[English Dub] Gurren-Lagann 01

AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH WHAT DID YOU TWITS DO WITH KAMINA’S MANLY GAR VOICE ToT;;;;;;;

*cough* The English dub of TTGL, which premiered on Sci-Fi last night, has been fairly well-received. It does, however, have some SERIOUS flaws, including how Kamina’s voice was cast. Purists should avoid this at all costs.

(Also, Sci-Fi’s online stream of the episode is crap; I couldn’t get past the first commercial and then it froze on me. >_>;;; But refreshing the page eventually fixed it.)

Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Movie in Winter 2008!

A movie entitled ‘Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha – The MOVIE 1st’ has been announced by the latest issue of Megami magazine. The movie, set to release this winter, will be like the first Nanoha series but non-canon, with new designs and settings and such. Nanoha and Fate will still be loli rivals in it (Moetron has ossum scans of the ossumness) but Bardiche, Fate’s weapon, will be getting a female VA this time around instead of the fairly deep male voice it had before.

And all I can coherently think at this point is, SQUEEEEEEEE WHOEVER THE ANIMATION COMPANY IS I WILL SERVE YOU LOYALLY FOREVER!!!!!!!

Yen Plus Issue 1

A while back, Yen Press created a ton of buzz when it announced a new monthly manga/manhwa/OEL anthology. Many speculated that it would not only become a serious contender against VIZ’s Shonen Jump and Shojo Beat, but also possible get the attention of non-otaku with its OEL manga adaptation of the Maximum Ride novels.

Now the first issue’s out, and it’s time to determine if the hype was well-deserved. To be frank, most of the manwha – including the previously unannounced Sarasah and One Fine Day – failed to impress me. But that’s made up for by the fairly good Maximum Ride and Bamboo Blade, as well as the stellar Higurashi, Soul Eater and Nabari no Ou.

For the sake of fairness, I think I’ll do a title-by-title review of what’s getting serialized in the first few issues of Yen Plus, instead of just saying ‘well the magazine was great durhurhur.’ In left-to-right publishing order, we have the OEL and manhwa~:

Kanokon DVD special 2 – Nozomu’s turn

Goodness how I’m behind on Strike Witches and Tsukaima III. I can’t even get comfortable enough this month even to watch the episodes, much less blog them. :( But they will be tended to soon; busy summer job is busy. Anyway–here’s some quick entertainment from the latest Eizou Tokuten specials from the Kanokon DVDs. This time Nozomu is primarily featured.

[Impressions] Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito

I’m not even sure how to start this review. Should I start with a rant about the awful, ridiculously weird ending, or should I rant about the stupidity of some of the characters? Or should I be thanking my lucky stars for the lack of panty shots?

… okay, let’s start with the positives: For a yuri series based on an eroge, Yamibou (as it’s called for short) was not horrible. It did not have a wussy male lead, some of the characters (especially Hazuki) were very likable, and there was some interesting bits of plot in the short-story-type format the series followed. Some of the characters’ situations were cleverly written and managed to be very emotional.

However, parts of the series make be wonder just what drug the producers were on. (mild spoilers ahead; you have been warned~)

Ikasucon 2008 report

I survived another convention over the past weekend. This time it was Ikasucon in Fort Wayne, IN. The convention originated in Cincinnati, but it decided to move to a new location last year. Continue past the break for my summary.

Clannad 24 – awesome story, flat animation

I forgot how much I missed this series, especially in 16:9. I almost thought the OP was brand new, or something was changed about it. But it ended up being the same thing; Clannad didn’t finish airing -that- long ago, but I forgot a lot. Anyway it was refreshing to her “Mag Mell” again, and it was even more refreshing to see something new .. and see something by Kyoto Animation.

So we get Tomoyo’s arc from the game. Perhaps it was predictable, but that doesn’t matter. The presentation was beautiful, and I was quite moved by the final scene in the snow. Whereas the whole episode seemed to move fast, the snow scene took it snow and gave you enough time to get your tearducts warmed up.

However I have to say the animation was just … missing something. It wasn’t as vibrant as the TV series … or wasn’t as smooth, or… wasn’t as curved or shaded. There was something flat about it or just reminiscent of something else KyoAni has done. Well I figured it out right away:

I kinda felt like I was watching Lucky Star.

Bye guys!

I’m gonna be on vacation until August 1st or so. That means no new posts about Antique Bakery or Chocolate Underground, or well, anything. So catch-up is going to be fun!

Anyway, see ya’ll later.

~Janette

Antique Bakery episode 2

This second episode was actually really good, though it lost momentum toward the end.

Onward

Chii losing cuteness…

Maybe it’s my fault for catching up on missed episodes whenever I’m in a bad mood. Usually anime helps cheer me up on off-feeling days, but Chii’s Sweet Home just gets me angrier. I love cats, though, but this series just dictates that I ought to adopt an older cat who’s been trained in most things at the shelter already … and not a kitten who has practically no brain at all.  (Or if all cats act this way, then maybe I should rethink my future pet owning decisions.)