Matthew's Anime Blog

DVD Review: Shugo Chara! Amulet Box 1

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 21:37:24 -0500

As y'all know... or probably don't know since I haven't been blogging that much lately... I'm a huge fan of Shugo Chara!, both the manga and anime. Unlike a certain other anime that Satelite made last year (Kami-chama Karin), Shugo Chara! turned out so well that I knew I was going to get the DVDs only a few episodes in -- so there goes my DVD budget for the next few months with the purchase of the Shugo Chara! Amulet Box 1 last week (though I didn't pay the price that's listed on the box since I got it from Amazon), including 13 episodes plus other extras. Now let's go through the goodies inside, starting with this: An almost life-size wallscroll of Amu-chan (much bigger than the Sakura ones I have) -- extremely kawaii as advertised. At first, they were going to include an Amu-chan "big towel," but decided otherwise (I wonder why...). The box includes 4 DVDs with 13 episodes in total, each with a different shugo chara on it, a DVD with special features, a drama/radio CD, and a soundtrack CD. A 23 page color booklet has summaries and staff comments for each episode, character profiles, and an interview with director Kenji Yasuda (Shugo Chara! is the first show that he's directed). He talks about how he was offered the job to direct and also what he does to make the show interesting and easy to understand for its intended younger audience. The storyboard for Amulet Heart's transformation bank is also in the interview. The special features DVD includes an interview with the voice of Ran, Kana Asumi (AKA Asumin), who most of you probably know better as Yuno from Hidamari Sketch. It's pretty much the usual questions about her role, what character she likes, so on, but still a watch for her fans (like myself). The pilot film is rather interesting -- Kenji Yasuda talks about how he made it to show the staff at Satelite what exactly they'd be working on, and also get a idea of the general look and feel of show (such as the textures used for clothing). Some of the cuts were later touched up and reused in the show itself, like the cut above which was used in the OP. The actual DVDs are pretty bare bones but with excellent picture quality as expected, with the first including some interesting commentary from Kanae Itou (Amu), Kana Asumi (Ran), and director Kenji Yasuda on the first two episodes. Kanae-chan and Asumin seem to be quite big fans of Suzuki-kun, and even Yasuda-kantoku said that Suzuki-kun might be the star of an episode sometime soon. Anything on when we might find out what his name is? And that's the first of four DVD boxes to come for Shugo Chara!. Yes, buying the individual DVDs would've been a bit cheaper, but I'm glad that they decided to put out a box every 13 episodes to make things easier to manage. We're just about done with the second batch of 13 episodes -- next week's episode about Nadeshiko looks very interesting (I'll keep quiet for those who haven't read the manga) -- and I'm looking forward to seeing where we go the second half of the show. And, Amu-chan kawaii yo Amu-chan! (of course you'd say that).

Turning First Graders Into Moe Otaku? The Hatena Yousei (Question Fairy)

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:16:00 -0500

And after the Cheetahmen boom now we get this. Last week, somebody uploaded an anime to Nico Nico Douga from a DVD that came with this "First Grade Challenge" material published by Benesse (mostly to promote their own products, of course), where an upcoming first-grader, Yuki, goes through these various challenges to get him ready for school. It seems pretty normal until the second challenge and the はてなようせい hatena yousei -- Question Fairy -- shows up. Check the video after the jump to watch. The Question Fairy's character design is something you would expect to see in a moe anime -- yaeba (cat tooth), loli, mahou shoujo, some blush on the cheeks, seiyuu Megumi Toyoguchi (Honoka@The Third, Winry@Fullmetal Alchemist) and just plain cute... and haitenai (as in not wearing anything under the dress) as well, apparently. Of course, the people hanging around Nico Nico tend to have a lot of free time so illustrations and videos started popping up there and elsewhere. There are now 900+ hits on pixiv (site for Japanese artists. Fanart and such) and 150+ videos on Nico Nico. It seems like the boom has slowed down some, so we'll wait for the next one to come along. I would've liked to have joined in on the matsuri (festival), but since all I can do is compose music that sounds like it came straight out of a 16-bit console RPG there wasn't really anything I could do (^^;;

Merry Christmas!

Tue, 25 Dec 2007 08:50:52 -0500

A Merry Christmas (or whatnot) to everybody out there. My brother woke up a bit later than usual, around 8am (it's usually around 6am or earlier, heh). His big present this year was an XBox 360 of all things. My dad had originally planned to get him a Wii, but I convinced him otherwise (there's already a Wii in the house, no need for another). I thought he would get a DS Lite for him, but one day he came home with 2 XBox 360s and asked me which one he should keep (the other to take back). One with HDMI, of course, hoping that the new model won't break too soon (^^;; Since I've got the only HDTV in the house I'm letting him play in here for a bit. My mom tried to get me to get him one of those licensed movie games, but since he loves RPGs (all he plays on GBA... including the games I've imported) I got Eternal Sonata. Should keep him busy for a while, I think. And Polka kawaii yo Polka :) Anyways, that's it for now. Maybe, if I stop being so lazy I'll write up some thoughts on the shows that have ended (skipping DC2 since it's not even worth talking about).

HDTV Get!, Fall Shows, etc.

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 17:54:37 -0500

Hey, y'all, I know it's been a while since I posted last. Hard to stop being lazy (^^;; Anyways, I finally got around to getting an HDTV as an early Christmas present to replace my aging TV (with the bottom ticker of the Weather Channel burned into it). After trying out a Westinghouse SK-26H240S 26" and returning it because of some issues (buzzing when changing LCD backlight or some picture settings, av sync problems on inputs) I settled on an Olevia 226T 26" and am very much satisfied with it so far. The only thing I don't like about it is the very annoying blue LED showing that the main power switch is on when the LCD is off. Why does everybody have to use blue LEDs?

Shugo Chara! 1

Sat, 06 Oct 2007 05:31:38 -0500

Script: Michiru Shimada	Episode Director/Storyboard: Kenji Yasuda
Layout/Animation Director: Shingo Suzuki	Character Animation Director: Yumi Masuda

Opening: "Kokoro no Tamago" by Buono! - The new Hello Project (and the fanboys go wild) unit's first songs... not really that great, but I wasn't expecting anything great. Animation is excellent — Satelight got quite a group of animators this time around. Amu-chan kawaii yo Amu-chan! Ending: "Honto no Jibun" by Buono! - Better than the OP, lyrics fit the theme of Shugo Chara very well.

Fall Season 2007 Picks

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 23:41:15 -0500

Hey everybody, been a while, hasn't it? (^^;;) Thanks to watching most (make that pretty much all) things on Nico Nico Douga these days it's been easy to skip watching things a second time and blogging (even though I'd watch things like Potemayo 2 or 3 times every week), but hopefully I can get myself back into the blogging routine this season.. maybe. So, in order of broadcast, the fall shows I'll be watching (screencaps from this movie with information on all the fall shows). ☆ for shows where I've read the manga/novel/played the game that it's based on: October 1 (Monday)

Da Capo II (feel.) I don't know much about it since I haven't played or read much about the game, but I'm hoping that it doesn't turn into Da Capo Second Season...

Sketchbook (HAL Film Maker) Not to be confused with Hidamari Sketch, but it looks to be the same kind of relaxing show.

October 2 (Tuesday)

Mokke (Madhouse) Looks like a moe anime, actually a youkai show.. is what it seems to be... of course, I'm interested because of character design alone.. if Madhouse can keep the quality up (^^;;)

October 4 (Thursday)

Clannad (Kyoto Animation) Duh, of course I'm watching this. The OP/ED on the preview DVD were really nice, as expected, but I didn't understand a lot of it since I haven't played the game... And thank you very much TBS for giving us 4:3 pan and scan... guess I'll have to watch it again once it starts on BS-i on the 25th.

Shakugan no Shana II (J.C. Staff) Uruchaiuruchaiuruchai!. I heard plenty of Shana-tan's voice from Nene@Potemayo, now it's time for the real thing. Though I've read Zero no Tsukaima, I still haven't gotten the Shana novels ＿|￣|○ Hoping that it turns out better than the second season of Zero no Tsukaima.

October 6 (Saturday)

☆ Shugo Chara! (Satelight) One of the few shows this season where I've read the manga. Amu-chan kawaii yo Amu-chan! (of course, it's always that). Her seiyuu sounds decent for someone I've never heard of. I'm worried about the animation quality after seeing how Kami-chama Karin turned out, though... Satelight, ganbare!

ef - a tale of memories (SHAFT) Something just a bit different than Zetsbou-sensei for SHAFT this time. The preview looked very, very nice -- can tell they're trying very hard to match Makoto Shinkai's backgrounds from the OP movie for the game. However, as it always is with SHAFT, who knows if they've got their schedule under control. No waiting 'til the last minute to get things done, please (^^;;)

October 7 (Sunday)

Rental Magica (ZEXCS) Heard that the novels are pretty good... and that's about it.

☆ Minami-ke (Daume) Kyou no Go no Ni manga-ka Koharu Sakuraba's manga about three sisters with quite different personalities, which leads to all sorts of comic hijinks. Let's not repeat the "cabbage" incident, Daume (^^;;) I like Asreed's character designs better, so I'm looking forward to their one more.

October 10 (Wednesday)

☆ Kodomo no Jikan (Studio Barcelona) And here's my most anticipated show this season. The OVA was excellent, so I'm expecting the anime to keep the same high level of quality, just like Studio Barcelona did with Nanatsuiro Drops. The script is pretty much finished and faithful to the manga -- the question is whether or not it can be broadcast (^^;;)

Otakon 2007: Day 1

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 13:35:15 -0500

Hey, everybody! I (along with friend) have arrived in Baltimore, Maryland for Otakon. Flight was quite uneventful -- no point in having a window seat when it's cloudy the whole way ＿|￣|○ Anyways, I'll be making my way to the convention center shortly to have fun waiting in line to get my badge. Whenever I can find internet access again I'll post an update (and maybe photos... if my friend has a digital camera). July 21, 12:22am: Well, I'm exhausted after all that walking and going up and down stairs (most of the escalators at the convention center were blocked, and couldn't use elevators), but that's only 'cause I've been lazy :P Anyways, had a good time today meeting up with the people from Japanator and Destructoid -- pretty cool folks. I attended the Mamiko Noto Q&A session (actually got to ask a question) and will be posting a report on it on Japanator (and here) sometime... not tonight since I'm tired as I said. Got her autograph, too. Yay, even though I forgot to bring Ichigo Mashimaro or something for her to sign :) After that and attending the ADV panel (not much to report there) I went to the dealers' room.. and promptly spent a good bit on manga at Kinokuniya's booth. Bought Lucky Star 1-4, Shugo Chara 1, POP's Akazukin picture book, and the first Moetan book... somehow, I think I'll probably end up getting more stuff tomorrow (^^;;) Tomorrow I'll probably attend more industry panels (Media Blasters, Bandai, Geneon, I think), then I'll be going to see a screening of Makoto Shinkai's 5cm (35mm... should be veeeery pretty).. and after that, who knows. Anyways, going to watch Potemayo then get some sleep. Good night, y'all :) 1:13am: What!? Funimation licensed Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club and I was stupid enough to not go to their panel (right after the ADV one)... that's a big surprise there. I wonder how many others who were there had watched or even heard of the show. But what's this about only licensing the first season now? The story is only halfway done at the end of the "first season", so it would be rather mean to leave people hanging. I'll see if I can find a Funimation person today and get a better explanation.

"Made in China" Futago Hime?

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 21:00:25 -0500

Futago Hime is apparently being shown on Chinese TV during primetime as 神奇星球luan生公主 (luan is a Chinese character not in Japanese) and is causing quite a stir on the Chinese side of the interweb among Chinese otaku, according to 「日中文化交流」と書いてオタ活動と読む. Only Chinese-made shows are allowed to be shown during primetime, so how does Futago Hime get around that? Easy -- by saying that it was made in China. Left: China, Right: Japan As you can see, the credits for genga (along with everything else) have been changed from Japanese names to Chinese names. Apparently the show is being pretty much broadcast as-is (dubbed in Chinese, but no edits to the content) with a Chinese OP/ED. The Chinese "production" company behind this is 大連東方龍動画発展有限公司, of which TYO, the parent company of HAL Film Maker, owns a 31% stake in. That could make it "Made in China" in a rather stretched definition, but claiming others' work as your own is certainly out of bounds. Why lie when it's obvious it's made in Japan, and why go so far as to change the credits?

More Manga/Novels To Read

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 15:33:01 -0500

Well, that was rather quick -- order from Amazon.co.jp arrived here a day after it was shipped from Japan :) Here's all the stuff I got this time (thank you, tax refunds): Manga Hidamari Sketch 1-2 Doujin Work 1 Maruhon no Juunin 1 Mayuka no Darling 2 Yuriseijin Naoko-san 1 Usagi Drop 1-2 Twin Spica 11 Kodomo no Jikan 1-3 Mahoujin Guruguru 1-2 (thanks to seeing the anime on Nico Nico Douga) Kamichama Karin Chu! 1-2 Novels Zero no Tsukaima 4-6 (reading for the upcoming 2nd season of the anime) Suzumiya Haruhi no Bousou Suzumiya Haruhi no Douyou Suzumiya Haruhi no Inbou ....I got a bit too much as usual (^^;;) If there's anything you'd want me to write a bit about above post in the comments ;)

Hidamari Sketch 10

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 23:17:19 -0500

It's time for the school festival, and Yuno-chan has spent all night at school trying to finish up her picture, but she doesn't get it finished in time. Even with the blank space at the bottom (interpret that however you want), it's pretty well done. And after that, it's time to go to the public bath and have some fun. Miya-chan, don't run around naked... (^^;;) Well, what to say.... a clearly unfinished episode. Reminds me of that episode of Tsukyomi MOON PHASE that was like a radio drama. I guess Shaft's schedule is pretty rough now, finishing up Negima!? and doing Hidamari Sketch at the same time. One of the staff posted on his/her mixi page that the genga (keyframes) didn't get done until Wednesday, the douga (inbetween frames) didn't get done until 6pm Thursday evening, and the episode ended up getting turned in unfinished. Without pictures to go along with the dialogue and SE, it was a bit tough to know what exactly was going on. The animation that was there was pretty good quality, though... hopefully they'll have the finished version of this episode ready to show on BS-i in a couple weeks. Ganbare, Shaft! Y'all have done a great job up until now, finish it off good, please ;)

Youtube + 2ch = Nico Nico Douga

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 20:58:33 -0500

(cross-posted from Japanator) What do you get when you combine a video sharing site with the 実況 jikkyou boards (where people post while watching TV shows and such) on 2ch? Nico Nico Douga, a mashup that was started earlier this year, is what you get. Instead of just plain comments, Nico Nico Douga lets users leave comments in real-time which scroll across the movie while it's playing, and -- this is the important part -- also scrolls messages from other users at the point in the movie when they left them, making it almost like you're watching the video together with everybody else that's posted a comment. That feeling made Nico Nico Douga very popular very quickly, and soon all of the bandwidth used apparently earned the ire of YouTube, which cut off Nico Nico Douga's access to movies on their servers last month, marking the end of the public beta test of Nico Nico Douga. However, the development team worked quickly on a new version of the site, and in just one week they established their own video sharing service (with much better video and audio quality than Youtube), SmileVideo, and brought the site in back a limited gamma test open to 100,000 users (about 20% of the average number of users per day during the beta test, according to the developers' blog) on Monday. I quickly got hooked on Nico Nico Douga during the beta test, so of course I signed up as quickly as I could for the gamma test and ended up being number 62227, luckily. Now that Nico Nico Douga is back up, I'll give you a quick rundown of some of the more popular videos on the site after the jump.

I'm back! (finally)

Sun, 04 Mar 2007 23:58:06 -0500

Hey everybody, y'all been missing me all that much? Sorry for taking such a long time off, but I guess I needed a break from blogging after doing it for 3 years straight now (anniversary was in February). It ain't as easy as it seems. I dunno what I'm going to do about catching up posting on current shows, but I'll try to post things from the past week or so (I really am this time, really). I'm planning on trying to shorten my posts a bit by going lighter on the summaries (If I can make myself do that) to reduce the load a bit. As y'all have noticed, I've changed the site theme to Hidamari Sketch for now. Quite a fun show. "Yunocchi kawaii yo Yunocchi!", would sum up my impressions so far. I thought about doing Saint October, but I'll probably use it next month since it's running 26 episodes (I think). Also, I've started up a news blog where I'll post news and other assorted things throughout the day (only the news posts will show up on the feed in the Antenna), so check that out and feel free to comment. And... I've started writing over at Japanator, so y'all check it out. My first entry is here. I'll cross-post entries I do over there here, either in the news blog or the main blog depending on content. Added: btw, if you didn't see it up in the news at the top there, I've been coding something the past few days, so y'all check it out and tell me what you think about it. Type in a message whenever you feel like it when you're watching the following (the box above is for making the text big, small, red, etc.). Only works in IE for now (^^;;) Okkusenman (song set to Dr. Wily Stage 1 from Mega Man 2) Idolm@aster - Ami "Agent yoru wo yuku" (tokachitsukuchite!) (Ami has trouble pronouncing "shi" -- ends up sounding like "chi")

Merry Christmas!

Mon, 25 Dec 2006 20:04:10 -0500

A Merry Christmas to everybody out there! Was Santa good to all of y'all? Yesterday, I spent most of the day over at the mobile home park for the Christmas Eve service we did there. We had a whole truckload of presents to give to the kids there thanks to the churches around here, so they had a good Christmas :) Rather worn out since I spent a good 30 minutes before things started chasing around kids that weren't listening to me... seems they think that I'm just the nice onii-chan that comes to play with them, not anybody with authority and whatnot ;) My presents weren't much of a surprise since I picked them all out by myself at Best Buy last Saturday... but that's probably best since my parents generally don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to computers and such (^^;;) Anyways, after all the unwrapping was over this morning I played some Wii Bowling/Tennis/Baseball with my mom and grandparents (yes, I was finally able to find another Wiimote/nunchuk at Best Buy). My mom was pretty good at baseball... beat me once (^^;;) Grandparents seemed to enjoy bowling, though it took them a bit to realize that all you have to do is pretend like you're really bowling and such. I've been working on my bowling technique so it wasn't really a fair match ;) After that, I played some of Rayman Raving Rabbids. Pretty hilarious and fun game, but it can be tiring, especially the first mini-game in the video below, "Bunnies are addicted to carrot juice" (captured using the new TV tuner I got): Those of y'all that have a Wii should check it out sometime. If any of y'all got a Wii for Christmas or before, please add me to your address book: 1627 8945 2353 9113. Post your Wii console number in the comments or e-mail me and I'll add you and send you my Mii :) Besides the Wii stuff, I also got a few anime DVDs: Midori no Hibi collection, MOON PHASE #2 and Shakugan no Shana #2. They didn't have Kamichu or Ichigo Mashimaro there... Anyways, other than playing Wii a lot, I'm catching up with and finishing all of the fall season shows that wrapped up (except for Asatte no Houkou, which I'm watching on BS-i. Couple of weeks behind). I'll try and post something about each of them... think I can do at least that much to make up for being lazy (^^;;) Y'all must be surprised that I haven't even posted on Futago Hime Gyu the past few weeks. Saturday's Christmas episode was really good, so I've got to write something about it ;)

Friday Notes (December 8)...

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 22:42:15 -0500

Just finished up another session of Zelda: Twilight Princess here. I'm through 7 dungeons now and should be able to finish it up this weekend, hopefully. After that I've got Excite Truck to play, but I don't think it'll occupy as much of my time as Zelda has. Zelda >>>>>>>> most everything else for now (^^;;) If any more of y'all have managed to pick up a Wii please register me in your address book and post your Wii number in the comments ;) Anyways, earlier today I stopped by Best Buy and picked up some stuff. No Wiimotes or nunchuks to be found, though ＿|￣|○ Noein DVD 1 and Moonphase DVD 1, $19.99 each. Not much in the way of extras for Noein, but there's a booklet with some cast/staff interviews and a set of 5 postcards with the illustrations of the end cards of the first five eps included with Moonphase. Neko Mimi Mode desu~! I've got Paniponi Dash! DVD 1 on order, so hopefully it'll be here soon. Other than that... school's about over for this semester, thank goodness. Just one more exam next week and that'll be it. I'll still be working over the holidays, though, so I won't have that much extra time to do things like I should... like maybe blog something (^^;;) For now, some news...

2nd Season of Higurashi (via MOON PHASE) As the headline says, a second season of Higurashi was announced. That's all the information for now. I kinda lost interest partway through the first season, so I don't know if I'll watch... Keiji Goto's Next Project Is... A robot show called Gigantic Formura (they probably meant Formula) and is scheduled to air in 2007. Keiji Goto is director, Megumi Kadonosono is original character design, and Hidefumi Kimura is doing script, but gimik isn't credited as original creator. Animation will be done by Brains Base (Kamichu!, Innocent Venus).

Friday Notes (December 1)...

Fri, 01 Dec 2006 20:07:01 -0500

...yes, I'm still here. Y'all have a nice Thanksgiving last week? ;) Like I said, I've been away from the Interweb for the past week and some busy trying to finish Zelda: Twilight Princess. Since it seems to be the thing to do, I did a quick video showing off my Mii and some of Zelda. I'm past the 5th dungeon now, so if you don't want things to be spoiled and whatnot (don't want to see new weapons and items and so on) don't watch the Zelda part: Quite fun so far :) If any of y'all out there have gotten a Wii please add me to your address book: 1627 8945 2353 9113 and post your Wii Number in the comments. I'd like to have more of a Mii Parade than I do now (only 2 Miis). Anyways, I'll see if I can pull myself away from Zelda long enough to actually blog something this weekend (^^;;)

Nanatsuiro Drops Anime (via MOON PHASE, Nanatsuiro Drops Official Site) About all I know about this game is that Noiji Itou (Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu, Shakugan no Shana) is the character designer and that it looks pretty cute. Anyways, Nanatsuiro Drops is set to be made into an anime next year, with animation done by Studio Barcelona (Dai Mahou Touge Punie... I think that's it). Yes! Pretty Cure 5 (via Pretty Cure Official Website Well, as rumored when those character designs went around, there will be yet another season of Precure starting in February. I'll certainly check it out, but if it's like the previous ones I probably won't keep up with it... never really been able to get into Precure. Manabi Straight Preview (via Antei na fuantei diary) Previews one, two, and three. It's looking great as expected. Hoping that ufotable gets this one together ;)