December 25, 2010

Thank you Averatec 4100 for your service

5 Years ago on this day, December 24, 2005, I was a happy new owner of
my very own laptop. I had originally bought that laptop for myself to
prepare for my grand return trip to Germany that weekend, which didn't
happen until 2 months later.

The original (primary) plan was to use this laptop to assist me in my
mangaka endeavors. But I had that gut feeling inside me that leaving
the USA suddenly at that time wasn't a good idea, and my health turned
for the worst in the second night of my stay in Zurich, Switzerland.
What became of a laptop for work ended up being a laptop for
entertainment, as I proceeded to buy a bunch of DVD's while
recuperating on post in US military installations in Germany (due to
the suddent timing of the trip, I couldn't preload it with my favorite
anime).

Afterwards, the laptop saw me accomplish some amusing tasks, like
overclocking it (yes, overclocking the laptop really works), online
gaming of Delta Force BHD, more famously my fansub translation work,
and various Photoshop work, like the worst file to run on 700MB of
RAM: http://animangatron.blogspot.com/2007/10/here-heck-i-am-again-lol.html.
I had so many layers, I had to merge many of them to prevent myself of
running out of RAM lol (I eventually suffered from peeling of my gfx
adapter).

Of course, one of the best years of its' usage was this year, 2010,
which marked my return to forum going and the re-appearance of
Animesuki's mangatron.

Facts:
--Upon its official retirement in August 13, 2010, the laptop was
still fully functional (minus an Ethernet port I could have fixed, but
didn't)
--I rarely shut down the laptop during it's 5 years of service. On
average, I shut down 10 times a year MAX, which was usually less than
that (because shutting down was primarily during travel). For example,
during my fansub tenure, I shut down only twice, which was for
transport. The laptop has stayed on an average 340 days a year for 5
years!
--I only went to 1GB of RAM for a couple of months while staying at my
uncle's place in DE.
--The hard drive now serves as an external drive in an USB powered enclosure.
--Overclocking was possible from 1.6ghz to 2ghz, provided one uses
dual channel DDR400 memory.

My only regret during those 5 years, was that I was unable to
accomplish within the timeframe of my poor state of health the
original goal of this laptop's use. Let's hope I have overcome my
health problems and actually start releasing my manga project to the
world. Thanks again Averatec lappy, your services will never be
forgotten.

November 14, 2010

My H Crab watches Hyakka Ryoran 06


 Well well, having my mind blown by the awesomeness that is Hyakka Ryoran episode 06, I think it's time I post this. Here we have my pet H Crab taking in the sight that is episode 06, in yet another of my bizarre research attempts. Some things to note:

October 22, 2010

Hyakka Ryoran Samurai Girls official art and more

Oh look, another girl with a weapon about twice her size...

A few days ago, I was heartbroken at the minimalistic numbers of Naoe-chan artwork, and so I hunted down the official site in the most complicated way (blog-to-anime-site-to-Hyakka-Ryoran-site) possible since I was using my smarthphone to do this.

Similar to what I did with Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maou, I'll be collecting them into one place that would be [hopefully] easily accessible to all sorts of devices, be it tablets or smartphones.

Click here to go to the album

My favorites of course being Naoe-chan ;)
 Look at Naoe-chan's legs...

Also on board the main site for all things Hyakka Ryoran, is a number of 4koma drawn by Kazahana Chiruwo. I'll admit, this artist does make me look like a recruit lol (to pat myself on the back, I go Black and White). Although, I think one has to know the characters before hand or have novel knowledge to fully enjoy the 4koma, as I'm wondering if these characters really do have these personalities. I uploaded the 4koma to the Hyakka album in case the main site be difficult to browse (my smartphone has next to no east asian language support, or at least Opera Mini doesn't, which can probably be said for Opera Browser too depending on ROM language). Strangely enough, 4koma #10 seems to be inaccessible (too ecchi perhaps? XD). There's 20 (or 21) 4koma so far, with some nice Naoe-chan, Fabio, you got your work cut out for you, buddy.

Here be the sources for these fine arts:

http://news.dengeki.com/elem/000/000/294/294635/
http://hyakka-ryoran.net/4koma.php
http://hyakka-ryoran.net/index.php
http://hobby-channel.net/hyakkatv-chara

You're probably wondering why I don't list some images though, these should be accessed on sites like Danbooru, Moe Imouto, etc. (funnily enough, the official art of the (novel?) designed girls weren't on Danbooru a couple of days ago, so I got those off Hyakka-Ryoran.net). There's also the reason that, I still have not seen Google's image hosting rules, which I play it safe by not showing 18+ content so as to avoid the Adult tag on my blog. That, and, the Photobucket fiasco had me think twice as to just how often these sites change their TOS or just what is it that ticks them off (tell me why did they have to delete this picture, which was "in violation of their terms").

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Let the Twintail love flow


Lately, the only anime I've had the greater part of my mind on is Hyakka Ryoran Samurai Girls, and it's a no brainer who the girl in that series excites me most, Naoe Kanetsugu. So, in a different approach than the Teruya Eiko interview (which I feel should stand on it's own as the only tail related interview), I'll talk a bit about why the love flows for my Naoe-chan.

October 4, 2010

7 Days of Anime August 8-14

7 Days of Anime (7DA) is a column by the mangatron where he grades the episode of the week for the series' that he follows. Grades are done with 3 things in mind: 1) How well the episode fits into the current pacing [of the main story], 2) How well it maintained a viewers interest, and 3) overall enjoyment level (Animation quality, sounds of music and voice, and use of story elements).
Legend:
A = Time well spent
B = If it's your cup of tea, drink it
C= Only the fans will enjoy it regardless
+ = And then some
- = Something is missing...



Asobi ni Ikuyo! Episode 05
Uhm... the next cult in line full of crazies, these folks worship the cat (or the kitty ears thereof). Huh, they should just stick to anime/manga/games. That's as close as this world will ever get to them, anyways. And we get to see Aoi meet her mama (har har), like anyone saw that coming.

October 1, 2010

7 Days of Anime August 1-7

7 Days of Anime (7DA) is a column by the mangatron where he grades the episode of the week for the series' that he follows. Grades are done with 3 things in mind: 1) How well the episode fits into the current pacing [of the main story], 2) How well it maintained a viewers interest, and 3) overall enjoyment level (Animation quality, sounds of music and voice, and use of story elements).

Legend:
A = Time well spent
B = If it's your cup of tea, drink it
C= Only the fans will enjoy it regardless
+ = And then some
- = Something is missing...



Asobi ni Ikuyo! Episode 04

 Yet another strange group of people, and the shopping episode. I think these are just as regular as the festivel episode, the swimsuit episode, etc. With the typical "lead male is useless" thing again. I hope this isn't the sterotyping of the glasses dude...

September 24, 2010

7 Days of Anime July 25-31

7 Days of Anime (7DA) is a column by the mangatron where he grades the episode of the week for the series' that he follows. Grades are done with 3 things in mind: 1) How well the episode fits into the current pacing [of the main story], 2) How well it maintained a viewers interest, and 3) overall enjoyment level (Animation quality, sounds of music and voice, and use of story elements).

Legend:
A = Time well spent
B = If it's your cup of tea, drink it
C= Only the fans will enjoy it regardless
+ = And then some
- = Something is missing...


Asobi ni Ikuyo episode 03

With the third episode introducing more characters than the first episode did, this one is standard harem fare. If you never wondered just what is it that makes Kio special, this one will start making you think about that. (Read: nothing to him)

September 1, 2010

Renovation complete!


Finally, after much deliberation, sweat and lost weight, I renovated the blog. This was an attempt to replace the previous template that was totally not informative. The important changes were:

Renovation test 2

Lol these templates don"t support After Jump

August 31, 2010

Renovation test

While undergoing renovation, this will be a low level test.

Something like that.
pfft free templates, 90% of them don't work.

August 30, 2010

Blog undergoing renovation


I figured that this vacation would see me going mobile most of the time, so I'm testing templates that would suit a mobile browser while keeping a 3 column layout.

August 7, 2010

Ah my Majo-chan!

Ah, my dear Majo-chan. I like lolipops too. I even like girls. Now a
girl with a lolipop = an excitation of my nervous system's receptacles
of emotions and feelings.

When will she get her own episode?!?!!!??!

August 6, 2010

Look what the cat...nvm

Yes, that is a iPhone 3g(s?) version inside a iPhone 4 case. Yes, I
don't like this iPhone and yes, I have experienced 4 smartphone OS
platforms prior to this.

Posted via email from Treo (damn failed posts. Thanks gmail)

August 2, 2010

7 Days of Anime July 18-24

7 Days of Anime (7DA) is a column by the mangatron where he grades the episode of the week for the series' that he follows. Grades are done with 3 things in mind: 1) How well the episode fits into the current pacing [of the main story], 2) How well it maintained a viewers interest, and 3) overall enjoyment level (Animation quality, sounds of music and voice, and use of story elements).


Legend:
A = Time well spent
B = If it's your cup of tea, drink it
C= Only the fans will enjoy it regardless
+ = And then some
- = Something is missing...


Asobi ni Ikuyo episode 02


Pretty much a continuation of last weeks episode, but it concludes that part of the story at the end of this ep..

Grade: B-
Pros: Hmm... action? With gun slinging girls? XD
Cons: Showed quite a lot, with its share of answers answered and questions with no answers. Like how does Aoi-chan get out of that armor :p


Strike Witches episode 03


3 little witches went to the boot camp. 3 Little witches fought a Neuroi. Then the 3 little witches slept together... on the same bed XD

Grade: C
Pros: Perrine-chan crotch.
Cons: About as normal as a Strike Witches episode can get, so nothing negative here.


Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi Episode 04


Continuing backstory's of Otogi Bank members, this one focuses on Otsuu-chan (the maid).

Grade: B-
Pros: I made note on the Animesuki forums about how I felt the 2 recent eps were more touching to me than all of Angel Beats minus the last 5 minutes.
Cons: Not much in the way of Ryouko x Ryoushi if that's what floats your boat.


Amagami SS episode 04


Final Fight of the Haruka arc. That was quick.

Grade: B-
Pros: Haruka's "Wow!"
Cons: In the aftermath of their romance, they didn't seem to age well >____>


Shukufuku no Campanella Episode 04


More adventuring from Agnes and her good friends. Whoever said this series isn't ecchi needs to see this.

Grade: B-
Pros: Agnes undressing. Naked Agnes. Agnes taking a bath. Agnes Agnes AGNES
Cons: Carina gets shafted for the most part of the ep. But it is an Agnes ep, so....


Highschool of the Tot Episode 03


More manga adventures of school related personel surviving. It's.... Highschool, you know.

Grade: C
Pros: Maybe if I don't find anything good to say, does that count as a good thing?
Cons: It's an animated manga so far. Wait, that doesn't seem bad...


Seitokai Yakuindomo Episode 04


Shino and Aria return to school and the regular hilarity insues.

Grade: A
Pros: Bondage Teddy bear. ENOUGH SAID.
Cons: This episode can do no wrong...


Sekirei ~Pure Engagement~ Episode 03


Continuing the showdown between Kazehana and the Disciplinary Squad.

Grade: B
Pros: Benitsubasa kicking butt.
Cons: Not much Yukari-chan T___T


Winner of the week: Seitokai Yakuindomo and it's Bondage Teddy
 Ceiling Teddy Bear (Bondage Ed.) is watching you... never mind.

Seriously, the entire episode should win the award, but Bondage Teddy stood out as the most hilarious surprise that not even I could have foreseen. The entire execution from the in-box camera to the one by one revealing of the bear, his hanging, and right down to the closing of the moment with Tsuda's "Ha Haaaaaa..." Pure brilliance.

Due to my wireless carrier being a dick, I'll be keeping the 7 Days of Anime with short descriptions. Once I break even back to normal weekly updates and should my wireless carrier continue to provide good service, then I'll be providing much more than 1-liner episode descriptions and probably a better description for why I graded said episode its grade.

July 31, 2010

THAT HAIR

I obviously have no words to describe the hilarious amusement of that
hair. For some unexplainable reason it's so nice to stare upon...

July 30, 2010

Minna Dietlinde Wilcke defeats Teruya Eiko

Click image for larger version

So.... yeah... those weekly blog updates I mentioned earlier. Who
would have thought my health would cripple me again, this time due to
last week's shoulder problems, I've had to put makeshift braces around
my neck, but since that's impractical I now have to apply external
medicinal's on my spine in the neck area, hopefully till I can assess
a really good time to deal with this (not a good time now).

But what of it. I'm living my life to the fullest now (ha), and what
better way than to continue my seasonal zanyness with some Minna
Dietlinde Wilke love. Having been a fan of hers before Ichiban Ushiro
no Dai Maou started its broadcast run, it saddens me to usurp Teruya
Eiko from my devices and install Minna-chan instead. But what the
heck, I love these girls, so Eiko-chan, if Special #2 satisfies me
then you may just return to the screens XD

By the way, what continues this weird week of mine, is that I've been
shopping around the net for a decent laptop replacement. Of course
you'll know from me that this isn't an easy decision to make due to my
personal attachment to my current laptop. I will eventually get a new
laptop soon, as well as 1 or 2 new phones, one possibly an iPhone4,
and much to my amusement I rejected an iPad from my boss, which might
find it's way to me anyways. Once those arrive, I will have amassed
the most expensive line of mobile devices.... dedicated to my anime
girls hehehehehe XD

A tablet pc would solve most of my problems, eh... and yes I purposely
mauled that Treo, yes I can still use it, and yes I a still working on
its manual focus Camera mod.

Sent from my Treo like the other failed post thanks to my POS wireless carrier

July 20, 2010

My first 4koma for Asobi ni Ikuyo!

Whew, finally returned to the 4koma stage that I apparently left behind when Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maou finished its broadcast run. Though, this one has it's laughs and pains.
Click image for a larger one
 As usual, the fun times and tough times of the couple of hours done on this 4koma:

--Now, for some who don't know, "WC" is a restroom. Now I've only seen that in Germany, which I presume exists in most of Europe, but I do not recall seeing it in the USA. Maybe in some areas, but man I've been to rest stops and restrooms of the entire lower half of the USA (12 years ago), so yeah...
--This silly health problem flared up again. It has been popping up from time to time, but I really hated it this time because I was working on this 4koma. At its worst it can give me 95% paralysis on my right arm, at its lowest I'll be lucky enough to lift 1kg of something. I really, really admire baseball players right now.
--This 4koma was easy, too easy in fact, but guess what gave me a wild ride: the helmet. Now, here's my reasoning ok, she (Aoi-chan) hasn't used this suit during daylight. So naturally I didn't really get good looks at it while watching. Being a NASCAR fan, the first thing that pops into my mind, was of course, NASCARize her helmet. I said no way, no way am I ruining her head just because I didn't see it right. So there you have, what I believe is what's closest to what it really looks like.
--The simplicity of this 4koma will hopefully be complemented by the joke presented to you.

Hmm, by the way, I've passed 30,000 hits. Thanks readers for putting up with my zaniness! I'll see if I can come up with a special 'Thank You' artwork...

July 19, 2010

Weekly Research: July 11-17

This week's research: That ass.

Interestingly enough, this week's episodes were being such an ass. In fact, all of the episodes for the 8 series that I'm following had quite an assload of ass occupying a large part of the screen's real estate (the ass being the focal point for about 1 second or more, no freeze frame). Coincidence? Since I'm on a vendetta against coincidence, I think not. If you're an ass guy, and if you like them girls, and you love them butts and you cannot lie, then this was your week. My my, this is the first time in my life I typed an assload of "ass" in a post.... XD




 Give your take below in comments (open to anyone, anonymous or Google account)

7 Days of Anime July 11-17

7 Days of Anime (7DA) is a column by the mangatron where he grades the episode of the week for the series' that he follows. Grades are done with 3 things in mind: 1) How well the episode fits into the current pacing [of the main story], 2) How well it maintained a viewers interest, and 3) overall enjoyment level (Animation quality, sounds of music and voice, and use of story elements).

Legend:
A = Time well spent
B = If it's your cup of tea, drink it
C= Only the fans will enjoy it regardless
+ = And then some
- = Something is missing...

Asobi ni Ikuyo! Episode 01

The first episode in the series, we saw a heck of a lot of revelations than normally shown throughout anime history. Did we really need to see this much info? For 12 episodes, sure yeah.
Grade: B-
Pros: It's them juggulars.
Cons: Is this kind of pacing a sign of things to come? And why him? Lucky bastard or coincidence?

Strike Witches Episode 02

Continuing where episode 01 left off, the 501st Fighter Wing reunite against a powerful new foe. <- how'd that sound? Good movie tagline? :D
Grade: B-
Pros: That(them) ass(es). And a prediction I made came true... and then some.
Cons: I think I've seen this fight before...

Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi Episode 03

Continuing the (mis)adventures of Ookami-chan and her squad of misfitting friends. Except, this episode shone without her. How's that for breaking news...
Grade: A-
Pros: Lots of skin this episode. Or rather a great story of 2 of the supporting cast.
Cons: No baring of additional skin from Ookami-chan than her usual outfit.

Amagami SS episode 03

The 3rd episode in the arc of Haruka, the episode title is "Jealousy" but that only happened in the first half. (at least the stereotypical jealousy).
Grade: C+
Pros: Haruka lying on the sofa. Them legs and that large ass sweater = more than eyecandy.
Cons: Hmm this is a hard one... perhaps the kiss behind the knee? Because I thought he'd move north.

Shukufuku no Campanella Episode 03

More adventuring from Carina and her good friends. Whoever said this series isn't ecchi needs to see this.
Grade: B
Pros: Progress is jiggly er I mean smooth.
Cons: uhm.... naked loli? >___>

Highschool of the Tot Episode 02

More manga adventures of school related personel surviving. And zombies surviving too. Everyone needs to eat some time, right?
Grade: C
Pros: Er, ecchi zombies? How does someone get off on ecchi when a zombie is in their face?
Cons: Teacher Nurse... lady is a lot "slower" than the manga showed me....

Seitokai Yakuindomo Episode 03

Shino and Aria's school trip follow tradition... and then some. Meanwhile, Suzu remains as small as ever. She can run head first into Tsuda's crotch, man...
Grade: B-
Pros: Suzu speaking polite english then finishing it with a fresh mouth. And that's all I have to say about that.
Cons: Sex jokes at their utmost minimum (compared to the previous 2 eps). Probably a good thing?

Sekirei ~Pure Engagement~ Episode 02

In three words: Benitsubasa's phone calls. Enough said, go and watch it now.
Grade: A
Pros: Did I fail to mention Benitsubasa's phone calls?
Cons: Er.... not enough Yukari? ;)

Give your own grading below in comments (open to anyone, anonymous or Google account)

July 5, 2010

Whose phone is that?

So, with Heroman episode 14 having aired, I am really quick to piece things together in my brain, and this scene was a no-brainer simply because it is currently my active phone:


That phone Agent Hughes is using is a Palm designed series of the Treo line, whatever he exactly is using apparently is lost in the way of cartoonification. Why is this significant? I want to know who exactly thought the Treo is a great phone for field agents. Other notable agents to use a Treo: the movie "Eagle Eye", with Zoe Perez using one, as well as 24 season 6, I believe episode 08 or 09, when Jack Bauer reads the message from Phillip.

Note to BONES: I know you're a bit behind the times when you show American elements in Heroman, but using a Treo was just.... strange. Maybe I should be glad they didn't use the iPhone as a template, which some would argue is the phone to symbolize common american use.

July 3, 2010

Start your engines: Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi


What a nice start to the summer season, with the Sekirei S2 pre-showing, then this here Ookami-san followed by Amagami SS. Why does everything have to happen on a weekend. I know that's when most people are available to do their stuff, but I'd like to at least spread all this over 7 days instead of everything within two days of each other.

So Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi is another one of those club-like atmosphere adventures that accepts requests and the like. Good thing they didn't put a box like a certain flask-plan'y girl, but if they accept requests, I wonder how they go about friend requests like Facebook :P

So episode 01 starts with the regular "beating up the bad guys" protocol, which instantly flashed memories of the To Aru series in both look and feel. Which is no surprise, JC Staff sure does do well of late, hopefully for the many more years to come. Another thing I like about this series is that the lead male (he is, right?) is somewhat of a coward, but one that actually acts. Sure is a funny sight seeing a somewhat strong coward. Maybe calling him a coward is too much... maybe, just, one with shortcomings? Hmm...

I know this is something, because this could be the first time in a long time I actually really like the lead female, the one that bears this series' title. Yeah, you know, the one everyone says is Aisaka Taiga XD. I just love how people easily relate one character to another, which I don't think is helped any better by the similar art styles and such. I'm having the feeling that Toradora's end looks like it preceded this Ookami-chan, especially when we consider the black uniform. Ha..ha...ha....

All in all, I'm continuing this series. If anything, it would probably be them cat gloves. Yeah... or, that whatchamacallit, that sliced skirt. Ha, the day cheongsam becomes a uniform is going to be quite a day XD Which makes me start to think... do I have the hots for Ookami-chan? ;;>___>

Start your engines: Amagami SS


So, Amagami SS finally airs, and it's gotta be where I'll be getting my romance fix for the season. By the way, the "SS" doesn't stand for Second Season, as far as I can remember this is the first Amagami animated adaption, neither the PS2 game (the source) or the manga have the "SS" moniker so...

Anyways, episode 01 was pleasant, if only to do what Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maou couldn't do its entire run: end it like it began. This looks to be the standard School RomCom with probably less of the comedy side, and if we go by episode 01's content, this series looks to appeal to imoutocons, fans of the shy girl, the school idol, the close-but-not-so-close friend who is a girl, and the class rep. Now if we go by the series' description, it looks like these girls will have an episode to themselves, once again something Dai Maou apparently didn't do (odd for an alledged harem).

If you ask me, you'll probably know my answer being "I'm sticking with this series". I understand not everyone can follow an entire season, but me? I'm just trying to make up for 3 years of missed anime. Manga was easier to follow during those 3 years, and the manga is what introduced me to Amagami. And in case anyone misunderstood that, I meant the manga by Taro Shinonome, not this one:


No big secret I'm a fan of Kaoru, but I swear that doujin had no effect in my decision. It... it was that frazzled hair, I tells ya! XD (I nerfed the title so no asking where to get what :P)

Final Approach: Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maou


Final Approach is a column by the mangatron as he approaches an just-concluded anime for his final word. That, and, the anime "Final Approach" was a nice, half-half series (It was a 13 minute episode, 13 episode series that was the first (or second) half of Princess Hour in 2004, the other half being "W Wish")

So, with the end of the broadcast run for Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maou, I thought it's time I posted my final thoughts on this series. (these thoughts will try to be spoiler free as much as possible, in the weird hope that it would be somewhat of a review. Yes, it may look weird too, given my not too healthy state my body has become of late)

First off, how my whole involvement came to be. I first heard of Dai Maou as a manga, of course after coming off that nearly 3 year tour with death, manga was something I needed to catch up on. Interesting school life manga in the first volume, and it was from the manga description on list sites that I found out it was based on a novel. So I naturally thought "oh, if it got a manga version, surely an anime version is possible". You can probably imagine that half-surprised look on my face when two novel->manga->anime adaptions came out in the same season.

Fast forward towards the end of the Winter Anime season, I made no secret in the Chu-Bra and Omamori Himari threads at the Animesuki forum to declare my intention to invade the Dai Maou once Winter season is over. What a interesting 3 months that followed since.

Dai Maou starts off in the usual way of showing viewers what's in store for them for the basic premise of the series. As the episode comes to a close, one would naturally think this would go the way of a romantic school comedy harem centered around the impending bad luck of our lead male who just so happens to have the eventual future to become a Demon King.
Yes, this series' first airing is censored.

But that was never meant to be. Some people declared Harem, others called Soga Keena an airhead (probably rightfully so), but this series wasted no time in getting into the main segment of part 1 of the series. In which this series made romance take a back seat, along with half of school life, but brought on full on comedy with Korone's arrival. This is where the first half of the story sets up the part where we get a change in the future following the end of episode 05, which set up the second half of the story, which some agree didn't really carry the "drive" of the first half, with episode 07 not helping things at all.

But in my view? I didn't call Keena an airhead :p, and episode 02 made me think that in some weird way, we may not actually get to see some things (my very first Dai Maou 4koma lol). It was with the appearance of Keena where my theorizing began to take shape, and of course once my Eiko arrived things got way out of control and my takeover of the Animesuki thread was unstoppable. As the series went on, and my theories pouring in at one point in nearly every post I made, one would think this series could be really epic in the direction it's headed. But alas, for someone like me, I already felt the tingling down my spine of a previous experience where I theorized a game to death (Luminous Arc 2) which eventually led me to realize, the only way that happened (my theorizing) was because something didn't go right in the progression of the story. For LA2, it had too simple of a storytelling for a story which could have been grand had it been worked on properly, and Dai Maou started to take shape in that regard once episode 06 started its second half.
Admit it, you want to cry tears of joy being an Teruya Eiko fan.

For Dai Maou, it's greatest asset was also at times its downfall: its pacing. On the one hand, it carried its basic premise quite well (Sai Akuto is labeled the Demon King), and on the other hand they introduced some story elements that, really, it could have done without and took a route some other elements took and just "be mentioned". This is where the pacing, while good for it's basic premise, didn't go so well when said unneeded story elements came into view. Not to mention that with a ED that screams harem, it went so off mission with that, that one of the harem candidates got as much as 2 episodes only where she really shined. The 1st one made it look like she went way ahead of the harem, and the 2nd one was purely action and nothing else. This series also had quite a lot of cliffhanger-brickwall-ending episodes, which to me, in recent times, was the most I've ever seen for a series as long as this (12 episodes). It also didn't help that the second half of Stargate Universe Season 01 returned to the airwaves around the same time of Dai Maou's start, bringing with it some cliffhangers of its own (which were somewhat more bearable than Dai Maou's).

The following may have the occasional spoiler or two. Recommend watching entire series to proceed reading below.

Cliffhangers weren't really a problem, though, it was the waiting for the next episode which seemingly seemed more bothersome. Although, that's not to say some cliffhangers were great, one has to wonder couldn't they have at least ended it in a way that isn't so sudden, like have a narration end it like "I soon realized,... we are not alone." Nice end huh? XD Ok, I digress. Still though, cliffhangers aren't fun to wait for the next episode, as Stargate Universe pulled the biggest cliffhanger I have seen in recent days, with an episode ending in such a suspense, the next episode didn't arrive until almost half a year later.

The real problem probably lies not in the pacing, but rather the placement of scenes that somewhat produced a confused approach to an episode's content. Something similar occurred in Omamori Himari where a battle was interrupted by a bath scene. A bath scene. Maybe some people wouldn't have minded having a little fanservice thrown in, but it was in the middle of a rather nicely animated fight that didn't transition well into the bath scene due in no small part to the music's inability to climacticaly enhance the transition, although it did resume very nicely. Still though, placing the bath scene in there kind of ruined the fight for me, and Dai Maou had it's own share of oddly placed scenes (probably most notable was the Constant Academy's headmaster being in two different places for no reason at all), maybe Keena's egg caper too, and Lily's totally forgotten kiss to Sai. Alas though, those did not break the series, but just made something to bicker about :P
One of my most favorite scenes (yes, it wasn't censored at all)

Probably more so of my disappointments in this series largely has to do with what wasn't seen, than what was. I'll get to that later in the "cons" part of my post. For now though, let's start with Pros and Cons as to my preception of this series:

PRO
--The pacing meant there was going to be a no-bs ride down a straightaway.
--All of the harem candidates, and then some, had Zettai Ryouiki.
--My Eiko-chan. XD
--The continued use of medicinal guns. Imagine what a sniper rifle in this series can do: long-range morphine! :P
--Characters not following their sterotypical forefathers/foremothers was a nice change for once.
--Voice actors and actresses did a tremendous job with their respective characters, where most of the time they defined the characters as how I eventually came to think of them as.
--A nice soundtrack complemented most scenes with feeling, not overly blaring to ones ears.
--With an ending that starts all over again, the series remains open for another season.
--(the PROs section will remain open until I can remember what else was nice)

CON
--Having lived in an area surrounded by movie studios, and having studied a bit of film making, and having watched a great deal of Hollywood movies, I always believed the screenplay decides what scene goes where and how well one can flow a combination of action and drama. With this series sharing 2 screenwriters over just 12 episodes, I have to wonder if budget, time constraints, or both, played a part in a 12 episode series having 2 screenwriters. If this was a 24 episode series, I can understand, but it's just 12 episodes...
--Some characters didn't have enough screen time or much of an effect on the overall progress of the series.
--Probably the biggest con here being, as I mentioned earlier the placing/creation of some scenes that for the most part, viewers could have done without.
--Mister X is surprisingly not supposed to be here, as I wasn't annoyed by him :P
--Etou Fujiko went from dead serious to a dead end joke. The manga places her in a darker light, where one can only hope she doesn't become a joke there as well.
--Lily was... nowhere to be found. Some say Hiroshi should have taken her spot in the ED >__> but I think they should have broken protocol and made the ED a four person harem candidacy. It's not like killing sterotypes was new to this series, right?
--Not enough episodes :P
--Not enough of my Eiko :D
--Of all the people to apparently die in this series, they instead chose Peterhausen to be quite possibly the only thing significant to die in this series. Some even escaped death, but not the poor, red-eyes brown dragon...
--With an ending that starts all over again having accomplished nothing in poor Sai's life as far as the world is concerned, the series may be a train wreck should a second season not be greenlit. Or rather, the story process isn't going to be winning over any purists of great storytelling.
Like the view? Too bad that serious look in her eyes was gone by the start of episode 06.

So perhaps the meat of this ridiculously long post is here, where I'll explain some of my beefs with this series, with that all to familiar beef I had with LA2.

--The showing of content that we could have done without
There were some things in this series that we saw that we either never saw again, or found an acceptably official explanation of. For example, the woman at the very start of episode 01. It's just the start of the series and of course that brought about some questions, theories and speculation as to Who (this woman was), How (this woman knew what she knows), and Why (place Sai into hiding away from what appears to be pursuers). You can probably throw in Lily's kiss in episode 05, which instantly sparked cries of "She's way ahead of the pack!" or "Lily FTW" XD or something like that, which, the kiss works well if this series was a harem, but it wasn't [that kind], and it ended up giving false hope, which in turn leads to just plain disappointment.
The woman in question. Yes, she is floating.

Then there's Korone's head honcho's, in the beginning of episode 06. Seeing them gave off quite the "ooh, here's one of those corrupt organizations of the government", which, not only that, but the alluded corrupted organizations the series made implications of,  where it would seem like "oh, these big wigs of Korone might be the baddies of this series", where after its all said and done, those big wigs were nothing but a memory, and a very questionable memory at that. These are the same big wigs Lily says to work for, which apparently, by series end we have no idea if she's still working for them or not, which by then during this war they took a back seat... In this 12 episode series, they shouldn't have been shown [the way that they were], especially when they had their eyes censored "secure line" style.

I'd also like to talk about the sword of Sohaya. In a way, my opinion is that this sword's appearance was rather useless, as it only served to fuel the masses again into the whole "WTF love power?" mode. Sure, I was right in that she was only going to use it against Eiko, but after it's been all said and done... it's significance was rather weak. We already knew she had the hots for Sai, so we didn't really need to see this grand scene of her realization of her feelings, not to mention as the series ends this has very little effect on its continuation, as well as, during that scene, Sai was apparently present nearby, but he remained off screen and pretty much still oblivious to this girl screaming her declaration. Or maybe this whole rant is because I'm not really a Junko fan... >_> or maybe I'm just having it hard to believe a god would give a sword off to someone that can only be used when they're in love. As a weapon to be used for, well, killing, isn't that kind of like a contradiction...

A really big question mark in this series is Keena's Egg Caper scene of episode 08. Face it, there was no logic applied to it, and no matter what theory I came up with it still ended up with a "Bad move, Keena". This is probably the only scene everyone can agree on, that it made no sense and only helped to show Keena is, at times, rather stupid. We could also probably make this section a place of Keena Question Marks, where the next question is, just how does Keena access the Fujiko Secret Room, which as we see earlier in the series the door to that room is opened via some open sesami mumbo jumbo(yes I did mean "sesami"). So I would ask, how in the world does Keena open this door, which a simple unofficial answer would be she spies on people. Peeper, stalker, whatever it is, it just adds to Keena's shortcomings. And while we're at it... how does the blind "Fujiko Oniisan" see things, when he is "eyes wide shut"...

There's also a missed potential where Torii Mitsuko mentioned how Sai's school life would be tough in that there would be students out for his life. Well, it only happened twice, and both times it wasn't of their own volition, one they were threatened by Fujiko, and the other, was a failed attempt led by Junko. The manga works on this element for a bit, which if this series went 24 episodes, it would have worked if they had went with the core story, romance, and Sai's school life. During all that a fast pace could have been kept intact, with every character getting ample screen time.

Since this is about the things seen and not seen, maybe I'll just add a little rant about Torii Mitsuko (the Necromancer/Shaman teacher). The only character to have enough speaking lines in this series that got a 4 straight episode shaft, we never did get to see her zombie love in action. I had wished they made Keizou Teruya's revival due in part because of her, which would have gave some additional sense into his sudden return instead of the typical "Terminator Daddy" that instead became his tagline. But we're instead left to assume Keizou has some Korone parts...

Then there's the CIMO8, or as I like to call them, Simon5. 2V, Rubbers and Mister X. They're still around when the series ends, but they left such a convoluted tale behind. Mister X, apparently somewhere in jail, Rubbers, who seems to still be running around without an upper body, and 2V, who left behind the most ominous words of the 3, that if this series doesn't get a second season, 2V will be amongst the villians who were quite important and were never dealt with, instead tossed aside to the back of the story somewhere hidden from view.

Overall, though, my enjoyment level remained peaked at maximum well throughout the series, up until the final episode, where one bad day/week after another led me to shut down major brain functions for non-essential duties. The following is, but not limited to, my interest of the series:

--It was yet another 12 episode series, which seems popular of late, with the only more-than-12 series that I recently followed was To Aru Kagaku no Railgun. I certainly enjoy these 12 episode series if merely because I get to finish a series in half the time a 24 ep series does (after all, having been away from anime for almost 3 years, I was in need of some anime, and I don't think it would have been funny if I was bombarded with several 24 ep series that were somewhat standard before my 3 year disappearance.). I wonder what happened to those 13 minute episode series...
--It's no secret that apparently my first and foremost reason for watching anime is for the girls, heh even in real life I enjoy observing girls, perhaps rather I'm a celebrator of girls' beauty. Then there's of course my figures... and that mass amount of Hatsune Miku pics I have :P Dai Maou continues to entertain me with a nice feature set of girls who most of the time, destroy the stereotypes that at a glance one would place on them. We have a tsundere who broke all tsundere protocols in the very first ep by not engaging in a successful "go and die, pervert" that several tsunderes have exhibited in some form or way like that. We have the big booby girl who somehow doesn't even realize she's got the assets, we have an airhead'ish girl who apparently has been doing some smart things, we have a student council president who apparently doesn't go around policing the place like a certain other prez does in another series airing in the same season, and we are introduced to a robot girl who somehow manages to only exhibit as much as 2 of a human's emotions. So yeah, certainly a nice bunch of girls that appeal to several types of viewers. By the way my favorite is mysteriously not mentioned above >___>
--With a series that displays a few story fragments here and there, at some point an explanation was needed for some viewers, and I lent my hands to type out a few of what I believe happened. While some were somewhat of a joke, others were compelling enough and brought about some sense of understanding, but alas, it is merely my thought on the subject and not an official explanation. My theories were also brought in to somehow shed light onto certain story elements, but some of those, too, were not reflected upon in the series so they forever shall remain a theory. Certainly, not once did I feel like wasting my time typing out those long posts of theories and speculation, if merely because I enjoy hyperthreading my brain at maximum more so than anything in this world, not only does it make me feel alive, but it's something I enjoy more than anything in this world and every little subject that I can overclock my brain to, is a welcome sight to me.
--The pacing of this series was actually a welcome sight to me, which is probably because of previous experiences of slowly paced series of old. Of course being somewhat of a psychic that I am (I wonder if people who over-use their brains a lot become this way >_>), I did see this series not having the grand finale it could have, which my psychic abilities were probably supplemented by the existence of an ongoing novel and manga, which history showed me adapations with ongoing source materials don't always end up with their own grand end to it's own story, which of course wasn't helped any more so with the previous season's Omamori Himari. I guess you can take this as I didn't find the ending impressive, don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad but it also wasn't "OOOH! Best ending evar!(of the season)" material to throw in my list of "great conclusions to a storied run" list. This means, of course, that the Dai Maou anime is not at fault, rather I believe with an ongoing source material of these kind of things, it was meant to be [open-ended].
--Of course, I found this series amusing enough to do a few 4koma manga combining my weird thinking process with art, and the result was a hilarious start. My favorites in an order of good to least good: Fujiko's, Lily's, then Keena's. Another relation to LA2, I had always wanted to do some 4koma's for a series, but my sickness ended my LA2 run, which is why I am happy to have at least done 3 for Dai Maou. Thanks to all the readers of my 4koma!
--Taking a back seat in my devotion to Dai Maou was photochops, where I chopped up a couple of scenes into photoshop, which was about just 2. Guess the pacing was too fast for me to chop up :P
--Most especially special during Dai Maou's broadcast run was how often I used my smartphone to browse the forums and reply to posts. While it is an unorthodox method of accessing the internet for something like this, it has its moments sometimes such as faster page loading than on a computer, as well as a somewhat faster speed overall without being re-routed to page compression proxies of this ridiculous wireless carrier I use. Of course the cons are that my typing speed is highly dependent on my thumbs only, which was still fast but not as fast as on my laptop, there was also the occasional text editor closing itself sometimes losing a few post edits, as well as, lack of javascripting made me somewhat avoid posts with spoiler tags. Still, better than not posting at all, all thanks to my laptop being inaccessible due to it running uninterruptable operations. My phone is an HTC built, Palm Treo750 with a "EU" motherboard, Windows Mobile 6.1 tacoman of XDA-developers version, Opera Mini 5 through the December 03 2008 Jbed Java Machine. The program "Made Text Editor" contributed greatly to my backing up of text files that were used to post at the Animesuki forums.
--Deserving it's own space, probably the defining moment in my enthusiastical enjoyment of Dai Maou, was my sudden overbearing love for Teruya Eiko after episode 04 ended its broadcast. After years of food poisoning, the only other green colored, tied hair girl to grasp my attention is Hatsune Miku, and to see my Eiko was a long time coming. So much so that I went way overboard than most viewers who simply liked a girl, I plastered Eiko among any of my devices that can set wallpaper, I dreamed from time to time of how a leg lock would feel, I even suggested at one point she was a part of the good guys. All of a sudden a cold chill ran down my spine; I hope it's not another 2-3 years before the next green-haired beauty comes along. I certainly am not looking forward to getting sick to pass the time till that time comes around.
--Now I know some people found Mister X annoying, but I actually found him amusing. Perhaps the real reason being that I saw him before, in which I am the only known person at Animesuki to make the connection between him and Full Metal Panic Fumoffu's Sameshima The Cook. Sure, I may have typo'ed his name, but you gotta admit, that was like 6-7 years ago, and I'm not one to remember male names that well, seeing as how I remember a girls' name a heck of a lot better. Shouldn't we all? :P at least I remembered he was a cook...


Mister X and Sameshima respectively

--One thing I found... "amusing" XD about Lily, was her scarf. I made note how it looks like somthing the "Fujiko Nii-san" wore, but what amused me more was that I have seen something similar (small girl big scarf) recently before. That of course being the Kure-nai manga, and the girl in question is the Guillotine (Kirishima Kirihiko). My my that's a lot of i's.... I think though Kirihiko is more amusing to me, mainly because swimsuit + big scarf = the best warm-looking outfit for a girl XD (manga chapter 21), which is something Dai Maou's episode 06 failed to bring to the table.
Kirishima Kirihiko

Many more things to entertain me, but alas this post has gone on far enough. So now, my closing words. The Dai Maou novel brought to the world a romantic school comedy, but the anime shed all that and tossed it aside like dead skin, and went all story, with a couple of short moments of school comedy (I'll say, they really weren't pushing the romance in this series), but the last nail on the coffin was all about the story, which in my opinion appeared fragmented throughout the way, and really not fitting of 12 episodes. Sure, you'll find it weird when I say the pacing worked for this series, but that's because the series has become such a simple plot, that for 12 episodes they didn't need to stray from this fragmented storytelling. But that's the downside these days, lately there have been a few series destroyed by not conveying its message properly, with general opinion being the weak storytelling writers have been bringing out(which could explain some series being a "based on ___" kind, with not many original stories from studio's themselves). It's no secret the Dai Maou production staff were going to compress a novelization into 12 episodes, and that to me was the start of their one-sided approach.

The game Max Payne 2 (PC) would explain it more better than I can (one of my favorite games). I'll quote Max Payne, and his words about Vladimir Lem:

"There are no choices. Nothing but a straight line."

"The illusion comes afterwards, when you ask "why me?" and 'what if?' When you look back, see the branches, like a pruned bonsai tree, or a forked lightning."

"If you had done something differently, it wouldn't be you, it would be someone else looking back, asking a different set of questions."

Let's work my magic here. For Dai Maou, there were no choices [for the staff]. Nothing but a straight line [using the novel as a base]. The illusion came afterwards [to us viewers], when the series was all said and done, where we'll always ask "Why [did it end up that way?]" or 'what if the series did ____'. When we look back, we see the story branch [out into other potential paths], from that straight stick of a novel based story. If this series had been done differently [like more episodes, or slower pace], it wouldn't be me, it would be someone else asking a different set of questions like "why was it slower?" [if they had went at a slower pace], or "they could have done ___".

Ultimately, this series could only please a certain group of individuals, alas, it will not appeal to everyone, nor will it please everyone. bouken from the Crazy's manga shoutbox said this, quote "...anticlimatic and there's a lot of unanswered answer, beh they must've though anyone watching the anime have read the novel >.>" Which is interesting, because I always felt when watching Dai Maou like "is something missing here?", where if I wanted to know more I would have to read the novel or something. If you asked me though, I'll say the pacing went great for this series, but it's story left much to be desired. The general consensus among some is "turn off your brain for a bit", but if all series tried to be great in that we'll all have to turn off our brains for a bit, is this to say anime nowadays is supposed to be for zombies? I want to please my mind too, not turn it off!
The Riddler showed us a shut-down brain while watching TV is no good. (Batman Forever)

My Final Approach? I enjoyed this series for the things other than it's story (like my 4koma's, the theorizing and speculating, convos with Animesuki forum members, etc), and what a fun ride it was. And not once did I shut down my brain entirely.

June 22, 2010

My Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maou Lily Shiraishi 4koma

Wowser whee, what a hilarious run this 4koma had. My mind was all over the place while drawing this, I slept at my desk several times, and while finishing it up, I made such an obvious glaring typo: Lily's name on the title.


Man, was I wiped. So tired, even the weekend didn't help in easing my tension. As usual:

--I've been to a couple of theme parks in my life (Universal Studio's Hollywood, Knotts berry farm, Disneyland, etc), and it always amused me how there was a height limit to some rides, effectively leaving out a lot of kids from having their fun (weren't these parks for them? XD)
--I actually had a tough time with this 4koma. The last 3 panels were set in stone from the inception of this project, but the first one needed to convey a plausible lead-in to set up the joke. At first I wanted to use plain old text, but that wasn't very fitting of me (I draw draw draw). Next I thought of just starting it with her in front of the ride, but that wasn't even informative. Eventually I settled with a narrator type of lead-in, which is where I went all out with my usual art style.
--That first panel was actually a nightmare to draw, as it was about 3-4 times the size of my screen resolution on my device. There were constant zoom in, zoom out's and what not, ultimately lowering my chances of continuing fanart of Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maou.

And, that's it for now maybe.

A timeline of my return from sickness to full fledged Anime viewing

Well, I did it. I managed a full year of Anime seasons after my nearly 3 year combo sickness of stomach flu/food poisoning. Though, technically, it wasn't exactly the full run in my prime, but nevertheless, I followed through. Let''s look at my timeline since exiting my recuperation:

Summer 2009


After familiarizing myself with HSDPA internet on my phone, I thought it was time to test the waters on whether or not I can return to watching anime once again, after having missed the entire 2008 year. Whatever the reason was, Princess Lover became the test subject, and for the first time in nearly 2 years, I successfully followed a series from start to finish during it's broadcast run.

Fall 2009
 

 Phase 2 of my Anime resurrection plan involved testing whether or not I can follow multiple series at the same time, while testing whether or not forum participation is possible. Call it a half success, as I was able to follow Kenpufaah, Nyan Koi, Seitokai no Ichizon, Sacred Blacksmith, To Aru Kagaku Railgun, and... that's what I can remember off the top of my head >_>. And yes, Kenpufa's Shizuka(or was that Suzuka>_>) and Nyan's Kanako and the twin supernatural girls, as well as Railgun's Saten were my favorites that season. The breasts of Kenpufa and Nyan Koi played no major role in my decision XD

 Winter 2009-2010
 Phase 3 of my return involved following multiple series while engaging in forum activities over at Animesuki. While it wasn't the breakout season I wanted, series like Chu-Bra and Omamori Himari took center stage in my forum goings. Several other series had my viewing pleasure, but those 2 remained as the most visited topic for me.

Spring 2010
  This is it. My breakout from sickness to healthy. Finally an Anime season where I returned to my true, zany form. It was so successful, having seen me gain 4 pos reps (compared to 2 from OH), a new nickname (Eikotron), the most posts I have ever done in a single, Anime series thread (300), and having almost completely changed the entire thread to my antics. Guess who's back ;)