage and slays the beast and destroys the compound in the process, causing the Mikado (Emperor) of the land, Amaterasu, to arrive with a consignment of troops and ninja along with her miko sister, Princess Tsukuyomi (Tomoyo). The boy, having lost his mind, starts attacking but Tuskuyomi eventually calms him down. These events were all seen by Syaoran as he had opened a book in a large library, who cries at what he's seen.

Thoughts: Hmmm. I loved this story-arc in the manga but I didn't really care for how the anime writers basically wiped out Syaoran's group arriving at the world where the library was to find the book in the first place. And I didn't care for the renaming of the child Kurogane as "Haganemaru," which I suppose was to prevent the viewers from ultimately realizing that this was Kurogane (for those viewers who'd never read the manga). I can't complain how Tomoyo didn't have Kurogane's hand pinned to the remains of the wall since this was for TV (and ultimately why the anime abandoned the manga ultimately because of how bloody and violent it became).

ツバサ・クロニクル 41

SPOILER Summary: Syaoran finds himself awakening in a bed at the library. He talks with Kurogane, who confirms that what Syaoran saw was indeed from his past. As they talk, Sakura and Fay get some leads on Sakura's feather while Mokona communes with Yuuko-san. It is learned that the book Syaoran had was a copy of one which appears to have Sakura's feather. They take a flying train to the main library where they discover that the book is there but cannot be checked out of the library. Syaoran decides that they'll steal the book to obtain the feather, which they proceed to do. They pass through a detector before being allowed into the section where the book is held but then the book is not in that section but hidden behind a magic wall. Fay has Kurogane move a bookcase to reveal the wall and after fighting the guardians in the tunnel, they find themselves on the world of Clow as the giant guardians outside the library come to life.

Thoughts: So, we couldn't do the introduction last week, so we'll get some of it as a flashback this week. Nice. Not only that, but we get several minutes of replay from last week. Oh well, as long as we can add new stuff to make the story stupid, its OK because we're Bee Train. I mean really, you have to pass through a detector to see the stupid book but then the book is actually hidden so that you wouldn't actually find it. Explain the logic of that. There is none except in the dopey minds of the Japanese writers at Bee Train who needed to pad an episode (which they wouldn't have had to do had the previous episode been done properly).

ツバサ・クロニクル 42

SPOILER Summary: Syaoran and company find themselves in what appears to be the land of Clow only without people. They find Syaoran's house, which Sakura remembers, though only as an archeologist's home. A picture of Syaoran's father is on a desk, but Syaoran isn't in there. Eventually, Fay figures out that they seeing Sakura's memories via the Book of Memories which has her feather. Since the book would be located within a mysterious place, they head to the ruins. Along the way, Syaoran and Kurogane discuss how the assassin troops that they had fought previously and who'd attacked Clow Country had the same symbol as the arm that killed Kurogane's mother. Within the ruins, Kurogane and Syaoran decide to descend into a deep pit where they find the book. However, they are attacked by the library guardian beasts. A beast knocks Syaoran out and he's apparently taken over by the other Syaoran held by Fei Wong. As such, he's able to defeat a guardian beast with no effort, which Kurogane notices. He returns to normal once he has the feather and returns it to Sakura, who remembers more. Mokona tries to take them to another world, but an anti-magic barrier prevents it. They try to escape but find the way flooded, another guardian beast waiting for them as well as mages. Fay whistles and creates his own magic barrier which allows Mokona to send them to another world, or so they think but they discover they aren't on another world at all.

Thoughts: Standard Bee Train fare -- slow down everything with musical pieces, which while can have a beauty to them, I keep thinking, "Get on with it already." Well, this marks the end of the manga stories I guess since they should have gone to Acid Tokyo world at the end of this episode and not stayed in the same place.

ツバサ・クロニクル 43

SPOILER Summary: Finding themselves not having escaped the world and now wanted fugitives for stealing the Book of Memories, they take refuge in another library that for whatever reason is sure not to be searched by troops or guardians. Fay takes another copy of the Book of Memories and apparently wishes for Kurogane to learn of his past, but that doesn't end up working out the way he planned. The group is found by the library staff and troops while Syoran picks up the 2nd copy of the Book of Memories and finds himself within Kurogane's memories and is surprised by the experience as if he'd never done this before. Meanwhile, floating .hack//SIGN troops search the library for them but are thwarted by Fay. Syaoran finishes his trip down Kurogane lane and as he joins Kurogane to face the hoards of troops and the guardian, the guardian turns chibi and everyone is happy that the evil feather is gone. With that, Mokona can send them to the next world.

Thoughts: In typical Bee Train fashion, the original good manga story is gone, but then I suppose they had to make things up since they didn't dare go into the Acid Tokyo arc with all its bloody violence. Oh wait, lets take the introduction that should have been in episode 40 and put it here, complete with Syaoran acting surprised at being in Kurogane's memories and see more of his memories that happen after he's rescued by Princess Tomoyo. Ugh. This whole story arc was handled so poorly. How the episode was wrapped up was just freaking awful.