Miscellaneous

Introduction – “I Get to Write for Random Curiosity? Really?”

Hi everyone. Nice to meet you. My name is Takaii and I’ll be hopping on board to write for Random Curiosity! I never thought that I would get the opportunity to write for RandomC, but sometimes amazing things happen, right? I’m here to post my thoughts on whatever series I may be blogging, and listening to what you have to say down in the comments. I love reading comments and can’t wait to see what you guys have to say.

The Name's Takaii.

I was exposed to anime back in 2000, when Rurouni Kenshin and Outlaw Star were still the newest thing out in America. Once subtitled anime got more popular, I began watching just about anything I could get my hands on. Anyone remember streaming videos through Winamp? I was able to watch my first Japanese animated movie, Appleseed, off of it. Some of my old favorites that will never leave me are Mahoromatic and Love Hina, with Love Hina being the first anime I watched with the original Japanese voice actors and Mahoromatic introducing me to Ayako Kawasumi (voicing Mahoro, Saber, and Alice among many others). For anyone that watched the English dub, Mitsune’s voice was so bad that I vowed to always watch shows in their original language. And thus, the door to anime had been opened.

For series that are a little bit more current, my favorites from the past few years range from Clannad, Gurren Lagann, Lucky Star, to Toradora and Ookami. While I’m not the most well versed on all the different types of anime out there, I do have a very open mind when it comes to things I will watch. My favorite genres though are romantic comedies, slice of life shows, and those really, really GARR type of shows that get your adrenaline pumping (Gurren Lagann anyone?).

I also enjoy listening to music from anime, especially the OSTs. For the past few months, the most notable songs in my mind are Angel Beat’s Brave Song (GlDeMo Ver!) and Bakemonogatari’s 君の知らない物語 (Kimi No Shiranai Monogatari by Supercell). I’m very open to different types of music, and I would love to hear some of your song recommendations. (Anything Japanese is fine, it doesn’t have to be from an anime necessarily.) From the OST viewpoint, Maeda Jun‘s work on Angel Beats is what’s been on repeat for me while I study. It makes for really, really good studying music. Completely off topic, but I managed to get Eri Kitamura’s signature on Yui’s picture on the Thousand Enemies album (Eri Kitamura voices Yui). I know that she doesn’t sing it, but it feels right having her sign it.

On the writing aspect side of things, I tend to focus on the important events during an anime, while trying to still bring out the gist of what’s going on during the entire show. I’m not going to focus too much on summarizing, and express my opinions on the important points instead. I value any feedback you may have, and I hope that in turn I can entertain you guys to the best of my ability. I’m very, very excited to start writing for Random Curiosity and never thought that I’d be here writing an intro post for myself. I hope that I will be able to provide entertaining posts for you in the near future.

On that note, I hope I didn’t bore you too much, and here’s my formal introduction;
タカイイです。どうぞよろしくおねがいします。 (Takaii desu. Douzo yoroshiku onegaishimasu)
-Takaii

I’m still trying to get MyAnimeList setup, but I’m having trouble recalling everything I’ve ever watched. For what I’m blogging, I’m fairly sure I will be covering Bakuman and Yakumo.

Miscellaneous

Introduction – “Another suspect…?”


As you all know, since Omni’s retirement six months ago, Divine has been covering the past two seasons of anime nearly single handedly, taking on 11-16 shows a season and still managing to get posts out in a relatively timely and consistent manner. However, despite Divine’s seemingly unworldly level of dedication and conviction when it comes to blogging, he is still only one man and can only cover so much at one time. Due to time constraints and other issues, Kiiragi and Prooof are also only able to cover two shows a season, with the indefinitely running shounen series One Piece and Bleach being among them. So, after hearing about how Divine was looking for someone with a diverse taste in anime to cover a more broad array of shows for the site, I decided to offer my help in this endeavor. In doing so, I hope to please the readership of this blog by providing a more broad coverage of anime seasons and satiate my own desire to voice my opinions of the latest anime on a medium other than forum discussion threads.

First Impressions / Kaichou wa Maid-sama!

Kaichou wa Maid-sama! – 25

「陽向と美咲と碓氷くん」 (Hinata to Misaki to Usui-kun)
“Hinata, Misaki, and Usui”

While the title had me thinking the love triangle would reach new highs and lows, this episode turned out to be a surprisingly sentimental one revolving around Hinata. His rivalry with Usui remained completely civil like it’s been, so most of the time was spent fleshing out his backstory further.

Amagami SS / First Impressions

Amagami SS – 12

「中多紗江編 最終章 コイビト」 (Nakata Sae-hen Saishuushou – Koibito)
“Nakata Sae Final Chapter – Lovers”

Sae may have looked really innocent in the wedding dress she sewed and wore for the Best Couple Contest, but the black one with frills, a choker, full-length gloves, and stockings that Miya picked out for her date with Junichi totally trumped it. I just wish they showed her taking off her pink coat to reveal that outfit underneath for even more impact.

Final Impressions / First Impressions / Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi

Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi – 12 (END)

「おおかみさんとマッチ売りじゃないけど不幸な少女」 (Ookami-san to Macchi Uri Janai kedo Fukou na Shoujo)
“The Wolf and the Girl Who’s Not a Match Seller but Still Unfortunate”

K-ON‘s Satou Satomi joins the cast of characters as Himura Machiko and puts some pressure on Ryouko to speak up about how she truly feels about Ryoushi. Modeled after The Little Match Girl, Machiko wasn’t enough to force them together, but did draw out a fair bit of dishonest behavior from Ryouko to make this a worthwhile finale.

First Impressions / STRIKE WITCHES

STRIKE WITCHES 2 – 11

「私であるために」 (Watashi de Aru Tame ni)
“To Be Who I Am”

Much like the first season, the story breaks away from the laid back pacing and picks up drastically in the final two episodes. Mio’s fading powers are one focus, as is the all-out attack on the Neuroi Hive hovering above Venezia airspace. The real surprise? The Yamato has been equipped with a device that transforms it into a Neuroi for the task.