loli – Page 4 – bluemist anime blog

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!

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: Nanaka Shirakawa

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.

Ichigo Mashimaro

Ichigo Mashimaro

Azumanga Daioh seems oh too influential an anime nowadays. It seems like a main reference whenever a new slice-of-life comedy anime comes along. And then whenever that anime doesn’t live up to expectations, labels of “Azumanga Daioh ripoff” are placed. Many slice-of-life comedy animes have come and go since then, and only a few stand out not to be another anime’s ripoff. One of them is Ichigo Mashimaro.

With the original manga currently running in the moe~filled magazine called Dengeki Daioh (where Azumanga Daioh also ran), Ichigo Mashimaro is a ~~story~~ non-story of four cute young girls and a slightly older female teenager… Period. That’s it folks… bye!

Er…

Basically there is no main plot to talk about. Ichigo Mashimaro is about five girls doing the usual stuff in life. What stands out here though is in the basis of characterization. The five girls all have their own unique traits that make them cute not only physically. Nobue, the eldest of the five, acts as the nee-san of the group… but smokes cigars and has a penchant for anything cute (like cosplay, and also the four girls themselves). Chika, Nobue’s sister, seemingly has nothing special, but she acts as the sarcastic girl whenever everyone does something weird. Ana, the foreigner, has more Japanese speech and cultural knowledge than even her Japanese friends, but her English is surprisingly poor. Matsuri, the meganekko, is a soft-spoken girl who is slow in so many things but actually speaks better English than Ana. And Miu, the main troublemaker of the group, is… Miu. Nobody can completely describe Miu and the inner workings of her mind, but at least enjoy her [punchlines here->miu-chan-punch].

As you can see, their characteristics look bland on paper, but you have to see the anime to appreciate it. When they are mixed up, seemingly simple stories and events in life will be interesting, and very, very hilarious! Nobue usually commands the order of things, but sometimes gives in whenever it is rather “cute”. Chika acts almost the same except that she focuses on stopping her best friend Miu on doing crazy antics, because she’s the only one who can. Ana, being an extremely unique foreigner, gets center of attention especially when she talks about specific Japanese stuff even most Japanese don’t know. Matsuri always falls victim to the clutches of Nobue’s fancy for kawaii and Miu’s round of weirdness. And Miu is the center of all things weird in this anime series.

It’s 12 episodes of pure fun. The character design is of a unique style that actually succeeds in being cute (and loli). Animation is constant all throughout. The pacing of this anime, while intricately slice-of-life, never gets boring even when it goes slow. A unique thing about this anime is that there are only a select few parts where background music is played. Most of the time, it’s completely silent, which allows a viewer to focus more on the visuals and dialogue exchange of the characters. It’s very effective in bringing out that original flavor from the manga. And when the background music kicks in, it is quite memorable too.

For a character-based anime like Ichigo Mashimaro, it is important to have excellent voices to flesh out the characters. The anime succeeds by a longshot. This is for me one of the best voice work in any anime series of 2005! It is not just because all these five seiyuu are big superstars in the anime industry, but their voice fits the character with extreme precision. I was one who initially thought Ana’s was miscast but it turned out more than fine afterwards. They were able to portray each character in ways that one could not think of any other alternative.

Kawasumi Ayako (Matsuri)
Orikasa Fumiko (Miu)
Nabatame Hitomi (Nobue)
Noto Mamiko (Ana)
[Chiba Saeko->] (Chika)

As it now stands, Ichigo Mashimaro is one great treat. Fun and funny on so many levels, not to mention loli-cute. Ichigo Mashimaro should be laid into the same pedestal along with Azumanga Daioh, as an anime that redefines the slice-of-life comedy genre.

Ojamajo Doremi Naisho!

Ojamajo Doremi Naisho!

Ahh… Ojamajo Doremi. Of all the anime in the world, this is for me the most elusive anime that I may never, ever completely enjoy. With no less than 200 episodes, most of it already lost in time, someone like me living in the remotest of areas would consider getting an episode of this a monumental effort. Since this kind of anime is rarely a fansubbing favorite, only a few subs of Ojamajo Doremi exist (thanks to those fansubbers btw). And since this series is quite old already, I cannot find anything else, not even raws. But no, nothing is gonna stop me from continually searching for my most elusive anime ever. Unknown to many, Ojamajo Doremi is one of (if not) the longest mahou shoujo (magical girl) anime series ever. And despite its seemingly unpopular status outside of Japan, I can consider this one of the best anime ever made… even with the limited number of episodes I watched.

An excellent example of this would be the latest season, called Ojamajo Doremi Naisho. For a little background info, there are five seasons of Ojamajo Doremi. The first four seasons ran for almost a year each (50+ episodes), and the latest season ran for 13 episodes. While it is the latest season, Naisho’s timeline actually runs between the third and fourth seasons. Not that it matters though, because what Ojamajo Doremi offers is not a big plot… but a “big heart”.

Oh my, where do I start? For first-time watchers, they may be skeptical on picking this up because it runs in the middle of a series, but Ojamajo Doremi as a whole excels in full-fledged characterization. Watch one episode of Ojamajo Doremi Naisho, and you more or less get to know about each main character already. Watch another, and you see one of the characters being fleshed out further. Watch yet another, and you enjoy so much of Ojamajo Doremi overall because of its appealing characters. Character development is an immense factor in the success of this anime. And not only those main characters (the pretty witches) get their development, but various supporting characters as well.

The strongest part of Naisho (and any other Ojamajo Doremi season for that matter) is how endearingly heartwarming each episode is. Even if each episode you watch has a different story and features different characters, they make it oh so memorable. Each story, no matter how frantic or comedic or depressing, is very very good. Ojamajo Doremi Naisho has a specific theme, in which they delve on some characters’ “secrets” (hence Naisho). Well I wouldn’t say some should really be considered big secrets, but these stories feature many events from the past, and how they learn from those events.

Remember that this is a mahou shoujo series, and yet it veers away often from magic being central to a story. It extends its moral values to more than just using magic to do something special. Sometimes I imagine that this anime can veer away from magic completely, because it is all about our life. All the happiness, sadness, complications, and simplicity of life, being channeled through various heartwarming stories.

This series particularly has a interestingly dramatic theme to it despite the relative fun. Some stories even end up with some of the characters crying. Moreover, seemingly mature themes like the life’s complexities, and even death, is being dealt with. It is something you really won’t expect from a mahou shoujo series, plus considering this is an anime aimed for kids. It is rare that an anime of this kind can be this moving. It’s easy to make viewers laugh and awe, but it is hard to make them cry. And yet Ojamajo Doremi can do that, and more. Because it mirrors our lives, viewers can relate, reflect, and learn. Entertainment that transcends beyond entertainment.

I won’t talk about the cute characters and animation, the memorable music and songs, or how the voice acting fared. It is enough for me to say that Ojamajo Doremi Naisho entertained me to the brim, sky is beyond the limit. It is enough for you to know that I highly recommend this anime, whether dubbed, subbed, or otherwise. It will be remembered forever in my heart. I’d love to watch it all over again (I don’t usually repeat anime I already watched, so this is a rare exception). Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be going treasure hunting for more Ojamajo Doremi.

moetan

moetan

My lunatic friends! Glad to see you again!

I’m no English expert. English is my secondary language. While I am very literate with it, I do make some mistakes, especially when it comes to grammar. If you have been reading my blog for a while, you could see grammatical patterns of mine that may be non-standard, and essentially, erratic. I think that even in this paragraph alone a linguist would argue that some of the sentences have wrong grammar. At the very least, you would understand what I’m talking about, right?

Along with my life-long learning of the English language is my fascination with Engrish. Engrish is an oh-so familiar term among us anime fans, because of the hilarious way the Japanese attempt to speak the language. The Japanese language is quite different from the English language (most of which is because of the R and L sounds), that is why some Japanese have some difficulty in speaking, translating, and even writing in English. The end result is sometimes funny. That is why this certain series of English language study aids made in Japan struck a note. It is a study aid like no other, and seems to be intended to punch more Engrish in rather than making people learn the language the right way. Plus, it’s a sure-fire hit for otakus!

Moetan is a set of books (and now even an audio CD) that tries to be a quick English-Japanese dictionary of sorts. It actually has a story part, consisting of short stories written in English, with matching moe~ drawings of characters. Then a summary of some English words used is listed along with its Japanese translation and a sample sentence. Those sample sentences create the hilarity of the entire book. Some sentences are really funny because it either has bizarre use of words, reference some kind of Japanese otaku culture, or just plain Engrish. (click here for a sample)

The main character in the CD (Pastel Ink) is voiced by well known anime seiyuu Tamura Yukari. ~~sounds like a popular anime seiyuu I know, I just can’t pinpoint who.~~ Her English is quite, well, Engrish. Sometimes I don’t even understand the English words she’s saying!

Aside from moetan, moetan II and the moetan listening CD, I see many other moetan stuff in the website. One is a rather amusing iPod nano spoof advertisement of the small book version of moetan, aptly called moetan nano. There also seems to be a towel on sale, apparently with a rather provocative drawing of a moetan character. There also seems to be a online mobile game, still teaching English words. A figure also seems to be on sale, as well as other books related to moetan. Hmm… that’s a lot of moetan for you.

With all those cute little things, plus a chance (no matter how little) to make a person’s ‘Engrish’ a little better, moetan seems to be a very weird mix that somehow works out rather well. So try your best in it, my lunatic friends!

Here are some more examples I picked up from the moetan listening CD:

Age – This is an ‘age’ in which even young witches use brute force. (Raging Haato! – Nanoha)

Generally – Be careful, the prettiest character is ‘generally’ a man. (‘usually’ should be a better word)

Grow – It embarrassed everyone involved, that the child actor keeps on ‘growing’, while the character he plays doesn’t. (LOL Harry Potter)

Illusion – Foreigners who come to Akihabara usually have the ‘illusion’ that most Japanese people have special hobbies. (everything is an illusion)

Judge – Never judge a book by its cover, it will only bring you grief. (yea right)

Release – For God`s sake! They ‘released’ a remade version of the game without an additional heroine! (happens in some console versions of bishoujo games)

Reservation – I heard that sales were to be by ‘reservation’ only, but boxes were lined up in the store window on sale. (ooh that reminded me of [XBOX 360->xbox-xrated], hehe)

Sergeant – The rank of the frog seems to be ‘sergeant’. (Keroro Gunsou!)

To Heart 2: Episode 2

Second episode!

Geh, more animation quirks. Some good shots, but some inconsistent character animation. Nevertheless, the [Tamaki->toheart2-tamaki-kousaka] episode is a healthy mix of Tamaki goodness. While I don’t share the enthusiasm of the legions of Tamaki fans, they may agree that the average animation took out some of the brilliance of an otherwise great episode. Now I get it… they want us to buy the DVD! It’ll be expected that the animation will be a lot more refined on the DVD. What a clever marketing move… although nothing may be more clever than them doing a [To Heart 2: XRATED->toheart2-xrated] (evil grin)…

Continue reading To Heart 2: Episode 2

Miu-chan Punch

While Miu-chan isn’t my favorite Ichigo Mashimaro girl, she definitely has some of the best punchlines in the anime… well… because she’s a super-baka.

Unfortunately, her punchlines (and some weird actions) usually come with a literal ‘punch’ from her Nobue-oneechan. It’s a recurring event where Miu-chan has her face flat on the ground, or something similar.

So, let me list the number of times it happened, kay?

*NEW* OVA Episode 1

Miu wrote gibberish things on Nobue’s resume

=============================
Episode 1 (3)

Nobue doesn’t remember why she entered Chika’s room

Nobue promises to buy Matsuri-chan some pudding

Matsuri-chan is being wrestled by Miu-chan

Episode 2 (2)

Chika-chan and Ana-chan are talking about making milk tea

Miu-chan writes something and shows it to Ana-chan

Episode 3 (1)

Matsuri-chan is doing the nekomimi act

Episode 4 (1)

Chika is getting annoyed with Miu’s doctor play

Episode 5 (2)

Nobue is asking if Miu blurted out Ana’s embarrassing surname (Coppola) to her class on purpose
Ana: Kyaaaa!!

Miu is annoying Matsuri-chan while eating
Mushy Chinese cabbage.

Episode 7 (2)

Secretly filming Chika-chan while asleep…
Miu: Shocking... Chika-boing!

Miu still has it
Chika-boing.

Episode 8 (1)

Miu is throwing Chika’s CDs like shurikens
Nobue: Better watch your back next time.

Episode 11 (1)

Nobue notices that Matsuri-chan still believes in Santa Claus
Miu: Matsuri-chan, I'll tell you something nice, Santa-san is...

Episode 12 (4)

Still hell bent on revealing to Matsuri-chan that Santa doesn’t exist…
Ana: Ara! Sorry! My feet just slipped!!

Miu (Santa) is supposed to hand over a book to Nobue (reindeer)
Miu: Aight.

Miu is imitating some kind of RPG game this time
Nobue: Who cares, whatever.

Matsuri-chan wakes up and saw (Miu)
Miu: Merry Christmas!! (in sentai pose)

Circus

Games
Circus Team
Aries
Final Examination Kujira
Gadeem & Juteem

Northern Team
Da Capo
Infantaria
Suika
[Da Capo II->dc2]
AR: Forgotten Summer

Fetish Team
Homemaid
Sukumizu
Sukumizu 2

Metal Team
Mai-HiME

Joint Projects
Sakura
Suika O-157
true tears

Sanctuary
Da Capo Girls Symphony

Anime
[Da Capo->]
[Da Capo Second Season->]
Da Capo II
Da Capo II Second Season
[Da Capo if->dcif]
Suika (H)

Generic Disclaimer: Of course I wouldn’t know how the bishoujo games industry truly works, so some info below may be wrong or misinterpreted. This feature is from an outsider’s point of view, namely, my point of view.

Continue reading Circus

summer of the others

This is the ‘others’ group of anime that I’m gonna watch this season.

This and the [loli->summer-of-loli] group constitutes 8 animes in total, double my limit. I told myself I shouldn’t be over this limit. I’m going on overload.

Da Capo Second Season

One of the biggest bishoujo game based anime just got even bigger! Double the girls, double the service, double the fun! The D.C.P.S. crew is here! For anti-Nemu and anti-Sakura fans this is also a treat, they’re not appearing (yet), and new main character Aisha is as adorable as… well… any other girl who says “goshujin-sama”. Kotori takes the limelight, and my favorite girl Mako remains a sideline (boo).

Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid

It’s darn good. The animation masters Kyoto Animation is at it once again, in what could be equated as FMP1 + Fumoffu = FMP:TSR. It has the mecha goodness of the first series, and seemingly also the hyper comedy of Fumoffu! Could anyone ask for more?

Shuffle!

Humans, gods, and demons live in harmony. This dorky guy gets a “taste” of all of them. A god family and a demon family suddenly live beside you, and within each is a girl whom you should pick from to be a wife! How more lucky can a dorky guy get? Follow his antics and see his choices in bishoujo game based freak show Shuffle!

Suzuka

Suzuka is cool. She’s great at high jumps. Suddenly this dorky guy would live beside her apartment, and will affect her life. Is it for the better? Or for worse? It’s a new take on the cliched harem genre. It seems kinda different, so I’ll take it. Besides, Suzuka is cool. Did I mention that Suzuka is cool?

summer of loli

’tis the season to be loli, falala lala, lala la-la…
(that was lame)

This is the ‘loli’ group of anime that I’m gonna watch this season.

This already constitutes 4 animes. There are [more->summer-of-the-others] to follow. I told myself I shouldn’t be over this limit. I’m going on overload.

But can I ever resist the loli-licious-ness? Not to mention the moe-licious-ness? Or the kawaii-licious-ness? Or the…

Ichigo Mashimaro

Five girls, one ambition: make us laugh at their silliness. This is post-Azumanga Daioh comedy, but much loli-er. Frankly, it was very entertaining! The naughty fanservice of the manga toned down, background music at a minimum to shift focus to the hyper-funny dialogue, and the girls drawn ever so cute! My anime of the season!

Kamichu!

She has just become… a god! And so this young kid experience the perils of discovering and controlling her power, all the while being a student and falling in love with this weird guy. Many say it is as inspired as Ghibli works, and it shows a bit. The thing literally “moves”, it is fluidly animated, and very imaginative.

Paniponi Dash!

Weird teacher + weird students + outer-worldly weird factors = over-the-top craziness anime. Yes, each girl has their own share of weirdness. The animation shifts quickly between SD, loli, and kawaii styles, and the OP sounds like it came from the 70’s (from the animators who gave us the classic nekomimi-mode, btw)!

Petopeto-san

Transfer student is an ero-ero petopeto-san. Whatever that means, she is apparently very “sticky”. If your body sticks hard enough to her body you will literally stick, and only by sleeping will you be set free. Look at that first victim. Lucky guy.