Love that Girl: Houki Shinonono

Love that girl is a column by the mangatron where he talks about all the things he likes about a particular girl. Infinite Stratos' Houki gets looked at in this interview of the mangatron.

Happy birthday, Houki! From mangatron, your one and only
 

Q: Well what have we here?

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:

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)

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.

I actually went... web surfing!

So, I've spent some time going around checking my sources to see what changed since ep 11 arrived and left. I found some interesting stuff, ja.

--Eh, first up. Did we all see the cover for the OST yet? For those who didn't:

 Look at that happy family. Papa Sai, Mama Keena, with their children Lily, Junko and Korone, as well as Sai's in-laws Fujiko and Hiroshi. Ah, perfect day... :heh:

--Hmm, remember when I showed everyone that time when the main page locked the images for Yuri/Yuuko and Bouchizo? Well, they unlocked them now. Remember folks, you saw it here first :heh:

--So that uh, cover for the OST, I cam across that by mistake. Honest:heh: what I really didn't expect to find, was... the cast list. Well this was at my source, for some odd reason I never looked too deeply at ANN's cast page, but... I guess that long time question of mine is answered. Fujiko nii-sama's name is.... Fujiko Brother. No seriously, I had to double take to make sure lol :heh:

--I saw some numbers, which I assumed to be tv ratings and/or viewer ratings or some ranking of Dai Maou. It's been 3 years since I last did this, ok, so I'm not going to quote anything because I'm not sure, but the numbers looked great, and something else, looking at a chart, there was a sudden rise around when ep 08 aired. Huh, wonder what that was about...

--I wasn't going after novel spoilers mind you, so this is a "don't ask, don't tell" moment. Anyways:heh:, I came across some rather detailed info concerning the production so far up to ep 11. First let's start with screenplay (which I know controls how the episode went). It seems that 1 person(I don't have names, sorry, tough day:p) worked on the screenplays for eps 01 to 05(see where I'm heading?). This person's notable works include the 1st season of Zero no Tsukaima, Letter Bee, as well as Sekirei 1 and 2. Next, ep 06-07 screenplays were done by 1 other person, whose notable works include Letter Bee as well, Zettai Karen Children and To Aru Majutsu Index. Notice a pattern yet? Ok, let's continue, ep 08 was done again by the one who worked on eps 01-05, and eps 09-11 were done by the one who worked on 06-07.

Now what I'm getting at, is that I believe it's a common work ethic(I spent 7-8 years in the heart of studio land in L.A., CA) that the screenplay comes first before anything else(pre-production). Everyone remembers the flow of eps 1-5, 6-7, and 8, and 9-11, right? Let me run it down real quick: eps 1-5 had a nice build-up arc to the story, ep 06-07 had some questionable content and a abrupt cliffhanger, ep 08 returned to the roots of ep 02 for a bit, then things sped up from 9-11 to where we are today. So, now we know how this series went fast when it did and when it made sense when it needed to :heh: make of this what you will. My verdict? I'm interested to see how Sekirei 2 will turn out, see if there are any memorable's from this series.

--Anyways, this series went through a number of Directors and Animation Directors of which I can't really set my foot on it. How does one fit almost 4 Ani Directors for one ep? Or does this explain that strange feeling I had when watching ep 11? :heh:

--I did mention I visited the main site, right? Yeah... I think there's a new radio show...

--Uhm... what else is there... uh, mark your calendars for June 18? :heh:

That'll will be a half empty weekend without some Stargate...

Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maou research series 01 part 3: episode 11

Other little details:

--(My) Eiko just might run head first into things, in her attempt to
look like a hero and take the Blade of Sohaya, it might very well be
used against her.
--In continuation of my previous post, Brave was never destined to
fight against the Maou and defeat him, so Heroshi, being the only
other sane person who knows about Keena's assassination attempt, might
go and help Sai (after Sai changes direction; ie once Keena True
Ending Ver comes into play)
--One likely scenario has Korone administering her Medicine Guns on
Yuri, to banish the monster stuff in her. But with Korone non-existant
in ep 10, this seems unlikely, since I'm leaning more towards Sai
helping out Yuri.
--I'm still thinking about Torii Mitsuko, and just what is she doing
during all this. While I would continue my joke and say Torii might be
Bouchirou's sister or relative, I'm leaning more towards her doing
something for once, with an earlier speculation of mine being she'll
re-activate Korone. But I digress. For all we know she'll probably
continue her "I was never there" appearance rate.
--Lily, well, what can I say. It's amusing her Student Council members
were nowhere to be seen in ep 10, perhaps she tied them up and locked
them away, or we may never see them again. It appears Lily does not
agree with Sai (most likely his "I don't like the system, so I'll
change it" dreams) so we can factor her actions being tied to either
of the two scenario's I painted above. Having her solo her operations
in an attempt to slap some sense into Sai, or for the other scenario
she'll team up with everyone. Hmm...
--I had that earlier theory that Bouchirou planned Keena's
assassination attempt and so this making him one of the gods. But
that's stretching it a bit, but it's clear he and Sai don't see eye to
eye, and for him to be the final boss, well, currently it looks like
he's basically acting in a "best interests" mode, and that it's all
protocol with what he's doing, simply for the sake of the continued
[peaceful] life of society. So far there hasn't been anything to
indicate he has [evil] ambitions, with my two-faced description above
being, his personal face may very well be determined by what Keena
does here on out.
--Continuing my research into episode patterns, episode 11, if
following standard pattern operating procedure, looks to have the
episode start with a scene of the past. Of course they might start
with a continuation of the present, but it'll ruin a perfectly good
opportunity to show some insight into Keena's mysteries. As far as I
can tell, though, is that the only flashback worth visiting is the
truth behind the dove, or Keena's view of the past. Good chance here
to answer some questions.

Well, I think this is it for now. After all, I need some sleep...

Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maou research series 01 part 2

So to continue the Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maou research, let's focus on
what episode 11 would be like.

It's apparent Keena is starting to awaken, no doubt her birthday is
already progressing into half a day by now. Speaking of which, these
characters haven't gotten much sleep the past few hours.

With Keena embracing her destiny, it would just about mean Bouchirou
will carry out his plan, which is for some reason to destroy the Maou.
Thinking about it, they've never gone into detail why it is he went
against the previous Maou. As we currently know, that previous Maou
didn't like the system of Title Declaration, so he goes against that
system. Cue the "guy goes on a evil rampage and so we must stop him"
storyline.

Maybe Bouchirou is being a saint in that he thinks that "if it aint
broke, don't fix it" of today's society. And so he'll carry it upon
himself to safeguard this "system" so as to continue a life without
"war". At least, this is the kind of motive for him that makes sense
considered what we've seen so far. But, that's never the case now is
it? Apparently, he already had his plan in motion to acquire Keena for
his plan to defeat the Maou, but this doesn't look like the path of a
saint, but rather of someone who has their own agenda.

Granted, not everything in Dai Maou has ever gone according to
history, but what we can only work with is, either the novels or what
the anime has presented to us so far. Now I'm a person who treats
anime separate from their sources, if any. While I could simply look
for novel spoilers somewhere in this world, the fact remains the anime
shows very little detail when you compare a book to 20+ minutes of
audio. Now as it stands, by what's presented to us, Bouchirou has two
sides to his face: his government face, the official face that
everyone knows about but doesn't talk about, and his personal face,
the face that drives his actions into doing what everyone thinks he's
doing. So let's see here, his government face says "I've got to
destroy the Maou before he destroys the world." While his personal
face most likely says "I'm the only one who can do it, so I've got to
do it no matter what."

I'm going to go on a limb here and be completely straight up, this
series may very well take the route of Sai being the bad guy here.
Maybe Sai is going about this whole thing the wrong way, in that
violence isn't exactly the answer to everything. and so, perhaps
everyone will attempt to save him before he is lost down the path of
darkness of which he can never return from. Cue Keena carrying out her
promise to save Sai when he needs it.

The other scenario that makes sense is where Sai isn't looking at the
bigger picture. The bigger picture being, Keena, the containment
vessel of the gods that she is, was never fond of Sai going about
killing. So the one here who may need saving might be Keena, after
having absorbed the gods, they (the gods) may not be too happy with
this whole control thing, or rather they probably don't like being
contained. So, to follow Harem Standard Operating Procedure, let's
have everyone support the male lead (Sai) as he races to save Keena
before it's too late. Yeah....okay...

Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maou Research, series 01

So... lousy week, actually. Lots of ruination and developments
affecting my performance in real life, my anime life has taken a
backseat yet again. Memories of 3 years ago are resurfacing...

Back to it though, the start of my Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maou research
posts, meine gott meine gott, how much I could have done if I had the
time. Ahem, my real-life escapades aside, let's tackle something first
from episode 10. Part 01 of my II no DM research.

We learn from this episode that it was the headmaster and Bouchirou
that had a hand in the previous Maou's demise. This means it actually
clears up something interesting:

1. The legend of Brave defeating the Maou, was just that, a legend.
2. Because Peterhausen did not recognize Brave, this confirms that
legend/D-13 was created after the previous Maou's demise.

From this I believe D-13 was created after Sai went missing as a baby,
without him under surveillance D-13 was probably the plan B to take
care of the Maou when he arises later on. What is interesting though,
with D-13 having been created after the previous Maou bought the farm,
the Yatagarasu calling out Hiroshi as a hero would then seem more and
more like the setup I have been theorizing about a few weeks ago. Or
perhaps the yatagarasu is the headmasters' way of knowing ahead of
time where the chess pieces of Bouchirou's next game will be. Of
course, this will probably be a detail we will never see...

The next part I'd like to talk about, is when it is known the source
for controlling the monsters is within the school. Huh huh, one might
simply think it's Fujiko, but what if... it's actually Keena? Far as I
can tell there remains nothing else in the school basements other than
Peterhausen, so that would leave Keena, or... those weird
lights-in-a-circle. Let's see if I can make this Keena theory
something:

--Keena's special.
--Let's pretend Fujiko didn't really have control of the monsters, but
rather they just happened to be heading there to "assist her".
--There's still that egg debalce from ep 08.
--As well as her having some sort of attraction to some of the animals
related to monsters (demon dog, cucumber).

There is of course some things to consider about this theory, like her
not up to war and killing, and being sort of a saint, it's kind of
hard to see her having something to do with monsters.

My take on episode 11, has it as Keena being the deciding factor
between headmaster, Sai and Bouchirou. This isn't about Sai killing
gods, but about Keena not liking the idea of Sai being a killer. Keena
is going to save Sai, and the only possibilities of saving him are:

1. If he is about to kill someone.
2. If he's about to get himself killed.
3. If someone's going to kill him.

I'll say, #1 seems highly likely given the alluded hints of Keena not
wanting Sai to kill someone.

Part 2 of research will continue in a moment.

(Anime research by The mangatron is a feature of his blog where he
puts his mind to the history of anime, and how that history affects
the present, and ultimately future projects in the days ahead.)

Low level Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maou prediction

So I forgot to post something earlier, and while my Laptop is still
running autonomously, I'll post something else instead.

After episode 05 aired, I consider ep 06 the start of the second half
of the series. And it was then that I noticed a similar pattern: each
episode after 05 brought about a pre-intro scene that went in this
order: present day, past.

Pre-OP scenes to start an episode:
--Episode 06: Korone's new mission
--Episode 07: Hiroshi's calling
--Episode 08: Yamato's decision
--Episode 09: Sai's youth

The next episode, 10, if it follows the pattern, then it will be
Present-day, definitely continuing ep 09, which sets up an interesting
point because making ep 11 a past scene would mean something is
finally revealed, and then ep 12, apparently being the finale, would
close the series and the pattern.

Of course they may switch ep 10 with 11 to give us a little more
insight into Keena's mysteries.

So it's been a while since I went digging...

And found some really fun stuff over at Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maou's official page.

As of this moment though, it's not shown. At least, publicly anyways. I came across pictures of both Yuri and Bouchirou, at the time of this post the profiles of both of these characters were not made public.

Ok Marvelous, what's the deal? I know I have this running hatred against your constant use of Flash across most of your special webpages, but you didn't have to leave your files unlocked like that. I mean.... too easy. I used tactics from more than 3 years ago, and you mean to tell me things haven't changed since then? I didn't even have to raid directories... Wow...

Anyways, putting that aside, amusingly enough their character profiles are pretty much blank, Yuri has a similar description like Eiko in that besides the name, there's just a one-liner description. Bouzo on the other hand, has a blank description, aside from name. Oh well.... fun times.

(I uploaded low Q files, in case this is my exclusive lol... maybe in one week's time HQ versions will be uploaded or if Marvelous unlocks them first)

An interview with the mangatron about Teruya Eiko

With my recent uncontrollable Teruya Eiko love I've been throwing around, I thought I'd explain a few things as to why the sudden interest in said girl.

I'll interview myself in extreme fashion :P

Q: So why the interest in a girl all of a sudden that you knew nothing about?
A: She has a number of likable points, main ones being a ponytail, green hair, stockings, miniskirt, nice deadly legs, and a forward attitude.

Q: Let's go one by one. Why the ponytail?
A: It's been known in the anime and gaming world that the Full Metal Panic Fumoffu episode 03 that features the pontail fetish guy was my favorite of that series (at its air date, it was known as episode 03 due to a couple of unaired episodes and the resulting un-uniformed naming scheme). The reason why that was my favorite was the blend of comedy and action, but even more so, it was the first known time that I got to see Tokiwa in a different hairstyle (ponytail). The reason why that left an impression on me is because I'm into twin tails, Tokiwa being one of them, and to see her in a ponytail, not only did it surprise me, but that led me to think, maybe it wasn't the ponytail or the twin tails, but rather when a girl ties her hair up it rather puts a smile on my face. (I'm from Germany, and it was there that I saw so little tied hair that when a crush of mine back in 3rd grade put on a ponytail, I was about to confess on the spot)

Q: Ok... so the green hair?
A: Actually, I'm an unspoken Hatsune Miku fan, who, you guessed it, has a number of the above traits that should of had me go crazy over her instead of Teruya Eiko. But the reason why I never really talked about her is because I know so little about her other than what she came from and what she does for a living, that I felt that if I ever wanted to talk about her, I'd have to know something other than her origins.  Thus the similarities between Eiko and Miku, two girls I know little about and yet I have a great opportunity to know more about Eiko non-novel wise. That, and being a student of military doctrine and strategy, I spent a large amount of time surrounded by military hardware and documentation, the intense amount of green stuck on me in which I just ended up liking it over all the other colors. Of course, another girl worthy mention is also one of my favorites: Ryofu Housen, another twin tailed, green haired girl who I also had the pleasure of completing a garage kit of.

Q: Military man, eh? so what about the stockings? Shouldn't that be knee-socks?
A: As you know, I am from Germany, and at the time of my growing up there I do not recall it ever being called knee-socks but rather stockings. It goes back to the early to mid 90's, this Underwear company started this public advertising campaign featuring, well, underwear. It was then that I for the first time saw a ridiculousy large image of a woman wearing nothing but bra, pantsu and those things covering her legs. Of course, I was rather shocked to see this, Germany at the time was run(or the dominant party) by CDU, a rather tame democratic party that I thought would have put a ban on that sort of advertising. It was then that I was looking out for the thing I became to know as Stockings, the wonderful cloth that beautifies the lengths of a woman.

Q: Well, that was rather informative. So the miniskirt?
A: Isn't it obvious? As a lover of the lengths of a girl, the miniskirt is the perfect cloth to cover the lower part of a woman and yet leave the legs to our viewing pleasure. I'd go into detail about an amusing Yahoo article a few years back about "Why guys like miniskirts", but in short: it looks great.

Q: The legs? Or I already know this?
A: Yes, you should know this already. I'm not a entirely big fan of large breasts or flat ones, nor am I a fan of whatever it is that's not legs, but rather the beauty of legs is that they are a part of a girl that can move, and in a large number of positions, can be very exciting to look upon. For breasts, they are stationary and pretty much enjoyable in how you view the target. But for the legs, they are the ones that can look exciting at how they are moved and how you are viewing them, making it a double requirement. Just like breasts, legs can be covered [by underwear-style clothing] to be even more sexier, but breasts, not every girl has them at the large size, whilst every girl as we know has legs, and can look good with a little bit of clothing. This is why I'm known as a lover of girls: I don't like a feature some of them have, but rather a feature they all have. There is of course those unseen/unfelt experiences of a girls legs, which is why I was rather interested what a leg bind like Teruya Eiko's would feel like, but at the same time I know the only way to experience that is with hostile intent, so there goes the big question: to be leg wrapped, or to not be leg wrapped...

Q: Forward attitude? Is this an Eiko thing?
A: Actually, it's probably because she's placed in a series that screams harem but so far isn't, that to see her attacking, close up attitude with dealing with situations that probably has me breathe that sigh of relief of seeing a nice change in a long time. As you might have known I've spent several years earlier recuperating from a nasty combination of food poisoning/stomach flu, and I spent a large part of that away from anime. As we know, anime is where green hair is pretty much the only place possible, as well as stockings, miniskirts, ponytails and twin tails. Upon my return to anime viewing, I didn't really see this at all until now in an anime, finally a green haired, stocking covered, ponytail branding, normal sized breasted, miniskirt wearing girl that appears in a series I'm following, and the only other known girl to join Hatsune Miku with a similar feature set in those 3 long years of my sickness.

And there you have it. I hope you enjoyed this rare peek into the life of a man who likes a particular feature set of a girl, one who isn't afraid to show the extreme thinking process of his mind, one who is so unique, even he doesn't know it :P

More Tokimeki Memorial ~only love~ info? What is this?

lol... I excel at anime humor, not typing-long-anime-summaries lol. But, word got out that 2 new episode titles have been discovered:

ep 14: Heart Throbbing Transfer Student (Enter the love square lol)
ep 15: Heart Throbbing Reality

Now this is getting interesting.

And, as I stated before here at Animesuki's forums, more research findings I have discovered while attempting a translation of the Tokimeki Online website.

Note: these are not babelfished, or whatever other online translator there is out there online. These are my own translations so remember that it is my sweat and messed up keyboard keys that are written all over these, should you try to rob me of my spent time. So don't forget to link back to me should you post this somewhere (which I do encourage lol).

-In the {translated} words of the Konami Online division President, Kazuya Takahashi, Tokimeki Online is a "MMO system that has no time wasting experience points, where player interaction is the main RPG element present. It is presented as challenging because of a new way of doing things, although it is a new attempt at this sort of thing (game?)".
-He also says that "current players of Tokimeki and new players in the future are [what we had in mind] with the Nipponia ONLINE company, and I think both types of players can enjoy 'Connected friendship, creating love relationships, and extending [ones] school life' (last part, meaning something like "if you want to stay in school" lol)".
-The Producer of the game, who goes by the name of [MetalYuki? lol], says the school in the game was based on the above catchphrase that the Online President said. It seems this game was made with friendship first, education second, and the overall experience of the previous two as the distant third. He also wants the players to "Enjoy life that is different from the real world in Tokimeki Memorial Online".
-By the way, did you know, according to my translation, that Konami was the first to make this sort of game? (MMO School life/community type of game).
-In the game you can enjoy school life all over again (or continue if you're still in school lol), from club activities to becoming the top of your class to finding love and makin' love lol.
-Of course, the game has a "create your own player" interface, as the name implies, you can create you own player, and as they say "With a combination of boy parts and....." girl parts? Oh my....
-Apparently, the game has player interaction, as in walking up to someone and talking to them. Now, I wonder how many marriages resulted from this game lol....

As for some interesting character notes that may apply to the anime as well, to some degree non spoilering.

-According to the game info of Sayuri Amamiya, she is the girl who "The school admires, but she is the Madonna that isn't" lol. Meaning there is some freak, scary side to her lol....
-Her bust size is....a A cup? Oh no I did not want to know that lol....(which is apparently her blood type. Ha, tricked you you oppai-cons lol)
-Height 162cm. Which should be 5 foot tall 3 inches. Wow, I'm taller than her? It kinda scares me and makes me happy at the same time knowing that I can hug her, kiss her, grope her-.....nvm XD
-So says, she has the ability to "make your heart stop", so to speak lol.
-According to the game Sakurai is "the character that you meet first". Apparently, a plot to cripple the student body was exposed, leading to enable Sakurai to activate his plot to bring in female members into the Staff (Student Council).
-Word has it Sakurai did that for a certain girl....
-Apparently from what I was able to gather, Sakurai's feelings were hurt by a distinctive girl's "way of thinking"....further fueling my allegation that Sakurai plays an all more important role in the anime series.
-Although that is what I was able to muster up. Which what I mean is it might not be true, so keep your fingers crossed and remember these words by me...
-According to the summary for Tsukasa Kasuga-chan, she is the kind of girl that is "moved[pumped up] by studying". She is also an energetic girl who falls in love by "having a desire to be in love", or in layman terms she only falls in love when she desires it the most, as the anime has shown us she fell in love with Aoba by wanting "that fateful encounter" of the third kind. Sorry, couldn't help but add that "third kind" part lol.
-She is much smaller than Sayuri-chan, and she also was born on, as the americans know it, "Black Friday" lol (year depending)
-She is attached to the volleyball club. Yeah, ok....
-According to the character creator, lol Tsukasa is "the woman who rules the sunlight during Spring" XD
-I have no idea what the creator means by his Haruhi references lol. I hope to god he does not mean the Suzumiya Haruhi series.
-Now, I have no idea why this was put in Tsukasa-chan's section, but apparently Sakurai and Amamiya (or a girl named Temmiya, possibly episode 14's transfer student?) have "had a fateful" encounter before while doing a.....you guessed it, drama. Apparently they were working on something for the drama club and, pure speculation follows lol.
-According to the character creator, Tsukasa-chan's storyline was made into [one of] the love candidates, because it was popular amongst the staff.
-Just as well, Tsukasa-chan was molded after the Tokimeki: Forever with You heroine, only this time they switch hair colors with TMOL's heroine: you guessed it, Mina-chan! Psyche, I meant Sayuri-chan lolz. Thus ending all hope I had for a Tsukasa-chan ending for the anime.
-If I read it correctly, and I say again read, Amamiya usually stands at the center, or in this case is usually in the middle among all the class, and, a legend might have foretold, a popular child will stand in the middle [with her]. Now how, according to them, is this painful? lol....
-As for Mina-chan, she is a de-confident girl, and a generic one at that. Now don't attack me Mina-chan fans lol....
-She was born the day I almost (or should have) died this year. (No she wasn't born this year, I was referring to my situation >.>)
-And she is way smaller than the other girls. Did I have to tell you that?
-She likes anything dolphin, and she is attached to the swimming club. So says the chara creator, she has a "certain dramatic event" (in her life? Oh that's just wrong lol...)
-Natsuiro no Sunadokei anyone? (crippled swimming girl T-T)
-Apparently Mina-chan was modeled after the kind of girl who "defends what she wants to become", or in this case she likes swimming, she's gonna go swimming lol.
-Apparently the chara creator likes Mina-chan lol....
-Interesting bits we have here about Inukai-kun. Apparently he is the type of person who dislikes anything likable, and he usually "works alone" lol.
-And surprisingly, he is clumsy when compared to others.
-One, tall M*beepbeep*F*beeper. lol.
-And yes, he has no "favorite things" and not attached to any clubs lol.
-According to the chara creator, Inukai-kun is "the direct opposite of Sakurai".
-Apparently Inukai-kun plays a role in the Nintendo DS game Tokimeki Girls Side2. Coming next spring lol.
-The chara creator wanted two sides to Inukai-kun, with apparently, his left side of his hair was meant to resemble Sakurai lol.
-Accordinly, he was designed in a way with a gentle looking face, and apparently with a expression that is hard for him to express his true feelings. So maybe he does like Sayuri-chan lol...
-I will add more character info as I see fit, seeing as how right now I have seemingly typed my keyboard to death lol.

Hope you enjoy, and comments welcomed.

Related images (courtesy of TMOL):

mangatron A's: The Report lol. Ok, Tokimeki Memorial ~only love~ research findings

Don't mind my Nanoha A's Comic Report reference lol, I'm just...you know. Anyways, this will be the first time for me to show my findings to the general public, so let's start some legal banter, shall we?

The findings hereby contained within this research argument are the sole property of Animesuki's mangatron, and will not be mutilated, plagerized or stolen without the handwritten consent of the mangatron. This page, and this report may not be posted on other websites without full owner rights properly given and linking back to this page. The mangatron has spent a number of hours and has performed a high number of carpal tunnel related handstrokes typing this report, so be a good reader and use your brain to read, not just your eyes. Tokimeki Memorial ~only love~ is a Konami production, all rights reserved. And watch it, for thy days will be enlightened.

On to the report! Note that I prefer you have watched an insane amount of anime to relate to these findings.

First of all, let's take the episode count into effect. 10 episodes aired so far. Total episodes: 26. About 3/4th's into the series. Girl count for the harem: 3. Rivals for the male lead: None so far. Friends of male lead: Those 3 Guys. Let the research begin....

We have 26 episode's, 3 girls and one male lead. We have practically a whole class to throw in, with enough female teachers to start a harem for Matsuoka-sensei. How can we predict what episode will reveal what? Simple. In case none of you noticed, episode titles have meanings lately, and TMOL is no exception. What do we know so far? Here's the tally:

1. Ep01: Heart Throbbing meeting
2. Ep02: Heart Throbbing Destiny(Fate)
3. Ep03: Heart Throbbing After School
4. Ep04: Heart Throbbing Water-Surface
5. Ep05: Heart Throbbing Accident
6. Ep06: Heart Throbbing Rain
7. Ep07: Heart Throbbing Confession
8. Ep08: Heart Throbbing Time
9. Ep09: Heart Throbbing Nightfall
10. Ep10: Heart Throbbing Evening (!)
11. Ep11: Heart Throbbing Memory
12. Ep12: Heart Throbbing Night (Moon? Redundancy detected)
13. Ep13: Heart Throbbing Secret (whoo!)

Unfortunately, 14-26 has not been revealed yet (to my knowledge). Now, let's take a deep look into what the titles mean. According to my research, all title's apply to the episode's moment of interest. The moment of interest we will call "turning points of the story" or "crucial story elements". Pick your...whatever lol. Anyways, let's do a quick rundown of each moment of interest.
Ep01: Naturally, the introduction of the series. Meet Aoba, man among men, enemy among friends, friend amongst enemies.
Ep02: With Amamiya-legends firmly implanting itself, meet Tsukasa Kasuga, and no, that was no tongue twister. Interesting fact of girl: socially withdrawn towards men, or self inflicted? :heh:
Ep03: Meet Tsukasa-chan. Again? No, meet her cooking. Moment of interest? Not quite. Moment of interest: water + blue haired girl = meet water loving girl :heh:
Ep04: Meet Mina-chan, but not yet. Well, at least till after XD. Moment of interest: that promise.
Ep05: Surprise, meet Sayuri-chan! Well, after, as in: Moment of Interest. MoI? "You are my memory today".
Ep06: Meet... a guy? No, meet Aoba-kun, Friend among Enemies. MoI? No, not Inikai-kun. Moment of Interest is Aoba-kun, for the, well, entire episode lol.
Ep07: Story-affecting MoI more almost halfway through the first half of the series. MoI? Episode title.
Ep08: For the first time in the series, there is not one, but two MoI. Moments of Interest? Ep07 carry-overs and the heart of Tsukasa-chan.
Ep09: Mizugi! A MoI? Sure lol, depending on your amount of ecchi-needs :heh: MoI: RE of Destiny
Ep10: Meet comedy for the first time in awhile. Not MoI, but this ep has probably the shortest MoI. Naturally, MoI = Sayuri-chan :heh:
Ep11: Did not air yet at time of post, but preview available.
Ep12: Did not air yet at time of post
Ep13: Did not air yet at time of post

Now, for the first time ever since Mahoraba ~HDtv~, pry into the mind of the mangatron. The Moments of Interest in detail:

-Ep01: Showed us the lives of the characters, and the lives that await them in the days ahead. The episode will be known as "the one that shakes the barley" :heh:
-Ep02: Meet the main girl of our male protag's life? Only time will tell, but time did tell me immediately what this girl is about. Declaring herself the victim of choice over fate, which all in all contradicts each other. What do I mean? I mean that this girl becomes what many girls of anime have become: a chooser of fate, who also receives it's most destructible side effect, the early symptoms of a one-sided love. How many girls of anime chose their man first, instead of vice versa? Not a really good percentage there result-wise...
-Ep03: Tsukasa-chan's cooking? Why is it not a MoI? Actually, meeting Mina-chan is a big MoI in itself already. Why? Quiet, shy, loves water, everything is explained in that short amount of words. Those traits will, and have affected a high number of girls of anime throughout series after series. Mina-chan's personality might spell her life from ep01 till ep 26, as it had been shown from ep04 till [latest aired episode]. Experience shows that a vast numbr of shy, quiet cute girls confess, and get rejected. Not necessarily confessed, not entirely rejected, but you get the idea. And as for Tsukasa-chan's cooking: this is a carryover from episode 02, as explained in the Ep02 section above, this carryover shows more of the one-sidedness of things. Main points of attraction are: Tsukasa-chan's persistance and Aoba's quick, no-frills replies coupled with insecurities of situations. His main fault: his first action is repeated again later on, with later on being with more heart. Experience tells me a majority of anime with guys who are nice to girls have the end result as the girl is not a contender at a series end. So far this is the biggest tell-tale sign of the series yet.
-Ep04: That promise? What do I mean? Well, first let's cast aside the important details. No, not trash them lol, I mean tackle them first. Main factor here is Aoba making a big mistake of anime: complementing a girl with signs of affection, while getting a reply with no signs of affection, yet clearly the replyee is in an emotional state. How many relationships ended on a perfect note that begin this way? Not a good percentage...Now as for the episode MoI, that promise. No, not what was promised, but the promise itself. Mina-chan wants to confer with Aoba about psychological certainties. Or, in english, she wants advice from him lol. This is where the next big tell-tale sign of the series takes place: she actually wants to ask Aoba about things. What will happen when she intends to ask about something related to confession? When, or if she reaches that point in her life will she be able to confer with him at all? These questions must be answered by series end; if not I will be one mad warrior lol
-Ep05: This time for sure we really meet Sayuri-chan, instead of all those question inducing, one-liner replies towards Aoba. MoI is the "locked in a storage room" scenes. The point of these scenes prove Sayuri-chan doing more than just one-liner replies and Aoba actually leading a convo for a change. This is the next big tell-tale sign of a story element that begins between Sayuri-chan and Aoba. Other episode notes of interest: Tsukasa-chan's persistence being met by a surprised question; episode also sets stage for Aoba x Sayuri-chan agreements. Why is this important? Someday you will see...
-Ep06: Why do I say Aoba is the MoI of this episode? Well, Aoba is the MoI with Inukai-kun supporting the following fact. Why is this so important? Well, in this episode we get to see a real Mr. Nice Guy mode from aoba from an extended perspective. How do we do this? Well, throw in a delinquinty and we have ourselves the story. What affect does Mr. Nice Guy mode has to the story? Well, we see Aoba goes above and beyond the call of duty to help [his] friend in dire need (For more information on why I bracketed "his", please watch the MSLN series lol). This Mr. Nice Guy personality can, and most likely will affect his relationships with either of the 3 girls. Can you count how many anime that has a goody one-shoes guy that rejects a girl? lol...
-Ep07: Ah yes, the confession. When it happened it was a huge buzz, and even after it still is a huge buzz. This MoI now changes the previous stories and sets the stage for a brand new way of looking at things. For one thing Sayuri-chan has never been the same after this alledged confession, and the lingering emotions experienced during this confession affect her everyday life when in the proximity of Aoba. The series has now taken a series turn...or has it?
-Ep08: Ah, one of my favorite episodes to do research on. With two Moments of Interest this episode further fuels the Mr. Nice Guy personality of Aoba. For the first MoI, we have the carry-overs from Ep07 that still linger in the mind and heart of Sayuri-chan. For one thing, Sayuri-chan finds closure by returning to her one-liner question inducing ways so as to avoid the thought of the alledged confession. MoI #2, the heart of Tsukasa-chan. We get to see how affected Tsukasa-chan can be when her love becomes challenged by the ways of life. Her insecurity leads to emotional failure, which then is met by perhaps the most wrong answer one can find: Mr. Nice Guy. Yes, that's right. The personality. In case you haven't noticed Aoba showed his concern as a friend, just plain friend. Not as the friend that can go beyond the call of duty as shown in Ep06. How can I tell? Without explanation, upon hearing "something" happened to Tsukasa-chan, he dash's out as fast as he can in search of the girl in question. After finding her, he then proceeds to do the one failure that drives the nail in the coffin: he doesn't hug the girl, or grasp her, or grope her, or kiss her, or glomp her, no, he just uses word to stem her nerves. We then see that Tsukasa-chan's spirits are lifted by the mere presence of Mr. Nice Guy. Two different sides? I say so.
Ep09: Swimsuits, or Mizugi, is also an important factor of the series. How? Well, gotta have some service man, I don't know about you but I had a pantsu-view famine in recent days lol. As for RE of Destiny, the MoI is Tsukasa-chan and her reaffirmation of her reason for liking Mr. Nice Guy. But, that's not all. Yes, that's right, you heard me the first time. I said that's not all, because this is the second time, that's right 2nd time she declares her feelings in the midst of...no one. So to put it bluntly none still knows of her predicament....
-Ep10: For the first time in a long time, Comedy seems to have taken the majority of balance and once again bonds The 3 Guys and Aoba-kun. As seen in little snippets here and there, it is shown once again Tsukasa-chan's feeling met with questionable surprise. Also shown is insecurity of dedication. As for the MoI, it is once again about Sayuri-chan. But this time it's not what she say's, but what she does that is the main attraction. She still shows indecisiveness towards key issues, and she immediately activates closure and turns into her cheerful self. Why is this so important? Well, she clearly shows the "What are my feelings?" type of attitude followed by the "Let's just be friends" attitude. That's right, if you hadn't noticed the first time, when it came to her feelings, she was insecure towards them. But after that ToHeart2 dog butts into the convo she shows an attitude that says "I don't know if I love you or not, but let's just be friends and act like we aren't in love".

As for eps 11, 12 and 13 I cannot comment on their outcome as they have not aired at the time of this posting. Now, for the fun part of my research: interesting facts that I have come across. That's right, research has to prove something, and it also has to show what else the results can mean.

-At 10 episodes so far we have seen semi-definite looks into the lives of two girls. One girl we see deep into her heart, the other girl we see the extent of her outer image.
-The TMOL main website clearly shows 6 characters on the splash page. We see 3 guys, and 3 girls. Will this series no longer be a harem come the second part of the series? I had explained my theaory about Sakurai in my ep10 summary...
-Clearly Sakurai is increasing Aoba's popularity for a reason. Is this me thinking too much, or does Sakurai really play a important role in the latter part of this series?
-Inukai-kun clearly has a bad taste for annoyances. If he too plays an important role in this series will it end up with the popular "no two sides are alike" notion? Has anyone ever gave thought to a Tsukasa x Inukai pairing? XD
-Episode 11 is titled "Memory", to my knowledge. Based on this knowledge I don't see this as an Mina-chan episode, unless it has something to do with a memory, albeit a bad one. But being this far into the series, do you see a girl opening up all of a sudden? I know I don't. Can you even fathom a girl like Mina-chan having a bad past at all? For all we know ep09 clearly gave way to have her insecurity revealed.
-Episode 12 is titled "Night", as for all I know it could be a pajama party, it could be a Long Kiss Goodnight, heck it could even be about Tsukasa-chan doing a night time confession for all I know. Adding to the fact that next episode is-
-Episode 13 is titled "Secret", which ultimately in this case I can definitely see this being a Sayuri-chan revelation. Provided Ep11 does not prove me wrong, but I also had another thought. "Secret" could even be something about one of the male characters, heck it could be about Aoba lol. But I do see this being a Sayuri-chan ep primarily due to the fact that this is the marker for the halfway point in this series, and it would be quite a way to keep suspense up till the next airing of ep14 that should be next month.
-In Episode 09 Tsukasa-chan is the most notable character that has quite a....exquisite, yummy, highly detailed...curvacious....waistline and...bikini-lines....lol..
-Episode 03 easily shows a different take on the female-cook type. Normally, (and when I say that I do mean "most of the time") a girl will try her hardest to make a bentou for the one she likes. The male would then proceed to gobble it all up even if it tastes bad. And if it did taste bad the male would deny it tasting bad, and the girl ends up pleased and the male ends up...poisoned lol. What is more interesting to note is the end result. It has happened too many a time with the same result.
-So far I don't like the current situation with Tsukasa-chan. Time and time again experience has shown us that this current situation with Tsukasa-chan will end up as her being the "I tried so hard, and got so far, in the end, it's....as far as I thought it would be but in reality it only meant one thing to him: Let's just be friends." You could throw in the "I like someone else" bit in there if you want...
-In case you haven't noticed, every one of, or most of the MoI discovered in my research occurs at the end of the episode, rather than the middle or start. In this case each episode begins with a story that builds the MoI at the end. And in case you also have not noticed, a majority of the MoI also occurred at the end of each preview. A clue to follow? It is highly possible...
-Almost every one of the MoI have been shown at least a second in every preview so far, coincidentaly at the end of the preview as well. And who says previews are just that, previews....
-Speaking of pv's, how about the OP. Well, in many cases the OP is merely ident candy, so there's nothing much that I can say. Well, this could be long lol....We have the sequence starting with each of the 3 girls doing a take towards someone, in this case Aoba. Wanna know more? Well, Tsukasa-chan does a take of surprise, Mina-chan does a take of delight, and Sayuri-chan....she does, what I explained earlier, the "Let's just be friends" take lol. Creepy? That's not all of it. We then have Aoba turn tail and run towards...life? Who did he see, and where is he going? Was it,...Hiyoko-kun? LOL....then, the nail-driver. We see each of the girls doing what they love most [before they meet Aoba]. But, we don't see anything about Sayuri-chan. Well, nothing except...The Amamiya Tree. That was pretty important back when the series started, but has anyone ever thought about how much it matter at the end of the series? Maybe there is more to the tree, perhaps it has something to do with "Memory" or maybe "Secret". Whatever the case may be, it is safe to say that Sayuri-chan has got to have a deeper meaning to her side of life, or there is only one, and I say only ONE other solution to her way of acting: once again that "Let's just be friends" syndrom.
-Two of the 3 girls have total ties to a club. Both girls have made thought of tournies and what not. Both girls also love what they do.
-Sayuri-chan has started the series with her one-liner question inducing talk, and lately she has shown her "When I'm around Aoba = Doki doki".
-Sayuri-chan has captivated Aoba's heart since episode 1. Naturally he would be crushed if he were rejected, but his Mr. Nice Guy attitude can overwrite a simple thing to him, like a rejection. Although being rejected isn't a simple thing, but it's...different for him lol. Many a anime, and even manga have Mr. Nice Guys who just accept things without any more thought. We just haven't seen anything that can tell us if Aoba is an emotional guy or what. We do know that he was a loner in his earlier school days, so perhaps that would show us something?
-You know, as much info that I have put here, I simply did not add other sources (game, radio, drama's etc) due to the fact that my research is based soley on what has happened, and what we all have and will see. So keep in mind that I researched the anime only.

As Episode 11 air's within the proximity of a week, what can I expect for TMOL? I can only enjoy, not expect. And each enjoyment comes as each episode airs one by one. Expectations will only fuel my research more, and open debate as to the outcome of my mind.

With that, I conclude this report until the next episode airs. And, now you have seen what kind of anime viewer I am. I am not only crazy, I am not only insane, I live for this, I research every tiny bit of data and event that has happened and I crunch them together, I mix them, I bash and mash them until I can come up with the answers that lie within. Why do I research anime like this? Someday I want to quit my current job, and focus on working on manga projects that hopefully in turn become anime projects, and the only way for me to succeed where others fail is to learn from them, and to learn from their mistakes. I don't intend to overthrow the current manga-ka's, or dethrone the current popular anime, no, I want to make good stories, I want to create characters that will be loved, I want to create something that will make a person open their mouth and scream "YEAH!!!". I want to make them cry, I want them to feel the characters, I want people to know that not everyone is the same....

That is why I watch anime and read manga. I have been researching for years now and
all this knowledge is assimilated into creating many other scenarious, many other possibilities, and just about any way that can be bent as much as possible. I hope you enjoy this report, albeit incomplete, and your comments are welcomed here.