Negima! Manga Vol 27 (Ch 246) *SPOILERS*

魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 27 Chapter 246 (manga)
Mahou Sensei Negima! Manga Chapter 246

Summary/Synopsis: Negi attempts to get up, recalling Ako and Tosaka but begins to vomit blood. Jack tells Negi to give it up since his whole purpose was to just test Negi. While he won't say that Negi has reached "full manhood," he will acknowledge that Negi made him get serious for a short time. Hearing this, Negi gets angry and despite severity of his injuries, he stands up before being counted out. He again remembers his conversation with Ako where he mentioned having doubt about beating Jack for a time until Tosaka's beating set him straight. Ako reminded Negi of his words to her during the Mahora Festival about being the main character of his own story.

Back in the arena, an injured Kotaro joins Negi, asking whether Negi should use Konoka's healing artifact. Negi refuses and asks about Kotaro's injuries. Kotaro says that as soon as he transforms, he'll be fine. As the two take a stance, Jack realizes that even though Negi had surprised him with the Raisoku Shundou technique, Negi has something more. Meanwhile, Negi asks Kotaro for 43-seconds to prepare for his next surprise. He apologizes for using Kotaro, but Kotaro reminds him that being in a supporting role is something he's done before. With that, he attacks and Kagetarou launches a counter-attack to defend. However, Negi has given Kotaro his artifact and remote-activated it so that Asuna's sword shield's Kotaro from the attack, allowing Kotaro to make a full transformation to beast mode -- Garyuu Inugamiryuu Juuka Ougi -- "Kuon Eisou."

With Kagetarou's attack neutralized, Kotaro literally slams and pins Kagetarou to the wall with Asuna's sword. Jack Rakan gets involved, so Kotaro launches a ranged attack to slow Jack down, followed up by charging Jack and slamming him. Kotaro uses long tendrils of fur to grab Jack and slam him to the arena floor and while down there, Kotaro goes up into the air to bombard Jack with another ranged attack. Jack counters it with his fists and grabbing the fur tendril, yanks Kotaro from the sky and punches him. Kotaro is amazed at the punch and how many of them Negi took.

Jack is impressed with what he's seen from Kotaro, but reminds him that removing magical beasts is one of his specialties. With that, Jack activates his pactio card as Kotaro tries to survive for fifteen more seconds. At five seconds, Kotaro gets run through by one of Jack's artifact blades. He hopes Negi can survive the last five seconds and Negi is almost ready with his preparations, saying "Duplex Complexio."

Thoughts/Review: Yay, Kotaro! He'd been sorely missed in the fight thus far and frankly has been underused throughout the entire manga after basically joining Negi's battle harem (without being in the harem you understand). I remember back during the Mahora Festival that Al made a comment on how much tougher the battle would have been should Kotaro had pulled off a transformation. While Kotaro gets defeated here, his full beast mode is proof of just how powerful Kotaro can be. I'm guessing that Kotaro may not have pulled off the form he used in this chapter during the Mahora Festival since he likely has trained himself up to using this form. However, we saw earlier when he transformed his arm into his humanoid beast form that he was pretty powerful.

When I saw the spoilers for this chapter, I wasn't sure I liked Kotaro being able to use Negi's artifact. It seemed to cheapen the use of the artifact because then any old smeg head could use it, right? Ultimaniac reminded me that aspects of an artifact have been sharable (Kaede's cloak to hide the scout team in for instance or Paru making wings for Asuna to fly with). However, using the benefits of an artifact is one thing to me -- actually borrowing someone's artifact and using its full abilities (even though remotely activated) is new (I don't remember it being done before). Since Negi had to activate the artifact and thus give permission for its usage, I suppose that this artifact borrowing is not an unreasonable thing.

As others have pointed out, Ako looked pretty cute in the one flashback. I'd like to see Ako and Negi meet up after the fight. I've changed my mind and think that Negi will actually win this match.

Jack again teases with Negi's mother. That's the one weak point in my Negi=Nagi theory -- does Negi have a mother? If Nagi became Negi, did he become "reborn?" If I can find some time to write that theory article, I will acknowledge this aspect as the weakness in the theory.

Can't wait to see Negi's third ace. ^_^ Hope to have spoilers up Friday or Saturday.

Toradora! Final Thoughts

I was watching Kannagi and enjoying the humor when I noticed that there was a great deal of buzz about a series called Toradora!. People were comparing the two series and trying to figure out which of the two titles were the best of Fall 2008. Some people even mentioned it here, so I thought I'd check it out. The verdict? Comparing it to Kannagi is completely wrong, but as a series, I rather enjoyed it.

The series started rather poorly for me. For starters, people comparing Toradora! to the ultra funny Kannagi made me believe that this would be another wacky comedy affair when in fact it is not. That's not to say there isn't humor because there is and it is funny at times. However, the comedy styles are completely different so there is no comparison of the two on that front.

Further harming the series from the start was the casting of seiyuu KUGIMIYA Rie for the role of Taiga. She's done tsundere characters such as Nagi from Hayate the Combat Butler and Shana from Shakugan no Shana, Rena-chan from Hand Maid May, and the non-tsundere male character of Al from Fullmetal Alchemist. So this felt like just another tsundere role for her and it was a distraction. Fortunately, I quickly got used to her doing the role and soon I forgot about all of the other characters she's played and only focused on Taiga.

The first three episodes made me wonder what the heck people had been watching to gush so much over Toradora!. The pacing seemed off and there also seemed to be small things missing, which I later learned indeed happened (thanks to Hugh for that information). This is a problem that creeps up throughout the run of the series. On the whole, it is not terribly bad, but at times it is very frustrating to have bits of information missing. Since the anime writers are compressing 10 volumes of light novels into 25-episodes of anime, this problem actually gets worse over time. I understand that lots of stuff had to be cut for the anime to complete in 25-episodes. That being the case, why not just do a second series or season? I know that anime adaptations are primarily done for otaku of the source material (be it a game, manga, or novel) and unfortunately, Japanese anime writers feel OK with cutting stuff because they expect the audience to fill in the blanks. Anime isn't written for us gainjin, you know. ^_~

As I said, these gaps don't harm the series in the big picture. Why? Because the story comes off feeling very real to me, complete with unexpected but natural events happening. Taiga's and Ryuuji's friendship feels right and their plans to win over the person of their dreams feels like something a high school kid would do. With Ami's introduction to the cast, the story took many unexpected twists and turns and not just for the heck of it. I enjoyed how Ami and Taiga became friends and how Ami was one of the gang simply because they accepted her for who she is, not just because she's a model. I didn't like how Ami seemed to get the short end of the stick when it came to expressing her feelings for Ryuuji but we can't have everything. It would have been nice for that to have received a better resolution.

Another thing that felt real were the emotions displayed. I know some people have thought people got too angst-filled in the 2nd-half of the anime, but I disagree. What we saw were the masks coming off the core characters and seeing their true selves. That's been a theme since Ami was introduced. The ironic thing is that it wasn't just Ami pretending to be something she was not -- all of the characters were doing this to some degree or other. As such, we have a "harem" where the three girls (who are also friends) falling for the same guy has very realistic feeling instead of the traditional romantic comedy elements. So I appreciated that aspect.

Finally, a thing that doesn't often happen in harem titles is the choice -- which girl with the hero end up with? While I think it is pretty obvious that Taiga and Ryuuji would end up together, valid arguments could be made for Ryuuji ending up with Minori or Ami too. A choice was made though and whether one likes it or not, it is a choice. While a lack of a single choice can be justified in come anime titles, some titles like this one will see the writers just punt on a choice. So I'm glad that was not the case here.

In the end, despite the obvious gaps in story which harms the pacing of the series at times, the realistic story complete with its unexpected moments are what really make this anime title excel. Add to this some excellent seiyuu work as well as some pretty good comedy bits and we have the markings of a real winner. As a result, I can easily give this a 4 out of 5.

Clannad After Story 24 (A Recap I Actually Liked)

クラナド アフターストーリー Episode 24 (finale/end)
Clannad ~After Story~ Ep. 24 Recap

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: Tomoya tells Ushio the story of how he and Mama (Nagisa) met in high school, made friends with Kyou, Ryou, Kotomi, Tomoyo, and the others, including "Youhei-ojichan." Tomoya then tells of the formation of the Drama Club and the troubles they encountered to make Nagisa's dream come true, followed by the story that Nagisa wanted to tell, which somehow Tomoya knew. He tells of Nagisa's illness, failure to graduate, her later graduation, their marriage, and the birth of Ushio. Ushio falls asleep but Tomoya reflects on the "dream" that he believes is real where Nagisa died after giving birth to Ushio and that Tomoya abandoned her for five years. After Sanae-san and "Akii" get Tomoya to go on a trip with Ushio, Tomoya resumes his fatherly responsibilities until Ushio in that world gets sick and eventually dies. It is then that Tomoya "wakes up" to find Nagisa giving birth and the current Ushio is healthy and strong. Ushio wakes up and Fuuko-chan still snoozes under the tree as Nagisa calls to them as it is time to go home from the picnic.

Thoughts/Review: Recap episodes are usually dreadful to me because they are tedious and boring. The little bits of new animation usually aren't worth slugging through all of the rest of the crap, and that goes for shows I really enjoyed such as Vandread and Vandread: Second Stage. That didn't happen with this episode. I didn't find it dreary, tedious, or boring at all. I think having this presented as Tomoya having a father-daughter moment (with Fuuko-chan revealed to also be there at the end) that helps make it work.

It was nice seeing the very brief highlights of Clannad and Clannad After Story. I also liked how Tomoya appears to remember that he repeated time even if he can't explain it. Having Ushio voiced by a real child works wonders as well (as it did during the series). Too bad American companies can't be bothered to do this.

The only annoying thing is an issue I was reminded of as they went through the first episodes -- the initial airing of the series is in 4:3 whereas the later airings and DVD release are wide screen. This is very irritating because clearly, it is a marketing ploy to get otaku to buy the DVD. Ugh. Just air it normally like a lot of other anime titles are.

I'll write final words sometime later.

xxxHOLiC Manga Chapter 176

xxxHOLiC Manga Chapter 176

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: After Watanuki and Doumeki finish eating, Doumeki wants some of the cookies that Himawari-chan made. Watanuki goes off on Doumeki but since Himawari-chan wanted them to share the cookies, he agrees to this, telling Doumeki he better appreciate them. Doumeki acknowledges that the cookies were made for Watanuki's sake and he tries one, finding it a bit sweet but good. Watanuki slowly tries one and enjoys it, then states that he hopes the woman he was teaching to cook could find happiness through eating. Doumeki says she will, providing she actually eats the stuff.

As usual, Watanuki stops by the woman's house to drop off food, this time nozawana and umeboshio. The woman sounds annoyed through the intercom about Watanuki's month-long efforts so Watanuki tells her he just wants her to try his food. He leaves it at the gate and he and Doumeki are off. The woman does come out and retrieve the bag, apparently remembering Watanuki telling her during the cooking lessons that he wanted to cook and eat with her so they could learn more about each other.

Thoughts/Review: I really look forward to the story moving on from this boring cooking thing. I suppose it is either this or the manga go on hiatus though since all the action is over on the Tsubasa side.

OK, so Watanuki got to eat a cookie Himawari-chan has made. Has he "learned" anything more about Himawari-chan or does he know all there is to know already? I ask because CLAMP wants us to believe that one can learn alot about another person via their cooking and so logically, Watanuki should learn something, right?

Still, if I were this lady and had a nut job leaving food at my door every day, I'd never eat it. That's just me though.

While I'm thinking of it, why hasn't this lady been named yet by anyone? That is so strange.

I suppose next chapter will have this lady either eat Watanuki's food or destroy Tokyo in a rampage after she becomes 50-feet tall. I'm thinking that second option isn't going to happen, though that would be interesting.

Slayers Evolution-R 10

スレイヤーズ EVOLUTION－R Episode 10
Slayers EVOLUTION-R Ep. 10

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: While camping for the night, Zelgadiss steals the Hellmaster Jar and escapes. Pokota awakens to discover it is missing, so he, Lina, Amelia, and Ozel fly off to find Zelgadiss leaving Gourry to follow on the ground. Zelgadiss has decided to force Rezo to give him the knowledge of how to restore his body to human form or be cast into the sea. Rezo tells Zelgadiss to go ahead and cast the jar into the sea since he has no knowledge of how to return Zelgadiss to his proper form. Zelgadiss recounts how he, Zolf, Rodimus, Dilgear, and Noonsa all worked for Rezo to help the people. Zelgadiss also recounts how a failed mission caused him to want to get stronger and how Rezo granted that wish by turning Zelgadiss into a chimera.

This is overheard by Lina and company, who've just arrived. Pokota doesn't want to believe the story since he holds Rezo in high esteem. Rezo confirms is all, revealing that one of the methods for restoring Rezo's eyesight was to have 1000 specimen. Rezo found that with the people of Taforashia. All that was needed was a new suitable host body for Rezo's soul to enter and he found that in Posel Korba Taforashia -- Pokota. However, before Rezo brought this plan about, he was killed by Ruby Eye Shabranigdu (by becoming the piece of the mazoku dark lord) and then by Lina.

Since Zelgadiss hasn't destroyed the jar yet, Pokota grabs it, deciding that living the rest of his life in his current form is a good sacrifice if it means that his people can come back to life. As such, he gives Rezo permission to use his human body as a new host and then takes off for Taforashia. The others follow in pursuit (Gourry still on the ground) though Lina feels there's something else still not revealed. This is all observed by Xellos from high above.

Thoughts/Review: The story Rezo told about his true purpose for creating the Hellmaster Jar and sealing the inhabitants of Taforashia smacks hard of retconning on the surface, especially since the writers can't take the time to explain things (because it would be complicated and lengthy). However, I think I can fill in the gaps. We know Rezo had been experimenting and researching all possible means to restore his eyesight. He created many chimeras as we saw in Slayers and were reminded of in this episode. He even created a clone of himself. So his obsession with curing his blindness is well documented.

Now, let me bridge the gap as best as I can. My understanding is that in the novels, Ruby Eye Shabranigdu is sealed within the souls of humans such as Rezo and not in his eyes as Lina thought. However, that fact has not been established in the anime yet. I think that after Rezo sent Zelgadiss out to find the Philosopher's Stone, Rezo made Taforashia a "Plan B" if you will. By that time, Ruby Eye Shabranigdu had put it within him to find the stone where by Shabranigdu could then unseal himself from Rezo's soul (eyes so far in the anime). Having Rezo transfer his soul into Pokota's human body may have had potentially negative consequences for Shabranigdu. So Rezo leaves Taforashia and then is killed by Lina after he unseals Ruby Eye.

The problem remaining is the soul itself. For Rezo in the jar to actually know that he had been killed by Lina and Ruby Eye Shabranigdu, then that means that the soul transfer didn't happen until after his death. When Lina slew Ruby Eye Shabranigdu, we did hear Rezo speak to Lina briefly. During that time, Rezo's soul could have transferred to the jar already prepared. That's not unreasonable seeing as how "Nama-chan" had her soul transferred to a box some distance away after Xellos broke her transfer jar.

So where does Ozel fit into the picture? I think she is a creation of Rezo's and possibly a "Plan C" if you will. After her creation, she's given instructions on how to release Rezo (at least to some degree) as a safety precaution should something go wrong and his soul remain trapped in the jar.

That out of the way, lets talk Zelgadiss. Again, potential for retcon exists but the writers are pretty cagey. As I remember events in Slayers, all we are shown is a young Zelgadiss practicing with his sword in the woods and desperate to get stronger. I don't remember a reason behind his desire but the implication we are left with is that Zelgadiss was minding his own business and training like mad when Rezo came upon him and granted his wish to be stronger by turning him into the chimera he is today. The further implication is that when they met in at that time, it was the first time, but it is never stated directly from what I recall.

This reminds me of a minor issue I had with Slayers -- why did Zelgadiss work for Rezo if he hated him? It was clear that Rezo didn't trust Zelgadiss after Zelgadiss located the Philosopher's Stone because he put Lina onto the trail of Zelgadiss wanting to resurrect Ruby Eye Shabranigdu when it was Rezo who wanted that done (in the hopes Ruby Eye would cure him in thanks). I was reminded that Zelgadiss couldn't have hated Rezo at first despite being a chimera because in a perverse way, Rezo had done what he promised -- he made Zelgadiss stronger.

In this episode, Zolf, Rodimus, Dilgear, and Noonsa all appear in the form of the flashback, which rocked. I liked how the writers worked in Rezo's helping reputation and I did like how Zelgadiss was with Zolf, Rodimus, Dilgear, and Noonsa before becoming a chimera. Somehow, that made sense to me because it explained how the goodhearted Zolf and Rodimus would team up with the troll-wolf-man Dilgear and the fish-man Noonsa. It also explained why Zelgadiss was friends and comrades with them in the first place. It also helps with the split of the team after Zelgadiss decides to throw his lot in with Lina and Zolf and Rodimus join him while Dilgear and Noonsa follow Rezo until the end.

There is still some room to argue alternate points here and I certainly understand that. If you wish to vocalize them, be my guest in the comments section. ^_^

So while I wasn't expecting much, in the end, this turned out to be a very enjoyable episode simply because we saw more of Zelgadiss's past and some answers to questions. With Xellos observing, I'm sure more fun is to be had. Maybe a return of Ruby Eye Shabranigdu? Nah, they wouldn't do that, would they?

Negima! Chapter 246 SPOILER Images

Negima! 246 SPOILER Images
魔法先生 ネギま！Chapter 246 (Images)

Here's what I know many of you have been waiting for -- the original-sized, sneak-peek images for Mahou Sensei Negima! 246 as brought to you buy anonymous Japanese fans (click pic to make bigger, y'all).


Kotaro and Negi are BACK!

Toradora! -- Taiga's New Seifuku

I didn't have time to do a grab with Taiga's new seifuku, but some Japanese fan provided an image instead.

I'll have some final thoughts on Toradora! next week.

Toradora! 25 (finale)

とらドラ！Episode 25
Toradora! Ep. 25 (final episode)

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: A message from Taiga regarding Ryuuji has Yasuko racing over to her parent's home. However, Ryuuji is fine and this was staged so that Yasuko could make up with her parents. Ryuuji has learned the truth about his father -- his mother had never married and had left Yasuko after she became pregnant. Rather than abort the child, she wanted to protect her baby and now he's all grown up. Ryuuji promises Yasuko that he won't run away any more since that's not the answer and that he'll continue to grow in front of Yasuko, not someplace far away.

That night, Ryuuji finds that his and Taiga's futons are placed together since they are planning to get married. Taiga has Ryuuji put out the lights and they look at the stars together. Ryuuji says that they should get married properly and discuss it with everyone including his grandparents and Taiga's parents. Taiga wants a rehearsal and using a sheet to simulate a veil (looking more like a traditional Shinto wedding hood), she wants Ryuuji to say some vows. He flubs through but Taiga states her belief that vows or not, they'll always be together -- Dragon (Ryuu) and Tiger. She kids him about his eyes, funny breathing, and chapped lips but they kiss anyway. Taiga continues to ask for repeats.

After the three return home with Inko-chan, Ryuuji invites Taiga over for dinner. However, after Taiga takes a cell phone photo of a single star outside her window, she leaves and returns to her mother. The following day at school, Yuri-sensei announces Taiga's withdrawal, causing the class to immediately text Taiga to see what's wrong. In the commotion, Ryuuji leaves, as does Ami, Minori, and Yuusaku. Minori is upset and after she catches Ryuuji, she tells him to brace himself as he slaps her. Yuusaku comes to stop further violence, so Ryuuji explains that this was Taiga's choice and though he's not happy with the choice, he couldn't stop her. Since Taiga believes in him, Ryuuji has no choice but to accept it.

That night, Ryuuji gets a text message from Taiga saying he never said he loved her. He then gets a single dark image with a tiny pinpoint of light. The next day at school, Minori apologized to Ryuuji for the slap. Everyone is talking about the single dark image that Taiga sent everyone but only Minori understands the meaning behind the message and that it is a picture of a star. Minori waxes poetically about the meaning with everyone and Ami comes up, saying she is touched. She teases Minori over the broken star moment from Christmas but says that she thinks Taiga would love a photo reply from everyone. So a search for Taiga's Christmas star begins and Ami and Ryuuji have a talk where Ami explains how she and Taiga truly became friends. Once the star is found, Yuri-sensei takes a photo of the entire class (Ryuuji holding the star) to send to Taiga.

Time moves on and Ryuuji's class graduates. As the class mingles outside, Ryuuji notices a something in the window of their old class and races back in. Finding nothing, he goes to a tall locker in the back and there is Taiga in her school's seifuku. After a brief chat, Ryuuji says he loves Taiga, which catches her off guard. She gets embarrassed because she would have preferred to have been told this with a better setting/mood.

Thoughts/Review: Again, the series took me places that I didn't expect. After running away together, I thought that Taiga and Ryuuji might get talked out of eloping but I didn't expect Taiga to return to her mother's home to live and complete her senior year. Actually, it seems a weird thing to do since there's only a short amount of time in the school year left (spring being the start-end time in Japan) and she was already a 3rd-year student. May as well graduate at your own school with maybe two months to go. Now, had they all been 2nd-year students, Taiga's departure would have made more sense to me. I suppose this is one of those things where we aren't supposed to worry about the mechanics too much and just accept that this is what happened and move along.

Another surprise in the anime was learning that Ryuuji's father did not in fact die, but had run off with another woman and didn't even marry Yasuko. After that revelation came to light, things made a bit more sense regarding Yasuko and the fact that she hadn't been in touch with her parents for a great many years (likely not having seen them since Ryuuji's birth). I can't help but wonder how much material got cut from the light novels in order for the anime to end as the light novels did. With as rushed as things felt, I imagine there was a fair amount cut but I could always be wrong.

As to Taiga and Ryuuji being a couple, it almost felt weird for me to watch them repeatedly kiss. It didn't feel weird to see them holding hands on the train. Unfortunately, the way things played out kind of killed the ultimate sense of romance for me. Once Taiga returned to her mother for a 2-month stint and things just fast-forwarded to the end, everything just seemed to wilt for me. As such, there was no emotional impact to their reunion because the audience hadn't missed Taiga's presence -- she'd just been there, was gone, and now several weeks later she's back in a new uniform but for the audience, it is only a few minutes max. It is poor pacing due to trying to compress ten volumes of light novel material into 25-anime episodes. For comparison, Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid took two volumes of light novel material (plus a little extra stuff to make it properly link with the previous titles) and that became a 13-episode series.

Ami. I still say she got the short end of the stick. Her chat with Ryuuji was nice, but she never vocalized her feelings for Ryuuji which is a disappointment. I would have enjoyed her coming clean along with everything else she said. Oh well.

I did see one little nice touch -- Haruta shoving Noto close to Maya and them both becoming embarrassed by it while Nanako smiles over it. That makes me think that maybe Maya has noticed Noto in a romantic way and Nanako knows this.

I'll write some final thoughts later. I understand that there are two light novel volumes of a spin-off called Toradora! Spin-off. So when someone asked about the possibility of a sequel anime series being created, at the time I thought "no" but I suppose anything is possible.

Minami-ke Okaeri 12

みなみけ おかえり Episode 12

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: It is a warm spring day and Chiaki is sleeping with her feet out of the open sliding glass door when the noise from Kana, Uchida, and Maki wakes her up. She's annoyed and wants them to shut up and let her sleep. Kana forces Uchida into the "ring" with Chiaki for a verbal sparing match, but Chiaki wins. Maki is next but Chiaki wins. Kana then takes the "ring" and engages Chiaki. Meanwhile, Haruka arrives with a plate of sakuramochi, so Maki and Uchida grab some. Since Chiaki had said nothing would move her from her spot, Kana refuses to let Chiaki go get some of the snack food, resulting in them wrestling instead of verbally sparing.

Maki comes over to the Minami residence where Kana, "Mako-chan," and Uchida are snoozing. She remembers an incident from junior high school where she woke up and the other girls were laughing at her so she wants to see if there's something funny about her face when she sleeps. After some double entendre confusion, Maki and Uchida sleep while Kana and Mako-chan watch. After a time, Kana takes a permanent marker and writes "hime" (princess) on Uchida's forehead (because Kana had told Uchida that she was no princess) and draws whiskers and stuff on Maki's face. When Haruka and Chiaki come home, they find Mako-chan and Kana rolling on the floor laughing while Maki is depressed, not knowing that Kana wrote on her face. Sometime later, Atsuko comes over and has pictures of Maki from their junior high days where Kana sees that back then, someone drew the exact same design on Maki's face as Kana had.

Kana comes home and picks up Haruka's seifuku, which has just been tossed on the ground. Kana decides that with the school changing to warm weather seifuku in a few days that maybe it is time to reinvent herself. Since Chiaki is doing a bit of repair work on her own seifuku, Kana asks Chiaki to turn one of her long sleave shirts into short sleave. Chiaki does this but accidently cuts the front of Haruka's seifuku skirt. After some fighting with Kana, Chiaki makes a quick repair and hopes for the best until the end of the week. Everything goes fine until the last day of the week when Haruka is talking with Natsuki and Maki notices a loose thread in the front of Haruka's skirt. She pulls the thread, causing Haruka's skirt to open and fall and Natsuki to have a bloody nose.

After Chiaki throws her latest "bakayarou" insult at Kana, Kana has had enough. This leads to a fight where Chiaki decks Kana in the face. Kana decides that before Chiaki becomes a delinquent, Kana must do something about it like show Chiaki more love. So Kana begins to try to be considerate of Chiaki. She tries to engage Chiaki in conversation about Chiaki's school life. At dinner, she offers some of her own uneaten food to Chiaki, causing Chiaki to think that Kana wants to make her fat. However, because they are both being polite in their offers and refusals, Haruka is pleased to see they are getting along. At bath time, Kana wants to wash Chiaki's back, but is refused. Haruka is pleased that Kana is offering to do such a thing but Chiaki thinks that Kana is going to finish her off. When she comes to their room, Kana is in Chiaki's bed with Chiaki's book and is planning to read to her. However, the Kanji is too dificult for Kana and Chiaki goes to Haruka's bedroom, telling Haruka her fears that she's about to be eaten.

Thoughts/Review: Hmmmm -- not very funny this week either. This episode did remind me that Kana has been a stronger, crafier character this series than in previous ones. Chiaki did get one of her trademark "Fujioka Bear Attacks" in and she decked Kana as well in addition to her "bakayarou" insult, but Kana gives back as well. The first story where Kana wouldn't let Chiaki go get the desert is one such instance of that and there have been plenty of others as well.

Beyond that, there's really not much to say. Things happened and I was entertained, but I never laughed. That's been the weakness of this series -- sometimes there are good laughs and sometimes there are not. This was clearly a "not" situation. However, as I've said before, this 3rd series is still much better than the aweful 2nd series. *shudder*

One thing I will note is that there seemed to be some slightly different charater designs in the third story. They weren't bad, just somewhat different.

Only one more episode to go.

Slayers Evolution-R 09

スレイヤーズ EVOLUTION－R Episode 09
Slayers EVOLUTION-R Ep. 09

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: After burying Abel and Radok, Pokota and Zelgadiss get into a squabble over what to do with the jar next. Lina solves the problem by getting Ozel to acknowledge her as the owner of the jar. Now Ozel protects the Hellmaster Jar for Lina but things are still complicated. Ozel informs them that the jar has to be unsealed by special ritual. Then it must be destroyed so that the soul of Rezo is released. However, another vessel has to be prepared to take the soul. If no such vessel exists, then the soul dissipates. Zelgadiss is furious and grabs the jar, shaking it and loudly calling for Rezo. Amazingly, the jar answers with the voice of Rezo and it recognizes Zelgadiss as a blood relation (which Zelgadiss is).

Now that they can communicate with "Rezo" in the jar, "Rezo" communicates mostly through Ozel but claims to have lots of wisdom. First it starts spouting various proverbs. The leads Lina and company to think that if that truly is Rezo inside, he's lost his mind. Next, "Rezo" sends them on various quests to concoct stews made from ingredients of various beasts (magical or otherwise) as well as bring back other items. It all seems very pointless but as "Rezo" keeps making these requests, Lina and company bow and perform the tasks.

This is seen by a man in the inn, who reports it to his bandit comrades. The leader of the bandits decides to steal this jar treasure, so as the others sleep, the bandits grab Ozel. However, Amelia is awakened by noises and sees the bandits make off with Ozel and the jar. At the bandit camp, Ozel tells them her mission is to protect the jar and before the bandits can force her hand, Lina arrives, launching fireballs. She and the others make short work of the bandits save for the boss and the guard on Ozel. The leader bandit shows his own magical ability by creating from the ground multiple perfect copies of Hellmaster's Jar. When Ozel accidentally drops the real jar in the mix, Lina goes on a rampage and destroys jars left and right until Ozel rescues one Lina is about to destroy -- the real Hellmaster Jar.

Now armed with the proper jar and the bandits all secure, Lina plots evil against them. However, "Rezo" has words of wisdom which touch the hearts of the bandits, making them abandon their thieving ways. The words also touch the heart of a nearby blind lad who has come up. Ozel sees him and gives the boy the jar. A white light emits from the jar and the boy's eyes are healed so that he can see. Further, all of the items and concoctions Rezo had the party get/make all end up helping various townspeople who needed them.

Lina decides that they need to return to Taforashia when Ozel announces that Rezo has something to say. It is the parable about a minnow's head becoming a god if people worship it, which is what was said earlier. Lina is weary with the proverbs and they head on with Ozel bringing up the rear. Rezo's voice is heard telling Ozel more proverbs and asking if she understands. She says she does and has a strange sort of smile on her face as she walks.

Thoughts/Review: So now we have the Hellmaster Jar but no matter what, they are still going to need another body of vessel of some kind for "Rezo" or whomever is in the jar to inhabit. I suppose another suit of armor could come into play.

This episode tries to raise doubts on if the soul in the jar is Rezo or not. What it avoids is the Ruby Eye Shabranigdu problem. For that to have been the real Rezo (which I believe it was), then that would have to mean that Rezo's soul was in Rezo's body. Remember, it was what was left of Rezo's mind that hindered Ruby Eye Shabranigdu just enough for Lina to get the Giga Slave spell bound to the Sword of Light for her to attack. So, there is a very good chance that whatever is in the Hellmaster jar is not truly Rezo, but something that has all of Rezo's memories and abilities -- a clone perhaps. There has already been one Rezo clone so why not another with a soul of its own?

Whomever is in the jar, I think it is safe to say that there is meaning behind everything they have to say. We saw the proof of that when Lina and company had to fight dragons and other beasts for various ingredients. Those things ended up helping the townspeople and I think that these proverbs that "Rezo" keeps spouting do mean something too. Ozel seems to understand and I'm thinking that eventually Lina and company will catch on too.

It was humorous seeing Lina take out some bandits, then go on a mini-rampage by destroying jars. It is interesting how there was method to her madness, forcing Ozel to protect the legitimate jar before Lina could destroy it.

Beyond that, there's not much left to say. Clearly, the writers have a lot of time to kill and three more episodes to go. ^_^;

White Album 12 (or Soap Opera, Anime Style)

ホワイトアルバム Episode 12

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: Rina learns of Touya's relationship with Shinozuka-san and tries to warn him off of it, even trying to woo Touya herself. He rejects advances so later in her dressing room, she recites Yuki's letter from memory in which Yuki blames herself for the failures in the relationship, her fears about the concert, and her desire to have Touya fill one more wish before she stops bothering him -- to come to her concert. Rina fires Touya as a result. Touya leaves a message for Yuki promising her to come to the concert but he can't get a ticket. Mana, Misaki, and Haruka all provide him tickets. However, Shinozuka-san is still determined to keep Touya away from Yuki and no matter what, he can't turn down sex from her. Despite this, he makes it to the concert. Meanwhile, Misaki and Akira are confronted by Tamaru, who tries to stab her. However, the book that she had lent Touya protected her and this causes Akira to lose it.

Thoughts/Review: This anime is a soap opera, plain and simple. I know I've mentioned it before, but this episode really drove that feeling home for me. I've seen several of the dating-sim, visual novel game anime adaptations and none of them left me feeling like I watched a soap. I've seen other romantic anime titles and the same thing. Let's face it, no other anime I've watched has ever made me think, "soap opera." However, this one does. I'm not saying it is a bad thing, but IF the anime writers wanted to, I think they could make this a long-running anime soap. A second series/season has been given the green light and because it is based on a visual novel, I doubt the Japanese will go for anything but how the game tells and ends the story. Its a shame really because if the series is good enough to warrant a sequel, then some clever writing could have us all coming back week after week to see what that loser Touya does. *lol*

Mana is a surprise this week. I was floored by her mother being the woman in charge of Sakura-dan. No wonder Mana is so up on Touya's "delusions" when it comes to Yuki and Rina. I still wonder if she's Yuki's sister somehow (or half-sister).

Mana and Haruka's friendship is still odd but nice. I'm glad to see that Haruka has someone else besides Touya though her befriending someone so young says something about Haruka's maturity level.

Poor Akira -- no matter what, he can't escape Touya's influence on Misaki. I can understand him not liking it that the book Misaki lent Touya was the instrument that saved Misaki from being stabbed. However, just be thankful she wasn't stabbed, dude. Then again, maybe Akira feels (as do I) that Misaki doesn't have any strong feelings for Akira as she did for Touya. Sucks to be you, dude.

Speaking of the stabbing, I figured that there might be an attempted killing. Tamaru didn't go after Touya but did go after Misaki. Now here's an interesting question -- you see the psycho ex-boyfriend of Misaki basically ambushing you and always keeping one hand behind his back. Despite his words stating he wanted to apologize, do you (A) let him get close enough to stab Misaki if he has a knife behind his back or (B) do you not trust him and try to keep a safe distance, always keeping an eye on that hidden hand. If you are Akira, the answer is "A" and maybe that's why he was so upset. In the end, he didn't protect Misaki but the book returned by Touya did, meaning that in a weird sort of way, Touya protected Misaki.

Now for that scum, Touya. I know that sex for guys is a great thing. We want it all the time if we could get it (something I don't think women truly understand, though they understand enough to withhold it as a weapon). That said, I'm not sure I can appreciate Touya's inability to stop banging Shinozuka-san. If it were just sex, Touya could have taken the opportunity to try to score with Rina too since Rina made one last desperate attempt to get Touya from Rina (more on that in a bit). However, Touya rejected the much hotter Rina in favor of Shinozuka-san, whom he doesn't love. Heck, he even rejected the woman he claims to love in favor of Shinozuka-san (Yuki was ready to give it up for Touya, remember?). I know he put Yuki on a pedestal and I suppose in a way he's done that with Rina. I guess he knows that sex with Shinozuka-san has no romantic strings involved, therefor he can iku all he wants, hate himself for it, then iku again. Ugh.

Rina. Only when she is rejected by Touya does she actually take a firm stand for Yuki. Up until Touya's rejection, I think that Rina would have even entered a sexual relationship with him. I think that she would have justified it somehow in her mind but after learning of Touya banging Shinozuka-san, her justification would have become, "I'm doing this to keep Touya from Shinozuka-san, thus I'm actually helping my friend." Once rejected, she finally did the right thing on all accounts -- she recited Yuki's letter to Touya and she fired Touya. About time, too. I never understood what she saw in Touya beyond maybe having a "safe" male (since he was Yuki's boyfriend).

Poor Yuki though. She FINALLY gets a call from Touya (proving he always had her number and is a complete and total bastard for not calling her). Yuki has done a lot to try to carry on without Touya and in my mind, Shinozuka-san's plans to keep Yuki from Touya is a mistake. That aside, I hope that Yuki asks Rina about why her letter was relayed through Rina. We'll see what happens though.

So this anime is a complete and total soap opera and like all soaps, there's an addictive quality to it. As such, I'll keep watching and see where things go.

Japanese Astronaut Tests Stink-free Underwear

Japanese astronaut WAKATA Koichi (若田 光一) is testing odor-free clothing on the International Space Station. The thought of wearing underwear for more than a day makes me go "Ugh!" but for the International Space Station where there are no laundry facilities, it makes sense. We were talking about it at work, wondering the market for stink-free products.

I still don't think I'd be down for wearing the same underwear for more than a day, especially if I've been doing this:


You can read more about this here.

Minami-ke Okaeri 11

みなみけ おかえり Episode 11

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: Riko observes Kana and Fujioka being friendly and is depressed enough to have Keiko notice. She's also noticed by Hiroko, who has an interest in the "banchou" stuff that Kana involved her in earlier, decides to help Riko win over the current banchou, Fujioka. To this end, she enlists her best friend Yuu to stand if for Fujioka. However, Yuu does things like pick her ear which puts Riko off. To complicate matters further, Kana comes out and Yuu is happy to see her. The image that comes to Hiroko's mind is one of Fujioka (Yuu) and Kana together and she tries to stop it. However, Riko has had enough and leaves.

Kana decides to have a study session at her place and since Fujioka and Keiko are coming over, she invites Riko over too. Kana comes home and cleans the tub after deciding what her hospitality moment should be. After studying and eating curry, Haruka invites them to all take a bath. Fujioka is chosen to go first but because he gets nervous at the thought of bathing in the same tub as Kana, he takes a shower instead. Next is Riko, who gets nervous thinking about bathing in the same water as Fujioka, so she showers instead. Keiko follows, but because her vision is bad and she's uncomfortable bathing in another home, she showers instead. When asked, all three report that they enjoyed their warm bath. Pleased with her hospitality, Kana goes for the bath next. Uncovering the tub, it is filled with hot red peppers -- the ultimate warm bath. However, after a few moments in the tub, Kana gets burned and races out of the tub to challenge her friends on their bathing experience.

Riko has a new plan and that involves getting high test scores so that she and Fujioka can do some one-on-one studying together. She has made a 97 on the test, but Keiko has a 100. Riko's day turns sour when Kana comes up to thank Keiko for the advice as Kana made a 99 on the test. Fujiko comes up to thank Kana for the advice as he made a 98. Kana wants help on the next test, but Keiko decides not to make Riko mad and suggests Kana figure it out on her own. Kana goes to "Riko-sensei" and tries to get Fujioka to help her. Riko fantasizes about a more intimate study session with Fujiko addressing her as "Riko-sensei." That's crushed when Fujioka agrees with Keiko about studying on their own. Riko then randomly points to sections in the text book when Kana asks for help and to Riko's dismay, Kana again gets a 99 to her 97.

With Valentine's day approaching, Kana starts to make an announcement to Chiaki, Touma, and "Mako-chan" about it, then pulls out the Othello game. Chiaki agrees to play but says that she'll win against Kana just the same. So Kana decides to challenge Chiaki on making Valentine's chocolate now so that she's not out of it later. Kana also sends "Mako-chan" to help. When they return with a chocolate desert, they see Kana playing Touma. Touma realizes that Kana is "playing" them all by getting them to do what she wants -- play Othello and eat chocolate. Since "Mako-chan" has also made chocolate, Kana decides to have some fun. She convinces "Mako-chan" to give it to Chiaki so that Chiaki can give it to someone at school. The next day, Makoto snickers at the idea of Chiaki giving some poor sap the chocolate he had made, especially since it hit the floor and Chiaki knew it did. Whomever she gave it too would have to rank pretty low in Chiaki's eyes. To his dismay, Chiaki comes up to him to present him the chocolate.

Thoughts/Review: Man, the character designs here are so radically different, I didn't even recognize Hiroko at all and I barely recognized Yuu. They were introduced in Minami-ke Okawari episode 02 (click HERE for their images then). So while nice to see them, the story really wasn't that funny.

The second story was pretty predictable up until the end. I knew none of them would actually take the bath and their reasons were amusing. However, seeing a tub with a lot of hot red peppers and hot water is something I never expected to come from the hospitality minded Kana. *lol*

The third story was also pretty predictable. I figured that Kana would outscore Riko for both tests. I guess the writers are having a hard time coming up with new stuff since test score jokes have already been done.

The fourth story was also pretty predictable. The funniest part was the look on Kana's face when she decided to ask "Mako-chan" whom he would give the chocolates too. Beyond that though, there wasn't much to say.

Riko got a lot of face time by being featured in three of the four stories.

So while not an unenjoyable episode, it really wasn't funny and felt too much like "been there, done that." They say you can't catch lightning in a bottle twice and this series goes a way to probe that. Still, it is better than Minami-ke Okawari.

Genshiken -- Girls of Spring

With springtime weather being here and people reporting about the blossoming sakura (cherry blossoms), it felt like a good time to share a springtime wallpaper of the girls from Genshiken. ^_^


Ah, spring. ^_^

Clannad After Story 23 -- Extra

クラナド アフターストーリー Episode 23
Clannad ~After Story~ Ep. 23 Extra Episode

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: A year before Tomoya met Nagisa, Nagisa is a 3rd-year student and in a class where she doesn't know anyone. Thus her father tries to help her with tips on making friends. Meanwhile, Tomoya and Youhei are introduced to their new class rep Kyou, who is keen on making the two slouchers do something. Kyou finds that Tomoya looks pretty cool when she finds him sleeping on the school grounds one day but when Youhei finds her, he realizes what she's up to. This results in her punching him to erase the memory which results in Youhei coming up with a love letter prank on her. They have Kyou running all over school until she catches on and gives both Youhei and Tomoya a beating. Youhei then decides to take it out on the new 1st-year students by having a giant ball constructed so that when a student pulls it, a large wash pan drops onto the person as well as a banner written by Tomoya. The 1st-years are too smart for that, but Nagisa pulls the string, releasing the pan. She gets knocked out as a result, but makes a new friend in the process and keeps the banner, which says to overcome any obstacles.

Thoughts/Review: I knew this would likely be filler, but I hoped that maybe the writers would have a bit more information explaining Tomoya's trips back to the past. Sadly, that was not to be.

So, what is there? Well, I liked how Tomoya and Youhei were introduced to Kyou. I think it would have been neat if Ryou was shown having her attraction to Tomoya, but instead we are shown Kyou's initial attraction and how despite the annoyance Tomoya and Youhei have caused her, she still finds them interesting and fun.

The Nagisa makes a friend story makes her "I can't make a friend" story when she repeated her 3rd year for the 3rd time kind of meaningless. After all, if this moment of her making a friend combined with how many friends she made during Clannad didn't teach her anything, then what's the bloody point? Oh well.

Score one for Youhei though. Man, I did laugh at his prank working so well on Kyou for a time.

While nice to see some of the characters again and have some smiles and laughs, in many ways, things just don't feel right to me watching this. Maybe it is because going back in time now to look at pointless events in the past before Nagisa and Tomoya met is not what I want to see. If we were going to have a filler, make it in the present with a big old reunion or something. Heck, have Kyou and Youhei get engaged somehow. Now that would have been fun. Alas, not to be.

Next episode is a recap. Someone hold me back. ^_~

Negima! -- Whom Will Negi Kiss Next in the Manga? ^_^

Just a little speculation from Japan. It takes the Negi (pactio) kiss collage and adds Negi's kiss with Ako and one girl who hasn't been kissed yet.


So could Akira be next? What do you think? Personally, I like it.

Toradora! 24 (The Masks Come Off)

とらドラ！Episode 24
Toradora! Ep. 24

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: Minori and Ryuuji split up to try to find Taiga and while running, Minori falls. They meet at a classroom and Taiga isn't there so its off to the school entrance. As they run, Minori uses her superior athletic skills to race ahead and down the stairs, yelling out to Taiga her own confession of her feelings for Ryuuji and how her happiness depends on herself much as Taiga's happiness depends on Taiga. Taiga hears this and leaves so that when Minori and Ryuuji reach the entrance, Taiga is gone. Minori collapses and has a bloody nose from her fall earlier, so Ryuuji takes her to the infirmary to get her nose bleed to stop. There, Minori tells of her skills at baseball and her plans to attend a college with a softball team and give it her all. She asks about the hairpin and reveals that she figured out it was Ryuuji's gift to her, but she won't accept it now because Ryuuji loves Taiga. With that, she encourages Ryuuji to chase his own dream and go after Taiga, which he does.

Taiga comes to the cake shop and is surprised to find Ryuuji there already manning the table to sell Valentine cakes and chocolates. Ryuuji explains that he knew that Taiga wouldn't ditch her job even if she were running away. At the end of the day, Taiga is amazed at how much they were paid when they are confronted by Taiga's mother and Ryuuji's mother. Ryuuji's mother is upset over Ryuuji having taken a job when she wanted him to focus on his studies and Taiga's mother is upset because she wants Taiga to live with her and not alone. Taiga is not interested in loving with her mother or her mother's new family and Ryuuji snaps at his mother for pushing her failures on him. With that, Taiga grabs Ryuuji and they flee the scene, leaving Taiga's mother exasperated and Ryuuji's mother in tears.

On a bridge over a shallow river, Taiga explains the situation with her father attempting to get her mother to get Taiga to live with her. Ryuuji mentions how he has thought that if he had never been born, his mother would have had a better life. This upsets Taiga, who things Ryuuji is planning suicide and in her frustration, she accidentally sends him over the side of the bridge into the freezing water. After exchanging some words of that little affair, Ryuuji says that he plans on running away until he's 18, at which point he wants to marry Taiga and spend the rest of his life with her. In response, Taiga jumps off the bridge, upset that Ryuuji ruined her own confession plans. They are about to mutually confess when Ryuuji's phone rings. It is Yuusaku who's letting them know that both Ryuuji's and Taiga's mother are frantically searching for the pair of them.

The two of them meet Ami outside her aunt's apartment building, who brings the wet pair up to the apartment. Her aunt (and family) are not there and she provides a dry change of clothing for Minori and tells Ryuuji that Yuusaku is coming with a change of clothes. Ami forces Ryuuji to state his feelings for Taiga, which he does. Minori also comes by and after Minori and Taiga make up, Ryuuji and Taiga tell the others they are running away. The others are shocked and though they don't think it is the wise choice, Minori provides them with her life savings, Ami gives them the key to her beach villa, and Yuusaku gives them some tickets. After they leave with Yuusaku, Minori stays behind with Ami. She collapses and allows herself to cry and talks of how tears are the bloody nose of the heart when one trips in life. Ami thinks they are too young to be talking about life since now matter how long, life will go on.

Ryuuji and Taiga return to their apartments to grab some essentials before running away. Ryuuji finds the apartment empty and even the parrot gone. There's a note from his mother and a watch with a map, telling him to present it to his grandparents and that they'd understand. Ryuuji calls the bar where his mother worked and discovers that she has informed them that she's taking a vacation.

At school the next day, Taiga and Ryuuji's absence is noted by their friends (Haruta, Maya, Noto, and Nanako) while the two of them take their things and board a train. Ami watches Minori train and asks if she's not going to see Ryuuji and Taiga off. In response, Ami starts throwing snowballs at Ami in a playful fashion. Meanwhile on the train, Taiga states that she figures her mother will soon give up the search rather than cause a commotion that would cause her to look bad. Ryuuji doesn't mention what happened to his mother but says she's fine with it. Ryuuji has them go to his grandparents house and shows them the watch. Since they've never met before, he introduces himself, then introduces Taiga as his wife and says he has a request.

Thoughts/Review: Well, they certainly packed this episode full of goodness. Heck, the OP didn't even come until the episode was half-way done and the ED part continued the story. I have no problem using the final time normally devoted to ED theme/credits to more productive time in story telling.

So, we finally start really seeing the masks come down. Minori makes her confession and as I thought, she's been in love with Ryuuji for some time. As usually happens in these situations, the boy never really considered that maybe the girl he liked might like him too. Being afraid of getting a rejection, sometimes it is easier to just dream of said girl and come up with complicated schemes to find JUST the right moment and place to either confess or ask the girl out. Rejection is tough to take no matter where you are in life, but in high school, I do remember how guys and girls took rejection and often it wasn't very well. Its funny how in hindsight, the things that seemed so important back in high school were in fact trivial, but that's how it always is in life.

Anyway, Minori confesses but she also breaks down in front of Ami. Not only did this mark the moment they truly made up, but I'm sure having a good cry is the first step in moving on with her life. She mourns her loss, then she moves on.

Ami's mark of moving on did not involve crying but forcing Ryuuji to say the words -- "I love Taiga." With the Ryuuji door shut, she can now also make up with Minori. Also, she can now move on and let Ryuuji go. I wonder if she'll ever actually say she liked him.

The final mask coming off is Ryuuji's. I'm not just talking about him proposing to Taiga, but him telling his mother off. Despite how he'd tried to be the perfect son and basically repay his mother for all the grief he felt he'd caused her in life, he obviously had some resentment and anger over how his mother wanted to direct his life to avoid her mistakes. All parents want their children to grow up and not make the mistakes they made in their younger years. Further, I think that all parents would love for their children to become something greater. However, how many parents will provide their children advice and proper guidance but in the end let their children go to make their own choices for good or ill? I'm sure many do but there are some who don't. Ryuuji's mother was such a person but now I think her departure means that she's letting Ryuuji make his own choices.

So what will Ryuuji do about his missing mother? Why had he been kept from his grandparents all this time? Was it because they would disapprove of what Yasuko does for a living? Maybe they didn't approve of the marriage in the first place. Where did Yasuko go? What will ultimately happen with Ryuuji and Taiga? Ami? Minori? Yuusaku? I look forward to finding out in the final episode.

Finally, I have to give the writers a nod for injecting some humor into the moment with Taiga and Ryuuji on and off the bridge. The humor stuff did not come off as forced but rather the characters being true to themselves. Also, I laughed out loud when Ryuuji sneezed and it got in Taiga's hair, which annoyed her. That's an example of an event that feels real, unscripted, and the response in form with the characters. OK, jumping off the bridge may seem a bit much, but if felt right for Taiga to do.

Well, only one more episode. In the meantime, I've got more stuff to watch. ^_^;

School Rumble Z Chapter 06

School Rumble Z Volume 1 Chapter 06 (manga)
スクールランブルZ Chapter ♮6 "The Game"

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: During high school after Karasuma went to the U.S., Harima finds himself short on cash and in need of supplies to do his manga. So he prostrates himself before the rich "Sawachika-sama" in order to get a small loan. She refuses, but then has a proposal -- if he plays Shogi with her and he wins, she'll give him the money. If he loses, he has to do what she says. "Ken-chan, Shogi Master" agrees but finds that Eri has studying the game under a very famous master player. As such, he's losing the game and so Eri begins to ponder what to make Harima do, including pay back the ¥146,235 he owes her. She then suggests that were they to marry, the debt would be forgotten. Harima decides to leave but is informed that her servants Nakamura and Masura are outside.

Harmia still has a chance at the game and advances his "rook" to Dragon. Eri goes after the piece and captures it. Harima retreats to the bathroom, crying over his dragon piece, saying dragons belong in the sky not stuck on the ground. As such, he feels he shouldn't be stuck at this mansion and plans to fly out the bathroom window. He finds the escape route closed by dobermans, crocodiles, an electric barbed wire fence, and of course Nakamura and Masura. As such, Harima returns to the game where Eri asks him what his next move is since she's tired of this same routine. Harima understands what she means and is stammering.

Eri feels confident she has Harima trapped, so while she's not thrilled with his excuse about needing to see his assistant about the manga, Eri tells him to call Yakumo and have her come over. Eri wants Harima to accept his defeat in front of Yakumo before Eri makes him do as she wishes. So Yakumo comes over but after examining the board, she finds that Eri has made an illegal move/activity and so Eri loses.

Review/Thoughts: Heh! People have wanted the original School Rumble story to continue in School Rumble Z because as I understand it, things are left unresolved. Clearly, the love-triangle between Eri, Yakumo, and Harima grows so I have that to look forward to.

That aside, this chapter kinda tosses a bone to those people wanting a continuation of the School Rumble story, at least I think it does. I don't know if Karasuma being in the U.S. was how the manga ended but assuming so, then this chapter would appear to take place after that.

Regardless, I loved this chapter. That makes three in a row now. ^_^ I got a kick out of Eri making sure Harima couldn't escape and not give her the answer she wanted. I appreciated the fact that the Shogi game went much like their relationship -- Eri pursues Harima (in her own way) and Harima continues to do what he can to elude her grasp. Leave it to Yakumo to give Harima his out. ^_^

I know Harima only ever had eyes for Tenma and I know that Tenma only had eyes for Karasuma. So what did Eri and Yakumo see in Harima to fall in love with him? Yakumo is pretty easy to answer, I think. After all, Yakumo could read the thoughts of others when they were directed at her and she discovered that men wanted her. With Harima, she found someone not desperately wanting her and thus she fell for him, even becoming his assistant.

For Eri, maybe there's more information to come. I know she's shown signs of interest in Harima ever since his accidental confession but why would that make her fall for him? Maybe there's an answer in the School Rumble manga that I just haven't read yet.

Still, in regards to this chapter, I do hope that these kinds of stories are what Kobayashi-sensei continues to do, advancing the story of Harima, Eri, and Yakumo through the years.

School Rumble Z Chapter 05

School Rumble Z Volume 1 Chapter 05 (manga)
スクールランブルZ Chapter ♮5 "Michael Clayton"

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: NISHIMOTO Ganji is rich and the head of a huge empire and with the help of trusted aide Yoshidayama, he plans to win the election and rule Yagami City. His opponent is Haruhi, who's married to Mikoto and they have a child on the way. Mikoto wants Hanai to spend more time at home, but Hanai is very dedicated to his political career. Yoshidayama sets Hanai up with a staged photo event so that word gets out that Hanai beat up an old man. This causes a huge stir in Japan.

Meanwhile, Eri returns to Japan (she's working as an airline stewardess) and to her mansion, where she learns that Nishimoto and Yoshidayama have come to visit her. They want her support for the coming election and offer a briefcase full of money. She declines and pays a visit to her old friend Mikoto. Mikoto says that while she doesn't want her husband's reputation ruined, she would like him home more. Since Mikoto is a friend and she doesn't like how Nishimoto and Yoshidayama are operating, she agrees to get Hanai's honor restored. Indeed, she's already worked on it, having called "T" to do so.

Next, Eri pays Yakumo a visit at her publishing house. She gets Yakumo to publish certain photos she has of Nishimoto and Yoshidayama. The other reason for Eri's visit is to tell her rival that she has a lead on Harima, who was seen at Heathrow Airport. Yakumo is happy to hear the news but wonders why Eri tells her. For Eri, it is simple -- she did it because she wanted to.

The photos are published, causing Nishimoto and Yoshidayama to go down. The photos are courtesy of "T"AKANO Akira, who did the job for free.

Review/Thoughts: Whoa! Mikoto and Hanai together, eh? *lol* I have to say that I loved it. Ever since the chapter showing how they were as kids and how perfect they are for each other (even if they really haven't looked at each other that way, at least in the Del Rey School Rumble volumes I've read), I've hoped they'd eventually hook up. I don't know if School Rumble ever gets them to do so, but I do like this futuristic tale that shows them to be together as husband and wife. Love it, love it, LOOOVE it!

I can see Hanai being a politician, especially since he was class rep in high school.

Then there's Eri. I take it she's still very rich. She still has the mansion, the butler, and a whole slew of connections, but she also works as an airline stewardess? *lol* At first, I couldn't wrap my head around that notion and figured I'd misread until I read the chapter a second time. Then I realized that she's only working the job as a means of looking for Harima, who's apparently disappeared. Seeing the jet she was on, its clear she's doing international flights and as we learned, her stewardess connections in London gave her a tip. That's some dedication to find the man you love.

Also, I loved how Eri helped out Mikoto and then even passed on information to her rival in love, Yakumo. I loved the blush that Yakumo gave when hearing about Harima and I just like how Yakumo and Eri are adult about being in a love triangle. Plus, I like that Yakumo is apparently a person of power in the manga world. ^_^

Yoshidayama and Nishimoto were a hoot in this chapter. I rather enjoyed seeing how they'd actually formed their own empire, where very wealthy, and had Eri not risen up to stop them, they would have won an election (well, Nishimoto would have). So that was a lot of fun.

Finally, there's Akira. There was that one side story chapter that showed Akira rescuing some boy in a foreign land from the Del Rey published stuff. I don't know if more of Akira's secret life is revealed in School Rumble, but I love the implication that she's got sniper skills.

Notice how I said "love" a lot? I meant it. I thought that the last chapter was pretty good looking at the past of Harima, Tenma, and Yakumo. This chapter is even better because it showed many of the School Rumble characters as adults. To be honest, I wouldn't mind fun stories like this more often, with the "where's Harima" element being played out. Since Kobayashi-sensei seems keen on doing these stand alone chapters, I wonder if my wish will come true.

Here's hoping to more good stuff!

"Where Are My Negima! Chapter 246 Spoiler Images?"

I already see from traffic patterns that people are looking for Negima! 246. Negima! has this week off, so there's no chapter or spoiler images. The spoilers should be out as early as March 27th (U.S.) though with the chapter being released on the 25th in Japan.

In the meantime, here's a giant Negima! wallpaper image of goth-lolita Asuna that someone has done an excellent job of coloring.


I wish I could get my favorite Eva picture with the same treatment. ^_^;

3/28 -- Nothing from Japan yet a/o 08:43ET/21:43JT.

Update: They came out 30-minutes after I went to bed. Figures. ^_^ See them --> HERE!

White Album 11 (or Crying About Your 'Girlfriend' While Banging Her Female Manager)

ホワイトアルバム Episode 11

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: OGATA Eiji holds a meeting with Rina and her managers as well as Yuki and her manager Shinozuka-san regarding the upcoming concerts. Rina confronts Shinozuka-san about Yuki's torn letter but in the face of her own interests will say nothing. Rina also has troubles in rehearsals getting the songs down right. Rina gives Touya leave to work one day at Echos and to keep his tutoring job with Mana. Mana and Haruka start biking together, leading Touya to refer to them both as Zashiki-warashi. Touya continues his relationship with Shinozuka-san and when Rina tries to get Touya to go out with her, she's shocked to learn that Touya has plans already with Shinozuka-san.

Thoughts/Review: I think the most interesting part of this episode had to be Rina's confrontation of Shinozuka-san regarding Yuki's letter. Rina had put the letter together and she was not happy that Shinozuka-san had destroyed it. True to form, Shinozuka-san repeated her hardline stance on removing all obsticals from Yuki's career. However, where things got interesting is when Shinozuka-san turned the tables on Rina and forced the girl to reveal that she would not let Yuki know the truth of what happened to the letters because of her own interests in Touya. I suppose she also wants Yuki to do well, but I think she wants Touya more. That would explain her shock when she learned that Touya was going to see Shinozuka-san. If only Rina knew the truth.

Speaking of Touya and Shinozuka-san, it was nasty to me seeing her lick Touya's tears before boffing him. What I don't get is Touya crying at all because he hadn't talked to Yuki in a while. What a crock. When he had a chance, he passed and then tried to avoid Yuki. Heck, he's banging Yuki's manager for crying out loud (no pun intended) so don't give me crocodile tears about, "I don't know Yuki's feelings. Boo hoo! Yuki hasn't communicated with me. Boo hoo! I'm hanging out with all these babes and banging Yuki's manager but I haven't even made an effort to talk to Yuki even though I'm now working for Rina. Boo hoo! I need to iku, Shinozuka-san. Boo hoo!" Ugh. Touya has to be one of the most unlikable "heros" of an anime, at least that I've seen.

So, what will Yuki do when she ultimately learns the truth of all this?

I'm glad Misaki and Akira seem to still be getting along. Just be a couple already and lets move on though, shall we?

Haruka and Mana's friendship is a bit strange, but I can't help but like it. I'm not sure why they keep talking around each other.

Speaking of Mana, I get the feeling that she's going to end up being Yuki's little sister. Just a hunch.

Not a great deal of analysis this episode because there wasn't a great deal of advancement beyond "we are having a concert" and "you are seeing Shinozuka-san?!" Onto the next episode then.

FUNimation Hiring New Staff!

After the cuts in staff at the begining of the year, FUNimation is now hiring again. Here are some openings for those interested.

• Systems Admin/SQL Development
• Accountant
• Marketing Brand Manager

I asked about the jobs and FUNimation told me that, "...things are still rolling pretty good here. Anime is still selling very well despite the bad economy." So all those doomsday folks have to be a bit disappointed by this news. ^_~

xxxHOLiC Manga Chapter 175

xxxHOLiC Manga Chapter 175

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: Watanuki continues to drop off onigiri at the cooking student lady's home, but she tells him that no matter how often he comes by, it won't change. Doumeki asks Watanuki what he will do if the woman never eats his food. Watanuki says that since he can't do what Yuuko-san does, this is all he can do and so he'll do it forever if he has to.

With Yuuko-san, Mokona, Maru, and Moro having been gone for two weeks, Watanuki is house sitting and for some reason, Doumeki comes to the store with Watanuki. Doumeki wants to be fed and Watanuki goes off on that idea, but in the end makes food as Doumeki requests. With Watanuki in the kitchen, Doumeki pulls out the egg that Yuuko-san gave him and wonders if it will soon be time to use it.

At school, Himawari-chan talks to Watanuki about the cooking student lady. She then hands Watanuki a bag of cookies that she made and tells Watanuki that she's sure his feelings will reach the woman.

Thoughts/Review: I'd completely forgotten about the egg that Doumeki had been given when Yuuko-san gave its twin to Watanuki (which then became the bird that Himawari-chan has with her). So I guess that's something fun to look forward to. So what prompted Doumeki to come over to Yuuko-san's place anyway?

For me, the highlight of the chapter was when Himawari-chan gave the cookies to Watanuki. I think back to all the times that Watanuki made food for her. Whenever she gave him a food gift, he always assumed that is was some lovingly prepared dish and she always "slew" him by telling him she bought the food at some store or other. This is the first time she has cooked and so I like that she gave him the cookies. I'd like to think that it is a sign of them becoming closer, at least as friends. I still want to see Zashiki-Warashi and Watanuki hook up but I could live with him being with Himawari-chan.

I haven't looked at the corresponding Tsubasa chapter to see what the latest happenings are, so I don't know if there's some additional information on Yuuko-san's status. I'm going to guess that we'll be without Yuuko-san for a while in xxxHOLiC.

Does anyone really care if the cooking woman eats Watanuki's onigiri? Why doesn't she have a name? Weird.

Oh well. Now to wait for the next chapter.

White Album 10 (or How to Make Friends and Influence People -- Sorta)

ホワイトアルバム Episode 10

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: Misaki spends the night in the hospital and leaves with Akira the following morning where they go buy clothing and eventually spend some time at Echos. Tamaru is blamed for the Theater Club's poor performance. Yuki asks Shinozuka-san to deliver a letter to Touya, whom she hasn't seen in ages. Shinozuka-san accidentally destroys the letter having intended to destroy a letter from Hiiragi, Rina's former manager, who has been harassing her. Shinozuka-san continues her relationship with Touya while Rina manages to get Touya on her personal staff as her own standing as an idol starts to fall while Yuki's is rising. Rina discovers that she is now in a competition with Sakura-dan and the members of that group no longer pay Rina respect.

Thoughts/Review: It seems that Touya does recognize that he seems to have lots and lots of babes around him. I know he's used the term "goddess" when talking with some of them (as he did with Haruka in this episode) but his confession on the subject to Rina went a lot deeper. Having all these girls show up on different days and become his "goddess of the day" is something Touya knows in not normal, but he enjoys the attention. Heck, he is smart enough to know how that there are so many fans (and I think Touya was thinking more about other men mostly) who would want to get close to Rina but can't, yet here he is having a hot beverage with her and being asked by her to work as a member of her staff.

Shinozuka-san and Touya. Man, I thought for sure that would come to an end once Touya was out of the picture. Touya has abandoned poor Yuki without even a word, but apparently Shinozuka-san is still doing the nasty with Touya. Maybe her continued involement with him sexually (and I'm going to assume that sex is going on because of the ages of the characters even though nothing is shown) is an insurance policy -- make the premium payments and keep the horn-dog from Yuki. Rina bringing Touya onto her staff may also play a role in this, but eventually I see Rina making a move on Touya. Anyway, the surprise here is that Hiiragi is sending Shinozuka-san letters and calling calling her. So is she frightened or no? Hard for me to say but maybe that's another reason for her to lose herself with Touya.

Poor Yuki. She wanted a letter delivered to Touya and Shinozuka-san accidentally destroyed it. I'm actually surprised that Poor Yuki. To think that Shinozuka-san was actually going to deliver it. She's a cool customer though, not revealing anything when she realized she still had Hiiragi's letter and had destroyed Yuki's. Does she lie to Yuki and say she delivered it? Rina found it and obviously thinks it is all over since the only reason for the letter to be destroyed is to keep Yuki and Touya apart. What does Rina do about this situation especially with her now having Touya on her staff and Sakura-dan at her throat, to say nothing of Yuki's star rising?

Poor Haruka. I believe Touya was about to tell her he sees her as nothing but a friend before Rina came up. Actually, that whole scene was a bit bizarre. Haruka is talking about Zashiki-Warashi (Mana), Touya is thinking Yuki while apparently about to give Haruka the friends speech (cause he has to know that Haruka wants a game of "one-on-one" with him), then suddenly he says something dumb and Rina is there. Weird. Haruka did save Touya from a confrontation with Tamaru.

I hope that Misaki and Akira are becoming a couple. She was pretty happy to see him in the hospital and wanted to go with him to buy a change of clothes for himself. They were at Echos together where I like to think they were talking about a great many things including that smeg head Touya. Akira's reaction to Touya coming over to chat with them was good -- Akira has JUST started to finally make progress with Misaki and his idiot friend whom Misaki had (and likely still has) feelings for comes thundering over. Of course Akira is going to be irritated and fortunately Touya had the good sense to get out.

The surprise for me in this episode was how Rina's star is falling and her brother is up to whatever it is he's up to. This is something that happens to all idols but I do wonder how this series will handle it. Clearly, Rina is not going down without a fight, but while it may be easy to battle the brats in Sakura-dan, can she save her own career without sabotaging Yuki's career? I like to think that she won't go that far, but I also think that somehow she'll take a consolation prize in Touya (if you can truly call him that). We'll see what happens.

Some questions -- will Tamaru attempt to kill Misaki and Touya for his disgrace? Did Touya's father have a heart attack? Where the smeg did Haruka go to? Did I miss an explanation of "Happizu?" Will Hiiragi try to attack and even rape Shinozuka-san? I ask some of these darker questions because I get the feeling dark times are closing in and I can see this series having an attempted murder or two as well as an attempted rape.

In the end, the episode was much more interesting than the last one.

Mahou Shoujo Tai Alice: The Adventure -- Final Thoughts

魔法少女隊アルス the Adventure
Magic Girl Squad Arusu: The Adventure
Tweeny Witches the Adventure

When I watched Mahou Shoujo Tai Alice (and yes, I know Media Blasters says "Arusu" but whatever), it wasn't a show that I rated as a "Buy" at Community Anime Reviews. I rated it as a "Rent" because there is a lot of good stuff in the series -- the eerie beauty of the art, the hauntingly beautiful music (including the wonderful ED theme "DuDiDuWa*lalala" by KOTOKO, which takes Johann Strauss's "The Beautiful Blue Danube" as a tune, changing it from a 3/4 time waltz to 4/4 time regular song), and the mostly fun story. However, it was not a title that I felt any strong pull to purchase, especially when Media Blasters scored the license and they weren't going to produce a product I wanted.

Still, the enjoyment of the TV series was not lost on me so when I read back in 2007 about a new series being created (thanks to the defunct Anime News Service site), I knew I would want to at least watch this series. It took nearly two years to watch this series from when I first heard about it, but now I have watched it and I am reminded of those things I absolutely loved about the TV series. However, not everything about these six side stories is good.

Thankfully, the music used is the same as the TV series. This is one of the rare anime titles that has a musical intro before the OP music. Also rare is that I always listen to both songs and don't skip them. The intro song is hauntingly beautiful and does something really good music should do -- evoke emotions. It just so fits the world of witches that the series takes place in and is a joy for me to hear. Follow that up with the OP theme, which is also a joy to listen to, but in a different way. The incident music is also nice to hear and at some point, I would like to purchase the soundtrack for this anime.

The first "fail" for the series are the character designs in episodes three and four. Seriously, episode three looks like people with hand tremors drew the characters and they are ugly. Episode four is a bit better, but still ugly. Episodes five and six get better. Judge for yourself with the following image grabs from each episode.

From episode 01:


Now, from episode 02:


Now, from episode 3:


Now, from episode 4:


Now, from episode 5 (no Alice in this episode):


Now, from episode 6:


So you see, most of the time things look fine, but episodes three and four -- not so much.

Story-wise, the first two episodes are just fun side-adventures involving the main characters. Episode three's terrible character designs killed a lot of the entertainment, but it was interesting seeing how Sheila was in the past. Episode four's tale of the current Grand Master is an interesting concept, but I felt it was poorly handled and written. Episode five is the best of the lot with the back story on how Dragon-chan became part of Eva's house. Episode six was OK with the giant Googoo-chan, but not much beyond a simple adventure. So on the whole, the stories are a mixed lot at best, but good if you can't get enough of Sheila-chan, Eva-chan, and Alice-chan. ^_^

Still, despite the flaws, in the end I did enjoy this return to the world of Mahou Shoujo Tai. However, I did not enjoy it well enough to ever want to watch this OVA series again. Watching the OVA also satiated any desire I had to rewatch the TV series too. The music is obviously my favorite part of the OVA. So in the end, I'd give this 3 out of 5.

Negima! Manga Vol 27 (Ch 245) *SPOILERS*

魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 27 Chapter 245 (manga)
Mahou Sensei Negima! Manga Chapter 245

Summary/Synopsis: Ako decides to confront Tosaka about "Nagi-san" with Akira following, wanting Ako to stop. Ako says she doesn't have the qualities of the other girls but even she can do something. So she bursts into the room where Tosaka is reading a book and some other guys are playing cards. Ako offers herself to Tosaka in exchange for Tosaka not doing anything else to Nagi-san. Tosaka's companions are amazed by this since Ako would essentially be giving up her slave protection rights afforded her by the collar. Two of the guys decide that this will mean stripping Ako for starters, so Akira rushes to protect her. The idea of enjoying two junior high girls is even better and Akira even agrees to a stripping but only if they'll stop there. Tosaka brings things to a halt by giving Ako the evidence he has about Negi and Nagi being the same person. This stuns his comrades.

Ako and Akira pay Tosaka a visit in the arena as he performs groundskeeper work. Ako wants to know why Tosaka did this. His answer is that he was bored. Ako tells Tosaka that she knows how Mama (Bear), Balgas, and Tosaka were slaves after Ostia fell. She also knows that Mama and Balgas earned money to free Tosaka first and then Tosaka took ten years earning enough money to free them. Tosaka scoffs at this, saying he's trash and a villain. He chastises Ako for her words earlier because saying such things could get her killed and no one would care. He then goes on to reveal how jealous he is of "Nagi" because Nagi is trying to free Ako and company in a month and a half whereas it took Tosaka ten years to do the same thing for those he cared about. He feels Ako knows what he means when he says that he can't make it into the spotlight no matter how hard he tries.

Sometime later, Tosaka punches "Nagi" for saying that he doesn't think he can beat Jack. When Negi starts talking about how powerful Jack is, he takes more beating since to Tosaka, Negi and Kotaro are "monsters" when it comes to power. Tosaka tells him what he did for Ako and beats Negi some more, telling Negi about how it took him 18 years to do what he had to whereas Negi has only taken a month and a half. After taking out his frustrations on Negi, Tosaka leaves.

Ako comes by to see "Nagi-san," whereupon she kisses him and tells him she loves him before changing it to the past tense. She tells Negi that she had thought about getting him to go with her on a date, but instead asks one thing of him -- beat Jack in the finals.

Thoughts/Review: I know there are a lot of people who don't like Ako. Me, I've never had anything against her. She's always been a nice, normal girl. So I do feel for her as the guy she fell head-over-heels for turned out to be a mere illusion and nothing more than her 10-year old teacher in disguise. So even though her solution wasn't a good one for herself, I do like that she made the choice to sacrifice herself for the others.

That said, I know I did not like Negi's self-sacrifice attempt but that's a different issue. Negi is the mega-weapon of the group and for him to sacrifice himself served no purpose in helping the others. For Ako, sacrificing herself has no negative impact on the others beyond an emotional one. Her decision to give herself completely to Tosaka to do with as he would does contain some emotion in it, but it was reasoned. She'd judged that if she told Tosaka that, he would not harm her and would release Negi. It wasn't a decision made in a moment's time as I see it.

Negi, on the other hand, gets confronted with a problem and his first thought is to roll over and give up (well, not always but that has been his solution to resolve problems many times going back to the Eva arc in volume 3). The stakes are super high and Negi cannot just sacrifice himself in some naive way, thinking that people who want to do him in will suddenly become good if Negi is removed from the board. Negi can only free the girls and get everyone home IF he remains alive, free, and has the battle harem to assist him. So that's why I like Ako's self-sacrifice attempt but not Negi's.

While we are on the subject, look at Akira. She too offered herself to those guys who were talking of stripping Ako, providing they stopped at just stripping. There's an emotionally-driving act of self-sacrifice that serves no purpose either. Had Tosaka not turned over the evidence to Ako and allowed his comrades to continue, they would not have stopped at just stripping Ako and Akira. Those two girls would have been raped repeatedly.

Tosaka gets to take out his frustrations on Negi and thus his story thread comes to an end. I gather that Akamatsu-sensei softened his character design somewhat so that he wouldn't come off like such a villian but my opinion of the man has not changed. He is what he is, just as he told Ako. The fact that he gave up the evidence changes nothing for me, but then I never really had any strong feelings about the character.

Back to Ako, her non-pactio kiss puts her up there with Nodoka on that front. I like how she got to have a kiss with her dream guy before letting go of the illusion. I hope that Ako will continue to play a role of some kind in future stories but with the scout team having dropped off screen for ages, I'm thinking that Ako, Akira, and Natsumi will get nothing but cameos from here on out short of Ako getting a pactio (which might happen, but I kinda doubt it at the moment).

A side thought/question for future stories -- did Fate know that Negi was disguising himself as an adult? This whole storyline of Ako finding out that "Nagi-san" is Negi made me think of my own theory that Nagi actually created the perfect disguise 10-years ago and became "Negi." If Fate started to believe this as well, he would undoubtedly be very concerned.

I keep saying I'm going to post my theory article but I actually have to write it first. ^_^; Still, I can't help but think that Akamatsu-sensei has been preparing the audience on a subconscious level to prepare for a revelation that Negi and Nagi are indeed the same person. We'll see.

No Negima! 246 next week. I'll put up a reminder Saturday and try to find some nifty image to share.

Urusei Yatsura 108 (Protoculture!)

うる星やつら episode 108 (TV anime)

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: Ryuunosuke is out doing her laundry and catching a bath at the same time. She discovers that she accidentally placed both of her breast wraps in the wash. Heading to her washing machine, she finds it empty, her clothing having been stolen. Coming home, a street vendor calls her "oneechan" to get her attention. This causes Ryuunosuke to react violently, demanding the vendor say it again and again. She's happy by the words and vows not to wear the wrap again. However at home in the school, her father has noticed the "swelling" and since her wraps are gone, he offers to rub some ointment onto the "swelling" to reduce it. This results in him getting a beating.

At school, the boys have all noticed Ryuunosuke's breasts and plotting begins on taking advantage of the situation in the upcoming rugby match. In the girls locker room, the girls have noticed the boys shift in attitude and feel that Ryuunosuke needs to do something. However, the spare sports bra that Shinobu has is not large enough for Ryuunosuke's chest. With Onsen-sensei refereeing the match, Ataru tells the others they'll need to remove the obstacle, so when the game starts, they immediately trample him. Ataru passes Ryuu-chan the ball and all the men get into Formation A to tackle her, none of which makes sense to her and she keeps running and doing what she can to keep from being tackled.

Meanwhile in space, an alien craft with a single woman (the queen) and her men (all of whom long for more women) arrive at Earth to take it over. However, their craft, which is the size and shape of a rugby ball, gets confused with the real rugby ball. Because Ataru is trying to cop a feel of Ryuu-chan under the guise of tackling her, Lum has had enough and races out there just as the queen tells her guys to shrink the giants that have her ship and bring them inside. They do this and her men are enthrall of Lum and Ryuunosuke, both in capsules. Ataru, in his own capsule and seeing the queen, begins swinging himself closer too her, yelling "oneechan" as he gets closer. The queen is not happy by this, nor by having women on the ship.

Ataru breaks free and is all over the queen, causing Lum to get angry and break out. Ryuunosuke also breaks free, but both girls find that the men of the ship are interested in getting the girls rather than follow the queen's commands. A merry chase ensues and after some time, the queen finally manages to rid herself of the three humans. Now out of the ship, it leaves and Ataru tells the gathered guys that was not a ball. With Ryuunosuke's breasts as the prize, the men begin their chase of her again, forcing her to beat them all back.

Thoughts/Review: What a fun episode. Seriously, while I may not have been belly laughing, I certain couldn't help but chuckle and laugh throughout most of the episode. For starters, there is Ryuunosuke finally being noticed as a woman, simply because someone stole her wraps and thus her breasts weren't being "hidden" as it were. While her dad still annoys me, I did find the whole plotting against Ryuunosuke by her male rugby team members to be funny and wrong. Even Megane couldn't resist, which was funny. Ryuunosuke being called "oneechan" by the vendor and her reaction made me laugh. The removal of the obstacle (Onsen-sensei) made me laugh. I laughed at Ataru's "oneechan" yells to the queen as he took damage trying to get to her. I laughed later when he called her "oneesama" and asked for a phone number and address. That's a bit of a change for me since normally, I haven't been so keen on Ataru's wandering eye, but for some reason, the way it was done made me laugh.

The parody references (such as Cyborg 009 and Macross) were nice (PROTOCULTURE!), though can someone provide me the "Formation A" reference?

I had a hunch that when the queen selected someone to spend the night with her, it would be for some innocent purpose. The whole moment screamed that, and yet when the payoff happened and her chosen is shown simply reading her a book, I still couldn't help but laugh.

At the end of this episode, Ryuunosuke still did not have a wrap and frankly, I would hope that the anime production team would keep her wrap-free from here on out. That would certainly be a nice change.

One side note -- I guess we are going to have more fanservice in the series. Ryuunosuke briefly shows off a breast and of course the queen, Lum, and even Ryuunosuke added to the fanservice elements.

So, a really enjoyable episode here and if this continues as reported, then so much the better.

Minami-ke Okaeri 10

みなみけ おかえり Episode 10

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: Touma gets caught in the rain as she heads to the female Minami residence. After taking a warm bath to warm herself up, she's waiting for her clothing to dry and asks for Chiaki to give her some clothing. Chiaki doesn't like her attitude, which changes when Fujioka shows up. When Fujioka starts to chastise Touma for fighting with Chiaki, Touma then gives "Chiaki-sama" proper respect and to the astonishment of Fujioka, is going to wear Chiaki's clothing. Kana and Haruka see Fujioka is soaked, so Kana tries to strip him as they had Touma earlier.

Uchida is enjoying her hard candy when Chiaki lets out a bit of trivia about extracting coloring from bugs. This grosses Uchida out and when Chiaki tries to tell another bit of ant trivia, Uchida doesn't want to hear. So Chiaki lays down and Kana tells Uchida that Chiaki hates it when people don't listen to her. When Fujioka comes by, Chiaki gets up and grabs him. Seeing some contrails outside, the two walk to the sliding glass door where Chiaki explains what contrails really are. Uchida gets frustrated that Chiaki's trivia for Fujioka is normal but for Uchida, its gross.

Uchida and Touma are doing homework at the Minami residence while Kana reads and Chiaki sits between Fujioka's legs and chats with him. Uchida remarks on this which leads Touma to recall how when she first met Fujioka, she too sat between his legs and talked about soccer. Chiaki got jealous since that's where she always sat but her hints to Touma aren't getting through. When Touma and Chiaki almost get into a fight, Fujioka chastises Touma since boys aren't supposed to attack girls. Further, Fujioka notices Touma has some fat on "his" chest and thinks some conditioning is in order. So back in the present, Touma mentions that despite being invited, Chiaki never came to conditioning with Touma, which Kana attributes to Chiaki not being good at sports.

At the other Minami residence, the oldest brother and Akira (the youngest) give Natsuki some advice as he's going to ask a favor of Haruka -- smile and choice of words are most important. Touma comes in and says that Natsuki should also ignore Kana and pay attention to Chiaki. So Natsuki buys some expensive manjuu as a present and after coming the the female Minami residence, presents it to Haruka. He smiles which shocks them all, chooses his words carefully, ignores Kana (irritating her and causing Haruka to repeat all of Kana's questions), and when Chiaki acts like a small guard dog because of the attention Natsuki is giving Haruka, Natsuki returns the favor by acting like the alpha male, causing Chiaki to back down. Natsuki's request -- to have Touma come home earlier. So Haruka asks Touma, who's reading a manga nearby, to do just that. Back at home, the two brothers feel their advice to Natsuki was key while Touma is exasperated.

Thoughts/Review: Not really too funny of an episode until the end. I did get a kick out of Chiaki being annoyed with Touma's attitude and then Touma deciding to address Chiaki as "Chiaki-sama" to beg for a change of clothes. I liked seeing how Chiaki was jealous of Touma sitting between Fujioka's legs. This story, more than any other, shows just what a crush Chiaki has on Touma.

However, the funny story was the last one with Natsuki. It was strange and funny all wrapped in one. From his strange smile to his ignoring Kana to his "dog fight" with Chiaki, it all cracked me up. Natsuki has somehow managed to rise up near Hosaka's level when it comes to funny material. I don't remember him being quite so funny before.

So while not as funny as some episodes have been, I still enjoyed the antics and stories for what they were. I would obviously prefer ultra funny stuff all the time like we saw in Minami-ke, but alas, that's not to be.

Oh yeah -- this is another anime where Pringles has been featured. Best potato chips EVAH!

Toradora! SOS 01

とらドラ！ SOS Episode 01

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: Ami is complaining about having to eat Tarako spaghetti at a restaurant as part of her job and she didn't like it. Ryuuji tells her she's just never had good Tarako spaghetti. She wonders if there is such a thing, so off to Jonny's they go to try this good Tarako spaghetti. They sit with Minori, who ignores Ryuuji but Ryuuji is happy his name came up in conversation. It is decided that they'll have a Tarako spaghetti duel, which is followed by a meat spaghetti duel and some long-winded dialog bits. After all that, "SOS" is determined by the girls to mean "strawberry on shortcake."

Thoughts/Review: Hmmmm. Can you say "boring?" I knew you could. Can you say, "tedious?" I know you could. Can you say, "Not funny?" I knew you could.

I had hoped for something along the lines of the Shana-tan series, where Shana from Shakugan no Shana is super-deformed and placed into a parody bit about the actual series. While the five main characters from Toradora! are all super deformed, unfortunately there is an attempt to be funny which fails to be funny. Looking at the imagery, one would expect some level of humor, but I never found it. Instead, I found myself thinking, "Come on! Where are the funny jokes?" Maybe I need to be Japanese to appreciate this, I don't know. There was just nothing funny about a spaghetti eating contest. I realize those long-winded dialog moments were supposed to be funny in a weird sort of way, but they were just tedious and no amount of chibi characters moving around in the background could save it.

The end of the episode indicates there's more. Not sure about that, but if there is, hopefully the writers will try to be funny.

Clannad After Story 22 (All This Has Happened Before and Will Happen Again)

クラナド アフターストーリー Episode 22
Clannad ~After Story~ Ep. 22

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: As Tomoya finds himself back in the past wondering if he should say anything to Nagisa when they first met, in the Illusion World, Garbage Bot is wondering why he came to this world and realized he'd been here all along with this girl. He is unsuccessful in moving the girl, who now can speak to him telepathically as well as "hear" the robots voice since she is near death. She cannot leave this world because she is the world. She reveals that they were together in another world. Also, the lights that Garbage Bot remembers seeing are the feelings of the people from that other world. She finally reveals that she and Garbage Bot were very close before and that he exists in both worlds, so he'll see her again. She then says that her feelings will become the tiny orbs of light in the other world, representing her feelings. She tells the robot that soon he will fall asleep here and wake up in the other world. They skies open and Garbage Bot is pulled apart as he hears the girl say, "Sayonara, Papa."

Tomoya finds himself at the base of the hill where he met Nagisa and though he'd allowed her to walk by, he screams her name and goes after her. After grabbing her and embracing her, she addresses him in her customary "Tomoya-kun," saying she was worried he might have wished never to meet her. She tells him she's glad she met him and that she had a wonderful life. She asks him not to regret anything and he tearfully agrees, hugging her again. With that, she takes him to a place in the city where wishes come true. With that, Tomoya "wakes up" just after Nagisa has given birth to Ushio, only this time, Nagisa doesn't die. So Tomoya is able to relive the last five years of his life, only this time as a family with Nagisa and Ushio. They take a family trip to Tomoya's grandmother's house and Ushio gets to play in the flowers again.

Back in the present, Fuuko-chan is upset over having been treated like a child, which her sister Kouko tries to explain as being partially due to Fuuko-chan's small stature and partially because Fuuko-chan refers to herself in the 3rd person. Fuuko-chan finds this very rude but does make two attempts to use normal, 1st person speech, but her choice of words makes it sound illicit (to borrow a word). Fuuko-chan smells something and she attempts to coach her sister into asking the right questions for Fuuko-chan to answer. After a while, Fuuko-chan races across a field to a wooded area to meet this girl. There, we see Mystery Girl laying on the ground briefly before Fuuko-chan gets there, whereupon the girl becomes Ushio. Fuuko-chan slowly approaches, wanting to know the girl's name and wanting to be friends as the fun is about to begin.

Thoughts/Review: When Mystery Girl said, "Sayonara, Papa," I have to say that I lost it. Fortunately, I had plenty of Puffs Plus tissues. ^_^ Yes, it was validation of my thoughts that Mystery Girl was indeed Ushio and that Garbage Bot was Tomoya, but the moment was very touching as Tomoya was pulled back into the real world. Well, I say "real world" but clearly, the place he was at when "woke up" was not real. Yes, he appears to be at the moment in Clannad episode 1 where he first met Nagisa but this Nagisa knew him -- she called him "Tomoya-kun" which she didn't do until they were a couple (discounting the Fuuko story arc where she briefly did so there). So was this another Illusion World, only of Nagisa's creation? I'm not sure at all.

I went back to the first episode of Clannad and watched the intro and the end of that episode. If I had to guess, I'd say that it almost appears as if that was when Tomoya first woke up from visiting the Mystery World. While it made no real sense to me back then, the visuals are astonishingly the same as when Tomoya pondered whether to speak to Nagisa or not. So I think that in Clannad, Tomoya had been sent back and while he couldn't remember his time before (save for knowing Nagisa's play story, suggesting she too had been sent back somehow) nor his time in the Illusion World, he did befriend Nagisa again and he stopped being a delinquent, befriending lots of others as well.

This is where things get fuzzy for me and maybe we'll get some more explanations in the next two episodes (since the next episode takes place in the past). Tomoya must have been sent back because (1) he had memories of the Illusion World though he couldn't remember how he knew the tale and (2) the mini orbs of light that were Ushio's feelings were on Earth. We saw them appear several times during the course of both series and even Tomoya was tagged with one when he squared things with his father (which Ushio saw). But how did he get to the Illusion World in the first place? If the world was one created by Ushio upon her death, then was Tomoya dying at the end of episode 20 when we see him fall over in the snow? That's the only way I can see him being in both places at the same time.

So, Tomoya gets sent back to make try to make things right I guess, starting with making the choice to not let Nagisa walk by him. She knows him at that point and he her. If I'm right, once Tomoya decided to speak to Nagisa and they have their reunion of sorts, it is then that Tomoya is placed back into the real world after Nagisa says she'll take him to a special place where dreams come true. So when he comes to at that moment, this explains his thoughts of "change" as he encounters Nagisa as well as the black-and-white world until he forms the words and actually speaks to Nagisa. That said, I'm still at a loss to explain how Nagisa knew of the Illusion World. At the end of episode 1 in Clannad (and the beginning of episode 2), she says the same words she told Tomoya in episode 22 of Clannad ~After Story~. That proves the reset but not how Nagisa knew of the Illusion World. It seems that if Nagisa had been there, then one of Ushio's other creations would have come to life as well, but it didn't. Only Garbage Bot came to life.

So things go wrong, Nagisa dies and eventually Ushio dies. However, in this second go around, Tomoya has one of those lights go into him. Maybe that's what allowed him to have his wish for Nagisa to say alive this time and to be a complete family come true. After all, other wishes have been granted through the light orbs. Or maybe he's in his own Illusion World. That seems a bit much but I'm trying to look at the whole picture and there are still gaps as I see it.

Another gap is Mystery Girl-Ushio at the end of the episode. How did Fuuko-chan know she was there? Did she know Ushio somehow? If the globes make wishes come true, then maybe Fuuko-chan recognizes the one that caused her to ultimately recover after years in the hospital. Further, if that's Ushio, then where's the Ushio that grew up with Nagisa and Tomoya? Lots of gaps and unanswered questions.

I did like the look of Tomoya, Nagisa, and Ushio as a family as they moved forward in time. Someone said that Nagisa looks totally hot as an adult and I agree there. I also liked how that their group of friends are shown five years after Ushio's birth.

I am disappointed that Kotomi wasn't part of the resolution about the Illusion World piece of the story though. After setting up that her parents researched it and that she was going to research it, I thought for sure we'd have some Kotomi screen time on this subject but alas, no.

Two more episodes, whatever they may be.

Even More Negima! 245 SPOILER Images

Even More Negima! 245 SPOILER Images
魔法先生 ネギま！Chapter 245 (Images)

Here's the 3rd round of spoiler images from Japan, y'all (click pic to make bigger, y'all).


That should be the last of the images for this chapter and the end of the Ako thread. I do wonder if she'll have a future role in the Negi harem (pactio) or if she'll just play a background role, much as Akira and Natsumi have.

For those who might have missed it, the first batch of spoiler images are --> HERE and the 2nd batch of spoiler images are -->HERE. ^_^

xxxHOLiC Shunmuki 01

×××HOLiC 春夢記 Episode 01 (OVA/OAD)

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: Watanuki and Kohane-chan work on preparing a meal for themselves as well as the fortune teller lady and Doumeki. Doumeki has a gift of expensive sake so the lady says she'll have to drink it with her best cup. Doumeki and Kohane-chan go to retrieve it. While doing this, Kohane-chan inquires into the relationship between Doumeki and Watanuki since Watanuki is always getting upset. Doumeki recounts how their first meeting had Watanuki kick Doumeki but Doumeki saw Watanuki in a different light when he cradled a dead cat and commented on dying alone. Kohane-chan notes that Watanuki is no longer alone.

Doumeki and Watanuki leave that evening for Yuuko-san's place, bringing the leftovers. Yuuko-san and Doumeki talk briefly of Watanuki's accident where he fell out of the school window and after Doumeki leaves to help Watanuki, Yuuko-san reflects further on the aftermath of Watanuki's accident as well as the moment that the 2nd Syaoran-kun arrived at her shop.

Meanwhile, Watanuki meets with Doumeki's grandfather (Haruka-san) in a dream state. Haruka-san has a quest for Watanuki, so the following day, Doumeki and Watanuki check out the storage room on the temple grounds. Watanuki is looking for five items, the first being a book. Locating a book, Watanuki finds himself suddenly fishing with Doumeki, apparently having gone to sleep. That evening, the two are packing up to leave when a down burst occurs. They find a Japanese inn right nearby and the young lady who answers the door seems surprised to see them. A group of women inside offer hospitality of the inn to Doumeki and Watanuki, who accept to get out of the rain.

In a room, they dry off when the girl come by to see them. She warns them to leave and then leaves. The lamp in their room goes out, so Doumeki and Watanuki go to obtain more oil. They see a well-lit room and discover that the women inside are in fact bird-people (a type of youkai). Seeing they are discovered, the women give chase, planning to eat Watanuki and Doumeki. As they flee, Doumeki throws the fish bait at the bird-women, which causes them to stop in order to eat the bait. Doumeki and Watanuki escape, so Watanuki wonders if maybe the young lady has a bird connection with Doumeki. Doumeki remembers raising some chickens in elementary school, but they ate them all. With that, Watanuki and Doumeki find themselves back in the storage shed, having lived out the story of the book they found.

Thoughts/Review: Hmmmm...one thing this episode reminded me of is how long xxxHOLiC has been basically marking time as a manga in terms of story. More on that in a bit.

The first part of the episode basically covered chapters 158-161, save for the end of 161 (which is dropped) as well as some conversation pieces. In place of the end of 161, through the Yuuko-san monologue, the events of volume 10 are brought to light, though the prices that Himawari-chan and Doumeki paid are apparently changed. Then the story in chapter 141 wraps up this episode, though rather than be a solo story as it was in the manga, the events in the anime are triggered by being sucked into a book that Doumeki's grandfather Haruka-san sent Watanuki to find. There are some other bits included too, such as the real Syaoran-kun's arrival at Yuuko-san's home.

I praise Production I.G for figuring out that Watanuki has heterochromia -- eyes of two different eye color. In xxxHOLiC Kei, Production I.G did have Watanuki have heterochromia for one episode, then it magically went away. I remember hating that, more so when the color pages from the CLAMP manga continued to show Watanuki with two different colored eyes. There was never a reason for them to remove that condition of Watanuki since it is an important thing. So when Watanuki makes his initial appearance in this episode, I was happy to see the eye issue resolved.

Production I.G is now officially linking Tsubasa Chronicle with xxxHOLiC. In xxxHOLiC Kei, they continued to keep the two series divorced even though the xxxHOLiC manga became more and more intertwined with the events of the Tsubasa manga. Considering they are doing the xxxHOLiC Shunmuki in conjunction with Tsubasa Shunraiki, I'm guessing that if these two OVA titles do well that from here on, the two franchises will be released together to retain their manga crossover linkages. That's how it should have been from the start but oh well.

As to the story itself, I was reminded of how little the xxxHOLiC manga has progressed since the Kohane-chan arc wrapped up. Beyond the constant drumbeat of "what is a dream and what is reality," not much has happened. Well, there was a big revelation about Watanuki, but I'll say nothing about that now and wait for the anime to address that issue.

For some reason I was hard pressed to remember the conversation between Kohane-chan and Doumeki regarding Watanuki. I remembered the visit to the fortune teller lady's home (where Kohane-chan is now living) but not the conversation. Kohane-chan's loss of powers wasn't mentioned in the anime for some reason, but thus far, it hasn't been an issue in the manga and may not be.

As to the episode itself, I'm hard pressed to have any deep feelings here. I never got the feeling that the writers are trying to tell a specific story. Rather, I got the feeling that the writers were trying to right the xxxHOLiC anime from where it had gone off in the two TV series. I'm not sure how much to make of the anime exclusive quest given to Watanuki by Haruka-san. I guess we'll find out.

The production values for this OAD are increased, which is how it should be. Should we get more of these OAD/OVA series, I hope that trend will continue.

Well, there are only two episodes in this OVA and two in Tsubasa Shunraiki. As such, not much of an investment to watch the next episode as well as the two Tsubasa ones so hopefully I'll get to watch all of them.

Toradora! 23

とらドラ！Episode 23
Toradora! Ep. 23

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: Taiga is back at school and apparently her old self, which pleases Yuusaku and Ryuuji. Yuri-sensei summons Taiga and Ryuuji to the teacher's room regarding their career assessments. Being rich, Taiga sees no need to fill it out and Ryuuji just hasn't made up his mind. When Yuri-sensei leaves, Taiga makes a paper airplane of her assessment paper and tosses it out the window. Ryuuji doesn't like that and this leads to a conversation where Taiga says she wants a normal life to meet someone normally and then fall in love with them in a normal way. However, since Taiga is not a normal person and her life not normal, she doesn't see that happening. Ryuuji gets a bit frustrated by this and lets Taiga know, so Taiga leaves.

Ryuuji decides he's not going to college and will just get a job. He returns to the teacher's room where he finds one of the teachers trying to get Ami to do something. Ami refuses and seeing Ryuuji, she's going to leave. The teacher tells Ryuuji to follow Ami, so he does. At the shoe lockers, Ami accidentally drops one of her outdoor shoes, so Ryuuji picks it up. When Ami gets snarky about it, asking if he has a shoe fetish, Ryuuji throws the show outside as far as he can. He eventually retrieves it as Ami waits, seated outside. He refuses to give the shoe back and asks what the teacher wanted her to do. The school wants her to model the school uniform for a pamphlet but she's not going to do it. Ryuuji can't understand why and Ami is annoyed. When she fails to retrieve the shoe, she says that she had initially planned to leave after the first semester when the stalker issue was resolved but changed her mind. One of the reasons was her friendship with Ryuuji, Yuusaku, Minori, and Taiga, but she also felt a kinship with Taiga and wanted to help her. Now, Ami feels that things will resolve themselves if she leaves. Ami snags her shoe and leaves but before Ryuuji can chase her, he gets a call from Taiga.

Coming home, Ryuuji finds his mother is ill and cannot work either of her jobs. Ryuuji is angry with himself for not being more of a support for his mother. As such, he leaves to go pick up some things at the store but leaves his jacket, bag, wallet, and key so Taiga follows him to give it to him. Ryuuji's state of mind leaves him upset and he nearly gets run over by a car until Taiga grabs his hand. He tells her he doesn't know what to do and she tells him things will be fine. Together, the head to the cake shop where Ryuuji's mother was working to sell Valentine chocolates and the two of them agree to work in her stead.

The following day, they man the stand in front of the store and are surprised when Haruta comes up with a girlfriend to buy some chocolate. Noto stops by, which surprises Ryuuji. Noto asks if "Ami-chan" or "Nanako-sama" came by. Ryuuji tells him that Maya hasn't come by which causes Noto to get all flustered, claiming to just be curious if Maya bought anything for Yuusaku. Taiga wonders what business is it of Noto's what Maya buys, then realizes that Noto likes Maya and marvels that there really are people who discover they really like each other after fighting. Noto runs off and Taiga calls Ami for some sales support. Ami comes over but is not thrilled to see Ryuuji. However, when people start recognizing Ami, she puts on her act briefly to generate sales. Ami leaves and Ryuuji follows her, leaving Taiga to handle all the business. Ami accuses Ryuuji of being like a stalker for following her and he counters by saying she likes to run away from things. Ryuuji tells her he wouldn't like it if she left the school, nor would the others. Ami sees that Ryuuji still doesn't get it and so points out how Taiga is being overrun with business.

At the end of the day, they sold all the stuff they were supposed to sell but Taiga bough more chocolate just the same, planing to give it to everyone including Ryuuji if it would make him happy. He assures her it would. So Taiga makes chocolate and calls her four best friends together the next day after school to give them chocolate. She saves Yuusaku for last, saying his is special because he rescued her. This causes a negative reaction from Minori, who is upset and angry with Ryuuji for lying to Taiga. Since Taiga is talking about how she could have said embarrassing things, Minori decides to bring the issue to a head. However, Taiga is embarrassed to say and Yuusaku is playing along with Ryuuji's plan to keep Taiga in the dark about the truth.

Minori has heard enough and goes over to Ryuuji, calling him a liar. Minori is angry because Ryuuji thinks that by pretending not to know what Taiga said, everything will be OK. She's also angry with Taiga for deluding herself. Minori tells Taiga the truth about what happened and demands to know why Taiga is hiding. Taiga manages to break free of Minori's grasp but finds the back door of the classroom blocked by Yuusaku and the front door blocked by Ami. Minori goes for Taiga again, telling Taiga to trust her but Taiga is screaming to be set free, not wanting to face the truth. Taiga says she wanted Minori to be happy. Minori shouts that her happiness can only be her creation and not something that was created for her.

Taiga again breaks free but this time Ami lets Taiga escape. Minori can't believe Ami betrayed them, but Ami reveals her intent by saying that bad things will happen if Taiga isn't pursued. She looks at Ryuuji as she says this, however Minori says she'll be the one to go after Taiga since she's not finished talking. In the meantime, Minori demands to know what Ryuuji is going to do. Ryuuji wonders what would happen if he chased after Taiga but he's taking to long and Minori demands an answer now.

Thoughts/Review: I completely didn't see Taiga and Ryuuji getting ambushed by Minori, Ami, and Yuusaku. Much like the summer home incident where Yuusaku played both sides, he pulls it off again. I can't imagine that the plan went exactly as expected since Minori seemed really surprised, hurt, and VERY angry that Taiga didn't know the truth about her rescue on the mountain. So I can only imagine that the three of them got together and were going to use the chocolate distribution from Taiga as a means of forcing a resolution to this messing love-thing going on between Ryuuji, Taiga, Minori, and Ami.

The obvious theme of this episode is sacrificing what one wants to try to please someone else. It has been seen before and all the characters are guilty of doing it, much as many of us are in real life. The interesting thing here is that while Yuusaku, Minori, and Ami are trying to force Taiga to face the truth and her feelings for Ryuuji, aren't Minori and Ami also sacrificing what they want for Taiga's sake? As I have long thought, Ami and Taiga are indeed friends (their duet at the Christmas party sealed the notion with me and I do like how the writers gave us double confirmation on that friendship from both parties) and despite herself, Ami is in love with Ryuuji. So why doesn't she go for what she wants instead of putting Taiga's (or Minori's) happiness first? Minori is in love with Ryuuji and I have to think she knows Ami is as well in addition to her knowing Taiga's feelings for Ryuuji. So why isn't she going for what she wants? How can she lecture Taiga for doing the very same thing she's doing?

Ryuuji still comes off as mostly clueless about how Minori really feels about him and how Ami really feels about him. That said, Ryuuji came off better this episode than he has been. For starters, he showed he know all about Noto's attraction to Maya despite Noto's attempts to name-drop Ami and Nanako. When Ami got snippy with Ryuuji, he literally threw her shoe away, then wouldn't give it back until he got some answers. He even chased her down, countered her with a "running away" jab, and told her he wouldn't like her leaving the school. So I suppose in some ways, he's finally starting to come around.

I'm not sure if Taiga was being sarcastic or if she honestly didn't figure out about Maya and Noto until she thought about Noto's question about Maya. I tend to side with the sarcastic side and she made her remark to make Noto face the truth, which would be ironic considering her own situation.

I had to smile at Taiga's wish for a normal relationship accomplished in a normal way. Of course, that's what she has with Ryuuji, or will have once Minori and Ryuuji chase her down.

While I'm on the subject of Taiga, her twin tails look is pretty darn cute. I can't say that I've ever found Taiga to be attractive up until now. ^_^

Well, I guess we have only two more episodes. It doesn't seem too far fetched to guess that Taiga and Ryuuji will double-confess, but then nothing's too sure with this anime. *lol*

School Rumble Z Chapter 04

School Rumble Z Volume 1 Chapter 04 (manga)
スクールランブルZ Chapter ♮4 "Scrooge"

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: A junior high school aged Harima is not thrilled with Christmas and he accidentally knocks down a young girl his age (Tenma). In the process, he ruins her Christmas cake and wants to make amends. Tenma tells the story of her little sister's (Yakumo) dislike of Christmas despite writing a letter to Santa every year which says "Mom and Dad." Harima decides to get his high school cousin (Itoko) to pretend to be a mother for a day, but she refuses as she has finals.

At Tenma's and Yakumo's home, Yakumo tells Tenma that she's not interested in celebrating Christmas. Hearing a noise at the door, Tenma takes Yakumo to the front door where Harima is dressed up in a suit too large for him and a fake mustache. Yakumo demands to know what this is about and gets angry about Tenma being a busy body and destroying everything she touches. Yakumo's words causes Harima to snap and slap her. Yakumo is shocked and despite having been on the receiving end of Yakumo's wrath, Tenma won't stand for someone attacking her sister and she punishes Harima with a wrestling slam move.

Harima tells the girls that he wants to show them something wonderful. He takes them to Itoko's high school and up on the roof, they can see the city below lit up beautifully under the night sky. They are touched by the experience, which happened because Itoko arranged for them to have access.

Review/Thoughts: Ah. Now here's a chapter that really interested me. I haven't read the School Rumble manga beyond what Del Rey has released so I don't know what other stories pre-high school for Tenma, Yakumo, and Harima exists beyond the one where Harima first fell in love with Tenma. Still, I couldn't help think "retcon" here, but the story overcomes the retcon element.

I loved seeing Itoko-sensei in high school. *lol* She's too much and hasn't changed much over the years regarding personality. She may act tough but she is a softy too.

The biggest thing is Yakumo. In junior high school, Yakumo was so bitter and angry. I don't know what happened with their parents but clearly whatever it was impacted Yakumo deeply. She still loves and cares for Tenma, but the anger is a side I've not seen before. So when a junior high Harima slaps her (and gets a wrestling slam as a result from Tenma) before leading both girls to the roof of the school to look at the city below at night, it obviously caused her to let go and become the sweet girl we've come to know and love.

The chapter makes an implication about something happening on that same rooftop. Not having completed School Rumble, I don't know if there's a chapter there dealing with this. If there is, great -- I'll read it soon enough. If not, I hope that this story is covered in a future chapter of School Rumble Z.

I'm still not crazy about retconning, but the strength of the story in seeing a bit more about Tenma and Yakumo's past makes me get past the retconning issue. I really do want to see more stories dealing with the core of School Rumble rather than placing the characters in fantasy situations or time periods.

More Negima! 245 SPOILER Images

More Negima! 245 SPOILER Images
魔法先生 ネギま！Chapter 245 (Images)

Here's the 2nd round of spoiler images from Japan, y'all (click pic to make bigger, y'all).


And here's a bonus picture advertising the new OAD.


First spoiler images can be found --> HERE!
Third batch of spoiler images can be found --> HERE!

Hayate no Gotoku!! OVA

ハヤテのごとく!! OVA/OAV (anime)
Hayate the Combat Butler!! OVA

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: Hayate is amazed by the giant pool and beach on the Sanzenin Estate grounds. Nagi is unimpressed with what she has and she's certainly not interested in taking a swim. So Maria contacts Katsura-sensei (in exchange for all the liquor Katsura-sensei can drink), who then invites Risa, Izumi, Miki, Sakuya, Isumi, Wataru, and Saki over for this pool event. With everyone at the resort area, Wataru is told by Saki not to look at her (or Isumi) in their bikinis, leading to teasing from Sakuya. Izumi gets filmed by Miki and Risa in her bikini for the Movie Research Club and she's embarrassed by that. However, Nagi claims that none of this interests her, even though the manga magazine she's supposedly reading is upside-down. Others show up such as Sister Sonia, & Shiori. Hina arrives, after receiving a drunken message from her oneechan, to remove Yukiji from the premise. She finds Ayumu outside practicing asking Hayate to go with her to a water park and the two end up going in.

Meanwhile, Nagi observes Hayate having fun with the others and considers him a traitor. Hayate comes looking for Nagi, searching the various resort cabins. The first cabin is a bust with Kasumi (Aika) and Chiharu changing there. The second cabin has Hina changing and as Hayate attempts to talk his way out of having seen her topless, he accidentally insults her. Fleeing there, its onto the third cabin where he finds Ayumu practicing a conversation with Hayate in front of the mirror. Hayate finally finds Nagi in the next cabin and she's just about to show her swimsuit off to him when Hina and Ayumu come in, wanting to put the accidents behind them.

Nagi sees this as cheating on Hayate's part and flees, only to be possessed by the spirit of a girl with a flat chest. Possessed Nagi then starts causing havoc. Klaus and the SP's arrive (after waiting all this time) but are blown away by Nagi. Hina climbs to the highest diving platform over the pool to use a kendo technique on the spirit, but then sees how high she is. Isumi conveniently is lost at sea and so can't turn the spirit. That leaves Hayate, who is able to break through the spirits barrier and get to Nagi, freeing her from the possession. The spirit looks for another body to inhabit, only to encounter Isumi who smiles and sends it packing.

Meanwhile, Hayate and Nagi are on a "deserted island" with Hayate promising to protect Nagi forever. Nagi is just about to lay her head on Hayate's shoulders when Maria and all the other girls show up. You see, this island is still on the Sanzenin Estate grounds, which are located near Tokyo. Hayate is stunned by this.

Some other summer day, the Sanzenin Beach Resort is full of visitors, including Indian girl Sharna (Sharuna) and her friend Fumi-chan. The reason for these guests? Katura-sensei is selling admission for ¥500 a person. Hina catches on to what her sister is doing and puts an end to the operations, forcing Yukiji to give back all the money she'd collected.


Thoughts/Review: The first thing I immediately noticed about this OVA episode is that the writing team seems to have learned what did and did not work in the TV series. I get the strong feeling that they will try to make Hayate no Gotoku!! a better series. We'll see if that happens or not.

Regardless, I laughed out loud right at the start when Kagato the announcer stated that they would be ignoring the source manga for this episode. Indeed, the episode serves as a way to (re)introduce the vast numbers of characters in the series and give a taste of their personalities and relationships with Hayate. However, it is clear that the anime is going to rectify one wrong right from the start -- the inclusion of Sister Sonia (voiced by HORIE Yui, who plays Minori in Toradora!, causing her to work with fellow Toradora! alum KUGIMIYA Rei, who plays Taiga there and Nagi here). I don't know why Sister Sonia was excluded from the first series, but considering the joke associated with her introduction in the OVA, I hope this means that the writers will go back and pick up the Butlers Training arc where Sister Sonia was introduced.

Also new to me were the Indian girl Sharna, her friend Fumi-chan, and I don't remember Chiharu in the first anime series and I'm pretty sure I haven't seen her in the first ten volumes of the manga. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. If she was there, she's coming off very differently from what I remember. I did remember (AIKA) Kasumi though. No Father Radiostar (Ragiostar/whatever) was in this episode, but I do hope he is used in the anime since he too is introduced in the Butler Training arc. I also hope to see Ayumu's family too since they are introduced there as well.

While I'm thinking about it, I'm happy the anime did not have Ayumu stuffing her gourd this episode. That was an ongoing joke in the TV series and while funny some times, when compared to the manga, it makes Ayumu look stupid and weak when in fact she really is a pretty courageous character since she's the only one to actually confess to Hayate (twice if you count her giving him love chocolate at Valentine's Day). Her friendship with Hina is implied in the OVA so I hope the roots of that are explored in the anime.

I got a laugh at how the announcer basically laid out the heart of what this episode is really about -- fanservice. Seriously, there were just tons of pan shots for otaku to paste together, then digitally remove the clothing from said girls for distribution all over the world. I know the production team knows this and they are going to give the fans what they want. Not all of the pan shots were just for those big images of the girls in swimsuits (as you can see from the wide pan shots I have earlier in this article) but most of them were. In fact, just because I'm that kind of guy, I put together the image at the left of Hina being walked in on by Hayate. ^_^;;;; No, I will not digitally remove her skirt, nor will I be looking for such images on Japanese blogs or image boards.

I liked how this OVA went for 27-minutes (including credit time). Too often these days, OVA's tend to restrict themselves to whatever time is allotted to a TV series (~24-minutes) and frankly that's dumb if you are producing an OVA. Yeah, I know -- if this goes on TV later, they'll have to cut three minutes in the case of this episode, but the production team didn't care. They went ahead and did what they did. Kudos to them for not being slaves to a TV time schedule on a direct-to-DVD release.

As to the story, there wasn't much to say. I did laugh at the joke about Isumi conveniently being gone when the vengeful spirit possessed Nagi. I admit, I immediately thought, "Where's Isumi" because that's what we've come to expect in these possession situations (at least in the manga). I loved the little touch the animators put on Isumi, causing her to exorcise the spirit with a smile, as she's done in the manga. I don't remember her doing this so much in the anime, but I could be wrong. I liked the cameos of Tama, Shiranui, and Klaus and the jokes associated with each of them.

In the end, I think that this episode inspired me to think that just maybe, the production team has learned some lessons from the first TV series and hopefully won't make those in the forthcoming new series. Lord willing, I'll be blogging the 2nd TV series and hopefully will be able to consult that wiki site for references.

Negima! Chapter 245 SPOILER Images

Negima! 245 SPOILER Images
魔法先生 ネギま！Chapter 245 (Images)

Here's what I know many of you have been waiting for -- the original-sized, sneak-peek images for Mahou Sensei Negima! 245 as brought to you buy anonymous Japanese fans (click pic to make bigger, y'all). These are early snapshots and hopefully more will be out later today or tomorrow.


A Japanese fan posted this in response.

*LOL*

Man, I can't wait to read this chapter. Ako looks like she is really going to shine.

UPDATE! The second batch of spoiler images can be found --> HERE! The third batch of spoiler images can be found --> HERE!

Paradise Residence Manga Chapter 02 (What's With These 8-Page Chapters, Fujishima-sensei?)

パラダイス レジデンス Chapter 02

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: In Japanese class, the teacher is teaching new Kanji readings when a noise he thinks is snoring interrupts him. It is coming from student TAKANASHI Hatsune, who sarcastically remarks one placing two Kanji together to get the Japanese word for hunger. Stomach rumblings, no matter how loud, are not against school rules, but the teacher wants something done about it. When asked if this means she can eat lunch early, Sensei gives tacit approval but Hatsune forgot her lunch.

When lunch time finally comes, Hatsune's friend and roommate Suzuka gives her some of the bento Suzuka prepared, which she eats on the school roof. Hatsune feels that Suzuka should have woken her up since they are roommates and friends. Suzuka remarks on how eating and sleeping are the only things of interest to Hatsune. Hatsune responds that she's true to the three desires of humans -- eating, eating, and sleeping. When Suzuka points out that Hatsune said "eating" twice, so Hatsune tries to remember what the third term is. Instead of sex (seikou), she comes up with conquest (seifuku -- different from the word meaning "uniform').

Thoughts/Review: Another 8-page chapter. I guess that's all we are going to get from this manga. I've never seen 8-page chapters before and it is really odd considering this manga is not published in a weekly magazine. There's just not a lot one can do in eight pages but that may be all Fujishima-sensei has time for since he's still writing/drawing Ah! My Goddess.

The way chapter 1 was set up, the dorm Hatsune lived in consisted of only herself and that little girl acting as dorm mother. Now we learn that Suzuka is Hatsune's roommate so I suppose it is reasonable to assume that there will be other girls living there.

This chapter did make me chuckle and smile though. The "eating lunch early" stuff immediately reminded me of Tomo from Azumanga Daioh.

Its still too early to even have a clue on how to judge this manga. There have been amusing moments in both chapters to be sure but as I said earlier, eight-page chapters just don't provide a lot of material. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep reading this manga though.

Mahou Shoujo Tai Alice: The Adventure 06 (finale)

魔法少女隊アルス the Adventure 06 (finale)
Magic Girl Squad Arusu: The Adventure 06
Tweeny Witches the Adventure 06 (final episode)

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: The earth tremors that the witches feel means only one thing -- the giant sprite known as Googoo has returned. Because this is a rare event that even the oldest witches have not seen, every witch plans to watch it. Despite its giant size, it does not eat witches, but will consume some of the floating islands around. So the witches are on their brooms and Alice is very excited by this moment. Googoo eats an island as expected but then begins wail in pain and falls to the ground. The witches flee to safe distance except for Alice, Shelia, and Eva, who get closer to the mechanical sprite to see what's wrong. Since it looks like a stomach ache, there's nothing to do but go in and investigate.

Inside, the trio discover the floating burrs from the Bursting Seed Tree. These burrs are dangerous because the explode upon contact and it is said explosions that are hurting "Googoo-chan" (as the girls call the sprite). They start removing these burrs with magic but soon find themselves surrounded. A couple of warlocks are on the remains of a mountain in a ruin, having been accidentally consumed by Googoo. They are building a pod to escape in and are almost finished. However, the air will need to be cleared of the burrs so the three witches begin to do just that. Since more burrs keep arriving, Alice and Sheila decide to fight this at the source, only to flee as the Bursting Seed Tree is chasing them. With Googoo's mouth closed, the escape pod can't get out, so Alice acts as a decoy, getting the tree to follow her to Googoo's nose. This causes the mechanical creature to sneeze, freeing everyone and removing the source of its tummy ache. As the warlock and his son leave, Alice teases Sheila about the cute son.

Thoughts/Review: There's just something amusing about Alice and company addressing this gigantic sprite with the "chan" honorific. *lol* Not that you'd realize that from the Media Blaster's version but that's a rant for another day. *_*

As to the story, well there's really not much to say. I did wonder why the girls were so friendly with the warlocks since my memory of the TV series is that the Witches and Warlocks did not get along too well. Maybe I'll have to rewatch that again. It was fun seeing Sheila blush about the young warlock though.

Also, while one of the witch leaders told Alice and company to leave, they did nothing to stop them and nothing was said afterward either about their disobedience. Well, I suppose that doesn't matter in the end.

Beyond that, things are straight forward "take what you see" and move along. There's no development of characters or really anything that interesting about the story. I think when I write my final review, these somewhat boring stand alone stories will be a slight negative factor in the overall review. I'll ponder this aspect more before I write that review.

This being the final episode, I'm kinda sad that it is all over even if this episode wasn't anything special. I just like seeing Alice, Sheila, and Eva together again.

Negima! Manga Vol 27 (Ch 244) *SPOILERS*

魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 27 Chapter 244 (manga)
Mahou Sensei Negima! Manga Chapter 244

Summary/Synopsis: Negi and Kotaro are being owned in the arena but Negi tries to counter attack. Jack explains the weaknesses in Negi's new technique, which he does admit is impressive for Negi to learn. In addition, Jack tells Negi that this new technique gives itself away to Jack, almost as if Negi called Jack, told Jack he would punch him, then hung up. So Jack has time to defend against the attack, which he does. Jack uses the Eternal Negi Fever attack which blasts Negi but Negi activated Asuna's artifact to deflect some of the energy. However, Jack is behind Negi and puts him down. Everyone is stunned and Shiori-Asuna challenges Negi to get up. As Jack and Kagetarou discuss how serious things got for a moment there with both Negi and Kotaro's early success, Negi thinks of how it might be impossible for him to catch people like Asuna, Eva, or even Nagi.

Ako sees Negi down and thinks of Negi's promise. In a flashback from two days earlier, Tosaka confronts "Nagi" about really being the wanted criminal Negi. He even produces evidence showing Negi transforming and while this kind of magic impresses Tosaka, Tosaka has blackmail in mind. Tosaka is stunned to learn that Negi's true form is actually the kid one. Since Tosaka knows that even the girls with Negi are wanted, he wants Negi to become his slave, thus giving him control over the son of the Thousand Master.

Ako has overheard all this and just as Negi is about to give into Tosaka's demands, Ako interrupts, spilling a pot of curry on Tosaka. Tosaka tells Negi he has a day to decide. In the bath, Ako cries at the truth that the Nagi-san she fell in love with is actually Negi-kun. Akira finds Ako in the bath is is about to tell her the truth about Negi-Nagi but Ako reveals she already knows and hugs Akira. Akira apologizes and Ako understands.

Thoughts/Review: I laughed out loud when Jack described Negi's "telephoning" the new technique. On the serious side, Jack used the moment to teach Negi a lesson in addition to schooling him with an actual beating. Pointing out the new technique's weaknesses in a situation that is not life-or-death will give Negi something to draw from when facing Fate down the road.

The count is on for Negi to lose. Traditional hero moments would dictate that the hero gets up against all odds and makes a comeback. I really hope that doesn't happen because that's an old storytelling format. That said, IF Akamatsu-sensei does do this, I hope he makes it in such a way that feels fresh.

Here are some things to consider as Negi is being counted out. For starters, there's the Tosaka issue. I can't believe that Negi was about to again make himself a slave of another person in some misguided attempt to protect the people he cares about. As a slave, he can no longer protect them but despite the near disaster with Fate where Fate would have bound Negi and made him powerless, Negi again somehow thinks that this is the best strategy. Thankfully, Ako interrupted.

Anyway, what we don't know is what Negi ultimately decided. I can't imagine Negi submitting to Tosaka in the end, especially since I get the impression that Ako and Negi will speak again (though I could be wrong). Also, Negi was not wearing a slave collar yet though if Negi did submit to Tosaka, the deal may have been to wait until after the match was over. I looked back at chapter 240 to see if there is any clue on what might have happened. I can't see anything beyond Negi giving Tosaka a look.

So that raises the obvious question, "What ultimately happened?" I said I can't see Negi ultimately submitting but if that's true, then how did Negi get away with things for two days? Did Negi avoid everything by training? We do know he and Kotaro emerged to continue their matches before returning to training and Tosaka would very likely have nailed Negi there. Maybe Negi countered Tosaka by pointing out how much Tosaka could lose by having harbored a wanted criminal and even making money off him when Tosaka knew the truth about Negi. I'd be interested to hear some thoughts on this.

The other thing to consider is that if the fight ends next chapter, does Tosaka do something to end it? Does Fate make his move (I'm leaning against that at the moment)? Does Jack win and Negi hopefully learns some valuable lessons? Frankly, I think the later is the resolution with the highest chances of coming out but we'll see how things go.

As to the Ako story, I have never disliked her as a character. In fact, I've liked her well enough and this resolution to her unfortunate love of someone who's not real is showing that she's pretty strong. I don't think she's putting up a front as she watches the match. She's had her cry and maybe even said something else to Negi about things. Frankly, I think it will be Ako who keeps Negi from making another mistake dealing with Tosaka but even if she isn't, she's still a fine character. I really do wish that Akamatsu-sensei would flesh her out even more, explaining how she got that scar but we may never get that answer.

Shiori-Asuna's support of Negi in the fight is something that Asuna would really do -- challenge Negi to get up. That is such a scary ability she has to emulate another person, though as we've seen, it isn't 100% perfect. I do look forward to seeing how that story thread is resolved.

I'm really looking forward to seeing things wrapped up next chapter and a move forward to the next phase of the Magic World arc.

Back to the Vaults: Ai Yori Aoshi -- the Manga!

藍より青し (Manga)

The only reason to have manga on my bookshelves is to reread it some day. Such is the case with Ai Yori Aoshi, which I decided to dust off and read again after reading the final volume in 2007.

I got into this manga series via the anime adaptation. At the time, only the first anime series had been done and I was keen on reading the rest of the story. The first thing that sort of "shocked" me is how ugly the character designs were when compared to the anime adaptation. Don't get me wrong, I recognized all of the characters right away, but they just didn't have the polished, sharp look of the anime that I was accustomed to. However, it didn't take long to get used to things.

For those who don't know, the story centers around two characters. First is HANABISHI Kaoru, who's a college student who's left his powerful family and thus is basically disowned by the head of the family. The second is SAKURABA Aoi, who as a child is arranged to be married to Kaoru, then heir to become the eventual head of the Hanabishi family. As such, she has been raised to become his wife and thus deeply loves him. So when she's told that the arranged marriage is canceled, she heads to the city where Kaoru reportedly lives. She encounters him at a train station and he helps her out, though neither recognize the other. When Aoi discovers the address she has is for a vacent lot, Kaoru has her rest at his apartment where upon seeing a picture Aoi carried of himself and herself as a child, they recognize each other.

Initially, Kaoru refuses Aoi's advances as part of a Hanabishi scheme to get him back, but realizes this is wrong. When Aoi's guardian Miyabi-san arrives to bring Aoi back home, Aoi again flees back to Kaoru. This causes Miyabi to return with Aoi's mother, who upon seeing her daughters determination, arranges it so that she and Kaoru can be together in secret. Thus a large, western-styled mansion that belongs to the Sakuraba family is given to Aoi and Miyabi to live in, pretending to run a boarding house where Kaoru is a tenant living in the servants quarters.

Through the course of the manga, other characters join the household including the American college student and fellow photo club member Tina Foster (as a boarder), fellow college student MINAZUKI Taeko (as a live-in maid), and her high school cousin MINAZUKI Chika (as a boarder). Also in the mix is the daughter of rich parents, MIYUKI Mayu, who lives alone in a large mansion (along with servants) and despite being only 16, is a freshman at the same college as Kaoru, Tina, and Taeko.

Because of this setting, the manga follows a harem track in that all of the girls fall in love with Kaoru, save for Miyabi -- she comes to respect and admire him greatly though. However, unlike traditional harem titles, there is no question as to whom will end up as the couple -- Aoi and Kaoru are the couple from volume one and remain so until the manga ends in volume seventeen. Because Aoi and Kaoru have to keep their relationship a closely guarded secret, the other girls all believe they have a chance and circumstances to allow each of them some alone time with Kaoru in what might be construed as romantic settings.

Being a seinen title, there is quite a bit of detailed topless nudity. Indeed, once Chika enters the household, Fumizuki-sensei seems to enjoy getting her naked a lot. When her two high school friends Chizuru and Natsuki are introduced, Fumizuki-sensei had them all in the swim club so that he had an excuse to have them in lengthy dialog sequences with their school swimsuits half-off to show off their naked breasts. Not only is it unneccessary, it rings false because I can't imagine any women rushing to pull down the top half of their swimsuit so they can then stop getting changed and chat. Whatever. Frankly, I grew weary of this excessive nudity by the time the manga ended even though I liked the characters.

Everything is good story-wise until volume 15. Here, Kaoru suddenly gets a half-brother who claims to be HANABISHI Kaoru. As such, he lures Aoi to return home and then esentially holds her captive for some "drama" until Kaoru returns and Aoi makes things clear to her parents. This story continues through volume 16 too and frankly went way too long for my tastes and just smacked of false drama. It also made Aoi's parents seem like complete losers initially for going along with this whole thing. To be fair to Fumizuki-sensei, he did introduce this half-brother in volume 11 so that helps as it doesn't feel like some hardcore retcon.

For the final volume, I guess Fumizuki-sensei felt that he needed to spend four chapters dealing with Aoi and Kaoru consummating their relationship. While the other two times that Aoi and Kaoru spent alone together, the audience is left to decide whether or not the two made love, in volume 17, Fumizuki-sensei left no doubts. For me, it didn't come off as some big romantic moment -- it came off as cheap titillation and an excuse to ratchet up the ecchi content. That's just me though.

I will say that the "four years later" chapter at the end of the manga is a joy to read because we get to see where all the characters are now. I liked how Tina questioned Aoi on why she still addressed Kaoru as "Kaoru-sama." I noticed how Mayu no longer addresses Kaoru as "Hanabishi-sama" but rather "Kaoru-san." There's just a lot of enjoyable moments as we touch all the characters and their lives now.

Let me say something about the translation/adaptation by the twins Alethea and Athena Nibley. Ai Yori Aoshi is a title deeply rooted in Japanese culture, both in traditional Japanese elements (Aoi) and modern Japanese elements. I think of how Aoi always addresses Kaoru as "Kaoru-sama." Someone keen on domesticating the adaptation would have removed that and come up with some tortured translation to fit, which would have weakened things on the whole because none of the standard translations of "sama" work ("master," "mister," "darling," "my dear," "lord," etc.). Alethea and Athena leaving all of the honorifics in, including brother and sister honorifics, gives the title a richness that it otherwise would not have and does not detract from the story but adds to it. I love it (and as an aside, the anime subtitles are one of the few that Pioneer used honorifics for). So my hat is off to Alethea and Athena for the excellent job.

TokyoPop started the series with a much stronger commitment than most titles. By this I mean that the first four volumes contain a "glossary" (translator notes) and they are great. With volume 5, TokyoPop scraps the glossary in favor of using the pages for more ads. Yeah, that's quality stuff, TP.

Despite the excessive ecchi fanservice content at times and volumes 15 and 16 being kind of tedious, I give the manga series as a whole a hearty recommendation for those looking for a sweet, wholesome love story that is mixed with a lot of fun and enjoyable characters.

BUY FROM AMAZON! ^_^

• Ai Yori Aoshi, Vol. 1
• Ai Yori Aoshi, Vol. 2
  
• Ai Yori Aoshi, Vol. 3
  
• Ai Yori Aoshi, Vol. 4
  
• Ai Yori Aoshi, Vol. 5
  
• Ai Yori Aoshi, Vol. 6
  
• Ai Yori Aoshi, Vol. 7
  
• Ai Yori Aoshi, Vol. 8
  
• Ai Yori Aoshi, Vol. 9
  
• Ai Yori Aoshi, Volume 10
  
• Ai Yori Aoshi, Volume 11
  
• Ai Yori Aoshi, Volume 12
  
• Ai Yori Aoshi, Volume 13
  
• Ai Yori Aoshi, Volume 14
  
• Ai Yori Aoshi, Volume 15
  
• Ai Yori Aoshi, Volume 16
  
• Ai Yori Aoshi, Volume 17
  
  

Gakuen Alice Manga Volume 6

Gakuen Alice Volume 6<--BUY FROM AMAZON!

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: School life continues but a new threat comes to the attention of the students -- someone or something is stealing Alice's from people. Because the school leaders are concerned over this, they've banned off-campus missions which means that Mikan finally gets to meet another student in her special class -- TONOUCHI Akira, who's considered a playboy and causes Tsubasa to have a negative reaction to Akira's attention payed to Mikan.

Meanwhile, Mikan's class rep Tobita wins the 1-week trip home thanks to his excellent grades. On his way back to school, he meets a woman who falls over in front of his car and who reminds him of someone. Upon returning to class and handing out souvenirs, Tobita discovers that his Alice is no longer working. This causes quite a stir in the class thanks to the rumors of Alice abilities disappearing from people and his isolation causes more rumors. Narume-sensei tries to calm their fears but the class won't be allowed to see Tobita. Hotaru arranges things so that she and Mikan can see Tobita. Eventually he is released when it is learned that he does not have a virus and he relays what little he can remember about the woman who is now suspected of stealing his Alice and the mysterious organization known as "Z."

Intruders are detected on the campus and believed to be from "Z." Despite Natsume's warning, Hotaru and Mikan are off to check this out, determined to get Tobita's Alice back. Hotaru uses an eavesdropping invention of hers to listen to the teachers and tells Mikan how she and Tobita became friends when Hotaru first arrived. Meanwhile the intruders are getting away and one appears to have several Alice abilities, which is unheard of. Hearing this, Hotaru decides they need to get away but its too late -- they are found by the Z people. The Z folks are more interested in escape until Mikan's name is mentioned, at which point the woman who took Tobita's Alice approaches Mikan. Campus security arrives and opens fire, hitting Hotaru as she tries to protect Mikan.

Hotaru is taken to the hospital where it is learned that she's been infected with some unknown virus. An emergency meeting of those with dangerous Alice abilities is called as Hotaru tries to reassure Mikan that she'll be OK. During the special abilities class, Akira remembers a legend of someone who had an Alice to make wormhole tunnel in time and space and that in the high school division, such a tunnel supposedly still existed, the entrance to which was hidden with a special notebook containing instructions on how to uncover the tunnel's entrance. Akira doesn't know if it is true or not, but it would explain how the Z team got onto the campus and off the campus so easily.

Mikan wants to find these Z people so that Tobita and Hotaru can be helped. Natsume, having returned from his meeting, scoffs at the idea of looking for something that might not exist, but in the end, he agrees to help along with many other students Mikan knows. Using age-modification candy, Mikan, Luca, and Natsume will appear to be high school students and to cover for their absence from the elementary school, some students in the special class will appear younger and pretend to be Mikan and the others. Unfortunately, the plan to infiltrate the high school quickly goes wrong when they encounter traps, including an anti-gravity trap that causes Mikan to lose her age candy. This causes a commotion in the school, forcing the group to flee to the Newspaper Club room. There, the club president (Hayami) reveals that the tunnel they are looking for does indeed exist. He gives the location but warns of ghosts there, seen carrying an old notebook. One of the ghosts looks like the student body president.

Thoughts/Review: Well, the lighthearted fun of the earlier manga volumes is certainly missing from this volume as Higuchi-sensei pours everything into this new story-arc's plot. That's not a complaint, but there is a lot of exposition given in this volume and a couple of readings might be in order to make sure I didn't miss anything, especially given the layout of the manga (which to me is a bit more chaotic than most manga titles I've read).

Mikan continues to be a force of nature and somehow manages to continue to convince others to help her, even more so than normal for this volume (considering the wide age-range of students involved and the serious nature of the mission she wants to undertake). The thing that stood out to me is that this came about in part thanks to Akira, who has the Alice of Amplification. So in some strange way, could Akira be amplifying Mikan's natural powers of persuasion? That seems unlikely since his Alice affects other Alice's AND Mikan's Alice is Nullification. So that would seem to suggest that there might be some canceling effect on his powers, but we've seen that Mikan's abilities don't just shut people down.

A second thing that struck me is that at least one of the "Z" people had more than three Alices, which we learn is impossible. Since Mikan is the heroine and she seems to have this gift that causes people to go her way, could she also have a 2nd Alice that no one knows about, one so powerful and possibly kept in check by the Alice of Nullification? That's wild speculation on my part, but the writer in me tries to look at things in different ways. Sometimes I guess right and sometimes not. It will be most interesting to follow Mikan's growth though.

The third item that struck me is the mystery woman with the ability to steal Alice's. I tell you, Higuchi-sensei seems to be creating a giant neon sign that says, "CLUE HERE!" For starters, she had Tobita reflect on how the woman seemed familiar to him after their hands touched. Then when the woman and her two compatriots are attempting to escape the campus and come upon Hotaru and Mikan, the woman only reacts when Mikan's name is spoken, and then she comes for Mikan with a hand reached out to touch Mikan. She wasn't interested in Hotaru, who was closer. Why?

I would say that this woman has a connection of some sort to Mikan. Part of me thinks that this might be Mikan who's traveled back in time (all possible since Nodacchi-sensei's Alice is Time Travel and if someone has more than one Alice, then maybe they have a time travel Alice too). That seems a might complicated at this point but the other idea that hit me is that this might be Mikan's mother. I'm going to have to re-read the earlier volumes because I can't remember if Mikan's mother is simply missing or confirmed dead (come to think of it, her father too).

Granted this too is wild speculation on my part and it may well be that Higuchi-sensei is throwing out a red herring. However, as with other aspects of this manga, I will enjoy seeing were things go.

One more thing before I forget it -- I am amused by the use of age-altering candy in this volume. I know this kind of magic candy goes back some years as a concept in Japan and the manga Negima! has been using a similar kind of candy (though exactly how much control over the number of years they age either way is unknown) for quite some time now. Just an observation on my part.

So a good volume with a lot of activity going on (including Hotaru getting shot -- yikes) and ANB's imagination sent into overdrive. To me, that's a mark of pretty good writing.

Slayers Evolution-R 08

スレイヤーズ EVOLUTION－R Episode 08
Slayers EVOLUTION-R Ep. 08

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: Radok decides he is going on a business trip and though the others suspect that Zuuma will surely nail them, Lina agrees. She explains to the others her reasons and the trip is on with Lina and Pokota riding in the carriage with Radok (driven by Ozel) and Gourry driving the cart with Amelia and Zelgadiss. Abel decides to go along as well since he will one day inherit the business and his father agrees. After traveling for a day, they stop to camp and let the horses rest. Abel takes the opportunity to talk with his father about the situation and his dead mother. Radok tells the story of how bandits had captured himself and Abel's mother for the misdeeds of Radok's grandfather. His wife died in captivity and the bandits were killed. Lina, who'd been nearby, hears everything and reveals herself as well as Pokota, quietly figuring she may have been the one to kill Radok's bandits.

After Abel leaves, the group comes under attack from a large group of lesser demons. Lina is able to shield them from the ranged attacks of the demons, but Radok is concerned for his son's safety and leaves the area. Leaving the fighting of the lesser demons to Amelia and Zelgadiss, Lina, Gourry, and Pokota race to catch Radok, who's disappeared. They find Abel at a stream washing his face, being attended to by Ozel. Radok also arrives to make sure is son is safe and orders him to flee as another group of lesser demons arrive. Abel does not want to leave and Ozel won't leave Radok, but Lina tells them to get out of the combat zone.

Amelia and Zelgadiss are then attacked by the mazoku Dugld and Gduza while at the stream, Gourry, Lina, and Pokota clear out the lesser demons, only to be attacked by Zuuma. Amelia and Zelgadiss are losing the fight when suddenly the two mazoku are summoned away against their will. They arrive at Zuuma's location and somehow Zuuma absorbs both mazoku into himself, giving himself their abilities. Abel arrives and confronts Zuuma, revealing that Zuuma is indeed Radok and that Abel has known for a long time about his father's secret. In return, Zuuma-Radok murders his son. In a flash of anger, Lina is able to cast Ragna Blade without an incantation and slices off Zuuma's arms. Xellos arrives and in his cone-shaped true form, slays Zuuma. Xellos wants the Hellmaster Jar that Ozel is currently holding and killing Zuuma-Radok was the quickest way to get what he wants. Ozel refuses to give the powerful mazoku what he wants, threatening to destroy the jar. Xellos sees that she's not bluffing and thus leaves the scene.

Thoughts/Review: I have to say that of the main story arc, this has been the best episode yet. I liked the back history of Zuuma (Radok) and from what I read, Kanzaka-sensei has stated that this episode worked in the back history he could not work into his novels. I'm not sure if that means that Kanzaka-sensei had a role to play or not.

The one thing I really liked here is the show of how powerful Lina is. Normally, a spell like Ragna Blade is a long, incanted spell. Upon seeing Abel murdered by his father, Lina snaps and the vast power inside her and her exceptional gift at tapping into this power allowed her to skip the incantation and co straight to the "chaos words" (or activation words, whatever you want to call it), produce the Ragna Blade, and damage Zuuma. I loved it because this is Lina to me -- someone who is so powerful that when angered, her threats to go on a rampage shift from being funny to deadly serious. We saw both sides of Lina this episode.

Now that Zuuma is gone, I did decide to look up how the story varied from the novel. In the novel, Zuuma was hired to kill Lina as part of Garv's (Gaav's) plan to remove her. He had been defeated by Lina and Gourry with the loss of both of his arms. The anime changes the setting and purpose of course, but the end result for Zuuma is the same.

Then in the novels, Zuuma merges with the badly injured mazoku Seigram (who'd been defeated by Lina and Gourry), resulting in their new form being half-demon rather than human or mazoku. As this new form, Zuuma and Seigram pretended to be separate beings as the attacked Lina, aided by the lower mazoku of Dugld and Gduza. Those two fought Amelia and Zelgadiss and ultimately, Dugld consumed Gduza for power before being defeated by Amelia and Zelgadiss. During the business trip, Zuuma attacks, reveals his merger with Seigram before Abel reveals that this is what has become of his father Radok. Lina slays Zuuma-Seigram with the Ragna Blade spell and Abel is not killed.

So you can see that the Zuuma arc in the anime is very similar to the novel one, with some changes made based in part because the anime has additional elements (Hellmaster's Jar, Ozel, Pokota, etc.).

Back to the anime story, I like how Xellos's true form is shown here -- the cone. I do find it interesting how he backed down from Ozel. We still don't exactly know what she is, but it seemed to me that Xellos is playing things very cautiously around her for some reason.

Five more episodes to wrap this puppy up. With the Zuuma story resolved, I'm wondering if the story from here on out will be anime-original.

Urusei Yatsura 107 (Good Animation, Humor, and Fanservice -- Oh My!)

うる星やつら episode 107 (TV anime)

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: It is hanami time so Lum and Ataru are walking to where people are gathered to view the cherry blossoms. When Ataru plucks a branch off of a cherry tree, a strange wind picks up and Ataru is not there. Everyone else seems to be there, including Lum's Storm Troopers, who appear drunk even though they are only drinking cola. Onsen-sensei confronts them about getting drunk and gets stripped for his efforts. Meanwhile, Shinobu is walking arm-in-arm with Shuutaro through the park. He asks her if she's still attached to Ataru. She tells him that Ataru is with Ryuunosuke and that she'd rather be with him, so they go off someplace more quite and cozy.

Lum finds Ataru trying to pick up Ryuunosuke at the yakisoba stand. Lum pays for the yakisoba that Ataru agreed to buy for some of Ryuunosuke's time and leads him away. However, Ataru sees Shinobu and Shuutaro about to kiss and interrupts, not happy that his woman is about to be stolen. Lum and Shinobu speak in unison about this and Lum angrily takes Ataru away, leaving Shinobu and Shuutaro greatly puzzled. Lum takes Ataru back to the park, so Shinobu and Shuutaro follow. They along with Lum's Storm Troopers are amazed to see Lum being friendly with Ataru. Ataru is not happy with Lum's attention and demands to know what this "darling" business is all about.

Ataru is summoned to the group, where Megane demands to know what's going on. Ataru is at a loss for an explaination. Shinobu wonders if Planet Oniboshi has decided that this Oni (Lum) should be with a human to make peace. Megane, Chibi, Perm, Kakugari, and Shuutaro decide to sacrifice themselves for Earth and race to Lum, clinging to her. So Ataru leaves with Shinobu to go have tea. Lum electrocutes the boys and wonders what's going on. She eventually returns to Ataru's home to find it in ruins. Inside, Ataru and his parents are eating a meager meal and Lum learns that she's traveled to a parallel world where she won the contest against Ataru.

Lum returns to the park and finds the spot where she shifted worlds and re-enters it. It is day again and the hanami is going on in the park. Ataru is aggressively hitting on Ryuunosuke, causing her father to whack him with a big pot. Falling down, he manages to pull down Ryuunosuke's pants, leading her to kick him into a tree while pulling up her pants. Her father asks what his son is doing wearing women's underwear, so he gets kicked away as well. Lum arrives to retrieve Ataru, who's happy that Lum is all over him. Ryuunosuke is shocked by this behavior and as Lum and Ataru leave, they are attacked by Shuutaro who demands to know what Ataru is doing with his wife. He gets electrocuted as a result but soon Lum realizes she's still not in the right world.

Lum's next world has the sexes reversed so that Lum's storm troopers are all girls. Megane-chan proclaims her love for Lum despite being the same sex and Lum backs away, confused by it all. She see's Ryuunosuke and is happy that Ryuunosuke got to wear a sailor seifuku. This makes Ryuunosuke cry because in this world, Ryuunosuke is a boy. Lum flees again and comes to another world. However in this world, Ataru is a perfect gentleman who is deeply in love with Lum and doesn't mind showing it. Since this isn't her Ataru, she tells him goodbye and once more changes worlds. She finds Ataru holding a cherry branch and he seems like her Ataru. However, he doesn't immediately cringe when she clings to his arm, but if this isn't her Ataru, it is close enough especially when he doesn't like it that Lum asks him if he loves her.

Thoughts/Review: Whoa! I had read that the animation quality would go up with this episode and man did it ever. Pretty impressive considering its age.

I liked the interesting look at alternate worlds and certainly they provided for a great deal of humor. I laughed at the female Storm Troopers and Megane-chan's love confession for Lum.

I also liked how the team managed to get Ryuunosuke into that seifuku. I don't know if this story is in the manga or not, but at least we got to see it (something I thought would never happen).


I when Cherry took a beating for starting one of his statements that for quite some time over previous episodes would lead to some story where the cast played different roles. I'd become quite weary of those things I can tell you.

It was funny when Ataru managed to de-pant Ryuunosuke and took a beating for it. The surprising part is the actual fanservice. Not only did we get to see Ryuunosuke in a shirt and panties, but we saw Lum topless as in the first alternate world, Ataru recounts how he lost the contest to Lum by seeing her naked breasts and fixating on them. Its been years since I watched the original so I checked. There was topless nudity there too, but there was more in this episode. Interesting.

One more thing before I forget it -- there have been several Star Wars nods during the course of the Urusei Yatsura anime. This time, Empire Strikes Back received a nod which I found amusing.

In the end, it was a pretty fun episode with several laughs for those who've stuck with the series this far. I hope things continue to be on this higher level in terms of story, laughs, and animation.

Even More Negima! 244 SPOILER Images

Even More Negima! 244 SPOILER Images
魔法先生 ネギま！Chapter 244 (Images)

Here's the 3rd round of spoiler images from Japan, y'all (click pic to make bigger, y'all).


Negi gets schooled by Jack, Tosaka confronts "Nagi" in the flashback and is overheard by Ako, then comforted by Akira. Heh. Lots of good stuff, though it does blow my thought that Negi actually told Ako (unless I'm very much mistaken).

For those who missed it, the first image post is --> HERE and the second image post is --> HERE.

Your thoughts? ^_^

Clannad After Story 21

クラナド アフターストーリー Episode 21
Clannad ~After Story~ Ep. 21

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: Ushio's illness is revealed to be the same as Nagisa's and after weeks of Ushio not getting well, Tomoya quits his job to care for her full time. Yoshino exchanges screw drivers with Tomoya as a promise for Tomoya to return when Ushio gets better. Ushio wants to go on a trip with her papa but since she's ill, Tomoya says he'll take her when she's better. One day, Akio takes Tomoya out to do some shopping and they stop outside the new hospital and talk of the city, its changes, and Tomoya's belief that the building of the hospital and the sacrifice of the field and trees are linked to Nagisa and Ushio's mysterious illness.

Ushio gets no better and around Christmas, she makes a request to her father to go on that trip, insisting it has to be now. Tomoya initially refuses, but something about her request changes his mind. Despite her weakness, Ushio insists on walking hand-in-hand with her father. As the snow starts to fall, she says she loves the snow and Tomoya agrees. However, Ushio soon can no longer walk and wonders if they are on the train yet. She also wonders if it is night since it is dark in her eyes. After proclaiming her love for her father and hearing his proclamation in return, Ushio dies. Tomoya replays in his mind the moment he met Nagisa and wonders if he should speak to her, leading to the tragedies he's experienced or leave her alone.

In the Illusion World, the snow is falling and Mystery Girl and Garbage Bot are walking hand-in-hand. Mystery Girl gets weaker and as the snow gets deeper, she falls more than once. As Garbage Bot wonders how much longer they have to travel, Mystery Girl falls once more and does not get back up.

Thoughts/Review: I wonder if some Japanese doctors actually make house calls or if that is just artistic license on the part of the writers. Just a side thought before I'd get to the heavier items.

Well, as expected, Ushio dies. Man, it was hard to watch, especially when Ushio insisted they had to go on the trip now. Somehow, Ushio knew she was going to die and she did shortly thereafter. At least Tomoya took her outside and started the journey to the train station. They may not have made it and Ushio's complete wish may not have been granted, but she got to spend her final moments with her father going on a trip. Even now, I tear up when I remember how she told her father she loved him and he said the same to her.

While tearful and sad, Ushio's death didn't hit me quite as hard as Nagisa's for some reason. I think with Nagisa, we'd seen her get ill and better many times over the course of both anime series and while I figured she'd die in childbirth, there was always a chance in my mind that she might make it. With Ushio, the moment she became ill last week combined with her strange trips to see that hospital, I knew she was dead and there was no chance of her making it through. I wasn't sure if she'd die this episode or next, but I just knew she was gone.

Still, what is the connection between Nagisa, Ushio, and that field that the hospital was built on? From Tomoya's perspective, I guess he feels the destruction of the field for a hospital cost him the lives of his wife and daughter. Akio-san I doesn't see it that way as far as I can tell. For him, change is a natural part of life, as is the death of loved ones. As they witnessed, the hospital provided a vital service, saving other people's loved ones. I hope the linkage is explained to include what compelled Ushio to visit the hospital grounds on her own.

So now what? How do we bridge the gap to the Illusion World? Does that happen when Tomoya looking back at his passed and trying to make a change? That doesn't feel quite right somehow. It also doesn't explain how Tomoya seemingly saw the snowy landscape of the Illusion World briefly. I do look forward to some answers because somehow, I can't shake the notion that maybe the girl in the Illusion World is Ushio and Tomoya is somehow tied to Garbage Bot. There is now too much symbolism to be coincidence (plus, someone commented that my theory is correct so...)

Only three more episodes to wrap up all the loose threads.

Toradora! 22

とらドラ！Episode 22

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: The ski trip is over and Taiga is out, recovering at her mother's place. Ryuuji is feeling down about this and when Yuusaku talks with him, Ryuuji tells Yuusaku to not let Taiga know that Ryuuji rescued her. He'd rather her believe that Yuusaku rescued her considering her words on the mountain when she thought she was talking with Yuusaku. He agrees. After school, Haruta and Noto take Ryuuji to a ramen place for a meal and they discuss post-high school plans. Once inside, they are stunned to see Minori, who's working a new part time job. She warns them not to order "ikemen" ("ikemen" means "cool men" but can also be a pun for "cool noodles" as in ramen) or she'll poke them in the eye. They order it and get poked.

After they've had their ramen, Haruta comments on Minori's rejection of Ryuuji and Maya not speaking to Noto. Ryuuji then heads home, noting Taiga's darkened apartment as he passes. At dinner with his mother, she airily speaks of Ryuuji not worrying about college money. Her feeling is that because Ryuuji is different from her (in that he's highly intelligent), a college education will cause his talents to take off. She doesn't want Ryuuji taking a job either to pay for school since she wants him to focus on college once he gets there. As Ryuuji cleans up, he thinks back to how his mother has always been this way in her way of thinking.

At school the next day, Ryuuji learns from Minori that Taiga gets along well with her mother, so the situation Taiga had with her father won't be there. Ryuuji also learns that Minori has been made captain of the coed softball team. Ami comes up and Minori acts very friendly to her. Ami is irritated and walks on, remarking on how nice it must be for the father now that the child is away. She does not go to class but instead heads up to where the vending machines are to sit in her usual spot. Minori follows her, giving her a warning that the spot Ami is sitting in is actually haunted by the ghost of a brokenhearted woman. Ami freaks out about this and hurries out of the spot. Minori tells Ami that its OK because nothing bad has happened yet. Minori tells an allegory about her own experience with ghost (her summer talk with Ryuuji), but this annoys Ami, who knows well what Ami is driving at. Minori tells the departing Ami that she will won't hesitate to go for what she wants, but Ami doesn't want to hear it.

Yuri-sensei has a talk with Ryuuji about his career assessment. She's concerned since Ryuuji is a gifted student and she doesn't want him to waste his gifts. Ryuuji comes home to find it empty, his mother having taken a second job. Ryuuji now understands more of what his mother was saying earlier regarding his schooling and not to worry about it. Ryuuji takes the hair clip he had purchased for Minori and places it in a box of his writings and songs he made for Minori. He remembers when Minori first looked at his stuff and realizes that having feelings for someone is not embarrassing.

There's a knock at the door and Taiga is there, having forgotten her keys. Ryuuji demands to know where she's been and learns that Taiga just felt like skipping class and spending time with her mother. Taiga only intends to use Ryuuji's balcony to gain access to hers but Ryuuji wants her to stay and manages to get her to do so for a bit thanks to his ugly parrot pet. Taiga moves on and sees Ryuuji's open box. She's not thrilled that Ryuuji did not make any progress with Minori but she's relieved when she hears Ryuuji tell her that Yuusaku rescued her as she'd said some stupid things. Ryuuji tells her that he heard that she didn't say anything when rescued so it must have been a dream. That makes Taiga feel better and she makes it to her apartment.

Thoughts/Review: Hmmmm...once again, this series continues to interest me because I'm never quite sure where it is going. After the events of last episode, I thought for sure we'd have Ryuuji and Taiga become a couple. BUZZZ! Not so fast, middle-aged dude! Instead, Taiga still wants to push Ryuuji with Minori and pretend that what she said didn't in fact happen. I believe she's not faking and that she honestly believe Ryuuji's lie about Yuusaku rescuing her. So with that in mind, now what will happen when she returns to school? Ami and Minori are much more involved here than before due to the fight.

Minori clearly wanted to put up a false front and pretend nothing happened. This is seen in how she treated Ryuuji in the Ramen shop as well as her trying to pretend the fight never happened when she saw Ami at school. Ami clearly has been stewing over it. She's not interested in putting up a false front about this with Minori. While Minori wanted to couch her words in the search for ghosts, Ami just cut to the chase. This is new ground for Ami in many ways because I don't think she's ever loved a boy before and hiding behind a facade isn't going to help her. I do score one for Minori by making Ami freak out about the possible ghost in Ami's favorite sitting spot. That was a funny moment.

This episode took the clearest look at how Ryuuji never really goes after what he wants. I thought about this when Minori loudly told Ami that she would press forward. Ryuuji sacrificed being a normal kid because his mother is a bimbo and thus he's basically taken care of her (though she has brought home the money to support them). Ryuuji is even now willing to sacrifice himself for his mother. I can't help but think that Ryuuji knows that his mother can't have too many more years as a hostess because age will eventually win no matter how hard you try to hide it. His mother knows that an education will gain Ryuuji a better life than what she could provide.

Then there's Ryuuji's personal life. He never really went for Minori because of fear or whatever. Everytime he has been given an opportunity, he backs down. Even at Christmas when he was finally going to give her a gift, he backs down and just lets Minori have her preemptive say. Now with Taiga, Ryuuji again is backing down in favor of allowing Taiga to believe a lie. He's willing to keep what he has for fear of losing it all should he proceed, I guess. Doesn't seem like much of a life, but I do understand him on some level. I even understand his thickness on some level as well.

There were elevated humor moments here. Minori scored the most laughs with her shocking Ryuuji, Haruta, and Noto at the ramen place, then with her Three Stooges eye-pokes. She also scored humor points when she freaked Ami out (as mentioned earlier). Those were nice touches, considering how serious the anime has been of late.

One side note -- does Noto like Maya? The anime has not given that indication, but it is possible that the light novels may have. It just seemed odd that Haruta in a conversation with Noto would say "Maya-sama" when asking if Maya was speaking to Noto. That implies that Noto has feelings for Maya, combined with his own sense of depression that Maya won't speak to him. Interesting.

The previews show Ami and Ryuuji having a talk. I suppose that the anime may try to resolve these romantic threads before ending. Whether resolved or not, I would like to see Ami clearly express herself to Ryuuji though.

Well, see you next episode.

Minami-ke's Chiaki vs. Toradora's Taiga

When I first became aware of Toradora!, I noticed that the lead female character (Taiga) had a character design similar to Chiaki's from Minami-ke, especially with the hair style. So the other day when I saw an image of the two of them together, I laughed and had to share the love.

More Negima! 244 SPOILER Images

More Negima! 244 SPOILER Images
魔法先生 ネギま！Chapter 244 (Images)

Here's the 2nd round of spoiler images from Japan, y'all (click pic to make bigger, y'all).


Looks like desperation time for Negi with Jack making sport of Negi.

First spoiler images can be found --> HERE!
Third spoiler images can be found --> HERE!

Minami-ke Okaeri 09

みなみけ おかえり Episode 09

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: Its nearly time for Christmas and Kana grabs some mandarin oranges from a case of them in the Minami residence for consumption. Eying the oranges on the table, Touma and Chiaki go for them at the same time. The next day at school, Uchida reports to Makoto that Touma and Chiaki are fighting. Uchida wants Makoto to do something, but he's not getting between those two to stop a fight. Instead, he proposes a visit to the Minami residence and he has his transformation outfit to Mako-chan ready. Once there, they ask Kana about the fight, but Kana doesn't know anything. Kana has a bunch of oranges on the table and when Makoto and Uchida try to take one, Kana slaps their hands back. Touma and Chiaki arrive, talking about apologizing to Kana for taking her oranges when the see the fight, which results in a complete orange peel smacking Chiaki in the head. This leads to some Chiaki wrath on Kana.

Chiaki has made a giant stocking for Christmas but she won't tell Haruka or Kana what she wants for Christmas. Haruka talks with Maki and Atsuko about this, then invites Fujioka over for a consultation since Fujioka's teddy bear gift is so well loved by Chiaki. Fujioka takes advantage of his visit to give Kana and Haruka presents -- mittens. He has the same gift for Chiaki, so Kana proposes just placing Fujioka's gift into Chiaki's stocking. Kana wakes Chiaki up on Christmas morning with her head inside the giant stocking. Since it has snowed, Haruka and Kana go out to make a snowman and are joined by Chiaki, who loves her mittens. When asked why she made such a large stocking, Chiaki says that she just made it and that any present was OK with her.

Its Christmas day and the other Minami residence and the three brothers talk about how Natsuki failed to leave Touma's present beside her bed. Meanwhile, Touma has gone to visit the female Minami residence and when Haruka learns that Touma's brothers didn't leave a present for Touma (despite Touma's insistence that she didn't want another of their dumb presents), she calls Natsuki to chastise him. As such, Natsuki takes Touma's present and leaves it on the table with a note to remind him to put the present by Touma's bed that night. Touma comes home and finds the present and the note, so she tosses the note and goes to Natsuki's room to thank him in spite of everything. She tries to pretend that she'd simply overlooked the present when she got up the the morning, but Natsuki doesn't play along with this lie, causing Touma to get angry with him.

Its before Christmas when Haruka spoke with Atsuko and Maki about Chiaki's present. Hosaka overhears the conversation and when Natsuki comes up, the two have a short, frank conversation about Santa. After school, Hosaka wanders the shopping district and takes a job selling Christmas cakes. Women respond to Hosaka's good looks and as he basks in their adoration, he fantasizes about Haruka coming to the shopping district cold and alone. Therefor, Hosaka seeing her, gives her a large Christmas cake and she kisses him in gratitude. In reality, Hosaka is making out with a Christmas cake which results in him having a whipped cream beard and mustache. At that same time, Haruka, Kana, and Chiaki pass through and Kana wants to stop and buy a Christmas cake. Haruka refuses but she reveals the reason -- she's already bought one. They go home and have a Christmas dinner (roast chicken, salad, Christmas cake, pizza, and bread) with Mako-chan, Uchida, Yoshino, & Touma. Back at the shopping district, Hosaka refuses to wash his face, declaring himself to be Santa Claus and telling Haruka to come to him.

Thoughts/Review: Chiaki was on a "bakayarou" roll this episode, slamming out the insult several times. While still amusing to me, the delivery of the word doesn't come off quite as funny as it once did.

Fortunately, there were a lot of nice, amusing moments in this episode. Makoto proudly speaking of having his henshin outfit ready to transform himself into "Mako-chan" cracked me up. I liked how the writers made it appear that Touma and Chiaki were having a fight, only to let us know that they'd actually fought with Kana.

The story about Chiaki's Christmas present wasn't amusing to me but it was a sweet one. I really liked how Chiaki truly liked her Christmas present. However, I did not like the fact that Haruka didn't even bother buying Chiaki something. Instead, she went with Kana's suggestion of leaving Fujioka's present in Chiaki's stocking (though I suppose that one of the presents shown at the end of the episode could have been something Haruka bought for Chiaki). Score one for Kana, who's really been on a roll this series.

I don't know why, but I'm finding Natsuki more and more amusing as a character. His blunt, straight forward, get to the point attitude gets funnier to me with each episode. I couldn't help but chuckle as he bulldozed through Touma's attempt to pretend that no one forgot her present. When he and Hosaka had a conversation about Santa, I may not have been belly-laughing, but I was chuckling and grinning the entire time.

For Hosaka though, I can't help but laugh whenever he goes into fantasy land. His making out with the Christmas cake is funny and smacks of wrong at the same time. Of course what's great is how none of this impacts Hosaka at all. While his co-worker (boss?) is freaked out by Hosaka with a beard and mustache of whipped cream from the cake, Hosaka is playing Santa. Funny stuff, y'all.

So a good episode had here. I have no problem with series having Christmas episodes when it isn't Christmas time.

Got $220,000 Laying Around? A Collector Has Anime Figures, Macross, Gundam, and Transformer Stuff to Sell You.

I was astonished when an eBay auction came to my attention. Nightslayer442 is selling what has to be the most impressive collection of anime figures, Gundam models (both made and still in the box), Macross models (both made and still in the box), Transformer models and toys, and more. Seriously, check out this guys set of pictures (while they remain uploaded) --> HERE.

Seeing what Nightslayer442 had, I could not help myself and contacted this person via e-mail. An interview was graciously granted.

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ANB: Your collection on anime figures, Gundam models, Macross models, Transformer toys, etc. is the most impressive thing I've ever seen. When did you start collecting? Why did you start collecting?

NS442: Thanks for your comment, let say when I started is when my mom gave me a mib G1 Transformers Mirage when I was in the second grade on my birthday when I was 6 years old ( I'm 29 now ), but that was not the start of the collection as I didn't do the buying. I think when I start is when I brought the transformers to school for show and tell, and one of my friend had a G1 blaster that he also brought to school to show. He and I play a little with the two transformers and then we decided to trade as he like car transformers and I like the look of blaster. After that I keep trading often so I think that is when I started collecting and that I see that there are so many thing out there that interest me and I end up with a couple different thing + G1 Metroplex which is still one of the one I still have in my collection and many more of curse.

ANB: Did you travel to Japan to collect some of these items?

NS442: No, as I'm very busy with work so I don't have the time to travel anywhere far, so much of the stuffs I got is off the Internet and at local store/ collectors shop.

ANB: What is the prize in your collection?

NS442: The prize of my collection is my collection itself as that is what I want.

ANB: How do you store your collection? Are you able to display everything?

NS422: Let's just say I move around a couple times, and I end up in a smaller house so I can't really display anything in it as the house I'm in now is 1/4 smaller then the place I use to live in that I use the basement to display my whole collection. So when I move to the smaller place no basement ha, I don't want to put the collection in boxes and in storage, as I'm a collector so I rented a two bedrooms apartment to display them as they deserve to be display not put away in storage. But still with this I still running out of room for the collections but I still adding stuffs to it so space is getting smaller hahaha.

ANB: I guess the big question is why sell such a massive collection?

NS442: I'd say that I don't see my collection all that much as the apartment I display them in is 20+ miles away ( one way ) from my house and I work ( 6 days a week ) 50 miles away from my house the other way ha so I only have about 2 - 4 time a month to see the collections. Also the rent on the apartment and house/cars payments. So I can't really keep this up LOL!!

ANB: You must make a lot of money to be able to have purchased this collection, much less pay for a house and apartment for display purposes.

NS442: No, I think I make an OK living I guess, and just spend what I can when I can that all lol.

ANB: Are you selling everything in your collection, or are you going to keep some things?

NS422: Yes, right now everything I have in the apartment is up for sell and included except the apartment itself hahaha as it'll be easier for me just to sell everything and not wrong about moving thing out of the apartment. But whatever doesn't get pick ( Of course everything pictures in the sell will belong to the winner, but there are a lot still that are in the closets/storage room of the apartment that I don't have time to put up or display ) from the apartment will be put in storage I guess?

ANB: What happens if you get no takers for your collection? Will you keep trying to sell it as a whole? Will you break it up into smaller pieces? What?

NS422: As I say in the auction if the collections doesn't sell then I'll be keeping everything and just keep on collecting so I guess I'll need to rent another apartment if that happen lol.

ANB: Do you think you'll be able to get $220,000?

NS422: It all depend on who is interested in collecting such a big collections to have as an investment. Also as I stated in the auction is if it doesn't sell I will be keeping it. So I thank everyone that e-mail me the great comments. Hope everyone that view the collection/auction enjoy it. Thanks

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And thank you, Nightslayer422. I hope you are successful. ^_^

Negima! Chapter 244 SPOILER Images

Negima! 244 SPOILER Images
魔法先生 ネギま！Chapter 244 (Images)

Here's what I know many of you have been waiting for -- the original-sized, sneak-peek images for Mahou Sensei Negima! 244 as brought to you buy anonymous Japanese fans (click pic to make bigger, y'all). This is an early snapshot and hopefully more will be out later today or tomorrow.


Poor Ako. Well, at least we know she has accepted it by the time the match started.

UPDATE: 2nd spoiler image post can be found --> HERE!
Updated 2: 3rd set of spoiler images can be found --> HERE!

Slayers Evolution-R 07

スレイヤーズ EVOLUTION－R Episode 07

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: Its morning at Radok's mansion and after getting up, Lina and company discuss current events including the relationship between Ozel, Zuuma, and Radok (which causes Gourry to short circuit). After breakfast, Lina, Gourry, and Pokota observe the ever suspicious Abel talking with Ozel as she hangs the linen to dry. Lina decides that the three of them should discretely tail Ozel to see if they can learn anything while Zelgadiss and Amelia remain behind to protect Radok. After observing Ozel's activities in the town, they discover that she's well liked (shop owners even calling her "Ozel-chan") and she gets all kinds of free goodies. However, at a stand selling jars, she goes nuts and starts smashing them, leading Lina, Gourry, and Pokota to stop her.

After getting out of that pickle, Lina decides to asks some direct questions of Ozel. Ozel has few answers, but Lina is able to learn that Ozel no longer is contracted to Zuuma, thus her allegiance to Radok seems genuine. Zuuma shows up and the fight is on, with Ozel helping Lina and company. Zuuma shows his superior skills and is about to dispatch Gourry when Ozel stabs Zuuma in the leg, forcing him to retreat. Meanwhile at Radok's mansion, the mazoku Gduza and Dugld attack Amelia and Zelgadiss. This time, the two are better prepared for their match and inflict enough damage on the mazoku to force them to retreat. Able accuses them of sleeping on the job and when Lina and company arrive, Radok has some words for them. Ozel notices that Radok is leaving a blood trail as he walks away.

Thoughts/Review: Now I remember the connection between Zuuma and Radok. I think it is pretty obvious to anyone who watched this episode -- they are the same person. In that regard, it makes perfect sense that Ozel would serve both people as they are, in fact, the same person.

I still don't know much about Ozel but it is a shame that the mazoku who was serving Radok in the novels isn't here (or at least doesn't appear to be here). Oh well. Anyway, it is weird that Ozel has this jar-smashing fetish and wants Lina to destroy the Hellmaster jar, but Ozel is charged with protecting said jar. It is all very strange.

I liked that Zelgadiss and Amelia were able to hold their own against Gduza and Dugld. Being low-level mazoku, it makes sense that they'd take physical damage, something Xellos won't take much of were the group to fight him.

I'm finding that having read the original novels (even if some time ago), the current storyline is kind of boring to me. Save for Ozel and Pokota (and the lack of the higher-level mazoku that served Radok-Zuuma), the story appears to be pretty much from the novels from what I remember. Normally, I'm not bothered by this kind of adaptation so I wonder why for this current storyline, I feel a bit bored by it? I may have to ponder this for a bit.

I did find it interesting that all the shop owners called Ozel "Ozel-chan" though. I get the feeling that the market scene is just a parody of a generic Japanese market district that we sometimes see show up in anime.

Well, only six more episodes to go and hopefully things will not leave me feeling "meh" by series end. ^_^;

xxxHOLiC Manga Chapter 174

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: Watanuki sees Yuuko-san dissolve away and vanish and when he awakens, he has a butterfly in his hands which too dissolves away.

On the way to school, Watanuki tells Doumeki that he cannot find Yuuko-san anywhere. While he concedes that there are possibly hidden rooms within Yuuko-san's store-residence, the fact that he hasn't seen Maru and Moro in ages as well as not finding Mokona makes Watanuki suspect that he may not be able to meet them anymore. Watanuki decides that maybe they just have something to do and so Watanuki will try to grant Yuuko-san a wish.

They stop by the house of the woman who wanted Watanuki to teach her to cook. They get no response, so Watanuki leaves a note on the gate. He vows to keep making onigiri until she eats them.

Thoughts/Review: Whatever mess is going on in Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- is the reason that Yuuko-san is missing. Chapter 214 of that manga clearly shows that she's been affected but doesn't give any great details otherwise. However, I've added the image from that chapter to illustrate another perspective on what's happening to her.

Regardless, xxxHOLiC continues to be marking time. All CLAMP can do is acknowledge that "something" is happening to Yuuko-san so in the meantime, let's have Watanuki obsess over that loser woman who has the weird eating problem. Yeah, that's a real interesting story.

You know, when I initially got into both xxxHOLiC and Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-, I thought that CLAMP had clear ideas of where they wanted to take things and a good understanding of the linkages. Maybe they did, but frankly I have been really disappointed with how both of these mangas are winding down. Its a case of the premise being good but the end being pretty tedious. Sad really.

I'm in this until the end (Lord willing) so we'll see how things end. I figure the end will come in a few months, tops.

White Album 09 (or More Babes Than I Can Shake A Stick At)

ホワイトアルバム Episode 09

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: The school festival is nigh and Misaki has the costumes all prepared. However, Tamaru rejects the costumes as too colorful, telling Misaki that even though he approved the designs, he didn't think she'd be childish enough to create such loud costumes. So with Touya and his father's help as well as cans of spray paint, all of the costumes are made into monotone colors. Touya ends up sleeping through his tutoring session with Mana (where she almost kisses him). Mana encounters Haruka at the school festival, mistakenly thinking she's Touya's "Yuki" rather than the real one, who's on stage.

Finally, Tamaru refuses to let Misaki be in the audience to see the play, so she leads Touya to an upper level she claims will allow them to see the play. However, they never make it that far and after Touya tries to broach the subject of Akira, Misaki falls in the dark and is hurt. It is here that she lets it all out and Touya realizes that Misaki has feelings for him. He tells her he loves her but she rejects that, knowing its a lie and sends him packing. He leaves but Akira arrives and tells Misaki he loves her, at which point help arrives and Misaki is taken to the hospital while Touya finds himself lost at this sudden turn of events.

Thoughts/Review: I hope this means that the Misaki story is over. I have to say that while she's a nice girl and all, her story isn't all that interesting to me, mainly because of how it has been presented to us. Until this episode, we had no idea of how things were between Misaki and Touya in the past when he was with Yuki. So frankly, I just didn't care that much. It became a bit more interesting when it is revealed that Misaki has basically been faking it (including a friendship with Yuki apparently) all along. It was obvious that her getting Touya to help her with the costumes was part of a plan to spend time with him and I guess she thought she could win him over. However, Touya is oblivious to just about everything. More on that in a bit.

So, why the smeg do all these girls like Touya anyway? In Toradora!, the girls that like the lead male there all have logical reasons for falling for him. In White Album, I can see no ryhme