Celestial Being, armed military intervention, GN particles, and Aeolia Schenberg. That’s enough references to make any Gundam 00 fan chuckle under his/her breath. Add in some Lelouch/Zero poses with mention of the United States of Japan and you have CODE GEASS fans smirking as well.
Sakuya’s birthday and the “Ferris wheel” scene. Neither were quite what I was expecting, but it seems like we’re finally at the climax of the series. There’s no doubt about it now: episode 25 will be the finale of this second season.
I’m not entirely sure when it happened, but sometime over the course of this season my expectations of this series shifted far off the quirky comedy that it’s known for.
SCANDAL, the self-proclaimed “Most Powerful Japanese Girlie Pop Rock”, appeared on NHK’s MUSIC JAPAN Shinseki Anisong Special (新世紀アニソンSP) earlier this month. While I didn’t know anything about them prior to today, some of you may know them for performing “Shoujo S”, the tenth opening theme to Bleach.
Anyway, instead of performing one of their songs on this TV special, SCANDAL opted to perform a cover of the ever-so-popular K-ON! ending theme, “Don’t say ‘lazy'”. They’re not quite the Yui, Mio, Mugi, and Ritsu we know, but they are a real-life group of high school friends from Osaka who formed their own band and made it to the big leagues, so it was pretty cool to hear their rendition of this awesome song. The only thing that would’ve made this a bit cooler is a keyboardist for the true Houkago Tea Time composition.
P.S. Anyone else see a bit of ZONE in them?
Hmm, an entire episode dedicated to Tama. Not exactly what I was looking forward to when this second series appears to be only 26 episodes, so here’s to hoping that the last five episodes will involve more of Hayate’s “girl problems”.
When I can’t recall the seiyuu of a character, it usually means they’ve fallen far off my radar. This was the case with Harukaze Chiharu a.k.a. “Haruko”, who’s played Fujimura Ayumi (Shimizu Raimei in Nabari no Ou). Oddly, Ayumi is a seiyuu I normally take notice to, so learning that she plays the student council secretary who secretly works as a maid for Sakuya suddenly put Haruko in a whole new light. See above.
Today I have the privilege of bringing a new PV to your attention (read: made to do). The ending single for the popular supernatural series Bakemonogatari, “Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari” (Your Unknown Story), was released today and along with it, the PV for the song.
Prior to hearing this song, I didn’t know anything about supercell. Even now, I still claim to know nothing except for the fact that they’re a unit comprised of Nico Nico Douga creators/performers. Centered around their composer “ryo”, who was responsible for a bunch of popular Hatsune Miku songs, and their vocalist “Gazelle” a.k.a. “nagi”, who was supposedly a really famous Nico Nico Douga singer before deciding to “retire” from the scene, supercell makes me wonder if the likes of Hollywood would ever look to YouTube to find amateur artists to perform the theme song for their next blockbuster hit. Hella unlikely I bet. However, this does go to show how you can make it big via online videos in Japan.
Being the “Internet people” that they are, apparently many of the members haven’t made any TV appearances yet. As such, it still remains a mystery as to how some of them look. According to Patrik, maybe they’re “ugly” and don’t want people to be turned away from their music based on how they look. We jest, but I’m inclined to think that way since people tend to be pretty shallow in showbiz. In any case, this probably explains why the PV features good looking actors/actresses in a story-like setting. Even if this kind of PV isn’t your thing, listening to the song alone makes it worth the watch.
Oh yeah, Omni said the main girl, played by Fukunaga Marika (福永 マリカ), is pretty cute. Personally, I’m edging towards Kitade Naho (北出 菜穂) but only after seeing her profile shot. Enjoy~
I had to deviate from starting my posts with the usual Hina screenshot this week in light of some “Hayate’s face in Maria’s chest” action.
New opening and ending themes, White Day follow-up to the Valentine’s Day episode, and lots of Hina/Ayumu screentime — this week was full of all sorts of awesomeness.
While I don’t consciously try to start all my posts with a screenshot of Hina, it just sort of happens every time. Anyway, I learned a lot this episode.