Gakuen Alice Manga Volume 9

学園アリス

Gakuen Alice Volume 09 <--BUY FROM AMAZON!

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: With Christmas nearly here, it is time to make giant cakes. Mikan is visited by a girl named Nobara, who has an ice Alice that she has difficulty controlling and who is in the dangerous Alice class, but has slipped out to see Mikan. She gets to truly enjoy herself for the first time, but Persona comes and gets her.

Christmas comes and with it a party and fun. Mikan finds herself flustered when Luca gives her a kiss on the cheek for what she did for Yo-chan. She finds herself in deeper waters when she "teeth-kisses" Natsume by accident, which causes quite a commotion. Things don't get any better at the masquerade ball when Mikan is asked to dance and loses her mask in the process. Her partner is none other than the head of the elementary school with a warning about not losing something precious to her.

Mikan attempts to retreat to collect herself, only to encounter Natsume, who irritates her into feeling better. Natsume decides to properly kiss Mikan to find out what kissing is all about. That leaves Mikan more flustered and a rift opens between Luca and Natsume. That gets resolved after Christmas when the three find themselves cleaning and trapped in a classroom during a power outage.

Nobara again escapes her junior high area to see Mikan again, whom she has become quite fond of and vice versa. Mikan is quickly escorted away by Tsubasa because she has other work to do. Natsume isn't thrilled by her being here but she has a message for him about the head of the elementary division being the one who danced with Mikan.

Meanwhile, Mikan and her special ability class do their cleanup and find writings on the wall behind a bookcase, including a "Yuka" and "Sensei" under an umbrella, signifying love. Instead of getting rid of this, the class ends up adding more.

Thoughts/Review: I was going to try a different style of blogging for this manga, but I went back to my old standard summary/review form without even trying. ^_^; Oh well. I tried to keep the summary brief.

Nobara may be a moe character, but I do find her interesting somehow. I'm guessing that with her ice Alice as well as Persona getting her, she's going to play an important part in the manga. If this follows the path I think it will, Mikan will make Nobara a stronger person. After all, she's already snuck out of the junior high area twice to see Mikan.

One of the problems with having not read this manga since I read volume 8 last August is that one forgets things. So now I'm scratching my head and going, "is there something I'm missing about this weird chick who's marked Narumi-sensei?" The cross under the eye is the same one Persona has. I guess Persona has the ability of disguise as well as disease. However, I suppose I should go back and reread the earlier volumes to see what I missed. I can't remember if Persona is supposed to be a man or a woman.^_^;

Moving on, I found this volume to have picked up more of its lighthearted nature from early on, in addition to introducing new story elements (Nobara, "Persona" harming Narumi-sensei, the elementary school headmaster dancing with Mikan) and dealing with the love triangle between Luca, Natsume, and Mikan. Curly's jealousy over hearing about the teeth kiss between Natsume and Mikan was pretty funny. However, "Mindreader-kun" revealing poor Mikan's troubled thoughts over Natsume or Luca were deliciously funny, mainly because Higuchi-sensei draws him with that "who, me?" look of happy innocence. ^_^

I remember Yuka being revealed as Mikan's mother but I don't remember Mikan knowing that. I guess she must have figured it out or something because she wrote her name as a line down from Yuka and Sensei's "love umbrella." That implies she knows she's their kid. Arrrgh! I guess I really do need to reread the earlier volumes again sometime.

So, what role does Nobara play in the future? What has happened to Narumi-sensei? Does Persona change appearance? Whom will Mikan eventually end up with -- Luca or Natsume? (My money is on Natsume.)

In the end, this volume is a fun read and made me glad I have volume 10 on standby, ready to read.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 54

Hagane no Renkinjutsushi - Fullmetal Alchemist Ep. 54
鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST Episode 54 review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

After a flashback with Riza and Roy at the end of the Ishval War where Roy agrees to destroy the Flame Alchemist symbols on Riza's back, Riza finds Roy in the present. She challenges him, causing Envy to reveal himself and Riza opens fire. Despite emptying several guns into Envy, he begins regenerating and attacks Riza, capturing her until Roy arrives and fries Envy. His anger is so great that Roy burns Envy repeatedly until Envy is forced into his small, creature self. Roy is about to have his final revenge when Riza stops him. Ed and Scar arrive and Ed takes Envy, which does not please the angry Roy. Both Ed and Riza's words eventually get through to Roy, which astonishes Envy. Envy tries to remind everyone of their previous histories but to no avail. Ed realizes that Envy is envious of humans. Now exposed, Envy is humiliated and kills himself by removing and destroying his philosopher's stone.

Over in the military HQ in Central, Sloth frees himself from Alex's pole in the mouth and begins regenerating when other Central troops arrive to arrest Olivier. Olivier takes advantage of their confusion over seeing Sloth to take command as the sub-homunculi attack. It takes Sloth a little bit of time to remember what he's supposed to do, but by the time he remembers he's supposed to kill Olivier, Alex intervenes. Alex takes a beating at Sloth's hands but it is a ploy and soon Alex is back in top form, giving Sloth a sparkly beating.

Meanwhile, Central forces have secured the Armstrong mansion and discovered this is where the Briggs troops had set up shop. The Briggs forces continue their assault on the HQ gate, causing the general in charge to order an attack even though civilians haven't been evacuated. Captain Buccaneer arrives in the room and has the general in his automail claw. The general is stunned that the building has been penetrated by enemy forces, causing Buccaneer to reveal their ace in the hole -- Izumi.

Down under the HQ building, Hohenheim comes face to face with father.







Thoughts/Review: I had no clue at the end of the previous episode if Roy or Riza were in fact Envy in disguise. The ultimate solution would be for them to be themselves while Envy hid somewhere, but that didn't happen. Riza's use of a lie to expose Envy worked for me. Her plugging Envy came off as less about her trying to kill Envy (though clearly she hurts him), but more about announcing her position to Roy for a rescue. Naturally, that comes in the nick of time.

Roy's going off on Envy also worked quite well. He didn't give the homunculus much time to do anything, which is how he took down Lust. His stoppage of activity to torment Envy in his true form worked, but I did wonder why the others were so keen on saving Envy's life. Seriously, if Envy could have escaped and taken over some more bodies, he would have and then they would have had to battle him yet again. Instead, Envy's basically talked into committing suicide. That felt very Japanese to me and I couldn't help but think of a scene from Shogun.

Speaking of Riza, it is nice to see a bit more of her and Roy's back history (no pun intended). So, the markings on Riza's back were the key to Roy's extraordinary abilities at flame alchemy and he burned them at Riza's request to prevent someone else from obtaining the knowledge of her father.

So, another homunculi is gone. That leaves Wrath (Bradley), whom I believe will show up soon, Greed, Sloth, and Pride, to say nothing of Father. I suppose that Oliver and Alex could kill Sloth, but with Izumi's arrival, the added alchemy power might be just enough to kill the giant (assuming Izumi hooks up with Olivier and Alex). Since I was wrong about Father possibly helping Envy, there's no reason to believe Father would help Sloth.

I liked how Olivier took command of the troops in the HQ building. It will be interesting to see how she and Roy get on when this is over. I kinda suspect she'd return to Briggs or run the entire military under Roy's command.

It appears that Father was attached to that "throne" of his. If I had to guess, I'd say that somehow, all those pipes go throughout the entire country and come to him.

Finally, it looks like the city is starting to come under control thanks to the Briggs forces. Since the OP makes it clear that Bradley returns, I expect this event to happen JUST when things appear to be about over. Then Bradley throws his monkey wrench into the works and the fun begins anew. ^_^

In the end, we have another slow-paced episode, which is still a laugh considering how fast the production team felt they needed to go early on. Still, despite the slower pace, the episode is still very good to me.

AstroNerdBoy Enters the AniBlog Tournament Ring

You know, I sorta feel like watching Yu Yu Hakusho as I write this. *lol* I may have to pull it off the shelf and write a "Back to the Vaults" piece on it.

Anyway, for those visiting the blog for the first time thanks to the AniBlog Tournament, welcome. ^_^ I am AstroNerdBoy. I've had an Internet presence for a LONG time now (or so it seems), starting with my interest in the American comic strip scene. I've always had a love of the comic arts and was introduced to anime and manga in 1989 when I lived in Japan. I didn't get into anime until 2002 and manga in 2003. However, I've always enjoyed writing and decided to start blogging in late 2006.

Currently, I'm episode-blogging two current weekly anime titles and two old school classic anime titles. On the modern front, we have Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, which I decided to blog since I liked the first anime series. I haven't read the manga, save for a couple of chapters, so I come to that series pretty fresh. For Angel Beats!, the tie-in with Key caught my interest. My work schedule mostly insures that I'm one of the last people to blog a current episode, but that's OK. Its not like there's a prize for being first. ^_^

(Update: I've been requested to add that I'm also blogging the 13-episode OVA series Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari...well, as I'm able at least. ^_~ )

Because I lived in Japan "back in the day" AND because I think it is a good idea to educate myself in classic, "old school" anime titles, I try to episode-blog at least two of them. I've been slowly working through Urusei Yatsura for some time now and will continue blogging to the end of the series. I'm also currently working on episode-blogging Dirty Pair and look forward to the official U.S. release of that series.

From time to time, I'll pull an anime title off of my shelves and rewatch it because there's no sense in owning it if I don't rewatch it. Once I've watched it again, I figure I may as well blog it (assuming I've not already done so), which is where my Back to the Vaults articles come from.

Since I also enjoy manga, I chapter blog Negima! (my favorite manga, which also has me trying to find early spoiler images for all the Negima! fans out there), Ah! My Goddess, and xxxHOLiC. As I have time, I'll blog various manga volumes I've purchased, something I'm very behind on at present -- fifteen volumes worth by my count and rising. ^_^;

On rare occasion, I'll rant about something or other, or just muse. From time to time, I'll share some of the promo anime/manga images I've stumbled upon, mostly from Japanese websites.

So, that's me and my blog in a nutshell. I usually have a blog post a day, so there's always something new around here.

My opponent in the tournament is ěk-sěn’trĭk, so if you haven't checked out that blog, do so and vote for whomever you think is best. ^_^

Now, for a little Yu Yu Hakusho love, to fit the tournament theme.


Win or lose, I want to thank you all for stopping by. ^_^

Dirty Pair - 18

ダーティペア (TV Anime) Episode 18 Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: Yuri and Kei are charged with taking in the criminal known as BJ. They barge into room 503 of the hotel and get into a gun fight with the occupant, destroying the hotel in the process but sadly, they had the wrong hotel. The right hotel is next door and BJ thinks he has the drop on the girls, but instead they have him after lassoing him from the air car and dragging him through the streets. Slapping an electric cuff on BJ, Kei has fun electrocuting him whenever he steps out of line. However, Kei and Yuri aren't happy when they learn that they won't be handing BJ immediately to the authorities but will have to take him to police HQ. They change their minds when reminded of the hotel and Kei turns on the tracker.

After filling up at a gas station, Kei discovers they have a bomb on the air car, forcing them to bail before it blows. The police chief informs Gooley that BJ is being targeted by a criminal organization who don't want him to testify, meaning they have to keep BJ alive at all costs. The trio board a bus, which is soon targeted by gangster types. The people on the bus end up helping Yuri and Kei in the eventual fight that happens until teargas is set off in the bus.

Kei, Yuri, and BJ get away to the sewers, but again find themselves trapped by gangster-types. When a giant cleaning ball comes through, the trio use it to make their escape, but the city streets are crawling with more of these thugs trying to kill BJ. Entering a restaurant, Kei makes a report to Gooley of their situation, including that they are surrounded. Gooley makes an in-person report to the police chief as Kei and Yuri attempt an escape with BJ. They soon discover that their attackers aren't gangsters or thugs, but cops. Gooley confronts the chief about this and gets shot.

Meanwhile, Kei and Yuri procure a heavy duty rig for hauling goods, which they use to drive to the station. The police chief has lots of cops set up to shoot the truck as the injured Gooley makes contact with Kei, telling them they were right about the police involvement. They blast through and crash into the police HQ, where they end up snagging the chief and making the arrest. Gooley is taken to the hospital after which Kei and Yuri leave, only to watch the police HQ building come crashing down.





Thoughts/Review: I think this episode, more than most so far, goes to show the true destructive power of Dirty Pair. *lol* They destroy a hotel; a car of theirs is destroyed by a bomb, which destroys more buildings; they get a bus shot up and destroyed along with a number of vehicles along the way; they get a big rig destroyed; and finally they destroy the police HQ building. ^_^; That's a lot of destruction, but is a mark of the Dirty Pair and indeed how they obtained their reputation.

The episode was rather predictable with the police chief obviously behind the failed attempts to kill BJ, Kei, and Yuri. Beyond the stereotypical 80's "the police chief is a crook" aspect, the writers put it up in big, bright, marquee letters when (1) they had Kei turn on her belt tracking and (2) the chief could follow them in real time on the giant city map in his office. It was so painfully obvious, it made both Kei and Yuri look stupid for not figuring it out sooner. OK, they do look dumb for hitting the wrong hotel, but that comes off more like a mistake for the purposes of comedic destruction rather than looking dumb.

Speaking of the first guy Kei and Yuri went after, I had to laugh when after they bust in on him in the bath, he returns fire naked but then the very next time we see him, he has a bathrobe on. *lol* Well, I suppose in the middle of an intensive gun fight, there's always time to put on a bathrobe. ^_^

The other moment that made me smile was the full service fuel station where Kei and Yuri filled up their tank. I can't even remember the last time I saw a full service gas station, though I think New Jersey and Oregon made it a law banning self-service gas. However, in the 80's, I do remember seeing full service stations around, though their numbers had already seriously declined.

So we end up with a fun episode that typified the popular "bad cop" themes of so many action movies in the 80's.

Angel Beats! - 04

エンジェルビーツ Episode 04

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: Yui lobbies to take over for Iwasawa as lead singer for Girls Dead Monster but is met with reluctance on the part of SSS so Yuri leaves it up to the other members of the band to decide. In the meantime, Yuri decides that their next operation will be to illegally participate in the baseball tournament on campus and to that end, she tells them to form teams but they can't do worse than a regular team lest they face a punishment worse than death. Hinata gets Otonashi to agree to help him form a team. Unfortunately, all the good players Hinata wants are already taken.

Yui offers her services which Hinata accepts, but for the wrong reasons which irritates her. Next stop is Shiina, who has been stressing over losing out to Otonashi in the Guild trip. So she's been training by constantly balancing a broom on her finger and agrees to join the baseball team to further her concentration abilities. Next stop is Noda, who wants to fight Otonashi but Hinata manages to convince him to channel that energy into the baseball team for Yuri's sake. Since they can't get anyone else, Yui offers to get some of her fans to join from the normal students. Three girls join and Hinata decides they'll just go with an eight-person team and have two people cover the outfield.

The games start with the SSS teams all advancing to the next round and Hinata's being the last team to play in the first round. Despite massive idiocy, playing cold, and being a man short, Hinata's team wins. That brings Tenshi, vice student president Naoi, and their team to the field. Tenshi goes along with playing the game even though Hinata's team is illegal. Having a man short puts Hinata's team at a disadvantage, but Matsushita joins at the last second and covers the entire outfield. Hinata keeps having visions of screwing up a big game when he was alive and when a pop fly heads his way, Otonashi thinks he's going to disappear, having been told Hinata's story. However, Yui, who'd been picked on by Hinata all along, uses that moment to get her revenge. Thus Tenshi's team wins and it isn't Hinata's fault, though Yuri still wants Hinata and Yui to just disappear for losing.





Thoughts/Review: A comedy episode that doesn't appear to push forward the plot at all, yas very little Yuri, but does give us a glimpse at Hinata. I can live with that.

As I thought, Yui attempts to move into the lead singer's role in Girls Dead Monster and while this episode doesn't clear her to that role, I still think she'll get it based on the new OP. I liked how the episode used the OP to display Yui's audition. I really don't have any thoughts one way or the other about the change in OP. I keep thinking that the OP will change frequently now to promote new songs but we'll see.

Still, after Yui's introduction last week, her rise to a more spotlight role made for some decent "little sister" humor. Hinata's and Yui's constant fighting reminded me of siblings aggravating each other and fighting as a result, though with less anger. Yui comes off as a type of idiot, but then that makes her remarks on the other idiots more funny. I wonder if Maeda-sensei will continue this aspect of their relationship, at least until one of them goes.

Speaking of going, Maeda-sensei led us right to the idea of Hinata disappearing so hard that it actually made me think, "Hinata won't disappear." However, I will admit that I didn't expect Yui to come in and cause Hinata to miss the catch.

So, we learn a bit about Hinata's past and how his miss of a fly ball during an important game was devastating. It seemed odd that someone would then offer him (apparently illegal) drugs to forget the pain. We don't learn how Hinata dies, but we are left with the implication of drug overdose somehow. I know suicide is still a popular theory but at this point, all deaths seen could be the result of something other than suicide.

Anyway, Otonashi feared that Hinata would disappear and Hinata appeared ready to go to the other side if the catch was made. So, why would Otonashi be so keen on not letting Hinata disappear? Regardless, Hinata didn't disappear thanks to Yui getting her revenge at the cost of the game AND a return to punishment by Hinata. *lol*

Having Shiina do everything this episode while balancing a broom on her finger made me chuckle. Matsushita (who looks very similar to Izumi from Lord of Lords Ryu Knight) made me laugh for a similar reason by eating his ramen/soba/whatever in the outfield and still making the catches to cover the entire outfield. However, the best laughs came from Noda and Otonashi's rivalry. I didn't expect Noda to reject Otonashi's single up the middle by whacking it back to Otonashi, who hits it back, who hits it back, etc. By the time Otonashi was pitcher and Noda was catcher, I already knew what would happen but it was still amusing.

Tenshi's role in this episode is somewhat different. I think this is the first time she hasn't gone into battle mode to slaughter her opponents and allows the illegal baseball team. This continues to show how she's really not the villain Yuri thinks she is, at least in my opinion. Still, as coach of her baseball team, she did slaughter her opponents in another way, thanks to Yui. *lol*

I wonder if there is anything more to Naoi since he's Tenshi's #1.

Finally, if thirteen episodes isn't enough to tell the entire story, could this episode, fun though it was, not be seen as a complete and utter waste of precious broadcast seconds? That remains to be seen.

So, I've warmed up to this series well enough through four episodes. Bring on the next one!

Urusei Yatsura - 137

うる星やつら episode 137 (TV anime)
Urusei Yatsura Ep. 137 review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: A girl named KATSURAGI Anna finds herself the target of a gang of thugs, led by the big lipped giant, Soban. After making Soban act like a seal, the thugs really want Anna's money and she gives them what little she has. Lum, who'd been chasing Ataru, sees this and punishes the gang with electricity. Anna is grateful to Lum-senpai and Lum offers words of encouragement, telling Anna that she has to stand up to these bullies with courage. Anna is happy about this, but that night as she thinks things over, she realizes that words mean very little. As such, she sets up a fight between Lum and Soban. She then informs Lum of this, saying that if Lum can defeat Soban without use of her powers, Anna will believe her. Lum agrees to this.

Ataru quickly shows Lum how weak she is by beating her at arm wrestling several times and taking a bunch of money from her to boot. Lum consults with Ryuunosuke, who attempts to demonstrate the technique of surprise on her father. Fujinami has a surprise for her as well as Ryuunosuke plays Ultraman and Fujinami plays a giant kaijuu. Lum decides she needs to train and attempts to do so, discovering that it isn't as easy as it first appeared. She decides that she can use some power bracers which will give her strength. She also decides to uses some strength pills despite the fact the pill's effect is short lived.

The day of the fight comes with Anna all excited. Lum uses her bracers to punch Soban away, but he quickly returns unfazed and even eats her bracers. Lum takes a pill and punches Soban away, but again he returns unfazed. Lum accidentally drops the bottle of pills, scattering their content, which forces her to run from Soban until she can find and consume a pill at which time she attacks. Each time, the effect on Soban is the same. Sakura-sensei realizes Lum is overdosing on pills and tries to get Shuutaro to covertly help her, but he fails. It is only when Soban sees Shinobu that he gives up on Lum. Lum passes out and dreams that Anna commits suicide after Lum cheated. She awakes to find that isn't true and that Anna is happy as Soban rampages with Shinobu.


Thoughts/Review: This is a pretty fun, humorous episode with some parodies to boot.

We hadn't seen much Ataru-Lum stuff of late and the episode gets that out of the way immediately by having Ataru chasing skirt and getting punished. Once that's done, there's a sort of strangeness to their relationship. They act like a long time married couple as Ataru is often seen reading nearby while Lum trains. Then Lum goes to her match and Ataru is there and DOES NOT PURSUE ANNA! That was odd but I liked it. ^_^

The punishment of Ataru was funny but so was Lum's punishment of Soban and his gang. Ataru's taking advantage of Lum to score some quick cash made me chuckle. The fight between Soban and Lum was funny simply because (1) he kept coming back no matter what and (2) with Shinobu in the episode, it was only a matter of time before Soban spotted her and forgot everything else. *lol*

Finally, there were three major parodies I noticed and two of them were U.S. related. First was the Ultraman parody with Ryuunosuke as Ultraman. That was amusing and were I more versed on that series, would have been funnier. Next was the Rocky parody with Lum's training, complete with her wearing the hooded jogging suit. However, she jogs up the steps of a shrine rather than the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps. ^_^ Then at the end, Soban gets Shinobu and climbs up to the top of the school bell tower and does the old King Kong parody. ^_^

Anna had a bit of comedy too with her initial handling of Soban and his thugs by "proving" Soban was a seal. *lol* I wonder if we'll see her again.

So as I said, a fun, funny, and parody-filled episode that was pretty enjoyable.