Ah… It’s so nice to watch a bit of animation with a sky high budget. Oh yes… Supercell is already at a godly level in my books, but this one elevates whoever did this video to that level too. If Miwa Shirow actually drew this, I would release small rectangular blocks typically made of fired or sun-dried clay.
Note: This song is from Supercell’s new(ish) album, Today Is A Beautiful Day.
…use this?
Just curious.
I sincerely apologize for forsaking my belief in you during the last two years. I know that I have not worshiped you properly. I have sinned. I beg for your forgiveness.
You are my god. My one and only god.
I ended up reading the Madoka manga. While the art is quite nice, the artist obviously dislike putting too much effort into backgrounds and battles. What’s more, the pacing feels quite…wrong. Then, I stumbled upon Puella Madi Kazumi Magica.
There is one main reason to read this: the story deviates from that of Madoka. While some may see this as a bad thing (the soul gems looked like pebbles and the grief seeds looked like freakier shaped pebbles until chapter 3), I think it’s good that they aren’t tying themselves down with settings which were designed for another plot. What’s more, new readers will have no problems.
Ok. I lied. The main reason to read this is because Kazumi is several shades of awesome. She’s *GASP* intelligent, a glutton in the cutest way possible, and despite having magical powers (being the cannon of the group, this means A LOT), she uses logic and her ahoge of awesomeness to deal with situations. Plus, she’s adorable. 
If you can’t think of her as cute, this isn’t the blog for you.
There are various other good points, such as eye candy and nice battles, thanks to an awesome artist (the writer is not the artist. Instead, the same writer writes for all three Puella Magi mangas). And of course, quirky characters, and some nice comic relief. And fanservice too, can’t forget that. Unlike the TV Madoka, the Madoka manga actually shows blood. And unlike both of them, the Kazumi manga actually shows naked bodies, pantsu, etc. Whether this is a good point or not is up to you, of course, but I certainly don’t see it as a bad thing.
I am a bit worried about the story though. Unlike Madoka, this is considerable more similar to a generic magical girl/shounen manga. Some parts of the story feels off. Despite a good deal of foreshadowing at exactly what Kazumi has lost due to her amnesia, I can’t quite shake the nagging feeling that the story is being made up as it goes along. For instance, in chapter 3 it is revealed that the 3 magic girls who have been introduced are actually part of a larger magic girl team, something that the two girls who HADN’T lost their memories conveniently forgot to mention.
Well, this is only chapter 3, after all. I can’t wait to see what comes after. Bibbidi bobbidi boo~
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…Dammit, moe is getting the better of me.
Sure, I’ve always appreciated a nice pair of legs, but this show spend half the episode displaying Erio’s legs in every way possible. The above scene is the most beautiful display of leg fetishism in the part of the director I have ever seen, and it is simply mesmerizing.
On top of that, her way of speaking and how the protag interprets her is just charming.
And just when I was moeing over Erio, there comes THIS.
Ryuuko has an awesome version of what I consider to be common sense.
Man, that’s cuter than a box of kittens. If I had a nutbladder I would be making some kind of inappropriate comment involving various sound effects with lots of nnnnn in it right now.
The other classmate is also interesting. Her solomn “Good evening. I am sandwich woman.” is simply hilarious. Once again, if I was that type of person capable of such perversion, I would be uttering some phrase involving the consumption of said sandwhich. However, I shall refrain from that. As you can tell from this sudden transference into more archaic diction, I am simply too dignified for such things.
On an unrelated note. Her boke is of a godly level. Awesome.
Anyway, the characters are all kooky and interesting, which is great for this kind of character oriented show. I will definitely keep watching. Now that I think about it, this is the second time in a long time that I’m watching a show as it airs, and just like Madoka, this is by Shaft. I wonder if I’m addicted to Shaft shows now. Speaking of which, I feel like I have to put in my two cents about the ending of Madoka. Despite many people picking apart the faults in Madoka’s logic like my dad picks apart the technical mistakes in “The Hunt for Red October” (“it would be a SCUBA DIVER who goes and hammers!”), I have enjoyed the show. I haven’t quite made up my mind about the ending though. Maybe one of these days my brain will sort itself out, and let me write the reviews for Madoka and Utena.
Before I end this post though, one last shot of Erio’s legs. She is wayyyyy too adorable when she rolls into her futon.
A boy meets a girl, it’s the simpliest story in the world.
However, in the case of Katanagatari, they’re both too old to be called a boy or a girl, so that doesn’t really work, does it?
But I had never thought that of all things, it would be hitting Tokyopop. I mean, they’re only closing down their north american office, but still, this is way too shocking. The first time I learned about what “manga” was was through Zodiac P.I, or Jūnikyū de Tsukamaete. I still remember eyeing the book as it sat on the dining room table, as a present from a new friend.
This led to a love for manga, and regular trips to the book store. Thanks to injustice, us Canadians has to pay considerable more for american books, and in that year, the cost of a single volume of tokyopop manga was exactly 14.97. I usually paid 15 dollars to the cashier, so my change wallet was never short on pennies. To this day, I have no idea how I managed to amass the small fortune it took to buy the shelves of manga. Then, I discovered gotlurk, and began to download massive amounts of manga. I don’t think that I’ve read as much manga since then as that approximately one year period alone. Of course, this led to various other things. In fact, I can confidently say that if it wasn’t for that one volume of Tokyopop manga on my table on my 11th birthday, my life would be radically different, the least of which is the fact that I would not be sitting here and typing this post.
So long, Tokyopop. I thank you for what you have done, and I sincerely hope that you will still release vol.3 of Hetalia.
I had some reservations about Star driver. I mean, it looks so absolutely camp! After I watched the first episode, I thought that it was confusing as hell but funny/pretty enough for me to keep watching. As the episodes went by, it somehow became more and more entertaining. I grew to like it more and more. 
I mean, who DOESN’T like BL fantasies?
Then, episode 15 and 16 happened. 
They were masterfully directed, with gorgeous graphics and a story that is somehow emotional yet still ridiculously confusing.
For a second there I felt like I was watching Utena again, except Utena didn’t make me cry so much.
Calamitous Intent 