Senjou no Valkyria 3 Game OP

lovely song by May'n.

the latest Senjou no Valkyria III: Unrecorded Chronicles PSP game is a side story set within the same premises as the first game, following a battalion squad of unwanted and stigmatized Gallian soldiers. there will be a 2-episode OVA to be released in Spring, Senjou no Valkyria III: Dare ga Tame no Juuyu, featuring the same seiyuu cast as the game.

have noticed that Nakamura Yuuichi and Endo Aya are often paired as main leads together and frankly, this pairing is starting to grow on me. look forward to hearing more of them in the future.

^_^.``

a smile says a thousand words

as Season 2 continues, i might just do a screencaps entry every episode to highlight my favorite scenes.

can't do for the whole episode since i love almost every aspect and probably would spam the post with too much screencaps. especially with the SD faces.

if Ep2's smile didn't get him, judging from Kento's look, the one below definitely did.

Hetalia World Series Ep 41

Episode 41: Fashion Trends

Beelzebub OP

everyone SING, dada dada dada dadakoneru dadadadada

Winter 2011

as per Fall season, i will be blogging each new Winter series as i watch them. all biased opinions ahead, so please don't flame me for what i feel.

all biased opinions are up!

Fractale
taken from ANN: The story takes place in an island, where a "Fractale System" is beginning to collapse. One day, Clain (CV Kobayashi Yu) finds an injured girl called Phryne (CV Tsuda Minami) under a cliff. She disappears leaving a pendant. Clain sets out for a journey with the girl-shaped doppel Nessa (CV Hanazawa Kana) to look for Phryne and discovers the secret of the Fractale System.

had to take the summary from ANN as Ep1 was an introductory episode about the world where Fractale is based on. most who watched it would definitely see the Studio Ghibli similarities, except, obviously, that this isn't hand-drawn like Miyazaki-sensei's works. Nessa's appearance in Ep2 would've definitely injects much smiles to everyone watching, with her quirky and unpredictable nature.

as of Ep2, the Fractale system is still up and working, so there's not much development in plot yet. it is always interesting to see how animators project the possibilities of the future existence of mankind. with the increased use of the web and social networking sites as a means of "connecting" to one another, i agree that it is much simpler to stay in contact with friends who are overseas. but, is it possible to eventually come to a state where you can raise a kid remotely on another country just because you have an available avatar/doppel?

i hope not. the world would be a less lively and warmly place to be in, don't you think?

Hourou Musuko
Nitori and Takatsuki looks like two normal teenagers starting middle school, except they are both transgendered. the series follows their struggles with family and friends as they decide to take the first steps to becoming their true selfs. and because of their common secret, Nitori had confessed to Takatsuki before but was rejected. maybe he was thinking along the lines of, if eventually they do undergo a transgender operation, who better to be with than each other.

at first look, it reminds me of F. Compo, without all the jokes since it is so serious drama-themed. personally, i find it hard to believe that Nitori can still be friends with his best friend. unless of course, said best bud has the same sexual tendency as him. especially when you're going into middle school with all the raging hormones. i mean, come on, let's face it, most straight guys are homo-phobic. if you're a guy and had a friend telling you he wants to become a girl, i'm sure the first reaction would be "WTH?! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!", before staying as far away from him as possible. much less telling you that how cute you look in a dress.

while i do enjoy my BL works, i've never watched anything like this before, so i will be skeptical even as i try to follow through with the series with an open mind. sounds complicated right? HA! and with only an 11-episodes run, i wonder how the animators expect to cramp 11 volumes of materials into them.

posted 18 Jan,

Level E
an inter-galactic accident caused alien, "Prince" (CV Namikawa Daisuke), to make an emergency-landing onto earth. losing his memories during the crash-landing, he happily makes himself comfortable in the apartment of Tsutsui Yukitaka (CV Hosoya Yoshimasa) who just moved to the countryside to play baseball at the local high school. the show continues with Prince's extended stay on earth, causing troubles only an alien would do. Yukitaka is already at the losing end of any argument since Prince has the sharpest tongue and the fastest ability to adapt to any given situation.

supposedly a gag comedy about aliens encounters on earth, it's still somewhat lacking in the "gag" department. in fact, the setting became more serious at the end, with the revelation of Prince's true form as some creepy shape-shifter.

creepy shape-shifter is actually just Prince's pet!



i take back what i said about the lack of gag, because Ep1 was just something to throw us off-track as Ep2 was just brilliantly funny! this could turn out to be as good as Sunred or Arakawa. and with the appearance of Prince's bodyguards, especially his hot-headed Captain (CV Koyasu Takehito), nothing is bound to go as they plan.

Infinite Stratos
Orimura Ichika (CV Uchiyama Kouki) is the only male able to pilot a weaponized exoskeleton known as Infinite Stratos (IS). because of this, he is forced to attend an all-female academy specializing in training IS pilots. besides reuniting with his childhood friend Houki (CV Hikasa Yoko), he is now surrounded by a huge number of girls, all of which, have some interest in him at some point in time.

a typical female harem type of show, and while i've not been watching much of these lately, the mecha-theme was enough of a pull to encourage me to continue watching. the battle scenes in the first 2 episodes were pretty impressed, so i'm quite excited to see how the rest of the battles will go.

posted 12 Jan,

Beelzebub
Ishiyama High's strongest yankee, Oga Tatsumi (CV Konishi Katsuyuki), accidentally picked up the Demon King's son, Beelzebub (CV Sawashiro Miyuki) from the river. Beelzebub is "sent" to the human world by his dad to destroy the human race because the King is too "busy" to do it. but he has to be raised to adulthood before he can complete his task. that's where Oga comes in, to raise Beelzebub together with his demon maid, Hilda (CV Itou Shizuka).

a series i never expect to enjoy so much but had me laughing throughout Ep 1 and the special JUMP episode, i will definitely be looking forward to this every week. another reason for watching is Toyosaki Aki, voicing a female yankee, Kunieda Aoi, potential love interest of Oga. can't wait to see more of her, since i've never seen her in this sort of character before.

and did i mention that Beelzebub is super cute too?

check out that cuteness!


his antics, electrifying everyone every time he cries, a vise-like grip (on Oga), and just general cuteness, will most certainly win the hearts of all, especially the females.

posted 09 Jan,

Mitsudomoe Zōryōchū!
the Marui triplets are back and ready to terrorize everyone in their paths again. but instead of heading straight into the terrorizing, Ep 1 had the triplets watching an episode of the infamous Gachi Rangers that Hitoha is crazy about, only to watch them do everything a super hero should not be doing. Hitoha is mortified and furious, to say the least, especially since Mitsuba is laughing her head off about her favorite show.

so while it is an interesting start to the second season, i'm more interested getting the focus back to the triplets. with a very short season, only 8 episodes, i'm wondering how much of the crazy antics we would see from the girls. especially since this is probably not the last we would see from the Gachi Rangers, seeing how they show up in the preview and all.

posted 06 Jan,

Kimi ni Todoke II
AKA the most anticipated series this Winter. even with a Kurumi recap episode (Ep 0) starting us off, i'm more than psyched to start watching the main story, especially given how faithful Production I.G. is to the manga.

some screencaps from Ep 1.


and besides looking forward to the return of Sawako (CV Noto Mamiko) and Kazehaya (CV Namikawa Daisuke), we have another contender for Sawako's affections, Miura Kento (bottom right), voiced by Miyano Mamoru!!

one can only say, there's no such thing as too much of Mamoru-kun.
ohohohohohoho~ keep him coming!

Kimi ni Todoke II Episode 2

screencaps from Ep2. lots of scenes that will make you smile throughout.

this is so cute, i've already set it as my mobile wallpaper.

hohohohoho.

Hetalia World Series Ep 40

Episode 40: Lithuania

also featuring, Spain and grown-up Romano with lots of baby turtles.

One Piece #483

i think i have a headache from crying too much.

Nendoroid Yoko Littner

my one and only nendoroid from Japan. (i know, it's been 3 months.)

Yoko Littner, from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.

2010 Anime round-up

anime series i've followed through in 2010.

Winter 2009 (Jan-Mar 2010)
01) Dance In The Vampire Bund
02) Nodame Cantabile Finale
03) Hanamaru Youchien
04) Durarara!!
05) So-Ra-No-Wo-To

Spring 2010 (Apr-Jun 2010)
06) Uragiri wa Boku no Namae o Shitteiru
07) Sarai-ya Goyou
08) WORKING!!
09) Senkou no Night Raid
10) K-ON!!
11) Arakawa Under the Bridge
12) Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan
13) Kaichou wa Maid-sama

Summer 2010 (Jul-Sep 2010)
14) Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi
15) Kuroshitsuji II
16) Nurarihyon no Mago
17) Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu
18) Seikimatsu Occult Academy
19) Sengoku Basara Season 2
20) Mitsudomoe

Fall 2010 (Oct-Dec 2010)
21) Tegami Bachi REVERSE (on-going)
22) Bakuman. (on-going)
23) Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai
24) Star Driver Kagayaki no Takuto (on-going)
25) Hakuouki Hekketsuroku
26) Otome Youkai Zakuro
27) Arakawa Under the Bridge x Bridge
28) Togainu no Chi
29) Shinrei Tantei Yakumo
30) Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru
31) To Aru Majutsu no Index II (on-going)
32) Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai
33) Kuragehime

forever-ongoing series,
34) One Piece
35) Bleach
36) Fairy Tail
37) Hetalia Axis Powers

then, the Katekyoushi Hitman Reborn fandom mourned for awhile when the anime ended in Summer.

and series i've dropped somewhere along each season,
1) Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu
2) Amagami SS

well, that's almost the same as last year.

either i'm getting picky, or that the number of series introduced each season are getting lesser. but that's impossible right?

in any case, here's my Top 5 anime for 2010, One Piece not included,
01) K-ON!! (of course!)
02) Kuragehime (super dark horse that blew me away)
03) Durarara!! (for the complexity and storytelling which i like)
04) Otome Youkai Zakuro (for the romance)
05) Senkou no Night Raid (for the WWII historical setting)

Winter 2011 is already off to a good start after with the return of Kimi ni Todoke and Mitsudomoe. there are also a noticeable number of new shows worth checking out, so stay tuned for reviews.