Four Flavors of Taiyaki

Special A 16 - Every member is special.

Taiyaki — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 01:14:15 +0000

Flavor: Sweet

So, just after Sakura idolizes Jun some more and asks him to go out with her, he immediately rejects her… and the rest of the episode is spent with Sakura chasing after Jun and him running away from her (with the help of Ryuu and his twin sister, of course). Apparently, Jun doesn’t want to date Sakura because he’s afraid she might become a victim of his ’secret’, just like it happened with a girl he liked in the past.

Anyways, despite Ryuu and Megumi’s efforts to block Sakura’s attempts at kissing Jun, in the end he lets her give him a kiss on the cheek. However, not long after he gets kissed, Jun faints and some time later he wakes up, but with a completely different personality. It’s not the shy and quiet Jun anymore, but rather his other self who possesses a bad boy-like attitude. Ryuu explains to the other SA members that he’s been like that ever since he watched some kind of hipnotism TV program when he was just a child. Ever since then, whenever he gets kissed by a girl, he becomes the other Jun who’s pretty much irresistible to most women (and this is what ruined his past relationship). Ryuu then tells them that the only thing that’s able to turn him back to normal again is Megumi’s voice. Afterwards, Ryuu proceeds to say “good night” to Jun and Megumi gets ready to sing…

After Jun wakes up again, he’s now back to his normal self. Sakura then goes and compliments him about how he’s left her even more impressed about him and how she really likes both sides of his, something that makes Jun feel pretty happy…

This was a pretty fun episode and, hey, it looks like there’s finally an established pairing in Special A, who’d have guessed it! Also, let me say that Sakura is simply awesome… so awesome in fact that she’s already turned into my favorite female character from the show. Looking forward to seeing more of her later on the series.

Next episode: More about Akira and Yahiro… which I guess is okay since lately I just seem to enjoy SA a lot more the less they focus on Kei and Hikari.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei info.

Taiyaki — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:24:18 +0000

The third season of Higurashi (titled Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei) will be split into five OVAs which will get released through the months of December 2008 and September 2009 in both DVD and Blu-ray format. The story arcs that’ll get animated on these OVAs are Hajisarashi-hen (a short novel that was included with the limited edition of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Matsuri), Saikoroshi-hen (the epilogue for Matsuribayashi-hen) and Hirukowashi-hen (the story arc based on Higurashi Daybreak). Here are the release dates for each of the volumes:

Volume 1 (Hajisarashi-hen) - DVD Edition: December 26th 2008, Blu Ray Edition: January 23rd 2009
Volume 2 (Saikoroshi-hen 1) - DVD Edition: February 25th 2008, Blu Ray Edition: March 25th 2009
Volume 3 (Saikoroshi-hen 2) - DVD Edition: April 2009, Blu Ray Edition: May 2009
Volume 4 (Saikoroshi-hen 3) - DVD Edition: June 2009, Blu Ray Edition: July 2009
Volume 5 (Hirukowashi-hen) - DVD Edition: August 2009, Blu Ray Edition: September 2009

Source

Antique Bakery 02 & 03 - Not even JR was like this.

Taiyaki — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 04:34:02 +0000

Flavor: Mild

Honestly, I wasn’t really enthusiastic about blogging episode 02. It was quite boring and the animation was just horrible. It was pretty much filler anyways, with Eiji joining the Antique Bakery staff being the only relevant thing that happened in the entire episode. The rest was just some side-story about a guy who’s also into boxing (just like Eiji) and his girlfriend. Nothing special, really.

Now, episode 03, on the other hand…

Oh my god, what the heck happened here? Two old guys dancing happily in the rain? Seriously, NOT EVEN JUNJOU ROMANTICA WAS THIS GAY. I don’t know what everybody else thinks, but watching this was much worse than seeing Usami having non-stop buttsecks with Misaki. I feel bad for the guys who sat through this thinking there wouldn’t be that much gayness after the first episode.

Luckily, the rest of the episode was more entertaining than what we got on the second one. Chikage was such an amusing character to watch. He looks all GAR and stuff wearing those sunglasses, but the truth is that he’s not really that manly and instead he’s actually pretty clumsy. He joins the Antique store as a waiter, but I doubt he’ll be of that much help.

Anyways, I dunno what the next episode is gonna be about, but hopefully it’ll be something that won’t make me refrain from posting a proper summary. *sigh*

Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu 02 - Otaku raburabu.

Taiyaki — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 03:12:57 +0000

Yes, I want one of these too.

Flavor: Sweet

Akihabara date! Loved this episode… lots of blushing and romance cliches. This, alongside the lack of Yuuto’s annoying sister and the slutty teacher, made this episode much more enjoyable than the first one. I really like the show the way it is now (with them only focusing on Yuuto and Haruka), so I hope none of the female characters they introduce later will end up ruining the series for me. For now, I’ll keep an eye on that pantsu-flashing girl who Yuuto met in Akiba (who I believe is called Shiina).

Oh, and poor Haruka. In the end she wasn’t able to find any PDS (or whatever they were called) available in the store. I know if I were in her situation I’d probably feel the same. Also, I really liked the princess-style carrying scene that followed after this event… it was probably my favorite part from the whole episode.

Next episode: There’s no preview… they just show the title of next week’s episode and that’s it.

D.C. Girl’s Symphony Demo Movie.

Taiyaki — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:12:13 +0000

The official D.C. Girl’s Symphony website has been updated early today with a new downloadable demo movie, which you can get from here. In case you don’t want to bother to download the whole thing, here are some screenshots from the video:

The twins Ryouhei and Kouhei…

The guys with glasses…

And, finally, the guy with long hair and the shota.

…

lol Isn’t that Suginami?

OMG what is Nanaka doing here? XD

*drools* Can’t wait to play this game!

World Destruction 01 & 02 - And the rest of the summer stuff…

Taiyaki — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:02:35 +0000

Flavor: Mild

Alright, this’ll be the last show I’m gonna be following this season. Maybe I just have bad taste or something, but everything else is crap in my eyes. I mean, Sekirei seemed kinda interesting, but all the boobs and fanservice completely ruined it for me. Someday’s Dreamers is okay, but I don’t really have the patience for a slice-of-life series like that one. Natsume Yuujin-Chou’s first episode bored me to death. Kohime Musou is one MAN too short for me to actually be able to enjoy it. I can’t watch any of the sequels from this summer because I never saw their respective previous seasons. And Blade of the Immortal… um, lol Bee Train.

Now, I’m not saying this show looks any better than everything I’ve mentioned so far, though. In fact, I thought the first episode was kinda dull and silly, so I just skimmed through it. The second episode wasn’t any better, but at least it doesn’t really seem like after this it could get any worse than what it is now. Besides, being a videogamer myself, I’m already used to seeing all these generic/almost ridiculous kind of plots now.

And, yeah, the protagonist is pretty much of the “useless male lead” type, but every other anime has one of these nowadays, so no surprises here. Apparently, everybody now prefers to leave the spotlight to the heroines rather than the guys, and nobody wants to see GAR action anymore. Boo.

Also, I won’t bother with the DS game… unless I end up enjoying the anime a lot. When is that thing coming out anyways?

This is what made this year’s Nintendo E3 Press Conference so great… at least, for me.

Taiyaki — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 01:07:56 +0000

“Animal Crossing: City Folk” set for a November 16th 2008 release date!

HELL YEAH

Screw Zelda: Twilight Princess, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and everything else, this is the main REASON I got a Wii in the first place… so I’m glad to see the game has been officially announced and that is finally coming out this year. Hurray!

Well, other than the whole animal city thing and the new add-on for online voice chatting called Wii Speaker, they didn’t really give us that many details about the new features that’ll get included on this version… but I was still pretty happy to see all the stuff they’re planning on bringing back from the previous games on this series, such as the constellations and the Halloween event (which, much to my dismay, got removed from the DS sequel… just like the rest of the real-life holiday events. Hopefully, most of them will also be back on this one!).

Special A 15 - She’s realized she’s dumb…

Taiyaki — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 04:14:51 +0000

Or maybe not…!

Flavor: Mild

Wah… that was such a short date, wasn’t it? How come Tadashi’s date with Hikari lasted a whole episode, while Kei’s gets interrupted halfway? Meh. Well… at least there was still some Kei x Hikari goodness and it also looks like Hikari is finally starting to realize how much of an idiot she’s been all this time.

The new character they introduced this week is called Sakura, who’s supposed to be Kei’s fiancee via an arranged marriage. She affirms that she doesn’t really like Kei, though… and she’s just planning on marrying him since doing so would be of great help for her family’s business. Anyways, both Hikari and her start to get along pretty well, so Sakura goes and asks her as a favor to find out which kind of woman is Kei’s type.

After being bothered by Hikari about the whole thing for quite some time, Kei finally decides to tell her the answer that she had been looking for… simply because he’s afraid she might get in trouble with Sakura if she doesn’t manage to fulfill her promise. Meanwhile, Sakura is seen talking with Yahiro (since, surprisingly, they’re friends and both attend the same school) and supposedly he tells him that Hikari has been lying to her and that she’s already dating Kei. Sakura, being a girl who hates lies, gets incredibly enraged at Hikari and attacks her outside school.

However, Hikari is too focused on thinking about her current situation to pay any attention to the fight. She already got all the info she needed from Kei, but for some reason she doesn’t wish to tell anything to Sakura. She starts crying… and then, suddenly, Ryu and the twins show up behind Hikari asking her what is she doing on that place. Sakura quickly glances at Jun and immediately falls in love with him, shouting that she’s finally found her ideal guy.

Next episode: Uh… Jun x Sakura? Huh?

Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu 01 - Mi-Mi-Mirakuru… oh, wait.

Taiyaki — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 21:40:21 +0000

Also known as… Haruka Nogizaka’s Secret, The Secret of Haruka Suzumiya, etc

Flavor: Sweet

Initial Reaction: Aw, I thought they were going to show the entire OP from the fake anime series… just like in Genshiken.

Yeah, I’m following this one. I guess I simply never get tired of these kind of shows… and, well, there isn’t anything better to watch this season anyways. Everything came out pretty much just as I expected… so it’s like I didn’t really have any major complaints with this since I already knew there’d be an overload of romance cliches and some fanservice here and there. Oh and, sure, Mamiko Noto voices the main female character, but she doesn’t show up in the series I watch that often so it didn’t really bother me that much. Most of the stuff I didn’t like about this episode are things that could easily get fixed on the next one and, uh… I think I’ve finally run out of things to say, yay. I’d write an episode summary, but it’s not like that much happened other than “guy meets girl and discovers her secret”, so this will be all for now.

P.S. The OP sequence wins for having kissing, while the ED fails for reminding me of Hare Hare Yukai… but I guess it’s not really that bad either.

Keep blogging? Yes.

Koihime Musou 01 - No men in sight.

Taiyaki — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:02:41 +0000

Just a bunch of girls and chibis.

Flavor: Sour

Initial reaction: IT’S RAINING WOMEN

Wait, what? I thought this was supposed to be an eroge adaptation? Why the heck is there no male harem lead?! At first it doesn’t really seem like such a big deal, but… seriously, if the male protagonist from the game was so bad and useless that they had to remove him from the show, what can I really expect from the plot of the series and the rest of the characters? Also, the lack of a guy in the main cast totally nullifies any possibility of having romance on this adaptation… which leaves us with, what? Lame fanservice and a story that has been told numerous times before? Why, no thanks! So far, I think there’s only a single series on my anime list that contains an all-female main cast, and it’s probably gonna stay that way for some more time.

Bah, and to think I was actually looking forward to this one.

Also, after noticing this…

I couldn’t help but think of this…

Keep blogging? OH GOD NO