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Da Capo II: Koko Tsukishima

As your typical “childhood friend” character, Koko Tsukishima is a soft-spoken and shy girl. She oftentimes can’t say what she wants, and as a side-effect, she can’t express her love for main guy Yoshiyuki. But this love is SO obvious to everyone else except the two involved. Ah, love is blind.

Devoid of any magical effect of the unwithering sakura, Koko’s story is a simple story of love and friendship. Surprisingly, her scenario has no major flashback or backstory of any sort, which is the usual setup for “childhood friend” characters. And so we just assume that Yoshiyuki and Koko are longtime friends, period.

Koko’s scenario intertwines with Nanaka’s, in such a way that there are very similar events in both. There is also a major decision point, where Nanaka would confess to Yoshiyuki. You (the player) decide either to accept or reject Nanaka. Accepting Nanaka will give you the continuation of [Nanaka’s scenario->da-capo-2-nanaka-shirakawa], while rejecting her will give you Koko’s scenario. This single decision point will give you a very different story should you choose either one. So please do take some time to go through Koko’s story.

Disclaimer: Lacking Japanese will mean lack of story details. I expect that there will be a LOT of errors in the way I understood some events, because I rely only on the spoken dialogue. To the Japanese-literate game players who may have found this page, please do help me in case I have mistaken in understanding some parts of the story. Please do post a comment or contact me.

Continue reading Da Capo II: Koko Tsukishima

Da Capo II: Nanaka Shirakawa

Let’s admit… er… Nanaka will be one of the more popular Da Capo II girls, mainly because of her lineage. Nanaka Shirakawa has a striking resemblance to Da Capo Generation One’s [Kotori Shirakawa->da-capo-kotori-shirakawa]. She is also the “perfect girl”. Sweet, kind, smart, loves to sing, and is a popular school idol. Actually, them two girls are almost exactly the same, Nanaka is only a little bit more energetic. Even their powers are the same.

That said, wouldn’t it be boring to see the same Shirakawa, only slightly different? This kind of similarity is comparable to a old song that has been remade. The remake may be good, but you still like the old song better. Such a pity, because Nanaka’s story is arguably tighter and more interesting than Kotori’s.

Nanaka’s scenario would seem to intertwine steadily with Koko’s, and so I guess a run-through of Koko should be in order. Hopefully I will have time to play more Da Capo II (oh no, is that Summer Days I see in the computer table?) and show Koko’s scenario next time. For now, please spend some time and enjoy Nanaka Shirakawa’s story!

Continue reading Da Capo II: Nanaka Shirakawa

July Anime Season (Summer 2006)

That time once again?

I’m keeping my new anime watching at a minimum again. It’s quite a hectic time for me these days. I’m still catching up to [many-a-spring->April Anime Season (Spring 2006)] anime. Add my current penchant for anything Da Capo, I’m sure to give lots more time for gaming than anime.

Speaking of anime though, I wonder if anyone of you noticed this too. It was some anime I anticipated in spring, but all of the sudden it was out of the limelight, and it never aired. My very first case of missing anime:

Where in the world is Finalist?

As for the upcoming summer season, thankfully there are only a few anime that spurred my interest this time, very unlike the massively awesome lineup of spring. And so behold my huge lineup:

Binbou Shimai Monogatari – Anime about poor people = win (remember NieA_7?), because I = poor people.

Tsuyokiss – Tsundere you say? Instant buy! Cool and sweet!

NHK ni Youkoso! – Yet another approach to otakuism just like [Genshiken->] and [Comic Party->] before it. This time, with the topic I like most: bishoujo games.

Chokotto Sister – Something about this intrigues me, so I’ll put it on watch.

I still don’t blog anime episodes, so for more information on these and other anime, please visit our friendly neighborhood anime bloggers and aggregators. That’s it for now.

Da Capo: Kotori Shirakawa

Let’s admit, Kotori is the #1 girl of the Da Capo series. It’s almost always tradition that most female leads of bishoujo games only settle for second place in the hearts of many-a-bishoujo gamers ([legions of Tamaki fans->toheart2-tamaki-kousaka] come into mind), so Nemu takes a back seat. In the case of Da Capo, Kotori Shirakawa is what you can say as the “perfect girl”. She’s sweet, kind, smart, loves to sing, and is the most popular school idol.

This is the reason why so many of us were disappointed with the [second season->da-capo-second-season] of the Da Capo anime. We all thought Kotori will be the main girl, but then Aisia almost always steals her spotlight. The [first season->da-capo] did her justice, however, as apparently Kotori’s original scenario in the game was more or less executed well.

But of course we wouldn’t know the entire story about Kotori without playing the game, right? Unfortunately no Da Capo game is available in English. Thankfully though, some kind folks have been strutting their stuff in translating them. Maybe you know already, but not so long ago there was a partial translation patch for D.C.P.C. (Da Capo Plus Communication) that included the entire Kotori scenario. I thank those guys very very much. If you are a Kotori fan even in miniscule scale, go grab the game somewhere and install the patch. If it’s not a possibility though, maybe you would settle for my summary? So finally, here she is, Kotori Shirakawa!

Disclaimer: I played Da Capo Plus Communication, and so some additional scenes and characters may have been added which were not present in the very first version of the game scenario. Also, even though it is available in English, my memory might fail me, so please do comment or contact me in case I have mistakes in describing each girl’s scenario.
Continue reading Da Capo: Kotori Shirakawa

Promises: Summer of Bishoujo 2 Project

It’s almost summer in Japan… I think (but then again, I wouldn’t know), and while I’m still scampering for info about the next anime season’s premiere offerings, I should also prepare for the new iteration of my Summer of Bishoujo project.

Don’t know what it is? Well, it’s just my collective that I started [a year ago->summer-of-bishoujo-project] when I realized that I’ve been reviewing too many bishoujo game based anime, and playing nothing but [To Heart 2->]. I’ve had fun with it while it lasted, but it wasn’t all good actually. Back then I promised lots more features, like reviewing more anime, or another game to play, but alas many of those never came into fruition. I never had the time and dedication to focus on them. You could say those were just “empty promises”.

And so I’m gonna go “sarcastic” all over myself again, and make more empty promises for Summer of Bishoujo 2! So with the theme of “promises”, I’m gonna challenge myself in writing more articles for the project. I promise I will. Promise.

(I, the devil’s advocate of this blogger, doubts it. Because look, this blog itself isn’t too active over the past weeks. How could he muster more effort into the project? For the record, he’s so backlogged with Fate/stay Night, and hasn’t watched Canvas 2 yet… surprised? See his dedication? Hahaha! I love to see him fail.)

The URL for the project is still the same, please visit:
[http://bluemist.animeblogger.net/summer-of-bishoujo/->http://bluemist.animeblogger.net/summer-of-bishoujo/]

You will see my empty promises there…

I hope to see you soon. Promise.

Animax-Asia… Dubbed in English – Episode 9: Now in blue

June 5, 2006

Trying to please me?

As you can see, Animax-Asia has just done a reformat of both their website and the channel’s presentation graphics. The once green/blue logo has now become all-blue, and the website now sports anime mascots unique to Animax-Asia (Battle Girl and Spiky Kid). The channel now has a new, cooler presentation style for their advertisements and stuff. Does this signify anything? Not exactly, because nothing much has changed. Excellent anime lineup, but in English dubbing. Oh, and there is supposed to be a forum available, but it’s still the good old AXN-Asia forum back when AXN still showed tons of anime.

Ah, I can faintly remember those good old days of AXN anime. Japanese dubs, English subtitles, and a whole lot of fun. I can say that AXN anime played a big role in my fandom, plus it was technically the ‘only’ available channel brave enough to cater to a very small audience (sub lovers like us). But hey, it was monumentally successful I guess, with a handful of AXN anime conventions jampacked with people, and rousing support from anime fans from all across Asia and even the web. AXN anime used to be dubbed in English too, but the reformat to Japanese dubs gave them higher ratings not only from the anime side, but also the rest of the channel lineup.

Unfortunately, that golden age of cable TV anime was over, and with Animax-Asia’s English dubbing, there’s nowhere else to go but down. Even they (the channel) themselves seem to be admitting their defeat, through the advertisements of Fullmetal Alchemist. In the FMA advertisements, they were highlighting the fact that they’ll be showing the original English dub from the U.S. of A. It is as if they’re promoting that this time, they’ll have decent dubs ‘just because’ they have a US dub. This is a showing of desparation. I don’t know if ratings are going up or down, but in terms of mindshare, they’re getting burned. Such a shame, Fullmetal Alchemist is such an influential anime after all. While it seems that it really has good English dubbing (don’t coin me on that, I only saw a few episodes), but heck, where has the support for the sub-lovers gone?

On the local front, support for our very own Hero TV is only getting better… weirdly enough. Maybe it’s a bias thing of course, since Hero TV has anime dubbed in Filipino, our national language. It has a decent lineup too, and has its own share of bad and good dubbing. Still no Japanese dubs though.

Oh, and by the way, the Animax-Asia website seems to have some kind of Anime News section, where some news irrelevant to even Animax-Asia is being published. Some examples include something about Keroro Gunsou, the just-announced Death Note anime, etc. Trying to cater to the audience you abandoned? Sorry.

Your blue theme won’t convince me either.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
[Animax-Asia… Dubbed in English – Episode 1: The end of Animax-Asia? Too sudden!?->]
[Animax-Asia… Dubbed in English – Episode 2: Cardcaptured.->]
[Animax-Asia… Dubbed in English – Episode 3: Trying to Adjust->]
[Animax-Asia… Dubbed in English – Episode 4: Towards the 1st Anniversary->]
[Animax-Asia… Dubbed in English – Episode 5: I gave up on Animax-Asia->]
[Animax-Asia… Dubbed in English – Episode 6: One year since->]
[Animax-Asiaâ€¦ Dubbed in English – Episode 7: Dubbed in Filipino?!?->]
[Animax-Asiaâ€¦ Dubbed in English – Episode 7.5: Initial D Filipino Stage->]
[Animax-Asiaâ€¦ Dubbed in English – Episode 8: More Pain->]
[Animax-Asia… Dubbed in English – Episode 9: Now in blue->]
[Animax-Asia… Dubbed in English – Episode 10: Fake Revival->]
[Animax-Asia… Dubbed in English – Episode 11: Something New->]
[Animax-Asia… Dubbed in English – Episode 12: Red with anger->]

The Melancholy Code

The Melancholy Code II
How this anime suddenly became To Heart 3:

Continue reading The Melancholy Code

How do you end up here?

I was browsing through my stats today, and… behold! I found myself giggling at the sight of the search phrases some people use. Basically, some of you probably found this site using a search engine right? So let me tell the most popular search terms you use, as well as some rather amusing ones that, well, amuse me.

These phrases are from the very recent days only it seems, but hopefully it is a precise description of what kind of topics people want to find in this blog.

Continue reading How do you end up here?

PV Channel

Ahh, Promotional Videos. Love it, hate it.

This post will be a sort-of review center for PV. Whether it be some purely obscure anime PV that won’t even get MTV Japan airplay, or maybe some cool mainstream jpop song, I’ll try to watch it and make some comments. Of course, you won’t enjoy my blabber if you haven’t seen the PV yourself, so I’ll conveniently link a video source.

I’ve been thinking about this kind of feature for a while actually, but back then it wasn’t a good idea, seeing that not all people will be able to watch the video themselves. All hail YouTube and all the other video streaming sites, now it’s possible!

This post will continually be updated whenever I feel like watching a PV or two, so please do check up on it. You can talk about your nice PV recommendations too!

LEGEND: (of course, this is personal opinion)
Category
Mainstream – Songs you probably will see at the music charts.
Semi-Mainstream – Songs that are not so popular.
Semi-Obscure – Songs that are quite unpopular.
Obscure – Songs that may not ever be popular.

Ranking:
Great – Awesome!
Good – Quite nice.
Average – Worth watching only once.
Horrible – Worth the watch!! (are you serious?)
Continue reading PV Channel

Anime Blog Saturation

[Anime Blog Saturation 2->]

Relevant Links
[http://blogsuki.com/toshokan/2006/04/29/3792/->]
[http://trinityblood.net/animagik9/konosono/?p=414->]
[http://www.seaslugteam.com/archives/2006/05/05/weeds-and-hooks/->]
[http://www.riuva.com/?p=125->]
[http://nekketsu.wordpress.com/2006/05/04/ferretts-blog-tips/->]
[http://kwok.infuxion.net/blog/?p=51->]
[http://attackofthepinkrobots.blogspot.com/2006/05/glorious-revolution-of-may-2006.html->]
[http://www.beta-waffle.com/blog/?p=210->]
[http://mangaminxslair.blogspot.com/2006/05/weekly-thoughts-blog-over-saturation.html->]
[http://petityume.blogspot.com/2006/05/melancholy-of-anime-blogging.html->]

Seems to me that discussion has been flowing lately on how we have already too many anime blogs that seem to be doing the same thing, and that we seem to reach a saturation point where our avid readers may be getting too tired or overloaded of it. So let me give my own take on this, and hopefully we can realize something along the way.

Even with more than [1 year->year-1] of being in the anime blog community, I admittedly am not a major voice. Few people visit, comment, and perhaps enjoy what I write in this anime blog. Mere (500000+ hits?) statistics won’t tell how popular this blog is, because lots more factors need to be considered. For one, Google gives me tons of visitors, but all from rather weird search terms ranging from pr0n to loli. This means that somehow people visit this blog not because of viewership, but because of ‘accident’. Most likely they’ll stay for a bit and move away, forgetting my blog forever. Bye.

I am not even active in any anime community either. You’ll rarely see me in forums, and you’ll rarely see my comments in other blogs. Even that BlogRoll on the right sidebar… it never gets updated anymore. I’m so irresponsible in so many ways because, primarily, I have this thing called “real life” that gets top priority at any time of day.

Despite that said, I still go on to blog in bluemist anime blog. Why?

I enjoy anime, and I enjoy blogging it.

Quite the cliched comment, isn’t it? I know what you may be thinking. (This bluemist guy is so arrogant, pretending to be all high and mighty by telling everyone that he enjoys blogging despite relative unpopularity. Admit it, you just want to be popular.) It’s really a hard topic to explain because there is no one reason for blogging. At one point, having an blog means that you are publishing to the entire internet, so you may be vying for popularity. At another point, you keep a blog because you want to keep track of things, similar to a written diary. Where do you draw the line on self-accomplishment and ego spreading?

To complicate things, anime blogs have a very specific topic: Anime and other related stuff. One topic out of possible millions out there. The catch… we have an very small audience to convey that to. Let’s face it, anime fans are too few in the entire world. Small audience, too many anime blogs.

So where are we heading? Back in the day, we only read a very select few blogs done by dedicated anime enthusiasts. Then more people came in and we became a community. Even more came, and the purpose of having a BlogRoll is fading away, because we are in the hundreds already. Now, even the blog aggregators/indexers are trying to limit the output because of our redundancy.

And so some of us are trying to promote the value of having something different, and I’m all for that. This shouldn’t mean that we now have to “cater” for our audience. That would be ego spreading. We have to somehow find a way to merge uniqueness with self-accomplishment. We need to try to put something interesting in our episode summaries to spice them up.

– Even if we are talking about the same Haruhi episode number X, let’s try to provide valuable insight instead of mere summaries. Discuss. I’m sure that with such a complicated plot, we have lots of thoughts to tell.
– We can insert some comment that Girl X is so cute… then insert cute picture. These little things are instantly readable, after all, most of our audience had probably watched the episode you are blogging already.
– Also, we can maybe try to promote the anime to those not watching it. Give some reasons why. Maybe they’ll be Haruhiism converts in the instant you say something like (OMG GREAT DANCE SEQUENCE! …insert video) to them.
– We can break outside the animated spectrum even. Maybe link some YouTube video of a cute girl dancing to Hare Hare Yukai (I wish). Or bring the news that single X is to be released next month. Or maybe link to a nice picture in a Japanese magazine. Remember, Haruhiism extends outwards.
– Most importantly, we need to enjoy all of those ourselves.

BUT despite all of this, I still think the way we blog anime, and the way people read what we say about anime, will never saturate.

Remember this well. As anime bloggers and fans, we have the literal bragging rights (getting arrogant again?) that we are better off than so many others. Face it, why are there other people blogging such trivial things such as “Oh and so I walked my dog to the park this morning…”, and why are so many people reading it? Isn’t that a waste of time? Okay, so you may argue that anime is killing so much time, maybe affecting social lives, but worthless blogging and reading worthless blogs is oh so much worse than that. With millions of people talking the talk over the internet through blogs, I think the intelligent readers demand “information” and “content” that MATTERS, rather than wasting time on uninteresting matters. For all of us anime fans, anime MATTERS.

Even if we think we are saturating ourselves, as long as it (anime) matters, I think we will be fine.