Ah! My Goddess Ch.262 Manga Review

Ah! My Goddess Manga/Oh My Goddess! Manga
ああっ女神さまっ Chapter 262

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: With Keiichi very hungry, Belldandy breaks out the picnic blanket and basket so that everyone can take a break and refresh themselves. Keiichi is surprised by this but pleased. As Keiichi enjoys some of Belldandy's cookies, Skuld produces a sweet bread snack from a store for him to eat. Urd notices this and teases Skuld about it, asking what Sentarou-kun would think. Skuld is not happy at being teased and goes for a bomb but though she has a ton of stuff hidden in her shirt, she has no more bombs. She removes the desiccant pack from the bread product packaging and using Keiichi's hot tea and a pair of pliers, Skuld turns the packet very hot and tosses it at Urd's forehead, where Urd gets to experience the searing heat.

After Skuld explains what she has done, the little girl mazoku tells her that that what she's done is scary. Skuld is startled, but then distressed to see the girl eating Belldandy's cookies. Belldandy explains that the girl looked like she wanted one so Belldandy gave her one. The girl reminds Belldandy that she will give the group trouble later on. Belldandy isn't concerned by that since the cookies clearly made the little girl mazoku happy. Busted, the little girl tells them that their next opponent will make their magic attacks of no use.

Before she can continue, Keiichi has another problem -- he needs to go to the bathroom. So, the girl constructs a toilet room via magic which Keiichi rushes into. A little later, he comes screaming out of the room where the others see that the toilet's opening is shaped like a vicious mouth. The girl mazoku is not amused by Keiichi's antics since he did use the thing but that changes when the toilet chases them to a doorway where the toilet is taken out by Char Mokkurkalfi, their next opponent and puppet master.

Thoughts/Review: So, Fujishima-sensei decided to go for more comedic aspects before heading into the next section of the story, eh? ^_^

I know that "magic" can be used as the excuse for "Just where was Belldandy keeping that picnic gear at?" just as that could be the excuse used for Skuld always producing some weapon or the like. As much storage capacity as Skuld seems to have, it is surprising that she didn't have more Skuld Bomb's at her disposal, though she did have a dizzying array of other items (mostly tools). I wonder if that will come into play later, even though the scene of Skuld desperately looking for a Skuld Bomb was done for comedic purposes.

Anyway, beyond the normal comedic battles between Skuld and Urd, there is something amusing about Belldandy deciding to lay out a picnic spread while they are in the middle of a quest AND with only a limited amount of time on the clock. *lol* There's something just so wrong about that, but it did remind me of old school, ASCII, RPG dungeon crawlers like Rogue and NetHack where food was a very important part of the game. It would suck so bad to have a game session where you finally had a juiced up weapon that could take out powerful monsters only to starve to death.

But I digress... ^_^;;;

The need to go to the bathroom was the other comedic aspect. That's something that is never touched in fantasy but lets face it, I bet that most of you have thought at some point or other, "what if they need to go to the bathroom?" when reading fantasy. *lol*


Anyway, having the toilet be in the shape of a mouth added to the humor of the moment and then the toilet chasing them is something out of some young kid's nightmares.

The new opponent reminded me of Char from Gundam because of the helmet and mask combination. So, I guess we'll be reading about Mokkurkalfi and how Keiichi and company deal with her for the next several chapters.

So, a fun chapter before moving into the next sub-arc.

Super Dimensional Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love (Movie Review)

超時空要塞マクロス 愛・おぼえていますか
Chou Jikyuu Yousai Macross: Ai, Oboete Imasuka

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: The warship Macross launches a squadron of fighters while inside, pop idol LIN Minmei performs at her concert. When Zentradi send their mecha pods, the squadron attacks. However, this is a diversion as a Zentradi warship defolds, sending an infiltration team into Macross. This is seen by rookie pilot Hikaru, who disobeys orders from the female Lt. Misa on board Macross, and follows the Zentrati. Macross transforms into its mecha form to take out the enemy battleship. However, when one of the Zentradi mecha within Macross crashes into the area where Minmei and her manager have fled, the giant Zentradi are shocked to see men and women together.

Hikaru arrives and attacks the Zentradi mecha. During the fight, artificial gravity is lost and Minmei rapidly floats away. Hikaru races after her to save her but is unable to stop his transforming Valkyrie fighter from crashing. Now stranded in an engine section of the ship, Hikaru is stunned to see he's rescued the famous Minmei and gets her autograph. They have supplies that have "fallen" down from the civilian area and are forced to spend the night. Meanwhile, the Zentradi commander (Britai) receives word that they are fighting Miclones, something his adviser Exsedol warns about.

Back on Macross, it has been three days since Hikaru went missing and Roy, Misa, and Claudia discuss it as Misa wonders if he deserted. However, down in the engine area where Hikaru and Minmei are trapped, Minmei opens up to Hikaru and even shows him how an actress puts on a love scene in a movie. As she kissed Hikaru and they float downward, the area they are in becomes open when a bulkhead is lifted. However, the press is there and captures the moment of them kissing. Because Hikaru rescued Minmei, the military has been talked into not punishing Hikaru. However, Misa does give him an earful about disobeying orders.

With the hot gossip being about Minmei being alone with a pilot for three days, Hikaru's squadron comrades pay him a visit and are frustrated when they learn Hikaru didn't have sex with Minmei. That evening, Hikaru stops by the nice establishment where Roy, Claudia, and Misa are having a drink. Roy gets the reluctant Hikaru to join them and then decides to lecture Misa on being a woman, going so far as to demonstrate things with Claudia. The waiter brings a phone for Hikaru from someone claiming to be family and Hikaru leaves, explaining it is a family emergency, something Roy questions.

In fact it was Minmei calling Hikaru to meet him. The two go on a date with Minmei in a disguise of sorts. They go through the civilian city portion of Macross and do all sorts of activities, including a holo-costume place where both get to see themselves in wedding attire. Minmei rejects going to a hotel but when she is recognized at a burger joint, the two take off to an observation area to gaze at the lights. Hikaru takes Minmei on an unauthorized trip in his fighter to see the Saturn rainbow. As he flies her through the area, they are found by Misa on a shuttle, who has her manager Kaifunn in tow, meaning the date is over.

Meanwhile, Britai has orders to capture Miclones for further study and launches a mecha force which encounters Hikaru's fighter and Misa's shuttle. Misa sends a call for help as Hikaru attempts to engage the enemy, only to discover he has no munitions. Roy arrives in his fighter, proud of Hikaru for taking Minmei out like this. As Roy fights off the Zentradi, he's led away so that Hikaru's fighter and Misa's shuttle are captured. Realizing his mistake, Roy comes back, making it into the hold of the Zentradi warship that the others were taken to but with a Zentradi force waiting for him, causing Roy to surrender.

Britai and Exsedol question the "Miclones" about how men and women can live together. When the conversation turns to kissing, the Zentradi want an example, so Kaifunn ends up agreeing to kiss Minmei. The Zentradi are horrified and split up the prisoners to take them away. However, a Meltran raiding party enters with the female Zentradi slaughtering the males. In the confusion, Roy, Misa, and Hikaru get away and find their fighters. Roy dispatches Hikaru and Misa to find Minmei while he fights the Zentradi, dying in the process. Hikaru and Misa find Minmei and Kaifunn, but the combination of the continued Meltran attack plus the Zentradi ship attempting to "fold" to get away causes Hikaru's fighter to be thrown clear out of the Zentradi ship.

Britai and Exsedol make their report in person to their leader, who believes the Miclones are part of Protoculture, the race that had culture, something the Zentradi do not. Meanwhile, Hikaru and Misa land on a desolate planet where they see the remains of a large, metal ship on the beach. Misa recognizes it as the aircraft carrier Prometheus, which means they've returned to Earth. After Hikaru scavenges the ship for a few surviving supplies, the two take his fighter to Tokyo, where they find the city utterly destroyed. Hikaru asks where to go next since they've not found anyone alive anywhere, which leads Misa to break down in tears.

Setting up a tent under Hikaru's fighter, Misa lies there, not want to eat and is very depressed, seeing as how the Zentradi were so easily able to decimate Earth. Hikaru talks a bit about his past and when Misa shows signs of illness, Hikaru uses the handkerchief that Minmei signed to help with her fever. Seeing the sacrifice that Hikaru made on her behalf, Misa decides to eat a bit. When they take off again, they find a ruined structure in the middle of the ocean and check it out. It still has power and communications, though Misa cannot raise Macross. She does learn that this is a Protoculture structure from the main computer, which is diverting its remaining power to raising itself from the ocean floor.

The structure is actually a city and Misa's communion with the computer now gives her some knowledge. As the city rises, Misa explains how the Protoculture people created the Zentradi and the Mentradi and made it so males and females could reproduce without the other. However, these giant races warred heavily and the Protoculture people realized their mistake and attempted to correct it by helping to create humanity. However, when the war moved to Earth's solar system 20,000 years ago, the Protoculture people sank the city and fled. No one ever returned and as a result, the place was forgotten until recently.

The two begin exploring a city, finding what appears to be a house. Misa stays behind to look some more while Hikaru goes to see more of the city. Misa finds the kitchen and dishes still in the sink. As such, she gathers up the remains of plates, utensils, and the like and sets the table so that when Hikaru returns, she greets him as if he's coming home. Following her lead, Hikaru pretends to share a meal with her on these dishes. However, Misa soon stops and declares her desire to get back to Macross. Hikaru is tender and understanding and thus the two spend an intimate night together.

The next morning, a sound marks the arrival of something and it is Macross in mecha form. Misa and Hikaru report aboard and make their report to Captain Global before speaking with Claudia. A Meltran warship arrives with Milia, captain of the ship, instructed to get this fragment of culture to win the war. During the fight, Macross takes heavy damage and Max, the now squadron leader, gives the very skilled Milia the fight of her life, pursuing her into her ship where both fight in mecha form to a stalemate with Milia injured. Minmei's humming is being broadcast and the Meltran ship retreats when a fleet of Zentradi ships arrive with a peace proposal for the surviving humans.

At a conference, the explanation that Protoculture, Zentradi, and humans have the same genes and that this was the result of Protoculture gene work. Minmei is called upon to give a talk. Misa and Hikaru are introduced and a happy Minmei races to Hikaru. As the crowd gets excited by this, Minmei realizes that Hikaru's heart is set upon Misa. Later, as Misa works on translating an artifact they brought back from Earth, Minmei is with Hikaru and confesses her love for him. Minmei has her arms around Hikaru from behind when Misa stops by with info on what she's learned. Hikaru's words to Misa make it clear to Minmei whom he wants and she flees. It takes more words to convince Misa but eventually he convinces her that he loves her, not Minmei.

Macross goes on alert as Zentradi and Meltrandi forces emerge to take out the rebel Zentradi and Macross. Misa sends Hikaru to take her discovery from Earth, a Protoculture song, and give it to Minmei. As Hikaru races to find Minmei, the Protoculture city is destroyed. When he does locate her, she does not want to sing a song found by her rival for Hikaru. With massive destruction going on outside, Minmei whines and wishes everyone dead but the two of them. Hikaru has had enough of this and slaps her, bringing her to her senses and she agrees to sing as Hikaru joins the fight.

The rebel Zentradi, encouraged by Minmei's song and a desire to have culture in their life again, battle along side the humans and defeat the Zentradi fortress. Though the rebel Zentradi know that there are more such fortresses and fleets out there, they are determined to see this through. Meanwhile, Minmei and Misa come to an understanding about the situation and no longer consider each other rivals in love. As such, Minmei continues to sing and life continues for the remainder of humanity with their Zentradi allies.

Thoughts/Review: Watching the original Mobile Suit Gundam series has at times reminded me of the original Macross TV series. Indeed, some of you guys have encouraged me to watch the movie since I've not already done so, so I figured, "why not?" ^_^

It has been several years since I watched the TV series and yet there are just some things one remembers, such as Hikaru being a civilian thrust into the role of Valkyrie pilot and soldier. Here, he's already a rookie pilot. Minmei was just a waitress who became an idol but here she's already a famous singer and actress. Obviously, with a shorter movie format, changes need to be made and frankly, these two changes made for a different yet similar take on their original love story.

As with the TV series, the Minmei-Hikaru romance plays better and comes off more believable in my opinion. I can see how the famous Minmei in a situation where her life has been saved by Hikaru would find him appealing, not just because he's a fighter-jock, but because even though he's a huge fan, he's a normal person. As such, Minmei can be "normal" when she's with him, at least to a degree since she had to try to disguise her appearance on their date. Appearances aside, she can talk with him and just be herself and not the idol everyone expects. Of course for Hikaru, he's getting to do every man's fantasy and date a hot, famous chick.

The Misa-Hikaru romance is still difficult for me to swallow. I don't remember exactly what put me off of it in the TV series but I do think the movie's romance between the two is a bit more believable. The limitations of the movie format don't allow for any real transition for Hikaru's feelings for Misa to manifest themselves nor for Misa's feelings for Hikaru. Considering how antagonistic both were to each other before their forced jaunt to Earth, more work needed to be done to show how they overcame this IMO. Unfortunately, there wasn't time to show this and so we got the one small moment in the tent while they were on Earth and then a time reference suggesting that a month had passed and thus they had apparently become close enough to boink in a ruined, alien home. Good thing that Hikaru's fighter had enough fuel for a month of traveling around. ^_^;;;

When Hikaru and Minmei were reunited, I never felt like Hikaru had this deep love of Misa. Instead, I just felt like he felt obligated to be with her since he slept with her and thus had to pass on Minmei. Later, when Misa catches Hikaru and Minmei together in his quarters, I again felt that Hikaru felt obligated to be with Misa. Had the movie allowed Hikaru to actually tell Minmei this before Misa came in, maybe I'd feel differently about this. Its just hard for me to swallow is all.

While we are on the romance front, the Max-Milia romance was swept under the table for time. They did battle briefly but no romance afterward, which was a bummer.

Roy's and Claudia's romance is still there. Roy comes off a lot funnier in the movie than I remembered him being in the TV series. His death scene wasn't nearly as moving in the movie though. His final date with Claudia in the TV series had me nigh to tears when it was revealed just how injured he really was yet he wanted to spend his last moments with the woman he loved. In the movie, he dies in battle and while heroic, it lacked the romantic quality of the TV series version of Roy's death.

As with other aspects, the story also suffers from the compressed time allotment of the movie format. In the TV series, things get to develop nicely but the movie's transition of the Zentradi sent to Earth doesn't feel as believable as it did in the TV series. It is that lack of time that hurts this movie so much because there's just not enough time to properly develop the story, the characters, or as I mentioned earlier, the romances. It would have been better for this to have been made into two or three movies instead of one because too much is removed and what's left has little to no impact on the viewer.

One thing I noticed was the mix of English and Japanese in the movie. Many of the ship announcements were in English and for the most part, pretty good English. I can't remember if that was the case with the TV series but it did stick out to me here.

Another thing I couldn't help notice was seeing how much Macross Frontier borrowed from the original Macross series. Since it has only been a couple of years or so since I saw Macross Frontier, that was fresher in my mind that the original Macross, so whenever certain scenes would happen (more so in the first third of the movie), I would think of Macross Frontier.

An item that gave me pause was the announcement in the movie that September 11 was when the peace treaty between what would become the rebel Zentradi and the humans happened. Just a freaky thing.

Finally, one of the things that watching this movie reminded me of is how Minmei's name has been jacked over the years. Her family name is "Lin" (or "Ling") but because of Robotech, her family name of "Lin" becomes the given name "Lynn" in the U.S. Isn't that special? *_* Yet I guess Robotech really can't be fully to blame since the cloth Hikaru had Minmei sign in the movie was displayed as "Lynn Minmay" (at least on the copy I watched) and this movie came out a year before Robotech by my reckoning. I find this dichotomy rather strange considering the Asian (including Chinese) use of family names first. I suppose that they *could* be trying to show Minmei using a stage name "Lynn Minmay" with the signature and other instances of its usage but everyone calls her by her given name "Minmei" so who knows for sure. Oh well.

In the end, this is a beautifully animated movie that holds up well by today's standards. However, taking thirty-six TV episodes and compressing them into a movie just under two-hours means that too much stuff got cut out. As a result, the story, character development, and romances never come off right. Still, I don't regret watching it but I don't think I'll watch again.

YAK! Deculture!

Negima! Manga Vol 33 Ch 303 Review

魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 33 Chapter 303 (manga)
Mahou Sensei Negima! Manga Chapter 303

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: Group 2 continues to where Kotaro has been briefed that Anya and the real Asuna are being held. As they approach their destination, Fate comes from that direction. With Natsumi's artifact still in place, effectively making them completely invisible, Fate begins walking past, apparently unaware of anyone being there. As Kotaro remembers having worked with Fate before, he decides that this would make the perfect ambush to take out Fate for good. Sayo keeps a tight grip on Kotaro's arm to prevent him from doing anything rash as Kotaro's actions have the others in the group very afraid.

Kotaro imagines attacking Fate to behead him, only to fail and be beheaded himself. Realizing he could not defeat Fate, Kotaro does nothing as Fate continues down the long passageway. Asakura wonders if Fate noticed Kotaro, something Kotaro doesn't think happened since Fate would have turned them to stone.

Meanwhile with Negi's group, Setsuna fiercely battles Tsukuyomi, landing a punishing blow. Tsukuyomi is excited by this and reveals that one of her swords is in fact the legendary Youtou Hina sword. Setsuna recalls being shown the sword as a child during an instruction period (apparently taught by AOYOMA Tsuruko) and taught that the sword nearly wiped out the Shinmeiryuu swordsmen. Further, Setsuna remembers the warning that if a novice were to draw the blade, they would be possessed.

As the darkness begins covering Tsukuyomi, Setsuna notices her ki being taken. When Setsuna asks if Tsukuyomi is doing this for power, Tsukuyomi responds that it is not for power but so that she can savor Setsuna more completely.

Thoughts/Review: Only two major items on the docket this chapter, which was quite short.

First, I rather liked Kotaro's brief flashback to when he worked with Fate during the Kyoto arc. The one new piece from his complete flashback sequence is that Fate visited Kotaro in jail, which I assume was just before Graf Herrman was apparently summoned by Fate. That reminded me that there are a few, small, unanswered questions about that in my mind.

Anyway, Kotaro's ability to recognize his weakness compared to Fate and thus restrain himself from doing what he desperately wanted to do shows just how far Kotaro has come as a character. Despite his older teen appearance, he's still ~10-years old or so.

Now, question is, what will they find when they arrive at the place where Anya and Asuna supposedly are being kept? If Fate is coming from that location, then it would seem that he's done what he set out to do.

On the Setsuna vs. Tsukuyomi rematch, I liked how Setsuna was so determined to take out Tsukuyomi and just beat her. Of course, it isn't enough which lead to the old surprise reveal about cursed Youtou Hina sword (well, a few folks guessed earlier that this was the second sword Tsukuyomi was holding). The sword, which was first shown in Love Hina, is a pretty cool additional tie-in to that manga for us fans of both Love Hina and Negima! Akamatsu-sensei taking things one step further and bringing Tsuruko was the icing on the cake. ^_^

For those who haven't read Love Hina, Tsuruko ran the dojo where the Shinmeiryuu arts are taught. Tsuruko's skills with the blade are incredible though Youtou Hina did take her down in one of the Love Hina stories. Her younger sister Motoko was able to defeat the sword and reseal the evil spirit that resides inside it. After that, Motoko was given the sword because she alone would be able to safely use it.

This being the case, the question on many people's mind is when and how did Tsukuyomi get the sword? Motoko would not have willingly parted with it, meaning that Tsukuyomi had to have stolen it at some point. There's an outside chance that Akamatsu-sensei may reveal that bit of information and thus we may get a Motoko cameo, which would be the cameo I've wanted the most. ^_^

Still, Tsukuyomi having Youtou Hina explains how her personality became so dark and sexually perverted.

So, a good if short chapter. With the standard break now over for Akamatsu-sensei, I'm guessing that the next chapter will get us into volume 34.

This Is How To Market an Anime (Mostly)

My friend JSM made a post on his blog about something he saw on the show "The Soup" from E! Entertainment Channel. I'm not 100% sure of this, but I think this may have first appeared on G4TV's "Attack of the Show."

So, what is this clip from? The show is called Dai Mahou Touge and was licensed by Media Blasters a couple of years ago as Magical Witch Punie-chan. "The Soup" appeared to use these subtitles (though this clip is not from "The Soup") but I'm not convinced these are Media Blasters subtitles despite the use of the "chan" honorific in the title of the series (I'm investigating...they were fansub titles though the MB subtitles were pretty good).

The anime was fansubbed but doesn't appear to have had a wide audience in the U.S. I suspect it might have a wider audience after folks see this clip, evil Japanese honorifics and all. MB should have put that clip out early on and let the viral campaign do the hard work for them. ^_~ From what I understand, this series is an insanely twisted parody of the mahou shoujo genre. Sounds very interesting and possibly right up my ally.

As to the series, I may try to buy it but I'm not sure. I'm already annoyed with Media Blasters because while they grabbed the episodes, they passed on the omake OVA episodes that were included in the Japanese DVD release. *_* I guess adding four more shorts was enough to break MB's bank.

Magical Witch Punie-chan @ RightStuf!

Update: The original video was removed for copyright violations.  Apparently, the genius of  fan-based, positive, word-of-mouth marketing is so beyond the Japanese copyright owners, they can't see out of their own oshiri, from which they have their heads firmly lodged.  I wonder how many DVD's in the U.S. were sold BECAUSE a higher quality version of the above clip was uploaded to YouTube, caught the attention of "The Soup," and went viral?  I know I was such a sale.

So, I Decided To Watch...

Macross: Do You Remember Love. ^_^


Sadly, do to circumstances beyond my control, I was unable to finish watching it and thus the planned blog entry for the movie has been...delayed. ^_^;;; Still, I do hope to have something out in a couple of days at the latest, Lord willing.

Watching the movie is making me want to watch the TV series. I've already watched it so I'm not sure if I'll do it again, especially with so much in my backlog now. We'll see though.


You know, I think this is about the coolest image I've seen of the Macross.

Belldandy: Her Changing Appearance Over Time

All comic, comic strip, and manga artists evolve their character designs for a series they created over time. I am reminded of this whenever I reread my various comic strip collections like Peanuts, Calvin and Hobbes, Bloom County, Foxtrot, etc. as the early strips look different from the later strips, sometimes quite a bit different. For Negima!, the character designs in volume one are somewhat different than what they are today, though I wouldn't call it radically so since the current character designs would reflect the passage of time better (in my opinion).

For Ah! My Goddess, Fujishima-sensei is constantly tweaking his character designs, far more so than what would normally happen through the course of a comic's/comic strip's/manga's lifespan. Take a look at this collage of Belldandy as she has changed over the course of 41 volumes of manga (nearly 22-years).


The character designs never stay the same but are constantly shifting (discounting that one image of "Belldandy" above for obvious reasons *lol*). I thought that around volume 8 is when the character designs were looking quite good but they became less appealing many volumes later (which is not to say that Fujishima-sensei can't draw, but the changes in eyes and other tweaks made Belldandy not as appealing to me visually as she had been). Today, I still think Keiichi's ears are wrong but I no longer find the look of Belldandy and the others to be disappointing due to the continued tweaking by Fujishima-sensei.

Anyway, I thought this was a pretty interesting look at how Belldandy's look has changed over time. Thanks to AMS fan 'CuSO4' Yung for the image share. ^_^

No Negima! 304 This Wednesday

Negima! goes on its normally scheduled break to allow Akamatsu-sensei and his staff to have a day off and to get back ahead of the curve when it comes to the manga's publication. So, there won't be any spoilers for Negima! chapter 304 this week but hopefully, they'll return next week (maybe by October 1).

In the meantime, here's a picture of Eva going WAY back to the Kyoto arc when she had many a fan squealing in delight with her deus ex machina arrival to bail Negi out of trouble with Fate. ^_^


I hope that after the Magic World story arc finally concludes that Akamatsu-sensei takes a some time to explore Eva's past, to include exactly how and where she met Nagi and Ala Rubra as well as why they allowed her to tag along for a while. You just know there's a fascinating tale there, assuming it can be worked into the main storyline.

Kodansha Loves OAD's, Eh? (Ah! My Goddess)

The folks over at Goddess Relief Office alerted me to the fact that Kodansha has gone back to the OAD (Original Animation DVD) format, this time adding their long running and very popular Ah! My Goddess to the mix. Very shortly after, long time Japanese anime and manga fan Hitoshi Doi suddenly came back to life after a VERY long absence with a post to his old school Aa Megami-sama e-mail list, including this image from the announcement.


I've got a soft spot for this franchise to be sure. Back in 2002 when I started looking back into manga, the 5-episode Oh My Goddess OVA was one of the first anime titles I watched. The subsequent manga by Dark Horse (done American style with mostly flipped art and a western book style with rewrites to try to appeal to a wider audience) was the first manga I ever read so I could "get the whole story." *lol*

It is interesting that Kodansha continues to expand the OAD format, thus suggesting that it is fairly profitable for them and whatever anime production company they work with. For those who don't know the difference between and OVA (Original Video Animation) and an OAD, an OVA is a direct to video release of an anime episode that usually costs the consumer ~$40 to $50 per episode (one episode per VHS in the old days and now one episode per DVD in the modern times). It is released and sold to the public without any other conditions.

An OAD is an OVA that is exclusively sold with a certain limited edition version of the manga of the same title. Based in preorders, Kodansha and the anime distributor publish a certain number of bundled LE manga tankoubon to cover preorders plus a little extra for others who might want to buy later. So, when volume 42 of Ah! My Goddess comes out on February 23, 2011, there will be two editions of the manga published. The first will be the normal tankoubon and the second will be the limited edition volume with the DVD attached. The LE version would likely have a modified cover to denote it is the LE version and it will most certainly cost a lot. ^_^;;;

I've watched OAD's for CLAMP's Tsubasa and xxxHOLiC as well as Akamatsu-sensei's Negima! For Tsubasa, the OAD's simply chronicled select manga story arcs and did a very good job of it. For xxxHOLiC, the OAD's were mostly very loosely based on manga stories and the most recent one was an anime original story with certain new concepts from the manga carrying over.

For Negima!, again select story arcs were animated with the most recent Another World OAD series being the one that is compressing a ton of material into four episode (a special OAD is being released to cover an important and fan favorite side story, so I expect that to be pretty faithful to the original manga story).

So, I figure that Kodansha is going to see if the AMS fans in Japan will support the OAD format or not. As such, I rather expect to see a short story arc from the manga fairly faithfully adapted into an OAD episode. If sales are good, I would expect more OAD's and close the door on any new TV series for the time being.

As to whether this would be brought to the U.S., that depends on previous series sales. FUNimation finally did pick up the Tsubasa OAD's but are highly doubtful on the xxxHOLiC OADs (and the xxxHOLiC Kei TV series as well due to poor sales of the first series). They have said nothing about the Negima! OAD's and they've said nothing to my knowledge about licensing the Ah! My Goddess: Fighting Wings 2-episode special, which was released in 2007 in Japan. So I'm not holding my breath for FUNimation to grab it and any other company would likely just do a sub-only release IF they licensed it at all.

Still, we'll see what happens. In the meantime, I do look forward to seeing this new OAD when it is release.

Negima! Manga Vol 33 Ch 302 Review

魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 33 Chapter 302 (manga)
Mahou Sensei Negima! Manga Chapter 302

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: Negi launches an attack at Dynamis and encounters a similar, multi-layered mandala barrier that Fate used. However, Negi shatters the barrier with the help of Magia Erebea. Dynamis is impressed as he uses the Code of the Lifemaker and a shadow-spear attack to send Negi back across the wide, open spaced room. Negi's lightning form saves him but Dynamis decides to use the Code of the Lifemaker to expel Chisame, Konoka, Shiori-Asuna, Konoka, Ako, Yuuna, Makie, and Akira from Kaede's cloak. Before they can get back into the cloak, Tsukuyomi, Homura, and Tamaki are there making threats.

Negi prevents both Homura from attacking as Setsuna stops Tsukuyomi from killing Konoka. Setsuna tells Tsukuyomi that she won't allow the other to touch Konoka, something Tsukuyomi finds a bit amusing since apparently, Konoka could be brought back to life if Setsuna wins. Therefore, Setsuna should allow her to kill Konoka a little, something that sets Setsuna off.

Meanwhile, Negi realizes how dangerous Homura is with her fire ability when Tamaki uses her giant tail to stop Negi. Negi recognizes that she is Ryūzoku -- a member of the Dragon Clan (People). Koyomi actives her Horaria Vortix artifact to stop time around Negi, allowing Homura to go into full furnace mode to attack Negi. However, a brave Nodoka remembers Craig's words to her about how even strong people have weak points and as such, Nodoka knocks Homura aside, burning herself in the process. Yuuna brings out her artifact gun and shoots Homura with a Spirit Transformation Canceling Bullet. Makie uses her ribbon artifact to snag Koyomi's artifact, giving Ku Fei an opening to use her artifact to strike Koyomi from a great distance.

As Ku Fei closes the distance and battles Koyomi, Kaede uses her chain, filled with ofuda tags, to bind Tamaki and launch a powerful attack. Ku Fei also lands a powerful blow on Koyomi. Konoka comes over to heal Nodoka while Yuuna tells Negi that they can do this fight together as a group, which Negi agrees to.

Back at the ships, Takane states that they have thirty minutes to complete the repairs. Since they don't know when an attack might come, she advises them all to wear the shadow armor she's wearing as it helps defend the person wearing it by three if they put it over their regular clothing and by seven if they wear it against bare skin. Misora and Paru pass on this offer and Mei is not enthused about wearing the armor because if Takane is taken out, the armor disappears, which has happened more than once. Takane will not hear Mei's objection and gets Mei, Chachamaru, and Collet (and Johnny?) stripped and into her shadow armor, which she has fashioned after Goth Lolita clothing. Mei weeps at this while Chachamaru and Collet like their new clothing.


Thoughts/Review: This is an enjoyable chapter though there's not a ton of stuff here. Nevertheless, there are some things to discuss.

For starters, what the heck is Tsukuyomi talking about when she says that Setsuna could bring Konoka back to life if Tsukuyomi kills Konoka but is then defeated by Setsuna?

I rather doubt that Setsuna has any kind of resurrection ability and even Konoka's artifact can't do that. With that in mind, I recall the first target in the manga -- Konoka. Then I remember how Asuna is referred to as the princess of the old world (Earth) and Konoka as the princess of the new world (Magic World). So, I can't help but wonder if there is another element to Konoka that we haven't been made privy to. We know she's incredibly powerful and used to unseal and control Ryoumen Sukuna no Kami. But is there something more we haven't learned about her? Or maybe the Code of the Lifemaker would play a role in bringing her back. It will be interesting to see where it goes.

Speaking of the Code of the Lifemaker, it doesn't surprise me that it would have an impact on pactio artifacts. After all, it has the ability to "Rewrite" things of the Magic World. Kaede's pactio was made on the Magic World, though I suspect that the CotL wouldn't be able to remove artifacts but simply disrupt them or even nullify their abilities as Asuna could do.

Nice to see Kaede using her binding chains again. I believe the last time she used them was when she battled a full sized dragon. So, against someone of the Dragon Clan that at least has partial dragon mode or abilities, using the same chains seems a smart course of action. I just love how Akamatsu-sensei remembers these little things from ages ago and brings them back to the forefront. ^_^

As to the other girls, well we got a chance to see Nodoka be brave again (Yay!), Yuuna use her gun, Makie use her ribbon, and basically show that the final victory will be a team effort. ^_^

As to Takane and the almost too obvious "girls about to get stripped" element in the final page of the chapter, had Johnny not been equipped with Takane's shadow armor, I would have said that the potential stripping is a red herring. With him in the mix, I can see a replay of the Jack ecchi fanservice from way back when Chisame was bathing and came across Jack doing the same. ^_^;

I will say that at least Akamatsu-sensei has provided us with a logical reason for Takane's girls (specifically Mei) to wear the shadow armor and have nothing else underneath. ^_~

So a fun chapter even if there wasn't a ton to discuss. Next chapter will be somewhat different, eh? ^_~

Kitchen Princess Manga Review -- Final Thoughts

キッチンのお姫さま/Kitchen no Ohimesama

*SPOILERS TO FOLLOW!*

I've read a few shoujo titles over the years, most notably Cardcaptor Sakura (which is also mahou shoujo) and Fruits Basket. As usually happens, some readers of this blog had suggested that I might try Kitchen Princess since I liked Fruits Basket. It took some time before I could budget purchasing the manga, which I decided to try not just because it was another shoujo title, but because it was also a cooking manga, something that would be new to me. It was an educational experience to say the least.


The story is a pretty cliched one -- a pretty but orphaned girl (Najika) has some outstanding skills (the ability to remember any taste and perfectly emulate any dish she's eaten) and gets assigned to a prestigious school. She's an outcast but catches the eye of two popular guys who are also the sons of the school's director -- Daichi and Sora. Najika uses her cooking skills to win over others such as the popular model Akane, who at first loathed Najika.

While there is very little of what I would call traditional humor (some of the omake stories are more lighthearted than the main story), I found it humorous how author Kobayashi-sensei managed to work in a certain number of recipes every volume, all of which are published at the end of the volume by Del Rey. Some come off more natural, such as when Najika is in some cooking competition or is helping at Fujita Diner, but sometimes her "food fixes everything" dishes came off as a bit of a stretch to me. Then again, I'm not the target audience of this manga. ^_^;

When cooking isn't in the forefront, we have the cliched love-triangle as Najika attempts to find her "Flan Prince," the boy who'd save her life as a child and who gave her his flan snack afterward. So, Najika first goes with Sora, who leads her to believe he's her Flan Prince but then he's unexpectedly removed from the picture and Kobayashi-sensei brings in a new boy (Seiya) to not only fill in the love-triangle, but also to be a cooking rival for Najika.

As I look back at these romances, I was never filled with anything other than "meh!" I'm guessing that young girls may be OK with it but for me, I just couldn't get into the romance aspects that much and certainly never bought the Daichi-Seiya-Najika love-triangle. I was into the romance stuff in Fruits Basket (and other titles) so I'm not hardened against that. The Sora-Daichi-Najika love-triangle was more believable but Sora's "removal" (which was something completely unexpected) ended what little interest I would have had.

I will admit that some of the recipes published do look somewhat interesting. They are presented in a simplistic style to allow children to be able to prepare these dishes. Considering the time restraints in my life, I kinda doubt I bother to try to make one of these dishes but I might one day. We'll see.


The artwork in the manga is by ANDO Natsumi, who does a her job well. I don't think I ever mentioned this before, so I thought I'd mention it now.

I'm pretty sure that the target audience of young pre-teen and teen girls will really get into this manga but for me, it was too cliched and angst-filled for me to have any real enjoyment. As such, I do plan to give this to my nieces in a couple of years and we'll see how they react to this. ^_^

Mobile Suit Gundam - 06

機動戦士ガンダム /Kido Senshi Gundam episode 06

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: As the senior officer, Reed takes over command of White Base as Garma's giant Zeon Gaw plane retrieves Char's shuttle. Char and his former academy comrade exchange pleasantries and remark on the situation and the difficulties that Char has had with White Base and Gundam. Garma orders a full-out assault on White Base as his plane launches fighters to join the other Zeon fighters that had been flying in formation. Back on White Base, Reed wants to break through enemy lines and use the Gundam to do so, but Bright advises against this since Amuro is still new and the non-stop fighting must be getting to him. Amuro says he's ready, but Hayato has a better solution than Gundam -- fit the Gundam cockpit into Guntank and let Amuro use that.

The White Base heads for some mountains for additional cover against the fighter attacks and to allow the launching of Guntank. Garma sees this and orders the ground forces in the area to attack. A division of Magella Attack Tanks takes off as Amuro, now in the Guntank, lands on the ground and opens fire, destroying two Zeon fighters. The Magella Attacks open fire on both White Base and Guntank. Reed now wants to retreat, leading Bright to remind him that Reed had previously wanted to break through enemy lines. Reed concedes and Bright decides to bring Gundam into play now. He explains to Amuro that if he's up to in, Amuro will bring out Gundam and allow someone else to control Guntank. Amuro agrees and launches Guntank back up into White Base's hold.

Garma receives the first analysis report on Guntank, which is revealed to be another Federation mobile suit. He orders the launch of his three Zaku mobile suits while on White Base, Amuro transfers from Guntank to Gundam, pausing briefly to drink a nutrition supplement provided by Frau Bow. Ryu launches in the Core Fighter while Sayla makes Amuro wait for Guntank to be relaunched. When Sayla gives the order to launch, Amuro finds himself a little annoyed at taking orders from a woman. Because his last launches were from space, Amuro is not used to Earth's gravity and has some difficulties in landing. However, he makes it safely to the ground and sees Ryu in trouble. Amuro opens up with the Gundam's Vulcan cannons, destroying the fighter on Ryu's six.

The three Zaku units are on the ground and the fight is full on. However, the Gundam's power is so much superior to anything the Zaku have in the air or on the ground that Amuro quickly begins to thin their ranks by destroying tanks, fighters, and a Zaku unit. After Amuro destroys a second Zaku unit, Zeon forces begin concentrating their fire on Gundam. Gundam takes no serious damage but the massive attack causes Amuro to snap. Tossing his shield aside, Amuro brings out his energy sword and wreaks destruction upon the Zeon forces, causing them to try to retreat. In the air, Garma sees the battle is lost and orders a return to base. He stops by to see Char, who's in the shower, and the two have a chat where Char offers his support in the next conflict. Garma is determined to change strategies and capture this new mobile suit. Meanwhile, Amuro ignores the welcome of his jubilant crewmates, including Frau Bow. When the orphans say there's to be a party, Amuro tells the disappointed children that he wants to be left alone and retreats to his room, where he falls into bed and thinks.


Thoughts/Review: I mentioned this before, but it is really hard to gauge the amount of time that has passed from the moment that Side 7 was attacked until present. Maybe it has been a week, but I don't know. What is certain is that the rookie crew of White Base has been in almost non-stop combat since they fled Side 7. While I'm sure this has been difficult for everyone, the writers chose to focus on how hard it has been on Amuro by making him snap. It is understandable that he'd have the hardest time of it since he's the only one who can pilot the Gundam and the Gundam is the only thing that has really kept them alive. So in essence, it is only Amuro doing the heavy lifting and with no break.

While cliched, I will say that I enjoyed Amuro going off on the Zeon forces and causing major destruction there. There's a certain allegory in what happened to Amuro that I'm sure a lot of folks can relate to. Amuro was under constant attack and eventually just had enough of this. I'm sure that we've all had times in our life when we've been under what we feel are non-stop attacks and just want to end the attacks one way or another (whatever the "attack" is doesn't matter). At times like that, we need to let off steam and Amuro did it by slaughtering the Zeons and destroying nearly their entire attack force.

Anyway, I don't fancy the notion of this becoming some angst-fest, but I do appreciate the realism of the moment, right down to ignoring ones friends. Well, I guess we'll see where this goes with Amuro's mental state.

One of the things that has frustrated me about the series is the writers desperately need to play up elements by weakening others. This came up initially when Char casually cruised through the docking area of Side 7 despite being under heavy fire. It also comes up whenever other elements are brought in to support Gundam. Oh sure, Guntank and Core Fighter did shoot down that supply ship, but for the most part, they don't do much at all and all of the outbound fire from White Base can't hit anything. That's why I laughed when Reed demanded to know what the gun crews were shooting at because I wondered the same thing since they couldn't hit a thing. Meanwhile, Amuro farts and manages to destroy a Zaku, two battle tanks, and a half-dozen Zeon fighters (though we want Zeon to die so that's OK, right? ^_~).

On the good side, there was no Amuro vs. Char battle this episode. Yay! ^_^

Back to the gunning issue and White Base, this time we seem to have actual gun crews other than Kai, Hayato, and Ryu. Of course if Ryu is manning a gun, then he can't be out in the Core Fighter fighting. So it was good to see actual gun crews this time, with Sayla jumping in to work one of the gun pods. On one hand I liked that but on the other hand, Sayla is supposed to be a controller and be responsible for deployed units. So in my mind, she should stay there, but I suppose we needed the blonde babe seen in action.

The interchangeable cockpits I can sorta understand but it seems that a standardized cockpit for all the Gun-units would be better. After all, how much time is wasted having to swap out cockpits while you are under heavy attack?

Also, what good are tank gun turrets that pop off of a tank? Other than an ejection-escape mechanism, I don't see any advantage to this ability by Magella Attack battle tanks.

We get a new name drop in "Kycilia," who's the older sister of Garma. I wonder how that's going to play in and what Char's ultimate game is. Also, why is Garma's skin a weird color? Had you guys not told me that the Zeons are in fact human rebels, I would have assumed that Garma was the true Zeon because of his skin color and an alien at that.

So, an interesting episode to be sure and I look forward to more.