Random Curiosity

「It’s School Festival Day! Time to Have Fun!」

Unspoken anime rule #62 – all series set in high school must have a festival day episode. Good thing too, because I think I just watched one of the most hilarious school festival episodes ever – courtesy of our Comedy Investigation Team.

「棚町薫 前編 スケッチ」 (Tanamachi Kaoru Zenpen – Sukecchi)
“Tanamachi Kaoru, First Chapter – Sketch”

Kaoru Kaoru Kaoru. The inseparable middle school friend who gave my favorite confession of season one after some lustful navel kissing hasn’t changed much since going out with Junichi, and I honestly wouldn’t have it any other way.

「こらえた涙があふれそうなの」 (Koraeta Namida ga Afuresou na no)
“The Held-back Tears are About to Overflow”

Nope, the school counselor isn’t suspicious at all — no more suspicious than if she wore a shirt that says “Hi, I’m Black Gold Saw and I’m Evil” anyway.

「王様の帰還」
“The Return of the King”

It’s pretty clear that neither the mangaka or the director of this adaptation was too worried about unrealistically building up Araki Ryuuichi, but the shaft of light from the heavens as he walked (floated?) onto the pitch may just have been a bit much…

「使い魔、ゲットします!」 (Tsukaima, Getto Shimasu!)
“I’ll Get a Familiar!”

So here I find myself already covering Zero no Tsukaima, and suddenly this show is playing the familiar card as well. Naturally, this can only mean one thing – comparison time! So how does High School DxD’s treatment of the Familiar trope stack up? Tune in to find out.

「革命 exodus」 (Kakumei)
“Revolution”

Well if there’s one thing about Guilty Crown that never disappoints, it would be its ability to surprise. Granted, that’s largely because I can’t see where the writers are going with a story that has a severe identity crisis, but hey, I can’t say I’m opposed to the idea that we have a new antihero protagonist and a new heroine to go with him.

「先輩にライバル。」 (Senpai ni Raibaru.)
“A Rival for Sempai.”

If there’s a series that’s right up there with Rinne no Lagrange in terms of sheer unadulterated entertainment, Ano Natsu de Matteru would be it. The two are quickly becoming some of my all-time favorites in their respective genres — mecha and romantic comedy — which actually says a fair bit in my case since they happen to my two favorite genres too.

「卒業式の戦闘」 (Sotsugyoushiki no Sentou)
“Graduation Ceremony Battle”

I thought it was kind of weird how the preview showed Zeheart graduating right after transferring to infiltrating Asem’s school. Little did I know, the writers had a one and a half year time skip planned within the first episodes of this second arc — in a series that already has two major ones planned.

Note: I’ve been busy with a new job, so blogging isn’t very high on my priority list at the moment. I contemplated just dropping 3-5 shows, but I’m going to try and make time for all the ones I’m currently covering. I won’t get to Ano Natsu de Matteru until tomorrow though.

「素晴らしき家族旅行」 (Subarashiki Kazokuryokou)
“A Wonderful Family Trip”

Given how we’re about half way through the series, I must say how impressed I am with how the story and the characters have managed to keep my attention even though there’s not really much happening.

「ながらへば」 (Nagaraeba)
“As the Years Pass”

So I’m thinking if you didn’t love this episode of Chihayafuru, this is definitely not the series for you…

「二人」 (Futari)
“Face to Face”

So if Steins;Gate can win fan polls for “Best Romance” of 2011, can Another with them for 2012?

「真夜中の少女」 (Mayonaka no Shoujo)
“Midnight Girl”

Whether it’s providing oodles of Zessica goodness from her seductive side to her absolutely hilarious scaredy cat side, utterly awesome super robot action with flashy transparent CG, or combining with the extremely young Yunoha Surool (Ogura Yui), Aquarion EVOL is here to deliver.

「闘争の渦」 (Tousou no Uzu)
“Maelstrom of Warfare”

As the task of writing about Shana slowly becomes more difficult with less and less to talk about, I did think it was pretty interesting to get a good look at what’s going on behind the scenes for the bad guys for once. While there was still enough dialogue to write a small but fairly lengthy book, it did put some logic behind Yuuji’s plan.