Author: bluemist

Sasuke = Anakin

Well, this season is supposed to be Star Wars season, and I’m supposed to stop watching anime for a while because of all the hype (ex. rewatching the rest of the old and new trilogy), but oh well…

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What made Sasuke and Anakin similar?
– They’re sorta chosen ones.
– They’re cool-looking, in that fangirls may react the same way once he appears on-screen. (kyaa Sasuke! kyaa Hayden!)
– They’re powerful in the worlds of their own respective franchises.
– They took the path to darkness.

However, the circumstances to which they took the dark path are somewhat different.
– Sasuke wants more power to avenge the death of his family and the rest of Uchiha, by killing his own brother.
– Anakin wants more power to somehow save his wife Padme from his nightmares of her dying at child birth.

Sasuke wants revenge but Anakin simply wants her loved ones to live. So, does that give Anakin enough reason to turn over to the dark side of the Force? Does that make Sasuke only purely evil? Not quite.
– While Sasuke’s intentions seem unjustifiable, he still tries to make good on the rest, like not killing Naruto, or not sacrificing the lives of other people in achieving his goals.
– Over the course of Anakin becoming Darth Vader, he grows from being merely protective of Padme to being extremely delusional of his newfound power, to the point that the dark side has consumed him. He even forgot his original intention of saving Padme’s life at one point, and many lives were sacrificed in achieving his goals.

So, what hope is left of these two dark heroes?
– Well, we haven’t seen too much Sasuke lately, but we still know there is good in him. Hopefully Naruto will bring him back and snap him out of his avenger mode.
– Well, if you have seen the old trilogy of Star Wars, you would know the answer to this. Let’s just say that good is still in Anakin/Darth Vader.

To Heart ~Remember my Memories~

To Heart ~Remember my Memories~

I love the [To Heart->] anime. I love that anime so much, that I really wished nothing will get wrong about the new series which is called To Heart ~Remember my Memories~.

Alas, I was wrong.

Being an anime-only fan of To Heart, I can already expect that I may not deserve to say bad things about To Heart ~Remember my Memories~ (hereby named as To Heart R for clarity), clearly because I haven’t even played the entire game nor understood it fully. For the bishoujo game players, To Heart R is a big treat. They get to see the new stories that happen after the original game. To Heart R is not a direct sequel of To Heart, and because of this, I am trying hard to separate them.

Technically, it’s an absolute shame. The art and animation levels are more of a stock market from the first 2/3 of this series. Sometimes good, sometimes horrible. I know that the producers of this anime are trying to make an accurate art rendition of To Heart using the original game’s character designs, and that’s fine with me. However, the massive and radical differences of the designs between each episode really make me sick. The same character in ep. 1 may not ever look the same in other episodes. Thankfully, the latter part of the series have gotten it right, which makes you wonder why they didn’t do it that way from the first time through. Yup, even before Mahou Sensei Negima, anime like To Heart R is already suffering from varying sakuga levels.

The story is, for me, something up for debate. On one hand, it was nice that they had a full forward story approach, as opposed to the filler-ish nature of the first series. On the other hand, one can argue that the series has been too focused on Multi. Multi’s plotlines run deep through every single episode of To Heart R, in that you may think they are really leaving Akari behind, despite her being the main girl. For fans of the iconic HMX-12 robot, To Heart R is a dream come true. For non-fans of Multi, To Heart R became too unfair to the other characters.

The biggest complaint I had with To Heart R is of one character itself, and that’s Hiroyuki. This is really the biggest disappointment that made me want to ask if his attitude is really that way in the original game. To Heart R’s Hiroyuki is the most insensitive, indecisive, and inconsistent bishoujo male lead I’ve ever seen. It’s an extreme reverse to To Heart’s Hiroyuki, the bored but kind male lead. There is a reason for the girls to love Hiroyuki of the original To Heart, because he is really kind and helpful to all of them. To Heart R’s Hiroyuki, yea sure he’s kind too, but I really can’t see it that way. For one, his “cruelty level” to a person is proportional to how close the person is to him. It means that he is somewhat mean to Masashi and Shiho, and to the worst extent, he is really mean to Akari. He is also hot-headed, and shouts a lot, especially when things don’t go his way. He is impolite to the elders he talks to throughout this series.

I really wonder how the To Heart R Hiroyuki made 3 girls in love with him. Yes folks, 3 people confessed to him in this series, as opposed to 0 in the first. And I really hate how he handled their broken hearts. We all know Akari is the main girl, and Hiroyuki is destined to be with Akari. But those 2 other poor girls got the no answer while Hiroyuki is still confused about his priorities, and Akari is being jealous. Therefore, the 2 busted girls didn’t have the chance to to make themselves worthy of Hiroyuki’s affection at all.

I want to say something good this time about To Heart R. Well, the OP and ED are really good. The OP reminds me of classic bishoujo game music, while the ED is a new rendition of a popular To Heart song. There are also multiple cameos of characters from the new bishoujo game To Heart 2, which I liked very much. The voice cast is almost the same as the first series, which is one of the best ingredient of this anime. Back in 1999, many of those seiyuu are already relatively popular. In 2004, the same seiyuu cast made To Heart R one of the most spectacular lineup of voice talents in recent history. I never thought I could see [Yui Horie->horie-yui] and Ayako Kawasumi together in an anime again.

I really want to say many more things about To Heart R, but you may be bored about this absolutely biased rant. Sorry that I am biased towards the original To Heart anime, but that’s my true and honest opinion. To Heart R is actually an ok anime, but because of so many reasons, I can’t find myself to liking it.

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This is a [Summer of Bishoujo->] feature

Musical Surprise

There are some times when you feel awesomely about an anime character. Mostly, you feel awe when some shounen character makes some cool new action moves.

Me? I feel awe whenever I see an anime character play a musical instrument.

It’s just my own outlook, but whenever an anime character know some musical expertise, I feel like they put themselves out of character for a little while, and it’s cool. More especially, if I never saw that coming.

Taken from Futakoi Alternative 5:

This is Souju in an entirely different aura. This scene of her playing a guitar seems so unbelievably sentimental. You can imagine how Alternative this anime is. One day they run around, do spying, cooking, and cosplaying gothlolis. Then here is Souju, playing guitar. According to the episode, the song is Daisy Fitzgerald’s Unitable Dream. Although I swore I have heard that kind of guitar pattern before, I never knew whether it was a rendition or an original. All I would realize is that in our real world, a novelist named F. Scott Fitzgerald had written a novel called The Great Gatsby, in which one of the main characters was apparently named Daisy.

Taken from Mahoraba 20:

Now this is the surprise. Momono, yup that rowdy girl who drinks beer everyday… a pianist! And hear this… Sayoko, the incompetent and slow mother… a violinist! They played a classical music combo for a school festival… and they are nothing short of amazing! I could still understand Momono, having that sweet soft side at one point of the series, but heck Sayoko. She would have made a living with those l33t violin skillz! What a waste of talent.

It was pretty hard to get the name of their musical piece. Only by watching the scene n times did I realize that the announcer did state the name of the score. But it was pretty hard to make out because while the announcer was speaking, Mahiru’s genki maid was shouting! What did I get? Something that sounds like “Medilsohn”, “violin” and a number “64”. Thanks to [Bagle->]’s amazing search capabilities (hehe), I got directed to the real score… Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64!! Yay me!

Futagozuka

Taken from Futakoi Alternative 8


More curses references from the first Futakoi. Remember Billy the goat? Yea, he was a great goat, he always fights with the lousy main guy of the first anime series.

Taken from Futakoi Alternative 6 and Futakoi 1

Apparently, Futakoi Alternative took funny reference to the first Futakoi series by leaving this special bit by Lulu and Lala:

And:

The original Futagozuka (Twins Mound) as shown in Futakoi:

Futago Hime dances

Sorry I’m not too good at making animated gifs. These images are quite big…

Anyway, Fain and Rein… dance! They dance a lot, but actually they’re not good at it. They even trip and fall in dance parties! Well, at least they have these. Weird, but still cute, dances that they know best. Now, start the dancing revolution!

More dances at [Futago Hime dances 2->]


The iya-iya dance!!! (Episode 1, 2, 3, 8, 11, 13, 15)
iyaiyaiyaaaaan~~, iyaiyaaaan~~
Continue reading Futago Hime dances

Friday the 13th

Welcome to my (late) Friday the 13th post, where… can you believe it? Almost all the anime I’ve watched this week has some kind of crypt/angst/loneliness/unluckiness tied down to it! Well… don’t believe it, because I just made it up, hehe. Many anime gets kinda down sometimes. But anyway I just wanted to tell some ‘down’ moments for this special week:

(of course… SPOILER ALERT!)

Monday
Mahoraba ~Heartful Days~ 19

Sayoko… lost! Plus it’s raining! With luck, Shiratori was there, and they went home safely. Unlucky mother, just when she wanted to pick her child up from school amongst the rain, she herself got lost!

Tuesday
Futakoi Alternative 6

This one’s full of angst! It initally looked like the Shirogane twins were just jealous of the Ichijou twins, but I guess their problems are deeper than that. They have not much time, because they said that by their 16th birthday they can’t be with Rentarou anymore… why? Anyway, out of confusion, they hurt Rentarou in the face and went back to Tokyo. Rentarou went back to Tokyo too and gave them a hug, saying “I don’t understand”.

Comic Party Revolution 6

Chisa’s father just collapsed! Now Chisa’s so sad, and so Kazuki and Subaru went to Tsukamoto Printing. Chisa now has to run the family shop alone because of this. Later on, they find out her father’s condition wasn’t as serious as it seems. He’s quite sick because of… playing video games!!!

Wednesday
Naruto 134

Obviously this will be a dark episode for our favorite shounen ninja, because for the first time ever, he has lost a major fight! And with his best friend no less. Sasuke and Naruto face off with their final blows, and Sasuke is left standing. Kakashi finally reached them, but he only saw an almost-dead Naruto. Sasuke, failing to kill Naruto, is now determined not to follow his evil brother’s footsteps, and he will try to obtain power in his own way.

Thursday
Gokujou Seitokai 6

Rino’s is being pressured by the student council members about her puppet Pu-chan. Is the puppet just her act? Is Rino making fools out of them all? Just when the student council realized that Pu-chan is the real thing, the puppet gets struck by lightning. Rino now realizes that her beloved Pu-chan is dying, and cries, saying that she still needs Pu-chan. Well guess what… Pu-chan is just playing dead!

Mahou Sensei Negima 19

Imagine the loneliness of a 60-year ghost. Sayo Aizaka has been a ghost in Mahora Gakuen for that long time acting as a student. She sees many classmates she wants to be friends with, but she can’t because they can neither see her or touch her… until now. Kazumi, the scoop girl reporter, researched about Sayo’s past life, in effect making Sayo remember her long-lost memories, and she cries. Now Kazumi, the only one who sees Sayo so far, is determined to let her join in the class trip, but she’s apprehensive because the others can’t see her. With help by Evangeline, everybody sees Sayo afterwards, and she’s now part of the group! This is one of the best Negima episodes so far, and it’s an absolute rare gem in that I actually watched the episode twice in a row!

Friday
NO ANIME ON FRIDAY THE 13TH ITSELF!

Suffixes

As far as I know (which isn’t as far as it gets), using -desu as a suffix when speaking Japanese would show a bit of courtesy in a sentence. Well, anime would tend to over-exaggerate that, with some characters overusing the suffix. Even some speak basically useless words affixed at the end of their sentences to show some sort of cuteness in speech.

So here are some examples of anime characters saying different kinds of suffixing in their dialogue. The intensity part basically suggests how much they use the suffix.


Yue (Mahou Sensei Negima)
suffix: -desu
intensity: medium


Chisa (Comic Party Revolution)
suffix: -desu
intensity: medium


Sabato (Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan)
suffix: -desu
intensity: high


Tamami (Mahoraba ~Heartful Days~)
suffix: -desu
intensity: high


Kaede (Mahou Sensei Negima)
suffix: -de gozaru
intensity: high


Subaru (Comic Party Revolution)
suffix: -desu no
intensity: high


Pumo (Futago Hime)
suffix: -pumo (doesn’t mean anything)
intensity: extreme

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