do not be fooled – its hideous form, illuminated by the righteous light of Jesus

The elusive meaning of lolikitsune is frightening by the sheer depth of its possibilities, it has killed thousands of archaeologists and scholars for millennia.

But now, we can finally interpret this as lol ik its un e, or, lol, I know, its un e.

Such is the message LK decided to offer us in his handle. The lolikitean cryptology proves difficult to master, for anyone able to understand its true meaning has thus inextricably sold their soul to Jason Miao, the lolikitean theological equivalent to Beelzebub.

But you ask, what is the cipher? None other than Icystorm’s ball sack. Its sweat proves an invaluable gravitational lens, much like how a black hole functions, in that you can see into the future by way of superluminal circumnavigation of Einstein’s theory of general relativity. It appears LK has presented unto us the technology of gods.

“inchooka lukaohnoonga inchhoonguh fwarsri dinka pleahbleaurh” thus spoke icystorm

When I saw into the future, I saw the true of meaning of lol ik its un e. The archaic usage of the medieval Spanish un and the Sanskrit e indicated a polyglot meaning that even Joyce could not fathom. But when I peered further into the meaning, I discovered e was not a typical e, but a mathematical symbol. Yes, another meaning of lolikitsune had appeared, it was lol ik its un 2.71828183. By this I was truly baffled. When I finally accumulated enough of Icystorm’s ball sweat to see far enough into the future, I discovered I had, in fact, mis-translated the mystical Vishnu Reincarnation Dance of Life into the equation. Yes! 2.71828183 was not precisely a number, per se, but an algorithmic substitute for a series of Neanderthal hymns that told me to reconfigure the lolikitsune rosetta stone. It turned out to be…

lol, I know, I tsun e

And behold almighty Jesus, tsun appears. But I had yet another premonition evoked by a epileptic seizure through an overdose of Icystorm scrotum perspiration. The e was only allotrophic! And so it turned out to be…

lol, I know, I tsuny

No, despite popular belief, LK was not a Sunni. We are dealing with the connections between prehistoric Lolikiteanism, Hinduism and modern Japan. I would have never guessed that altering the astronomical arc length between the Hindu consellation Dhanwantari and the Shinto deity Aji-Suki-Taka-Hi-Kone by six parsecs would alter the course of history such the unholy union of lolikitsune and tsundere were possible. Over the course of history, though, the riddle had been solved.

lol, I know, I am a tsundere

What happened to you, Macross? You used to be cool.

I’m quite certain that there are loads of people in the ani-blogosphere who are still complaining about what a total disaster the finale of Macross Frontier was. I felt that the last episode had been rushed and too much drastic changes took place. For example, after everyone finally found out that Grace had been their true enemy from the very beginning, they all seemed to accept the betrayal pretty easily and the Vajra suddenly became one of the good guys. Despite Brera and Alto’s conflict throughout the series, they worked really well together in order to destroy Grace and for a split second, although I’m aware half of you probably didn’t take notice, Alto touched his stomach when he was informed that the Vajra’s heart was located in its stomach. I mean, you’re in a middle of a crisis—-the last thing you’d want to do is lose focus.

Yes, Alto, THAT is your stomach

I know Ranka’s orange outfit made her extremely cute, but how the hell did her clothes change from the white dress she was originally wearing? She was supposed to be the Little Queen, but I don’t remember anyone signing up for the role of a magician. When she slapped Sheryl across the face, it was terribly weak. Also, Alto should have blown up and died instead if he wasn’t going to make a final decision between Sheryl and Ranka in the end anyway. I was hoping that if not death, at least one of them would get over him and move on. Near the end of the last episode, Ranka explained the meaning of the lullaby, but even in knowing what Aimo meant, it held little significance because there was hardly any time to sink it in before something else happened. I was fond of Ranka ever since the first episode, but she proved to be somewhat annoying as time passed; in the final episode, it was like watching the same child grow up all over again, but the excitement just wasn’t there anymore. At times, her depression and confusion made me less sympathetic and more irritated; she was so dependent on others like Brera and Alto that she was abruptly okay whenever they were present. Sheryl’s flirtatious behaviour made me never take her seriously, but she was more mature and confident than Ranka, so I came to find Sheryl likable. Plus her slapping ability was more epic.

Overall, the main reason I followed Macross Frontier was because I loved the quality of the animation and the characters. I wasn’t exactly entirely captivated every second, but it was a really good series—-just not the best. Perhaps if the last episode was better, my opinion on the whole series would hold less negativity. Like a book, the beginning and end need to be good, while the events in between make the story an interesting story. In this case, it was quite the reverse: I didn’t really like the start since it wasn’t enough to draw me in, but I kept with Macross Frontier anyway because people were telling me how good it was. The ending was just horrible, and although a few seconds of watching some of the fight scenes were thrilling, what I really enjoyed most of the series was how Alto, Ranka and Sheryl’s relationship unfolded, and how mysterious the Vajra initially were. When we found out that the Vajra were just like humans—-bemused by how different they were to each other that they fought—-it was like listening to a totally crappier version of Ranka conveying Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream”.

PS. I was planning on drawing a comic, but I haven’t used the tablet in a while so up there was the best I could do.

And my first post in a long time.

A mesmerizing journey that demonstrates the importance of remembering who you truly are, Spirited Away is a masterpiece to remember. In addition, it is beautifully woven with a magical tale of friendship between a lost girl and a slave-dragon. Magnificently pieced together by well-known director and animator, Hayao Miyazaki, the show is almost flawless. From the moment the movie opened with a nice country scene, I was gripped. That being said, the artwork is impressive, the music brings delight to your ears, and each character seems to be a hero in his or her own way. Moreover, even the simplest of events can contain the deepest of meanings; I could easily compare some of the happenings in this movie to real life situations (that, or I’ve been paying too much attention to my extra bible-study classes).

In every book and movie, there is always more than one moral to it – and Spirited Away proves to be a fine example of this. This inspiring film started off with a pleasing vibe and ended in exactly the same way, leaving myself, and the lucky few who watched it with me, unable to praise its brilliance because it had simply taken our breaths away. In fact, the idea of a girl running around with a funny-looking dragon didn’t appeal to me when the movie first came out, so at that time, I couldn’t see why so many people seemed to love it. But having finally watched it, I can now understand why even my non-animefan friends are so remarkably fond of it that they can watch it several times over without getting bored.

Chihiro is the main protagonist who finds herself lost in a strange world full of village spirits and a witch of complex power. Chihiro guides the audience through a spectacular journey of self-acceptance and sticking to what your heart tells you even until the end. It’s not so hard to appreciate her simple yet profound character: a little ordinary girl who started off rather pessimistic about settling in a new town, soon willing to accept her new life in a land beyond imagination. Frankly, she’s one of those rare characters that always seem to do the “right” thing, be it fixing her own mistakes in an inspiring and mature way, or lending a hand to others in a just manner.

Out of all the characters in Spirited Away, I find No Face to be the most intriguing and somewhat inspiring. His part in the film reminds me of short-lived replay of a celebrity’s life: they often start off as a ‘nobody’, until a particular someone opens a gate to their new life. It is then that this ‘nobody’ all of a sudden becomes a ‘somebody’ that really matters. Although in time, the spirits tire of No Face and continue feeding him only because their life suddenly becomes more important than the money.

In the end, No Face swallows three staff members of the bathhouse and wolfs on an entire banquet, but what he can only offer in his ugly state (money), Chihiro refuses to accept. While this sub-plot pained me, Chihiro acted in a very mature way; while those ravenous spirits sought for more riches when they are living under Yubaba’s care just fine, Chihiro doesn’t even show up where all the fuss about free money is taking place. Then again, she is only a little girl who probably doesn’t understand that gold could only buy her so much. Even so, she will be the brightest during the darkest times of gluttony (for wealth). Instead of judging No Face or trying to get an explanation out of him, Chihiro tries to understand him on her own and then makes an attempt to help him by leading him outside.

Earlier on in the movie, Chihiro’s parents transform into two hideous pigs after pathetically consuming food that is not meant for them. This scene reminds me that humans unveil their true nature when they are the hungriest. In saying that, I don’t mean that you’re literally a pig when you’re starving, but the way they acted and swallowed the food is certainly similar to that of a famished boar. Quickly moving along, Yubaba seemingly represents an incident that causes you to lose your place in life and wonder who you are. She ‘stole’ people’s names and made them work under her – this is akin to a time when you do so much of one thing that you end up forgetting what you first sought out to do. I think what people need is time to find themselves again, and those patient enough will find it when they least expect it.

Spirited Away is one of the finest anime shows I’ve come across. If you haven’t seen this movie already, I extremely recommend that you do so now because it’s a pleasant film for all ages, and great to watch with your family and friends. Even I could not restrain the tiny feminism I have within me: every time the mouse and fly appeared (which Yubaba’s twin sister had shrunk the baby and crow into), I would squeal in excitement. The characters are so adorable that you can’t help but grin when they are on-screen, and the feeling you obtain after you watch this film is most definitely one extraordinary souvenir.

PS. Sorry no bunny comic yet, but it’s harder than you think since all these news just suddenly come up.

I like sweet-cakes.

Such a lovely, lovely episode. Before watching this, however, I thought that Tomoyo was the purple-head girl who had a younger sister that could do fortune-telling, plus, since I watched the episode with the Nagisa ending, I sort of felt strange seeing Tomoyo with Tomoya. Honestly though, like Omni expressed in his post, Tomoya x Tomoyo definitely make a better a couple, but not necessarily a cuter one compared to Tomoya x Nagisa. Apart from that, I really enjoyed watching this because it was sweet, and maybe a few scenes were corny, and maybe the entire plot and outcome was predictable, but it was still pleasant to see the beautiful artwork and to listen to the emotion that the voice-overs put in for their character.

When Tomoya was standing near the train track, being the person I am, I was really hoping that CLANNAD would surprise us by making Tomoya get run over. Unfortunately, the scene was an analogy, or whatever, to stepping forward / moving on, I suppose. The snow scene was quite nice too, and if you’re wondering if I cried, I didn’t, but the episode was touching and sad. Too bad it wasn’t a tragic love story, though. Imagine how hyperactive I’d be then. I don’t think people in real life would whisper so loudly so that the “victim” would be able to hear it like what happened in this episode. Usually backstabbing is extremely quiet, or so I thought. There is such thing called intentionally backstabbing so that the person could hear, though, which is stupid because you might as well just tell them straightforwardly.

Apparently, that’s why my Vietnamese people talk so loudly to each other and on the phone — so that people would know that they’re not backstabbing anyone, which is why I always have to turn up the volume on the tv when my parents are “talking”. When Tomoyo was dressed in the brown bear suit, all I could relate her to was Pedo Bear lols, and that guy that told Tomoya off was practically pointing out the truth. Nice to see Tomoyo telling Tomoya (gosh, why are their names so similar?) that she would be by his side “forever”, and that she valued being there above anything else. And I don’t get why people were so disturbed by the pair being together. I cannot wait for whatever comes next.

Here, have some poisoned cookies and be fooled by my cute smile

issa-sa knew this was coming all along.

Respect people’s opinions! Therefore, I won’t tolerate any insults like “you shit-head” or anything else disrespectful along those lines, unless you’re calling someone else a shit-head (kidding~). Nevertheless, feel free to point anything out and “give some sort of rebuttal” responses to this post since I’m always open to different opinions. I managed to finally complete Toshokan Sensou even though there was this reluctance that held me back each week. Even after a week of the final episode being subbed, I still couldn’t be bothered opening the file and watching it (mostly because I had already spoiled myself with those fan posts).

I think psgels was being very fair with his review in saying that Toshokan Sensou is a “half-baked” series. For me, this anime is definitely lacking the ability to excite the viewer, or at least, keep me interested enough so that I wouldn’t have to watch an episode of this show and at the same time spend those “boring moments” enjoying the blank television screen instead. Okay, I exaggerated the exaggeration, but the point is: Toshokan Sensou is probably not even worth your twenty minutes.

First of all, although the animation quality is decent, the artwork is superb, and the voice-overs are bearable, there are so many bits and pieces in this series that just makes you want to regret having wasted your download on a 170MB-200MB file. If it’s not-so-obvious already, all the military-related events are illogical and, perhaps, Toshokan Sensou would’ve been better off without all the gun-action and war drama. In addition to that, I also feel that some parts in this anime are pointless – sometimes an episode’s purpose is to build up tension for the next one (e.g. the twelfth episode of SOUL EATER), or for a couple of episodes there are hints that something “big” will later occur.

Contradicting myself in saying that, Toshokan Sensou has a slice-of-life vibe to it also, which means that maybe those scenes I find meaningless are about character-development and deepening friendships. Even so, for a series running for only thirteen episodes, I’d been hoping after hearing of this new series’ announcement that there wouldn’t be any “fillerrific nonsense”, and that the main focus would be on Doujou and Iku. However, there were times when I felt that the books were prioritized before their relationship, and that wasn’t necessarily a good thing because it was so boring. I wouldn’t have minded if Iku and Doujou’s relationship, along with Shibaski and Tezuka’s relationship, had a “more pleasant” build-up to it, and also if it went a little deeper. But like all anime, there are episodes that are better than others, and the last episode of Toshokan Sensou definitely didn’t disappoint. Although things were sort of rushed towards the end, I kind of enjoyed it, and the “corny” things were far from corny.

At the start of this series, the artwork was brilliant, but for some reason, the characters started looking demented later on during some scenes, which really disappointed me. Speaking of characters, Iku is one of the most realistic characters I’ve ever came across in anime. She cries when it’s “appropriate” and you can actually relate to her personality really easily. Toshokan Sensou has a great sense of humour to it and its presented so realistically that it’s so familiar, it becomes hilarious. Even though they’re not the best couple in my opinion, Iku and Doujou’s relationship is cute, but I sometimes get the feeling that just because those two make a great couple, it gets in the way when you think of how horrible the actual plot is. A good actor doesn’t make a movie good.

Anyway, in the last episode I really liked the piano music playing in the background, and Iku’s speech that awoke Doujou was sweet, but it failed to touch my heart even so. I found the speech “typical”, or, to be more exact, I could tell what Iku was going to say and suddenly, it didn’t sound so heart-breaking any more. I suppose that Toshokan Sensou didn’t fail to deliver, but there were times when I really couldn’t be bothered spending twenty or so minutes watching an episode. It wasn’t surprising that Doujou and Genda are still alive in the end, but it was definitely sad to see that Genda had “miraculously survived 32 bullets after a 13 hour surgery”.

In Doujou’s case, it was sort of strange that he became a doll after whatever it was that happened to him. It wasn’t really that shocking and his condition would’ve been more understandable if he had witnessed someone important to him die. Nevertheless, Toshokan Sensou is not extremely good, but the last episode was probably the best and maybe only the last few minutes of it were really worth watching if you’ve followed the previous eleven episodes. I am not entirely satisfied with the way things were left, and how easily Tezuka’s brother jumped into the good side after one “inspirational” speech from Iku. My overall mark for Toshokan Sensou is a 7/10.

Sorry about the green shit on the snapshots ;_;

I’ve heard about this movie from loads of bloggers. Sorry, guys, but it was actually the amount of glorious bloodied images on Setsuna-san’s post that enthused me to finally watch this. I felt that the very beginning may have started off rather weakly (strawberry ice-cream?), but then a suicide occured and from then on, things just got so much more interesting and I became completely engrossed. However, the ending left me unsatisfied and I became really excited by the preview — more character development from Shiki and Kokuto, and more blood! I really enjoyed the part when Shiki was fighting against those eight spirits because the action was just pure brilliant and it completely blew me away.

I also loved the part when Shiki’s hand became manipulated by Kirie, and my reaction to all the beautiful gruesome suicide scenes may be even scarier than the suicide scenes themselves. Plot-wise, I thought it was pretty interesting but it was no surprise that Kirie was actually unconcious and her “other” self was in the sky because it reminded me so much of Shigofumi and perhaps, most of those other horror supernatural films I’ve seen. This movie wasn’t scary — it was interesting and sometimes, maybe wonderfully disgusting. I liked the short tale at the end about the dragonflies and the butterfly being unable to float and only fly. The part when the dog was walking away and leaving behind blood footprints was too cool as well. Regarding the characters, they’re not exactly the best but Shiki became more awesome when she was slicing up those spirits. Kokuto was barely in it, Tohku was just so and so, and Kirie was just plain freakishly confusing.

A few bad things about this film is that I’m tired of “jumping off the tallest building” suicides — can’t someone please stab ten billion nails inside them and die like that instead? It’d be more interesting if the deaths were all different and yet the setting was the same, so that apart from all the victims being high school girls, the detectives won’t be able to figure out any other connection. I think the story could have went deeper, and perhaps a huge twist could have been inserted here and there, but I think the animator saved all the brilliant stuff for the next chapter. Also, the movie was less than fifty minutes, so that was not long at all and maybe that’s why when I finished watching this, I felt kind of empty or that I was given enough excitement, excluding the suicide scenes plus the blood.

AWESOME, MUAHAHAAHA!!

The artwork didn’t reach my standard, and I think Shiki’s lifeless eyes represent her containing no soul or something, but when it goes blue-ray mode, it may mean that she now has something to fight for, and in addition to that, the ability to see her enemy’s weaknesses. The music was compelling — it suited the movie extremely well and so watching the introduction with the butterflies and list of cast names didn’t bore me like the start of Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, which, by the way, I never got passed the intro at the start because it was that horrible. Overall, the voice-overs were decent — I never really bother mentioning them unless someone’s voice stands out really well like Ranka’s — but Maaya Sakamoto, who voices Shiki and Hitomi Kanzaki from The Vision of Escaflowne, did a good job sounding apathetic.

Hurry up and jump already

Verdict: Nice film to watch, it may leave you wanting more (especially after watching the preview), and I recommend it to people who love all the blood and gory in anime. So it’s not the best, but definitely worth your time. And I know, I’m ashamed that I did not take enough snapshots of all the dreamy squashed images of chicks that just fell off a hospital building, but as you can see, I still have no idea why that green crap along the right side of the images above are there (you may have to look closely in order to see it).

Let us cry.

I finished the Live-Action Drama version of Nodame Cantabile a while ago (a few hours, actually), and I didn’t realize that this series also fell under the “shoujo” catergory after stumbling across Wikipedia (midnightrose’s favourite site). So I might have said that I despised all shoujo series because of its typical storyline and its lack of being able to keep me interested until the very end, but Nodame Cantabile is one of the three dramas I’ve ever managed to complete so far, the other two being One Litre of Tears (I’m never watching that again; it made me cry so much), and Nobuta wo Produce (the only episode I can rewatch is episode five because it has Wakaba Ryuya in it). I’m not sure if the anime is entirely different to the drama, or if the drama version is only a slightly modified version of it, but I thoroughly enjoyed the drama.

Although I found Chiaki’s concern for Nodame sweet, in one of the Specials, he kissed her and randomly hugged her after his Beethoven No. 7 concert requested by Strezemann — I found this strange and somewhat “out of the blue.” But nevertheless, it was still nice to see that there was still some “decent” mushy stuff in Nodame Cantabile (did I just type that? I meant if this drama was just full-focus on music and “just friends,” it probably wouldn’t be as good). Being a “musical” student myself, I did recognize a few orchestral songs like Finlandia and Trill, which my sister played in her last school concert for the string ensemble. Despite getting extremely tired after playing a few notes on the piano, and even though I’ve been to several concerts like the ones in Nodame Cantabile and never came out excited, I was actually moved by the pieces performed in this drama, especially by the violin concerto that Chiaki has always wanted to play and used for the final round of the Conducter’s Competition.

I love all the characters, but my favourite is Franz, even though he only appeared in the Specials. If you don’t know him, he’s an Otaku and starts off having a crush on Nodame until she keeps re-watching Purigota and a video of one of Son Rui’s performance in his room, which is when he realizes that he likes her only as a friend. I like Sakura’s (the “poor” cellist whose father is obsessed with collecting rare violins) voice and her character as well, and I found Mine’s relationship with Kiyora more favourable than Nodame’s one with Chiaki. Nodame is definitely moe and she may look “old” in the picture above, but she looks quite young in the drama (damn photos!). I like Chiaki’s change in attitude (no, regarding looks it’s probably the reverse ;_; ), and Nodame kind of matured as well, although I preferred her at the start. I’ve never seen any of these actors/actresses before except the timpanist, Masumi-chan, who also stars as Mikoshiba in ROOKIES. So I don’t know if any of the cast can actually play the instrument they were given, but if they can’t, then they can sure fake it, and if they do, then they’re so darn good! My sister also became overly obsessed with Strezemann’s foreign accent and Nodame’s voice. Nodame Cantabile definitely contains the animeish vibes.

The verdict? This drama is a must-watch, even though it slightly bored me from time to time, overall it was a fun watch that helped me appreicate music more. You can also learn a few things from it, like about Mozart and Beethoven, and I think I might enjoy my school orchestra rehearsals from now on (except, none of us are aiming to go pro, none of us really are pro, and most of us don’t even like the conductor). Oh, and I still can’t believe I don’t know who Matsuda is in the end, the one who takes over Rising Star in Chiaki’s place. Help anyone?

*Ahem* Pretty long first impressions, huh?

When it comes to sport + slice-of-life anime, I’m really picky because anime like those tend to drag at one point, go for so long and most of the time, bore me. So I heard about the news already and I’ve never ever heard of Ookiku Furikabutte! until now. In order to become Best Friends For Life (BFFL) with issa-sa (now issa-sa must watch the first episode of ROOKIES and blog it XD), I decided to watch the first episode of this series to see how it would turn out and if it really was worth making a fuss over (Big Windup! is the English title, but I really don’t see the issue). Besides, I was planning to start this anime either way because of the fact that it’s based on baseball, which reminded me so much of my favourite J-Drama called ROOKIES.

The main protagonist of Ookiku Furikabutte!, Mihashi, annoys me sometimes when he takes so long explaining things, but overall he’s pretty cute being indecisive. The other characters are pretty normal, except Abe, who seems to be really knowledgeable when it comes down to baseball, and already I can see that he’ll be a truly good friend for Mihashi (yaoi, anyone?). Ookiku Furikabutte! is dissimilar to ROOKIES in many ways, but plot-wise, it’s almost the same since in both shows, the teams aim for Koshien (no shit, what else can they aim for?) and the main characters are the pitcher and the base-catcher (whatever they’re called).

In ROOKIES, it’s about a group of delinquents who are banned from playing baseball for half a year after a batter of their team knocked out the pitcher from the opposing side with his bat. A new teacher, Kawato, tries to bring the baseball team back together while the principal disapproves of this. The main character is the ace of the team, good at both pitching (so bloody fast that the other batters can’t hit it) and batting. On the other hand, Ookiku Furikabutte! seems to focus on Mihashi trying to become an ace pitcher and become stronger as a person, and become more confident in himself. His pitching is slow, but I like it how Ookiku Furikabutte! explains baseball techniques (ROOKIES also has some baseball techniques explanations, but it was all in Japanese so I couldn’t understand it – damn RAWs). The first episode of Ookiku Furikabutte! was decent, but it didn’t exactly make me so excited that I wanted to follow it. The graphics are horrible, okay, not entirely — they were okay, even if it is a 200+MB file, but I suppose that’s because it was created ages ago. The pictures aren’t that awesome either and sometimes Mihasha would look so weird that I just want to turn the screen off. I didn’t bother listening to the OP and ED because I didn’t have time, plus the start of the songs didn’t so much intrigue me.

I loved how Ookiku Furikabutte! started off the series really smoothly and quickly, but whenever Mihashi was preparing to throw the ball, he took so darn long that I just wanted to fast-forward the episode, but was afraid that I’d spoil myself in doing that so I didn’t dare. On the other hand, the humour is great and some people can really relate to Mihashi. Occasionally, I feel the same way as Mihashi does about pitching – reluctant to show off something I love because I know that it’s no good. The friendship between Abe and Mihashi grew extremely rapidly and I know that because they depend on each other a lot (seems like it), this may lead to some consequences in the future (correct me if I’m wrong!). I also enjoyed it how Hanai assumed that Mihashi was being modest about his pitching abilities, and how everyone was very encouraging of Mihashi towards the end. Whether or not I’ll follow this anime really depends on how much free time I have during the holidays because although the first episode of Ookiku Furikabutte! was definitely worth watching, it seemed like I only watched it because I had nothing better to do (which is true, by the way), but if I had a choice, I probably wouldn’t touch this series ever again.

Not to say that I won’t – I can certainly see potential and it’d be nice to see where this anime goes from now, but I hope that Mihashi doesn’t irritate me to an extent where I will totally despise this show (I hate anime with main protagonists who piss me off). So to everyone who mentioned news of Ookiku Furikabutte!, thanks!

Spoilers alert.

I was totally engrossed in Shigofumi that I watched the entire series in two homework-less days. I just loved the quality of the animation and the artwork, and the humour was commendable as well. Each character was more than exceptional, especially Fumika herself because of her all-business personality and bluntness. However, my favourite character overall is Natsuka, even though she reminds me a lot of Maki from Minami-ke and the main protagonist from Ghost Hunt. Most of the other side-characters looked pretty much the same sometimes so I often got confused, but I loved it how nearly everything linked to each other in the end. Chiaki’s arc bored me at the beginning because I sensed a filler-iffic atmosphere but was relieved after learning that it was actually because Fumika’s next delivery was for Chiaki. Despite hearing Fumika define the word Shigofumi over and over again for each new addressee, I realized that she defined the word differently. Hence, I never got tired of hearing (reading the subtitles, actually) because each time it’d sound more awesome than the previous ones.

A Death in Every Sub-Plot

Well, of course, in order for Fukima to deliver her letters someone has to die, but that was what was so fantastic. The repetition of the suicidal incidents annoyed me at one point (it only happened twice, or so) because I wanted to see some more homicides and solving crime scene investigations. Unfortunately, that’s not what Shigofumi is about, but I had hoped to see more intentional murders. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed all the mini-plots but my favourite one would be the very first one. It was such a beautiful yet tragic love story, and I love tragic love stories because they’re so darn tragic. Asuna was so pretty and likable as well, and the plot from then on just became so much more interesting, especially when we learned about her reason for killing her father. I don’t believe anyone deserves to die, but I didn’t feel sorry for the man either. I also really liked episode ten when Takehiro, an otaku, was diagnosed with appendix cancer and his mother was worried about what others thought of him. Also, he had such an adorable and nostalgic sibling/father-daughter relationship with Fumika Junior! I would’ve definitely cried if the little girl had died (dang, she was so cute!), but I did shed a few tears when she thought that Takehiro was sleeping, and then she was telling him to wake up because it was lunch-time.

(Most of) the Characters are Lovable

I don’t like megumi guys, but Kaname was cool. Kanaka’s type usually pisses me off because they tend to get irritating, but I liked her. Like I mentioned in the first paragraph, Natsuka is my favourite character, and then Fumika. For a while, I really liked Asuna, even when she revealed her true identity, but she ended up dying anyway, which was a shame, really. Yandere rocks a lot when the chick is pretty and heartless at killing people. I hated her when she stabbed Shouta because he didn’t do anything wrong, and then I felt sorry for her when he wrote that kind letter and she started regretting having done what she did. But in all honesty, it was nice to see her die in the end as well, and it was cool how the rocket finally and successfully launched. Moreover, I absolutely fell for Fumika Junior’s moeness and her lack of understanding the meaning of death. I didn’t quite comprehend why she kept pressing the restart button while asking Fumika about what happened to Takehiro, but I suppose it meant that she was trying to rewind time and bring him back. The four characters I really despised in this series are Miroshita (Half Dead Person 2), the two publishers (I totally felt like screaming “In your face!” when Kasai told them that Kirameki had finished the manuscript), and Kirameki, no doubt. I suppose he’s mentally ill but he’s such an asshole for treating Fumika like that.

Everything Links Up

I originally thought that Shigofumi was going to be like Ghost Hunt or one of those cop tv dramas where every one or two episodes the plot would be totally different and have no connection whatsoever with the previous episode. Shigofumi, however, was brilliant how everything pieced together nicely. Even the minor bits like the fact that Chiaki likes cats was chained with her history when Saiza had climbed a tree to rescue a cat for her. It was certainly a surprise for me when I learned about what Kirameki did to Fumika because she reminded him of his wife, and Kirei was also such a pain in the ass. Thankfully she didn’t appear in the series so much because if she did, I would’ve killed her by then. The ending was very sweet and adorable, especially when both Fumika started crying while holding each other’s hands. Mika is definitely much more loli and moe than Fumi, and I kind of feel sorry for Fumi since she’s not as strong. It was obvious that Natsuka had a crush on Kaname and I was pleased that they finally got her to confess in the end. What else was extremely exciting about Shigofumi was that the second high school Fumika had to visit to deliver a message to Tohru was actually connected to her through Kaname. That school certainly has a bad reputation, and so I did wonder if it was going to ever close down.

The Music was Excellent

The opening theme wasn’t really great so I never bothered to finish listening to it all, and the ending theme was a little bit better but not so awesome compared to other OPs and EDs. However, the instrumental music in the background during each episode was superb. The piano song with the cello in the first episode near the start suited really well with what was happening. Music is very important in this series because there are times when all you could see were the characters’ mouths moving, but everything else was on mute except for the instrumental. The voice-overs were awesome as well, but I loved Fumika Junior’s voice most since it was just too cute. The music also created the right atmosphere when required, and every time something bad was going to happen, this spooky music would creep up. When the music sounded rather cheery, I knew that it meant some hilarity was going to ensue. The funniest part I’d say would be when Fumika fell onto Kaname when he came to visit her other self in the hospital. Fumika is really cute to have a fear of cats, and she must have been terrified when that cat leaped on her. It was just too cute! And poor Kaname, I guess he’ll never know who the culprit is.

Overall Impression: One of the Greatest

I’m actually quite a picky person when it comes to follow a particular anime series and I would never have bothered with the first episode of Shigofumi if my sister hadn’t downloaded the entire season. From start to end I was totally intrigued by the mysteries and urge to know more of Fumika’s past, but I think somewhere in between I got tired (well, I did watch everything in two days!). I’d recommend this series to anyone who enjoys crime stuff and loli power. But it was only the first two episodes of Shigofumi that made me really excited, while everything else was rather decent, and the ending was definitely not a disappointment. I’m glad that Fumi-chan is now going to learn to stand on her own two feet and that Mika still remains as a Mail Carrier. I’d give this anime a rating of 8.5 out of 10.

So, at the moment, not much is going on. It’ll be a little bit before the new Amatsuki comes out, and Code Geass took a break this week. There are 3 other shows I am going to blog for you all, but I am not caught up on any of the three/haven’t seen them in a while so I’ll post on them in the next few days – 2 I won’t spoil for you but the other, Macross F, has been done up through ep 10 by Blissmo and I’ve only seen 4 eps, haha. In the meantime, I am constantly watching older shows, but most of them are ones that I would rather talk about on my home blog and not bother you all with. This time, though, I thought it might be interesting to do a little retroview, especialy since I don’t exactly plan on marathoning this show as I usually do.

The show in question is Gunparade March. All 3 of the people who’s opinions I trust more than anyone else’s have this show on their favorites list and yet somehow in my infinite journey to watch everything on said people’s lists, I never found myself compelled to check this one out. Today, I thought ‘why not’ and gave the first ep a whirl. It was a doozy.

At the start, the show is flaunting quite an ensemble cast (think Bokurano or Baccano, only not as serious or silly as those two respectively are.) The first episode was easily one of the least revealing starting eps I’ve ever seen. 75% of the episode was action and the other 25% was really, really weird character interaction which never really focused on any one person. In fact, none of the characters managed to squeeze out more than a couple sentences between the two fight scenes that made up most of the ep. The apparent leading female (going by the pic above) doensn’t even show up in the ep, and we only see her face on the transfer papers being handed to the school’s principal at the end.

What made things even more confusing was that I couldn’t even remotely tell what the tone of this story was supposed to be. The dialog in the fight scene didn’t seem especially serious, but then we see one women and child who, after a little bit of screentime, get shot to death and blown up, which made me tense up like crazy. Then, though, at school, there were tons of hijinks and oddball characters, only to lead into another fight in which several of the cast are thrown into a near-death experience. The battles were, unfortunately, totally uninteresting for me. They weren’t poorly animated, but it was mostly show-mech-shooting and then show-thing-being-hit with a couple explosions and blood splatters thrown in for good measure, but nothing that captured my attention.

Oddly enough, while this ep did very little if anything for me, I’m drawn to watch the next episode if just to see what the fuck is going on.