The New Matthew’s Anime Blog

Spring Season Update

Okay, we’ve made it halfway through the spring season! I’m pretty happy with how things have turned out for most of the stuff I’m watching so far, both what I’m blogging and what I’m just watching. Let’s do a quick rundown of what I’m watching (for the shows I’m blogging I’ll keep it short since there’s no reason to repeat myself):

Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu
KyoAni quality, as usual

ARIA The NATURAL
Nothing’s changed from the first season, which means it’s very good and extremely soothing to watch Now when are we going to see Ai-chan again?

School Rumble 2nd Semester
Pretty fun for the most part, even with the changes in staff and seiyuu. Nothing much to say other than that

Utawarerumono
Very good so far. Some interesting story so far with plenty of questions left to answer… who is Hakuoro? What the heck is happening at the end of the OP?… And why are people in the jikkyou saying that the ED is a spoiler? Besides that, Aruru and Eruru are super cute. If I were to rank my favorite characters this season they’d be up there (with Aruru >>> Eruru). And it’s all animated very well. Estimates in the jikkyou went up to 500Fate for the battle there in episode 5

Simoun
The overall story’s not really moving thanks to Nevilile refusing to come out of her room, but the focus on relationships for now makes it interesting. I’ve gotten to like Aeru over the past couple of episodes (which I haven’t blogged, I know…). Rimone is still cute as ever, still snacking away every episode Animation quality is more stable now, so I’m okay with it.

Animal Yokochou
It’s typical Aniyoko, not much else to say here. Still Kuu-chan >>> Ami-chan for me. The jikkyou gets a bit out of control when Kuu-chan shows up (^^;;)

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
They’re sure cute, but they’ll kill you (((( ;ﾟДﾟ)))ｶﾞｸｶﾞｸﾌﾞﾙﾌﾞﾙ That about sums it up. Unlike a certain other blogger who shall not be named, I like to watch scary stuff Anyways, now in the Watanagashi part… spoiled how things end up just like the onikakushi part. That was scary (((( ;ﾟДﾟ)))ｶﾞｸｶﾞｸﾌﾞﾙﾌﾞﾙ I was fooled by the Mion/Shion twin thing just like Keiichi was… seems Mion is rather jealous of the attention Shion’s giving Keiichi, though (((( ;ﾟДﾟ)))ｶﾞｸｶﾞｸﾌﾞﾙﾌﾞﾙ. Have I shook in terror enough?

Magical Pokan
One of the surprises this season. I love slow-paced shows like this, and good quality animation and cute characters that aren’t exactly all that bright make it fun to watch every week

Inukami!
After the shock of the first two episodes it’s calmed down to more normal stuff for the most part. Well, last week there was that whole Keita getting stuck to everybody after he ate that cake laced with poison that Tomohane was going to feed to Youko and getting serious indigestion (^^;;) Anyways, I’m enjoying Yui Horie as Youko a lot Hopefully Seven Arcs can get things together animation-wise and show us some spectacular battles like they did in Nanoha.

Hime-sama Goyoujin
Okay, so we can pretty much forget about this making any sense Mostly watching this one for the cute characters and seiyuu — Ryoko Shintani’s perfect as the idiot in Himeko, Ui Miyazaki is cute as Nana, Miyukichi is great as Sobana (love the puppet show), so on.

Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club
A pretty well done mahou shoujo show, though you have to get used to the seiyuu. Sasami’s seiyuu is getting better every time, so hopefully the rest will follow. I’ve enjoyed it every week so far

Fushigiboshi no Futago Hime Gyu!
Do I really need to say that I really, really like it?

Yoshinaga-san’chi no Gargoyle
One of my favorites of the season as y’all can probably tell. Futaba@Chiwa Saitou and Gar-kun@Norio Wakamoto make a great combo, then there’s Lili@Nana Mizuki, not to mention the stories are the kinds I’m rather weak to, so on, so forth

Yumetsukai
Pretty enjoyable so far, especially the episodes with the “bad endings”. Rinko@Kei Shindou is cute and fun to watch along with her big sister Touko, Tachibana (lolicon), and the recently added Satoka@Mamiko Noto. But can’t they use something besides the Dream Cyclone (and the virgin check that goes along with it)?

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Tuesday Notes (Early Edition)… Stuff!

Good evening… morning… whatever. I seem to have already gone nocturnal. That’s normal in the summer for me, but that was before I got a job and all (^^;;) Things have gotten a bit more noisy around here thanks to one of my sisters coming home for the summer. She’s turned into the ojou-sama type… yesterday she ordered me to move one of the beds (bottom bunk but not really bunk bed) from my room into another room where she’s taken up residence since she absolutely must have her own room… Where did I go wrong as an onii-chan?

Putting that aside for now, the stuff I ordered from Amazon.co.jp came in yesterday morning before I left for work. Here you go:

The manga I ordered: Asatte no Houkou 1 & 2, Twin Spica 10, Ichigo Mashimaro 4, Hayate no Gotoku 1 & 2, and Chitose Get You!! 3. Speaking of Chitose Get You!!, there’s a second drama CD coming out next month. Cast for the three main girls: Chitose@Yui Horie, Hinako@Rina Satou, Misaki@Mamiko Noto. Dang, that’s rather high quality there

And novels: Yoshinaga-san’chi no Gargoyle 1-3, Kami-sama Kazoku 1 & 2, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu, Suzumiya Haruhi no Tameiki, Suzumiya Haruhi no Taikutsu, Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoushitsu, Zero no Tsukaima 1 & 2. Reading Kami-sama Kazoku first since the anime starts this Thursday.

And lastly, the Alice in Wonderland picture book illustrated by POP.

  
Extremely cute as you can see

If anybody wants me to blog any of the stuff shown here I’d be glad to do it, so just leave a comment

Tuesday Notes…

It’s OVER!!… for this semester, at least. It won’t all be over until the university offers all the classes I need to graduate… ahem… Anyways, after the Korean final at 8am this morning (after getting 3 hours of sleep) I went with the teacher and classmate to a Korean restaurant in Duluth and had quite a big meal (dishes covered the whole table), so I’m probably going to nap here in a bit. Catch up afterwards Anyways, a quick piece of news that’ll be sure to make some people happy….

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New Negima! TV Anime This Fall (via MOON PHASE)
As predicted, a new Negima! TV anime will be starting this fall. Shaft and Gainax will be teaming up to produce animation with Paniponi and Tsukuyomi director Akiyuki Shinbou taking the helm. Seems like it’ll be running on TV Tokyo (we’ll have to see if they can get around TV Tokyo’s rather unpredictable rules as regards to service…). Hopefully they’ll get it right the 2nd time around

Monday Notes…

A good Monday morning to those that are up early. Thanks for being patient with me last week — I was really feeling the pressure to play piano halfway decently for my friends’ wedding so I spent a good bit of my time practicing up until the last minute. Thankfully, it went better than I thought it would

Anyways, no exams for me today, just work this afternoon. My Korean exam is tomorrow at 8am, and after that I’ll be going with some classmates and the teacher to Atlanta to visit some Korean shops and such, and I don’t know when we’ll be getting back. When I do get back I’ll probably be too absorbed in getting the latest e3 news to do much here — Sony’s press conference is today at 4pm Pacific (7pm Eastern) and Nintendo’s is tomorrow at 9:30am Pacific (12:30pm Eastern). I’ve been slowly posting some more on my other neglected blog, so those that are gaming-inclined and Nintendo fans might want to check it out

Getting back on topic, I got paid last week so I’ve done a bit of shopping at Amazon.co.jp. Here’s what I got:

The first 4 volumes of the Suzumiya Haruhi novels which I am going to try my best not to read through as soon as I get them…
Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu
Suzumiya Haruhi no Tameiki
Suzumiya Haruhi no Taikutsu
Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoushitsu

Kami-sama Kazoku 1 & 2 – Anime starts next Thursday. If Amazon is quick as they usually are I should be able to read before it starts.
Zero no Tsukaima 1 & 2 – Starts this summer so I figure I’ll read up a bit. There’s a promo movie up on the site now, btw.
Yoshinaga-san’chi no Gargoyle 1-3 – Just about forgot to get these (^^;;)

Twin Spica 10
Chitose Get You! 3
Hayate no Gotoku! (Hayate the Combat Butler) 1 & 2 – Recently in the news since Viz licensed it. Heard good things about it so I’m checking it out.
Ichigo Mashimaro 4 – Since I forgot to get it last time I ordered stuff…
Asatte no Houkou 1 & 2 – Anime starts this fall. Sounded interesting so I’m checking it out.
Fushigi no Kuni no Alice – Picture book of Alice in Wonderland illustrated by POP (Moetan), which means it should be really cute. Good to have in case I end up talking to kids about Japanese again, too.

By the way, I know I’ve been slacking with blogging Yumetsukai and ARIA The NATURAL — I’ve been enjoying watching both, but with the large number of shows I’m watching on the weekends it’s hard to do everything. Futago Hime Gyu!, Yoshinaga-san’chi no Gargoyle, and Haruhi take precedence in blogging for now. And I think that’s about all I’ve got for now

Monday Notes…

Is it really already May? Time’s sure flying around here… Today was the last day of classes this semester at UGA. Had the Korean oral exam today and did pretty well — made one silly mistake, though

Anyways, stuff came in today:

We have: The OP for Fushigiboshi no Futago Hime Gyu!, “Kimi no Ashita” by FLIP-FLAP. Fushigiboshi no Futago Hime DVD #8, which means…

  
Patto tatata run pata, patatata run patata~. The second ending for Futago Hime starts with this volume. Pretty much a moe song (萌えEDｷﾀ━━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━━ ！！ moe ED kita—! would be the standard line in the jikkyou when it started) — lyrics make no sense, the song stays in your head, and the animation is much, much too cute. If Fine, Rein, Sophie, Leonne, and Miruro sang the ED for Gyu! people’d say the same thing instead of 消音 shouon “mute”

…and lastly, Mother 3 for GBA. Excuse me while I play it for a bit here

Tuesday Notes…

Already feels like summer here, and that means that the end of this semester is coming up. The last day of classes is next Monday, and the last exams are the Tuesday after that. My Korean exam (only actual exam I have to show up to take) would be on that last day starting at 8am… thank you very much Anyways, I’ll be glad to be done with things. I will be working over the summer, though I haven’t decided how much or what my hours will be yet, but since I won’t have to worry about classes I should be able to do a bit more here — but only believe that when you actually see it happen

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Mamotte! Lolipop TV Anime
From Moonphase. A CD release schedule seems to confirm that the anime will be starting this summer — the OP is apparently going to be out in August. I’ve glanced at the manga in Nakayoshi, though I can’t recall what it’s about as of this moment (have to look through it when I get home).

Zero no Tsukaima Main Cast
Also from Moonphase. These names should be familiar to a good bit of you — Rie Kugimiya is the tsundere lead of the show, and the main guy would be Satoshi Hino. Yup, Shana and Yuji from Shana in what seem to be similar roles. If possible I’d like to read some of the novels before it starts so I can at least say “I’ve read it” for one show (^^;;)

Cartoon Network, Viz Launch Free Broadband Service
From ANN. I figured we’d see something like this sooner or later, and with AOL and the major American TV networks starting up their own free online on-demand video services the time seems to be ripe for it. I see that Zoids Genesis is among the shows to be offered eventually. Given the target audience, I would think only a dubbed and probably heavily edited version (no fishing for Le Mii) would be offered. Oh well…