Last month on Katanagatari, Shichika and Togame retrieved Zantou Namakura from the tragic villain Ginkaku. The next sword on the list is Sentou Tsurugi, or the thousand swords. The weapon has fallen into the hands of Meisai Tsuruga, the matriarch of a shrine and yet another foe with a tragic history. What are you going to do now Shichika?
Apparently, he's going to get punched in the face.
Last week on Sora no Woto, a rainstorm assaulted the town of Seize, and the town mobilized to save the day. We also learned about Courier Klaus’ backstory, and he finally became a hero. This week, we meet the old woman Jacquotte, and through her explore Rio’s life. This wraps up a lot of points rather than providing much fodder for speculation, so let’s get underway.
A lot can change in just six months.
Makoto Shinkai’s first true OVA got the attention of sci-fi and romance fans on both sides of the Pacific with its beauty and tear-jerker moments. I was initially somewhat wary of its rarely-mentioned manga adaptation, partly because anime-to-manga adaptations normally suck.
But… This one was different. It totally took Shinkai’s idea and ran it in a dramatically different, slightly more political direction with a very different ending, and it somehow works. Mizu Sahara’s adaptation is just as tear-jerking as the original, but has a less ambiguous ending, which should please the softer-hearted readers. Its original characters could have been extremely annoying, but instead they flesh out Mikako and Noboru’s world quite well. Though the art is fairly weak, especially in battle sequences, there’s a couple of really nicely done color pages at the beginning of the book. It’s a must-read for fans of the OVA and shoujo fans in general.
Continue reading ‘[Manga Monday] The Voices of a Distant Star’
Springtime is supposed to be a time of rebirth… but will it be a healing time for the weary, scarred-for-life anime fans out there who are tired of being fed crap each season? Don’t get us wrong, there have been some really good series in the past 3 or so years, but there’s also been tons of legitly horrible shows.
The consensus at BH is that this season’s fairly lame again, but there are several shows we think might be decent or even good. And since we have more bloggers on board, we’ll get a broader look at the season than usual.
The usual disclaimers: We try not to hate on something too hard without watching it (except for the ecchi trash) and all of this is subject to change. Episode count information is scarce this season, and even definite air dates are unknown for some series, especially the ONAs.
Before I begin, one thing I forgot to write in the catch up is that there is an organization of vampires called Telomere that was behind all of the assassination attempts on Mina. One of the members was a student who lead the charge against the human students in episode 7. I mention this now because they take a central role in the plot of this episode and presumably of the episodes going forwards.
No... onee-chan...
Well, the Vampire Bund has now been established, so a new plotline begins to develop. The episode starts off almost like a hentai, with a young boy waking up to find his “older sister” trying to jump him. The young boy’s name is Yuzuru, and the “older sister” is actually Nanami Shinonome, the former student council president who was turned into a vampire very early in the show. The scene ends with her fleeing after forcing herself to stop from biting the boy.
Continue reading ‘Dance in the Vampire Bund 08 – Near Dark’
To start off, let me introduce myself. My name is Raphael and I’m one of the new bloggers here at Borderline Hikikomori. Pleased to meet you!
Welcome to Wagnaria!
I honestly didn’t think I’d ever recover enough to write a review about this series. I mean. That ending. T-That ending.
After a while, though, I’ve come to terms with the depressing mindscrew end, and have decided to enjoy the show (and its fandom) for what it is: a quasi-psychological sci-fi exploration of characters and “what if?” scenarios. As I’ve said before, Suou captured my attention enough to make me watch the show, but it was also worth watching thanks to the exploration of Hei and Yin’s relationship and the extraordinary plot twists. Close to the end, it seemed like Bones had written itself into a hole, but the revelations at the end of episode 11 pulled things back together surprisingly well.
(A/N: Still haven’t managed to see all of season one, but fandom has spoiled me enough to allow me to put this review quasi-in-context of Kuro no Keiyakusha. Therefore, it may contain minor spoilers for season one as well.)
Continue reading ‘[Review] Darker than Black – Ryuusei no Gemini [MAJOR SPOILERS]‘
First, the obvious: I’m off hiatus. Expect a few fun new things from me within a day or so.
Secondly and slightly more importantly, I got my college plans worked out… and I will be attending school in-state! This means good things for my convention schedule, because I will still be able to attend Matsuricon and Ohayocon each year. Theoretically, I’ll even be able to add Sugoicon, Anime Punch or another Midwest convention, if I can get rides. ^__^ Paneling, especially Anime Blogging 101 and 201, should continue, and maybe I’ll even manage to work with Rakuen, Dave, or others to do a new panel or two.
The bad news is that I have to start classes in the summer… but that’ll be okay, since it’s Japanese 101 and 102, which I could have tested out of but decided against because there’s big holes in my writing abilities. ;_; Sigh.
Thirdly (and even MORE importantly~) Borderline Hikikomori has two new writers! Raphael will start posting shortly, but lvlln jumped in already with a Dance in the Vampire Bund post since I dropped the series. We’re all looking forward to working with them and the fresh insights they’ll bring us!
~CJ
PS – Spring Preview will be up by Monday!
To start, I’m lvlln, a new writer for Borderline Hikikomori, and I’ll be blogging Dance in the Vampire Bund for the rest of this season. You can read my profile, if you wish.
7.5 is a recap episode with no new content whatsoever, as far as I can tell. But I figure this is a good chance to play catch-up, as no one at Borderline Hikikomori has been blogging it since the first episode. My subjective thoughts on the series, I already wrote about on a post in my own blog, so this post will be mainly a recap of the story so far.
Mina Tepes, the loli queen of vampires.
Last week on Durarara!!, the cast explored the concept of searching for something, with Selty and her head forming the main plotline. This week, we get to see exactly the origin of the current situation, and find out just a little more about the motivations of the characters. In some ways, this is the most confusing episode yet.
And this crazy strategy game does not help at ALL.
