First Impressions / Snapshots

Macademi Wasshoi! – 02

ED: “Pastel” 「パステル」 by Murata Ayumi (村田 あゆみ)
Watch the ED!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Show Streaming ▼

After watching the first episode of Macademi Wasshoi! last week, I had pretty much already decided that I wasn’t going to follow the series, but I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt for another episode. With the second episode centered around Professor Frankum Stein giving everyone animal ears with his crazy invention, and a side story about both the Gods and the Demons going after Tanarot though, I can’t really say I’m inclined to see more. To be fair, this series might turn out a lot better than I’m foreseeing, but aside from the cast and my interest in Erneus (Kawasumi Ayako), there isn’t a whole lot else I’m looking forward to. While the introduction of Miyabi (Nabatame Hitomi) and Synclavia the Siren (Kobayashi Yuu) was a nice change of pace, Tanarot’s high-pitched voice and naive child-like antics are slowly getting to me. I should point out that the TV broadcast is continuing to censor most of the ecchi scenes with claymation too, which went uncensored with proper animated scenes in the PVs. With that said, if you like how this series is going so far, I’m by no means trying to discourage anyone from continuing to watch it. For me though, I really need to start cutting down on the number of series I’m following (or else I’ll end up with 30 again), so dropping Macademi was a relatively easy decision to make.

That said, there was an ending sequence this week, so I’ve uploaded it as usual. “Pastel” is performed by Murata Ayumi, who I only know from her small role as Mochida Hinako in Myself; Yourself. She doesn’t appear to be cast in Macademi Wasshoi! though, so it’s kind of weird to see her performing a theme song for the series. As for the song itself, I can’t really say much about it one way or another, so I’ll let everyone decide for themselves.

 

Kyou no 5 no 2 – 02

Despite the poor feedback Kyou no 5 no 2 received due to its artwork, character designs, and change in cast, I was interested enough to want to see more. Not dwelling on the comparisons between this TV series and the OVA, I still find the jokes here pretty amusing. While the overall production isn’t spectacular, it still keeps me entertained for a good twenty minutes, making it a fun series to unwind with on Sundays. The ecchi-ness picked up a bit this week, causing all sorts of misunderstandings for Ryouta, much to my amusement. Aside from inadvertently walking in on the girls when they were changing, watching him get locked into the Phys. Ed. storage room with a terrified Natsumi was just too funny. After two weeks, I still find Natsumi (Asumi Kana) one of the funnier characters to watch, whether it be her tearful screams, her serious tone, or her adorable “Neee~!”. On another note, I still like the ending song a fair bit, so I was a bit disappointment to find out that barely anyone checked it out. If you haven’t given it a listen yet, it’s here if you’re interested. Going against popular opinion, I think I’m going to continue following this series just for own enjoyment. If you felt you had enough from the OVA though, that’s fair enough. If you haven’t though and are willing to look beyond some screenshots, you might just find a little diamond in the rough.

P.S. This is some serious jailbait.

 

Skip Beat! – 02

If there’s one series this season that stands out a lot to me seiyuu-wise, Skip Beat is it thanks to Inoue Marina‘s portrayal of Mogami Kyouko. Using a voice that she rarely ever does, Marina’s acting here makes me wonder why she’s always wanted to play male characters instead (…something she’s revealed in the past). In any case, it’s quite refreshing to hear her female character voice for a change, which she does an exceptional job with. This week focused on Kyouko’s attempt to get into showbiz after moving out of her apartment with Shou and into Darumaya, where she works in the evenings. Having tormented/stalked Sawara Takenori (Hamada Kenji) of the talent division at Shou’s rival company “LME” for days on end, Kyouko managed to score an audition where she’ll try to impress the panel with her daikon peeling skills. I found things pretty interesting when she ran into the star of LME, Tsuruga Ren (Konishi Katsuyuki), since he discouraged her more than anything else. I had read that things were supposed to get “interesting” between him and Kyouko, so seeing things start off like this was kind of a surprise. However, I enjoy watching how Kyouko perseveres in such situations, so I’m looking forward to seeing how she turns things around. Production-wise, everything still looks good much like the first showing, but I particularly like the comedic scenes where the characters’ faces turn all silly-looking. As things stand now, I find Skip Beat! more interesting than Itazura na Kiss after two episodes (…which only got better later on), so this is definitely one series I plan to keep my eye on.

31 Comments

  13. Is anyone subbing skip beat? All I can find are LQ youtube/veoh subs with go group name.

    I just love Skip Beat and have high hopes for the anime. Wonder how they will end the series since the manga is still ongoing.

    draksig
    Reply

  14. holy crap, a snapshot with 2/3 of the shows surviving. i guess snapshots arent the instant kill posts i thot they would be. ill wait for the next one maybe kurozuka might be there..

    exia
    Reply

  19. @draksig
    Apart from a HQ Thai sub group (as the manga is popular in my country, Thailand), I don’t see any good Eng one either. That’s quite weird. But according to FansubWiki, there are four different groups (Ureshii-Yoroshiku, Batsu-Geimu, Generation NeXt, Osu!) that express their interest in subbing this anime. Either they all have changed their mind or they are just slow workers.

    BTW, it is great to hear that Skip Beat will likely to blog!

    Kaitune
    Reply

  20. May I ask you Divine, are you or Onmi planing on blogging any more of Kuroshitsuji? (Sorry for double ask, but I am really curious about it since it just gone without even appearing in the snapshots like the other series)

    Kaitune
    Reply

  21. HAHAHA!!! us skip beats fans don’t need subs to watch!!! we have the manga as our bible *cough* I mean translation… so long as they keep uploading raws I’m good to go :3…. can’t wait to see the awesomely amazing vegetable thingamabobber trick

    Putang
    Reply

  23. SKIP BEAT IS AMAZING!!! It’s really funny, the manga was really good. I think you should definetely blog skip beat, and yeah things are only going to get more and more interesting! 🙂

    alliecatt
    Reply

  24. Since I had not watched Kyou no Go no Ni OVA or read the manga before, I didn’t know what to expect and was pleasantly surprised with the 1st ep–it was cute and worth a watch. This 2nd ep was really worth it–I was laughing so hard especially during the PE episode. Hope that other’s will watch it too!

    luvbiwal
    Reply

  25. I’m still wondering why they’re using a cover of Zone’s Secret Base for the ED of Kyou no 5 no 2. I like the song and all, but it just doesn’t click with me as much as the original song did.

    tenton
    Reply

  26. The ending song of kyou no go no ni was written by an all-girl band named zone. They had a lot of very good song back then, song that I loved back then were “good days” the ending song itself “secret base” and “sotsugyou”. Too bad they have been disbanded, the basist/vocalist maiko was the one left who continued to perform joining the band named maria (who performed the last opening song for yakitate japan, think it was “chiisa na uta”)

    jp
    Reply

  30. Slight corrections regarding Zone:

    Secret Base was not written by Zone, though it was their signature song, I think in part because it was one of their first songs that they could play live (with them actually playing the instruments). Zone originally started as an idol group, but were reformed as a “bandol”, band + idol.

    The guitar/vocalist, Nagase Miyu is also still in the music biz, but as a solo act. Original member Takayo (left the band in 2003) released a mini album back in 2006 and an album in 2007, so she’s still active. IIRC, the other two members (Mizuho the drummer and Tomoka, the other guitarist) are just normal people nowadays.

    Trivia: The original song was used in a drama, I do believe as an OP theme. I don’t recall the name of the show.

    Even though I think the Zone version is better, this version is starting growing on me a bit. I’ll probably buy the single whenever that comes out.

    tenton
    Reply

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