Wow, how late I am. It is already in the middle of summer. Then again, we all know not all singles get released that fast, some of them get released after their OP or ED singles have even finished their screentime. So yeah. The main reason I am so slow, other than doing other things for my blog, is because I was waiting for Kyouran Kazoku Nikki's EDs, there were a total of 8, if you recall. Well, anyway, here are my impressions of the music of the spring season.Take note that this post represents entirely my own views regarding the singles mentioned. Everyone's view is different and subjective; we only like music we are familiar with. Therefore you can agree or disagree with me; neither option is right or wrong. This just is a presentation of yet another opinion to you, the reader, and in this case it happens to be my view that is being presented.The anime are not really listed in any order, and certain anime series, I only liked either the OP or the ED, so you will only see my thoughts for just the single I liked alone.Wil and Allison.Allison to LilliaOP: Tameiki no Hashi by Kuricorder Quartet & Yukawa ShioneED: Sayonara no Omajinai by Kuricorder Quartet & Matsumoto Sou (GOING UNDERGROUND)The OP was fantastic instrumental material, with a great voice to boot. It might sound strange at first, the OP, but really, it turned out very nice from the TV sized version of the song. I really like Yukawa Shione's way of singing the song, combined with Kuricorder Quartet's good instrumental playing. The ED was a little "meh", I guess the music was not really my type and Matsumoto did not help either. The instrumental tracks by Kuricorder Quartet available in both singles were great light stuff. Definitely something instrumental lovers should pick up, for both singles.Image thanks to Neko Magic.BlassreiterOP: Detarame na Zanzou by GRANRODEOED: sad rain by Misato AkiI was really looking forward to the ED, and I was not disappointed. Seriously, of all the ED so far, sad rain has got to be among the best. Misato Aki has a voice suited for such songs I feel, and her other song in the single, another life, was also good. Detarame na Zanzou is more for a select group of people, it does seem suiting for people who love racing. But GRANRODEO's other track in the single, Shake the Fake, was slightly better than the actual OP itself, where the genre was concerned.I highly recommend sad rain, seriously.Chiko.Niijuu Mensou no MusumeOP: Kasumi by 369 MirokuED: Unnamed world by Hirano AyaThankfully, I am not an Aya fanboy. Her ED this time round was ok, average, to me, since I hardly like songs like these that are too loud. But yeah, it was...ok. The OP however, was so fantastic, I and Gubinodo actually did a translation for it (linked above). Seriously, 369 Miroku had a very clear voice for the song, and the song was very well done. Definitely among the best OP this season and perhaps for the rest of the year and highly recommended.Hot and sexy Viletta Nu from Code Geass R2, thanks to some kind anonymous at 4Chan /w/ I believe. Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch R2OP: O2 by ORANGE RANGEED: Shiawase Neiro by ORANGE RANGEI know R2 has already gone into its second OP and ED, but they will be for summer anime instead. O2 was kind of disappointing, it somehow did not live up to the hype of the TV sized version, which actually sounded better. It must have been because of the fake rap they tried to do in the middle. Shiawase Neiro is not too bad, but yeah, it also had a small bit of rap. Overall though the OP single was fine, while because the ED single was so large, I have not actually gone through it, so I cannot comment on the other songs available.Thanks to Super Gaijin for the image.BleachED: Orange by Lil'BIs it ska? I have no idea, since Tsumasaki by Oure Ska Band was definitely ska (even has "ska" in the band name), and so was Tower of Druaga's OP. But meh, Orange is not too bad indeed, though the other two songs inside the single were better. Lil'B, as the name suggests, also has rap in both songs, while the last song is a Kira Kira House Mix (club remix) that is awesome if you like club mixes or club music. Definitely a worthy get for this single.Sara.Crystal BlazeOP: Never looking back ~Sukitooru Kokoro de~ by RieED1: que sera-sera by TASOED2: Kokoroyo Kaze ni Nare by TASOSo a certain someone had a bad review of this particular single, just because it was jazz and "way to go to turn off viewers in the first 2 minutes or so". WTF? This must be news to her then - there are people who like soft songs once in a while, or jazz pieces. Certainly, Crystal Blaze's OP and ED are pretty good in the genre, especially ED2. If you are interested in the soft jazz pieces, this single (yes all of them are in one album) is a good pick to listen to. Japanese jazz for a change is good.The symbol that has yet to explain itself in Kaiba.KaibaOP: Never by SeiraED: Carry Me Away by SeiraI believe I talked about it before, but Never has got to be the best OP this season. Kasumi comes close, but not as close as one would think. They did a good job choosing English songs for both the OP and ED for this show, and Seira sang at least the OP pretty well. As both the OP and ED are not to be released in any singles, I cannot comment on the ED as I have not heard the full version, but the OP is available in certain places for your listening pleasure. And Never, is really good. It is likely these two songs will be released with the OST in the DVD edition of Kaiba, and I also highly recommend Kaiba's OST, really really good.Gekka's true human form.Kyouran Kazoku NikkiED4: Appare Henka Ja. by Satou Rina (Midarezaki Gekka)ED5: Sekai de Ichiban Yabai Koi by Tomatsu Haruka (Midarezaki Chika)ED6: Wagahai wa Shugojuu de Aru, ka? by Yasumoto Hiroki & Inoue Marina (Midarezaki Tekka & lover)Best ED of all the 8 - Gekka's. Hands down. Something about the background music in Chika's ED bugs me, but it is still pretty much good. Yasumoto Hiroki combines his deep voice with Inoue Marina to form a pretty nice song. However what really interested me as well were the club mixes available in each. Chika's could not make the cut, but Gekka's was just awesome, despite its very irritating start. I am glad I stuck throughout the whole song though, the Polyphonic remix is really catchy. Teika's remix is more of the gaming electronic type, which strikes chords with me since it reminds me of the old Sega Genesis days. At the very least, get Gekka's single, you will not be disappointed.Blair.Soul EaterOP: resonance by T.M. RevolutionYeah the PV is totally gay, but the song is fine. At first I thought something was weird with it, but it is something that catches onto you. I suppose you can classify this under J-rock, and for its type, TMR delivers yet again...despite his gayness. Seriously, WTF was with the PV? DO NOT WANTThe other song in the single was also fine. If you like J-rock, get this single.Fatina, image thanks to Danbooru.The Tower of Druaga ~The Aegis of Uruk~OP: SWINGING by MuramasaED: Touchoushatachi by KENNConsidering SWINGING is ska, Muramasa did an ok job. Not something to be "wow" over, this single was pretty much average...especially since there was an Engrish English song inside. KENN's was slightly worse off, and quite frankly, both were just average singles and nothing much to talk about. Get them if you want, no loss if you do not want to.And that completes my roundup for spring anime's OP/ED that I liked. I hope some of my recommendations will get out to the audience here, because really, some of them are just too good. Image at top of a fey fairy thanks to Sankaku Complex (search for "fey fairy gallery").Spring anime OP/ED impressions,Panther
(Read the rest of this entry) (Entry meta)

It's hard to judge, since totals for earlier seasons of the same shows may be bumping up their numbers, but it looks as if Strike Witches and Slayers Revolution are the runaway most popular new shows on 2channel. Zero no Tsukaima may be up there, too.Strike Witches has over 44,000 posts. I suspect some but not too many of these were for the original short OVA. The nearest after it is Slayers Revolution at 26,000, and some of its posts may have been for the original series, too.The same goes for Zero no Tsukaima, at 174,000 posts. It had two recent popular seasons, so it's just about impossible to tell how many posts it has this time, since old threads are deleted from the public servers. Hidamari x365 has 81 threads, but many of those are also probably for the original season.Of shows we can be fairly certain of, Sekirei has over 7000 posts; Telepathy Shoujo Ran and Tetsuwan Birdy Decode have over 6000; and Koihime and Someday's Dreamers~Summer Skies~ have over 5000.Looking back at last season, it looks as if Code Geass R2 and Macross Frontier are the most interesting to 2channelers. Of the 817 threads (i.e., over 816,000 posts) for Code Geass, there are records indicating that almost 400 are for the current season. Macross Frontier has 274 threads. Of other spring shows, Zettai Karen Children is running first, at 34 threads, with Blassreiter surprisingly close behind, at 31. ToLoveRu has 25.Of course, these numbers are for otaku-centric 2channel. Actual TV ratings tell a far different story. According to Siegel_Clyne's posts on AnimeSuki, the top new show there is Antique Bakery, followed by Telepathy Shoujo Ran, which airs on Saturday mornings. For the spring season, Net Ghost Pipopa and Zettai Karen Children are the most watched.Despite the fact that I am a big fan of Hirano Aya, I don't have much use either for Zettai Karen as a show or for her performance in it. Just shows how wrong I can be, lol.Anyway, here is the raw 2channel data. Maybe you can tease more info out of it. The numbers are the number of the current thread for each show. Threads are closed when they reach 1000 posts.shows with previous seasonsCode Geass R2 817Macross F 274Zero no Tsukaima Rondo 175Yes! PreCure 5 Gogo 162Hidamari Sketch x365 81Strike Witches 45Slayers Revolution 27XxxHolic 2 22Angelique Abyss 2 8spring 2008 showsZettai Karen Children 34Blassreiter 31ToLoveRu 25Real Drive 22Wagaya no Oinarisama 17Kyouran Kazoku Nikki 16Blue Dragon Seven Dragons 14Nijuumensou no Musume 12Nabari no Ou 10Allison to Lillia 9Golgo 13 9Itazura na Kiss 8Candy Boy 7SA Special A 6Kaiba 5Net Ghost Pipopa 4Chi's Sweet Home 4Onegai My Melody Kirara 3Kyou kara Mao 3Ikkitousen Great Guardians 3summer 2008 showsSekirei 8Telepathy Shoujo Ran 7Tetsuwan Birdy Decode 7KoiHime 6Someday's Dreamers 2 6Natsume Yuujinchou 5Nogizaka Haruka 5Ryouko's Case File 3World Destruction 3Mission E 3Blade of the Immortal 2Ultraviolet Code 44 1
(Read the rest of this entry) (Entry meta)

Now if theres one thing I hate, It’d have to be this; having to blog an episode when the next ones already been released. Words can’t express how much I want to blog episode 13 seeing that its the climax we’ve been waiting for. Anyway, It took a long time, but I can finally see [...]
(Read the rest of this entry) (Entry meta)

Since I can’t blog all the anime I love today, I just put up a new feature on my blog where I can put my short musings and blabber on some episodes of anime I recently watched or the anime I plan to watch. Allison to Lillia [14] - I’m so lovin’ the Treize and Lillia [...]
(Read the rest of this entry) (Entry meta)

Maybe I'm just too old to understand it any more, but judging by recent anime the way relationships progress certainly seems to be changing. Yesterday I saw Allison to Lillia's Wil not tell Allison he loved her until after he got her pregnant, and now we have this series. After thirteen episodes made up almost entirely of Naoki bullying, belittling and berating poor old Kotoko, in the space of
(Read the rest of this entry) (Entry meta)

During the course of this series' Allison arc my complaints, criticisms and all-round reasons for merry-making at the expense of the show have been many and varied. However, I have to say that I can't recall an episode of anime that has left me shouting at my laptop screen for almost an entire half-hour quite like this one. As usual with an instalment of Allison to Lillia, it's hard to know
(Read the rest of this entry) (Entry meta)

Major Stork: Mrs. Moot never told you what happened to your father.Allison: She told me enough! She told me you killed him!Major Stork: No. I am your father.Allison: ... No... No! That's not true!... That's impossible!...Major Stork: Search your feelings, you know it to be true!Allison: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! NOOOO...!!Oops, have I just given away the entire point of this episode? Yes, sadly I think I have, but considering that it was (although not quite to the level of the opening to this post) all but entirely lifted from The Empire Strikes Back I don't think it's too much of a bad thing.After the whole train charade last episode, our brave quartet get put into a luxury hotel for the night, but in the morning Benedict has a surprise for them all, and in particular Fiona - No, the surprise isn't just hiring a limousine (although Fiona is entranced by it, because of course a Princess and soon-to-be Queen would never have seen a limousine before), it's a marriage proposal. Apparently things are pretty free and easy in Sous-Beil, and you can get married in a church just by kissing someone with no religious ceremony required. Thus concludes the cheapest church wedding in the history of the universe.Sadly, Major Stork turns up rather late to the ceremony (although he really didn't miss much, and there wasn't even a finger buffet after), but as he's leaving Wil decides that now would be the perfect time to shoot him. With a rubber bullet. A rubber bullet that doesn't hurt Major Stork in the slightest, or even wind him. Thus concludes the most rubbish shooting in the history of the universe.Everything that happens from this point onwards in a blur of nonsense, but the basic upshot is this - Major Stork is, in fact, Allison's father. Hurrah! The downside to all of this is that Major Stork is also an admitted murderer and spy, who was in fact planning to destroy the entire train seen in the past two episodes 'if it wasn't for those pesky kids'. Booo! It must be great to have a Dad you can be proud of, huh Allison?Of course, if there's one thing Allison and Wil are good at in a morally dubious situation, it's ignoring all of the bad stuff like murder and treason and focus on the warm and fuzzy memories of buying lasagne and hats. Continuing his role as doting father, Major Stork kindly offers to send Allison a letter and a birthday present some time, as obviously that will more than compensate for decades thinking that your father was dead. With all of that settled, Allison and Wil have sex in the church. Probably. We don't get to see that bit, and I'm not sure whether that is something to be happy about or not.I know I've thrown any sense of objectivity about this series out the window a long time ago, but can I just say - This was half an hour of the most literally unbelievable tripe. Thank goodness it's so bad that it's funny, otherwise I'd never have survived a dozen episodes of this thing...
(Read the rest of this entry) (Entry meta)

Wow, this episode just upped the ante on this arc. Something tells me that we’re in for more surprises next episode though. Summary; Stork and the gang take care of the pursuing train by burning the last train car with wine from the pantry. Stork detaches the last car with compact explosives much to Benedicts suspicion which [...]
(Read the rest of this entry) (Entry meta)

Right now I’ve seen about 11 episodes from each of the spring anime shows I’m currently watching. I know some of the spring shows are scheduled to end in the next week or two, but most of the ones I’m watching will continue to run for at least 25 episodes. When the spring season started, [...]
(Read the rest of this entry) (Entry meta)

It seems like only yesterday that I last watched an episode of Allison to Lillia.. Oh, wait a second, that's because it was.After episode ten finished with the ridiculous sight of an experienced military man shooting at an armoured train with a pistol, things finally take a turn for the sensible at the start of this episode, with the use of a copious amount of alcohol - Not, as you might expect, for the main characters to drown their sorrows for getting themselves involved in this god-awful series, but instead to set fire to a carriage of their train to prevent the pursuers from either boarding their train or following them. This seems to have done the trick, until they come across a heavily armoured tank which can use train tracks while also having the uncanny ability to match the speed of a powerful steam train.At this point we begin to learn the truth about Major Stork, and from that moment on the whole story suddenly turns into a fast-paced description of double-crossings aplenty that I think made my brain melt a little. We also confirm that Major Stork murdered the guard from the last episode, which hugely upsets Wil and Allison for entire seconds before they decide that this is not the time to mourn. Oh no, this is the time to go and kill more people, led by a murderer who they've decided to carry on trusting and helping out to the best of their abilities for some reason (although to be fair he does have a gun).So, Wil manages to shoot the tank eventually after numerous attempts using an anti-tank rifle that just happens to be on board thanks to the arms magnate they're protecting or arresting or whatever, while the heavily armoured tank only fires back a single shot in return, which must officially make it the worst tank ever.Carrying on at breakneck speed, everybody else who isn't a major character then gets shot or, in the case of the handlebar-moustached arms dealer, commits suicide. Major Stork is suitably disappointed by this, and Allison and Wil again manage to muster up almost an entire second of despair about this thoughtless waste of human life before the episode ends. However, the story isn't over just yet... Wil has an odd feeling that something isn't quite right about Major Stork. Wow, d'ya think?While this was actually an improvement on the last episode, this series seems to fall into so many plot holes during the average episode that it's a wonder it hasn't dug itself down to the Earth's molten core yet. Whenever the story shows signs of promise, it either gets lost in one of those holes, or otherwise goes off on a tangent that is either terribly dull or just plain confusing. It probably wouldn't be so bad if all the characters weren't equally as uninteresting - Wil and Fiona seem to become increasingly cardboard by the episode, and even the more lively Benedict and Allison seem to have resorted to a clichéd existence of cracking jokes in moments of tension and generally being far too excitable respectively. I'm now resigned to the fact that this show won't get any better, but at least it's enjoyable to poke fun at, for the sake of my sanity if nothing else.
(Read the rest of this entry) (Entry meta)