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Already Sergeant Major Rio is showing superior intelligence. Good call is good.

So far I am pretty surprised at how this has turned out so far. While granted there are those who blast it as a joke on military life, I think they have first off never seen an Air Force Composite Unit and second even the members of the 1121st know that they are the black sheep unit of the whole army. Also since this is an all volunteer force for the sake of recruitment once in the field decorum gets much more relaxed unless it is for a formal ceremony or inspection. Not even those uptight Marines are above goofing around during work. For me at least they seem to come off less as Army and more like Air Force given how they pack all their snivel gear for a short patrol of an abandoned school. Also since the Air Force seems to have a disproportionate number of good looking people compared to the other branches, I think the analogy is pretty good. I also started read the summary of mishaps that goes through the message system since I got a better grasp of how to do my job. Suffice to say military life can be fun, and it can be funny.

I probably would be more harsh had I not had to train with other branches and met some interesting units in various states of cohesion. Seeing as I have seen some strange units in action, I don’t have the inclination to be hostile since they know that they are dumping ground and don’t operate under complete ignorance of this fact. While there is a degree of moe-fication at work here they act like how I sometimes wish the actual military operated. Case in point when Noel could not get up before first call I actually applauded Kureha for dragging her out of her rack. Were they in a fuss and feathers unit Noel would have just been left there and she would have been written up in a heart beat or they would have just fucked with her while she dozed off and you can bet that prank would be posted in youtube and the pictures put up on facebook. In my experience people not getting up is a common enough occurrence and most active garrisons will tolerate it to a degree unless the person makes a nasty habit of it or doesn’t bother to call the lead NCO. Even then it appears that this army is already in sharp decline from a war footing as they make clear that most of the population died and having large schools are practically unheard of. It seems that education for certain subjects is not taught publicly and that music is only taught on a military level. Under normal circumstances having child soldiers would be controversial but it seems that with most of the population dead and in light of how Kureha and Kanata are orphaned the Army seems to be willing to take in kids with no where to go and ship them off to crap billets.

Even if the cast appear to be K-On whether they intended to or not they got some of the archetypes you might see at a typical unit right. To be sure Felicia comes off as more of an OCS officer than an academy grad as she isn’t flashing her rank every chance she gets. It’s not so much that officers always clean but it’s nice when they clean their own weapon or clean their own berthing areas instead of grabbing a bunch of enlisted to do it for them. Again it’s more the exception than the rule but its a nice fantasy nonetheless. Kureha reminds me of plenty of Private Majors (E-3s who get egotistical when put in charge of E-2s) who can wreak interesting havoc if left to their own devices, the funniest thing is Private Majors have a habit of exaggerating what a unit typically does (all of a sudden specialized units become Special Forces…) and Kureha created quite a story regarding the elite 1121st. I have to say they did pull off a Kawamori class troll with the mecha, though I guess I should have seen it coming since it was Kureha talking about it. I have to give them credit though for being honest that they are the yard bird unit where other units dump off old equipment in lieu of driving all the way to a DRMO (basically a military junk yard though I hear some of the stuff gets sold to less well equipped armies and military surplus stores) and filling out a 1348. In every service there seems to be one type of unit that becomes the dumping ground for the local units usually the reserve unit that is a little more gung-ho than the rest.

While I could give Kureha crap for being a bad shot I actually witnessed cops with holographic sights take hours to zero their weapons, and I also ate a lot of humble pie when during a night fire where only 11/30 of my rounds hit a man sized target at 50 meters (you only need 7/30 to qualify). I got Sharpshooter for the combat course but when it got dark I could not see worth a damn through those iron sights, I guess it was to hammer home how lucky we are to have NVGs in quantity even if they hurt your eyes after awhile. Also I’ll cut Kureha some slack for using a full sized rifle that is bigger than she is after seeing one of those tiny little Air Force gals try to shoot her M-16, she made it in the end though. As for the rats…I have yet to see any one panic from rats, but spiders seem to freak servicemen out, supposedly it’s why the Army makes special mention of camel spiders (it’s chasing you to get in your shadow, not because it wants to eat you…or at least that is what they tell us) and scorpions so that people don’t freak out when one is chasing them or crawling on them. Oddly enough Kanata reminds me of those kids who sign up who have never been outside of their home state and as such are amazed at some of the things I consider mundane, I suppose it’s pretty much the same with first time deployments since most of those places aren’t highly attractive tourist destinations.

While we did get some background, they did hint much more about the setting which is pretty interesting without being too depressing. As mentioned before it seems that in this post war period both sides seem to have fought until their strength was all but spent. War seems to be the last thing on their minds as the draft is gone but they are still taking in kids as a sort of uniformed welfare to cut costs. I wonder if 1121st is actually made up of all orphans since I don’t see parents being too willing to let their kids go off to some far away post. Certainly it would lend more credibility to the setting with the state being nearly bankrupt with a deteriorating army that barely keeps its units supplied. The lack of education suggests that they did scrape the bottom of the man-power barrel as education took a nose dive with elective course like music gone the way of the dodo. The advent of lost technology is probably most indicative of all as they have gone from shiny MBTs to bolt action rifles. All in all i don’t mind the vacillation between moe anime tropes and the interesting setting they seem to be competently building up. I did like how Rio took the smart approach to teaching Kanata and was delighted at how she got Kureha all pumped up and ready to go, only to throw her under the bus on ghostbuster patrol. Reminds me of the time we had to do OPFOR for an exercise when one of the E-4s had an ego trip and was being pretty vocal about it. The Chief egged him on only to later make him the driver for all the vehicles entering the ECP for the exercise. Suffice to say the E-4 found out how effective those positions work and how thorough a search can be…

All in all it ever so gently reminds me of past experiences whether directly or indirectly, so it’s a nice series to relax to at the end of my military day.

Last note on how like everyone else the military has it’s share of people with NICE IDEAs here for your reading pleasure is one of the mishaps that occurred during December, it’s unclassified and verbatim, though I’ll spare you the ALL CAPS format.

In this week’s “Confession is Good for the Soul” Department, we hear from an Air Force E-4 who had whipped up a batch of rice krispies treats for himself. He gobbled a few. “I followed the directions,” he notes, “and nowhere did it say to grease the pan or to not leave the treats in the fridge overnight.” This disclaimer, you perceive, is in preparation for the events of the following day, when our hero was again struck with a hankering for more of goodies after work. He initially opted for the tool of choice, a plastic spatula, which promptly broke, due to the rice krispy treat having been transformed into something more like rice krispy pavers. The airman’s next implement was a butcher knife, and soon he was treating himself to a major gash in his wrist. Two hours late her left the emergency room with five stitches. He missed two days of work and was on light duty for the next three weeks. Yum.

Ah yes the time honored tradition of yelling insults across the parade ground.

This should happen more often, but reality is that the military is rife with pranksters and they like to post on youtube.

Alright a TANK!

Good Morning Private Major…

I do that too when the Bull Ensign is showing the new Ensign around…

The worst thing you can do to an E-2 is let an E-3 run them around…

Wow Treize has his own town.

I guess Mugi did the Captain-sh thing and elected to only have one weapon to clean…

I guess this is analogous to a post on the Canadian Border…

I bet it’s not even a secure line…

Yeah Square IT.

Pfffftttt…

We need to save water, oh and you only get five minutes…

It’s real bad when the ghosts out number the living…

FUCK YEAH MBT!

It’s MECHA!

AND IT’S A BIG ONE!

Wow you guys must be really something to get entrusted with that…

FUCK…still that troll was worthy of Kawamori.

Glad they are being honest about it, if they weren’t I was going to tear them a new asshole…figuratively of course.

Oh ho the E-3 wanted to less grunt work I see…

Onee-sama…

The HORROR THE HORROR.

Way to get her all pumped up…

…

Way to throw them under the bus…

It’s always the E-2s and E-3s that are the excitable ones…

I guess there are people who appreciate having school.

It’d be pretty funny if they found Shoujo Manga instead…

I guess vampires got rolled up into the ghost myths.

This kind of close contact happens more than you would think…

I wonder what made that trench.

Dang if the Capital City doesn’t even sport a bigger school education must have really gone down the tubes.

Oh crap the E-2 has a NICE IDEA…

Having only hit with 11/30 rounds during a night fire I guess I can’t pound her for failing to kill the bird.

If Owl is now on the menu then I hate to imagine how much beef costs.

Hey they are pretty PR savvy.

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The skirmish between the UN and enemy VFs continues about Mayan Island as the villagers take shelter and Shin goes to find Mao. But the fighting isn’t limited to the skies above the once peaceful island as Valkyries use their gerwalk and battroid modes to get close to or on the ground. Shin and Mao barely manage to dodge a crashing VF-0, while the merciless anti-UN pilot strafes the crashed UN pilot in front of them. Seeing this brings back terrible memories of a previous massacre perpetrated by anti-UN forces in Shin’s past, and doing his best Shiro Amada impression he uses the now one armed Valkyrie to fire back at the SV-51 above. But this skirmish is only a small part of the story. Sara’s words and rituals are now seeming to align with some of the archaeological facts being discovered. The Asuka anchors near the island and pulls a large alien artifact from the waters, missing its head just as in the Mayan legend. As training for the new Valkyrie pilots is overseen by Roy in the air, a research team headed by Dr. Aries lands on the island and begins looking around. After convincing the locals to provide some blood samples, Dr. Aries has found something interesting. The islander’s cells have some odd properties and start to become abnormally active at the same time that Sara is standing naked at the island’s waterfall singing a song in French of all languages.

Roy gets into a duel with a familiar face: Ivanov, apparently an old instructor of his. Why he decided to join the dastardly forces of Celestial Being is unknown, but one thing is for certain: when Roy left he was but the learner. Now he is the master.

God of Wind? I didn’t know Talim was from Mayan.

The duel continues down into the canyons of Mayan, both combatants constantly changing forms to take advantage of the terrain and evade each other’s attacks.

The way the main gun tracks with where Roy looks is really cool, kind of like the chain gun on an AH-64 Apache.

Shin is not letting that CB scum get away with mowing down a defenseless man again, though he nearly gets Mao killed in his single-minded rage.

The enemy plane takes a hit and dives down at Shin’s nearly disabled VF-0. The pilot is some woman who looks kind of like Selvaria, but without the sense of honor or duty of the ill-fated Valkyrur. Ah, Selvaria, I miss you already *runs off to replay Valkyria Chronicles for the third time.*

She can do a Char Kick too, though fortunately for Shin the Skull Squadron was still in the area and took notice.

Roy lands after driving off the Selvaria-impostor, and seems a bit more worried about Shin and Mao than one would think from he would allow to show.

After the skirmish ends due to low fuel on the part of the enemy forces the Asuka moves into the area to raise the alien artifact found by earlier scans. Shin is brought back aboard and reunited with Edgar, who apparently survived their F-14 being shot down but had to remain in sick bay for several days due to his injuries. With their carrier destroyed, the two orphaned pilots are given a new home in Skull Squadron and its compliment of early model Valkyries. Training is arranged, but for the moment the pilots have time to relax while the scientists take a better look at the artifact. Aries has a little chat with Roy after she emerges from the artifact’s isolation dome, though we’re still left to wonder about the details of their past. All that is certain now is that the two went to college together and that Aries knew Roy back before he was as cool and self-confident as he is now. They may have been a couple once too, though Roy’s ass-grab may have just been his natural lecherousness. The next day the first round of training takes place, with Shin and Edgar in some sort of different Valkyrie model while Roy in his VF-0S acts as the aggressor. After mid-air refueling the exercise takes place and it’s not a good day for Shin. He hesitates to engage gerwalk mode to slow his descent, nearly crashes, and then gets eliminated first. And when he tried to get a shot in on Roy even after being eliminated he gets his Valkyrie tripped up in close combat by Roy and handed another defeat.

The Asuka’s battlegroup begins raising the artifact for study, something that seems to have a place in the mythology of the islanders.

Adding a little Evangelion to this Macross series.

There’s no better place to be.

Roy does not care to admit the mistakes caused by his youth.

Aries is a smooth woman, definitely has to be to be Roy’s senpai.

Really cool mid-air refueling sequence. In keeping with the real world aircraft we have S-3 Vikings refueling the Valkyries.

Not off to a good start.

Despite Shin’s objections this is a new era in combat and pilots just might find themselves having fight on the ground as well as in the air.

More training is scheduled, and surely Shin needs it, but that evening the crew relaxes by watching some sparring while the mechanics get to work fixing what Shin broke by flying his Valkyrie so brashly. Nakajima is not happy with Shin making his team pull the engines and work on them all night, but he later tells Roy that he’s happy to see a pilot that’s willing to push the design to the limit. On the hangar deck Shin enters a sparring match with a tall female Marine and gets his ass handed to him every which way. She points out his weaknesses: he doesn’t understand his opponent and keeps forgetting about his center of gravity, which are the same problems he had while piloting the Valkyrie against Roy. The latter point is an interesting training tie-in with Frontier, since the pilots-in-training use their exoskeleton suits to develop a similar awareness, one that is necessary to piloting a fighter whose center of balance can change rapidly as it switches from one form to another. Afterwards Shin is feeling pretty down, but Roy joins him and cheers him up a bit by letting him know that Nakajima isn’t as upset with him as it sounded. And instead of training the next day, Roy has a special assignment for Shin and Edgar: escort Aries’ team to the island and stand guard.

Interservice rivalry.

So much for that. If Cima Garahau and her fleet taught us anything, it’s that Marines in mecha are not to be messed with.

Shin forgot to Remember Love (for his engines.)

A pretty sweet detail.

Sara greets the UN landing party coldly, refusing to allow them in with their weapons and referring to them as Kaidun, but after they agree to stay outside of the town and lower their weapons they’re allowed to stay by the other islanders. Dr. Aries begins collecting blood samples under the pretexting of checking the islanders’ health, though with all the research going on concerning the artifact and possible alien manipulation of ancient humans and their genetic structure this is likely just a cover. Sara is extremely against collecting blood and thinks that their souls will be stolen, though everyone is convinced to give a sample when Aries offers them delicious soft drinks in return. That night the scientists return to the Asuka while Shin works on finishing his repairs to the island’s generator. Mao joins him and asks why he’s working on it again, but a promise is a promise to Shin. But just as the two are about to start it up Sara stands outside the hut glowering at them. She asks if he’s there to steal the stars from them by starting the villages’s electric lights up again, her understanding of light pollution coming from an old story passed on to her. But Shin informs her that Mao wanted the lights back, and he turns the power back on. In all honesty there’s little light pollution that can be produced by the few houses on the island, but Sara is nonetheless displeased. Out at sea, a huge anti-UN submarine is also closing in on the island, the Celestial Being SV-51s stored aboard it. We get a bit of the enemy mindset from wannabe-Selvaria, who apparently thinks that sharing technology for the good of mankind in the face of possible alien invasion is theft. She must read a lot of Ayn Rand and applied the concepts to interstellar war. The next morning on the island Shin is walking near the waterfall pool when he hears singing. Approaching he sees Sara standing naked in the pool, singing. Continuing his Shiro Amada act he stands and watches, but then notices that the plants around him are spontaneously growing and the rocks around him levitating. And back on the Asuka at the same moment, Aries cell samples start acting oddly. Unbeknownst to her the alien artifact in the isolation chamber has started bleeding or leaking some sort of red liquid in response to the song.

I don’t know Sara, that sounds a little too Hitler-esque to me.

Reason 1, superstition 0! I <3 you Aries.

A variation on ‘come to the Dark Side: we have cookies.’

One thing about Macross, it’s always been pretty positive in regards to commercialism.

A nice shot visually contrasting the two worlds that each character comes from. Sara under the natural starlight but in darkness while Shin is inside with artificial lighting repairing the generator.

As much as they deserve to die I kind of hope they live long enough to witness the arrival of the Zentradi to show them how wrong they were.

So…um…do you have to sing naked for this to work?

I hope the text that was cut off says that she showed no signs of malaria and tapeworms. Parasites are kind of not moe.

Something crazy is going on on this island.

Final Thoughts: – The dogfights continue to be amazing, especially the one between Roy and Ivanov at the beginning of the episode. The VF-0 is very cool, and even the SV-51 is looking better now that I’ve seen one that’s not in ‘rival ace’ fuchsia. Though I’m wondering what’s going on with the Valkyries that Shin and his group used since they’re definitely a different model from the VF-0 Valkyries that Skull Squadron has used so far.

- Continuing on that positive approach to commercialism thing, I’m getting the feeling that it’s a running theme in the Macross series. That seemingly insignificant commercialized things like soda and pop music are a way to bring different peoples together into a larger human culture. It worked on the Zentradi in the original series, and it seems to have a lot of influence on Mao. Frontier showed it too with the full integration of humans and Zentradi aboard the colony ships. That if a globalized (or interplanetary) monoculture is established then it will be the way to lasting peace. Which might not be unusual coming from a country as monocultural and commercial as Japan (seriously, I thought we Americans were supposed to be the commercial whores, then I lived in Japan for a year.) But even if these things seem to lack substance, they’re given purpose with how they build common ground between people who share in their consumption. And in that way I think Macross tries to show us the value of seemingly artificial and ‘pop’ cultural elements, redeeming them from being dismissed on their lack of inherent content. It’s an optimistic view, but I have to say that even with ocassional backlashes against globalization I agree that moving towards some sort of Macross-like monoculture is probably the best way forward for mankind in the long run.

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Shokkeru here. Back after a long hiatus with a mini review of various shows of the Winter Season. Keep in mind that these are merely my impressions based on the first episodes of these series.

Today’s Menu:
Baka to Test to Shokanju
Dance in the Vampire Bund
Durarara!!
Ookami Kakushi
Seikon no Qwaser

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Baka to Test to Shokanju
Students are divided into six different classes based upon their placement exams. Each class serves as a ranking within the school ranging from rank A all the way down to rank F. The facilities in each class are also a reflection of their rank with rank A being the luxurious suite and rank F being the run-down shack. Classes may also battle other classes in order to have their classrooms changed using summoned avatars. The power level of these avatars are based upon the student’s test scores, thus motivating the student to do better theoretically.

The Good:
-Test scores are the key to victory!: I kind of like the idea behind this series. Having students’ battle powers be based on how well they score on tests certainly does seem like an interesting idea. If only our education system was like this, maybe some people would be more motivated to do well in school… maybe.

-Transformation!: While some of the character archetypes are rather cliché, I still find them enjoyable. Hideyoshi being the obvious trap character even has his own “mahou shoujo” transformation scene. My favorite characters so far have to be the clever Yuuji, who appears to always have a plan and the perverted Kouta, who tries so desperately to sneak a peek.

The Bad:
-Idiot Main Character: I understand that these guys are supposed to be the “worst” students in the school (one of them being the obvious exception) but Yoshii is a little too dumb for my tastes. Not to mention, his summon seems to be a bit useless as well.

Verdict:
Not too shabby even though the first episode did seem a little rushed… well maybe not. Regardless, this is a show that I probably will continue to watch if not for the character interactions then for the interesting battles.

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Dance in the Vampire Bund
Thanks to a series of murders where young females are left with bite marks on their necks, rumors begin to surface of the actual existence of vampires. The rumor makes its way onto a TV show where five judges decide whether or not it’s true based on discussions and evidence presented to them. Despite the notion that vampires are not real, one of the judges turns out to be a vampire himself. He is then pursued by other vampires as well as the vampire princess herself. After disposing of the “criminal”, the princess, Mina Tepes, officially announces the existence of vampires and their new home.

The Good:
-It’s SHAFT: I’ll be honest, if it wasn’t for the fact that SHAFT is producing this, I probably wouldn’t have given this a chance. The first episode was a bit slow paced, character designs are a little bland and I wasn’t sure what to think during the whole TV show portion of the episode. But, in the end, it did turn out to be something interesting and I’ll have to check out the next episode for sure.

The Bad:
-What is that, an iguana?: Vampires are cool an all, but transforming into lizards wasn’t something I expected. I understand that this guy happens to be one of the lesser vampires, but I hope not all of them turn into lame animals.

Verdict:
It wasn’t a spectacular first episode, but I’ll be checking out the second for sure.

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Durarara!!
Mikado Ryugamine moves to Ikebukuro to attend a new school with his childhood friend Masaomi Kida. When he arrives, Masaomi takes him around town showing him the sights and introducing him to a few acquaintances. While taking his tour of the city, Mikado happens to be “lucky” enough to see the appearance of what appears to be a modern day headless horseman (except that it’s female and rides on a motorcycle).

The Good:
-Awesome OP: The OP for the series is just so cool. It’s probably my favorite of this season so far. Very hip indeed.

-So many characters you won’t know what to do with.: Just judging based on the OP sequence, the amount of characters that would appear in this show is just amazing. Some may see it as a bad thing just by having to keep up with all the names and such, but I for one think it opens up a lot more possibilities with character interactions. Let’s just hope I’m right.

-We’re just so hip and cool.: I just absolutely love the character designs but then again I am a sucker for a lot of things urban themed in anime.

The Bad:
-Are we there yet?: This seems to be a trend amongst shows recently. The first episode just seemed to go by so slowly for me. It seems that they spent a lot of time explaining things while not really explaining anything at all. We got to meet a few of the characters and the modern day headless motorcyclist in action, but despite all that, I’m still not sure what this whole show is about. In short, I kind of feel annoyed by having to wait till episode 2 to fully understand the basic flow of the series.

Verdict:
Definitely a candidate for one of the best shows this season. I’m watching this show till the end and may even end up blogging it if I find the time to.

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Ookami Kakushi
Hiroshi Kuzumi and his family move into the town of Jouga (seems to be a popular opening to a story) where everyone seems to be more than welcome of his arrival. The town is divided into the old town and the new town and apparently residents of each are not too fond of each other. At night it seems that people are killed off by a strange wolf cult just before going mad.

The Good:
-Something’s strange in the neighborhood.: I got to admit, I can’t say no to a good mystery. Despite the mood the beginning part of the episode conveyed, you could feel the eeriness of the entire town especially when all the of the students were drooling over our main protagonist. It had a very “Twilight Zone” feel to it. However, I have a feeling that it’s going to take a majority of the series to find out just what the hell is going on in this town.

The Bad:
-Too sweet for my tastes.: I’m not a fan of the character designs at all. They’re much too cutesy for me and I find it very hard to watch the show because of it.

Verdict:
I don’t know if I’ll be watching this show for very long. The only thing keeping me attached to it is simply the mystery itself. Once that’s solved, I may not care for the rest of the show… if I even make it that far.

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Seikon no Qwaser
Alexander “Sasha”, a Qwaser, is able to manipulate metal (Iron I think) and use it however he wishes. He does this in order to chase down a criminal who can control magnesium. What fuels their powers, you ask? Why it’s Soma of course… in other words, breast milk…

The Good:
-At least the main character is kind of badass?: The only reason why I decided to even try this show was because of the main character and just how badass he looked. I also liked the idea of alchemy. But sadly, this alone won’t save this show.

-Ending theme is catchy.: The ED song is actually kind of good even though the visuals are quite questionable… well nothing compared to the actual content of the show.

The Bad:
-Seriously? Breast milk?: I heard that breast milk as a main plot device for the series, but I never imagined to this extent. Now it just seems to be an excuse to show as much boobies as one possibly can and still try to take itself seriously. I mean breast feeding to power up just seems a bit wrong does it not? Not to mention all the other fanservice in this show just disgusts me and I’ve watched and read To-Love-Ru all the way through.

-Censorship is bad ‘mkay?: Fanservice is one thing, but I absolutely cannot stand censorship. If the show is bad enough that you’d have to censor 1/3 of it then you might as well not show it at all. Not to mention that the censoring job on this was so terribad. However, I do hear that there will be an uncensored version airing 2 week after the censored version. So, if you still want to feel a little hot and bothered, you can get your jollies there.

Verdict:
A big no thanks on this one. I may just watch the uncensored version just to see how bad it is and for a few laughs, but other than that, I’m staying away from this one.

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There’s something inherent in being a fan that compels one to want to experience the shows you love in various forms. Watching anime is the start, but the community abounds with different ways that people delve deeper into the experience of anime and the community surrounding it. Blogging, making AMVs, cosplaying, and drawing are just a few forms that fans use to further their experience. Having recently watched and retroblogged the original SDF Macross and the ‘Macross: Do You Remember Love?’ movie, I’ve been itching to get a hold of a Valkyrie model kit and build it, both to have and to get a better understanding of the fighter and the mechanical design philosophy of the franchise. So I ordered and received a ‘VF-1S Valkyrie Super Figher’ kit a few days ago, the VF-1S with FAST Pack being my favorite mechanical design from the original AD 2009-2010 time period. Over the last three days I’ve built and painted the Valkyrie, as well as building and painting a set of same-scale ground crew and a stand/background made to look like the hangar deck of the Macross.

Day Zero: Getting inspiration

While I waited for the model kit to arrive from the store on Amazon that I bought it at I went through all the screenshots I took while retroblogging Macross and DYRL to get an idea of what I wanted to do with the model. One of the things that I loved about Macross was its attention it paid to the background features of (space)naval aviation. This included the use of elevators, specialized AWACS craft, and there were plenty of scenes on the hangar deck and bases on Earth where Valkyries were being serviced and repaired. So right after I ordered the kit I also ordered a Hasegawa 1/72 scale USAF ground crew and equipment set with the intention of setting up a hangar deck or flightline scene. As far as a Google search would tell me, there was no US Navy equipment/crew set, but the USAF one would do nicely.

The series featured several scenes where Valkyries were undergoing repairs and arming, as did DYRL even given the time constraints of a movie.

Day One: Valkyrie assembly and painting, part 1

Models as they arrived.

After listening to Animetal’s cover of the series OP several times to get in the mood (thanks to Sakura at Calamitous Intent for making me aware of this 1 minute 38 seconds of awesome), I opened the boxes and got out my painting supplies. First day I set out to do all my large area painting with spray paint for the black and white areas and my airbrush for the blue ones. However, the airbrush at first had the wrong sized hose for the propellant can. And after buying an adapter I still had tons of problems getting it to work, even though it’s nicer and has more features than the old airbrush I bought in Akiba (and I couldn’t find a can or adapter that would fit the Japanese brush here in my corner of the US.) So the blue was on hold for the day, but the rest went off without a hitch. I then started the small, hand painted stuff, which I’m a lot more used to having painted a fair amount of wargaming miniatures. The cockpit of the VF-1S was a lot of fun, there were plenty of details to paint. I even tried painting Misa on the central MFD as she would look when communicating with the pilot, though this was more of a suggestion of Misa because I’m not some insane micro-portrait painter (my camera unfortunately couldn’t get a clear image of the small cockpit details though.) Put together everything but the FAST Pack sections that day and painted the ground crew.

This image was used for inspiration for the cockpit details, though with more Misa (center MFD panel) and no Minmay.

Day Two: I have to paint what?!

Second day I still couldn’t get the airbrush to work right, so I went on to details and decals on what I had already put base colors on. And it was at this point that I realized the model kits back in the 1980’s were only for the dedicated. As I got to the engines and thrusters, I realized that some of the instructions were not making sense. And I noticed on the sprue that there were gerwalk-mode parts AND heads for different Valkyrie models (VF-1A and VF-1J) as well as others that didn’t belong. The model kit was from 1985, and I guess they wanted to cut costs by making a kit that could build any Valkyrie type, with or without FAST Pack, with series or movie decals, in fighter or gerwalk mode. And then I got to the decals. In all of the instructions there were only two places marked for decals. Guess you just have to look at the picture to figure out where the rest go. Then I got to the decals themselves: there were no decals for big, important things like the stripes on the wings! I HAD TO HAND-PAINT LONG, STRAIGHT LINES. WITH A BRUSH. I’ll admit to being a bit spoiled by the few models I have done before, more modern Gundam and real life aircraft models with every decal or sticker you need and then some, but what the hell was this? So I taped off straight lines on the wings, did my best to hope that they were of even width on each side and where they should be, beseeched sacred Misa to guide my hand, and painted them on with a broad paintbrush. I was relieved to see that they turned out alright, but wow was that nervewracking. The whole model could have looked terrible if they didn’t turn out right. The model builder of the 1980’s must have been, as men who live outside a polis, “either a beast or a god.”

Painting the wing stripes using scotch tape to mask off the edges.

End results of day two. Fire extinguisher and ground crew didn’t require blue paint so I did them by hand. Went with Millia-green hair for the female ground crew member, since post-war the UN forces surely included some miclonized Zentradi.

Day Three: FAST Pack, ground equipment, and staging.

Having given up on the airbrush until I can ask a more experienced friend of mine for help, I went out and bought blue spraypaint for the FAST Pack and conformal fuel/coolant tanks. Since the maintenance equipment in the series was also blue, I used the same color as a base for those as well. For whatever reason the blue paint took forever to dry, much longer than the white, black, and gray ones. After it dried I finished assembling, detailing, and applying decals to it: the VF-1S was done! Moving on to the ground equipment, for the time being I just assembled the M32C-10 Air Conditioner and M32-A-60A Generator Set, though I’ll move on to the others later. Assembling them was a bit shaky though, the way they’re designed to fit together is not very precise. With the models ready, they needed a home. So I went over to Construction Junction, a building materials recycling place that sells used and surplus materials to look for a tile to form the base and a piece of wood to serve as the background. Along the way I also picked out a couple interesting looking pieces of metal and wire to try and make the scene look more like the inside of the Macross. Found a perfectly colored and textured tile (the texture looked like what I’ve seen in pictures of carrier flight decks and sounded like it had a similar finish to the epoxy surface described by the DoD here) and a piece of unfinished wood of the appropriate size. Total cost: $1.45. Spraypainted the background panel, used two pieces of metal to both better secure it to the tile and to look like more ’ship interior’, and then painted on a line and an ‘03′ berth number on the tile. When all this was done, it was just a matter of positioning the models and taking pictures. Needless to say I was really excited to have my first Macross model, and pretty happy about how it turned out. There’s still some gaps on the FAST Pack boosters and nosecone of the VF-1S, but otherwise I’m quite happy with it. Next project: something from Frontier, perhaps Mikhail or Luca’s VF-25.

The tile and wood background with assorted metal and wire bits. Two more metal wires would be added later.

The finished setup. Went with yellow for most of the crew as per the series and orange-brown for the operator’s clothing (for variety), as per DYRL.

VF-1A being serviced, image for comparison.

Left side of the scene, one crewman at the generator, the miclonized Zentradi checking the front landing gear.

Topdown view.

Groundcrew member attaching hose from the air conditioning unit. I really like the hoses that came with the groundcrew kit.

Operator directing the pilot (Hikaru).

Wings extended, and I have on crewmember working on the U-shaped bend in the metal strip that I painted and put decals on to make it look like something functional.

Staged rear view of the VF-1S.

The scene’s home, right next to my mecha and sci-fi manga on one of my bookshelves. Had to put it in a central place in my apartment, hehe.

The Valkyrie now has a prime location in my nerdiest of bookshelves. Full resolution of all images is here.

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A dreaded three headed cute monster has appeared!

Doing the dreaded triple review of episodes to catch up. I’ve been really tied up through the holidays and I know there’s even more episodes out and the new stuff is starting to pop up around the interwebs but you’ll have to take it at my pace. After two great episodes I wasn’t surprised by Episode 9’s absolute snore fest of mediocrity. If you waited, and had great determination to get past episode 9, at least episode 10 was enough reward to keep going as Fujimoto’s background story was cute and sad and happy. In Episode 11 it just occurs to Kobato to get a part-time job.  And my CLAMP radar only goes off about twice. Please join me for these three episodes (and maid outfits!) after the jump.

Episode 9

“What to make a totally boring episode Girl #1?” “Oh sure, Girl #2! Let’s pretend to hate it each other to waste everyone’s time!”

Okay, so I lied. I’m pretty much skipping this episode. This episode was the bane of my existence and the number one reason I really don’t like drama-girls-anime. This episode added absolutely nothing to the story and the whole time I just felt angry at it. Here the jist: Girl #1 and Girl #2 used to be BFFs. Girl #1 is a stuck up prissy bitch. Girl #2 is too nice and likes camera. When they grow up they start growing apart because they want different things and Girl #1 wants to sabotage Girl #2 because ??. Anyway in the end they are BFFs again and they can embrace each other differences. Then I throw up with sappy happiness. The redemption of this episode?

I should get a new kimono…Kobato’s is so cute!

Episode 10

Woah, it’s another episode with plot forwarding elements!

Sitting through episode 9 is not necessary when you can skip to the plot filled goodness of Episode 10 right away without missing anything! Episode 10 is what I’ve been holding out for this whole series and while it was a little disappointing in terms of simplicity, I wasn’t about to complain after the last episode.

“Yay I’m never getting my wish but hanging futons is so fun!”

One summery day instead of trying to mend hearts Kobato goes the nursery to help out Sayaka-sensei. Very noble but she needs to ramp up on those hearts so, also somewhat stupid of course.

This picture is somewhat off putting, I think Sayaka is thinking of throwing him down a well

Sayaka-sensei starts telling her about Fujimoto-san in the past complete with flashbacks galore.

Good to know that 10+ years didn’t change him

Meet tiny Fujimoto.  Sad. Super scowly. Sayaka’s family takes him in because his parents left him. Sayaka does the best she can but since he won’t play with anyone it’s pretty hard.

One day some boys come into the yard and step on the flowers all the kids had been nurturing. Sayaka busts out some anger on them but all the kids are depressed still.

You show ‘em girl!

Sayaka tries to put the flower back but it doesn’t really work. Then all the kids hear some organ music and run inside.

Now everyone loves him magically. Because of this? Really?

Seems that Fujimoto-san can bring happiness to people with his organ. Ugh. Even I cringed at that joke.

Sayaka-sensei is concerned about how Fujimoto’s grown up that he works too hard and shuts out people and that is life is probably a painful ball of nothingness. I too am worried about Fujimoto.

After this it’s time for Kobato to go home and do something embarrassing because it’s been nearly a whole episode without her falling over something.

Incoming in embarrassment in 3, 2, 1…

Blast off!

Fujimoto of course gets angry and accusing but in the cute way where he’s mildly indigent. Chitose, and the twins want to see picture too~!

Episode 11

Maybe she should let Kobato do some fund raising if she’s going to freak out about money all the time?

This episode starts with Kobato finishing her day of work (for free!). She asks Sayaka-sensei if there’s anything else she can do for her but she tells her to go home. Kobato sees this:

I kind of wish we had books like that…

It dawns on Kobato that she can get a part time job and help out with the creepy loan shark at the nursery. Since I’ve been thinking this for a while, I’m glad it’s actually happening. When she goes home to discuss it with Iroyogi-san he shoots down all of her ideas.

“You would just suck at this”

Looks like Iroyogi popped a leak so Kobato takes him to Chitose to get stitched up and asks her if she knows anyone who might need someone part time.

She gets her rent free I’m sure Chitose is confused but polite enough not to ask why.

Chitose does know someone – someone Kobato knows too! It’s umbrealla guy who apparently owns the bakery even though he was just standing outside holding the door for some reason last time. His staffer was hurt so he’d be happy to take her on part time.

And your help now, and your help when she probably drops a cake.

Yay maid uniforms!

Yumi (the staffer) tries to help Kobato figure out the ropes of the bakery business.

As much as I rag on her, this is probably exactly what my face would look like if I had this job.

Even some familiar faces come in to the bakery. Kobato is able to give Marina-chan her birthday cake!

Awww. That is all.

Or is she?

How uncanny, this cake also says “Happy Birthday Marina”

EPIC FAIL.

I feel that Kobato’s charm point (clumsiness) helped Yumi open up to her later on anyway so I guess it’s a good thing. When I watch her fall over though I want to shield my eyes and go “ahhh not again”.

Yumi opens up to Kobato about spending 4 hours with her, world record!

Yumi says that her manager has been really cold and distracted lately so Kobato wonders if it’s a money issue. The bakery is doing well enough though so Yumi doesn’t think so. Instead they go to the old stand by to figure it out: spying.

Truly, these are our greatest hiding places yet.

Sneaking in on the bakery guy doesn’t seem to help. He just sighs a lot and looks wistful. Great, he’s emo. Luckily a customer comes to break this James Bond moment up.

It’s Sayaka-sensei!

Somehow this sentiment seems really rude…

Sayaka has a husband?! Or maybe she just had one because of how sad she looks when Yumi says that. Maybe he’s blackmailing her for a sex scandal! I have to stop thinking of Sayaka-sensei that way. But you know what this calls for?

How did you spy on people so long without knowing what a detective was? What the hell were you doing?

We needed more spying!

This isn’t exactly what it looks like because it looks like a date. Yumi freaks out and Kobato starts yelling to try and keep her quiet. I don’t see why a grown man can’t have a date (even though it’s not a date). The baker runs down the street after Yumi trying to set the record straight.

Kobato is a third wheel…more often than I think

He was interviewing people because he thinks he is overworking Yumi. How…cute? I think this is probably very sweet but for me, I would have wanted a raise. And he could have told her he was hiring more help.

So here we are, having our cake and eating it too.

Yumi had hurt herself trying to bake cakes for the baker probably to woo him. Her cake looks pretty darn good so I consider him officially woo’d. Mission accomplished!

Sherlock Kobato and Wats-roygi.

Kobato does one last bit of detective and realizes that Iroyogi has been eating sweets from another bakery every time he gets information. This is reasonably awesome of her to deduce this which is also why Iroyogi gives her a 100 (and doesn’t take it away!)

Kobato did too many good things in this episode so here’s Fujimoto to bring you down.

Last Thoughts:

- I’ve already watched episode 12 so I feel like I will accidentally sneak something in here if I try too hard.

-I really enjoyed episode 10 even though it was very simple. I guess sometimes it’s best to stick with your guns and go with what you know.

-Episode 11 was great but isn’t Yumi the chick that whathisface from Chobits was in love with? She looks reasonably similar but he voice sounded different so I’m not sure it was suppose to be the same person

-Hikaru (Angelic Layer) was selling beer alongside Fujimoto in Episode 10. I lol’d.

-That’s all for now but I promise next one in a timely manner. I gotta steamrolled  by Xmas and trying to do things to speed along our move to the new site hence the delay.

Look forward to next time!

Go to Source

His god perhaps, but Zeus still lives.

With Chirico’s capture the Chief of Police takes him to the local priest who is also a corrupt bastard to try and use God to ascertain the nature of Chirico’s mission. I have to had in to them that they are trying to get information out ofChirico using drugs and religion before using beatings and whippings. The Thieves are quite through in covering their tracks but once they find that Chirico has no support they decide to do away with him. Fortunately before the execution order is carried out Chirico’s friends hatch a plan to rescue him, Vanilla would have done it on his own had Coccona not ratted him out to Gotho for one gildan. For three people who bicker as much as they do they seem to work well enough together and they did manage to cut a few holes in the police station. The rescue is rather quick but it tips off the Thieves that Chirico does have friends and they set up a Real Battle for 50 million Gildan to lure them out. Gotho tries to delay the fight but Chirico seems to pick up quick that something is rotten. While Chirico is the only pilot I like how they were able to work as a team during the fight with Oriya where Vanilla creates a damn fine decoy. Oriya seems to have been one of Chirico’s former COs so I guess that makes Oriya another Red Shoulder, but given how Oriya and Chirico didn’t recognize each other before the operation he might have just been Chirico’s basic training instructor. If Oriya was a Red Shoulder then he was a pretty bad one wince there are many ways to do things, but no single right way to do anything military.

Oriya puts up a good fight but for a pompous ass who dismissed Chirico’s abilities he sure got pwned hard when he ended up on the wrong side of that massive auto-cannon. Having the cops out there in force prompts Gotho and Vanilla to inquire about what kind of trouble Chirico was in but they get no answers. Chirico leaves as Gotho and Vanilla argue over who gets to be Chirico’s partner but upon hearing how Chirico skipped out Vanilla reveals his plans to break into the jijirium storage facility. While his friends think that Chirico skipped town, he was actually going back to the station to beat the answers out of the police chief. Given the lax security the cops didn’t bother to post a watch on the hole Vanilla cut out to break Chirico out and thus made it much easier for some one to infiltrate the station. Chirico does get in a few good pistol whips on the Chief before getting duped into letting the Chief take them to the heavily guarded jijirium storage facility. While Vanilla, Coccona, and Gotho break into the facility on their own volition to steal, they give up the money to bail out Chirico who had his cover blown and was pinned down at the helopad. Even if this is a gritty action series I did enjoy how Vanilla, Coccona, and Gotho blended in. Upon meeting the Bald Lady in the shower Coccona suffers from a bout of disappointment that Chirico likes chicks like “that” while Vanilla wants to get a sneak peak too. To his credit I don’t think Gotho is at the age where he cares about women any more and couldn’t give any less of a hoot about the nakkid lady than the jijirium she was bathing in. Since the Bald Lady is no longer bald and is not wearing a wig I guess it would be better to call her the Prototype until she actually gets a name. I am a bit saddened that Chirico didn’t pull a weapon on her to pistol whip some info out of her but that might have been interpreted as less than honorable. Since it wasn’t at gun point the Prototype escapes and before the gang can switch gears and grab the cash they get spotted and make a hasty retreat.

I am sure with these audacious acts of infiltration the Thieves are probably going to be concerned that Chirico is incredibly well supported as they caught the cops with their pants down twice within the span of less than a day.Not sure why the Prototype has chosen to identify with the Thieves even though she was government property before her awakening, but perhaps she was simply a prisoner. Time will tell I guess, but next time is the return of the Boone Family. Even if Vanilla, Coccona, and Gotho seem more interested in money I do appreciate how they bailed out Chirico instead of using him as a distraction, still it was nice that having lost sight of the Prototype they quickly got money on their minds again. Despite Coccona being ahead of the Prototype in my book I get the feeling that the poor girl isn’t going to get Chirico to reciprocate her feelings though according to Vanilla she seems to fall in love every other week or so. Still for now she’s much more likable than the still generally mute Prototype who’s only purpose so far has been getting nakkid, bathe in money, and brush her hair. Speaking of bathing in money either she needs to for some reason or she just likes to waste money, though considering how much gold that was stolen plus all that jijirium I guess they might have cash to burn in which case she’s a shallow bitch. Next time promises more Scopedog action against our old friends the Boone Family…

Seen enough death to last you a few lifetimes eh Chirico?

Friar Tuck he ain’t…

Too bad Chirico doesn’t even know that answer himself…

Seems every one here is a wanted man, I wonder how many have the death sentence on 12 systems…

Some one is having way too much fun in that run down bathroom.

Well Vanilla does have that ugly looking afro…

Wait don’t you guys eat rats in Uoodo?

Gotho gets a lot of calls from telemarketers.

…

Oriya is No Zero, No Zero amirite?

What discipline even when beating the crap out of a superior officer Chirico still uses ranks!

Praise be to overdoing it!

Coccona is such a stalker…

…

My name is Ingio Montoya. You killed my father…

Prepare to die…

So let me ask you PUNK what’s one more…?

I suppose there are other fat cops around to help Gotho blend in…

Well Vanilla hasn’t been laid in like…ever.

Well if it’s any consolation Chirico was more interested in interrogating Bald Lady than lurvin her…

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WTF? Indeed…

Yeah I know this is pretty damn late in the game but duty calls and I am still trying to make up for all that lost time. Well the final episode of Kampfer was an unrelated extra episode, but it was nonetheless enjoyable as role switching revealed how Hara-kiri Taiga had been coming up with a wardrobe change for Natsuru Girl-type, glad to see that it did not all go to waste. I don’t have much else to say about since it was pretty over the top visually and it had its moments. The only thing that really stuck out was Natsuru’s selfcest and the continued AWESOMENESS of Capitalism from the class president, VP, and accountant. It was pretty stupid but I laughed here and there.

Final Thoughts:

Overall it wasn’t much more than a yuri fanservice show, and on that level it succeeds quite nicely, but quite why and how expectations actually rose is beyond me. If one wants some sort of story and plot then they will be rudely disappointed as I was with Ranka when she had her defining moment of EPIC FAIL. Otherwise so long as expectations are low Kampfer won’t disappoint too badly, though Kampfer Akane helps out a lot. As much flak as Natsuru Boy-type gets his loyalty would have been admirable had it pointed in a reasonably good direction (Akane or Shizuku) but it was directed at Sakura who didn’t get AWESOME until she revealed herself as the BIG BAD and mistress of a yuri harem. Just goes to show that even with his almost Patrick Colassour level of loyalty he ended up coming off as an idiot and a moron by virtue of him being horribly misguided. The unashamed shout outs and references were fairly funny if only to make the viewer realize that the Kampfer Team was watching the same shit they were watching. I have to give them bonus points for being UC oldfags and possibly some of the elite few that survived Macross 7. I certainly hope the cast had fun with this since I quite enjoyed how Akane went from meek megane girl to gun wielding Yandere with salt water in her veins. Unfortunately I don’t think we’ll be hearing that much swearing from the cast anytime soon, which is a shame as it was music to my ears, not mention gloriously different from the roles they usually do. There were a couple good eye-catches, the Hatsune Miku cosplay comes to mind, and for an 11 ep series it didn’t over stay it’s welcome too badly for those of us who maintained low expectations. Maybe things will change in the event there is a second season. As to that I am willing to give it a chance since Dark Sakura with her White Kampfer Yuri Harem is much more fun that the bubbly ditz she was for most of series run. As a comedy it managed fairly well though it was far from the best this year, it was pretty average in my opinion it had its moments but whether or not one even gets to them is dependent on how high a tolerance one can have for Natsuru Boy-type. I’ll leave it to others who read the source material to crucify this adaptation as a travesty. However I think it was just one of those instances where not reading the source material made it more easily enjoyable.

Final Grade: B- (and only because of Akane)

Warning: Available through prescription only. Do not take unless you are desperate for yuri. Side effects include Natsuru Boy-type Induced Concussions, Impotence, Hair Loss, Baldness, Sailor Talk, Yuri Yandere Syndrome, High Blood Pressure, French Kissing, Random Acts of Violent Yuri, Gender Swapping, Stormtrooper Effect, Excessive Packy Procurement, CAPITALISM, Numerous References, Cosplay Party, Berlin Wall Building, Coffee Spiking, Shameless Merchandising, Stealing into People’s Beds in the Dead of Night, Burnt Beanie Baby-itis, Akane is Awesome, SUGOI Shizuku Kissu, Mikoto-Miku, Stuffed Animal Suicide, Shoddy Sewing, etc. If you experience RAEG HAET watch one arc of Gundam SEED or any other yaoi series, and contact poison control immediately you pusscake. DO induce vomiting and head banging, preferably on your 1080p monitor if you could afford one. We are in no way responsible for your lack of fortitude to complete this series nor for your impotentence after this fair warning because you were too stupid and Ultimate Lazy for MAZINGER to read this warning label.

At least that message was consistent…

Hooray for new clothes!

I agree Harakiri Tiger’s sense of style is impeccable.

Save for the lack of pants I agree with this emulation of Alphard onee-sama’s style.

I see that it was time for E-Team to have a go at this Kampfer thing.

BTW does this count as Yuri furry?

It was fated to happen…

Well kid your hair is within regs, welcome aboard.

Take life by the horns.

Best NatsuruxShizuku pairing.

What is this the Church of Violence?

I suppose they bring new meaning to democracy in action…

…

WOW selfcest?

Go to Source

Well it looks like we have a post war situation here…

So while Sora no Woto has earned the ire of many as being K-On, other than the character design it seems different enough. Besides unlike your average scum sucking self serving self righteous Jihad-kun type protagonist Kanata has one thing that makes her so much more likable. No it’s not her hair which is rather stylish despite not being within regs, but because she is one of the rare select few that volunteer for military service in an age where Singaporean males have to be dragged to the barracks for national service. In any case as a show about Soldaten I see that it already has some potential though in my case it serves nicely as a study of what a more whimsical garrison post would be like. Say what you will about Kanata, but she might well be the heir of Noe given that hair cut, and besides she’s probably more physically fit than the lot of you and no doubt kids these days don’t travel in boxcars and sleep on hard wood. Despite the lack of small arms Kanata is part of the poor infantry and that alone makes her worthy, plus she’s not bitching and moaning with every other step she takes. While not much was mentioned about the principle cast they did manage to do a good job of giving the setting some character. It may be a pastiche of things but at least they have drinking in public which in itself is pretty damn awesome. I like how they mentioned the local customs and myths it’s nice to see the town have a bit of culture, even if some of the customs seem rather quaint, though it basically is a wet t-shirt festival if you think about it…

I am curious as to the war that took place before the events of the series since the idea of children being soldiers either indicates different cultural attitudes, lack of man power, or desperation. Given how there is a cessation of hostilities I think it is likely to be a lack of man power and given the end of the draft perhaps the Army was willing to take just about anyone. While the setting is rather laid back I like how they hinted that there were still problems like a shortage of civilian goods as the caremel showed. Given how the last total war ended back in 1945 I was pleasantly surprised that they brought in shortage as a problem with the onset of peace, even the town of Sieze itself seemed to echo the damaged paradise feel of the show. Life is certainly more peaceful but the town’s old charm also belies the fact that even with shiny modern heavy weapons the people are happy but enjoy a rather rugged standard of living. Were things all nice and rosy the bridge would have probably been restored to it’s original construction instead of that half steel half stone one they got going. The rather lax rank structure isn’t too surprising seeing as how isolated units away from the eyes of senior officers tend to relax most of the restrictions and regulations, hell I have seen plenty of units that don’t vigorously enforce meeting times and grooming standards. While Kanata’s reasons for enlisting are pretty straight forward I wonder what the deal is with the rest of the squad. Rio must have been in for a while in order to make Sergeant Major, either that or the mass exodus at the end of the end of the draft left the promotion lists wide open. Still in a smaller army I’d expect ranking up to be harder since those who stay might have to accept lower ranks unless they make the mistake of over staffing their smaller army with more senior officers and senior enlisted than privates. So Kanata wants to be bugler but is pretty bad at playing reveille, certainly Rio has her work cut out for her since I doubt Kanata’s retreat is going to be much better. I know it wasn’t supposed to be viewed this way but when Rio grabbed Kanata in an embrace I could not help but go FUCK YEAH YURI! I doubt many people are going to give this show much of a chance but I quite like the idea of having a Military Slice of Life show, it’s first one I have heard of and for now it doesn’t seem to be combat oriented. If nothing else it was a rather relaxing watch which is just the thing I need since I am in high stress mode for the duration.

She looks more like Ritsu me thinks…

Don’t believe everything you hear…

Fuck Yeah looting!

Well for me they only come in certain MREs…not all of them good.

Wow look at that there is at least one studio that knows that civilian goods get real scarce in a total war.

Thank you for your service, you are more courageous than most of the male population, those damn tossers.

You’re new name will be Snowball…

Looks like they still got C-Rations…makes one appreciate that FRH.

Ain’t no maids to serve you here boy.

Rio is the winner.

Wait you have a German M35 Helmet, read and write in French, but got a Japanese name?

Needs an MG34.

Kanata forgot where her military right was…

Poor Kanata did not get a TONO to claim allowances, like meals and incidentals oh and lodging.

Well it sounds pretty boring, but that does have it’s benefits…

I wonder if her first song will be first call…

Here’s some advice Private you’re not nit Paris anymore…

Here they drink beer and IN PUBLIC!

Might it be that Kanata is Yuri-sensitive…?

I like how they build up events with seemingly pointless background animation.

I think i have seen that haughty girl some where before, but where…

Well she looks suspicious enough…

I see that Mugi made Hauptmann…

Must be a veteran of the 504th Maintenence Company.

…

I will interpret this as and admission of yuri…

Thus she better bring coffee amirite?

Well maybe we will have a little mecha this year…

The Lady of the Ladle.

Whatever it was it I hope it was advanced.

Looks like Kanata was also part of a Mountain Division…

Join the Marines Army, slay the monster…

That’s some Navy SEAL shit right there, swimming with a full pack.

You’re Military Right…

Join the Army see the world, meet interesting people…and if need be kill them.

Well it is a token of yuri love…

Well it looks like reconstruction was done on the cheap…

Hey that’s Chirico’s rank.

I can’t get ‘em up
I can’t get ‘em up
I can’t get ‘em up this morning;
I can’t get ‘em up
I can’t get ‘em up
I can’t get ‘em up at all!

And tho’ the sun starts peeping,
And dawn has started creeping,
Those lazy bums keep sleeping,
They never hear my call!

I can’t get ‘em up
I can’t get ‘em up
I can’t get ‘em up this morning;
I can’t get ‘em up
I can’t get ‘em up
I can’t get ‘em up at all!

This is the Army Mrs.  Jones,
No private rooms or telephones,
You had your breakfast in bed before,
But you wont have it there any more.

This is the Army Mrs. Green,
We like the barracks nice and clean,
you had a housemaid to clean your floor,
but she wont help you out any more.

Do what the buglers command,
They’re in the army and not in a band.

This is the Army Mrs. Brown,
You and your baby went to town.
He had you worried but this is war,
and he wont worry you any more…

Go to Source

SENSITIVE INTELLIGENCE REPORT – RESTRICTED DISSEMINATION

SUBJECT: 1. KURUMI ATTACK THWARTED BY SWIFT KAZEHAYA RESPONSE.

……………2. NEW SOURCES CORROBORATE INTEL ON PREVIOUS KURUMI ATTACKS.

DATE: EARLY JANUARY 2010.

1. THE ANTICIPATED SPORTS FESTIVAL OPERATION AGAINST ALLIED ASSETS WAS INEFFECTIVE DUE TO A QUICK COUNTER-OPERATION BY KAZEHAYA. SENSING A DANGEROUS SITUATION, HE QUICKLY MOVED SAWAKO TO SAFETY. FURTHERMORE, PROGRESS WAS MADE AFTER THE ATTACK ON FORMALIZING ROMANTIC TIES.

2. AYANE AND CHIZU, THE TDY TEAM FOR INTEL COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS OF THE KURUMI CELL, BEGAN INTERVIEWS WITH THOSE AFFECTED BY THE RUMOR ATTACKS AND RECEIVED REPORTS FROM TRUSTED SOURCES CONFIRMING OUR SUSPICIONS ABOUT KURUMI INTRODUCING THE DISINFORMATION. KURUMI WAS CONFRONTED WITH THIS EVIDENCE PRIVATELY AND BEFORE SAWAKO.

The series has spent several episodes on the sports festival, and truly it is The Longest Day…for Kurumi! Her plan to take Kazehaya to see Sawako and Ryuu together not only failed to work, it unintentionally fed into his insecurity and made him act more boldly than he otherwise would have. Running off with Sawako right in front of Kurumi, he even asked her out, though she was too confused to be as upfront at the moment. Still, it bodes well for the couple in the future, since Kazehaya has developed some initiative and Sawako is now sure of her feelings towards him. While she’s not yet confident enough to tell him, Sawako is certain that she loves Kazehaya.

The failed attacks on True Love and Friendship by Kurumi have left her in a very weak position, and the weak suffer what they must. First there was Kazehaya running off with Sawako in front of her, her cries and lamentations to the sky finding no favor among the gods. And then she stayed standing in front of the equipment shed waiting in vain for him to return to her, only to have Pin show up and completely misinterpret her false cutesy way of trying to get what she wants. Like a whole box of salt in the gaping wound, he told her that he’d be impressed with himself too, but that she’s way too young for him. SHE WAS REJECTED BY PIN! And if salt wasn’t enough, how about some acid? Kazehaya shows up just at this moment and is also convinced that she has a crush on Pin, and obviously finds this amusing.

The final point of significance was the culmination of Ayane’s investigation into Kurumi’s activities, finding proof of her disgusting lies from Ekko and Tomo, two reliable sources. Chizu is the muscle and couldn’t really understand the situation, but once informed immediately tried to march off and deliver a Char Kick powered by her three times faster red shirt. Ayane, however, plays a more nuanced game, and restrains her until the time is right. Confronting Kurumi outside with their proof, she has no way of feigning innocence anymore. And just as this barrage of evidence is pummeling Kurumi, Sawako approaches and is told for the first time of the duplicitous nature of the hated Ume. Whether her innocence and willingness to believe the best about people will continue in the face of this kind of evidence is unsure, but I’m guessing that she will acknowledge Kurumi’s sins but still feel some compassion for her. Sawako has saint-like levels of forgiveness in her, though Kurumi deserves none of it. Kazehaya’s insecurity was an asset for once, though it seems (and we hope) that he’s losing some of it as he becomes more open with his feelings. Believe not the propaganda of a few dead-enders arguing that Kurumi’s ends justify the means, for honesty and conviction is the only path to True Love and Friendship!

Crusader’s Record of Kazehaya War

Ume’s face just oozes QUALITY.

It has been a long time since the last episode aired and how fitting it is to bring in the New Year with a resounding defeat of Ume as her plans did not survive contact with Sawako. Words cannot begin to describe how much I enjoyed watching her fail miserably for her unjust war on True Love. For once Kazehaya became impetuous and whisked Sawako away from Ume’s prepared scenario while Ryu left the scene as soon as he could. It was there that Ume waited and waited to no avail for Kazehaya to return. Long was her wait and I delighted in her agony and uncertainty. There is justice in Kimi ni Todoke and that lout Pin got awfully full of himself at Ume’s expense, for once Pin wasn’t terribly annoying but they most certainly deserve each other. Almighty Zeus likes to serve his revenge cold and ensures that Kazehaya is there to bear witness to Pin rejecting Ume, this causes a wondrous misunderstanding that leaves Kazehaya believing that Ume has a thing for Pin.

Yano was also gathering evidence to SMASH UME’S LIFE INTO ATOMS and armed with a personal vendetta of her own manages to interrogate most of the school to locate the origins of those nasty rumors of fail. Yoshida can’t quite figure out what Yano is getting at, but given how Yoshida is incapable of thinking deviously I am not too surprised. Evil Yano is EVIL as Yoshida, Eriko, and Tomoko all learned to fear Ayane, good thing she’s on their side. While Ume is thrown into a pocket and a bout to be utterly annihilated Sawako shows up. Given how Sawako is most merciful I doubt that Ume will be put to the sword for her crimes, though it would be a most fitting end. Next week is all about Ume and will consist of her litany of failure and lose. While Kabitzin has finally shown his true colors and willingness to support Ume in her wretched works, I shall remind him that all her efforts are for naught and while Ume has tried hard she is simply a terrorist operating against true love who has caused many a broken heart in her vile quest to deny Sawako happiness. At least Sawako has expended a lot of effort to break out of her social constraints, while Ume tempted the wrath of Zeus with her vile tricks and Fake Tears to which Zeus replied with a BIG BANG PUNCH OF GREAT JUSTICE. To those that persist in supporting Ume Terror, all I can say is YOUR NEW SHIP IS UMExPIN, ENJOY YOUR NICE BOAT COMPLEMENTS OF SHINING ZEUS. If nothing else now that Ume is stuck on a nice boat she can contribute to the betterment of society and decapitate Pin, maybe then she’ll get ahead for once.

As we can see here it was at this point that Sawako achieved Rapid Dominace.

Here Ume’s preception of events was completely paralyzed as is written on her face.

Thus did Sanada breakout of Ume’s half-hearted encirclement.

No one wants to be related to Ume to tell the truth…

A spectacular display of Sawako Force paralyzed Kazehaya causing temporary blindness from sparkles….

My Sawako is FIGHT! And she didn’t even know she had it in her…

Superior information awareness made Sawako a most nimble opponent for Ume.

Yeah you are that and much worse, but hey she chose you…

Not that you do much these days anyway…

I guess Yoshida just can’t think deviously.

Like sheep to the slaughter, Ume must be brought to account for breaking hearts on an unprecedented scale…

Time to KILL UME WITH FIRE!

Yoshida wanted to take direct action…

…Because Sawako’s superiority is obvious.

Ume and Pin sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G…

Well Pin isn’t exactly Char.

Pin is into selfcest apparently…

You sowed the wind, now reap the whirlwind…

YES COWER! BE AFRAID! DIE KNOWING YOU LOST TO A REAL WOMAN!

Don’t worry unlike you Kazehaya will not spread rumors of your shit taste for guys like Pin.

These words ring false…

Who’s have thought that Yano would be the team-killer.

THIS HAND OF YANO’S GLOWS WITH AN AWESOME POWER IT”S LOUD ROAR TELLS HER TO CRUSH UME!

Once again Sawako demonstrates her dominant awareness.

Dang I was hoping Ume’s head would explode from the ERUPTING BURNING FINGER.

The vile wretch is finally exposed!

YES TIME FOR A BIG FIGHT!

ExecutiveOtaku’s Unadulterated Adoration of Sawako and Current Intelligence Report

He’s laughing at you on the inside. We’re laughing at you. Everyone is laughing at you!

Must you act so surprised?

Subtlety is not Chizu’s strong point.

He may have embarrassed himself, but it’s better to be direct.

EO’s DAAAWWW of the Week: Teamwork DAAAWWWW. Sawako is as sweet as ever, especially after realizing her feelings completely, and seeing Kazehaya so embarrassed was worthy of the award as well. Ah, youth!

Inspiration to reach out to more people seems to be the only thing Sawako needed from Kazehaya, though the offer is surely appreciated if not entirely necessary.

Ayane working on her Cima laugh. Set the trap and show no mercy once you close in for the kill!

Pin may be stupid, but he knows evil when he sees it. Also, reminds me of this.

At least he’s no Kimura sensei.

I take Kazehaya at his word, but perhaps Pin’s big mouth will put Kurumi on the receiving end of gossip this time.

I approve of this plan to forcefeed Kurumi her cosmetics until she pukes!

The Ayane Doctrine: amass overwhelming force, initiate on your own terms, and have an exit strategy (tell Sawako.)

Enhanced interrogation techniques.

Nowhere to run to Kurumi, nowhere to hide.

Even Chizu did some handwriting comparisons. You’re done when Chizu’s on to you.

The last (cute) stand of thinking Kurumi innocent.

Now that Sawako knows, this is going to force some major changes. Either the conflict will enter a different phase using different means, or Kurumi will slowly begin withdrawing.

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Winter seasons this year is, shall we say, not the most widely anticipated season ever. But with that said, there are some shows that looked like they could have promise back during preview time. With a couple first episodes out (and the Baka to Test Christmas Special short), I thought I’d take a look at the first three that I got my hands on and see for myself. In this post I’ll be taking a look at Baka to Test to Shoukanjyuu (Christmas Special short), Ladies vs Butlers, and Sora no Woto in a ‘liveblogging’, stream of consciousness style. Comments are as I wrote them down on a notepad while watching each episode, so they may change as more info became available later in each episode.  Let me know if you like or dislike this style, it’s a bit of an experiment. (Full credit for influencing to me to use the format goes to the Democracy in America blog on The Economist’s website, for the multi-commenter liveblogging they did of the primary and general election debates and later presidential speeches. I’m sure others have done it, but DiA is where I saw it first.)

Baka to Test to Shoukanjyuu – Christmas Special

-DAAWWW at pink haired girl. Such a romantic.

- Christmas Klux Klan or robed minions of Sauron? Either way, WTF?!

- Ugh oh, girl #2 (Tomo) is taking a cue from Minmay with that scarf tactic.

- Kuroko’s little sister! Miharu love for her oneesama will not be denied.

- Hmm, could be  a bit of a rip off character idea though.

- [EDIT] Originally took as girl by character design, but absolutely FAILED to think when I wrote down the name, as pointed out by Sunao in the comments. Boy #1 named Hideyoshi. Still, those are some girly boots he’s got there, never mind the haircut and clothes. [EDIT]

- SHAFT-esque footprint sequences.

- Fourth person is a guy, BL option, something for the ladies.

- Final Verdict - Has promise as decent but probably not amazing comedy, still need full episode to tell.

Ladies vs Butlers – Episode 01

- Expecting this to be HORRID.

- Animation is pretty crisp looking, at least.

- OH GODS! Her giant insect pupae hair is straight out of Kafka!

- Character designs otherwise pretty generic.

- Her name is Flameheart-san? Seriously?

- At least the other girl is a good troll (Tomomi).

- Green haired clumsy maid girl? Never seen that before, nope, no sir.

- Sigh, completely random, unnecessary panty shot as camera pans across classroom.

- Slight laugh out of principle trying to figure out her OTP in dating sim.

- Big sigh, protruding nipples.

- “I don’t have time to be playing around with you.” Me neither.

- Look out! Those things are going to hatch!

- aaaaand there’s the inevitable fall-grope.

- Oh god dammit, AND a pantyshot?

- Eyecatch. You mean this is only half over!?

- Apparently this is the Community School for the Easily Fainting.

- Obligatory loli in high school who’s sensitive about being called a kid? Check.

- Yes you’re nineteen. Nine….teen.

- And panty shot on her. Literally facepalmed.

- Nugi-onna ripoff character.

- Dear god it’s just pathetic: maid trips, falls, lands on male lead, rides his face.

- Is that Index? How much is this show going to rip of the To Aru shows?

- Or is it supposed to be a burqa? Hope you like death threats, producers.

- Kind of like troll, yandere childhood friend character. The one bright spot in all this crap.

- Lots of censored bath scene stuff. Go on otaku, buy the DVDs for it. OBEY YOUR MASTERS!

- And a crossdressing character too.

- Overall episode statistics (by my count) : Panty shots – 12. Fainting – 6. Groping – 4. Falling onto other character – 3.

- Final verdict – Had one good character. Otherwise only good for making fun of it while watching it.

Sora no Woto – Episode 01

- I like the limited use of colors for emphasis on the mostly gray background in opening scene.

- OP sequence is pretty good, song is too.

- It’s like postwar Valkyria Chronicles.

- Mix of languages is a bit weird.

- Please don’t say she is Mio, datte hontou wa Rio.

- ‘Douse the moeblob’ festival.

- The cat sees all!

- Sneezing bit has crossed the line into annoyingly moe.

- Legend of maidens of the flame protecting the city? This is Valkyria Chronicles!

- That’s some tank you’ve got there. Or is it some sort of mecha hybrid?

- White flag raising in midpoint eyecatch. WWII French or Italian army?

- Nice landscape shots, this cliff scene especially. Animation in this show is at its best when frames are mostly empty.

- Wreckage seems to indicate something more advanced than just tanks.

- Wow, a plot in a moe show. Hard to believe, I know!

- Don’t stop BELIEVIN! (re: advice to young Kanata in flashback.)

- More nice visuals with the horn in the chasm shot.

- Visuals are nothing really special in style/design, but when they do the sparse shots with just one character and a wide open background they really work. Especially when combined with playing instruments. Reminds me a little of some shots in Last Exile.

- Complete breakdown of discipline, no one uses their ranks to refer to each other.

- Sorry, incompetent moe doesn’t do it for me. Practice moar!

- I want to like the ED with it’s ska elements, but I just don’t like the vocals at all.

- Final Verdict – Has potential due to plot elements and occasionally nice visuals, but I’m having a hard time meshing what I like with the moe comedy concept, generally like the two separate. Will give it another episode or two before making final watch/won’t watch decision.

(NOTE: for those interested in a more thorough review of the first Sora no Woto episode, Crusader should have a post on that up sometime soon.)

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