SHAFT, you drive me so crazy~

Zetsubou Sensei is back in full force, and I’m a believer in its insanity all over again. There was some random fanservice in this episode with Chii, but overall it still feels more like what it really should be, a boundary-pushing, nudge-nudge-wink-wink show that is a blast to watch.

This episode, as usual, was amazingly over-the-top. Three language tracks in the first segment - one, gibberish language, two, inaccurate (and DBZ-referential) Japanese subtitles, and three, original speech from the manga. It’s brilliant, especially when they differ - although, I do wonder, since a.f.k. inserted the third track, how do people unfamiliar with the manga stand this scene?

The second and third segments are solid, but not standout compared to the first. Some of the new members of the Itoshiki family look to be funny. Kiri’s getting more screentime, which makes me happy, although I worry that her character’s being warped to be too evil. But, maybe I’m used to the soft characters of shows like Kanon, and so I grew to like the catchphrase of “Sen~sei~”.

The OP/ED of SZS are solid as ever, I think Rumba tops Bure, but as good as Romanesque is, Zessei Bijin is the king of, y’know, everything. Just found a remix, Oironaoshi Mode, of Zessei, and it’s the best thing since sliced vanilla ice cream.

Let me preface this impression by saying that it is <i>really cool</i> that True Tears is in HD-huge size, yet still only 170 MB in size. I enjoyed watching shows like Shana II this big, but hated the extra 50 MB tacked on. Maybe I’m behind the times with encoding advancements, but more of this would be awesome.

Back-to-backing this with H2O ~footprints in the sand~; with that one, I blogged it live. This one, I’m doing my summaries after watching the show.

My best summary of True Tears is that it’s another show that I’m far too happy to be irrational about. In many senses it was the same kind of intro episode as H2O. Same ’show all the characters’, same ‘let’s have something almost important happen’, even some mild fanservice - c’mon, the typical ‘peeking in the bath’ thing.

And yet, it was So Much Better.

It’s probably because I’m shallow. True Tears is a looker, especially compared to H2O. It’s characters appeal, perhaps, to a different subset; while H2O has mostly submissive characters that are drawn to the male lead (with one notable exception), True Tears has a few that are decidedly far apart, either emotionally or mentally distant from the male lead. This insight would probably explain a lot as to why I like Eriko in KimiKiss so much; for some reason, the female characters that are cold, distant, unfeeling, in appearance, have always been more appealing. You could even stretch the definition to Mai (Kanon) or Nagato.

It’s weird. Maybe it has to do with the American ideal of working hard for your dream, and that allure of “being able to open up a person to the world, to make them smile.” Odd, considering that anime fans like me probably need a lot of opening up to the Real World.

And so, despite True Tears admittedly being built on a few choice cliches (chance meeting, childhood friend, dirty commentary male friend, etc), it really has a good feel to it so far. I hope it can live up to the expectations now established by people like Owen.

It’s war!

It was amusing here to see, both in this episode and the next episode preview, all the girls going on the attack for Tomoya. It’s almost like a typical harem show, but I hold my breath anyway to see just how KyoAni and Key pull it off.

It started in this episode, with Nagisa scoring some key emotional heartstring pulls - some say this was a sign of the “Nagisa flag” being tripped, only to be cut off by Kyou, screaming something about “putting your own priorities first.” I can’t help but think Kyou believes those words all too well in this scene.

Plus, Tomoyo looks to be at least casually interested in Tomoya, Ryou’s a Shiori/Tsukasa moe machine waiting to jump (and by jump I mean melt all over) Tomoya, and hey, Sunohara ending.

Of course, as proven by Sunohara’s scene in the end of this episode, Tomoya is all Nagisa’s, but I think I can elect Kyou now as the Nayuki Of The Year; even after this episode, she’s a fun character.

Not to mention, the hidden world, as they say, will likely play a role in the story soon, and I look forward to see where that goes as well; Kurogane made an apt observation that it’s similar to The Dandelion Girl as well…

Every passing episode of Clannad only confirms that I’m a heartless bastard.

I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I watch with friends, so I joke more during the show, but I’ve really yet to get really emotional during Clannad. Fuuko got me on the verge but I was essentially cracking wise throughout the whole of Kotomi’s arc.

My sentiments are pretty much the same as most on Kotomi: she’s a drop-dead moe character, but her story isn’t up to scratch. I can’t help but think these two are related somehow.

The closure to her arc continued a bit of the ridiculousness, with her parents throwing away the future of science for their daughter and her teddy bear. Sweet, yes, but touching, no. As a rational person, I just can’t see why.

There were still some good moments, definitely, and it turned out better than I hoped it would (in the end, the party was kind of superfluous), but it just didn’t reach me. I think it was put well by DS over at Daijoubu in that it was a good arc, but one that wasn’t really emotional.

Next episode looks very interesting though, as it’s either Tomoya or Nagisa centric. I can’t help but feel that the preview implies some sort of confession, romantic or otherwise, from Tomoya to Nagisa, and that has my interest peaked. On that note, I hope that they go back into Tomoya’s backstory soon; they’ve been ignoring his father a bit too easily for the last arc or two.

P.S. Kotomi would make a lousy model on Deal or No Deal.

It’s like Tetris…with special attacks! There’s also a single-player mode too. Great for killing time in Computer Science! Check out the Games page (linked in the banner) for the download. Enjoy!

Yeah, just a little post to let you know what’s going on. You probably heard from somewhere that Ikimashou got domain-squatted, but luckily, Randall, the owner of Ikimashou and Dasaku (among other anime domains), had an extra domain ready for his anime blogs (again, woot for that), so service should be normal again. Feel free to change your links.

No real post for today because I’ve been typing up new Track Twos, along with formatting posts (had to re-categorize every post by hand, since the categories got nuked somewhere), but just remember…this blog is pretty. Really pretty. Who needs to worry about content like that?

Anyway, check out all the Track Twos, through the category, or by clicking the “Track Two” link at the top, which links to all the other ones. I hope you enjoy both the posts and the summaries; I would like to know if those help a lot of people.

It’s probably because I was going to work on the ef post again today. Hah! This week for sure, the rewatch is almost done.

(Oh, and I bought Ever17 in a RightStuf sale…looking forward to that.)

For those not keeping score, Shira Oka is an American-made for-sale visual novel currently in development by Okashi Studios. Since they’re local, and since it’s an interesting idea (especially when companies are folding left and right, like the famed Hirameki), I’ve taken a great interest in this project.

They’ve begun releasing preview videos again; this is the first I can remember in a while; this six minute video shows a bit of the main menu screen where you can select what actions your character takes during the week, whether it be studying, hanging out, or whatnot. It seems very Tokimeki Memorial-ish in nature.

I’ve never played the TokiMemo series so I don’t know how exactly these things work, so I can’t say whether this is a good or bad thing at the moment (I don’t know just how much traditional talking scenes there are), but the program certainly looks shiny so far. It flows professionally, the images have charm, and in the one talking scene shown, the character was nicely animated with both body and mouth animation. Very nice.

Definitely looking forward to seeing more of this game unveiled. I wonder, though, whether this game is more of a light-hearted or serious one, as it would look to be the former, but the forums seem to say a bit otherwise…