Yamaki's Anime Blog

Remedial Anime Awards, January 2008

2008-01-26T18:35:51Z

I realised that I have not made a single post in this blog throughout January. Minus the resolutions for 2008 post which was meant for the whole year round, I had written nothing else regarding animes. Well, I could come up with some excuse, but now that I think of it, the excuse that I'm probably going to be using is "I'm too busy with life". Predictable, eh? I'd just feel ashamed of myself if I were to use that lame excuse again considering that I've used it many times last year. And so, no more excuses. It's better to look forward to the future than and work hard to look behind at the past and be disturbed by it.

The awards of the last two months had failed to take place due to me having some unavoidable activities on the dates of the awards, and therefore, I'm including both the two month's potential winners into this month's awards. Although there are three months, but there'll only be one winner for each award based on their exposure and viewer's acceptance. Clannad, Midori Days and Nodame Cantabile would be the main contenders in this awards. Here it goes:

Best Male Character: Sawamura Seiji (Midori no Hibi)

Also known as "Mad-dog Sawamura" in school due to his violent nature, Seiji can be described as a delinquent who likes to fight. However so, he only involves himself in a fight when necessary to protect weaker students using his "Devil's Right Hand". He has never had a girlfriend and therefore wanted one badly, until one day when he suddenly said, "looks like the only girlfriend I'll have is my right hand," and suddenly, a green haired girl appeared as his right hand. For the next few weeks, he avoided fights as he couldn't use his right hand to fight anymore. I personally admire Seiji a lot not only for him being strong but also kind.

Best Female Character: Ibuki Fuko (Clannad)

Her appearance in front of Tomoya and Nagisa alone has been a mystery as the real Fuko had been on the hospital bad since an auto accident due to a coma. But putting that aside, Fuko is definitely one naughty, hyperactive girl. She looks a bit smaller than Tomoya and Nagisa even though she's the same age as them and her favorite items are usually star-shaped to show her fetish towards starfishes. She would easily enter a dreamy state when she sees cute items like starfishes, a party cap, etc. Her storyarc in Clannad had ended but she still appears every now and then.

Best Villian: None
Best Non-Human Character: None

Best OP: Allegro Cantabile Sound by Suemitsu & The Suemith (Nodame Cantabile)

The Opening theme of Nodame Cantabile, Allegro Cantabile Sound is a song sung by a band of male singers led by Suemitsu (who cares?). It took me a while to get used to the song as I hadn't expected an opening song like this from an anime which is about musical stuffs like Beethoven, Stressman, etc.

Best ED: Dango Daikazoku by Chata (Clannad)

If you like songs that you could sing together with your family (or friends also can), then this is definitely for you. Dango Daikazoku is a song which made my jaw dropped when I'd first listened to it. I was planing to hate it forever but later I fell in love with the song which goes "Dango, Dango, Dango, Dango, Dango Daikazoku". Feel free to play it in the Youtube above.

Best Quote:
"An Orchestra exists because there's an audience to listen to it."

A quote by a highly regarded orchestra conductor in Nodame Cantibile.

Best Scene:

Nodame playing a piano in the midst of a pile of rubbish. Accordingly, the creator of Nodame Cantabile was inspired by a photo of a girl playing a piano just like the scene above posted on the internet.

Best Seiyuu: Mai Nakahara

Mai Nakahara is the VA of Nagisa Furukawa of Clannad, Yuna Konnyaku in Kage Kara Mamoru!, Midori Kasugano in Midori Days and Aono Morimiya in Sola to name a few. Some of her hobbies include cooking and watching movies, and she is skilled at kendo.

Yamaki's Anime Blog: Kristalyamaki's 2008 Resolution

2008-01-02T15:56:42Z

There goes our Health Minister, being forced to tender his resignation due to a sex scandal - he was videotaped having sex with a "personal friend" of his, but that's off topic. School's starting for me tomorrow so I won't be able to be active online anymore, but that's off topic again. Nevermind.

Oh and yeah, Happy New Year 2008 to all readers of Yamaki's Anime Blog.

What I am supposed to do right now, is to think of a few resolutions for the year 2008, hoping that I can actually achieve them by the end of the year, and that means that I have around 365 days to complete whatever that I have added into the resolutions.

But before I do that, I'm going to reflect on the resolutions that I have given myself to achieve last year, and they are:

Resolution #1: Finish watching all of the animes in hand before starting new ones

Now that I think of it, in order to achieve this, I've only picked up only one or two animes per season. In the year 2007, I've picked up and successfully finished sola, Asatte no Houkou, School Days and Honey & Clover (first and second season) while dropping none (perhaps Digimon Savers), and so:

Verdict: PASS

Resolution #2: Improve my writing skills to prevent readers from dying because of boredom

*looks around* Hey you, don't run away yet! I've not even started... see what I'm talking about? I don't even know any of my loyal readers even if they are any, and so, I can say that readers must have not been returning due to boring articles.

Verdict: FAIL

Resolution #3: Improve my grammar in English

I can't feel any major improvements in my English grammar, but I think that I have definitely improved a little bit.

Verdict: PASS

Resolution #4: Do/Write at least 10 blog updates/articles per month

Let's see... I only did four updates in February, nine updates in March, four updates in April, seven updates in May, four updates in June...... that's more than enough to make me fail.

Verdict: FAIL

Resolution #5: Create 3 Anime Music Videos (AMV)

That was what I had originally planned, but in the end, I've only managed to make two - Who I Am, I Am in March and My Angel in December.

Verdict: FAIL

Resolution #6: Attend any cosplay events/conventions if they were held here in my place

There's one HobbyCon that was held in December at the newly built shopping complex Komplex Asia City here in my side. However so, it had already ended when I found out about it... so there you go. I'm definitely going next year.

Verdict: FAIL

Shouldn't they be sleeping by then? The moon's so high up!

Resolution #7: Sleep by 4 a.m. everytime I stay up late

Well, I don't know whether I should let myself pass this one... but I guess I'd go lenient on this one as most of the year other than December I've been sleeping quite early.

Verdict: PASS

Resolution #8: Be like any of the characters voiced by Tomokazu Sugita

Let's see... am I surrounded by girls by now? No.

Verdict: FAIL

All in all, I can see that I did not fared well in the year 2007. Maybe I'd do better in 2008. So, let's see what I have prepared for myself as my resolution for 2008:

Resolution #1: Attend HobbyCon

Being the one and only major hobby based (including figurines, animes and mangas) conventions ever organized in Kota Kinabalu, I hope that I can attend it and make a report about the convention in this blog.

Takeshi is nice to cosplay too...

Resolution #2: Cosplay an anime character

Kurogane from Tsubasa or Kyouya from Ouran sounds nice and simple, and if I can get my hands on the costumes, I might consider cosplaying in HobbyCon since it is after my SPM exam.

Unless if I'm like this...

Resolution #3: Continue to watch animes even on tight schedules

I can feel that my passion towards animes slowly fading away, and in order keep the passion burning, I'd have to continue watching animes, non stop.

Resolution #4: Create at least one anime music video WITHOUT using Windows Movie Maker

Well, I felt that I have been rather dependent on Windows Movie Maker and should move out of it. Maybe I should learn Adobe Premier...

Resolution #5: Get Yamaki's Anime Blog out of livejournal

Seriously, I'm starting to think that livejournal sucks. Not only it discourages people to leave comments, it is not flexible at all without a paid account. Perhaps to Wordpress or a personal server, but it won't be anytime soon anyways.

Oh and by the way,I was in camp the last week so I had to cancel the Remedial Anime Awards for December 2007. Let's hope that nothing would happen to me when it comes to the last Saturday of this month so the January 2008 awards can take place.

Cospiracies and Lies Surrounds NHK ni Yokoso!

2007-12-27T19:01:35Z

Welcome to the NHK or NHK ni Yokoso is definitely one weird manga. Weird indeed. However so, it gives you the feeling of happiness and satisfaction after reading it. Personally I've just read all 40 chapters of the mangas online and I'm definitely satisfied. I'm not really sure what gave me this satisfaction, perhaps it was seeing that all of the characters in the series are all so pitiable in a sense compared to myself, or perhaps the story isn't as predictable as I've first thought and expected. Everything may go upside down at the very last minute, just because everyone's telling lies - big fat lies that everyone so helplessly fall into even though it's very obvious. Maybe that's what human beings are in the first place.

Welcome to the NHK tells the story of a 22-years-old (he turned 23 in the series) fateful fellow, Satou Tatsuhiro, who happened to suffer from a major Japanese society mental sickness - being a hikikomori (the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare defines hikikomori as individuals who refuse to leave their parents' house, and isolate themselves away from society in their homes for a period exceeding six months). Well, at least he tried to hide the fact from an old lady who visited him at his apartment with her niece(?) one day to do a survey about hikikomoris. Due to the fact that he'd shut himself in the apartment for a few months without speaking to anyone throughout the period, he did badly in the survey and scared the old lady away. The girl looked at him briefly, smiled, and then went away with her aunt. Little did Satou knew that this particular little young lady who's holding a parasol was going to be an important person in his life, well at least for the year to come.

And that's how the story of this NHK thing started. Like myself, I've always thought of NHK as a television broadcasting channel in Japan. Yes that's right, there's nothing wrong about it. In this story, Satou had blamed the TV station for causing him to become a hikki due to all the animes they're broadcast. Then why the "welcome"? Well, as for the title "Welcome to the NHK", NHK in here stands for Nippon Hikikomori Kyokai (The Japanese Hikikomori Association). It's actually more of like the title of the last chapter in the original novel where Satou had signed an agreement, therefore officially forming the association. It wasn't like that in the mangas, though, so I'm particularly confused, but nevermind. I have not watched the anime yet and one day if I find them selling in KK here, I might as well buy it and watch.

Welcome to the NHK, like I said, is one weird story, and seriously, I couldn't think of a genre for it. Wikipedia and ANN says that it's seinen or shonen but I have to disagree with it. Personally if I'm a girl I would have enjoy the story as well, seeing that Satou gets tortured by this Misaki girl, the girl with a parasol I'd mentioned earlier. But sure, it's definitely more appealing to late teenage males who's having the same condition as Satou.

Talking about Misaki, she's one weird girl. She has the looks, yes. She's very cute and charming that even I believe that I myself have fallen for her, quite badly too (I've always had a soft spot for short-haired girls). She's smooth on the outside and gives the impression that she's a strong person in the inside, someone with a stable background and is reliable during needy times. She acted like one to Satou who's heading towards a dead end without a job and was still relying on his parents' allowance to continue living. She came to him after he ran away from his attempt to find a job in an interview in a manga café - Misaki was the receptionist and he couldn't help but run away from her. She handed him a contract, asking him accept it. In return, she'll give him all the attention and counseling he needed to return to being a productive person.

Things didn't work out too smoothly. There are times where Misaki had managed to convince Satou to sit down quietly and listen to her counseling, but towards the end, he found out that Misaki had been using weird sources (like A Brainwashing Manual) and felt that she had been making fun of him all the while. Becoming mad as a cow, he'd run off to look for someone else.

Who else can he find? There's Yamazaki who's lives next door. Yamazaki is the kouhai (the opposite of senpai) of Satou in middle school and is an otaku. Unlike Satou, Yamazaki is someone capable of living on his own without the help of his parents and lives off creating Hentai games and selling it off at conventions. Now if I can do that...

Other than Yamazaki, there's Hitomi who was Satou's senpai in middle school. She's a bit different from Misaki and she's actually heading towards a marriage. She had tried to kill herself by attending an offline suicide party, bringing Satou along with her, not knowing that Satou agreed to follow her because he thought he was going to go on a holiday. Due to stress, she had been dependent on drugs. Even after getting married, she wasn't happy with her husband and confessed that she married someone she didn't love. But that didn't stop her from having a happy family. In the novels, she even had a child!

Welcome to the NHK is definitely one of the best stories, reality-wise. It brings you back to reality unlike other fantasy or science fiction story which even brings you to the other universe which is too far away, compared to what is really awaiting us in our near future. The moral of the story, quoting wikipedia, "hardships of life and how people must deal with them in their own way."

Well, have fun, and stop calling yourself a hikikomori already! You're NOT one, unless you have isolated yourselves away from society in your homes for a period exceeding six months, depending solely on your parents! It's a shame to have a hikikomori in your family, you know!

Merry Christmas with Ibuki Fuko from Yamaki

2007-12-24T10:39:01Z

(I know it's a bit early but who cares?)

Merry Christmas to all of the readers of Yamaki's Anime Blog!

P.S. Feel free to use the above video for next year's Saimoe. Fuko definitely deserve a place in the tournament.

Kristalyamaki's Latest AMV: My Angel (sola)

2007-12-20T20:27:12Z

Like I promised, here's the anime music video (AMV) which I have made. Sorry I couldn't release it on time, it was a public holiday for my country to celebrate Hari Raya Qurban and so my father was at home so I couldn't go online.

The title of this AMV is My Angel. It was named after the title of the song I've used in the AMV, "Tian Shi" which means "Angel" in English. I knew that sola hadn't had anything to do with angels at all, but I felt that it would be good nevertheless. Like my previous AMVs, I've created this one using Windows Movie Maker as well.

I've focused on Yorito, Matsuri and Takashi while maintaining a minimal appearance of Mana in this music video. Scenes of conflicts and skirmish between Takashi and Matsuri were used during the chorus while for the others, scenes between Yorito and Matsuri being together are used. The whole AMV will have the feeling of Matsuri helplessly trying to escape from Takashi who's hunting for her as Yorito tried his best to help. However so, Matsuri didn't want Yorito to get too involved, so she tried her best to "leave" Yorito for his own good. The ending part shows Matsuri and Yorito on a boat together, laughing happily as they watch birds fly by the sky.

Scenes that are used in the AMV are mainly from episode 2 and 3 of the anime so the amount of spoilers are minimal, even if there are any at all. Therefore, you people don't have to worry of getting spoiled!

If you want, you can download the AMV over here. I'll only upload the song if there's any special request.

Thanks for watching! (if you have watched, that's it.) :D

Ibuki Fuko, Her Story And The Wooden Starfishes (2)

2007-12-18T05:37:07Z

I need a life, and yeah, if you guys were wondering what happened to our RAA last month, well, I had an argument with my sister which got me banned from the internet by my father. Long story. Friend me in my personal kristalyamaki livejournal if you want to read any of those, but other than that, there's no major change in life for me. It's the school holidays for us here in Malaysia, yes, but I'm stuck at home, playing Pokémon FireRed (Read: an improved version of Gameboy Color's Pokémon Red. Why did they even bothered to make an improved version?) on my computer. What else can I do without the internet? Well, I've made an AMV during my absence online so come back for that two days from now. (I'm premiering the AMV on 20th December which is two days from now, duh.)

Right now I'm downloading episode 11 of Clannad on Azureus. Can't do that when I don't have the internet. I've just finished (watching) episode 10 and it was a boring episode with that genius girl, (what was her name again?), Kotomi. Her voice could be one of the roughest together with another Clannad girl, Tomoyo and their voice actresses must be around 40 something with a really sore throat. I personally prefer girls with sweet voice, regardless of their looks. Even Kyou, the evil twin of Ryou who is also the monitor of a class (I forgot which one) in Clannad seemed attractive enough. So... I'm not going to talk about any one of them. Instead, I'll be focusing on the outgoing Clannad girl who had most of the focus and limelight throughout the start of the series till episode 9 - Fuko. She didn't make any appearance at all in episode 10, so I'd assume that episode 9 would be her last episode. Bless her. I wouldn't want to see anyone distributing wooden starfishes around school, in my school at least. Usually a permission is needed from the school to distribute such items or else it would most likely be confiscated. =\

Never mind that anyways.

Okay, going into the main topic. If you know nothing about Fuko and what she had been doing with the wooden starfishes she'd been distributing around, read this and you might have a basic idea, at least.

Let me start with me quoting a conversation between Sunohara and Tomoya and you'll see how obvious the loophole is to Sunohara, an observer indirectly involved in the whole thing:

Sunohara: I skipped class and did some research on Ibuki Fuko.
Tomoya: Why did you go and do that?
Sunohara: The person getting married this Sunday is Ibuki, right? Then Fuko-chan's last name should be Ibuki as well. Isogai Fuko is a fake name.
Tomoya: Uh.
Sunohara: But Ibuki Fuko's in the hospital. Then who's the one that's always with us? A fake Ibuki Fuko?
(A long pause)
Sunohara: *sigh* If she's a fake, then that's fine. But she isn't, right? Then that makes Fuko-chan a......
(A short pause)
Sunohara: Okazaki, can I go confirm it?
Tomoya: Confirm what?
Sunohara: I'm thinking of going to the hospital to see Ibuki Fuko's face.
Tomoya: You idiot, don't!
Sunohara: Why?

Tomoya thought that if Sunohara were to see Ibuki Fuko, he would lose all of the memories he had of her and eventually forget about her. Tomoya didn't realised that Sunohara was really determined to find out about the mystery that he didn't stopped Sunohara from investigating further.

The next day, Sunohara was absent from school. Suddenly, he turned up in school at the afternoon, saying that before he knew it, he was walking out of a hospital a city away. However, he couldn't remember why he had been there for and hadn't had a clue why he went over there. Like Tomoya had predicted, Sunohara had forgotten about Fuko. This is where it all started to get weird. Not only Sunohara started to forget about Fuko's being, Kyou, Ryou, and even the other students around school started to forget about her, as if she's not around. They couldn't remember receiving a wooden starfish from Fuko. At that time Nagisa and Tomoya were still able to see her. So, Tomoya came to a conclusion that memories of Fuko will fade away to those with less relation with her... and feared that one day, even he himself will forget about her.

Despite not being able to remember, Sunohara confessed that he felt something as if how there was someone like that. Even Akio-san and Sanae-san felt as if something's suddenly missing from their lives and felt disturbingly uncomfortable. Tomoya reckons that it should be because they have not completely forgotten her, yet.

That night, the three went and stayed at school. Little do they know it would be their last night together as the very next morning, both Nagisa and Tomoya couldn't remember a thing at all regarding Fuko. Tomoya even got hit by Akio using his trusty baseball bat for sleeping overnight with her daughter in school alone but then recalled that he might have approved it due to some other reason - that someone else might be around as well. He never remembered in the end.

Despite having lost the memory, both of them knew that they have forgotten something. They knew it. They just don't remember what it was. Tomoya even rejected Kyou's offer to go shopping on Sunday because he barely remembered that there's something major, something important scheduled. Kyou got mad at his excuse of rejecting her.

As they tried to remember what they had forgotten, they saw a teacher doing preparation for a wedding. Weird questions were asked, and as they were told that they were the ones who had requested for this function, they realised, it was the wedding that they have been trying to remember. It was the function. Ibuki-sensei's wedding! And as they recalled it, Fuko appeared out of no where, meaning that they've finally recalled Fuko. Tears started to flow down cheeks.

The day of the wedding finally arrived. Yusuke and Ibuki-sensei were married and many adults were present. The weird thing is that there wasn't any students around. But as the newly wed couple walked out of the school building, many students were waiting out there, holding onto a wooden starfish. Kyou, Ryou and Sunohara and even Akio-san and Sanae-san were there! Fuko momentarily appeared in front of everyone and walked towards Ibuki-sensei, handed over a wooden starfish, and then disappeared into thin air like an angel.

"I'm getting really impatient with the story's pace. If Ibuki-sensei wanted to marry, she should just go on with it without waiting for her sister's condition to worsen."

That was what I said in the last article I wrote. Well, gladfully, Ibuki-sensei and Yusuke-san did get married in the end.

Fuko's arc ends here. While I can say that this is definitely a happy ending sort of story, there's the chance of Fuko's return. She never died. She's only in a coma, and will probably be like that till the end of the story.

Ibuki Fuko, Her Story And The Wooden Starfishes

2007-11-21T11:16:17Z

It was really painful seeing Fuko passing out wooden carved starfish to everyone in her school, hoping that they'll attend her sister, Ibuki-sensei's wedding. It was even more painful seeing that Ibuki-sensei didn't know what her younger sister had done for her and refuses rumors that Fuko has been in school, and her reason was - Fuko's lying on a bed in the hospital in a coma.

It is weird, you know. I was hoping something to happen, something major, something that might change the plot of the story even further, when Nagisa and Tomoya decided to invite Ibuki-sensei to their school's Founder's Day. I had thought, maybe Ibuki-sensei might faint when she sees Fuko, or maybe suddenly Fuko might disappear from the hospital. That was indeed suspense, that was! But what I had least expected happened - Ibuki-sensei wasn't able to see Fuko as if she's transparent. That's making things creepy. Really creepy.

So, what was it we have being looking at in episodes 5, 6 and 7? A ghost? A spirit? But if you ask me, I'd say it should be neither. I should have expected something like this seeing that both Key's creation, Air and Kanon, had had supernatural events, and Clannad was going rather painstaking normal, smooth and usual. There's nothing unusual with a girl distributing wooden carved starfish to students in school as she had carved it herself together with the help of Nagisa's parents (it didn't appear suddenly from thin air, right? So-it-is-normal, duh.).

Right now we're going through Fuko's story-arc. Fuko's the main focus right now with constant sights of her giving away wooden carved starfish. Ibuki-sensei claims that before the accident which hospitalised Fuko, she was a girl who could not easily blend in with others the same age as her. When they went to the beach, other girls would be playing with a ball together while Fuko would be playing with a starfish, alone. This somehow explains Fuko's fetish towards starfish.

However so, the Fuko we see right now is someone welcomed. She easily became close friends with Tomoya and Nagisa and was eventually accepted to stay with Nagisa once they found out that she didn't have a place to go (ghosts have no place to go, duh). By distributing the wooden starfish, she gained popularity and fame among students in the school. Within a few days, she became a household name. She even has her own base of fans who would protect her if someone (like Sunohara) were to harm her!

Well, like I've said before, Fuko carved the starfishes hoping that students of the school would attend her sister's wedding. I bet Fuko knew this as well, that Ibuki-sensei had been putting off her wedding to look after her in the hospital. Tomoya and Nagisa almost managed to persuade to continue her wedding when she came to school to attend the Founder's Festival, but as Fuko's condition worsen, she changed her mind again. Ibuki-sensei's fiancé, Yusuke, a former musician, must have been someone really kind, patient and understanding to be able to wait for Ibuki-sensei all this while.

I'm getting really impatient with the story's pace. If Ibuki-sensei wanted to marry, she should just go on with it without waiting for her sister's condition to worsen. Tomoya or Nagisa should tell Ibuki-sensei that they've been with Fuko all the while. It's just a matter of time before things like this spill, you can't keep this a secret forever. Well, furthurmore, Fuko doesn't have forever in her condition. I predict that Fuko would disappear suddenly with a harsh farewell and reappear in her original body, just like Ayu did in Kanon, and lots of emotion will flow like a stream. Unless if she's destined to disappear forever like Makoto, then I have nothing to say anymore.

Honey And A Four-Leaf Clover, Two.

2007-11-07T18:56:23Z

Honey and Clover - the clover is no ordinary clover, but four-leaf clovers. Eating honey with bread is already unusual, again together with a clover leaf in the middle, wow, that's something you can really expect from girls with creativity like Hagumi. Not that it is inedible, rather it is weird, just like the dinner earlier in the first season of Honey & Clover where mint ice-cream with pumpkin were served (you can eat it yes, but will you?). Bread symbolizes food, honey symbolizes their relationship while the clover symbolizes good luck - to put it simply, the sandwich which Hagumi had prepared for Takemoto as his farewell present was really meaningful, even more meaningful compared to a normal letter.

Takemoto was going to work as a restoration worker together with the others that he had met during his trip on a bicycle to Wakkanai, the tip of Japan. Finally, he had graduated from the art college. It was Takemoto's dream to work as a shrine restoration worker after having the experience. He had even used up his allowance to apply for a driving license as it was the only requirement to work as a shrine restoration worker (did Rokutarou got his? I doubt so) and had to live on with cheap toasts for a whole month.

And as he was boarding the bullet train out of town to Morioka to start his new job, Hagumi reached the station on time before the train took off and managed to hand Takemoto a big bentou box wrapped with a cloth neatly. Right, so it was a stack of bread with honey and clover. How romantic. So what had Hagumi planned for herself after graduation? I guess you could say anything. It wasn't clear whether she'll be going back to Nagano, or whether her right arm will fully get well and be able to continue drawing, or whether she'll marry Hanamoto-sensei whom had admitted that he liked her. The school festival was a drastic day after all where even the strong wind can break a glass!

Honey and Clover II had only 12 episodes but with no definite ending yet - in other words, there is the possibility where a third season might come out. Many questions remains unsolved, and one of them is the relationship between Mayama, Rika, Ayu and Nomiya. Perhaps it was intentionally left like that. Mayama was never a romantic type, and neither were any of the others. The story is intentionally left without a definite ending to let the audience have their own favorable pairing instead of being forced to accept a pair.

I personally like Mayama being with Rika, taking care of her after she became a widow where her husband, the legendary Harada, had died in the same car crash which left scars on her body. Mayama even dragged Rika, who had suicidal thoughts, back to reality and even followed her to Hokkaido, her hometown, and later on to Spain. However, I also couldn't help but pity Ayu who has been behind Mayama all the while. It is not like Mayama didn't cared about Ayu, it is just that he only had his mind on Rika. However, it turned out that he also felt uncomfortable with Nomiya, one of his colleagues at Fujiwara Designs attracting Ayu's attention. Again perhaps this is the nature of a josei genred anime, where most of the female characters are strong-in-the-outside-but-horribly-weak-in-the-inside, just like Ayu whose nickname is "Iron Lady". Not to mention that Ayu's quite popular among the fourth generation in the shopping district as well!

In this second season, Morita's err... should I say, love, or crave, towards money is finally explained, rather detailed as well. Morita is a really creative young man and he has many ways to earn big money and never use them! His elder brother, Kaoru, found him many weird jobs. Sometimes he even had to travel all the way across an ocean in order to do the job. But to him, he had only one motive, and that is to assist Kaoru to buy back a company which used to be their father's. The story goes back a long time ago when they were still kids when their father was betrayed and had his company sold to an electrical company.

Their father had told the two not to take revenge for what was done, but a determined Kaoru still went on and carry grudges, until he finally bought back the company. Even after they bought over the company they didn't feel happy at all. So, Morita decided to leave the company to Kaoru and followed Peter (George, lol) Lucas where he can continue to expand his creativity. That was what he did after graduation.

Seriously, I was surprised that they managed to re-tell the stories of all 24 episodes of the first season in just a single episode (the first episode)! However, this also means that Honey & Clover is actually too elongated, if you get what I mean - if you skip unnecessary emotional thoughts and repeated gags you can actually tell the whole story in just few hours!

The OP song, Fugainaiya, is nice but the video is full of sweatness (not a typo of sweetness). A fork suddenly striking a pancake with honey on it... ahh. I still like the second OP video of the first season better. Meanwhile, the ED song was... plain normal and I don't like it or hate it either.

Nevertheless Honey & Clover is good stuff. I'd recommend you to watch it if you had not. Try to find the original ones with Japanese dub and English subs as the English dub will definitely kill the atmosphere.

Remedial Anime Awards, October 2007

2007-10-28T10:48:19Z

Just right when I'm really really tired I'm doing this monthly award (read: shit).

So, what I have I being doing lately? Let me tell you frankly: nothing much, other than playing MapleStory. This is getting off-topic, but... ah nevermind, I don't care liao.

Believe it or not, my school, Tshung Tsin, played this Neko no Ongaeshi (The Cat Returns) anime movie in the school hall for all of us to watch a few days ago! It was played with Chinese subtitles with original Japanese dub and everyone's eyes were stuck on the screen! Surprisingly, it was well welcomed and cheers can be heard every now and then during ups and down! I'm not going to question where or how did the Computer Research Club (the organizer of the screening) obtained the rights to screen the movie - they're not making a profit anyways.

Right now I'm downloading 1.8GB worth of anime off Azureus, my BitTorrent client (meh @ BitComet users! Azureus Banzai!!). The downloads include Honey & Clover II and Clannad and it seems that the download speed is quite satisfactory and I think most of the downloads should finish by a day or two.

I plan to pick up two new animes series but end up only pickng up one - Clannad that is. The other one is Shakugan no Shana II, but due to unforeseen circumstances (all of a sudden I've been downloading old series), I decided not to download that one for the time being.

Clannad made its debut in Yamaki's Anime Blog this month. The anime series has managed to grab a few of the spots in the awards, proving that it is indeed a worth-to-watch anime.

The recipient awards are as follow:

Best Male Character: Furukawa Akio (Clannad)
A baseball bat is a must for every man who wishes to protect their women, and in this case, this bakery owner who is also the, sorry for the pun, breadwinner of the family, uses his trusty wooden baseball bat to threaten anyone who bullies his wife and daughter. Young in his heart, he is very protective and although he is rather rough and rude, he is friendly and has a heart who cares for others.

Sorry, this are the best images of Haru I can find off the internet. I don't have the movie so I can't take screenshots of it.

Best Female Character: Yoshioka Haru (Neko no Ongaeshi)
And this is Haru-chan, a clumsy little young lady who was seen late for school at the start of the movie, ending up being brought to the cat's kingdom (whatever the official translation may be), becoming a nekomimi after saving a black cat who appeared to be a prince from being knocked down by a truck, and then saving herself in time before having to live with her pair of cat ears forever. All from cuteness to maturity, Haru has it all!

Best Villian: None

Best Non-Human Character: Botan (Clannad)
If Air has Potato with its PikoPiko~, then Clannad has Botan with its Puhi~

Best OP: None

Best ED: Kaze Ni Naru - Ayano Tsuji (Neko no Ongaeshi)
I might be a little biased, but for this month, this ED theme of an anime is the best I've heard in this entire month.

Best Quote: "Erase it from your mind!"
If you haven't watch Clannad and yet know what "it" stands for, give yourself a cookie. :D

*for the correct answer, scroll to the end of this page.

It's her light-blue-colour panty. :D

Best Scene: None
Best Seiyuu: None

One last note: Vote for Tsukasa!

Sayuri Lost in Saimoe......

2007-10-22T14:28:31Z

Sayuri lost by some 150 votes.

G Group Final
1位　939票　古手梨花＠ひぐらしのなく頃に(Furude Rika@Higurashi no Naku Koro ni)
2位　789票　倉田佐祐理＠Kanon(Kurata Sayuri@Kanon)

I have been left in despair. Please leave me alone to cool down.

Vote For Sayuri in 4th Round of Saimoe!!

2007-10-22T07:19:11Z

Today's Saimoe Tournament match is between Sayuri of Kanon and Rika of Higurashi.

I have voted for Sayuri. Have you?

If you do support her but haven't voted yet, vote right now or you'll regret it later on! (How to vote, refer here)

I've added several posters behind the cut. I've also translated the Chinese Saimoe newspaper into English for your pleasure, but only for Sayuri~

Sayuri - 'Iron Chef' ?

Endless Winter, lol. Frankly, this is one of the ugliest posters I've stumbled upon, but funnily, everyone's using it!

Ahaha~ Same smile, but different fate.

Age: 17
Height: 157cm
Favourite Persons: Mai, (some name which I assume is her little brother's)
Favourite Items: Sushi, (kawa?)
Favourite Foods: Tidbits from the grocery
Quote: Ahaha~
Known as: Ahaha-senpai
Wish: Pat her little brother's head, telling him that everything's alright.

Background:
Born into a rich family, ever since a little girl, her father taught her strictly to be a refined person that everyone would be proud of. She used to have a little brother whom although she really liked, she had to treat him with strictness like her father did to her until he was hospitalized due to a sickness. Their only happy times was in the hospital. Sayuri wanted to pat her brother's head but her wish was never realised as her brother died soon. Later on, Sayuri was only able to see herself from a third person's view and never smiled until she met Mai. She thinks that it was Mai who revived her, and started to follow her.

Attitude and Relation:
Due to her father's strict teaching, she became a refined girl at a young age. She was kind, soft, and is also able to communicate easily and had followed her father to a ball, and therefore she was loved very much. Inside, she's tough. Her only regret in her life is not caring for her little brother, leaving behind sad memories, until she met Mai whom would eventually replace her brother in her heart. She would have lunch with Mai at the top floor of the school, and later on, Yuuichi joined in.

External Appearance:
With long hair the colour of chestnuts, her hair is usually tied neatly with a green ribbon with a butterfly knot behind her head. During the dance party, she wore a blue night gown. Other times she would be seen wearing a one-piece dress to give others the looks of well mannered lady. She is not an athletic person and would be seen combo-sliding on slippery snow. She sees herself from a third-person view and would use her name instead of 'I' when referring to herself. Her favourite quote "Ahaha~" is still her trademark and can be heard anytime from this onee-chan.

Miscellaneous:
(DDR Reporting) Behind the kind and cute face hides a harsh and sad story. Born to a wealthy and famous family, is is inevitable that she has to go through strict teaching to retain her family's name. Between success and relationship, she had chosen the former, and even though suffering, she still remained strong till today, and until she met Mai who gave her much hope. "I only wanted to pat him, tell him that everything's alright," and "You've tried your best." This must have been what Sayuri had been wanting to say.

And by the way, since NoSanninWa closed the Saimoe thread in AnimeSuki Forums, many who use the forum as a source (like yours truly) will have to bite their fingers for some time.

But don't let that stop you from voting. It's 2ch that's organizing the match, not AnimeSuki!

The thread was reopened but I doubt any good discussion will go on at all with NoSanninWa threatening that he'll be banning people who he finds troublesome.

School Days - A Good Lesson For Viewers

2007-10-17T18:57:35Z

His name is Itou Makoto. His birthday is on 16 October. He is the main male character of School Days. Remember his name. The name has become a symbol of empty promises, dishonesty and disloyalty, as well as the end-results of it.

zzz, really. (i'm sarcastic here, mind you. i played too much Maplestory recently -__-)

Oh and, not forgetting the 'nice boat' meme. There you go. It's all over the internet.

Calling the series "School Days" gives me the creeps. It's main theme has nothing to do with school days but rather Makoto's sexual tryst with the girls (as far as I can see). The only time when the school was used as the background was during the school festival. If that's the case, then why not name School Days "The Melancholy of Makoto Itou" and in exchange, call The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya "School Days" instead? That would make more sense, because even the school festival in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya seemed simple yet more fulfilling as a school festival with Kyon's walkthrough of the stalls set up by the classes and the mini concert show, despite not having a campfire like school days.

Everybody was busy preparing and discussing about the school festival. School festivals should have the happy feeling in it, but what we've seen in the whole series is that somewhat, the event has become the fuse of the "bomb" that would eventually explode. In front, it looked as if the planing was going on smoothly, and everybody worked together to create the best result. But like I said, what was happening behind was the ugliest things that could ever happen.

It all started around episode 6 and the climax is at around episode 10 or so. Makoto was doing it with Sekai at the roof of the school (wait a sec, I thought that the school had given her the keys to the roof because she wanted to reform the Astronomy club?) thinking that Kotonoha was still busy doing her paperworks on her class's school festival proposal - only that Kotonoha had managed to finish her work and wanted to join them for lunch. She found out about them but kept quiet, believing that she's Makoto's girlfriend.

This is for you, Makoto!

School festival's around the corner while Makoto continues to flirt with Sekai, leaving Kotonoha who's always busy with work, alone. Even on the day of the school festival, Makoto spent a lot of time with Sekai while Kotonoha was forced to look after her class's stall, the lounge, as she was the only committee member representing their class. Little did she knew that her stall was a dark room with a bed.

Does dancing by the campfire make your relationship last? I doubt so.

Accordingly, it was a tradition of their school to have a girl to confess to the guy she likes by gripping a piece of paper in her fist and show it to the guy. If the guy accepts the girl, he'll take the paper from her hand. Then they'll come together in the lounge and have sex. And then if the couple would dance together in the campfire at night, their relationship would last for a year.

zzz.

Makoto received a confession from Otome, a girl from his Junior High school and without even a thought of the other girls he has, he accepted her. They had sex in the lounge. Coincidentally, Kotonoha had gone out to look for him, so she did not caught him having an affair with Otome.

"This would be a memory only for me."

Then again at night Makoto had left behind to help out in the cleaning. Kotonoha caught Setsuna kissing Makoto who was asleep due to fatigue. Setsuna tried to explain that she only wanted a memory for herself because she'll be leaving for France a day after the school festival but Kotonoha couldn't accept her explanation.

After the school festival, Makoto officially broke up with Kotonoha after Setsuna kissed him in from of her another time. Kotonoha enters mental-breakdown mode.

Sekai seeing Otome and Makoto doing it in the lounge.

Nanami invites Setsuna and Sekai to a preview of the girl's Basketball Club but Setsuna refuses as she wouldn't be around. However, the preview turns out to be a scandal - they were screening a video which was shot in the lounge during the school festival. Everyone having sex was exposed, including Otome and Makoto. Sekai was devastated to see it.

"I'll do anything..."

Setsuna, before going onboard the plane to France, paid a visit to Makoto's house and had sex with him, telling him to promise her to look after Sekai.

After Setsuna left for France, Makoto didn't kept his promise and broke up with Sekai. Sekai started skipping school and found out that her period hadn't been coming - she was pregnant.

Makoto refuses to take responsibility and continue flirting with other girls.

During Christmas eve, nobody wanted to go out with Makoto as the news about him causing Sekai to be pregnant had been spread out like a wild fire. In the end, he saw Kotonoha waiting for him under a big Christmas tree and started to go out with her again.

Sekai became furious as she found out that he had been going out with Kotonoha again.

Kotonoha told Sekai about Setsuna's kiss during the school festival. Sekai was crushed.

zzz. Here's the bloody part.

The blood is black in colour. zzz.

Sekai killed him with a knife. Blood was flowing non stop from Makoto as Sekai left.

"You fail, Sekai. My turn to kill you."

Kotonoha was shocked so badly she chopped Makoto into pieces and had stuffed him into a sports bag. She then lured Sekai to the rooftop of the school and killed her as well.

"Finally we're together, alone." said Kotonoha, hugging on Makoto's severed head on her yatch.

Or should I say, "nice boat"?

There's only one final result for someone like Makoto - death. Serves him right for being disloyal towards the girls.

I've learned a good lesson. Have you?

P.S. R.I.P, Sekai! You will always be remembered! ✌

doremi-fa-SOLA-tido OAV

2007-10-15T10:24:54Z

Sorry for the weird title but I've been wanting to do this for a long time already. I had thought that I'm not going to be able to blog about sola anymore that the last episode, episode 13 was aired three months ago and I had done an article about my final thoughts about it.

However, it seems that it's not really the end, quite yet.

Last week, Doremi fan-subbing group released an OAV which they had labeled as episode 14 of sola. Out of curiosity I downloaded the 236MB video (it was ripped off DVD, I heard), only to find out that it was an episode full of fanservice - in other words, impossibilities to the original 12 episodes.

Yorito's alive and he still has his grudges towards Takeshi. This means that the event in this episode took place in between the first few episodes before Matsuri met Aono. Even in this episode Aono was left out.

A pack of tissue is better than going home empty-handed...

But Koyori-chan won the first prize!

Tickets to the, WTF?! Kappa de SpaLand?!

Sorry we can't bring you along, Aono~

All of a sudden sola becomes a harem anime - Yorito surrounded by 5 pretty ladies. LOL

Why are you of all people in a place like this?!

She's my daughter, yesh..

Mayuko's so cute!~

This spa is effective of muscular pain, stiff shoulder... halucination, bad language, bad grades... wtf?! (image was not resized intentionally. Read Or Die.)

FANSERVICE!! *nose bleeds* (Won't it be nice if she'd really take off her bathing suit?)

A guy came with five ladies, going home with six... ehh?!

What are you doing, Aono?!

Clannad: First Impressions

2007-10-13T18:51:28Z

So far, I have nothing negative to comment about this wonderful anime series which was animated by Kyoto-Animation.

Clannad, adapted from a visual novel of the same name which was created by Key, the creators of the infamous Air and Kanon, is one of the most awaited anime series by Key fans. Accordingly, 'Clannad' has the meaning of 'family' in Irish, and therefore the main theme of the whole series is family.

In the past, KyoAni had done a good job animating Air and Kanon, so fans has had high expectations on Clannad to have the quality as good as their previous releases.

Sure without letting audiences down, KyoAni did a good job in the starting episodes. In fact, all I have in mind after watching the first two episodes are mostly positive comments. The storyline is normal so far and the introduction is smooth and straight-to-the-point without taking too much time to focus on a single girl. An exception is the main heroine, Nagisa, whom had most of the limelight.

The story surrounds the life of the main male character, Tomoya, which for once, isn't the only male character in the series which is given some serious lines - there's Sunohara, Tomoya's male classmate (somewhat like Kitagawa from Kanon), Nagisa's father, Tomoya's father, etc, unlike in most harem-styled animes where the main hero is the only male character appearing the whole time.

A delinquent from a broken family, Tomoya is often late to school for no reason at all and also has the tendency to skip school together with Sunohara whom he would usually hang out with. He hates going back home, just because to him there's no reason for him to - his mother had long died while his father is an alcoholic. The father and son once had a fight with each other where the father had slammed the son on the wall causing the son's shoulder to dislocate. From then onwards, the son was unable to play basketball, the sport which the son was enrolled in the school for, anymore. This has also caused Tomoya to not join any clubs in school as he is getting tired of it. This all changed when Nagisa invited him to reform the disbanded-due-to-lack-of-member Theater Club and he did his best to help Nagisa and even gave her much encouragement and advice. In return, Nagisa treated him well when he visited her house after school one day, just to get to know about her happy and caring family.

A kind-hearted person he can be, it is undeniable that he is rather hot-tempered and would easily lose his temper, resulting in fights or arguments. Other than that, he is also straight in his speech and would not think of other's feelings or thoughts before making a harsh and sharp remark.

Like I've said before, the name of the main heroine of this series is Nagisa. Everything seems smooth about her so far up to the second episode as it was only revealed that she has a happy family with her parents operating a bakery selling cakes and buns. She has a weird fetish towards anpans and dango kazoku (dango family) and would mutter names of food she would want to eat to encourage herself. Accordingly she should have already graduated but since she had been away from school due to an illness, she had to repeat her third year in high school. This makes her a year older than Tomoya.

I don't like the sound of too much happiness. There's much more to come for Nagisa, I can predict. I've just read Wikipedia's article and in there, accordingly, Tomoya and Nagisa had a daughter and Nagisa died giving birth to her. I hope that won't happen in the anime.

Putting Nagisa aside, I'm going to go into the other girls of the series, namely Kyou, Kotomi, Tomoyo and Fuko.

Kyou... hmmm, I would describe her as a purple-haired Tsuruya without the fangs. Well, she is as hyperactive as Tsuruya, plus she has the ability to shoot books like missiles... she's not my type anyways. The fact that she illegally rides a scooter to school only makes things worse.

As for Kotomi, nothing much is known about her other than she studies in the library most of the time, skipping classes for the fact that she is one of the top scorer in the national examinations. Worse, she tried to cut library school books which, to me as a school librarian in RL, is something unforgivable! She even eats in the library. orz

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Tomoyo is the sort Mai fans would be happy to stumble upon. Despite being two years younger than Tomoya (Tomoyo? Tomoya? It's getting me confused!), she is much more mature-looking than all of the other Clannad girls. Her strength is comparable to that of a male, and won't mind kicking around in her short school skirts. Amazingly her pantsu managed to survived being seen despite her roughness, jumping up and down.

</a>

I don't have much knowlegde about this Fuko girl, and other than the fact that she has fetish towards stars, there's nothing else I know about this mysterious girl whom Tomoya got to know by barging into a classroom where she was carving a star out of a piece of wood.

I'm more interested in Ryou, Kyou's sister (younger? or are they twins?) who is the class representative of Tomoya's class, to be truthful. It's a pity that she is only considered as a minor character.

The OP theme is... not quite what I had in mind. I've always expected something like Air's OP. I'd give a 2/5 right now as I'm not really attracted or amused by it.

As for the ED, it's so-so - something which I would not have expect at all. Who would have expected something so childish like Dango Daikazoku? My jaw dropped when I saw the word 'dango' being repeated, followed by some colourful bun-like beanie jumping around. Then there's this song sung by a bunch of singers with children-like voice, simply. Perhaps the intention of such a simple song is to bring up the 'family' feeling among viewers, eh?

To put it overall, Clannad has a good start. Let's hope that it can continue like this to the end of the story.

Sayuri Survived The Third Round!

2007-10-12T16:15:32Z

Ahaha!

Congratulations to Sayuri for defeating Elulu! I so happy for her that she won. ^_^

Looks like Elulu is no big deal after all despite defeating Ayu earlier. She's moe okay, but not as moe as anyone from Kanon~

The result as shown in the official website:
1位　827票　倉田佐祐理＠Kanon
2位　757票　エルルゥ＠うたわれるもの

Even though Sayuri received some fake votes(?), she still has the majority. This proves that she is still popular among Kanon fans.

On the other hand, some fans (including yours truly) are wondering what had happened to those people who had voted for Elulu earlier. In the fight between Elulu and Ayu in the second round of G1, Elulu garnered 1156 votes. However, she only managed to obtain some 757 votes in this match. That's almost a whooping 300 decrease in votes! Karada would be crying for that amount of votes!

The Saimoe Tournament observers are remarking that anti-Kagikkos (whatever the meaning of that word is) had only thought that Ayu would be a big threat, but not Sayuri, so they did not do much to change the result of this match, resulting in the winning of Sayuri.

Anyhow, my hope is to see at least one Kanon character reaching the quarter finals (that is the top 8, like how Nagato of Suzumiya Haruhi performed last year). Although I don't think she would have much chances against either of the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni characters, Mion or Rika that she would be facing for the crown of Block G, but I would still campaign for her, hoping that she would win. As long as anti-kaggiko factions do not strike, there is still a chance that Sayuri could manage...... I hope.

Edited. 12:22 am.

For The Sake Of Kanon, Vote For Sayuri!

2007-10-11T07:55:33Z

I can't believe that I'm campaigning for a character in the Saimoe 2007.

Eight of the nine Kanon girls (Ayu, Mai, Makoto, Akiko, Kaori, Shiori, Nayuki, Sayuri) qualified for the second round, but only Sayuri managed to survive till the third round.

She is always considered an underdog in Kanon, but now, she's the only candidate left representing Kanon in the Saimoé competition 2007!

It's a pity that front-runners like Ayu and Mai had been easily eliminated.

For having to fight Elulu who has defeated Kanon front-runner, Ayu, I wonder what are the chances Sayuri has against her.. Plus, with Aruru losing right now to Suiseiseki, fans are surely going to do their best to put Elulu into the top-16 qualifying round tomorrow.

That is why I've decided to campaign for Sayuri.

If you look at Sayuri closely, she's not that bad either. She also has her own unique moe factors, like for example the bentous she made by herself for Yuuichi and Mai, her third-person-point-of-view of herself, and of course not forgetting her trademark 'ahaha' quote which she would so happily pronounce in front of any sentences she is about to say under no circumstances at all.

Usually she is overshadowed by Mai whom she is always behind of, caring and protecting her from all harms, including being expelled from school. Perhaps this the main factor she would usually go unnoticed by Kanon fans. However, unlike Tsukasa of Lucky Star who only has looks but appears to be an airhead, Sayuri has brains and is also a member of the student council of the school she attends.

People like fatcatlim once said that "Mai = MAI-WAIFU". Sayuri can be a better wife than Mai, let me tell you. She can cook and she can take care of others. What more would you want from a wife? ^^

Vote for her on 12 of October 2007, which is tomorrow! Details on how to vote are available in Animesuki forums.

VOTE FOR SAYURI! VOTE FOR KANON! VOTE FOR KYO-ANI! VOTE FOR MOE!

Happy Moe Day! (10.10.2007)

2007-10-10T09:20:10Z

Some anime fans celebrate Moe Day on the 10th of October every year. Why? Well, if you tear the word "萌"(moe) apart, you'll get "十月十日" which is 10 of October in both Chinese and Japanese kanji, and there goes Moe Day. Not many anime fans are aware of the fact!

The Saimoe Tournament is still on-going and I can see that almost all of the characters that I had openly supported had been eliminated!
- Nayuki was eliminated by Konata,
- Shouko was eliminated by Momoko (Sumomomomomo),
- Ayu was defeated by Elulu (Utawarerumono) by a slim 39 votes majority
- Mai was defeated by Louise (Zero no Tsukaima) by some 2(!!) votes majority,
- Mana was defeated by Ayane (Nagasarete Airantou),
- Karada was eliminated by Gretel (Otogi Jushi Akazuki),
- Shiori was eliminated by Rena (Higurashi no Naku koro ni) while
- Vita (Nanoha StrikerS) eliminated both Aono and Matsuri.

There you go Mai. Louise won the second round by a very slim margin of 2 votes.

For now, all of the candidates for Asatte no Houkou and sola have been eliminated, while only one Kanon character remains in the list - Sayuri.

I now stand on the fence as an observer of the competition as I no longer have anyone to vote for. At least those characters who are still in the list deserves are popular enough. Let's hope Sayuri is moe enough to defeat her next opponent to qualify for the quarter finals - there should at least be one Kanon character in the quarters.

Last but not least, I dedicate this Moe Day greetings to everyone out there reading this! May all of you have a Happy Moe Day!

P.S. Why tomato soup? Well, it has something to do with my sola fetish, lol. Go watch sola and you'll know more about it. :P

Remedial Anime Awards, September 2007

2007-09-29T19:36:27Z

I plan to call off this month's awards, but then decided not to after some considerations.

Honey & Clover shall be this month's main winners, followed by School Days. I'll make this quick.

Best Male Character: Lohmeyer-senpai
Chapter L of Honey & Clover is all about this muscular, stong young-man who used to live with the others under one roof in the room 103 until he was forced to go away to help with his father's farm. He would be like a hero when he brings going-to-be-expired-meat back for everyone who hadn't had meat for a long time. Mayama describes him as 'juicy' for the reason. He is tall and stands at around 190cm, and is also the person behind mascot for a theme park 'Arakawa Land', subsequently becoming the star of the theme park.

Best Female Character: Miwako Teshigawara
An employee of Fujiwara designs, she is known for her ability to keep herself strong and vibrant. She, however, is known for her cruelty towards her other colleague, Yamazaki, whereby the guy fancies her. She has a furry dog which seems to understand her a lot.

Best Villian: None
Best Non-Human Character: None
Best OP: None
Best ED: None
Best Quote: None
Best Scene: None
Best Seiyuu: None

Lastly, a thousand appoligies for the delay.

Individual Pokémon Entries Deleted From Wikipedia

2007-09-15T18:47:45Z

I only got to know about it when I was reading my livejournal's friend-page. redwolftamer wrote about it in pokemon, annoyed and pissed off. Indeed like what he had said, those pages in Wikipedia used to have the meanings of the names of the Pokémons, information, appearances in the anime, the trading cards and such, sometimes even trivias but since Wikipedia has a rule that trivia sections are not encouraged, they have been removed.

Personally, I'm not really pissed or angry or what. Okay, maybe a little. It is just that I feel more... "ohmygodwhatamIgoingtotellthem". That's right, anxious, worried. I don't know how to describe it.

Still remember my trip last year to Singapore? There I lived with my uncle's family, and they had two children, a boy and a girl - my cousins. The two are avid Pokémon fans who would go down to Northpoint where they lived (down in Yishun) every now and then to buy this "Pokémon cracks" thingie and would collect them faithfully, hoping to get some rare Pokémon. I, for one, think of those "cracks" as plastic UFOs at first, but as they play, I realised that it is somesort of clicking game... aiya.

Yes, they also watch the anime - on TV, something I don't get to do since NTV7 stopped showing Pokémon a long time ago. They always compare their Pokémon knowledge with mine, where one night after dinner in Bishan, we had compete with each other to questions like "name five steel type Pokémons?" and "What is the name of the gymleader of the steel gym in Johto?". Sounds childish, didn't it? But they're really happy and proud of themselves as they are able to answer those questions; so was I.

Then, since they have wireless internet at home, I had taught them how to use Wikipedia to search for more information on Pokémons. I told them, 'just add the name of any Pokémon behind "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/" and you shall have all the information you would want about the Pokémon'. They're really happy to know about it, I can say.

But now, it's all gone. Most of the pages are now redirected to lists of 20 Pokémons per page in Wikipedia. I can still see that Bulbasaur and Pikachu as well as a few other Pokémons survived the merge, but both were stripped off their Featured Article and Good Article status respectively, with Bulbasaur going down to B-class and is still in discussion whether to be closed or not. Pikachu was recently renominated as Good Article but it's just a matter of time before the title is stripped off again. Torchic and Mudkip, on the other hand, an example of Featured Article and Good Article classes articles before the merge, were totally removed and merged into one of the lists without even a mention being a former FA/GA.

See what I mean?

People are saying that Bulbapedia is still there and it also contain quite an amount of information. Personally, I don't use Bulbapedia and I don't plan on using it either, yet.

However, I notice something fishy behind all this. I heard a rumor that the house of the webmaster of a prominent Pokémon website, Pokémon Palace Network (better known to visitors simply as PPN), has been raided by the US government at the request of Pokémon USA. His possession were seized, including a Nintendo DS, and the reason given for it was due to "copyright infrignment". Got this rumor from Bulbapedia as well. The writer has said that it is wise to be skeptical as other Pokémon fansites are not going anywhere.

Humph. I can see Pokémon articles disappearing away from Wikipedia. Now, should I continue to be skeptical? But I guess what he meant was that his Bulbapedia can be an alternative to those article in Wikipedia. We'll see. Who knows whether Bulbapedia would go down anytime soon? Time will tell.

Feel free to tell me something I don't know. I'll give you credits.

Edit: I found out that even Digimon articles are having the same fate as Pokémon!

Remedial Anime Awards, August 2007

2007-08-25T15:36:03Z

Since I'm short of time (it's two hours to 12am), I'm going to make the introduction as short as possible.

I really feel rather... I don't know how to describe it, it is just that since I haven't spend much time watching animes, I feel relucant to make posts like this. Notice that I've only written 2 articles for this month so far? This is because the week before I was having my exams, and then it's the school holidays for us here in Malaysia. Holidays, so I should be free, right? Well, not actually. Somehow I was roped into some school activities which had kept me pre-occupied for almost the whole week until I have no time to enjoy myself watching animes, listening to songs, surfing the internet reading blogs, playing Maplestory...... the list goes on. Again, since this awards is what makes Yamaki's Anime Blog different from other blogs - and if I were to cancel it, Yamaki's Anime Blog would lose it's own unique identity, if you understand what I'm talking about.

Okay, without anymore furthur ado, here are the list of this month's winners.

Best Male: None

Best Female: Saionji Sekai (School Days)

Sekai would stand for "world" in Japanese. Even she herself admited that it's a large scale name. Personally, I don't think that her name matters, no matter how weird it is; what matters is the person who she really is. From what I see, she is the exact opposite of Kotonoha, the other main female character of School Days - cheerful, always full of energy, cute, despite having small breasts.

Best Villian: None

Best Non-Human Character: Monkey's Hand (xxxHolic)

Recently I've been rewatching xxxHolic and I've watched through the episode which featured this, the monkey's hand, some sort of rotten skeleton in a cylinder. It was picked up by a woman who saw them in Yuuko's shop. The Monkey's Hand then ended the woman's life. The moral of the story is "everything that you ask comes with a equivalent price of it's own, so don't ask for too much or you'll pay youeself for it".
Best OP: none

Best ED: Kioku no Umi - yozuca*

If it weren't for my computer's lack of space, I would have already downloaded the album containing the song from Nipponsei. This song, Kioku no Umi, or literally Sea of Memories, is the ED theme of School Day's fourth episode as well as the insert song of the sixth episode. Even though I don't understand most of the lyrics of the song, but I can feel the power of the song flowing through me. In the sixth episode, you can see Kotonoha, strong, telling the other bullies that she's Makoto's girlfriend. She then finished her school festival papers as soon as possible to go have lunch with her boyfriend. It's a pity that Makoto had to two-time. BTW, 4.5/5 for this song from me!

“…bragging about your luck is not allowed. You’re not the only one with matters, but others leave that aside and work hard.” - Chief, Honey & Clover episode 23, 13′30″.

Personally, I think that everyone should follow as said in this quote. That would make everyone forget about what had happened to themselves so that they can make themselves stronger to make improvements.
Best Scene: None
Best Seiyuu: None

Yamaki's Voting Schedule & Predictions for the First Round of Saimoé '07

2007-08-15T15:08:13Z

Let me start by congratulating Nayuki to have qualified for the second round in Group B just now!

Then, let me go into the main topic of this article.

Yamaki's Saimoé Voting Schedule For 1st Round

Date - Group - Name (Anime)
21/08 - C08 - Kasumi (Shakugan no Shana)
22/08 - C06 - Mayuko (sola)
23/08 - C11 - Aono (sola)
23/08 - C07 - Primula (Shuffle!)
24/08 - C12 - Matsuri (sola)
27/08 - D07 - Shiori (Kanon)
25/08 - D09 - Yue (Negima!?)
01/09 - E03 - Nodoka (Negima!?)
04/09 - F06 - Shouko (Asatte no Houkou)
06/09 - F12 - Tsukasa (Lucky Star)
08/09 - G01 - Ayu (Kanon)
08/09 - G09 - Mana (Sola)
10/09 - G07 - Karada (Asatte no Houkou)
14/09 - H07 - Mai (Kanon)

Predictions

Tonight is the last night for the votings for Group B. Nayuki gets my vote, automatically - if I were earlier, but she still won anyways. Ahaha.

It is really unlucky as if Aono and Matsuri were to both qualify in the first round, they would face each other in the second round. There's just too many sola characters in Group C, I'd say. To put more than two of the main characters in the same group is just... random unfairness! But what can be done about it??

On the other hand, I'm not voting for Makoto in C09 as I'll be giving my vote to Kasumi.

Makoto and her adult form are going to have a strong competition with each other if both are able to qualify the first round, I reckon, and the possibility is high, too, but I'd vote for adult Makoto anyways if that were to happen. I've never been interested in young Makoto in the very first place.

D09 is another group with strong competition going on. I would really vote for Haruhi (Fujioka of Ouran, not to be confused with Haruhi Suzumiya) and Enma (Jigoku Shoujo) looks good too, but I'd have to discard them to choose Yue. I guess it's up to those fans out there to decide the fate of Haruhi and Enma. Haruhi looks cute in her casual wear, but she is mostly seen in her male school uniform and therefore less appealing while Enma is plain... creepy.

I might consider voting for Kagami in D11 and Kaori in D06 if I am free on those day. Or else they're out of my list - I don't know much about Kagami other than the fact that she's the twin sister of Tsukasa from what I've read from Wikipedia and is somewhat Tsundere.

The two Misaka sisters of Kanon, Kaori and Shiori, both are also in Group D so either one of them are going down if both were to reach D-final on 19/10. I'm all for Shiori to enter the final.

Somewhat, after looking at the schedule, Nodoka was the only one I'm interested in voting for in Group E. Not voting for Setsuna 'cause I don't call her moé - it's just isn't the right word to describe her.

I've chosen to vote for 2 characters in Group F, and they are Tsukasa and Shouko. I don't watch Lucky Star, but I've been rather interested in Tsukasa and I would like to see how far can she go competiting with girls from Rozen Maiden. Her elder twin sister Kagami seems to be more appealing to voters according to the preliminary results - Kagami got the first place in the preliminary round, beating girls from Rozen Maiden.

I'm voting for Shouko (F06), but I'm not expecting much from her. Even if she loses, I won't be surprised at all - there's Momoko, the main female character of Sumomomomomo herself, competing with her in the first round, and even if Shouko were to qualify, she'll definitely lose to Suiseiseki in the second round, I predict, based on the fact that Suiseiseki was last year's overall winner.

Group G is another group with intense competition, at least for those characters I would like to vote for. Karada is going to face Miyuki of Lucky Star in the first round (G07) while Mana is facing Yakumo of School Rumble (G09).

Ayu would have a comfortable match in Group G thanks to her cuteness, cluelessness and *free warm-and-nice Taiyaki* to those who vote for her.

That's the end of my predictions.

For More Information

Purity - A Mind Bogging episode

2007-08-13T15:58:07Z

Episode 4 of School Days, despite its straightforward title ‘Purity’, is a mind bogging episode to me. This isn’t my first time watching an anime which is adapted from hentai visual novels – others include Kanon and Shuffle!. However, this is actually the first time where I feel the sense of the ‘doing it’ scenes particularly strong, virtually coming true, if you get what I mean. From Makoto’s hand sliding over to Kotonoha’s melon-sized breast groping it while kissing her, to the special-training-turned-rape moments of Makoto and Sekai at the ending part of the episode, it makes me rather high thinking of it – You don’t see Yuuichi grope Ayu’s breast or go into Nayuki’s room to do ‘it’ with her in the anime of Kanon, even though the scenes that I’ve mentioned would have most likely happened in the game. Somewhat I feel disappointed having chosen this anime series to watch and follow this season. Before picking it up, I could have gone for Lucky Star, Sayonara Zatsubou Sensei or other animes recommended by other anime bloggers in Anime Nano and AnimeBlogger. I only decided to pick up School Days to replace Sola after reading the Wikipedia's article. I was expecting some love triangles and fights as well as some blood as written in the article, but I was certainly not what had happen in this episode! I wasn’t prepared for it! And worse, it seems that humour is practically non-existence in this whole series – it is so serious that even Sekai’s laughter made me shiver. And even if they do exist, they do not involve the main characters.

Somehow, my mood was made mellower by listening to the ending theme of this episode which was sung by yozuca*. The song is somewhat soothing and the flow is like those Chinese songs which I’ve heard when I was young – ups and downs. Now that I think of it, the song is perhaps the finest I’ve heard in a while, maybe just second to Sola’s ED theme. It’s a pity that the album containing the song would only be out by the 23th this month. To be truthful, this is not my first time listening to songs performed by yozuca* - I’ve also have two other of her singles in my computer. I never realised that the ED theme song was sung by her until I saw the credits – I was still amazed, thinking that she wouldn’t have sung such nice song... but I was wrong. Well, good for her. Looks like another KOTOKO in the making. Ahaha.

As of now, I’m still downloading the fifth episode. I don’t care whether it is subbed by anonymous or devils, I’ll just go and grab those which are already out. I wonder what’s delaying Conclave’s subs – they’ve only released episode 4 this week. I would prefer theirs, definitely. Perhaps it is due to the ED karaoke timing, as there were different EDs for each episodes; the devils and anonymous did not translate the OP and EDs, and perhaps that’s also why they were able to release theirs so soon. Like I said I don’t mind either ways.

Since episode 4 is already good enough to make me stuck onto the series, I think everyone can expect more coming up in the next few episodes. That’s for sure, I can say.

Remedial Anime Awards, August 2006 - July 2007: First Anniversary Special

2007-07-30T15:44:57Z

In conjunction with Yamaki’s Anime Blog’s First Anniversary celebration (I wanted to buy a birthday cake to celebrate but I was short of money, so meh), I, kristalyamaki, would like to present to you, the best of the best, the ones that made many go fanatical, in a roundup of the best animes of each month as produced in every month for the past 12 months. It’s about time I proudly announce the best winners of the Remedial Anime Awards, August 2006 – July 2007. For those wondering what had happened to the awards for the month of July 2007, there is not going to be a July edition of the Remedial Anime Awards. Taking that apart, there’s still this overall awards so you can sit back and enjoy!

And so, here is the list of anime series which are included in this award:

1. Asatte no Houkou
2. Sola
3. School Rumble
4. Honey & Clover
5. Kanon (2006)
6. Shuffle!
7. .hack//roots
8. Infinite Ryvius

The following anime series are also specially allowed to enter a few specific awards due to lack of contestants:

1. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Best Vocal Soundtrack)
2. Bleach (Best ED Theme Song)
3. Maria-sama ga Miteru (Best ED Theme Song)
4. NHK ni Yokoso (Best ED Theme Song)

There would be altogether 17 awards which will be given away tonight to the contesting anime series. The anime series have underwent strict judging by me and a few other anime watchers that I know and we have come to a conclusion. (well, I did most of the critiques and nominations while all the other judges did was nodded their heads to whatever I said. It’s hard to find good anime critics these days... =\ )

Eight awards are to be given away in the Storyline Awards. And so, the following are the awards with their respective winners.

Best Storyline - School Category: Honey & Clover

1. Best Storyline – Drama Category : Asatte no Houkou
2. Best Storyline – Character Interaction Category: Sola
3. Best Storyline – Comedy Category: School Rumble
4. Best Storyline – School Category: Honey & Clover
5. Best Storyline – A Slice of Life Category: Asatte no Houkou
6. Best Storyline – Romance Category: Kanon (2006)
7. Best Storyline – Climax Category: Shuffle!
8. Best Storyline – Overall: Honey & Clover

Asatte no Houkou became the proud winner of the Drama Category as well as the Slice of Life Category, making it the only anime series to win two awards in the Best Storyline Awards. However, that does not make the anime series the best of the best as Honey & Clover was the anime series which won the Overall Best Storyline awards. It had also won the School Category, defeating Kanon (2006) and School Rumble in a close match in the category. Besides that, Honey & Clover seems to be balanced in almost all of the qualities above, making the anime one which truly deserve the Best Overall award.

Meanwhile, School Rumble, which would be most likely to have its final appearance in this blog (unless if I were to get my hands of season two) won the Comedy Category for its unique out-of-the-universe character gags which would end anyone watching the anime series having a good time rolling on the floor laughing out loud.

Shuffle! won the climax category with its sudden, hasty change in plot. Not going to elaborate to avoid leaking spoilers.

The Romance Category is another category with intense competition as most contenders are somewhat romance related. Kanon (2006) overcame various obstacles and finally it manages to outstand other anime series such as Honey & Clover and Shuffle!. I received many objections on this but neither of the objections were strong enough to change my mind.

Do you like to see you favourite anime characters interact with another character? Will they end up fighting, or will they end up as lovers or normal friends? Just thinking about that makes you high, right? And that’s the main reason why I’d introduced the Character Interaction Category. Like to see the Koyori and Aono interaction, do you? Like to see Matsuri and Mana’s interaction, do you? Well, I do, and that’s why I’d given Sola ‘Best Character Interaction’.

And now, onto the next awards.

9. Best Fansubbing Group – Lunar Fansubs

One of the judges (Wangba) wasn’t too satisfied with Lunar winning best Fansubbing Group. However, when I asked him for his suggestion, he kept quiet. In other words, he wasn’t able to think of any other better group to win this award. Well, I have chosen this group based on the works that they have done, such as Asatte no Houkou and Sola. They may have not done everything perfectly, but they sure did a good job in. Way to go, Lunar!

Disclaimer: Yamaki’s Anime Blog is no way affiliated to Lunar Fansubs. Oh and, if you’re from Lunar, feel free to claim a banner from me. I’ll specially make one for your fansubbing group.

Best Art – Character Category: Honey & Clover

10. Best Art – Character Category: Honey & Clover
11. Best Art – Background Category: Kanon (2006)

Honey & Clover’s art is quite different from other animes, having characters with round face, no nose and a big mouth. They’re rather chibi-fied but not exactly chibi-fied, and they give everyone a ‘cute’ feeling towards them. That’s what made them special.

On the other hand, Kanon (2006, and NOT 2002) won the best art for Background. From a large barley field, a neverending snowy path, a long school corridor at night to the busy shops of the shopping district, the background were drawn very nicely and it became a plus for Kanon which had high expectations from fans.

Komorebi Diari - Karada Chapter-

12. Best Vocal Soundtrack:
Finalists:
- Namida Gumo – Suara (Komorebi Diary -Karada Chapter-)
- SELECT – Minori Chihara (Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Character Song Vol. 2 Yuki Nagato)
- COOL EDITION – Natsuko Kuwatani (Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Character Song Vol. 5 Ryoko Asakura)
- Natsuiro Sweet Pain – Fujimura Ayumi (Komorebi Diary -Karada Chapter-)

The winner: Namida Gumo – Suara (Komorebi Diary -Karada Chapter-)

*looks around for any Haruhi fans* *dodges a knife* HEY! Even though I have not chosen either of the Haruhi girls’ songs, but that doesn’t mean that I do not like them! It is just that Namida Gumo’s better, in my opinion. Yeah, I do enjoy solemn slow songs. Well, listening to Namida Gumo reminds me of fighting those monsters in a cavern underwater in those Final Fantasy games on my GBA... yeah, it reminds me of that.

13. Best OP Theme Song:
Finalists:
- Hikari no Kisetsu – Suara (Asatte no Houkou)
- Roling Star – YUI (Bleach)
- Madokashii Sekai no Uede – Yui Makino (NHK ni Yokoso)
- Silly-Go-Round - FictionJunction Yuuka (.hack//Roots)
- Colorless Wind – Aira Yuhki (sola)

The Winner: Silly-Go-Round - Fiction Junction Yuuka (.hack//Roots)

The song has hooked me on since I’ve first heard it. Being .hack//Root’s OP theme, it somewhat gives me the sudden boost of energy to do something which I am rather sure that I’ll be able to achieve someday, somehow (itsuka kimi e...). On the other hand, I am also an online gamer, although not yet a hikkomori, and watching .hack//Roots is like something new to me where everything seems so real despite the characters only being a sprite! That feeling wouldn’t come to me when I play MapleStory!

Kaze no Tadoritsuku Basho – Ayana (Kanon [2006])

14. Best ED Theme Song:
Finalists:
- Waltz – Suneohair (Honey & Clover)
- Chercher – KOTOKO (Maria-sama ga Miteru OAV)
- Mellow Melody – Ceui (sola)
- Innocence – Miyuki Hashimoto (Shuffle!)
- Kaze no Tadoritsuku Basho – Ayana (Kanon [2006])

Winner: Kaze no Tadoritsuku Basho – Ayana (Kanon [2006])

I’m really going to regret making this decision, but a decision made is a decision made. Kaze no Tadoritsuku Basho – Ayana (Kanon [2006]) is the winner of Best Overall ED Theme Song. This song kept repeating in my head while I was shopping in HarbourFront in Singapore last December, but at that time I couldn’t remember what song it was. Later when I came back to Malaysia then I found out that it was Kanon’s ED. Bah, I even had to search Wikipedia for the name of the song!

Best Overall Male: Aizawa Yuuichi (Kanon 2006)

15. Best Overall Male
Finalists:
- Aizawa Yuuichi (Kanon [2006])
- Iokawa Hiro (Asatte no Houkou)
- Tsuchimi Rin (Shuffle!)
- Takemoto Yuta (Honey & Clover)
- Mayama Takumi (Honey & Clover
- Aiba Kouji (Infinite Ryvius)

Winner: Aizawa Yuuichi (Kanon [2006])

If you hadn’t noticed, in the six finalists, three of them are voiced by Tomokazu Sugita, Yuuichi included. Well, it was indeed thanks to Tomokazu Sugita who had given Yuuichi this sarcastic character. So, what else have I to say? Yuuichi had totally overtaken the other finalist with his antics and gags as well as his warmness. He’s also a hopeless romantic to those who see him in a different way.

Best Overall Male, Yuuichi, with Best Overall Female, Shiori.

16. Best Overall Female
Finalists:
- Iokawa Karada (Asatte no Houkou)
- Nogami Shouko (Asatte no Houkou)
- Misaka Shiori (Kanon [2006])
- Kawasumi Mai (Kanon [2006])
- Yamada Ayumi (Honey & Clover)

Winner: Misaka Shiori (Kanon [2006])

A girl who is always sick, although she did eventually became better. Despite being a weak crybaby in the inside, she’s the perfect weapon to deal with Yuuichi as she is able to rebuff his words by a few simple words such as ‘I hate people who says things like that...”. The best thing is, she is not even a little bit tomboyish unlike other popular girls. Anyone would fall in love with her at once once they get to know her better!

17. Best Overall Anime.

Winner: Kanon (2006)

All contesting animes are included. The following are the results based on the animes’ performances in throughout the year.

That's the end of the awards. Have fun! Yamaki's Anime Blog is now one year old. I hope I can continue to blog until next year. Gotta go now, my parents are nagging at me to go to sleep.

Nine Reasons Why Itou Makoto Should Just Disappear From School Days

2007-07-28T14:06:44Z

Out of the many main male anime characters, I would like to proudly announce to everyone that Itou Makoto of School Days is certainly the worst that I have encountered so far, as far as romance is concerned. Even Aizawa Yuuichi of Kanon (2006) looked like some handsome, refined gentleman who would be able to attract hundreds of young ladies, if I were to compare Makoto with him. At least Yuuichi will not jump up and down in his own bedroom getting high thinking of kissing his girlfriend, will he?

Well, here are 9 reasons why he should just get lost and let somebody else (like Syaoran for example, he really needs to take of his mind from Sakura) own the two girls he currently has:

#9. for being a PERVERT.

‘It's normal for boys to be perverted,’ was what Sekai told Kotonoha. But what makes you think that she’s saying what she had in mind? Okay, so it is normal for boys to be perverted, but... won’t they be disgusting? Sekai’s words are not to be used in real life.

Okay, so according to the dictionary (no, it’s not Urban Dictionary, :D) the definition of pervert is “A person whose behavior deviates from what is acceptable especially in sexual behavior.” If this is the case, then Makoto’s every action that can be seen with human eyes, clearly portrays him as a pervert. He even thought of Kotonoha’s breasts which is accordingly the biggest in her class...

#8. for showing his girlfriend his OH-SO-DISGUSTING-LIPS

I just feel like slapping him myself with my very own hand if I can. Damn, his lips are not like as if they are made of gold or what and they even look like a pig’s nose! Worse, he has done it not once, not twice, but three times in the second episode.

Makoto reading the love manual in front of Kotonoha...

#7. for reading a USELESS LOVE MANUAL.

The love manual was so damn typical but idiotic Makoto would still do as told from reading the stupid book. A love manual does not indicate what each and every girl on earth would think and would be happy of. This is another prove that he did not have a brain, and even if he did, he doesn’t make good use of it, believing whatever that was written on the book.

Oh sure you can.

I’m just glad that he had given the book away to Takeshi at the end of the episode or else he would surely be a magnet for more disasters.

#6. for GETTING HIGH JUST OF THINKING ABOUT KISSING.

Episode 2 wasted around 30 seconds looking at Makoto thinking about kissing Kotonoha in front of a mirror in his bedroom wearing only his underwear before going on the movie date. He had even thought about brushing his teeth (being so sure that he’ll be able to kiss her) and wearing a new underwear on the date (being so sure that he’ll be able to have sex with her).

#5. For NOT BEING ABLE TO SEE THROUGH SEKAI'S FEELINGS.

Little did the man, Makoto, knew that Sekai has feeling towards him. Makoto wasn’t able to see that Sekai has sacrificed a lot for him, including thinking of ways to pull Kotonoha and him together. Sekai had even kissed him and it was a clear sign that she likes him. He should have noticed the sudden change of Sekai’s mood. He’s such a slow guy! Hiding what she really has in mind, Sekai continues to be the middleman in between Makoto and Kotonoha, pulling them closer together...

#4. for accepting MOVIE TICKETS FROM SEKAI TO INVITE KOTONOHA FOR A MOVIE

After hearing that Makoto had failed in his date, Sekai’d given Makoto two movie tickets, asking him to invite Kotonoha for another date. Again, somewhat related to the previous reason, it seemed that the main reason Sekai had bought the movie tickets was because she wanted to invite Makoto to a movie, but she decided to give them up. Makoto’s a guy, right? If he really has the intention of fixing his relationship, he should go and buy the tickets himself and NOT obtaining it from someone else, and worse, the someone else here happens to be a girl! There’s no such thing as a free lunch. I believe Sekai’s planning something., and if Makoto were to fall for her trap, he deserves it.

Kotonoha wanted to watch the horror movie on the left...

#3. for choosing ROMANCE MOVIE OVER HORROR MOVIE.

Again, this is somewhat related to #8, the love manual part. According to the love manual, girls would like to watch romantic movies when going on dates. Stupid Makoto, faithful as a dog to the love manual, decided to use the two movie tickets given to him by Sekai to treat Kotonoha to watch a romance movie. Well, what Kotonoha really wanted to watch was a horror movie instead.

#2. for FORCE KISSING KOTONOHA IN THE MOVIES.

"I'm gonna smooch on your lips." is one of the worst quotes that anyone can ever think of.

But he did get his prize in the end: A good *slap* on the face.

Of course, Kotonoha got scared at Makoto after the incident in the cinema and started to avoid going near to him as if he’s some wanted criminal and would try to escape whenever she sees him. That’s what you get for your ugly, smelly and disgusting lips which you even had it shown to everyone, Makoto!

#1. for confessing to Kotonoha THAT HE HAD THOUGHT ABOUT DIRTIER THINGS ABOUT HER.

Well, duh! Telling a girl who’s already afraid of you that you have dirtier thoughts about her would only makes things worse, BUT that was what Makoto did in an attempt to ask Kotonoha out to fix things.

Makoto's a damn lucky bastard if I'm allowed to say that. He doesn't deserve the girls he's having. >O

I wanted to write at least 10 good reasons but I wasn’t able to come up with a good one as the 10th. So, you only see 9. But nine is still better than zero. I believe that a lot of you out there who are also not too happy (不爽) with Makoto as I am. Feel free to leave your reasons.

Oh and by the way, I'm cancelling this month's Remedial Anime Awards as I'll be doing an overall marking for the animes which I have watched in the past year on the 30th of July. We're going to be celebrating our first anniversary. Yep, Yamaki's Anime Blog is going to be one year old next Monday. *wink*

Takemoto’s Journey (2): Was the aimless journey necessary? What has he learnt from the experience?

2007-07-16T15:35:51Z

It has been 11 days since Takemoto left Tokyo for his journey. He came upon various problems which he hadn’t looked forward to, like having to have five meals a day in order to have the energy to continue riding his bicycle and the money he needed in order to buy food and water. The only thing which he had never expected was his bicycle’s chain would break, subsequently forcing him to stop his journey. However, Takemoto was not going to give up easily. He stopped for a while but that’s not the end of his journey. He decided to work as a full-time shrine construction worker to earn some money so that he could buy a new bicycle and continue his aimless journey. “It’s hard work for cheap pay,” he was told.

It’s 4200 yen a day. Since he isn’t good in construction works, he was assigned to prepare the construction workers’ meals as well as other chores like clothes washing, and so, he has to wake up as early as 5:30 am to prepare breakfast. All in all, it’s 16 hours of labour. To him, to be able to find a job with some place to sleep comfortably (to Japanese people, sleeping on a futon is comfortable) with meals provided and also get paid for your work is something special, a deal which could not be any better for someone who’s travelling.

Indeed, he is of no other use there other than doing chores and making meals. He does not have the energy needed to carry or push construction materials around. He remembered a senior back in the university that whatever that one had learnt in school isn’t going to really help in the real world. Now, he is there to realise the cruel fact. He didn’t expect himself to be that useless.

So, as a prove that he is not useless, he was there to prepare the best meals the workers have ever had. And so he did. All of them enjoyed their meal. Everyone gave him the thumbs-up. He was glad.

Shin-san, the foreman of the area, bought a bicycle which cost 43,000 yen. Since Takemoto earns 4200 yen a day, it means that he’ll be working for around 10 days. 10 days seems to be short, but he realised that it is in no way short as he felt that he had been in there for a long time already, doing chores and cooking meals, looking at the smiles on the faces on everyone. Ever since he had started cycling, he didn’t know why he had been so anxious and impatient. But everyone liked the meal he prepared, and so, he was happy.

To see everyone’s happy feels good. To think of that he’s of use made his felt calm. His fears disappeared as he felt like staying there forever.

However, it seems that not everyone was happy. There’s another youngster who is not happy with all the attention he is getting. “How long are you planning to stay? Haven’t you earned your 40000 yen?!” It was then everyone remembered that Takemoto was on a journey. “Why are you surprised?” someone asked. “It’s all about yourself. Aren’t you on a soul-searching journey?” It was then Takemoto confessed, “No. I didn’t leave in search of myself. I just wanted to see how far could I go. I haven’t been able to find a job. Plus I don’t know what I’m good at.”

“ ‘Riding on my bicycle!’ You must be an ass! That’s something that lucky people get to do! Wondering around, not knowing what to do, that’s something you can afford to do because your parents support you!” the youngster said. “It pisses me off looking at you! I didn’t have the time to be lost and confused! I have nine siblings, I was poor, and so I was kicked out when I was 15!” And he finally added, “People like you are just sissies!”

It was then the chief returned and gave the youngster a good punch on the head as he grabbed his hair. “I told you when you started, bragging your luck is not allowed. Rokutarou, there are others and you’re not the only one with matters, but they left that aside and worked hard. If you start comparing misfortunes, it will never end.” Rokutarou was handed an envelope as he started to cry. The chief thanked Takemoto for taking care of his workers while he was gone. “But, you should leave tomorrow.”

Takemoto was surprised to hear that from the chief as the chief continued, “You’re talking about how far you can go, and you don’t know yet, right? If you’re going to smile like a clown, don’t stay here, but go ride to your heart’s content. Who cares about answers? They aren’t any to begin with. All that matters is that weather you tried until you were content.”

Takemoto sat on the beach the moonlight reflecting on the chief’s words. Then suddenly Shin-san came to him and asked him whether he wanted to test his courage. Takemoto followed him and they ended up reaching a bridge. So, the courage test was to cross a bridge where you can see the ocean underneath. Anyone who saw that would get scared, and so have Takemoto became scared at once. However, it seems that Shin was perfectly fine when crossing the bridge. Shin hinted Takemoto that walking across the bridge is like crossing a zebra-crossing while stepping only on its white lines. It is easy, but as one becomes afraid, even something which is supposedly effortless would become extremely difficult due to the fear. “What you could do, you can’t anymore,” Shin stated.

Afterwards, Shin confessed that the place was his hometown and had walked across the bridge many times when he was still a kid. No wonder he wasn’t a bit at all afraid. He left, but when he had returned, instead he felt nostalgic.

At the end of the bridge was some sort of shrine where you can get a fortune slip in exchange of some money. Takemoto had forgotten to bring his wallet so he was about to decline Shin’s offer to take one. Suddenly, Rokutarou appeared out of nowhere and offered Takemoto a 100 yen coin. He also gave him a can of cola. Takemoto thanked him, but Rokutarou went embarrassed and told him that it was the chief who told him to do that. In the end, Takemoto drew a slip with ‘sho-kichi’ written on it. It implies that he’ll be having ‘small luck’. Rokutarou said that it fits him perfectly. Even though it made him mad, he did not deny it. Drinking the cola, they walked back.

The next day, Takemoto decided to continue his journey. After conveying his message to the workers that he’ll be going to Hokkaido, he was about to go and collect his bicycle from the bicycle shop when it opens. But before he go, Shin rode his bicycle towards them. “Here, use this. Keep your extra money for food.” It was a bicycle made specially for long distance journeys equipped with bags on the wheels to store items, especially useful. Shin told everyone that when he was in college he had also went on a soul-searching journey like such to the corner of Japan, but since he’s not going to use the bicycle anymore, he’d pass it on to him. After heeding some useful and valuable advices from Shin, Takemoto bade goodbye to everyone and promised to stop-by the place when he’s on his way back.

And so, Takemoto continues on his journey... and this time, the journey is no longer aimless - he’s aiming for the far corner of Japan, to the tip of Hokkaido. He believes that the answer he's looking for shall no longer be found and that’s the furthest he can go – the sky’s the limit. But is he able to do reach his aim? Will he finish up his hard-earn money before he reaches Wakkanai? The story continues...