Am I a bad person for not wanting to see the light?

Summary:

Mio talks to Junko about the failed attempt to communicate with the Neuroi and Yoshika is puzzled that one Neuroi would attack another. Back at base, Mio and Trudie find that Yoshika, Perrine and Lynne are out of touch and revoke their combat-ready status. Mio sends the trio for special training under Anna Ferrara who makes them carry water while riding on broomsticks. They realize the value of this ole skool training just in time to destroy an approaching Neuroi thus saving Anna’s home.

Reaction:

And now to find the desk the Major used!

Perrine is my least favourite Strike Witch but I enjoyed how she freaked Anna out; looks like lesbian fan service was not part of the ole skool witch curriculum either. The broom riding fan service was pretty orz-inducing for several reasons. I will never see a game of quidditch in the same light ever again. I also wondered why, given the obvious problem, why the default mode for riding their brooms is a sideways rather than in an astride manner.  And I also thought about whether being a Strike Witch also predisposes one to Broom Sensitivity due to the lesbian fan service that comes with being a Strike Witch.

The best part about the special training was how it revealed that Mio suffered a lot under Anna’s tutelage and still thinks of her as That Old Hag and how Anna fragrantly lied to the trainees about how Mio showed her great respect; I thought about Pai Mei‘s crazy tough love in Kill Bill and how carrying water is a pretty old trope in the training phase of old Chinese martial arts movies and I would have liked to have seen that aspect milked for more mileage; certainly it was a missed opportunity to add some trope humour to a mix that was dominated by fan service-based humour.

It was also pretty dumb how this week’s Neuroi only travelled in straight lines and was just randomly blasting the sea and coastline beforehand – why does it hate the beach? No wonder the main force over Venezia is still being held back by ordinary ground troops! It was also not that convincing how the trio were able to level up to a threesome so quickly though I couldn’t help laughing when Perrine described Yoshika giving Lynne a piggyback ride as GATTAI – those two have certainly been training hard at that beforehand.

©2010 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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Related posts:

1. Strike Witches 2: 02
2. Strike Witches 2: 01

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It took me an hour to finish watching this episode thanks to that.

Oh god what, are you serious? Morishima Lovely Haruka. I can’t deny it fits her perfectly but… what?!

Oh, so that’s why. And we also get a perfect explanation for her blue eyes too. It’s been kinda bugging me how she could have black hair AND blue eyes.

I can’t believe he managed to blurt that out with such a straight face, as true as it might be!

Oh god the internal conflict.

Holy f—

Wait, what?!

I… I.. I… REALLY WANTED TO!

(CAN I SHOOT MYSELF RIGHT NOW?! ARGH)

Uh-oh…

Damn it, despite being a Junichi!

Oh god, my brain just nearly blew up.

D’awwwwwww…..

Whee, time-skip!

And they are happily married (although where are the lil’ ones? Admittedly it is kinda hard to imagine her as a mom… especially if she had a son. Poor guy would so suffer from mental torture).

Well, that wraps up the Morishima Haruka arc. I’m glad they ended it this way. By the sheer virtue of doing standalone arcs for each girl, Amagami SS might just be a real winner. This is way better than trying to integrate everything in to one fluid arc and then bung it up with extreme dorama, like in Kimikiss. Seriously, that show….

Sexhair’s arc is up next. Well, at least I won’t have to suffer from brain breaks anymore.

©2010 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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Goddamnit Akamatsu. Stop being so cruel! Showing us a chapter like this T_T….

I find it funny that dream-Arika is even tsundere to her own son. She’s really an awkward person with own feelings, through and through.

©2010 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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Dear Santa, this year for Christmas I want a school idol girlfriend that puts out on the first date

Summary:

Wow, John! Oh John! Jooooohn! Er, I mean Johnichi!

We start off with a flashback from last Christmas Eve, when Haruka first met Junichi and cheered him up by pointing out a faraway mountain that is usually hidden by smog clouds.  Back in the present, Junichi is pathetically waiting in the school yard in hopes of walking Haruka home, when he is ambushed by Miya and Rihoko and forced to go Christmas shopping.  It turns out to be the right choice as he runs into Haruka playing a claw game, and expertly ditches the shoppers and helps Haruka win a bear charm.  This leads to a visit to the love compatibility machine, and Haruka is able to up their score from 30% to 95% by changing her initials and declaring that Lovely is her middle name (since she is quarter-Caucasian).

Junichi then brings Haruka to where they first met, and she is surprised that he is the Park-kun she met that day, back when she was feeling bummed about the passing of her dog John.  Emboldened by Haruka, Junichi asks her out on a date, and gets a consolation prize of a visit to her grandparents’ party.  When the day comes, however, it turns out that Haruka’s grandparents got delayed and Haruka turns the entire day into one of seduction.  From the pool fanservice to the trip up to the hotel room that Haruka can’t bear to waste, it’s all a calculated effort to get Junichi in bed with her.  However, when Junichi proves too kind to peek on Haruka in the bath, she turns into a tearful, embarrassed, lonely mess.  Fortunately, Junichi is totally not turned off by this, resulting in a White Christmas, and a cute flash forward to Junichi and Haruka’s married life 10 years later.

Reaction:

Just because you fault doesn't mean you can't hit a winner on your second serve

Haha, oh man it’s just so perfect that Junichi is a rebound for Haruka’s dog.  At first I thought this was going to go the way of a typical H-game romance, but I liked the way it ended.  Unlike most pairings, I think both Haruka and Junichi were realistically flawed, and yet both brought something to the table.  Haruka got a guy with that puppy dog look she loves, incredible perseverance, remarkable tongue skills, a flair for dramatic roleplaying, a willingness to put up with an outpouring of emotion, and a kind heart.  Junichi got a quirky girl with great imagination and easily triggered flags.  They really made a cute couple at the end, although you can tell that they would be one of those couples that are just horrible to go on double dates with.

I wonder how we will go about the next arc, and if Junichi will be the main male again.  It would be a little sad to see him parallel-universe-cheating on Haruka, but all’s fair in love and dating sims.  I guess if that happens, it will make Amagami SS almost a how-to series.  I also wonder if all those little supporting character snippets in this arc will come into play in later arcs.  I hope they can keep the pace up, because it was a fun little journey, and I always love time skips.  I am a little disappointed that we didn’t get to see how Miya took the marriage, and whether or not Haruka succeeded in seducing her.

©2010 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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Related posts:

1. Amagami SS 03
2. Amagami SS 01

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There’s plenty of manga action going on at San Diego Comic-Con this weekend; most of the big publishers are there, although they don’t seem to be announcing huge numbers of licenses as in years past. Top Shelf announced it would be publishing the alt-manga Cigarette Girl, by Masahiko Matsumoto, and Vertical’s new license is Usamaru Furuya’s Lychee Light Club. And while their panel focused mainly on anime, Bandai did announce one new manga license: Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens, the inspiration for the anime of the same name.

Mike liveblogs the Best and Worst Manga of 2010 panel for Anime Diet, and ANN has writeups of the Lost in Translation, Best and Worst Manga of 2010, and Manga for Grown-ups panels.

The Eisner Awards will be handed out tomorrow night, and David Welsh tries handicapping the manga and manhwa nominees.

Jason Thompson gets nostalgic about the horror/action manga BAOH in his latest House of 1,000 Manga column at ANN.

The folks behind OpenManga explain what they are thinking about for their new platform, which is touted as a legal alternative to the soon-to-be-defunct OneManga.com.

Toyopop is looking for interns for the fall.

News from Japan: Weekly Comic Bunch will end with the August 27 issue, but at least one series will outlive it: Tsukasa Hojo says he will continue his crime drama Angel Heart, although he didn’t specify in what format.

Reviews: Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith discuss several Fumi Yoshinaga manga in the first installment of their dialogue column BL Bookrack, and Melinda also hosts a roundtable on Gerard & Jacques and reviews vols. 1-3 of Ooku at Manga Bookshelf. Other reviews of note:

Erica Friedman on Azumanga Daioh (omnibus edition) (Okazu)
Kenton Smith on Black Blizzard (SEE Magazine)
Kate Dacey on A Drunken Dream and Other Stories (The Manga Critic)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 32 of Eyeshield 21 (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 23 of Fullmetal Alchemist (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 6 of Gatcha Gacha (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lori Henderson on vol. 6 of Gestalt (Manga Xanadu)
Amy Grockl on vol. 2 of Happy Cafe (Comics Village)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 2 of Kobato (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Zack Davisson on vol. 5 of Maid Sama! (Japan Reviewed)
Leroy Douresseaux on Maniac Shorts Shot (The Comic Book Bin)
Maison on vol. 1 of Nodame Cantabile (Manga Jouhou)
Connie on Red Snow (Comics Village)
Julie Opipari on vol. 3 of Sarasah (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Leroy Douresseaux on World of Warcraft: Mage (The Comic Book Bin)

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Care to open my package?

Sorry about the late post; lab work and paper-writing can be quite time consuming.

Summary:

It’s the happiest season of them all! And we all know that Yamada’s the happiest, as she absolutely loves horseplay. Who knows what could happen? Well, Yamada knows: it’s about time she lost her virginity in all kinds of ways! As Kosuda invites her out on Christmas eve (with some obvious hints from Yamada), Yamada readies herself for the awesomeness of fornication. Kosuda, on the other hand, is a newbie at creating a date plan, so his sister comes and helps him out. Unfortunately, nothing goes as planned, and so the absolutely-hawt Yamada is disappointed. Fortunately, a gift in the form of earrings translates (or rather, is misconstrued by Yamada) as a desire to do the wild thang ALL NIGHT. And that means…A LOVE HOTEL!

Is it just me, or is that male symbol kind of bendy?

But when they try to actually find one, nothing goes as planned. Even though they go down a freaking street full of love hotels, nothing happens–until Kosuda finally gets the huevos to smooch her smack on the lips. (Okay, it’s more like they bump their front teeth–but a kiss is a kiss!) And now, since they’re finally in the mood, they go to the park to, y’know…yeah. Of course, various obstacles impede their path towards physical heavenly bliss, and they end up going back home embarrassed.

Reaction:

Ah, the obligatory Christmas episode. Every romance series demands certain kinds of episodes, and the Christmas episode is one of them. I remember my first anime Christmas episode; it was with Love Hina’s Christmas Special. Being a middle schooler at the time, the episode strangely entranced me: I rooted for Keitaro to make it to Naru. Ah, how reminiscing about the olden days can bring back such fond memories…

Now then, I’m back to reality, where I’m supposed to be. (That reminds me, I’ve got to watch Inception one of these days…) Everything about this episode seems cliche: the set-up of the date, the anticipation, the date plan, and the total failure of the aforementioned plan. Of course, as the show always does, B Gata H Kei loves to put its own flavorful spin on these cliches to make them refreshing and, admittedly, manages to succeed to a certain extend. Yamada forces herself into the date and, as expected, only wants to date Kosuda for a certain body part. Moreover, some jokes gave me an occasional chuckle–most notably, the charms of Yamada’s sister and the misinterpretation of Kosuda’s gift. (The Santa dress-up is an added bonus for those who desire Yamada eye-candy.)

I like it when they're forceful.

What really makes this episode shine, however, is the post-date events–namely, the Wonderful World of Love Parks. (What can I say, it’s a world of pure imagination–well, maybe it’s more than just “imagination.”) After having a simple, nearly-disastrous smooch from the boy who will [allegedly] become her first sexual partner, she immediately goes for the gold: making sweet romance in a Love Park, infamous for the naughty fraternization of certain adventurous couples. Ironically, the various “obstacles” that occlude their path towards sex in the park are the very aspects that most couples go to love parks, such as (though certainly not limited to) the park milieu and the mix of publicity and privacy offered by the park.

Such an outcome, of course, is nothing but expected. Yamada and Kosuda have barely kissed, yet Yamada already wants to go the whole nine yards. For two young children who have never gone past second base (let alone dating), such a daring step seems improbable and impossible. Moreover, these children know little to nothing about sex; they only know about such experiences from tabloids, television, and gossip from their friends. By rushing into a relationship and forcing herself to have sex, Yamada only reinforces her naivete.

In exhibit 4, we see that Love Parks emanate beauty in its quintessential form.

On another note: Myssa Rei was right when she said that Yamada’s sister was awesome. Who knew that the younger sister could seduce such guys? And who knew that such an “innocent” little girl would take pleasure in witnessing her older sister’s [failed] attempts at losing her virginity?

I rest my case.

Shin would approve.

©2010 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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Related posts:

1. B Gata H Kei 03
2. B Gata H Kei 02

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One Manga, the largest illicit manga scan site and one of the top 1,000 websites on the whole internet, is shutting down. This message, from site administrator “Zabi,” appears on the front page:

“There is an end to everything, to good things as well.”

It pains me to announce that this is the last week of manga reading on One Manga (!!). Manga publishers have recently changed their stance on manga scanlations and made it clear that they no longer approve of it. We have decided to abide by their wishes, and remove all manga content (regardless of licensing status) from the site. The removal of content will happen gradually (so you can at least finish some of the outstanding reading you have), but we expect all content to be gone by early next week (RIP OM July ‘10).

So what next? We’re not really sure at this point, but we have some ideas we would like to try out. Until then, the One Manga forums will remain active and we encourage all of you to continue using them. OMF has developed into a great community and it would be a shame to see that disappear.

You can also show us some love in this moment of sadness by ‘liking’ our brand new Facebook page. It would be nice to see just how many of you came to enjoy our ‘better than peanut butter and jelly’ invention.

Regardless of whether you stay with us or not, on behalf of the One Manga team, I would like to thank you all for your unwavering support over the years. Through the ups and downs you have stuck with us, and that is what kept us going.

As a certain Porky was fond of saying… That’s all folks!

Time for me to go lay down and let this all sink in.

- Zabi

Their Facebook is here. Meawhile, the Japanese publisher Square Enix announced yesterday that it is setting up its own online manga site, but the manga won’t be free:

Given the increasing popularity of electronic reading formats, Square Enix has decided to take advantage of the online distribution infrastructure originally developed for its games business, along with the company’s existing payment system and online fan communities in order to establish a paid digital distribution channel to better serve the varied needs of its global customers. Square Enix will continue to work with its existing regional publishing licensees to promote both electronic and print versions of titles, while aiming to deter piracy by establishing an official web-based distribution source.

They are doing demos at Comic-Con this weekend, and the site goes live in the fall, serving North America and France. Right now, you can read the first chapters of Fullmetal Alchemist, Black Butler, Soul Eater, and O-Parts Hunter online for free, with a promise of more to follow. My first impulse was to wonder what Viz and Yen Press, the publishers of these two series, thought about it, but a quick e-mail exchange with Yen Press editorial director Kurt Hassler indicates that this is a partnership, with the American publishers supplying the material.

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Finished it all! I guess my decision to marathon the whole thing when it finishes was the right idea. Everything felt more intense compared to watching weekly, especially when the storyline’s on a railroad.

Not saying it’s a bad thing, in fact, FMA:B really does the manga justice. It pretty much felt like the manga coming to life and just shows how good the story was. Couldn’t stop my sniffling at the “Promised Day” arc, especially whenever someone dies.

One thing you have to love about the animated version is how it brings everything to life. Winry sure did grew up healthy, XD. Man she just exuded raw sex appeal just by being on-screen in some episodes. One of the drawbacks was some iffy animation during the action scenes though, but nothing going to full QUALITY levels thankfully.

King Bradley/Wrath is probably my most respected character of the series though, given his setting, skills and the way he dies. Somehow, despite being the bad guy, I just can’t help but to admire him a lot. Anime sure did him good justice too.

Noticed that the final episode differed a little from the manga chapter, but it’s actually good because they complemented each other. Hohenheim’s death was a lot sadder in the anime, but the manga version of Ed’s confession to Winry is better by a little bit. Still, it did great justice to the series.

There’s also the movie upcoming soon, but no plot details have been revealed so far. I just hope it’s not a compilation movie… maybe they might even do a trilogy of it like Kiddy Grade, lol. My hope would be it focusing on some of the side-stories/novels or maybe even a fully new plot to extend what happens during the Elric Brothers’ adventures to the east and west. That would be nice .

Liked: Yes, did proper justice to the manga.
Rewatch: Iffy, because it’s quite long, maybe a few years down the road XD.

©2010 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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Noooo, the pentagram-condom seal failed… and thus Naruto was conceived

Summary:

Alright, but he better not be an emo teen like all those Uchiha kids

As Madara is kind of a one-trick pony, Minato absolutely smokes him by slamming Madara with a Ransengan and tramp-stamping Madara’s lower back with a Flying Thunder God tattoo.  Minato then hack-warps all around, stabbing Madara and slapping a contract seal on the masked man to free the Kyuubi.  Madara realizes that he is completely outclassed, and after leaving Minato with a warning, Madara warps away to QQ some more on the boards and read a few more walkthrough FAQs.

Would have been better if you sealed the EVIL half

With Madara gone, Minato summons Gamabunta to curb-stomp the Kyuubi until Minato can warp himself and the Kyuubi to Kushina’s location and lock the Kyuubi down with Kushina’s chakra chains.  Rather than have Kushina wrap up the Kyuubi and then die, Minato decides it’d be better to seal her remaining chakra and half of the Kyuubi inside of Naruto.  This way the Kyuubi will be contained (instead of just saddled with a long respawn timer), and Kushina will get a chance to see grown-up (sorta) Naruto.  The other half will be sealed inside of Minato at the cost of his life, with the Dead Demon Seal.

Reaction:

This was a pretty awesome chapter, and it was good to see how everything went down.  The battle itself was not too surprising, except in how badly Minato beat up Madara.  Madara is lucky that the Kyuubi is so strong, because if Minato could have defeated the Kyuubi without sacrificing his life, Minato would have then warped to Madara’s location and punched him in the nuts.

We also got a few touching moments like seeing how Iruka’s parents died in the fight, and yet he still later put aside his hate for the Kyuubi and became like a father to Naruto.  Then there was Kurenai’s father holding her out of the fight so that she would eventually be able to give him a grandson (a descendant of the Hiruzen clan, no less).  I think this chapter really showed just how crazy powerful the Kyuubi is, to the point where even half of the Kyuubi’s chakra should make Naruto insanely strong.

©2010 Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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Related posts:

1. Naruto 502
2. Naruto 440

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Kate Dacey has some summer reading suggestions in her latest Good Manga for Kids column.

Here’s the full press release on the three new series that Seven Seas announced yesterday: As predicted by ANN, they are ToraDora, Amnesia Labyrinth, and A Certain Scientific Railgun.

San Diego Comic-Con starts today, technically, with Preview Day. It can be a bit overwhelming, but fortunately, Deb Aoki is here to get your priorities straight with her list of the Top 20 manga must-sees at SDCC. ANN has a more comprehensive anime and manga fan’s guide to the weekend’s events. Meanwhile, Erica Friedman and David Welsh fantasize about manga licenses they would like to see (but probably won’t) at SDCC.

Kate Dacey and Brad Rice offer their suggestions for the best of this week’s new manga.

Matt Blind posts the past week’s comics rankings, based on online sales, at Rocket Bomber.

Here’s an interesting, longish post on the struggles of the Dutch-language manga industry in Belgium, where comics still are mainly for kids, and fans think of English as the natural language for anime and manga.

News from Japan: ANN brings news of some new manga from veteran manga-ka, with the creators of Hellsing and Venus Versus Virus, among others, launching new series in the near future.

Reviews: Melinda Beasi reviews Garden Dreams as part of Fumi Yoshinaga Week at Manga Bookshelf.

Emily on 1LDK ♥ Shitsuji (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Shannon Fay on Age Called Blue (Kuriousity)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Black Butler (Manga Xanadu)
Sesho on vol. 2 of Blame! (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
Zoey on Cute Devil (Manga Jouhou)
Charles Webb on Darker than Black (Manga Life)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 23 of Fullmetal Alchemist (The Comic Book Bin)
Zack Davisson on vol. 3 of Happy Cafe (Japan Reviewed)
Carlo Santos on vol. 26 of Negima! (ANN)
Sesho on vols. 3 and 4 of The Prince of Tennis (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
Katherine Farmar on vol. 1 of Reversible (Comics Village)

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