first impression: Skip Beat! (anime)

Oh, Kyoko-sama how I had yearned for thee...

I honestly thought that someone out there was horribly pissed at me and wanted to make me miserable. It took a good long while for me to find my beloved first episode of the Skip Beat anime adaptation of which I'd been looking forwad to since I first heard about there being an adaptation. When everyone else was blogging about the first and second episodes, I was still clinging to the edge of my seat in wait.

But, all of my waiting has come to a good result. I finally got my hands on the first episode and thoroughly enjoyed the heck out of watching Kyoko lose her sanity and unleash her silently brewing Kyoko-demons when Sho finally unveils his scheming, moronic, asshole of a personality of which could have only held Kyoko at his beck and call. Any other girl would have already dumped the jerk a long time ago rather than waiting for him to openly admit that he only really asked Kyoko to be with him so that she could do the cooking, cleaning, and worshipping and working her butt off to make sure he had a place to stay while he rose to stardom.

As any other person known to follow the Skip Beat manga religiously, I hate Shotaro's spoiled brat ass.

But anyway, it seems that the first episode of Skip Beat does well to cover the first act of the manga. We get to see how Kyoko slaves away to make her Sho-chan happy and be able to live royally. We get to see how anything and everything she does is for Shotaro (that bastard) and as much as I hate to admit it, the manga shows this aspect a little better than the anime does. We get to see everything that had to do with the old Kyoko and how she was such a kind, sweet, and caring person.


And then Pandora's box -- as the first episode title implies -- is opened and all hell is unleashed in the fury that is Kyoko's grudge demons. When Kyoko finds Sho telling his manager how he isn't the least bit happy with Kyoko's praises, how he only asked her to come with him to Tokyo to support as a live-in maid and not as a girlfriend, and how he was more interested in women such as his manager Shoko-san, Kyoko snaps.


For those who have digest the manga again and again, we all know that Kyoko doesn't cry and plead with Sho like a weak little girl. Instead, she rages with anger and declares that she wants revenge for everything that Sho has said and done to her. She's through with being a little underappreciated slave girl and she vows to make Shotaro grovel at her feet for forgiveness by beating him down at his own game. And when Sho invites her to join the industry so that she can do such a thing, as far as the manga goes, Kyoko takes up his offer with open arms.

But up to now we are only shown Kyoko's spirit and determination. After all, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," and Kyoko has had a horribly hard life even as a child -- all of this revealed in the manga and hopefully soon to be revealed in coming episodes. For those of you who haven't even glanced at the Skip Beat manga, Kyoko-sama has a long road ahead of her to travel if she wants to reach a height much further than that ass of a man Shotaro.

Kyoko-sama has probably always been quite creepy... she's just a lot cooler when she realizes her "demonic" potential.

As far as the anime goes, it is very fast paced and very accurate compared to the manga. I have a feeling that the anime will continue to follow exactly as the manga, but hopefully it won't loiter around privy details so that we can make it up to the filming of Dark Moon (or maybe that will be part of a sequel to Skip Beat's anime which would be fine by me as well).

I can't seem to grasp the voice that is Tsuruga Ren. Konishi Katsuyuki is a good strong male voice. But somehow, it doesn't seem to give off that same vibe that Ren has always given me. But due to the very few scenes that Ren appears in for this first episode, I may be jumping the gun by commenting on him.

As for Miyano Mamoru, he is doing exemplary excellent as Sho. I like it. He can pull off the moody, coolness that is Sho as well as the moronic secretive character that only Kyoko has ever seen. He sounds good as an asshole and I praise him well. Knowing that he can sing is a good thing too as Sho is supposedly a rising star in the singing industry and extremely popular and talented as well.

Inoue Marina is doing fine as Kyoko. Although I think I'll appreciate her more when she retains her "evil Kyoko" tone which she will have to have for a good few episodes to appease Kyoko's anger until her innocent and naive side comes back out.


All in all, the anime adaptation was not what I had been expecting. The animation isn't all that great and the character designs are carbon copies of the manga. The music is passably good, and as the anime is sticking with the original storyline, there is little to question about it.


I look forward to seeing the rest of the cast soon. As far as spoilers go, the next episode will be the infamous casting auditions and Kyoko meets Kotonami Kanae for the first time. I can't wait to see the interaction between Kyoko and her good friend Moko-san, and I definitely can't wait until Kyoko meets with Maria.

As a fan of shoujo manga, romances, and fun anime such as Skip Beat, even if the results are not what I expected, I know I will sure continue to watch it. After all, I followed Special A all the way to the end, there is no reason to pass up Skip Beat at all -- ugh... bad comparison, but you get the point.

first impression: Michiko to Hana (anime)

From the studio that created Samurai Champloo (which was created by the same guy who did Cowboy Bebop), I've long awaited another anime with similar style and adventure. Both were intensely action packed with unlikely bonds and friendships between strangers, both had hilarity and both had heart.

Michiko to Hatchin thus far, is about a woman named Michiko Malandra who broke out of prison and a young girl named Hana who was taken in by a priests' family but treated poorly on a regular basis. It's a hard way of knowing how these two girls tie together in the long run, but the premise, I assume contains a bit of adventuring between Michiko and Hana.

This first episode of the series begins with the Michiko prison break as well as her wandering around to "make" some money via bank robbery. We cut to Hana and the Berembowser Yamada family where Hana is basically our little Cinderella who wakes up early in the morning to cook and clean and take care of her "family." There's no other way to say it except for, her "family" is no better than a bunch of slave driving sadists.

While Hana usually keeps her mouth shut, plays the submissive adopted daughter who is no better than a slave in the house, her family receives funding for her daily necessities and build up their "good" reputation as a priests' family. Poor Hana is under the impression that since every day in her life thus far has been this cruel and fake, she will continue to live in this situation for the res tof eternity. And so she fantasizes that one day, someone will come for her and take her away from the cruel fate of living with such horrible people.

There is truly no other way to deal with people like the Berembowsers. You could beat them to a bloody pulp and they would still believe they are better than you and will make up excuses to make you look like the devil when it was them who had initiated a fight. Whatever it is they can get away with being horrible people for, they will do so.

And so what do you do? You either A) endure it, B) run away from it, or C) make sure that you can make their lives much more sufferable, much more horrifying, and much much worse than your own, and making them fear you for all eternity and grovel at your feet by doing something so drastic it will scar them for the rest of their lives.

Hana takes the second approach. She runs away.

Her plea for help seems to have been answered when Michiko Malandra calls up the Berembowsers and announces that she is Hana's mother who will be coming to pick her up later on. As far as the series and the situation goes, there is a 90% chance that Michiko is not Hana's mother, and maybe a slight 10% chance that she is. But if that's the case, then how did Michiko hear about Hana and why is she so adamant about taking Hana away with her?

There are so many possiblities to look forward to in this series as it seems that Michiko will be on the run from the authorities for a while, and Hana has absolutely no idea where she is going with this woman. So many questions arise already and I think the main ones would mostly like be, who are these two girls?

Michiko, as we've established after her prison break, is no ordinary woman. She went looking for Hana specifically-- she had a number, a baby picture... etc. Hana was abandoned and then adopted by her current false family and so her past is as much an enigma as Michiko's.

And thus this is what we look for in certain anime. This is something to look forward to, because not only is the storyline quite interesting, but it holds onto you at just the right places. While I haven't felt the comedic hilarity that made Cowboy Bebop or Samurai Champloo, I look forward to seeing it soon. The style and the mood and the music fit wonderfully and I just know that I'm going to enjoy this series.

And so while awaiting other anime eagerly, I may end up enjoying this one the most for this fall season.

Michiko to Hatchin seems interesting since the beginning. The storyline takes place in some hispanic area as Spanish keeps popping up in the form of names, places, and even the date and location of each scene. This will be fun series to dive into.

first impression: Tales of the Abyss (anime)

Another RPG turned anime is born with Tales of the Abyss. This is purportedly a part of the "Tales of..." franchise which would include such titles as Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Eternia... and then some. All of these are taken from role-playing games, and accordingly, the Tales of franchise is really not too bad as both of the above mentioned have gotten praise and Tales of the Abyss is causing lots of hype among fans.

The story starts out with the introduciton of Luke, a red-haired, hot-headed young spoiled prince who hates that he's being locked away in his own mansion. When he was a child he'd been kidnapped and returned with memories lost of his previous years before the kidnapping. He is friends with a servant named Guy, engaged to Princess Natalia, and is being trained in the art of the sword by his Van Sensei.

While practicing out in the court, Tear, a sorceress type girl enters the mansion and proclaims vengeance against Vandesdelca, Luke's Van Sensei, as she puts the rest of the people of the court into a sleep with her powers. Upon attacking Van, Luke intervenes and somehow a 7th Fonon reacts and the two are transported away from the mansion. From then, though having tried to take his Van Sensei's life, Tear turns out to be quite a generous and kind young girl who makes herself responsible for making sure Luke returns to his home safely.

The episode actually starts off with some form of prophecy which more than likely involves Luke and his being a 7th Fonon. The storyline sounds kind of complicated what with Yulia the creator who had learned the 7th Fonon arts, the planet called Outerlands which was made from the 7 Fonons which ended up divided, and the two factions divided Kimlasca and Malkuth. There is also the Lorelei religion which protects the Fonons and Yulia the creator.

The central theme of this series, I can surmise, is about the score created by Yulia and how our heroes will adventure in relation to it.

The first episode was a very mashed up debacle of events occuring one right after another. While I understand that sometimes jumping right into the point is good, I don't like it when too many things are narrated within five minutes and expected of the viewer to know what is going on. Of course, for others, maybe you already know what's happening in the storyline since your a fan of the Tales of franchise and have played every single game to death.

Me, I'm not too certain I can grasp the storyline since I haven't played the game. After all, it took me quite some time to understand what was going on with Final Fantasy VII's storyline. And I'm a proud squealing fangirl who worships Cloud-sama. Advent Children is thus far my favorite RPG turned animation adaptation. Even World Destruction has lost it's appeal for me, but I will devote myself to finishing it.

Back to Tales of the Abyss, I think I'll give it a shot. After all, I like action, adventure, and fantasy, and the Tales of franchise often boasts good adventure and fantasy with a slice of romance. We'll just see how this works out.

Except I know for a fact that I already don't like Luke, the spoiled brat from the Kingdom of Kimlasca who's supposedly part of the prophecy at the beginning and is the main protagonist of the series. He sounds like a spoiled brat and acts like one too. I don't know it that's to do with the character or the seiyuu of which I'm unfamiliar. I look foward to seeing more of Tear who seems like the cool and collected woman warrior-- she almost reminds me Morute except a lot nicer and a lot more competent, less hot-headed; she would make quite the nice foil for Luke as his counter personality.

If at all possible, I've come to like Yukana, the seiyuu of Tear who has also done the likes of Meiling Li from Cardcaptor Sakura, and Tenko-sama from Wagaya no Oinari-sama.

All-in-all, there is always the possibility that I will drop this series before it's over. It is scheduled for 26 episodes, much longer than any of the other Tales of series out in animation. This may be a long and bumpy ride.

thoughts: Random Walk (manga)

Okay, so I took a few more days off from blogging than I intended to. But have no fear, Ani is back and she's got quite a few posts up her sleeve. Not only that, but I may even start writing those features I've promised as well as finally posting that Amatsuki thoughts post I've been holding since the creation of anicabyss.

But anyway...




Creator: Yoshizumi Wataru
Genre: romance, shoujo, slice of life, school life, drama
Volumes/Chapters: 3 volumes (15 chapters with extra ending)


Ever since reading PxP, I ended up becoming a fan of Yoshizumi-sensei's work. Her character designs are very pretty and very cute, her stories are usually quite laxed with a made for drama feel, and her female protagonists are typically pretty strong-headed types. Her artwork is great, in my opinion, as there isn't too much noise in the background and a good amount of attention to detail.


Random Walk is a cute little story that centers around a girl named Yuka who goes through several relationships which end up in heartbreak for her each time. But because her father had told her to "experience good love so that you can be a good person" Yuka-chan seems quite ready to brave the topsy-turvy storms of having a love relationship with boys. Throughout the three volumes, she falls in love quite readily with some of the guys who walk into her life including an old boyfriend who had been caught cheating on her before as well as a boy who already has a five year relationship with another girl.

All-in-all, the manga is just another cute story to pass the time. The only thing that would keep one hooked to Random Walk is the idea that Yuka-chan needs to find a boyfriend at the end, at the very least. I felt very sorry for her throughout and only hoped that she would finally find someone.

I have to say that Yuka's choice in boys are quite... bad.

The first candidate was the son of a friend of her father's. Shiki Nozomu is a second year at her high school whom she meets for the first time when she and her friend Touko go to a karaoke. Touko had planned on playing the meet, play and ditch card on Nozomu and his friend so that they wouldn't have to pay for anything, but end up getting caught. Yuka later learns that Nozomu goes to her school and is the son of her father's friend who wants her to meet and date his son. And so when she reveals this as well as showing Nozomu the letter of recommendation that his father wrote, they agree to try dating. When they finally become serious, it appears that Nozomu is not only not serious about Yuka-chan, but he also ends up falling for another girl he meets at the library.

And thus ends the first love story in Yuka-chan's high school career.

As she is crying over her break-up with Nozomu, the second love story walks passed her in the form of Furuya Kaito, a third year in her high school. She meets him the second time outside when she's photographing a ladybug, and then the third time she meets him is at her step-mother, Youko-mama's studio where he makes his first move, kissing her and telling her that he thought she was cute. The relationship would have progressed quite nicely except for the fact that we learn that Kaito already has a girlfriend and this girlfriend is the head of the photography club Yuka just joined, a girl named Saori who is very nice and very kind to Yuka. Thus, even as Yuka knows this, she begins to date Kaito while feeling extremely guilty as Saori and Kaito have been together for a couple years.

As this relationship was doomed to end in the beginning, I was pretty shocked that Yuka actually went through with it. While it was true that Kaito really expressed genuinely that he was in love with Yuka, that still didnt' change the face that he already has a girlfriend whom he is also in love with. That said, he was quite pushy and I think that that was what got Yuka interested in him as she's the type to give in to someone as pushy as him.

The last of Yuka-chan's heartbreaks had also been the first. In the second year of junior high, she met a boy named Tsutsui Hikaru who fell for her and came on strong. Because of this, she ended up falling for him as well since his pushy personality won her over. But later on, she found him cheating on her with a tutor and so the two broke up. At present day, Hikaru is back and he wants to do things over with Yuka. But lo and behold, of course, this relationship does not play out the way Yuka wants and so she is left broken hearted again. In the end, Hikaru ended up choosing another girl over her.

To be honest, I'm all for giving second chances and all, but this relationship was kind of short and ridiculous considering how much time Hikaru spent trying to get Yuka to go out with him again. And then he just turns around and breaks her heart all over again.

By this time in the storyline, I pretty much predicted the ending very easily.

Throughout, we are introduced to all of Yuka's friends including an older ex-stepbrother of hers from her father's second marriage. Even after the divorce, Yuka still keeps in contact with her second stepmother, Sachie-mama, and her father had kept in contact with Touwa, the stepbrother. Upon seeing how Yuka easily spouts off her relationships to him, it wasn't hard to guess who the main couple in the end would be.

I would have to say, even though it was highly predictable, it was also quite sudden as Yuka had always mentioned that she and Touwa never got along with each other in the past. Although we do learn that Touwa had been opposed to the marriage between his mother and Yuka's father because he already had a crush on Yuka.

Very cute story, very cute characters. There's little else to say about this manga, and I think I've already said too much.

The manga also boasts the side stories concerning the love lives of Yuka's friends, Negishi Touko and her on again off again boyfriend, Chiba Hirotaka and his relationships, as well as Ishimara Katsura and her little endearing love story with a student teacher.

Overall, the manga was fun to read and I enjoyed watching Yuka go through her high school so dazzlingly. I don't approve of some of her boyfriends, but that's really something I can't really criticize. It's not a must read as far as the story goes, but if you're a fan of Yoshizumi-sensei or a fan of cute shoujo manga, I would highly recommend this one to anyone.

At least for the fangirls out there, there is a good select amount of bishounen goodness in the entire story altogether. lol

news: Skip Beat! anticipation overload!!!

As per The Scrumptious Anime Blog the first episode of Skip Beat! has broadcasted. I will not be the first or only blogger of Skip Beat! as I know that there are a multitude of fans out there just clawing at their desks waiting (not so) patiently for the first available release of this manga turned anime online.

I for one am about to jump into cyberspace to find out why the subbing is taking so long. BUT... I keep reminding myself to remain patient and kind and try not to pester the lovely subbers out there for they are doing their best after all. If I could understand Japanese and translate it, there is no doubt I would be on that first episode like a leech.

I cannot wait as Skip Beat! had aired yesterday in Japan and subbing will take at least a good amount of days to do.

Up to this point, I refuse to read anything that has to do with the first episode via blogs and summaries and whatnot so as not to ruin my firsthand experience of watching the anime for myself.

Be patient, ani... you can do it.

Oh how I crave my Kyoko-sama and her crazy evil antics...

Eagerly awaiting and waiting and waiting. *sigh*

news: rolling in October

Despite the fact that business is picking up at my part-time thus forcing me to become full-time, and despite all the slacking off I've been doing thus forcing me to cram-study for my upcoming test, I feel the need continue planning my posts for anicabyss.

My blogging has been a lot more scattered than I'd intended it to be since the beginning, but I kind of don't mind the direction that I'm taking. After all, if I set myself to an unchangeable schedule, I may end up rampaging. Secondly, no one reads this blog save for myself, so really, who cares how I blog anyway, right?


My intention is to finish up some posts that I've already started such as the thoughts on Aishiteru ze Baby, Special A, Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge (Perfect Girl Evolution/The Wallflower), and Tokyo Marble Chocolate. I may or may not do all of them, but Special A is a must and The Wallflower would make a great Halloween Holiday time post.

My upcoming manga thoughts posts havn't been started yet, but they will be. I plan on writing one for Random Walk, of which I recently finished, and PxP, of which I have taken a liking. Both manga are by Yoshizumi Wataru, so there's the probability that I may pick two more of her manga to write about and just make it a little Yoshizumi-sensei marathon.

I really, really lack the motivation (or probably the ability) to create feature posts even though I've come up with so many ideas already. My biggest necessity to the feature items include the "Top Bishounen" and the "Why I've fallen in love with Megane-bishie-kun in shoujo manga" as well as the "Wonder Women of manga and anime: Kiri-ti and Tama-chan" posts. I so, so, so want to share these three, but I've yet to even begin somewhere besides making a list of my favorite Megane-kun from all sources anime and manga.

Aside from that, the spotlight post for October has yet to be chosen yet, and the previous list of all possible spotlight posts has been declined. Another part of the featurettes is the featured song of which I've already chosen the ending theme to Hatenkou Yugi.


Onto other more merry news, Skip Beat! will be airing within the week and so there will definitely be a new first impressions post for it. My only conflict is whether I want to break down and do a by episode posting of Skip Beat to see how it goes, or if I just want to watch the anime and comment on it like I do all the others. What may end up happening is that I'll just comment on my thoughts of Skip Beat! as I watch without any sense of episode-by-episode. I'm too lazy for that.

But who knows, I may change my mind.

Other new anime will also be airing soon as a lot of the ones I'm watching are coming to a close. Natsume Yuujinchou has reached it final episode that I will be able to view soon, and there has been an announcement that a second season is on its way. I will look forward to it and the anicabyss readers (population: 1; yea that's me) can look forward to the ending series thoughts of Natsume Yuujinchou.

Wagaya no Oinari-sama should be drawing to a close soon as well, and I've yet to continue on with World Destruction which is probably nowhere near end yet. While D.Gray-man feels like it's still ongoing, the most recent episode I watched boasted a "last episode" as the preview and so I'm a little worried since there is still so much more going on in the storyline. Subbing error, maybe?

Naisho no Tsubomi has yet to release it's second OVA sub and Chocolate Underground seems to have come to a standstill. I don't mind, as they aren't really too significant to my viewing diet as of present, but it would be nice to be able to finish what I start. I'd hate to have another Amatsuki and Allison to Lillia laying around my harddrive where I just can't seem to finish them.


Finally, onto manga news is my sudden interest in adventure, shoujo, and romance in the same manga story. I've set my sights on the likes of Immortal Rain, Kanata Kara, Kakan no Madonna, Tsuki no Shippo, and so on, so forth. Unfortunately, very few of these are even completely translated and so I feel like I need to wait it out a little.

Otherwise, I'm still waiting patiently for Lovely Complex, Beauty Pop, Ouran High School Host Club, etc, etc, etc that are all listed on my manga diet list to the right.

If anyone has ever wondered (population: 0) the lists are formed in the fashion of which anime/manga I will jump onto first thing when I can get the newest chapter/episode within my grasp. Basically it's a rough "top ten" list of the anime and manga I'm currently obsessed with starting with number one. And the list isn't static so it may change daily.

And with this, hopefully I'll be able to go along a little more of a planned month than the last two. Hopefully I'll be able to come up with that October spotlight. And hopefully I'll finally be able to finish watching Amatsuki, though I may just drop it altogether.

news: Skip Beat! an interview with the cast

- from The Scrumptious Anime Blog In Lieu of the Fall Preview #3: Skip Beat Seiyuu Cast (and Director) Interview
With Skip Beat! coming close to it's broadcast in less than a week, here's a nice little interview of the cast and director that I found off of The Scrumptious Anime Blog (who's website link can be found about as well as in my blogroll). This particular interview can also be found in it's Japanese transliterated glory --> here <-- because the title of the site is in Japanese and I don't know what it means anyway. Basically, as far as I've read, thanks to usagijen from the Scrumptious Anime Blog's post is that this interview takes place after the second voice recording. Two episodes have come to pass and the seiyuu are talking about their experiences and how they like Skip Beat! thus far.

Much of the work is already done by usagijen so I won't repeat the translated interview and will simply direct anyone to visit the link above. Then again, no one really comes to my blog anyway, so...

In reading the interview, I found that I must agree with the seiyuu themselves on what parts they are looking forward to seeing. Especially Konishi-san who points out that he would love to watch the part where Kyoko and Moko-san are doing the commercial auditions. That will be so much fun to see in action (or rather in animation)!

After having read through the manga itself to a certain point, there is so much about the anime I am looking forward to. And after today, there will be five days left until the official broadcast date.

As I have been specifically using The Scrumptious Anime Blog as my source for Skip Beat! news, I would like to take this time to thank the bloggers of the site for having all this information available. It's nice to be able to know so backstage info about a specific anime as well as get to see a cute little interview of seiyuu where they kid around in the beginning. lol

first impression: Naisho no Tsubomi (anime)

When I first saw the summary of this anime, my thoughts were quite cruel. It was summarized about a little girl who was growing up and going through that phase of puberty where everything was completely foreign to her. Not only does she have to deal with her period coming soon, but she also had to deal with certain growing feelings of attraction towards a boy in her class. This is unfamiliar territory for Tsubomi.

Frankly, I wasn't really interested in it. A bunch of kids growing up. So what?

But then when I accidentally clicked to the title again not knowing what it was, for some wierd reason I decided that I might give it a try. After all, it's only 3 OVAs long and while the other two aren't available with subtitles yet, this first one might serve some minor entertainment. They're a bunch of kids, right? What harm could there be? Because in essence, I've learned that anything based off of shoujo manga has good endings, cute storylines, and nothing too heavily dramatized. Even angsty themes aren't too heavily traumatic.

I like good happy themes. And slice of life comedies with a twist of "girl growing up and learning to become a woman" kind of piqued my curiosity.

The advertisement of this short OVA series was no lie. Everything mentioned in the summary took place with Tsubomi meeting another girl in her class, Saya, who was much more mature and level-headed than she was. You wouldn't have guessed that Saya was just some snot nosed elementary school kid-- of course, upon further viewing, you learn that there is so much more to Saya and that there's something about her own life she may be hiding from Tsubomi. Otherwise, she's a very good source of mature information whenever Tsubomi seemed lost concerning her mother's pregnancy.

Of course, there was that friend who just had to point out that "Tsubomi's mommy and daddy did naughty things" and that's how babies are made. How cruel to make a little girl realize such a thing... Honestly, NO ONE likes to even think that their parents are doing it like a happy couple because it's just gross to think that way. Even if it is the truth.

In Tsubomi's case, "doing naughty things" such as having sex is definitely a no-no and her young and innocent little mind doesn't comprehend the whole situation. She only knows that it's bad. And so thanks to Saya's mature look on things, she is told to understand that, "it's okay since they're happily married and they love each other."

Is that really right? LOL Who knows nowadays.

The premise of Naisho no Tsubomi is interesting and cute. I wouldn't say it's original since a lot of movies and series have done these issues to death. After all, a girl advancing into the adolescent puberty stage is a natural element of life. The American movie, My Girl was all about a girl growing up and becoming a woman and falling in love... and things like that -- it was also quite popular back when I was growing up.

I'll have to admit, it was quite adorable to watch the girls discussing things such as sex and how babies are made like they were professionals in this matter. Amusing actually.

I'm not too stuck on this series, but I would like to see how things progress between Tsubomi and her friends as well as with the boy she's suddenly attracted to, Daichi. He's a nice kid who tries to help her and be there for her, so you may wonder whether or not he's already discovered his own mature-ness... if boys even really get to that point. Also the next episode preview makes mention that Daichi gets help from Saya as well after he and Tsubomi witness their friends kissing and start to see each other in a different light.

Geez... so young and innocent.

Honestly, in America, kids these days aren't as innocent as portrayed in this anime. They know a lot more things than you would expect them to know, and even more so than you would know yourself at the age of twenty-four and going. Sometimes, you don't even want to know what they know, because it could become a bit awkward. Maybe in Japan, despite their openness in the media about sex and whatnot, the kids are actually very innocent. Or maybe shoujo manga is just simply aimed at being completely innocent and fairy tale like.

Good ethics, maybe. I know we in America kind of lack that sense in a lot of places. Sadly.

first impression: Chocolate Underground (anime)

I have to laugh. I really have to laugh.

The premise of this online broadcasted anime is based on the children's novel Bootleg by the British author Alex Shearer.
- credit to crunchyroll

Basically the world has been turned into some sort of health revolution era. The "Good For You" party is an organization designed and created to make sure that people eat only foods that are, well, good for you. Sadly, these foods despite being good for the health are horrible for the taste buds. This gives a new twist on traditional thinking that anything that's good for you tastes like crap.

You know, I think parents and leaders of the world alike have gone through a lot of hardships already to convince kids that not all health foods have the same texture as cardboard.

And then this anime/story comes along and ruins it all.

Of course, I have to admit, the idea of having chocolate and sweets prohibited from society is an interesting detail. The first episode even boasts two innocent yet guilty people just trying to enjoy a nice bar of chocolate during their evening when their house gets torn down by an army of mecha troopers. And then the leader of this army claims that "Chocolate is evil" or something like that.

I think my heart stopped when he crushed the bar of chocolate. I think I laughed when the house got torn down though for something as petty as a chocolate bar. hehe

I've already seen the first five episodes available to me so this isn't so much a first impression as it is a first thoughts post. The anime in itself is short, lasting only about five minutes average per episode. There is no opening theme and there is a very short and sweet ending theme with preview spoilers for the next episode.

The characters are rather blunt and flat, except for Louise whom you meet first hand trying to tackle a television because it won't stop those silly "Good For You" infomercials that are both tacky and boring and probably annoying when you've seen them for the hundredth time in a day. It also doesn't help that Louise used to run a sweets shop and now has to run a health food shop.

As for Huntly and Smudger, our two little boy protagonists, they are quite typical of little boys except that they are also very curious little boys. They go as far as landing themselves in a secret chocolate production underground cave type of place and then enjoying themselves. More friends are made along the way and the story is supposed to veer into the actual bootlegging of chocolate so there is much more to look forward to.

Otherwise, it's just a cute little story to watch during free time and I'm quite interested in reading the book it's based off of now.

random thoughts: Dark Boots Evolved, Lenalee Back in Action

Episode 102: The Word of Promise



This is the moment I'd been waiting for since the time our heroine of D.Gray-man lost the use of her Innocense.

While I began watching D.Gray-man because of Suzumura Kenichi and his cast as Lavi, I began to grow to love this anime very much. Between the entire cast of the Dark Order whether or not they fought as exorcists or did research work as a normal person, I found I enjoyed all of their presence.

Lenalee grew on me very early on in the series because of her sense of justice, her toughness, as well as her penchant for treasuring those things and people important to her. We are shown that Lenalee has had a tough life ever since the first day she was discovered to be a host for Innocense. She was taken away from her home, separated from her brother, and forced to fight in a way she didn't really care to know about.

And then Komui entered into the organization as some regular joe, section chief and gave Lenalee a reason to live again.

As time passed by, Lenalee came to treasure the Dark Order Headquarters and everyone within which became her only home in the whole world. And thus her sense of needing to protect this life of hers was very great, so great, in fact that she has the willpower to go as far as sacrificing her own life to make sure she never loses anything or anyone she holds dear.

I like Lenalee because she's not a damsel in distress all the time.

At least she wasn't until she pushed passed the limits of her Innocense and lost the power to use it. And then she became just some regular little damsel who wanted to fight but could do anything but wait for everyone around her to save her time and time again. Throughout this time, you could see the frustration and the annoyance in her expression. She hated being the one who needed protection and she wanted to be the one protecting others.

But the wait is finally over.




We finally present to you the episode in which Lenalee is finally pushed passed her limits of remaining as the poor princess who needs protection. As a last resort to protecting her family of Dark Order and all of her friends and her home, Lenalee allows the damaged Innocense to be forced into her body so that she can fight once again.

And the results were quite fantastic. As her Innocense fragment had been shown to have evolved to protect her more than once already, it now ends up evolving even further to create a weapon against akuma in the form of her Dark Boots, but made purely from Innocense that has used her blood as a component.

It looks pretty cool and it seems that by uniting with her Innocense fragment in this way, Lenalee has become on par with the newly formed Level 4 akuma who has been whipping everyone's butts. Even Allen has been having issues fighting the newly upgraded akuma, although he is also the only exorcist among the Order who can keep up with the evil weapon at this point.

And so what happens?

After saving Allen from becoming fertilizer for a new Akuma experience level, it seems that Lenalee easily learns how much stronger her own power is. She feels faster, she feels more power, and she becomes aware that her boots are different than they were before.

This is no longer an equip-type weapon she'd been using since the beginning, but something completely different.

A little motion sickness is surprisingly not what I figured Allen would be worried about at a time like this.


And thus the two tag-team it up and destroy the level 4 who'd been wreaking havoc around the headquarters. The whole place is completely destroyed, the whole science research team is dead, and I'm not even sure how many exorcists there are left in the whole organization around the world anymore.

On top of that Lavi and Kanda have yet to acquire their still broken Innocense weapons.

While all of this is going on, I really, really kept wondering where the heck all those above 100% synch rate Generals were at the moment. To be honest, there's no way they could be anymore tired than Allen who'd been fighting hell and back before the Generals even arrived in the isolated science area to help out.

But anyway, apparently the fight with Level 4-kun isn't exactly over because the next episode continues the battle with him. I look forward to more and hopefully the series doesn't end before more can happen.

At least Allen is still strong and still going. I'd hate for the poor kid to have had to go through so much and end up being weaker than Lenalee. After all, no matter how I look at it, I still feel he should be the strongest of all the exorcists since it seems only right in that aspect.