I’ve recently been looking like that whenever Kurisu-tina goes tsun tsun or dere dere every week.

I actually had a IRL friend who was complaining about how I had time to loll around and do nothing and not spend it on blogging instead. Yes, valid point. Hope she would be gald to hear that my blogging suicide was short lived.

After I stopped blogging, I realized I suddenly had a lot more time on my hands, yet strangely I never really did put it to good use. Still no progress with my own personal projects and my English grades dropped 9the lack of practice in writing could possibly be a factor) so when I was lurking around AOIA and their ‘About the bloggers: Inquiry’ I thought to myself: Why not give group blogging a try?

That said, I’m still sorting out the details with the head honcho of AOIA, Valence, and so far the only thing that seems definite is that I’ll be with AOIA at least till the end of the year; by then, who knows, I might come to realize that group blogging has more perks than running solo.

This scene pretty much had me like this too.

I swear even if there was no earthquake, SHAFT would still delay the final 2 episodes of Madoka. It just seemed like they wanted to release it together; I mean if you watched episode 11 as it is and then waited one entire week for episode 12 just to see what Madoka’s wish is and does, it just doesn’t add up much. And yes, I was wrong: it wasn’t intended to air on Walpurgis, obviously, its meant for Good Friday.

And really, Gen Urobuchi, Healing? At least you brought us another god, next to Haruhi. I definitely like Madoka a lot better.

The one thing that is totally bothering me right now is why the heck did they get Ume Aoki to do the characters? I mean its totally anti climatic towards the end, you have a serious story serious p[lot and everything, then there’s the wiiiiidddeeee faces. Its easily the biggest narm of the final few episodes. It DID do a good job fooling us into thinking this is just a frilly magical girl show for the first 2 episodes but episode 3 onwards? Its just plain weird.

*sparkles*

The next biggest narm out there would be the part where Madoka and Homura sparkle in negative space. Seriously, the whole sparkling thing was the only thing deterring me from bawling. I mean come on. Its a heartwarming apology and farewell from Madoka to poor Homura, its a scene that should make you cry like a baby but yet they float in space, SPARKLING. Couldn’t they at least have followed Gundam? or have Homura sit on a chair with madoka congrajulatoing her or something?

OTHERWISE,

this is going to be the most memorable anime that I have ever watched. Someday I will look back and recall that I have been conned to watch a frilly pink magical girl anime ; where someone lost her head, got conned by a cute white creature which is extremely proficient in thermal chemistry and in the end time travelling didn’t solve anything, but destroying and re creating the world did.

I congratulate them for Madoka’s awesome mom and leaving some hope by letting Tatsuya being able to see Madoka,  including the cake eating scene with Mami and Kyouko, many of us just wanted to see our normal lovable Mami again & the Sayaka, Kamijou scene because Sayaka just deserved better. would have made my day if she was still alive and had a few yuri moments with Kyouko but anyway…

Its now a norm for magical girls to exchange hair accessories, next to being pink and having cute aniamals.

Before the first episode, I said that I’d probably keep comparing Madoka to Nanoha. I had to take that back by episode 2. It just seems more relevant to compare it to Evangelion or something; mind fuck. So I’m glad I at least have the honour of cracking this sad 1 Nanoha shout out.

AND, I’d also like to take back what I said about Madoka being wishy washy. I was wrong, Madoka, I’m sorry. I don’t know if I’m the only one, but after episodes 10, 11 and 12, I felt that Madoka’s character through out the past 9 episodes was somewhat inconsistent. She’s a nice, good girl. Rather determined and altruistic too. You could also say that she has courage and guts after episode 12. So why does she show no signs of the latter few traits at all before in the past episodes -with the exception of trying to stop Sayaka by throwing away her soul gem (which failed pretty badly as you can see) and trying to get Sayaka back- and ended up being a pink haired loli Shinji Ikari?

I just realized it could very well just be me.

I suppose I do have some other complaints lingering thoughts, like why does Sayaka still have to die? Her being the only one amongst them who turned into a witch, but now that there are no more witches, shouldn’t she be at least allowed redemption or something? And since there are no longer any witches and soul gems disappear once they are used up (so Kyubey says) why did Sayaka still die from using all her energy?

And we got so many Homura x Madoka in the 2 episodes. Would it kill SHAFT to add in more Sayaka x Kyouko? I am desappointed.

Yuri shippings that sunk aside, Isn’t anyone else bothered by this:

1. This looks like Walpurgis Night to me, you can tell just by looking at the clouds.
2. Why did Homura’s white wings suddenly look like a witches’ barrier?
3. And why is she facing off such a huge hoard of demons?
4. She and Madoka aren’t supposed to meet again; why did she suddenly hear Madoka’s voice at such a dramatic and ominous time and environment?

Verdict: No matter how you look at it, it doesn’t seem like Madoka’s wish was a complete success from this scene, its rather disturbing now.

Healing, Gen Urobuchi, ORLY? Even with Madoka’s sacrifice, the last scene of the anime and the apparent lack of Kyouko and Sayaka pretty much ruined my chances of healing.

MADOKA.IS.LEGEND.

I.SHIP.KYOUKO.AND.SAYAKA.BUT.HOMERUN.AND.MADOKA.IS.GOOD.TOO.

ITS.THE.END.

Yes, Okay not really…

Summarized version in case the absolute lack of pictures bores people to death or you can’t be bothered to read it, cuz I know I won’t be bothered to read something this long too:

Kind of sudden, there wasn’t even any foreshadowing. Basically I’m putting this blog on permanent-if not, a really really long- hiatus, possibly until, well the very last day of the GCE O levels paper (in November) for various reasons (not just academics). I’ll finish up on Madoka though.

This post has undergone many revisions; I’d be happy if you read on.

The thought of killing of this blog came into my mind some time last year: Its not like I get good results and all so this year being my O level year, I did give it some thought but I passed on it until now. If you are a Singaporean who sat for O level paper in the past 5 years, I think you might be able to relate, specifically if you know how rigorous the GCE art coursework due in June is. And especially if your school thinks that your batch is the most promising cohort and is desperate in trying to put themselves back on the list of local band 1 schools.

I digress. I haven’t had more than 5 hours of sleep per day for the past few weeks, as Squidward puts it “Even my eyebags have bags.” So its not that serious but I look like a panda, and I’ve been falling sick, it was time to prioritize.

I love writing a blog. The freedom of expression and voicing out your views aside, it sometimes makes your day when someone just agrees with you. And I’ve honestly learnt more from 1  year of blogging and reading blogs than 3 years of English lessons, not that I ever pay proper attention in class though. The entire blogging thing has been a learning experience, it was refreshing and fun, until now.

Generally, I try not to blog about an episode if my post would be more than 5 days later than the original air day. This has become rather tedious on certain days, like Star Driver for example, airs on Sunday, but I only ever watch it on Tuesdays so I only blog it when its really interesting or I watched it on Monday. I suppose I should have put in more effort in checking the spelling and what not too~ I got tired. In fact recently, anime just doesn’t look as interesting as it was years back. Ironically, I was bad at writing back then. I only made progress last year in summer and fall. Even more ironically, that was the time my PC died on me.

I considered getting a friend or someone to help write the blog while I was doing exams and all ut I realized: I like being a loner… So the idea was struck out. The idea of less frequent more general editorial issue centered blogging did cross my mind but it just doesn’t fit my style: I enjoy writing episodic reviews more, because I honestly cannot imagine myself writing an essay unless its for school.

So prioritizing: Drawing, on the other hand had the thrill of creation that writing had and well, I’m better at it. I actually have a few personal projects I wanted to start working on but my short attention span won’t let me. I go on to something new before I finish what i’m doing so now I have almost dozens of stuff I need to do. I figured if I wanted to do something, I should really stop procrastinating, having fun, and get shit done. My One shot is still only at the story board and I keep editing it that its no longer the original story anymore. Character concepts are inconsistent; old projects are barely started… I need to start working on them seriously and not after O levels.

Just last Sunday, I completely blew off my art coursework to watch Nichijou and Dog Days simply because I was completely demoralized by my lack of progress in my work, I really regret it now, but I’m still demoralized. I dug this post out from the depths of my Hard drive and revised it all over again. Yep, this is the end of the blog. There’s this thing about how most blogs face death in 3 years, I moved to wordpress during 2 years ago, premature death for my blog it is.

I won’t stop watching anime though, my watching schedule might get more relaxed after stopping blogging of course. You might actually see me more often in comments or on twitter and tumblr (I reblog way too many stuff for my own good…). Otherwise, I’ll most probably be on Deviantart or Pixiv, which I haven’t been active on for quite some time due to various reasons again.

BRB in November 2011, probably.

Cheers,

Azure

There wasn’t anything particularly interesting this episode, either than poor Eclair (Hnnng) and Leo hime, I mean your highness. Out of curiosity, am I the only one that still can’t shake off the whole “This still sounds Star Driver-ish” feeling? I still don’t understand why in the world does Mamoru Miyano get so many roles…

The other thing worth watching about Dog Days (next to its OP, we all know Nana Mizuki is awesome) would be the seiyuu cast: Yui Horie, Nana Mizuki, Ayana Taketatsu, Hikasa Yoko, Ami Koshimizu, Kana Hanazawa, Minako Kotobuki and I’m only listing down the more popular female ones. Not to mention that I highly suspect some of them haven’t even spoke a word yet, seeing how there are so many characters

“Ya think?”

Your Highness is so very awesome, Eclair too, to a mild extent…

The princess and Shinku are complete idiots though: Oh Yes! I shall go over to another world and help them by being a hero and all; WHAT? The princess is as big of a idiot as I am and I can’t go home now?

Well, “ITSSS A PIINNNCH” but He’ll cope.

Nighijou is shining, I can totally related to this: Just that I have never ever drawn yaoi in my 15 and a few odd months of my life.

I often doodle on my homework, then submit it to my teachers without erasing them (and sometimes without completing the homework properly either). My teachers usually either ignore the doodles, cross them out or circle them. I vaguely recall one teacher who put a ‘lol’ beside one of the funnier and weirder doodles.

And a follow up to the “Selamat Malam” joke, we have “Sepak Takraw” this week, the image Mio has of the game was rather epic. I never could comprehend how the game is played… I mean imagine playing volleyball but by kicking the ball over the neck… The game looks kinda painful every time I see it… Thank god my school sticks to playing handball for PE and regular volleyball and netball…

Nichijou has a very surreal feeling to it, its art style complements this… In particular, the Nano and Hakase moments, lol swiss roll.

You know, when I  first saw the red ribbon, I thought: Right, so Koromo stopped playing Mahjong, stopped being a loli, cut her hair and went to school…

THAT.WAS.THE.MOST.FABULOUS.ANIME.I.HAVE.EVER.FUCKING.FABULOUSLY.SEEN.

25 episodes in, everything finally makes sense now. Head insisted on getting Shingo’s mark because he could use it to control Samekh. His ultimate goal wasn’t just only departure, but to time travel back to his fabulous life and relive it, even at the cost of the entire world. He was making use of all the crux members, his son, Sugata, even Keito. We had the enemy of the week styled battles so that Tauburn could defeat them for Head to control the Samekh. But Sugata saw through him anyway so he was about to do a heroic sacrifice by joining the crux, lulckily for him, Takuto saved him with his fabulous libido!

How Fabulous! No not really. We still have no idea why the Tauburn is so different and why it breaks into zero time, neither do we know why the Ayingott is cursed nor how in the name of fabulousity is the Fukubuchou and Sarina related to all these fabulous shit.

Best kiraboshi of the show.

Kanako is awesomely fabulous.

Yeah there are a few dozen more unexplained things, my biggest question so far being: like why the fuck does the earth have libido? Even if they were probably referring to life source or energy, it still sounds so wrong to me. Ewww.

The next would be how the heck would Takuto and Sugata get down back to Earth? Does Kanako have to invest in a rocket or something to fetch them down. HOW ARE THEY EVEN BREATHING IN SPACE? And are they supposed to like sped the rest of eternity waiting for someone to go fetch them and enjoy gay man smex while at it?

How very Fabulous. At least they aren’t stark nakid like Gundam.

WE ARE THE FABULOUS POWER RANGERS! KIRABOSHI!!

Um, yeah this is why its called Our Apprivoise. The Kiraboshi members sure came through, although most of them hardly ever get screen time at all. And turns out Wako is the only one out of all maidens able to do something with her maiden cybody, despite being completely useless except for going hungry for the past 24 episodes. Keito on the other hand is sad… (;___;) Poor Keito and her unrequited love…

Head on the other hand, despite being an old man is pretty much childish and bat shit insane. I suppose the whole thing about how Takuto wouldn’t be able to see the beautiful sky but will see a even more beautiful one sort of contrasts between the father and son: Takuto can hope and be forward looking. Head has already aged and lost hope, he doesn’t want to see the future, he wants to relive his miserable past of locking girls in birdcages and stealing people’s crushes, making them pregnant, possibly being gay with Shingo. Really Head, really…

Your Galaxy stays fabulous

I have always been wondering: what the fuck are those revolving golden strands of things in Zero time? Turns out Zero time looks like the atomic model…  It looks cool I suppose.

You know, I actually find myself hoping for a second season, no other show has the amount of fabulousity Star Driver has. 25 weeks of Faaabulous, how int he name of fabulous am I going to live without my weekly does of Kiraboshi now?

Star Driver sure has a lot of plot holes and nonsense. For some reason, it completely captivates me and I am in awe over and over again, despite this show just being a pile of rainbow covered sparkling shit.

Grade: B+, for some unexplainable fabulous reason.

Rewatch Value: definitely high.

Kanako, Keito, Benio, Sakana-chan, Marino & Mizuno and Sarina need more screen time. D:

I can see why everyone kept on going on about how good the show is. Because it just is.

I’d be really happy if Kyoani can keep the level of  hilarity up. You know, I’ve always wanted to press the fire alarms in school too, but I got scolded by my friend for being an idiot… Wanting to press bright red buttons meant to be pressed (in the right situations anyway)… Isn’t it normal? Or is it just me?

The Selamat Pagi and Selamat malam joke hit the right spot too. And I’m feeling ashamed because they spoke it better than I do. I once tried going to school and greeting everyone in Japanese but I mostly got ignored until one of my friends went “Oo, Oha~”, though it just turned out that she’s been watching Azumanga Daioh recently.

The beauty of Slice of Life comedies therein lies in you having a similar experience in your life so I think Nichijou really came through for an idiot like me who would go about doing such weird things too. Sadly I don’t own a goat…

And a microwave phone is so useful! You can send texts while microwaving bananas to be covered in green slime with no change to its temperature at all! Yea, I still find the microwave is still as hilarious as the first time I heard of it.

Incidentally:

The word ‘Stein’ means stone or rock in German. It can also refer to kernel.

Not that this actually helps explain the entire story.

Honestly, I’m probably going to have difficulties trying to write about the anime without spoiling anyone: I’ve often been accused of giving spoilers, and knowing the major plot twists of the game’s story doesn’t really help…

The first episode was rather vague, like the game, it just lands you right smack bam into the plot: the satellite crash and the supposed death of Makise Kurisu. Rintarou keeps rambling on and on about some ‘agency’ and show show title itself but his own lab members don’t even know what the hell the ‘agency’ or ‘steins;gate’ are.

Well at least that one episode still made more sense than 11 of Fractale.

Boy meets girl. Mad scientist meets genius.

Information on John Titor, ‘agency’ and the whole time travel rap nicely gives us a foreshadow and what to expect but the problem with adaptations is that I don’t know who to praise: 5pb and Nitro+ or the studio, White Fox. I suppose its pretty nice too, that they didn’t mess up the timing for the 1st episode. Sure it was a little boring but at least it wasn’t too long winded or  too curt. I do have some concerns regarding how they’re going to nicely pace the plot over the next 11 episodes, especially after all the absolute planning phail from Star Driver and Fractale.

Characters wise, you can’t really see much other than Rintarou being possibly Schizophrenic, Mayushi being an adorable airhead, Hashida being a complete perverted otaku (bananas) and Kurisu being bright and evidently talented not to mention facing a possible bloody death in the near future.

Something is seriously wrong if Akiba is this empty.

And the sky usually isn’t this cloudless and blue even if its summer: please check your current time plane now.

The entire experience on the other hand, wasn’t really enjoyable. Its like watching Togainu no Chi all over again, shady dark colours. Justified it could be my own monitor settings (I set it to 0 brightness) but its still a tad to dark. The graphics could have been brighter and more contrasting yet achieve the overall dark, gray and mysterious effect the studio is supposedly trying to achieve.

monochrome bathroom tiles: where is black rock shooter?

The poor quality could be a reason for the blurriness but the colour probably won’t be affected much. Hope things become brighter next episode.

I was personally hoping to catch the OP and ED theme but most 1st episodes don’t include them anyway (Madoka did have Magia plying creepily in the background though). Hope ‘Hacking tot he Gate’ can be as awesome as ‘Sky Clad Kansokusha’…

It was overall relatively boring at least not as flashy and colourful as Dog Days. Impactful… It really depends on what you’re into, you’d probably fall asleep if you’re not into sci fi conspiracies. Well onwards to episode 2.

Please expect a lot of nanoha references: The small dagger had a red jewel on it, possibly Raising Heart. When the dog stabbed it in the ground, it caused a starlight breaker. the High amount of energy opened a portal to an alternate Dimension.

Michibiite boku o ANGEL’S/ENDLESS LIGHT~

My prediction was correct though, the OP theme sounds awesome.

Think Asobi ni Ikuyo mixed with Zero no Tsukaima in a Tears to Tiara-esque setting, the main character looking like Son Goku of Saiyuki. OPh and they ride on Chocobos.

So basically the plot is about the main character, Shinku Isumi, British boy with a japanese name studying in an international school who likes sports, singing out his youth (lame seiyuu joke) and being transported to an alternate dimension of Flonyado/Flonyard to become a hero. At least he isn’t trying to dazzle the stage or kiraboshi-ing.

He was summoned by a pink loli, princess and feudal lord (who’s name escapes me) to fight a war as the representative of the Biscotti (ie. dog eared) empire Galette Lion army who are for some reason, cats. Incidentally, Her chocobo is called Halla which happens to be a multiverse in The Pendragon adventures.

Sasuke, aka. Ninja warrior final stage

Its kind of silly that the war is fought on obstacle courses and no one gets hurt or die… But well… I pretty much enjoy watching these shows too.

If there’s one thing (next to the level of ridiculous ness) it would be that there are way too much characters being shown in the very first episode already and their names aren’t exactly easy to remember either. The name Millhiore itself is already quite a handful for me…

The other thing would be the first episode seems to be on an incredibly low budget somehow. Or it could just be 7 arcs failing at art again. The landscape of Flonyard has really odd colours that don’t go well. It just looks plain weird. I kind of lol-ed when I noticed that all the mooks wear the same face =)

Its raining cats~

Well, I don’t have a very high opinion of this show. It just looks downright silly but I’ll still stick with it for a while more. I kind of wanna see the fight scene but I just hope that it doesn’t end up with Shinku building a Harem of Cats and dogs…

I might end up watching Nichijou, but I should really go offline and mug right about now…

Entropy, the what?

I swear: every single show seems to want to take a kick out of Madoka and Entropy.

I think Fractale is probably the best show this season, despite the Code Geass end and the fact that I still don’t quite understand the plot.

So after getting out the  burnt down facility, Lost Millennium goes to war with the temple. Turns out the Key they were referring to for the past few episodes was the collective Nessa and Phryne, whom are responsible for restarting the entire system itself.

And guess what, original!Phyrne was a 16 year old, so messed up that she has the happy innocent mentality of a 10 year old. Her favourite stuffed toy is Nessa. The current Phyrne and Nessa are somewhat products of a “Sisters Project” not used for lvel 6 shift or anything, but just to create a perfect replica of the original to enable the reset of the Fractale system… My brain farted there.

[EDIT:] I gave it a little more thought and this seemed like a squick moment. Especially when they realized that the original Phryne should have been 16, simply because the guy in charge was a pervert abusing his rights and well, ewww.

And lets not forget Dias’ lovers suicide with the Priestess.

He was being annoying, so I stabbed him.

I don’t know whether I’ve said this before but this show glorifies terrorism… The Lost Millennium being a terror organization. The final episode itself had Dias repeatedly stressing on self sacrifice and Sunda going on about how he fought for what he believed in, albeit his beliefs are somewhat heretic.

Sunda deserves some respect I suppose, you can actually see character development in all the characters,; but I think Sunda’s only became prominent in episodes 10 and 11, when he ordered Clain to protect Phryne and Nessa to the best of his ability. Oh and the Engine. Enri’s character development can be obviously seen from how she slowly opens up to Nessa -who for some reason seems to like her a lot-, Phyrne and Clain. She probably has a little something for Clain too, but her confession as somewhat a failure since Clain is a hopeless accidental pervert.

The rest of the characters, especially the ones on the temple side are just really REALLY messed up. Especially the C Barrot guy.

The ending on the other hand… I was sort of right about the code Geass end, Phyrne and Nessa being the “lelouch” in this case. The sort of merged and disappeared after the reset of the system. And then only Phyrne’s body is left and it went into coma for an entire year.

Then Phyrne wakes up hungry, speaking and sounding exactly like Nessa. So did she become the orginal!Phyrne or Nessa completely overtook Phryne’s body during the “gattai” or is she just behaving like that because everything is now alright and she can finally be herself? If so where is Nessa?

And the rest of the world magically woke up -despite the system reset- and started working hard for their lives with Erin as their leader, cuz Sunda is dead and Gramp pa is just too old. there just isn’t enough elaboration, like how they stopped relying on the system despite it still being in place (because Clain’s doppel dog still exists)

Its not like I didn’t see it coming or anything but I still hope that we have actually been given a proper closure. And some of the characters, especially Dias is still so vague.

Grade given is a B, rewatch value is high, probably after the exams in November.

[EDIT] I change my mind, its a B-. The sheer awesomeness of the show just isn’t there anymore, 2 hours later. Now I just feel that Everything about fractale is very messed up.