Archive for November, 2009

and it goes by the name of JLPT1.

still got a heapload of vocabs (語彙) to study/memorize, those with very subtle nuances (like telling the difference between 活気,活躍,活動,活発, and 活用, how they’re used) especially, and re-memorize MOAR kanjis. They’re making my brain bleed

I’m confident with my reading/grammar, but have to make one last quick review of the grammar patterns just to make sure. My listening skills however, is still poor as ever. I can see myself flunking this right now, but ahh negative thoughts go away. Every bit of point will help, so I just have to do my best.

頑張れ！ファイト！

6 more days before doomsday, may the force be with us all.

Related posts:

1. The Final Countdown Before the JLPT1 Doomsday
2. JLPT1 Left Me Devastated
3. Learning Nihongo, One Sense at a Time

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Four out of five reviewers recommend Oishinbo

The New York Times published their Graphic Novels Gift Guide last week, but it gets no link from me because it included no manga whatsoever. It’s as if the folks at the Times didn’t know what manga was (which we suspect is indeed the case, based on the annotations to their best-seller lists.)

This could not stand, so alert manga bloggers David Welsh and Erica Friedman started a movement. A hashtag movement. On Twitter. And by the end of the holiday weekend, manga gift guides were blossoming all over the internet. David and Erica both have comprehensive posts linking to all the gift guides, so I won’t duplicate their work here, but I do want to thank them for spearheading this project and giving us something to do besides digest Thursday’s dinner. And check out those gift guides; if nothing else, you will probably find plenty of ideas for your own wish list.

Matt Thorn has some sharp words for tin-eared translators at his blog.

Gottsu-Iiyan shares some memorable Takehiko Inoue art at The Eastern Edge.

At Good Comics for Kids, Lori Henderson lists the latest kid-friendly comics and manga, and at Comics Village, the reviewers pick the best of last week’s new releases.

Lori also rounds up the week’s manga news at Manga Xanadu, and Erica Friedman does the same for the world of yuri at Okazu.

David Welsh thanks publishers in advance for the awesome manga he hopes they will be licensing in 2010.

American Shonen Jump will stop carrying Yu Yu Hakusho and Yu-Gi-Oh! GX as of the January issue, although new volumes of the latter will continue to appear in book form.

Sesho discusses what he doesn’t like about Osamu Tezuka’s manga.

What were the best kids’ manga of 2009? Kate Dacey is taking a poll at The Manga Critic.

Like Wile E. Coyote, manga characters seem to be able to absorb a lot of violence without any visible damage. In his latest comiXology column, Jason Thompson explains how that works, exactly.

The latest NY Times Graphic Books Best-Seller List is up, and Vampire Knight is still at the top.

At Extremely Graphic, Sadie Mattox puts together a witty Thanksgiving manga menu.

Amazon has nominated the cover of vol. 9 of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service for a best cover of the year award.

Becky Cloonan reports back on her trip to Japan—yes, the same one that Deb Aoki, Queenie Chan, Svetlana Chmakova, Dee, and a heap of other folks went on—and she has pictures, too.

Yaoi Generation is offering a 30% discount on books ordered between now and December 1; click the link for details. (Hat tip: The Yaoi Review.)

Job board: Kuriousity is looking for a yaoi light novel reviewer. No pay, but you do get review copies.

News from Japan: ToLoveRu artist Yabuki Kentarou will start a manga series based on the light novel Mayoi Neko Overrun. The latest volume of One Piece had a record-breaking print run of 2.85 million, while creator Eiichiro Oda mused about the eventual ending of the series. Peach-Pit is bringing Shugo Chara to a close, while Afterschool Nightmare creator Setuna Mizushiro is launching a new series. The funeral of Yoshito Usui, the creator of Crayon Shin-Chan, was held today in Tokyo.

Reviews: AstroNerdBoy has a nice overview of the entire Tsubasa series and its connections to other CLAMP series at his anime and manga blog. And the Manga Recon team has a fresh set of Manga Minis to start off your post-holiday week.

Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 10 of Angel Diary (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
A Library Girl on vol. 4 of Antique Bakery (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 8 of Apothecarius Argentum (Comics Worth Reading)
Tangognat on vol. 5 of Aria (Tangognat)
Connie on vol. 5 of Arm of Kannon (Slightly Biased Manga)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Beast Master (Comics Worth Reading)
James Fleenor on vol. 1 of Biomega (Anime Sentinel)
James Fleenor on vol. 1 of Black Bird (Anime Sentinel)
Shannon Fay on Boys Love (Kuriousity)
Lori and Krissy Henderson on vols. 1 and 2 of Choco Mimi (Good Comics for Kids)
Lissa Pattillo on Color (Kuriousity)
Michelle Smith on vols. 1-5 of From Far Away (Soliloquy in Blue)
Sesho on vol. 5 of Fullmetal Alchemist (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
Connie on vol. 2 of Future Diary (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kris on vol. 1 of Il Gatto Sul G (Manic About Manga)
Connie on vols. 6 and 8 of Gimmick (Slightly Biased Manga)
Diana Dang on vols. 1 and 2 of Go Go Heaven! (Stop, Drop, and Read!)
Deb Aoki on GoGo Monster (About.com)
Connie on GoGo Monster (Slightly Biased Manga)
Gia on vol. 1 of Hero Tales (Anime Vice)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 2 of Jack Frost – The Amityville (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 6 of Legend (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vols. 15-19 of Nana (Comics Worth Reading)
Sesho on vol. 5 of Negima (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
AstroNerdboy on vol. 24 of Negima (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Ed Sizemore on vol. 2 of Nightschool (Comics Worth Reading)
Justin Colussy-Estes on Oishinbo: Ramen & Gyoza (Comics Village)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Rin-ne (Comics Worth Reading)
Michelle Smith on vol. 4 of Very! Very! Sweet (Soliloquy in Blue)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 5 of Very! Very! Sweet (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Connie on vol. 7 of We Were There (Slightly Biased Manga)
Justin Colussy-Estes on vol. 19 of Yakitate!! Japan (Comics Village)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 4 of Yotsuba&! (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 5 of You’re So Cool! (Kuriousity)

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At this moment I wasn’t sure Kobato could read…

After overcoming great technical difficulties (a storm knocked my internet out for THREE DAYS) here I am with the fifth installment of Kobato. This episode was actually really touching and didn’t have any characters from other series popping up  at all. I feel like that made this a much stronger episodes because I finally was able to separate this series from other CLAMP works in my head. Not that I don’t love the other series but I kept feeling like there was some hesitation on CLAMP’s part to really make this series at all if it was just going to lean back on other characters.

Anyway this is the first episode that made me weepy despite being kind of predictable. Maybe it’s just a firefly thing. In this episode Kobato practices reading out loud, finally meets someone who doesn’t like her immediately, makes many bad guesses, stands up to thugs, and has the fireflies bring hope to an old man.

I forgive Kobato for being bad at reading to kids, it’s actually pretty difficult sometimes.

This episode starts out with Kobato working in the nursery. The kids want her to read a story (The Fireflies Light) and she become ridiculously nervous and clumsy about it. She drops the book, skips pages and seems to have more difficulty reading than anyone with public school education past grade 6 should have. Instead of watching Kobato fail for more than 30 seconds we are shown Sayaka-sensei receiving a call.

It’s her pimp calling!

As Iroyogi-san looks on the call seems pretty serious. We’re shown a glimpse inside the schools balance books as well and everything seems to be in the red. Poor Sayaka, what have you done?

I just noticed her pants underneath the apron >.< It’s bad enough she’s wearing pink with pink hair…

Kobato, the great disruptor, comes to Sayaka-sensei and asks her if she can borrow the book to practice reading to the kids. Considering that in the shots before all the kids were sitting quietly it probably is easy but maybe Kobato has reading issues because she has no memory…

She seems to have no trouble reading when by herself.

Kobato settles in with the book and starts to read the story out loud when an old man comes down and interrupts her.

Get off my lawn — I mean stop reading that book!

This man is irrationally angry about her reading aloud to herself. She naturally stops but then follows him back to where he’s sitting to pry into his life. *shakes head*

What’cha doing?

She inappropriately runs up to him and asks him if he’s homeless. He gets pissed off and walks away from her and so she goes home to read the book somewhere that others can’t bother her.

Iroyogi is ready to give her no points for today.

In the morning Kobato runs all the way to the nursery because she’s super late having overslept as usual. Instead of smiling faces though she sees three thugs who are standing in the courtyard.

You gotta be pretty bad ass to steal from 4 year olds.

Kobato gets pushed around and doesn’t really understand what’s going on. Even when Fujimoto appears and they attack him she kind of just stands around being shocked.

Guard dog to the rescue!

Sayaka-sensei steps out and tells them never to come to the nursery during daytime hours ever again and that she has everything under control. The lead thug asserts that if she just paid them they’d leave her alone. I disagree, no thug has ever just gone away after being paid but that was a good try Mr.Thug, you almost had me there.

I’m not sure she understands but I really felt proud of Kobato.

Kobato stands in front of Sayaka trying to protect her, even Fujimoto is a bit surprised. Toshiko, who you may remember from previous episodes, pretends to cry for a police man to come and seeing trouble brewing the thugs leave.

“Don’t you have something better to do than bother old men?”

We don’t know what happens to Sayaka-sensei because Kobato doesn’t stick around after work instead she finds the man on the bench and starts bothering him about the book again. Naturally he gets even more pissed off and leaves again. Kobato goes home dejected but I’m not sure why she expected anything else to occur.

YOU’RE NEIGHBORS!?

Kobato is as surprised as I am that Fujimoto lives next to her. He tells her that the man she’s been bothering is the author of the book she’s holding and Kobato wonders why he would hate his own book but since he stopped writing after that book it must have been something traumatizing.

This story gave me Chobits flashbacks because of the “A Person Just For Me” story.

Kobato reads us the story. It’s a pretty typical kids story, especially for Japanese stories. A firefly lives alone in the dark for so long he can no longer remember that he is a firefly. He sees a glowing lady firefly and wonders what she is. She teaches him how to glow again and they fly off into the night. Very cute.

What the hell are you doing? I thought you couldn’t read!

The next day Kobato is up at the crack of dawn at the library doing some hardcore research on fireflies. I don’t think fireflies are that complicated but whatever floats her boat I suppose.

Third time is a charm.

This time when she goes back to the man she doesn’t bother him or imply that he’s homeless but simply tells him to meet her on nearby riverbank tonight and then goes off on her merry way.

Do not try to meet strange men at night, your results may vary.

Because this is a TV show he actually shows up. He wonders how she knew that this was the place his ex-girlfriend wanted them to go. Nice one Kobato! Seems your research and stalking have actually paid off ^^b

“Not now I have a headache”

We’re shown a flashback of the man’s youth while he was writing the book. His girlfriend did the pictures and he simply wrote the story and was busy every second of his waking life. She kept bothering him to see the fireflies in this specific riverbank. When he did get time, on the way to the river, she was in an accident.

I guess she broke up with him because he was a jerk.

I don’t think she’s dead since only her eyes were bandaged but I guess now that she’s blind and can see his true insides she doesn’t want him? In the present the old man is angered by Kobato’s actions and he starts to leave, as Kobato chases after him she falls.

Wet leaves + Kobato = not a good time.

He picks her up and the book falls out of her bag. He looks up to see the path before them.

And realizes he’s seen it before…

His ex-girlfriend came here, to this exact place to draw the pictures for his book. This is what she wanted to show him all along.

What did one firefly say to the other? — uh, nevermind

They see one firefly light up, and then another and they fly off together into the sky just like in the story. And because that wasn’t cinematic enough these two firefly cause hundreds of others to glow around them.

This actually happens though so I forgive you overzealous production team!

Kobato doesn’t just get to see the beautiful fireflies though she also gets…

a brand new green glowy candy!

When she returns to the place the old man used to sit it’s now empty. He’s found his “glow” again and has begun to write new stories. Iroyogi congratulates her for healing his heart but because she dumped a stack of books on him in the library she can’t get 100%!

Oh! A solid B grade!

Final Thoughts:

I was not expecting Fujimoto to live next to her. Maybe in the same building but not next to her. I got misty eyed when the fireflies took off. This episode in particularly I found that Kobato despite stalking an old man, completing ignoring social conventions, and failing at reading to young children was really easy to watch this episode.

I enjoyed that she stood up for Sayaka-sensei and that she did the research to help the old man instead of just continuing to bother him until he finally admitted to something. I feel like these are really clear signs that Kobato is growing and learning.

I’m still waiting to see the crocodile. And I still want Fujimoto’s story even though I have a sneaking suspicion we’re going to learn all about Sayaka first.

Til next time!~

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Crusader is off doing his duty, so now that I’ve recovered a bit from turkey and shopping here’s two episodes of Railgun coverage. I’ll get to Kampfer soon enough.

Saten may have been an intriguing possibility at the start with her lesbian tendencies and laid back nature. However the past two episodes have sent her stock off a cliff, as she unceremoniously slides into emo. Ahhhh, woe is me I’m just a nobody let me get some smack to become super special! Give me a break.

Haha, I know people like this.

Poor Kuroko, always a step behind getting some loving from her onee-sama. These scenes of her exaggerated comedic angst never get old either, definitely one of the best parts of the series.

You’ll have to forgive me, I glazed over/skipped most of the nonsense exposition and moping around about the Level Upper in both of these episodes. I really don’t watch the show for poorly written attempts at having a plot, it’s all about crazy teleporting lesbian and Biribiri playing around.

Again, poor Kuroko, but yay for hilarity. Kinda disappointed they cut out Touma’s involvement in this scene from the manga. Crusader was pleased I’m sure, but I like Spikey-kun.

Ugh, my nutbladder.

Damn, Biribiri certainly left her mark.

Oh, the things I don’t care about. Again, I skipped most of this crap.

Oh snap, here we go. Off to a great start with the teleporting the guy to fall on his own head. I hope she has some heavy ass books in that bag she beats the crap out of people with each week. She must have to keep buying new ones with all of that wear.

Watching Biribiri zap the shit out of people is fun in its own ways, but the two best fight sequences in the series have been when Kuroko has been having a rough go at it, namely here and back in the flashback scene at the bank. Watching her struggle and improvise is a treat, and it’s pretty fun to watch someone using a teleport ability in a fight sequence, you don’t see it done well all that often. Plus she’s one tough girl, taking some powerful shots from a guy whose got at least 2 feet and a hundred pounds on her.

One of the few people in this show who don’t decide to tell everyone what their ability is in 5 minute explanations. What seems tactically sound to anyone with half a brain seems to escape the genre and its lack of creativity in expositive techniques. Kuroko has to sit there and explain it though so it’s not a total coup.

Using teleportation to collapse the building was pretty wicked too.

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He’s my new CO I think he has aged pretty well despite being a butter bar…but he is damn good, I mean real good.

It seems that for now I will have a bit of Internet access courtesy of Uncle Sam although the training schedule looks brutal and having to share one washing machine and dryer with a bunch of mud caked sailors with no booze around means I will not have much time to loiter on the interwebs doing whatever I please. This was the first time I spent Thanksgiving away from my folks and while I have much to be thankful for there is much to be bitter about. Dealing with a bunch of whiny sailors is enough to drive me insane and I grow weary of hearing, “I am cold, when will my stuff arrive, can I trade my M-16 for an M-4, and 00bama is killing us all…” So yeah sailors bitching and moaning while in garrison is enough to make my ears bleed, I assume it only gets worse once we really go some where far far away and they’ll still complain about taxes despite paying none… At any rate this change of situation means a few changes are in store on my side of things, some might be big, some might be so small you’d never notice until I tell. So without further ado Prince Ali has called for a Jihad to liberate Kurdistan from the clutches of the insolent Jihad-kun and his Azadistani harlot. As a Crusader ally of the great Prince Ali, 00bama has called upon the Flag Fighters, AEU no Ace, Katie, and Choubu and the rest of the Federation to oppose the hated Azadistani occupiers and end their unjust occupation once and for all. Thankfully I will not be serving under Bushido Bob and Billy Goat but was assigned under a Gary Biaggi. So in preparation for the orbital drop into New Mombasa I need a few things…

So far I have at my disposal three 465 GB encrypted containers that need to be stuffed full of anime, so far I have a few things including Macross 7, VOTOMS, Gundam X, 8th MS Team, Gundam 0083, Canaan, True Tears, Skip Beat!, Shin Mazinger Z etc. I should be able to keep up with some new series but I think it is time to do a bit of retro blogging of stuff I never got around to. So seeing as how time is of the essence I will not have much time to look for stuff to bring with me, thus I need recommendations from all corners of the Federation to give me series to watch and perhaps blog about while killing me some Celestial Being and some Kataron Terrorists. Sadly due to time constraints I doubt I will have limit myself in tossing images of questionable relevance, however I hope to keep it as fun as possible for it will be the only semblance of normalcy I will have for sometime. So comrades who is up for some retro blogging, and what would you have me blindly suffer through? (Note: While I may not be able to respond in a timely manner I will be looking for recommendations periodically.)

Yeah 2LT. Biaggi isn’t one to beat around the bush.

He doesn’t bullshit much either.

He likes to be very honest…

And he so far he hasn’t killed anyone who didn’t deserve it…

2LT likes to use intimidation as well as force to carry the point.

Terrorists seem to bore Mr. Biaggi.

They made him go through the winning hearts and minds class, the results were kind of mixed…

He certainly curses like a sailor.

It’s because of him we have to spend more time at the gym.

Some time the 2LT gets a little creepy, glad he’s on my side.

Yeah I’ll be going along with these guys but at least I get a Scopedog out of the deal!

I cannot wait to start doing this.

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I find the whole idea of a manga gift guide a bit puzzling. Who would I be giving manga to? People who read manga already know what they like, and they probably read it as soon as it comes out. People who don’t read manga are likely to be stumped by the peculiar conventions of the medium. Imagine if your first manga was Kitchen Princess, for instance, or Higurashi When They Cry. I think those stories would be incredibly hard to understand if you weren’t already familiar with the quirks of their particular genres.

However, I can think of two groups of people who might appreciate a gift of manga, so I’m tailoring this guide to them. The first is children and young adults who like genre fiction; there’s a lot of good global manga out there that may appeal to them. The other group is curious adults who have heard about manga and would like to try it but aren’t sure where to start. For them, I picked a handful of titles that are fairly accessible in terms of style and also speak to other interests or tastes.

Children and Teens

Domo the Manga: Domo, the mascot for Japan’s NHK network, is like a Japanese version of the Cookie Monster: He’s big, simple-minded, and tends to let his enthusiasm get the best of him. I like this book because it is bright, colorful, and with short, simple stories, it is enjoyable for young readers and even pre-readers.
Publisher’s preview
My review
Buy it on Amazon

Warriors: As it happens, there was a 10-year-old fan of the novels in my house yesterday and he was asking for this. These manga are all original stories based on the characters in Erin Hunter’s prose novels, so it’s something new but stays within the familiar genre. Also, most of them are well written and well drawn. There are several series; links are for the first.
Publisher’s preview
My review
Buy it on Amazon

Hollow Fields: This story, set in a steam-powered boarding school for future mad scientists, is a great choice for imaginative kids who like adventures with a bit of magic to them. Harry Potter fans in particular may like the school setting, but it’s good for younger readers as well. The omnibus edition is a particularly good choice for gift giving.

Publisher’s preview
My review
Buy it on Amazon

Yokaiden, vols. 1 and 2: A good choice for teens and young tweens who like a bit of fantasy or folklore, particularly those who already have an interest in Japan. Nina Matsumoto’s story of a young boy traveling through the yokai realm to avenge his grandmother’s death puts an original and often funny spin on the traditional creators of Japanese folklore, but it’s clear that Matsumoto did her homework before she started writing.
Publisher’s catalog page
My review of volume 1
My review of volume 2
Buy it on Amazon

Nightschool: Svetlana Chmakova’s spin on the supernatural-school story has more depth, darkness, and complexity than is the norm for this type of manga. The main character is very likeable, and her supernatural companion is an imaginative touch. Fans of the Twilight novels may find this book enjoyable.
Publisher’s catalog page
David Welsh’s review
Buy it on Amazon

Adults

Suppli: This series, about a twentysomething working woman reassessing her life after breaking up with her longtime boyfriend, captures perfectly the feeling of reaching the end of your twenties and wondering what’s next. The art is accessible, if rather busy, and some of the characters and conversations are dead on.
Publisher’s preview
My review
Buy it on Amazon

Oishinbo: These short stories about Japanese food often evoke traditional Japanese culture as well. Each volume of the American edition focuses on a particular food: Rice, sushi, vegetables. The first one, Oishinbo: A la carte, establishes the storyline and provides a sampler of the delights to come.
Publisher’s catalog page
Kate Dacey’s review of Oishinbo: A la Carte
David Welsh’s review of Oishinbo: Vegetables
Buy it on Amazon

Black Jack: When I talk to non-manga readers about how deleriously goofy manga can be, this is one series that springs to mind. With graphic drawings of surgical procedures, this manga about an outlaw doctor is not for everyone, but people with a high tolerance for the incongruous may get a kick out of this. Vertical’s production values give this a deluxe feel that makes this a good gift choice.
Publisher’s catalog page
Johanna Draper Carlson’s review of volume 5
Buy it on Amazon

Real: I’m not a sports fan, but I love this manga about wheelchair basketball, because it wraps a good story in great art. The teenagers who are the main characters seem solid and real, and their interwoven stories are about much more than mere basketball. Takehiko Inoue’s art is outstanding, and Viz gives this volume the deluxe treatment as well.
Publisher’s catalog page
My review
Buy it on Amazon

Fire Investigator Nanase: This series has a great hook: A fire investigator who is being stalked by a mysterious arsonist she saved from a fire. Sparkies and fans of procedurals such as CSI should get a kick out of this book, which provides a lot of information about fire investigation along with the drama.
Publisher’s catalog page, with link to preview
My review
Buy it on Amazon

Astral Project: A young man finds a CD in his dead sister’s stereo; when he listens to it, he is transported out of his body to the skies above Tokyo. There are several mysteries in this complex story, including the origin of the CD and the riddle of his sister’s death; music lovers may be hooked by the jazz subplot.
Publisher’s catalog page, with link to preview
My review
Buy it on Amazon

Emma: This is a story you immerse yourself in for the atmosphere. Kaoru Mori’s re-creation of Victorian England is engrossing despite minor flaws. A single-volume choice is her less detailed but still charming collection of short stories, Shirley.
Publisher’s catalog page, with link to preview
My review of vols. 1-3
My review of vols. 4-7
My review of Shirley
Buy it on Amazon

Pluto: No gift guide would be complete without a Naoki Urasawa recommendation. Pluto isn’t just a story of fighting robots, it also evokes questions about what makes us human, and in places, it’s heartbreaking. Readers of science fiction may find this story particularly appealing.
Publisher’s catalog page
Ed Sizemore’s review of volume 1
Buy it on Amazon

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At this point, Tanya has been the longest-living non-regular Contractor in the whole series. Not a very impressive record, but it was fun while it lasted, you sexy 14-year old in military uniform you!

Wow I can’t believe they’re bringing back those two. Kiko’s fine but Gai is just…

Well, I guess they provide good comic relief.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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Summary:

Eiji has to sell his other paintings, and yet still can only cover about half of the cost of the painting he vandalized.  Meanwhile, Yuki continues to climb the charts (up to #2) while Yayoi continues to climb the managers.  Menou runs away again, but Touya’s never home so she has to chill with his neighbors.  She does, however, spot Rina’s ex-manager Hiiragi-san snapping Yayoi and Touya with a “Camon.”  For some reason Tamaru happens upon Hiiragi-san and starts spinning a tale of how he got away scot-free after stabbing a woman (also overheard by Menou); of course we later see him blubbering in front of his dad and getting yelled at because Misaki is extorting their family.

After getting her spy on, Menou returns energized and ready to bang out two singles.  Touya then heads over to Mana’s place to give her a present, but Itsuki returns and is surprised to learn that Mana’s awesome teacher is Rina’s loser escort.  Itsuki reveals all of Touya’s connections, and Mana is seriously upset.  Bad end Mana does not appreciate her mom interfering, and runs away before Itsuki can land a right hook.  When Mana doesn’t return home, Itsuki starts blowing up everyone’s phone, and shows that if you really want to get in touch with someone you can, even in 1987.  Touya takes a cab up to Haruka’s cabin and is impressed to see an energized Haruka practicing tennis.

Reaction:

I am confused about these extra side stories being weaved in to White Album.  Misaki hasn’t been hanging out with Touya’s dad lately, and it really sounds like Tamaru raped and impregnated her back in the day (which led to payments for silence, and explains a bit about Misaki’s behavior).  Meanwhile, what was with Touya’s dad and Yuki?  We got the palette swap moment, and he keeps trying to tell Touya something about Yuki.  Next we’re going to learn that she’s Touya’s half-sister because Fujii-otousan wasn’t faithful to that picture of his wife.  Perhaps that would explain why Touya is so hostile towards his dad that he clearly cares about.  I’m not 100% on this, but it would explain so much about why Touya is the way he is.

Meanwhile, there were some hilarious moments in this episode.  Mana needs to work some upper-body strength with Haruka, because she was having some seriously trouble tearing that notebook.  I laughed at how that fanboy Hiiragi-san refused to take pictures of Yuki because she was innocent.  I also loved how Touya thought about Rina and Yuki smiling, and then thought about a dripping Yayoi showing cleavage.  From apologizing to Yamamoto-san to noticing Haruka after she donned bike shorts and a skirt, Touya was in MVP form once again.  You gotta give it up for Haruka; even after she fell so low, she never went the route of eating away her troubles, and now she’s in tennis shape because she’s been keeping her body right.  I’m a bit confused about Rina’s album, though.  They showed it at #4 on the TV show, but it was #2 on the radio.  Are these different charts, or did Rina totally leapfrog Yuki in love and music?

©2009 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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Related posts:

1. White Album 17
2. White Album 12

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Oh. My. God. Just, WOW. Shizuku just utterly owned this episode in 30 seconds.

This time, she steals another kiss from male-Natsuru, FRENCH-STYLE.

Plus, SHE JUST FUCKING DID IT IN FRONT OF EVERY OTHER GIRL WITH AN INTEREST IN HIM TOO. Just. Like. That. Well played, Shizuku, well played.

On the other hand….

Sakura finally shows off her true(?) colors….

Evil bitchy whore is pretty evil.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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Beneath that soft supple exterior lies a true demon… or not?

Summary:

As predicted, this episode featured a lot more of Kurumi. We start off with the innocent looking Kurumi meeting up with her friends. Her friends firmly believe that Kurumi who’s known Kazehaya since middle school are actually ‘more than friends’. She shrugs off this suggestion, but privately wonders to herself whether he likes her back.

So they're finally using their first names!! And I just learned their family name too… d'oh!

Meanwhile Sawako is pondering the newfound change of people around her. It seems like ever since the previous episode, everyone at school has been trying to get her attention and tickling her. Confused, she learns the truth from Hirano and Endo who tell her that apparently the new Sawako rumour is that if she gives you a smile you will get good luck. Realizing how close those two are now to Sawako, Yano points out that they are Sawako’s friends too, and decides to get everyone to call each other by their first names/short form names.

Everyone re-introduces themselves again: Ekko (Hirano), Tomo (Endo), Chizu (Yoshida) and Ayane (Yano). After some prodding Ayane manages to get Sawako to call everyone by their short names as well, as nervous as she is about this. Ayane decides to go one step further to try and get Sawako to call Kazehaya by his first name, but she chickens out and calls him “Kazehaya… kun”.

"Who me?" Yes you! You plotter you!

That day in class, Pin ‘volunteers’ Kazehaya to be the class representative for the sports festival. As excitement builds up in the class about the festival, Sawako who isn’t very athletic (surprise, surprise) wonders if she would hinder everyone with her mediocre soccer skills. Kazahaya, who seems to know that she plays soccer (perhaps he’s been watching her for a long time?) encourages her, and the class decides to practice at lunch time. Meanwhile word of Kazehaya’s position as the sports rep gets around to Kurumi and her friends, and her friends hatch a plan to also get her elected so that she could spend more time with him.

At lunch, everyone practices and we realize just how bad a soccer player Sawako is. Dismayed, she wonders if she is holding everyone back from having quality practice. After dreamily watching Kazehaya play, he comes up to Sawako pointing out her pigtails (woo!) as Sawako blushes. While everyone goes back inside, Sawako is engrossed staring dreamily at Kazehaya walking back to class.

That afternoon as Chizu and Ayane decide to go shopping, they ask Sawako but she refuses, secretly hoping to get some soccer practice in. She goes to try and borrow a ball after school and is unsuccessful so she ends up kicking some rocks outside of the school as she waters the plants.

At the sports meeting, Kurumi sneakily saves Kazehaya a seat and also pretends she’s ‘unlucky’ for being a sports rep just like Kazehaya. It seems they really are pretty good friends. As she tries to talk to him about some CDs, Kazehaya ignores her as he is engrossed with watching Sawako kicking a big rock outside. When Kurumi realizes this she gives an ominous blank stare.

Kurumi hesitates to tell Kazehaya that she's joining the UN Space Fleet to defeat the Tarsians…

After the meeting, Kazehaya surprises Sawako with a soccer ball, and they practice together as Kurumi looks on from inside…

This week’s Sawako Kawaii pic of the week:

While Ran-ko will always be the "pigtailed girl", Sawako is awesome too!!!

Reaction:

In many ways, Kurumi's look here is much scarier than any Emo Face Distortion could ever be…

Overall, this is a pretty sweet and innocent episode. But like a young Anakin Skywalker in the Phantom Menace (well actually this was nothing like that cause this show is good, where as SW:TPM sucked, and yes I call it TPM I’m that big of a nerd), Kurumi is hard to read. Right now the story is positioning her character to be able to go both ways (not like that you sickos!). Either she could genuinely be quite shy, sweet, and generally too self-conscious to ever confess to her good friend Kazehaya and just going along with her friends plans innocently, or she could actually be quite the schemer underneath. Honestly, it would make this a much better series, if she actually wasn’t much of a schemer and was actually truly sweet. As others have pointed out, it would kind of suck if Kurumi were merely a side character ‘foil’ for the ONE TRUE RELATIONSHIP between Sawako and Kazehaya that we know will always be the ultimate end.

The other parts of this episode consisted of showing just how innocent Sawako is. It seems she’s really not used to calling people by their first names, and it was sweet seeing her try and fail to do so with Kazehaya. Throughout the episode there were multiple hints at her starting to realize that she’s naturally thinking something ‘more’ about Kazehaya and it will only be a matter of time before she realizes her true feelings.

If this were a standard anime, the plot would go like this:

Kurumi schemes and ends up ‘tricking’ Kazehaya to go out with her, while simultaneously ‘destroying’ Sawako, while Sawako is really sad. But eventually Kazehaya ditches Kurumi and confesses to Sawako, and they live happily ever after.

I really, really hope it doesn’t go that way.

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Related posts:

1. Kimi Ni Todoke 07
2. Kimi ni Todoke 02

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