Bleach / Miscellaneous / Random Musings / Sousei no Aquarion

Random Musings – Aquarion Season 2? Edition

  • The official Aquarion Blog features this image you see to the side from the Tokyo International Anime Fair with the words “2006 Autumn.” No word yet whether this means that a sequel is in production or if it’s an OVA or a game or something. I’d certainly love to see a second series, but I won’t get my hopes too high just yet. Thanks to Guido and BluWacky for the head’s-up.
  • This is semi-old news, but there’s going to be a Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid OVA coming out on May 26th. It’s supposed to be about a day in the life of Tessa, which would suggest that it’ll be a lot more light-hearted than TSR was.
  • The next set of Bleach opening and ending songs have been announced:
    OP4: 「TONIGHT,TONIGHT,TONIGHT」 by BEAT CRUSADERS
    ED7: 「HANABI」 by いきものがかり (ikimono-gakari)
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    Miscellaneous

    Spring 2006 Shows!

    Spring Season 2006 is right around the corner, and I’ve finally made my picks for the series that I’m going to watch. Before I go into the list, I do have to say that there are tons of shows this upcoming season (estimated 70+) and that this list comprises maybe one-fourth of that. Of the shows I mention, odds are I’ll only end up blogging around eight or nine of them (plus the four series that carried over from last season).

    For a more complete listing that includes the shows carrying over, see the Spring 2006 Schedule page (or the table version).

    Note: All times are given in a 24-hour, relative-day format where times are extended to show which day they belong to. For instance, Friday morning at 1:30AM would become Thurday at 25:30 to show that the episode aired late Thursday night.
    By no means is this list complete, these are just the series I watch/am planning to watch. Check out MOON PHASE for an entire listing, syoboi’s calendar for specific air-times, and AndrewLB’s Spring 2006 Wiki for who’s tentatively subbing what.

    Joshi Kousei Girl’s High
    http://www.girls-high.net/
    Premieres April 3rd, 2006
    Airtime in Japan (JST, GMT+9): Mondays at 25:30
    Airtime in U.S. (EDT, GMT-4): Mondays at 12:30
    Information Links: ANN Encyclopedia, AnimeNfo
    A comedy series about six girls together in an all girl’s high school sounds like a good premise. They’ve also got Kage Kara Mamoru! director Fujimoto Yoshitaka and some solid voice talent (like Mamiko Noto).
    Simoun
    http://www.simoun.tv/
    Premieres April 3rd, 2006
    Airtime in Japan (JST, GMT+9): Mondays at 25:30
    Airtime in U.S. (EDT, GMT-4): Mondays at 12:30
    Information Links: ANN Encyclopedia, AnimeNfo
    Now this show has a really interesting premise: girls who have to choose their gender when they become 17 years old. The title Simoun apparently refers to the airplane/machine that the girls pilot. I don’t particularly like some of the character designs, but I think this show has good promise.
    Strawberry Panic!
    http://www.strawberrypanic.com/
    Premieres April 3rd, 2006
    Airtime in Japan (JST, GMT+9): Mondays at 26:45
    Airtime in U.S. (EDT, GMT-4): Mondays at 13:45
    Information Links: ANN Encyclopedia, AnimeNfo
    With all of the hype around this series, it really needs no introduction. The setting of a all-girl’s academy reminds me a bit of MariMite, except this show has plenty of yuri. That alone should be a good reason to watch this 🙂 I’m also just a bit curious on why Shimizu Ai is voicing two different characters.
    Ouran High School Host Club
    http://www.ntv.co.jp/host/
    Premieres April 4th, 2006
    Airtime in Japan (JST, GMT+9): Tuesdays at 24:50
    Airtime in U.S. (EDT, GMT-4): Tuesdays at 11:50
    Information Links: ANN Encyclopedia, AnimeNfo
    A Shoujo Comedy? Done by BONES? I am so there… I actually haven’t read the manga yet (but it’s apparently being put out by Viz), but this sounds like it has great potential. Now if only Maaya Sakamoto (who plays the female lead) did some singing too…
    First Impressions / Miscellaneous / Random Musings

    Random Musings – Final Fantasy XII Edition

    Since it came out yesterday, I’ve been playing Final Fantasy XII. Even though I’m not very far at all (six hours into the game, not even double digits in level), I really like the game, a lot more than I thought I would based on how the demo was. Some impressions so far:

  • The Battle System – FFXII uses a system where all of the running around and fighting occur fluidly, without having to switch to a battle screen. You control one of your three active characters, and the other two automatically attack. My main gripe from the demo was that your allies did all the work for you, so that all you had to do was just find targets to kill (if even that much). Fortunately, the full game is a lot more interesting because of the Gambit system that allows you to basically set commands for the AI to follow in certain situations (i.e. cast Cure if party member has less than 70% HP). You have to set both a trigger and a command (in the previous example, the trigger would be the ally being at less than 70% and the command is to cast Cure). As you progress in the game, you learn more triggers (you only start with a handful), meaning that your allies kind of get smarter as the game goes on.
  • Ability Progression – FFXII also introduces the License Board, which is similar to FFX’s sphere grid in the sense that you’re moving around a board learning abilities, and everyone has the potential to learn almost every skill. What surprised me is that they require you to learn special equipment abilities on the License Board so that your character can equip the next level of a certain item (i.e. there is are several Sword Equipment abilities that allow you to use different swords). Spells work the same way: you have to have the White Magic 1 ability on the License Board before you can learn Cure.
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  • Leveling – Leveling is a little harder in this game than I remember past Final Fantasies being. Like I said earlier, I’m only about six hours in and barely level nine. But the game hasn’t been hard except for the first couple of areas where you have very little life and don’t do much damage.
  • The Story and Characters – Not being very far into the story, I’ve only been introduced to part of the cast, but I can say that I don’t find Vaan quite as wimpy a main character as I thought Tidus was. Ashe has appeared as a guest character (two levels higher than my other characters at the time), after having landed in Vaan’s arms in quite a dramatic fashion. My favorite characters so far are probably Balthier and Fran (the brash space pirate and his partner). As for the story, the game occurs two years after the country of Dalmasca is conquered by its neighbor. The tutorial takes you through the game during that initial invasion from the point of view of Vaan’s older brother. Wikipedia’s entry does a decent job summarizing the back-story without spoiling anything.
  • Graphics – Not including the title screen one, I think I’ve seen about five or six FMVs up to the point where I am now. A couple of those (like the one where you first meet Balthier) are woefully short. And while the Full Motion Video sequences are breathtaking as usual, most of the cut-scenes are rendered by the in-game engine. Once I got used to the character designs and the color palette, I felt that the in-game engine was doing a pretty darn good job (though there’s obviously not as good as the FMV parts). They’re doing a good job of pushing the PS2 to its limits.

  • In other news, Bleach is now officially licensed in the US. That doesn’t really affect this site at all, but I do hope that it will now generate more buzz state-side.
  • Expect my picks for the Spring 2006 season sometime this weekend or early next week. It’ll probably include Strawberry Panic, NANA, School Rumble S2, XXXHOLiC, Tsubasa Chronicle, and Soul Link among others.
    • Miscellaneous / Random Musings

    Random Musings – The End of YKK Edition

  • The long-running (12 years) manga Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou recently ended. If you’ve never heard of it, YKK is a beautifully drawn, “healing” series. It’s sad to see such a good manga come to a close. Though it may not be for everyone, I would recommend at least checking it out. See the Wikipedia entry and Cafe Alpha for more information.
  • It’s been a pretty busy week because of an exam and a term paper, so I’m still a bit behind. As usual, I should get caught up in the next two days.
  • I’ve decided to drop Nerima Daikon Brothers. The show started off great, and I still love the music, but lately I’ve been having a lot of trouble getting into the show. It doesn’t help that it airs on Mondays, which is typically a day where I’m brain-dead after going through my Physics Lab class.
  • For the people who keep asking about Ergo Proxy, I’ve more or less given up on watching/blogging that show. It’s really because of a combination of technical difficulties, lack of time on Wednesdays, and apathy towards the series in general. Sorry to disappoint anyone. Check out Sea Slugs! and Cinnamon Ass if you want to reviews.
  • On the flipside, I am strongly considering doing a PV-of-the-week feature to introduce everyone to music and artists that I like and that are currently popular in Japan (usually the two overlap).
  • Spring Season 2006 is rapidly approaching! That may still seem far away because most ongoing series are still getting to their final story arcs, but with 50+ animes coming in roughly a month, now is the time to start planning. Probably sometime in the next couple of weeks I’ll write up a schedule and ask everyone for feedback. Compared to the current season, there are a ton of shows that I’m looking forward to (Disgaea, School Rumble S2, NANA, XxxHolic just to name a few). And unlike this season, I won’t be able to even try to cover everything, but hopefully it’ll all work out. See MOON PHASE for a comprehensive list.
    • Miscellaneous / Random Musings

    And Now I’d Like to Hear Your Opinion…

    Today’s poll question is “When Reading an Entry, I Prefer…” and the two choices are “More Images, Slower Loading Time” and “Less Images, Faster Loading Time.” To my complete surprise, the more images option is trouncing the faster load time one. This is actually a very important issue to the site and I’ve been made all the more conscious about it since Jeff Lawson started labeling this site with “Now with fewer screenshots” lol. The poll question is not meant to be considered in the context of how many images I currently use, but instead as a general indicator of whether you prefer more images or faster loading time. Personally, I prefer less images because it makes the page more readable and load faster. However, since bandwidth is less of a problem these days and broadband is almost everywhere, I can understand where the other side is coming from.
    But I’d like to hear your opinion. Why did you vote the way you did? Along those lines, are lots of screenshots or a good write-up more important? What you folks say here may very well impact how I write entries in the near future.