Phat lewt

Back from my short Christmas break. Lots of fun was had by all, and kVn dragged back a sack of goodies, as seen above. Here is a quick rundown of the phat lewt dropped by the kringle monster (some of these items were obtained through use of crafting skills on gift cards):

Video Games

• Dragon Quest VIII (PS2)
• .hack//Quarantine (PS2)
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (DS)
• Mariokart DS (DS)
• Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

DVDs

• Galaxy Angel 3 & 4
• Zelda: the Complete Animated Series (heehee)
• Star Wars Episode III
• Farscape Starbust Season 2, Vol 3
• Star Trek: First Contact
• Texhnolyze 5
• .hack//Legend of the Twilight 2 & 3
• Comic Party 4

Books

• Bluff your way in Cricket
• Stardust
• Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
• Web of Arachnos
• Little Adventures in Tokyo
• Once More with Footnotes (Pratchett)
• Thud! (Pratchett)
• Where's My Cow? (Pratchett)
• Steel Angel Kurumi 8 & 9
• Gocha Gocha 2
• Subscription to SEED: Science is Culture

Electronics

• Cannon Wordtank V80 Electronic Japanese-English/E-J/Kanji dictionary
• Binary Clock

Kitchen

• Set of 4 earthenware canisters, w/ cow pattern
• Set of 4 rice bowls, 4 chopsticks
• 4 Bermuda shot glasses
• Sake set
• Steelers salt & pepper shakers
• Misc. chocolate!
• Apple

Games

• Star Trek 2nd Ed CCG anniversaries Anthology, and Strange New Worlds boosters
• High Stakes Drifter Starter
• 20Q
• Dice Games
• Star Wars Miniature game Universe booster packs.

Office

• Walnut handmade pen
• Walnut case
• Steelers pencil
• Steelers pin

Clothes

• Red and green mock turtle necks
• Green flannel shirt
• Comfy socks
• Monogrammed scarf
  

Fun Stuff

• "Sushi set" ~ Sushi patterned trash can, tape, bandages, pencil toppers, cards, coasters, trash can, and wrapping paper.
• Chimp stickers
• Xmas cards
  

Merry Christmas!

I am off to visit the family for the holiday! I hope you kids have a fun and relaxing Christmas with your friends, family, and cute Gamers mascots! 

Licensed

One more series I missed when I was putting together my summary licensed list.

That series is Mai-HIME, which has been licensed by Bandai Ent.

Add it to the Series I plan to collect list.

I only watched the first two episodes - only far enough to see it was of the girls-with-powers genre - but with good character designs, good animation, an Kajiura music, it is one for me to own. 

Angelic Layer

Angelic Layer (DVD release)
Angelic Layer, released domestically by ADV Films, takes place in a near-future CLAMP universe where a fighting game played with mentally controlled dolls has become quite the rage.

The series follows Misaki, a middle school girl who arrives in Tokyo at the beginning, and is introduced to the sport of Angelic Layer the same day, when she sees the broadcast of a battle involving a stunning white Angel.

At its heart, Angelic Layer is a sports drama, with Misaki facing and overcoming each new competitive challenge, at the same time tackling the challenges in her life . Being CLAMP, the story is filled with colorful characters, such as "Icchan," the mysterious man who gets Misaki to "buy" her Angel and begin playing the game.

The angel fights are well animated and quite fun to watch, particularly towards the end of the series, when the competition is high, and a variety of environments are used as arenas for the fights. I've also always been a sucker for CLAMP character designs, and this series doesn't disappoint; the numerous Angels showcase a wide array of intersting designs.

The series does have its share of cliches, especially those common to sports dramas, but it executes them well. A large amount of humor, a dose of cuteness, some emotional scenes, and the entertaining Angel fights make this an enjoyable series.

Content Ratings (out of 5)
Comedy - 3: A constant level of humor pervades the series.
Character Designs - 5: The angels in particular provide a lot of well designed characters.
Animation - 4: The Angel fights are very well animated and fun to watch.
Kawaii - 3: This series gets a kawaii rating due to the lead, Misaki, who can be quite teeth rotting cute at times.

Ranking: Top 25 (see here, 1st paragraph)
Angelic Layer domestic site.

Akahori Gedou Hour Rabuge

Akahori Gedou Hour Rabuge (episode 2, fansub)
Hereafter referred to as Rabuge to save my fingers, this is a rather silly comedy, complete with plenty of fan-service, that I find I am enjoying quite a bit. This is one of those series you go into expecting just to enjoy the ride, and not anything too deep. It is a good break from the heavier stuff out there.

Rabuge is actually two linked 15 minute shows, Love Pheremone and Gedou Otometai. Each show overlaps some characters and events, and both share a common theme, only flipped from one show to the other. In Love Pheremone, we have two wannabe comedians who were also given high-tech suits to fight crime and defend justice. Their attempts at just, though, always end up destroying half the city and costing billions of yen to repair.

On the other hand, Gedou Otometai tells the story of five girls living on their own, after their parents passed away. Their parents just happened to be low level henchmen in a villain organization, and on his death bed, their father requested they fulfill his wish to bring great evil to the world. Later, the girls discover a demon that allows them to have their own magical girl transformation (as seen above). Of course, whenever they go out with the intent to do evil, they tend to have the opposite affect - such as combining forces to enact a terrible spell which makes hot stew for victims in a hurricane shelter... .

This is one that probably won't get licensed (though I could see ADV grabbing it). Probably no loss, but I am finding it to be a rather entertaining series none-the-less.

Content Ratings (out of 5)
Comedy - 3: It illicits a decent about of chuckles out of me.
Fan Service - 4: Plenty of the usual breast and panty shots, mostly used for comedic situations.
Sillines - 3: It is a fairly goofy series, one that one should not take seriously at all. 

What's the good word, little budy?

Synergy.

Ah, Sam & Max goodness coming...

And now for something completely different

Mmmm, haggis. The most disgusting food on Earth. I found this picture from a trip to Scotland a year or so ago; I figured it needed to be shared with the world. 

Licensed List!

Fortunately for US anime fans, new series are constantly being licensed for distribution in the US. (Please note that it is this authors not so humble opinion that those in the US who download entire series instead of buying the available licensed anime - regardless of their rationalization - cannot be considered fans.)

Depending on how quickly I watch and decide to review any fansubs of a series, there is a good chance it will be licensed before I post my impressions. In these cases, instead of doing an all-out review, I will list when a series is licensed whether I plan on collecting it based on the episodes I saw. I'll give a brief sentence or two on my thoughts, but I will save deeper impressions for the actual series release.

Going through my backlog of episode 1's I've watched over the past year or so, here are the licensed ones:


Anime series I plan to collect:

Ah! My Goddess TV - This one is actually already being released, and I am actively collecting it. I always enjoyed the OVA/movie, and the manga was one of the first manga I ever collected. Excellent animation quality, and you can't not love Belldandy.

Mahou Sensei Negima - From the mind that brought us Love Hina. I think it was really his attempt to bring every type of anime girl cliche into one series. I've been enjoying the manga, and not surprisingly enjoyed the anime as well. Possibly surprisingly, the anime seems to tone down the fan service of the manga quite a bit - this works well as it focuses the series even more on the characters.

Tsubasa Chronicle - It's CLAMP, it's cool, the manga it's based on rocks, end of story.


Anime series I am undecided on:

Black Cat - This one is GONZO, so the animation is good. I only saw one episode, which didn't grab me but showed potential. So, I may collect Black Cat, but it doesn't have the priority of some other series. 

Test

日本語です。

Densha Otoko

Densha Otoko (Episode 1, Fansub)
The screenshot to the right is actually a little deceptive. It is not from an anime, but rather from the animated opening credits to the popular Japanese Drama, "Densha Otoko", or "Train Man."

At times corny, frequently funny, surprisingly touching, Densha Otoko is the story of a 23 year old Japanese anime otaku (geek) named Yamada who saves a beautiful woman from a drunken old man while riding the train home. She gets his address and promises to send him a thankyou gift.

When Yamada gets home, he tells of his experiences on a internet board, and finds he has an almost instant advice gallery and cheering section amongst the various otaku and other people on the boards. When a gift from the woman does arrive, with their help he picks up the phone to call ...

Densha Otoko takes a humorous look at the world of Japanese otaku, but also looks more seriously at the difficulties and confidence problems geeks around the world encounter. The series, at least for a little while, actually made otaku the new "cool" in Japan.

There are several inside references and winks for people familiar with any of the various otaku cultures, but even knowing nothing about it, the show presents an entertaining variation on the love comedy.

Finally, any show that begins by showing a montage of Akihabara (geek mecca in Tokyo) while playing "Mr. Roboto" by Styx has to have something going for it ...

Content Ratings (out of 5)
Comedy: 5 - I found myself laughing quite a bit. There was a lot of silliness going on as well.
Otaku: 5 - Lots of otaku references, as one might guess - anime, ascii artist, military, figure, comic, etc., all types seem to be represented.

Christmas time in the Cabbage Patch

It is stolen, it is festive, and it sparkles!

What better way to spread terror this holiday season than with a Hijacked Christmas Jetpack(tm)!

Much, much better than the dreaded winterlords ... although it would be funny if they made a return in a gimped, non-exploitable fashion this year.

Karin

This is mostly a test of the integration of Picasa2 with Blogger.

But I'll use this opportunity to write some impressions of the anime Karin.

Karin (Episode 1, fansub)
Anime and manga always provides an opportunity for unique and frequently bizarre plots that you don't encounter anywhere else. Take for example Midori no Hibi (Midori Days), the touching story of a boy and the girl who, um, became his right hand. The thing is, as the humerous yet frequently touching (no pun intended) Midori no Hibi shows, many times the anime/manga creators make these bizarre plots work, and work well.

After watching a fansub of the first episode of Karin, it is too early to tell how well the plot of this show will work. However, it certainly fits in the "odd" category. Karin (pictured above) is a school girl who comes from a family of vampires - a fairly normal plotline. Unlike the rest of her family, she is a bit of a reverse vampire - can't see well in the dark, likes being out in day light, and is generally lacking in most vampiric powers. Oh, and instead of needing to intake blood she makes blood - in vast quantities that manifests itself in a geyser of a nosebleed that pretty much splatters blood everywhere.

So far the series is pretty much pure comedy, as you may guess with the setup. Karin's parents are slapstick comic relief. There are hints that there may be some more serious underlying elements, but at this point it is hard to tell where they will go with the plot.

The character designs are decent, but the only ones that really grabbed me were Karin's overly violent aristocratic mother and her subdued younger sister.

I'll probably watch one or two more episodes to form an idea if this is one I want to look for if it gets licensed.

Content ratings (out of 5)
Comedy: 3 - Enjoyable humor, but nothing laugh-out-loud
Character Designs: 3 - Pleasant, but nothing really grabbed me
Gore: 2 - Not much in the way of gore, except when the nosebleeds come there is a lot of blood.

BTW, the idea of the content ratings is not to give an overall "score" or somesuch nonsense. Instead, I will list the common anime things in whatever I am giving my impressions of, and the quantity/quality of it. So, it will be different from show to show. A ninja drama may have gore, fights, etc, while a mahou shoujo could have kawaii (cuteness), comedy, etc. Really, it is more of an attempt to give an impression of what kind of show I feel it is, and how well I feel it does at being that kind of show.

Let's Begin

Despite having a much neglected personal web page (the 90s version of blogs for the youngins out there), I decided I might as well create a dedicated blog as well. My hope is the ease of updating compared to a personal web page will lead to more frequent updates than www.wd-o.com ever has.

I want to have a little bit of focus for this blog, though. It isn't going to be rants on the state of the world, my life, or pictures of puppies. I am primarily going to use it to share short reviews or impressions on anime (fansubs and licensed releases), movies, games, and other such nonsense.

The title, "iroiro na koto," means "various things" in Japanese, which gives a bit of the flavor of what will be here.