Random Curiosity

In the past, only the Reader’s Choice poll for the year-end Best of Anime post got an real sort of attention, but I’m leaning towards having something similar every season to see what our readers are looking forward. In any case, I hope the Summer 2010 Preview was helpful in sifting through all the new shows and finding the ones that interest you. I already have a really good idea of what I plan to watch (and of those which ones to blog), but here’s your chance to voice your picks and compare them with others. As always, comments are welcome if there’s anything you want to add about a particular show or the summer season in general.

Note: The same poll will also be available on the sidebar.

What do you get when you combine one of the hottest shows of the season with one of the coolest themes and most distinct opening sequences? The best of both worlds in this exceptionally well-done MAD movie for Angel Beats inspired by Durarara‘s stylistic touches and featuring ROOKiEZ is PUNK’D’s “Complication”. With both of these awesome series coming to an end in the next couple of days, now seemed like the perfect time to post about this. If you haven’t seen this yet, you might be surprised how talented (i.e. hardcore) some Japanese fans are. As a bonus, this video even helps you get Angel Beats’ character names straight if you had any difficulty doing to. Of course, it’s even COOLER if you do a side by side comparison with the original and sync them up, for which I’ve provided the option to do so below. Now how badass is that?

「Promise」

It wasn’t looking good for Sakuragi last time and the preview suggested he wasn’t going to pull through either, so I can’t say I’m too surprised by how things unfolded. More than anything though, I’m just bothered by how it came down to this. An-chan, you idiot.

「迷い猫、決めた」 (Mayoi Neko, Kimeta)
“Stray Cat, Decided”

While I’ve enjoyed the randomness of this series, super robots and all, I admit I wasn’t expecting much more than an open-ended finale to this twelve episode adaptation. To my pleasant surprise, it focused on Nozomi again and had Fumino and Chise admitting they have feelings for Takumi, making it much better than that.

「夏フェス！」 (Natsu Fesu!)
“Summer Festival!”

For an episode centered entirely around attending a huge summer music festival where tens of thousands of people camp out on a mountain, things were surprisingly uneventful in K-ON land.

「夜襲」 (Yashuu)
“Night Raid”

I’ve been wondering what the significance of the series’ title is all this time and it looks like I finally got my answer upon learning Isao’s true motive — the sight of an atomic bomb going off in the middle of the night.

Summary:
As Barragan’s Respira is destroying everything around him, Soifon has Omaeda fight him alone to buy some time while she runs off. Omaeda is able to distract Barragan by running and attacking with various projectiles from the environment.

「儚く強く尊いもの」 (Hakanaku Tsuyoku Tattoi Mono)
“An Ephemeral, Strong, and Precious Thing”

While the cliffhanger last week with the sudden arrival of Reiga was a good one, I couldn’t fathom the possibility that they’d kill off Tsukumo this early in the series if at all, so I wasn’t too surprised to see him saved with the help of Yuki’s God’s Light.

「12 BRIDGE」

The metaphoric-like scenes shown prior to the opening sequence tend to depict this series in a more serious and almost surreal light, but this showdown between Kou and his father turned out to be just as good when the latter experiences a repeat of what started Kou’s life under the bridge.

「なぜか！？の決戦前夜。種島の恩返し」 (Naze ka!? no Kessen Zenya. Taneshima no Ongaeshi)
“Somehow!? A Decisive Previous Night. Taneshima’s Repayment”

After the tragic loss of the Magic Hand to the “Mahirunator” last time, Souta comes back prepared with not only Magic Hand #2, but #3 as well thanks to a promotion they had going on.

Nico Nico Douga users never fail to impress by creating amazing fan-made videos. There’s been a sort of a craze going on at Japan’s popular video sharing site in recent months over creating seiyuu-based parody videos of Durarara‘s first ending sequence, featuring “Trust Me” by Matsushita Yuuya. It’s likely due to how the sequence itself is fairly straightforward with a vertical scrolling of characters, but when you see it with an interesting assortment that are all played by one seiyuu of the Durarara series, it’s still pretty cool to see.

Some are particularly well done, but I find this “Hanazawawawa” one featuring Sonohara Anri‘s seiyuu — the always moe Hanazawa Kana — to be one of the nicer ones. It’s Hanazawa Kana all the time here and I love how this version lists credits for each of the characters to make it look like an ending sequence as well, all played by Kana of course. Some characters that most people will recognize in addition to Anri are Tenshi from Angel Beats, Nadeko from Bakemonogatari, Suou from Darker than BLACK, Zange-chan from Kannagi, and Kobato from Kobato. For a full-list of the characters in the order they appear, see below. Enjoy!

Show Full Cast List ▼

「#12」

GOAAALLL!!! God damn, I felt the manly tears coming out even though the game was far from being over. After all the struggles and criticism ETU’s endured, it’s about time they proved to everyone that Tatsumi wasn’t all talk when he said he’d make this league interesting again. Take that you non-believers!

「凄絶なる反撃」 (Seizetsu Naru Hangeki)
“The Violent Counterattack”

It was no holds barred with everyone unleashing everything they had to whittle away Father’s remaining souls and make him reach the breaking point, but they had to first survive a huge blast that took out a huge chunk of Central headquarters.

Rikkyo University history major Mizuno Saaya makes her major music debut with the opening theme to Kaichou wa Maid-sama, “My Secret”. She actually qualified in a vocal audition held by Smile Company back in 2004 and has appeared in magazines as a “reader model” (a normal reader who gets featured in issues for being exceptionally pretty), but only now is she really taking center stage with a record label from Geneon Universal Entertainment. While simple, the PV for this song pretty much speaks for itself on why 20-year-old Saaya has graced the pages of various magazines. However, I’m just as impressed by her singing ever since I first heard this song as the opening theme of the anime. Admittedly, I had absolutely no idea who she was then, which given how this is her major debut explains why that is. As a member of Smile Company, she’s in the same agency as ELISA, whom is equally dazzling with her angelic-like voice. Having listened to Saaya’s first single for a while now, I find her voice really pleasant on the ears and am quite fond of the second track “Good Day”. Anyway, be sure to check out her official site for a really adorable picture of her. The single “My Secret” was released back on May 26th and like most limited editions, included the PV above with it.

I wouldn’t have known that the ending theme to Kaichou wa Maid-sama was performed by a visual kei rock band had I not seen this PV, so that sort of goes to show how much an artist’s appearance really matters to me. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not into the visual kei look whatsoever despite how the flamboyant fad caught on since the 1980s, but that doesn’t prevent me from enjoying heidi‘s seventh single and major debut release “Yokan” either. When I first heard this song three months ago with the badass Usui Takumi-centered ending sequence, the lead in to the first verse immediately caught my attention. (Well that, and the shirtless Usui that came with it.) I still didn’t think much of the song after that, but it gradually grew on me more and more over the weeks. What I found most impressive was their vocalist Yoshihiko’s range, which you can sort of get a feel for in this song before he starts singing his lungs out. One of the other two songs on this single, “Kodama”, gives off a better impression of his singing ability when he’s not doing that, which to me sounds a lot better in comparison. In any case, this single was released back on May 26th and along with the limited edition is the PV you see above. Enjoy.