Yes, Im finally moving. Although the new site is still in progress, I thought I would move now and prevent unnecessary bother in transporting extra commentage over from here every day…Therefore, all new postings will be made at http://www.yuribou.net/blog

The blog itself is almost done, I think I’ll have to add a few minor tweaks before its really ready, a banner rotation and such. Also, I need to change the font to the same one on this blog, but I don’t know what it is O_o. Need some kind of “font recogniser” or sommat.

Oh yes, and for the record, php is an absolute arse

God its been a long time since I did one of these, hasn’t it ^_^. Actually, I’ve been avoiding it, since I know that eventually I’m going to run out of pairings, or, more importantly, good fanfiction to recommend. If anyone has any pairings that they would like covered, then please leave your mark in the comments box below.

Anyway, on with the show…ahem…article. Battle Athletes’ Victory and its OVA predecessor Battle Athletes are one of the true yuri source anime and a classic to boot. Back in the old days when it wasn’t a rule that all anime should involve a high school cam Battle Athletes, an anime that did not hide its yuri tendencies in subtext, oh no. If you’re going to imply girl/girl loving, then why not go all the way?

This kind of pioneering spirit seems to have been lost today, with heavy “subtext-so-sub-its-almost-not-there” yuri storylines (Marimite being prime example). Are we to believe that these girls who are so touchy feely with each other and who care about each other that much are not also practising for the world tribadism championships behind our backs? Only the appearance of Strawberry Panic can serve to show that the canon yuri relationship has not truly been lost between CG animation, Mikuru’s rather ample cleavage and 5 litres of creme caramel.

My favourite relationship for this series is the first relationship that I fell in love with – Akari, the main character, and Ichino, her best friend and tsukkomi extraordinaire. As if making fun of what I just said above, Ichino and Akari’s relationship starts off very subtext and it almost looks like it is going to end up yet another “Kaorinesque” unrequited damp squib. However, in Episode 10 or so, we get the confession.

For those of you not aware of “the confession“, it is a common anime device that is very rarely used in yuri relationships. The effect when used is always to make the yuri fan’s hopes for the relationship to soar only to be quashed in an instant. The confession in yuri anime usually goes something like this:

A: (thinks) Arg, she’s going away, like forever and ever and ever! If I don’t tell her I love her now then I’ll never see her again!

B: What is it, A-chan? You look funny.

A: (mustering all courage evar) I..I…I Love You!!

B: I love you to, A-chan, you’ll always be my best friend, even when I’m billions of miles away and we’ll never see each other again.

A: Err…yeah…friends.

BAD END.

Guess what happens in BAV. Don’t send your answers in on a postcard, there’s no prizes -_-. I’ll give you a clue…It’s not this:

Anyway, Akari goes off to try and become Cosmo Beauty and she meets Kris, the other yuri love interest, carried over from the OVA. Kris is a great character, especially since she owns a cow, but I’ve always found that her advances toward Akari were a bit vulgar and spoiled the potential that the relationship had to offer. However, on the flip side, the relationship is extremely amusing and a good comedy counterpoint to the Akari/Ichino angst-driven relationship of the first half of the series.

And so the final arc of the series sees the two: Kris “I can feel you nside me, Akari” Christopher and Ichino “The tsundere childhood friend love interest” Yanagida face off for Akari’s affections and thankfully, Ichino gets another chance, and for that I actually liked the rather aspartame ending. The basic problem with it that the writers never really sorted out was that Akari probably-isn’t-gay. Oh well; some threesome yurirape will probably sort that out ^_^.

Anyway, fanfiction-wise, for such an old show with multiple canon pairings, there is relatively little english fanfiction written for Battle Athletes. Paradoxically, there are quite a few fictions written for Kris/Ichino hanging by the thin canon thread that competitors must also be clam-jousters. I am not very enamoured by these. A lot of fanfiction also covers the other side characters in Battle Athletes, the best one of which I should mention.

Pariah by Vosburg deals with the relationship between Mylandah and Lahrri, one of the subtextual couples in the show and takes the “future” storyline and executes it with unerring grace.

Another recommendable fanfiction is Revelations in the moonlight, by SailorDoc, the only objectionable feature of which is that it deals with Akari/Kris rather than the far more kawaii Akari/Ichino. Poor Ichino. She really doesn’t get a look in edgeways. And poor Akari, she keeps getting killed off by those violent Ichino/Kris ’shippers. Akari/Ichino is a pairing I’ve always vowed to get round to writing, but then, my fanfiction sucks, so its probably a good thing I never got round to it.

And so there we have it. Another one of my favourite pairings with only a smattering of fanfiction to prove its existence. Write more people. Write more and better.

| o/’ Heathcliiiffff….it’s me, I’m Kathy I’ve come ‘ome. Put the kettle on ‘ave a luvverly cuppa tea, Ey! o/’

The other half and I were enjoying a session of piano duettage yesterday courtesy of Josh from Josh’s anime sheet music, when it occurred to us that his version of Sentimental Generation (The opening to School Rumble Nigakki) reminded us a lot of traditional Cockney piano music, as re-popularised by comedian Bill Bailey.

For those of you unlucky enough not to be familiar with Cockney music, let me explain.

Cockney refers to the accent from people who live in or in the vicinity of London. Strictly, it referred to people within earshot of the Bow Bells (On St. Mary of Bow church, Cheapside), but now the accent is far more widespread and it is basically “London accent”. Now, in addition to Cockney music, London has also gifted the world with Cockney rhyming slang, possibly the most complex and illogical set of colloquialisms in the entire universe.

Cockney piano music is basically characterised by a tempo of about 120-150 bpm and a basic rhythm where quaver chords alternate between hands and words are sung over the top. Inbetween song parts there are various trills and flourishes, such as the “Cockney intro” and “Full pearly king” as named by Bill Bailey. For those of you truly unfortunate enough not to know of the genius cockney comedian Bill Bailey, and those of you that arealready familiar with him, a good basing in Cockney music may be found in this clip from “Bewilderness”, and this extra track from the same tour “Cockney medley“

The basic rhythm of the left hand of “Sentimental Generation” is classic Cockney rhythm with the left hand playing the sung part on top and it is absolutely hilarious. Especially the part:

o/’ Kizutsukiyasui sedai dakedo/ Sen-ti-men-cha-ru! COCKNEY Generation! (Do do do do do do…Hey!) o/’ (followed by full cockney intro).

Good job Josh ^_^. Not sure if you meant it to be that way or not, but I approve of the result!

I think I’ll go crawl back into my hole now…

‘Lo everyone, it’s been a while ^_^. My computer is all fixed and lovely, so I thought I would get up out of my bed of laze and do something imaginative for once…

So I wrote a short fic about one of my favourite alternative pairings, Evangeline and Chachamaru from Negima. Its pretty short, so it probably borders on relationship crack (short storyline-less fragments of story about relationships) rather than an actual fiction.

Since people seem to object to me posting “Not Safe for Work” material on my main page, I have placed the fiction on a separate page which you should be able to see in the sidebar to the right…

If you can’t, then the link is here.

Please leave some comments, good or bad ^_^. I might well extend it to a few more parts if I can be bothered and am struck by a few more particles of inspiration. Also working on a script for my take on a Strawberry Panic H-Game, though I think that may not see the light of day O_o.

Tell me what you think people. (If enough of you have stuck with my site through the many days of non-posting, that is…)

Turned the computer on today and the power supply exploded. Until I can get the problem sorted, Yuri to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito will probably not be updated quite as frequently >_<

Sorry for the inconvenience minna-san.

Ix

Now everyonewho reads here will know that I have an extremely bad taste in anime (c.f. 10 anime I am ashamed to have watched), for instance, I have watched all the episodes and specials of Love Hina O_o). Usually, though, when I start to watch a series, I tend to stick to the end. I mean, I watched all 26 episodes of NGE for crying out loud. I also braved all 52 episodes of Full Moon wo Sagashite and all of the awful third series of Cardcaptor Sakura. However, midway through watching some anime, I sometimes get so bored with it moving through plot points that I give up, or I felt that they were just so mediocre that I forgot that I was even watching them and forgot to watch the end.

For extremely bad series such as UG: Ultimate Girls, this perhaps is an acceptable, nay common practise. However, for me this also tends to overflow into the domain of what is considered “classic anime” and it raises a few eyebrows.

Have your flamewars at the ready for a list that would cause instant ostracisation from any respectable anime society in the land…O_o

Cowboy Bebop – Episodes watched – 22

| Because Faye is hot
This is probably the big one. For some reason, I never really got into Cowboy Bebop and I found myself watching them just out of curiosity about why it was branded as such a classic anime. Somewhere around episode 22 I forgot I was watching it and I never touched the series again >_<. Although the characters were engaging, I found the story rather slow, disjointed and episodic rather than the long running arcs that I am used to following, and so I often got lost as to what was actually happening in the series. I think there are some people shouting “BLASPHEMY!!!” over there, so I must run…….

Air – Episodes watched – 6

I went through this already here. Although I braved the entire series of Kanon which I thought was rather mediocre itself, I was only able to stomach 6 episodes, although I have been reliably informed that things actually happen in the latter half of the series.

I believe Air was suffering from what I will call “Sunrise syndrome” that so afflicted Mai HiME and Mai Otome. If you spend the first half of the series introducing the characters andfluffing around and put all the exciting stuff in the last half, then you will lose some of your audience before the exciting stuff starts. Also, it gets harder to pack all the necessary story into the latter half and things start getting left out. However, in contrast, the fluff episodes in Air were dull, which is what put me off the series.

Sailor Moon S – Episodes watched – 1

Actually, this should probably go on my “Anime I can’t watch without tearing my eyes out” list. I got introduced to Sailor Moon S as a classic (and possibly the first) yuri anime. However, after one episode, it was clear that I would not be able to stand the stereotypical “monster comes, fight it, end of episode” style that so plagues mahou shoujo anime of that era. Also, I was not keen on the art style and so gave up, which is a shame, because I wanted to see Uranus and Neptune get it on. Oh well.

Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu no koto – Episodes Watched – 4

This used to be a “dinner anime” for me and the other half (to watch while eating dinner, of course), but was quickly replaced by Speed Grapher. I think we both agree that it’s trying too hard and has ended up cute but dull.

Shoujo Kakumei Utena – Episodes watched – 1/2

This one is kinda similar to Sailor Moon S – Since it was a classic yuri anime, I was trying to watch it and…actually, thinking about it, I got interrupted in the first episode and then never picked it up after that, so it might still be good. However, it is very long, so I’ll have to wait till there is a lull in “good” current season anime to watch it ^_^

FLCL – Episodes watched – 3

Even though FLCL is only 6 episodes long, I have failed to finish it -_-. Although some would also consider this blasphemy, I have to make it clear first that I despise Gainax. Although they make acclaimed animes, they almost always spoil them by “Going Gainax”, i.e. ending with some artsy bullshit that’s so confusing that you wonder whether you’re satisfied or not. Well, I’ll tell you the answer: You aren’t. Nothing got resolved! Ever! The only really notable exception to this rule is probably Mahoromatic which sort of had a proper ending with Gainaxy edges.

FLCL is pretty much the embodiment of Gainax endings in an OAV, and I just got so unbelievably confused that I couldn’t really be bothered to watch the end. End of Story.

Samurai Champloo – Episodes watched – 5

Actually, since I left Samurai Champloo, I have wanted to go back and finish it, but there’s always been better fluffy anime to watch at the same time, so I’ve never really bothered. The best way of describing the series is “Cowboy Bebop, with katana”, so I guess I’m afraid that it’ll turn out the same way. Might well get back round to watching though…

Ghost in the Shell – Stand Alone Complex – Episodes Watched – 1

To the chagrin of Adam, a friend of my girlfriend, who is heavily into Ghost in the Shell, I’m not really that keen on the series. I can’t really place exactly why I can’t get interested in it. Maybe I just need encouragement from commenters swearing that the series is awesome. Come on people!

Any mecha series ever – Episodes watched – 0

Cause mecha sucks.

PS. Actually, that’s a lie. I did watch all of Kannazuki no Miko and NGE.

| No fapping on company time!

According to Metro newspaper this morning:

Channel 4 is expected to show coverage from Britan’s first marathon masturbation event, which is expected to take place in Central London next month and involve many hundreds of exhibitionists.

A 60 minute documentary eititled W***athon will then be screened in the autumn. Channel 4’s Andrew MacKenzie said “Masturbation is something many people do, but is not something people talk about. This is exactly what we should be showing in our 11pm time slot”. Scotland Yard commented that it would be unlikely to intervene, as “Obscenity laws are always open to interpretation”.

The event is the brainchil of the San Fransisco Centre for Sex and Culture, which has held many of these events for safe sex in the US. Prizes will be awarded for number and length of orgasms, though inviligators have not disclosed how they would be spotting fakers ^_^.

Britain, stepping into a bright new era of…err…something sticky.

Faptastic.

| Is guro really that hot? The Japanese think so!

I was reading the paper on the way to work today, and it came to my attention that the paedo-politicians in the Netherlands that Lolitron blogged about a few months ago have not been overruled by the courts, and they have been allowed to run as a political party. Luckily for the Dutch children, they only have three members and one is unlikely to gain support, as he is a convicted child molester. However, it got me thinking about something that had been bugging me for a while now about the content of anime (both in the non-adult and adult industries) as opposed to say, the American adult film industry.

For instance, in the Toppest 10 hentai anime review in Oniichan no ecchi a while back, the top few contain at least violent rape and bondage, with some scattered tentacles, enemas, scat and guro thrown in for good measure (c.f. Bible Black O_o)

| Is loli twincest really that hot? THE INTARWEB THINKS SO!

Also, even in mainstream anime, even though I blog about it in a rather blase fashion, lolicon and yuri are rife without anyone really so much as batting an eyelid (Well, except Mimei Sakamoto, anyway O_o). But on mainstream Japanese TV, full though it is with dubious JDramas and rivetting quiz shows, these themes are completely and mysteriously absent.

In British TV, for example, any shows with lesbian or gay relationships are to be celebrated as a great step forward in television history (unless they really are very bad, c.f. Queer as Folk), with the currently running Sugar Rush (Channel 4), and the BBC Production of “Tipping the velvet” as prime examples. But in no way is this mainstream.

In the Western adult industry, although lesbian themes are relatively mainstream, any fetishes to do with bodily fluids such as scat are considered very niche, and violent rape and guro are more or less underground.

I guess the main point of this short editorial is a question: Are the Japanese really that perverted that they need these things so close to the public eye? I sure as hell don’t want to see scat in any porn I watch, and guro? Who watches that kind of thing? *shudders*

| Is crab bestiality really th….oh you get the idea -_-

My theory is that in contrast to their inoffensive, vanilla-flavoured pre watershed TV, everything post-watershed and on DVD is shifted up in acceptability terms by a notch. What I mean by this is that general nudity (fanservice) and lesbian (yuri) themes become commonplace, whereas violence and extreme sexual practises become borderline acceptable.

Of course, the fact that it ISN’T REAL helps a lot ^_^

Basically, I can see that a lot of anime (especially the shows that I like) seems to be comparable to what gets shown on Channel 5 post watershed (Digikerot might know what I mean by that). And beneath the polite honourable shell of Japanese men and women is a sexual deviant clamouring to get out.

And I haven’t even started talking about the incest O_o

Yay, last night I bought a new domain to install wordpress on and fiddle around with the template. Unfortunately, I’ve found that WordPress, for all its wisdom, can import posts and comments from virtually any blogging system except itself O_o. You would have thought that they would have expected people to start out on wordpress.com and then transfer to other servers, but noooo. Apparently the next version will have import/export tools to preserve my comments, so I’ll probably fiddle around on wordpress.com till then.

When it does come out though, Yuri to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito will be moving to www.yuribou.net/blog, just for people’s preinformation. Hopefully I will be adding a fiction archive and other yummy things to the front page. Unfortunately that means me learning html, finally, so the designing may take a while ^_^;;

Anyways, time for some opinions on the new summer season so far, since I’ve only really commented on Tsuyokiss.

Just watched the 1st episode of Gothic Lolita Faptime show last night, and it wasn’t bad. However, the assistant police woman who teams up with the main character – Chelsea Muir – reminds me badly of Domino from Shakugan no Shana (for those that have seen it). Do japanese women of that age really have that squeaky voices O_o. Also that hairstyle of hers does not fit with her moe moe voice. I’m hoping for a subtext between her and Angelica in an “Sempai!! Kakoiiiiiii!!”, Sakaki/Kaorin kind of fashion. I loved the German WWII style hand grenades ^_^

Zero no Tsukaima so far fails to impress. Yes it looks like its based on Harry Potter, but I don’t hold much love for JK Rowling either (Though I love a lot of other magic school stories such as “The Worst Witch”) The only good thing about it is Louise’s token “URUSAI” about 2 or 3 times an episode to remind you that it is the same seiyuu as Shana.

The male lead is so typical it hurts (Oh look at my principles, aren’t they so moral.) and there’s a Rei clone that doesn’t do anything. I do kinda like the chichi onna relationship with Kirche though, it reminds me of Haruka (Mai HiME) and her bubuzuke onna. Headmaster is also win, and Sierra is moe.

School Rumble Nigakki continues to be awesome, despite all the reports to the contrary, and Tenma’s party episode (15) was damn good. Eri continues to be the best character and completely unaware that she really fancies Hige and would like to ride him senseless (though probably with some kind of leather catsuit on…and a bullwhip) The Yakumo/Harima storyline continues to be hilarious, and Ichijou rocks as always. Not so sure about Lala’s new hairstyle though…

Strawberry Panic continues to decline into a pool of gratuitous yuri. Although I’m not complaining, I’m still feeling extremely sorry for Yaya-chan. Well, at least she copped a feel, that’s better than nothing, although she should have gone for the rape area straight away (cause everyone knows that girls in anime instantly orgasm when someone touches their naughty bits). I still watch the show avidly for signs of a Tamao/Shizuma catfight though.

The OP sequence to NHK ni Youkoso reminds me kinda of Paniponi Dash ^_^. However, the ending reminds me of Ren and Stimpy or Spongebob, so thats not a good thing. I see that it could go either way at the moment, and the main male lead is…interesting…to say the least. At least its not actually about the NHK. That would be boring.

Unfortunately I have yet to enjoy Muteki Kanban Musume (which I hear is silly) and Binbou Shimei Monogatari (which I hear is moe), but it does seem that Doremi have taken it on themselves to fansub ALL ANIME EVAR this season, so hats off to them. I only have one request – Please sub Tonagura!

Please look forward to www.yuribou.net ^_^

I really love the Japanese phrase itsumo naka ni iru kara – “Because you’ll always be in my heart.” cause it’s so overused in anime and manga. Also, in literal English, itmeans “Because you’ll always be inside me” which has naughty connotations.

If you’re wondering why this is at all relevant, it’s taken from episode 12 of Kasimasi, the [KnKF-Doremi] subs of which I recently finished downloading. And since I rewatched Episode 12 to try and remember the ending, I thought I’d do a mini wrapup on it. Kasimasi is not a masterpiece by any means. Take any old slice of life romance between a boy, girl and childhood friend, remove the boy and replace with a cute girl and there you have Kasimasi.
Now if anyone actually reads my fanafiction recomendations, you will see that I am particularly interested in certain kinds of storylines. Mainly ones involving loving relationships and tons of good old angst. Though yurirape does have its place (Go Yaya-chan! Sugoi! Kakoii!), I prefer slightly more realistic storylines (if you can count being turned into a girl by aliens realistic O_o)

So anyway, Kasimasi fits the bill as a story that I would read, except in animated or mangalated form! For those of you that don’t want spoilers and don’t know what I’m talking about, let me sum up the storyline in one paragraph:

Boy loves girl (and plants). Childhood friend of boy also inevitably in love with boy. Boy gets turned into girl. Yuri hijinks ensue. Series heads to conclusion, so random plot point is required. Boy has to decide between the two girls. Angst-o-meter rises. Yuribou is happy.

Obviously on the way there is a lot of yuri fluid swapping, which I suppose does good for the ratings, but for me, it helps fill the angst-o-meter, which, I think makes the show. The part at the end where Tomari can’t quite let Hazumu go is really touching and makes me fuzzy inside. I am a total wuss.

However, after a whole series, I have become a big fan of Tomari (Eri-clone), and less of Yasuna (Tomoyo-clone), but I have absolutely no idea what part Ayuki is supposed to be playing in the whole thing (though she does have a fan club, so that must count for something. I think Hung is a big Ayuki supporter), though she is quite angstcute in the last episode, so I guess I’ll let it go.

Oh, did I mention that the soundtrack was win? Thanks be to Josh for transcribing some of the background music for piano.

Ending-wise, I think that the anime plot twist is far inferior (though makes far more sense) than the manga plot twist. I mainly prefer the manga one, since in the anime you can see which girls Hazumu is going to choose from a mile off (Though that last 5 seconds!! WTF!?! They’d better do an OVA now or I am suing someone -_-). The manga one, in comparison seems literally built for maximum angst.

Will Hazumu choose a girl in time?!? Will she get the harem ending?!? Will Dynasty Scans ever bring out the next chapter?!? And so on and so forth.

In essence, Kasimasi ~Girl makes all her friends gay~ always was going to be a “me” series, and has delivered what I expected of it with enough flair to satisfy. Good old fashioned yuri-lovin sandwiched between thick slices of Angst-o-bread and twintails on the side. Pure win, with only half the calories.

/me is eagerly awaiting more manga. Someone in Dynasty needs to be bribed ^_^.

Edit: Lol, my counter has crashed ^_^ It says that 60000 people visited Yuribou today…Somehow, I don’t think that’s really possible O_O

| Please spare some feedback for the poor homeless loli

Right, before I do a proper post today, I would like to ask you, my reader base, something very important. Since I am fast approaching 3 months old and it looks like I will be keeping this up for a while, I am thinking of moving WordPress to a proper webhost so I can fiddle around with it more. Also, I’d like to add a small fanfiction archive and anything else that takes my fancy ^_^. (And also, I would like to keep being ranked below “Route 66 Blog” in the BOTD O_O. Is a road really that interesting?)

Before I do that though, I would like people’s feedback on the last 3 months of blogging, so I know if I need to change direction at all. Has it been good? Have you enjoyed reading Yuri to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito and what posts are the ones that you flick straight over in the aggregtor feeds? Since there has been relatively little feedback lately, I can’t really tell what people are reading and liking.

In the future, would you prefer I do more parody type posts, more related to fanfiction, more comments on yuri anime, or more general anime and manga discussion?

I know this is really a poll, but I would quite like a few words from people as well. Also, I don’t think I can set up polls on WordPress.com ^_^;;

Please people! Feedback is like drugs for poor homeless people. Please be generous.

Proper post later, if I can be bothered…

Thanks to Simoun Fans (and potentially SimounProject, if this download finishes anytime this millennium), I have finally been watching Simoun further than episode 3 (as far as Doremi have been bothered to sub). Simoun had started late this season as one of my “yuri anime to watch” (but with uncomfortable “turning into man” themes). However, the yuri kind of subsided in Episodes 2 and 3, leaving me wondering if there was going to be any kind of storyline *horrified gasp* to fill the gap.

After watching episodes 4-8, I was quite satisfied with the way the series was turning out, but also rather confused at the angle they were taking. The girls’ storylines advance a bit further and you see into the backgrounds of a few of them, though the others remain rather anonymous and I tend to forget their names. (Well, they did do a name recap in episode 8 for my benefit ^_^). Aeru finally gets to be Neville’s pair and Neville finally gets out of her emo dustbin so she can start killing people again.

A semi high point was short incidence of potential yurirape in episode 7 with Paried and the meganekko-with-a-crap-seiyuu-that-I-can’t-remember-the-name-of (/me ANN’s it) – Ah, Kaimu. Yeah, she’s one of the non-descript ones with no personality or background. Anyway, that scene was potentially good. But then Paried remembered something liked how she raped a girl in the past and then the girl didn’t like her any more and stopped. Oh well, the meganekko wasn’t hot anyway.

We also get the two “token extra characters” in episode 8 – Mamiina and the other one….err…Yun I think. The scene where Mamiina tries to yurirape Neville and fails because Aeru abseils through Neville’s window is probably the best scene in all 4 episodes. And while Mamiina is fail, Yun is traipsing all around the ship saying “OMG I hate war! Emoemoemo!” and fast becoming the least likeable character since Neville got out of her emo slump. She does seem to have low standards, though. Maybe she’s trying to become tsundere but failing. If so, she is MIGHTY FAIL.

Overall, I think the entire series is held up by Aeru, who is awesome, and Limone, who is stoic loli. Aeru gets more and more awesome a character through the series, mainly because she isn’t thinking of turning into a man and she isn’t weighed down by all the religoius emo nonsense that all the others are burdened by. Also, she’s an atheist , so that improves her in my books. Although she hasn’t tried to yurirape anyone yet, she did do a :3 when abseiling in through a window, so I’ll let that one go.

My main beef with the series is that it seems to touch on some really rather sensitive subjects in the world at the moment (namely religion and holy war) and then not really try to tackle them. Since the basic premise is that there are a lot of lands with different religions (some of which may have historically been the same) that are at war with this one particular religion, since it holds all the treasure (the helical motors).

And therefore thousands and thousands of soldiers from these lands get killed in seconds in each episode by very small numbers of ships for no particular reason other than that the land is really selfish and refuses to give any of the helical motors away. Also, in episode 8, I thought the suicide bombing was very very topical and was not entirely sure that it was relevant to the storyline.

i hope that in some further episode we find out exactly why the land with all the technology is so selfish (unlike in Mai Otome, where you never really find out why Garderobe was hiding all the technology), and there is a “I wonder if the side I’m fighting for is the right side” exposition to the girls. If it continues with the “My religion is best and owns all your religionsses” angle, I may have to rant a lot more in the next update.

Basically, Aeru owns everyone. The end.

Although specifically, I wrote this before I saw the episodes I commented on last post, its still kinda relevant. I thought that since Strawberry Panic is pretty much softcore hentai, what if they were making such a drama here, on this side of the Pacific? The result might have gone something like this…

TITLE – ICHIGOSHA GIRLS GONE WILD

CAST:

Suzumi TAMAO – A yuri nymphomaniac with a huge crush on NAGISA. Plays the flute.
Aoi NAGISA – A young freshman inexperienced in the ways of love.
Hanazono SHIZUMA – The hardy old dormitory handyman who’s secretly a beautiful woman in disguise
Konohana HIKARI – An innocent young lady who steadfastly refuses to admit that she is gay
Nanto YAYA – HIKARI’S childhood friend who has a huge crush on her. Though they have done the horizontal ditty, HIKARI refuses to admit that they are together.

SCENE 1

Ichigo-sha dormitory, DAY. All the usual furniture present in a student dormitory is absent, save for a large HEART SHAPED BED that dominates the room. In the corner there is a FLIMSY DESK with some of TAMAO’S PORN on it.

Enter TAMAO and NAGISA.

NAGISA: Ah! Tanoshikatta! That music lesson was so fun, wasn’t it Tamao-chan?

TAMAO: It certainly was, Nagisa-chan! but it would have been much less fun had Nagisa-chan not been there to see me play!

NAGISA: And I didn’t know that you could play the flute so well!

TAMAO laughs sweetly

TAMAO: By the way, Nagisa-chan, how are you feeling after running that marathon yesterday?

NAGISA: Actually, I’m feeling quite stiff! My muscles feel all tense and knotty.

NAGISA rubs her lower back and groans

TAMAO: Of course I would be happy to give you a massage, Nagisa-chan! Just take off all your clothes and lie back on the bed and relax.

NAGISA: All my clothes?

TAMAO: Of course, silly! How am I supposed to give you a proper massage through those thick clothes of yours?

NAGISA:(sweatdrops) Uhh, OK, Tamao-chan…

NAGISA disrobes and lies down on the HEART SHAPED BED. TAMAO removes a bottle of LUBRICANT from the desk drawer.

NAGISA: Uh…what’s that, Tamao-chan?

TAMAO quickly hides the bottle from view

TAMAO: It’s massage oil, Nagisa-chan! Massage oil!

NAGISA: But I thought I read “Mango flav…”

TAMAO: (interrupts) Don’t worry about that Nagisa-chan, you’re making your muscles more tense! Just lie back and relax, ne?

NAGISA: (hesitant)…OK

TAMAO starts to spread LUBRICANT over NAGISA’S back and thighs.

NAGISA: Ooh, that oil feels good, Tamao-chan! I can feel my aches melting away already!

TAMAO’S hands slip down to NAGISA’S NAUGHTY BITS

NAGISA: Ahh! Ohh! Tamao-chan! What are you doing? It’s dirty down there! Ahh! But it feels so good!

TAMAO: (giggles) I’ll make you feel much better, Nagisa-chan!

TAMAO glomps NAGISA. HIJINKS ensue

SFX: Knock on Door

TAMAO looks up. She has what appears to be a MILK MOUSTACHE. NAGISA is comatose.

SFX: Laughter

TAMAO: Come in!

Door opens. Enter SHIZUMA dressed in DUNGAREES and carrying a TOOLKIT. She has a large FAKE MOUSTACHE.

SHIZUMA: (noticing comatose NAGISA) Oh, I’m sorry, did I come at a bad time?

TAMAO: No! Not at all! What can I help you with?

SHIZUMA: I just came to fix your fridge, but it appears that someone has removed all the tools from my toolkit and replaced them with a variety of sex toys.

TAMAO: That’s no problem at all! In fact, we don’t even have a fridge!

TAMAO glomps SHIZUMA. More HIJINKS ensue. Sometime during the proceedings, SHIZUMA’S FALSE MOUSTACHE falls off.

Enter HIKARI. TAMAO and SHIZUMA are still doing the HORIZONTAL CHA-CHA on the bed next to a comatose NAGISA. HIKARI is wearing a SUKUMIZU.

HIKARI: Hi guys! We’re here for the usual tea party. ZOMG! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!

TAMAO and SHIZUMA don’t look up. HIKARI looks horrified and takes a step back. Enter YAYA wearing a skimpy POSTAGE STAMP SIZED BIKINI.

YAYA sweatdrops.

HIKARI: But ahh! Watching them makes me feel warm and tingly inside! Am I perverted Yaya-chan?

YAYA: (seizing her chance) No, Hikari-chan! It’s perfectly normal for a girl’s tnogue to be up another girl’s ass like that! And incidentally, I have always loved you!

HIKARI: Oh Yaya-chan! I love you too!

More Glompage. Yet more HIJINKS ensue.

CUT TO: Ichigo-sha dormitory, EVENING. SHIZUMA, TAMAO, HIKARI and NAGISA (who is now awake and wondering where all the other naked girls came from) are lying in the HEART SHAPED BED. TAMAO is smoking a POST-COITAL CIGARETTE. SHIZUMA is still comatose. YAYA is flicking through TAMAO’S PORN.

NAGISA: (to HIKARI). You know, I never thought it could feel so good…you know, with another girl!

FADE TO BLACK

SCENE 1 END

TSUZUKU

Please direct any flames towards the comments box. Have a nice day!

I thought, since my number 1 search term for my blog seems to contain the words “strawberry panic” I should actually do a third post on the series ^_^;;

Finally got round to watching episodes 11-13 yesterday, and I have to say, something must have snapped in the production company…Instead of the usual “Source” (lolikitsune’s term) affair of “oh, I love you Oneesama, but I’m only going to show it in subtext”, the producers seem to have taken the (probably rather blase) reaction to their first yuri rape scene and gone in a direction involving enough yururape to make a Western censor cry.

It’s as if they said to the script writer – “We’re tired of having those lesbians prance around angsting over whether the other girl will accept their love, let’s just have a couple of episodes where everyone kisses everyone and we’ll work from there” And so that’s what they did O_O.

| Nagisa, since when was our pool this deep? Who cares, just keep doing that thing with your tongue!

So so far by episode 13, Shizuma finally got to kiss, then rape Nagisa, Momomi and Kenjou have another pop at Hikari then get it on in the bath together and then Yaya kisses Hikari (finally ^_^). Phew! I think that pretty much sums up the phrase “Relevant to my interests”

First of all, I’m pleased Shizuma finally got some balls to kiss Nagisa, though pushing her down on the bed afterwards when she was obviously confused whether to be happy or pine after Tamao was a bit cruel. Kenjou and Momomi raping Hikari was all “Yawn, seen it all before”. Kenjou sucks, she doesn’t even do the evil yuri thing right. She should take lessons from Shizuru.

| I’m going to assrape you now, Nagisa. Unn, it’s ok if it’s you, Onee-sama…

But Yaya/Hikari yay! I’m pleased that since my first post about them, Yaya has come far enough to realise that she does love Hikari, and if she doesn’t act soon, Amane will win her over and she will be left Tomoyo-ing by her side for all eternity. Seriously, if they remade Cardcaptor Sakura next year, I think CLAMP should go take some lessons from the script writer for Strawberry Panic ^_^.

Yaya/Hikari kissing was probably the only “text” (as opposed to “subtext”) event in anime that I was really looking forward to and enjoyed. It was also useful storywise as well, as it really complicates things in Hikari’s mind, since she does love Yaya as well. Again, the suggestion of hot threesomes comes to mind. Yaya just rocks in general. Hikari should choose her. After all, she did feel up her butt in chapter 1 of the manga.

| I think this is probably the anime take on the “Dutch angle” – i.e. a slanted angle to make the viewer think that something’s “not right” about what’s happening. In other news, Yaya is hawt in hotpants.

I feel sorry, however, for the relationships that have ended up being left behind in the dust for the big three (Shizuma/Nagisa, Yaya/Amane/Hikari and Kenjou/Momomi). Chiyo-chan, despite being a genius can’t compete with either Shizuma or Tamao on terms that she is just jailbait and Tsubomi is too tsundere to notice that she even loves Hikari anyway. The girl I feel sorry most for it Tamao, the obvious Tomoyo clone in this anime. Though Sakura got taken away by Li in Cardcaptor Sakura, it must be 10 billion times worse to lose your yuri-crush to another woman >_>. Though she did get to spread suntan cream on Nagisa and listen to her orgasmic moans resulting from this (maybe I don’t do it right when I do it O_O)

Though I am scared at what her “Nagisa-shrine” contains O_O.

Therefore I believe the experiment to be successful. More yurirape and “DEEP KISS” frenzy in Str…ahem…Full Yuri Panic! has advanced all the storylines tremendously and made it infinitely more exciting. I can only hope that the producers don’t let this all go to waste (*cough* Harem ending! *cough cough*)

Vague humour post on Strawberry Panic to celebrate the yurirape tomorrow.

| From left to right, dere, tsun, tsun, dere.

So, I watched Serin and Anime Universe’s sub of Tsuyokiss yesterday (or Tsuyokisu for you Romanji fans). And, actually, despite all the flak it’s been getting, I rather liked it (though it seems destined to be “my kind of show” ^_^;;). However, I immediately disagree with the premise that it is a tsundere animation. Yoppy isn’t a tsundere! (Unless she’s a deretsun – Someone who appears gentle but in reality is a violent SoB…)

Anyways, I thought the characters were pretty interesting, though I think I’m getting bored with Erika’s “Ara ara, donna ii kashira” evil rich big breasted stereotype. However, I can see it turning into just “yet another harem show”. At the moment (though ayyo will disagree with me on this I think), Leo is looking like a really weak lead. Perhaps not as weak as Haruo in Magikano (probably the weakest male harem lead evar), but he seems pretty pathetic.

Therefore my previous prediction that there should be no male lead, and the girls should just spend the whole show tsundere-ing to each other still stands ^_^. Imagine the potential – cat fights everywhere followed by hot yuri sex. Delicious.

Anyway, the “pull” (first) episode of Tsuyokiss did actually contain a couple of yuri moments – one which could prove to develop into yuri fanservice, and another which is a one off, I think.

Number 1 – Erika rapes Yoppi

Damn you Sunao, why did you have to come in and make it a comic situation -_-. Potentially could well persist through the entire series, so am looking forward to it. (since it looks like it will mainly be following the Sunao storyline). Ayyo, please advise me if this is so.

Number 2 – Asada Shizuka becomes yurifan groupie #1

Yay, Asada is the best character in Tsuyokisu so far. Gentle, but not a doormat like Yoppi. Well, you need some gentle characters to tip the balance from dere to tsun ^_^;; Her seiyuu is lovely. I somehow don’t think this one will persist as the first one, though she might develop a slight “Sakaki complex”, potentially (let’s hope).

I love the translation of this line. But I want to reach out and pat her and say “No, yuri love is normal and good and all should partake of it.” Poor misguided Asada…

So moderate yuri potential in Tsuyokiss, so I’m pretty happy with the start of the series. I hope Leo turns out to be a better lead and all the girls he doesn’t choose see the sense in having a big shoujo-ai get together when they see they have no chance against him and Sunao.

Just one thing I was wondering, though. Since the sequel game just came out (Tsuyokiss Mighty Heart) with the same girls, whats the storyline behind that? Is it that you dumped the girl you were dating in the first game and you get another chance, or perhaps you’re still going out with her and this is the first in a series of progressively harder games in which you must build your harem???

Anyway, look forward for more of this series ^_^.

If you haven’t watched the show, this list will probably mean nothing to you, but Joshikousei has turned out to be a rather good Slice of Life show that started from humble fanservice beginnings to turn out to be a well rounded and interesting single season anime.

When I first started watching Joshikousei, I expected it to just be a shallow fanservice fluff show, but after the fanservice left, there are a lot of things in the show that holds it up without fanservice ^_^…

Great thing number 1: Shimotakatani-kun. (He has a funny name)

Great thing number 2: Starting Skits. (Especially the Maria-sama ga miteru one) – It’s great to have an anime that doesn’t take itself seriously ^_^.

Great thing number 3: One Liners – Yuma – “Don’t come near! I’m expelling water from inside”

Great thing number 4: Realistic High School life – Girls that worry about pubic hair plucking, periods and boys. Relationships that aren’t portrayed as the love of his or her life. Desperately trying to lose your virginity – That is the spirit of High School!

Great thing number 5: Ogawa (though she should be a super loli who is more experienced than everyone else) – mainly because she is addicted to vitamin drinks and drugs guys to not have sex with her. Priceless.

Great thing number 6: Lesbian yaoi – The only actually gay couple in the school acting like Ouran High School Host Club. Oh how I laughed…

Great thing Number 6 – Eri and Kouda’s Boke/Tsukkomi. It fits them so well O_o

Great thing number 7: Mamiko Noto randomly playing secretly pervy meganekko. She really gets around these days ^_^;;

Trust a female mangaka to take high school life, and nail it square on with an extra pinch of OTT comedy.

Orz.

I know I’m slightly late on the uptake for SHnY wrapup posts, but I had to get home and access to the rest of the episodes ^_^.

I thought that to really do the series justice, I would trawl through all 14 episodes and post 14 screenshots, one from each episode that encompass the essence of the greatness of the series. And so I did. It was difficult, I can tell you…I am still undecided on some episodes with more than one particularly awesome scene, but I think these 14 pictures sum up the series pretty well.

In summary, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu is a mould-breaking series, and extremely refreshing to watch, even with the flamers on 4chan spamming “ZOMG HARUHI SUCKS LOL”. Every episode might not have been awesomely great, but as a series, it worked on a level that not many shows have reached (I’m convinced that even the great Neon Genesis Evangelion had quite a few “filler” episodes (And that’s not even counting the arse-worthy last 5 ^_^;;).

KyoAni should be proud at the huge attention to detail that they went to to make this series the way it is. If it came out on DVD this side, I would definitely buy it. Anyway. Here’s the summary, and hoping for a second season!!

Episode 1 (Episode 11.5 – Asahina Mikuru no Bouken Episode 00)

Awesome “pull” episode (to pull in potential watchers). We are unwittingly subjected to spoilers for the entire series and Itsuki’s terrible acting and lengthy nonsensical explanations O_o. MIKURU BEAM!!! just about won over the shot when Shamisen started talking and Yuki hit him on the head with her wand.

Episode 2 (Episode 1 – The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya I)

Haruhi’s hair is probably one of the awesome points of this episode, especially because they purposefully go for the “copypasta different hair on the same head animation technique”. This episode is also the first one we see the “Hare Hare Yukai” dance. ED sequences will never be the same again. Thanks to SOS-dan for providing girlfriend with the dance steps O_O.

Episode 3 (Episode 2 – The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya II)

Severe lack of good screenshots in this episode, although I loved this line. Also, I think, conclusive evidence that Mikuru is NOT Kyon’s sister. Mikuru abuse by the Computer Society President was also a high point, especially Haruhi’s axe kick. Awesome.

Episode 4 (Episode 7 – The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya)

Tsuruya shows up again, but fails to get a screenshot ^_^. I promise I will get her one by the end of the review! More spoilers get shown, and clever people will have noticed that Yuki is now minus her glasses. Yuki’s “only catching the balls that are heading directly at her” shot is only just edged out by the whole 30 second shot of Haruhi randomly dancing on third base. Priceless.

Episode 5 (Episode 3 – The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya III)

EXPOSITION EPISODE! Loads of awesomeness in this episode. Haruhi gets called “God” by Itsuki, much to Kyon’s chagrin, and Yuki finds her love for libraries. But how can those compete when Mikuru says “Kinsoku Jikou desu~” and winks. No wonder Haruhi spends most of her time at SOS-Dan costume (and normal) raping Mikuru O_O.

Episode 6 (Episode 9 – Remote Island Syndrome Part 1)

Yay, the essential beach episode! Asidesfrom the OMG DEAD at the end, nothing can compete with Yuki reading while waterskiing. Yuki just gets more and more awesome each episode ^_^;;

Episode 7 (Episode 8 – Mysterious Sign)

Random filler episode with FIGHTAGE! Apart from Yuki’s Lambda driver impression and Itsuki’s Full Metal Panic! references (SECONDO RAIDO!), You just can’t beat “Scarab healed your wounds!”. I was expecting a little green number to pop out of the cave cricket after that. Priceless.

Episode 8 (Episode 10 – Remote Island Syndrome Part 2)

How many people worked this out from the beginning? I can honestly say that I was pretty suspicious when Arakawa said that they had only been working for a week, but I didn’t guess the whole thing O_o. And for the fans – Haruhi does a Phoenix Wright impression and wins all.

Episode 9 (Episode 14 – Someday in the Rain)

Controversial but awesome episode. Top of the picks were Yuki covering Mikuru’s dignity with her head and her books and Haruhi offering Kyon to share an umbrella at the end. But top of the list is when Tsuruya spins by Kyon at the lockers and delicately places a handkerchief on his head. (See, I told you she would show up sometime ^_^) Arigatousu!

Episode 10 (Episode 4 – The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya IV)

Obvioucly the highlight of this episode is the Yuki fight, and everyone’s seen the screenshot of her blocking the knife while Kyon looks on in surprise. But for me, the most awesome part is when a speared Yuki pulls out one of the metal poles, and throws it down; and before it touches the ground, it transmutes into a desk. Attention to detail, my friends. Also, dare I mention adult Mikuru’s cleavage shot?

Episode 11 (Episode 13 – Day of Sagittarius)

LOL at this entire episode, especially the 8 bit MIDI soundtrack. Unfortunately, I have to do yet another screenshot of Yuki being awesome, though it was a toss up between the shot of her waving the mouse in the air or her pounding away on the keyboard like a madwoman. So in the end I went for this. Permission Y/N?

Episode 12 (Episode 12 – Live a Live)

O_O How can I even begin to select a scene from this episode. Second in line was definitely Tsuruya’s “Doesn’t this look megas good on me? Nyoro”, but beaten hands down by when Haruhi starts singing “LOST MY MUSIC”. In the first verse she winks, and 48 men in the audience have to be taken to hospital for nose related blood loss.

Episode 13 (Episode 5 – The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya V)

Another Exposition episode with less screenshot opportunity, though Loli Haruhi was obviously a high point. In the end, I went with the scene when haruhi expounds the entire reason for life and the world being the way it is, and for once, Kyon is speechless as the train whistles by in the background. Artsy.

Episode 14 (Episode 6 – The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya VI)

The buildup…the final episode!!! And Kyon saves the world! This line has to be the best line ever said to save the world in any televised series ever. “Ponytails turn me on” indeed ^_^;;

And that concludes the SOS – Super Overview Slideshow!

I hope you have all enjoyed it and been outraged at all the scenes that I missed out, but don’t worry, hopefully I’ll do another wrapup like this for another series and you can beat me down with flames that time as well…

Until then

Mata ne-su!

Another short post today until I go home and start working on my Haruhi wrapup.

I’m sure people have noticed that in recent years, there has been a trend toward single season series (13 episodes) rather than series spanning two seasons (26 episodes). Discounting Shounen series such as Yakitate!! Japan and Prince of Tennis, which go on for ever (or until the audience become so mind-numbingly bored that they stop watching), there has been a huge decline in the number of full length shows, especially in the popular category.

Of the recent seasons, I can only think of the Mai-Hime/Otome series, Speed Grapher, Higurashi, Black Cat and Shakugan no Shana that have lasted the full 24-26 episodes. However, other hugely popular series have been assigned 12-14 episode seasons, such as Ichigo Mashimaro, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A’s, Rozen Maiden, Full Metal Panic: TSR, Paradise Kiss and even the great Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu.

Meanwhile, to complicate things, some really just bad, or just inexplicable series get 26 episode seasons. For example, (though I myself am not complaining) both Strawberry Panic! and Simoun are going to run for the full 26 episodes, even though I would count these shows as “niche”. Canvas 2 ran for 24 episodes, and I wouldn’t even have acknowledged its existence, if it weren’t for timely purchase of Megami magazine. And to top it all off (though probably completely irrelevant), Demashitaa! Powerpuff Girls Z is going to run for 52 episodes.

I definitely won’t be watching ^_^. However, I do approve of this. In fact, the art here is arguably better than thenew show itself. I would watch it if the art quality were this good. And the plotlines also.

Anyway, getting back to the point, I was wondering what exactly decides whether a series is going to run 13 or 26 episodes, whether it was merchandising potential, or just plain time slots on networks. For example, are SP! and Simoun just going on networks that have ample time slots to show them and therefore can run the full length, while Haruhi cannot?

Also, is it just because more anime are produced per season that the number of 13 episode shows is increasing?

I for one would like to see more anime shifted to earlier on in the evening that isn’t Pokemon Advanced or Duel masters or some form of battle kids show. Surely there is enough money in anime for TV companies in Japan to put it on at some time other than 0200 in the morning? Or do they really make more money out of rubbish JDramas and Quiz shows? If there were more time slots for anime I’m sure the number of episodes per season would rise.

And though I do enjoy watching compact 13 episode seasons, I think this would benefit some anime greatly (though the only one that comes immediately to mind is “Midori no Hibi“)

So, 26 episodes or 13? What’s the general opinion?

Actually, I only wanted to make a quick post today on how much I love alternate universe (AU) fanfiction. I was flicking through my C2 communities today when I found some great fanfiction that I had neglected to read before.

The best of the two, Kizuna by saihatsu is an alternate universe Konoka x Setsuna fanfiction where a disillusioned Setsuna Sakurazaki ends up working for an infamous group of mercenary assassins who become part of a plot to save Konoka from one of the government’s evil schemes. The fiction itself comes highly recommended, though it looks like it is on hiatus for the moment (last updated in April) due to exams, so at best look forward to updates in the coming months.

The other, non AU fiction that i would recommend from my recent surfings is Cold Nights, Warm Days by LtStorm, which is a Tomo/Yomi and Kagura/Nyamo dualfic which I found refreshing to read, since I am not usually a fan of Tomo/Yomi.

Now let me gush a little about Alternate Universe.

I love AU fanfiction. However, it takes such skill to be able to write properly, that I only rarely come across good examples of it. To define the term, AU is a fanfiction in which the anime or manga universe in which the characters find themselves in is changed (hence alternate) to the whim of the author. Therefore, situations and characterisations do not exist in this universe as in the canon (normal) universe, though the two are strongly related. For instance, most multiple crossovers (fanfic encompassing more than two anime series) have to be AU by default. (For instance Shanejayell’s Arisugawa’s Locket)

One of the great things about writing AU is that you can forget about characterisation (although not too much, or you might as well be writing original fiction) and do whatever you want with the characters. One of the great things about reading AU is that you get to see familiar characters in situations outside the regular old few that define a relationship (you know what I mean…There are only a few situations in a TV series that allude to a relationship, especially yuri ones, and most fanfic authors will base fiction around these. (Which can get quite tiresome)).

The difficulty in AU is casting your set of familiar characters into an unfamiliar world, but making it so that it is not completely unfamiliar to the reader. Also, characters’ “alter-egos” as it were, must be at least related to their real manga or TV counterparts.

Writing alternate universe fiction gives a reader a great feel of the author’s real imagination outside of predetermined lines, and the offerings in this category are always more interesting to read.

And it offers far more opportunities for angst!

I, being extremely slow on the uptake, discovered yesterday that School Rumble had been licensed a while back by Media Factory, and this is the reason why Wannabefansubs has presumably stopped subbing it. I, being the fool that I am, just thought that they were just extremely slow at bringing out episode 10 (well, it’s not like WF are the most efficient group in the world ^_^).

Then I went to their site, which is currently down after a DDoS attack (I think), with just a message from their webmaster complaining about the members of the group and how they know nothing. So it is possible that Wannabe may bring out episodes in the future. It’s not like they are a big group that are liable to be tracked down and killed for it ^_^.

Having been licensed, I now have to stoop to downloading fansubs by a group that calls itself “Your-Mom” which I have been trying to avoid doing for ages, just because no other groups are doing fansubs for School Rumble at all. I have always wondered about this; why a great series like School Rumble only attracted two fansub groups for the first season (not including speed subbers), one a one man job (Dash fansubs) and the other Wannabe Fansubs, who weren’t quite up to Dash’s standard, but did a passable job.

I wonder why more small groups have not stepped in to shoulder the job of translating the rest of Nigakki?

In my humble opinion, School Rumble Nigakki is one of the unsung heroes of this season. While it continues to get more and more sketch show-like, all of the characters continue to be funny (though needs more Eri) and each episode is always sad to see the back of. I was pleased to see that there was even an Japanese/English pun in Episode 10 (I wonder how many Japanese people got it ^_^;;) – Imadori = Now Bird. Well, I laughed.

It may not be an anime masterpiece, but it is so consistenly great to watch, that I would watch it even if it went to a fourth season.

Which is why I’m so sad to see it licensed. Presumably Media Factory have bought the licenses to all future seasons of the program as well, if they exist, and so from now on I will have megas troubles getting good quality fansubs of one of my favourite shows. Meanwhile, slowly, Media Factory will be bringing out DVDs at a rate of probably one every quarter starting from the beginning of season 1. Can you see the root of the problem?

Now, I’m not criticising Your-Mom fansubs…well, actually I am. Although I have infinite respect for fansub groups and the work they do for the anime community, I just can’t help but wish that the series was picked up by a better one. When the group makes mistakes that even I can pick up, then I know that I should be suspicious.

For instance, in Episode 10, Akira says that she is thin because she eats a lot of “Nattou and Hijiki” which means “Fermented soy beans and seaweed”, not, as the fansubs translate it as “beans and vegetables”. Also, Eri tells Tenma her weight and Tenma exclaims that its “10 kilograms different to hers”. I assume from her despondency that she means Eri is 10 kilos lighter not 10 kilos heavier as the fansubs translate it as. Surely common sense.

I apologise for that minor nag. I really do appreciate Your-Mom fansubs for subbing the series, and I will continue watching and supporting their subs. However, I will secretly be wishing for Wannabe’s return. And hoping that Your-Mom will change their signature scene >_<.

SCHOOL RUMBLE 4 EVER

OMG REVIEW!

Seriously, this is only my second review since I started a couple of months ago, but I’ve decided that I will stoop to doing manga reviews, since a lot less people do manga reviews (and I saw that even tjhan over at RIUVA does reviews of the scanlations of School Rumble – which I should really get round to reading). Negima is a fantastic manga. I for one was wondering how Akamatsu was going to handle 31 girls instead of the usual 6 girl harem, but the heavy story based element with ample fanservice and a yuri sidestory works fantastic. People who are fans of the Konoka/Setsuna pairing may want to look at my Konshuu no Renai feature on them.

Anyway, for those of you reading the US DelRay translations or who are behind in reading the scanlations and are concerned about spoilers, please look away now.

Following hot on the heels of the excellent chapter when Eva tries to seXX0r Negi, comes a huge turnaround chapter in the Chao arc. Vowing to stop Chao from exposing magic to the world, Negi stupidly forgets that Chao gave him Cassiopeia at the beginning of the festival and exits Evangeline’s resort.

Now, rather predictably, Chao has placed a trap on the device that when they exit the resort, it immediately uses the World Tree’s power to warp them one week ahead in time till after the festival when Chao has already carried out her plans and effectively won. What’s more, without the World Tree’s power, Cassiopeia is useless and they are unable to go back and change Negi’s schoolboy error (well, he is only 10, so I’ll give him that one).

Cue episode of the various groups wandering round still in costume (Konoka and Setsuna in nekomimi *nosebleed*) and the slow dawning of realisation that Chao has tricked them and the whole school, if not the world now knows about Negi’s magic!

This is a huge story point chapter, perhaps comparable to the one where Chao reveals that she is from the future and a descendant of Negi sent to reveal magic to the world, for whatever motives Chao has. More importantly, now we have loads of probationary contracts, most importantly Yue (who looks like she might be able to control some powerful magic), Setsuna (whose artifact we still haven’t seen yet) and Paru who has that “Drawings come to life” power reminiscent of Relm from Final Fantasy VI.

The next few chapters, I think will be along the lines of “Can Negi’s small army fight Negi out of prison” (especially since he can’t contact them and activate their contracts), and then they probably find some way of going back in time to try and stop Chao from executing her plan.

Lots of things are still left unexplained, such as why Chachamaru, Hakase and Mana are on Chao’s side when Eva isn’t (and presumably, they all come from Negi’s era, not Chao’s).

Akira (the other half of Negima’s “Motoko”, the other being Setsuna) finally does something this episode, plucking Negi out of the mob in an extremely amusing manner, but sadly only gets 2 lines. Setsuna and Konoka need to be more in shoujoai lovelove mode and Yue needs to start blasting things like Negi. Also, we seem to have somehow lost Koutaro along the way. Don’t know where he went <_<.

Anyway, I am still in absolute awe at Akamatsu Ken’s mangability although both animes from his work have been awful, I have slightly higher hopes for the second Negima anime (lets hope it will at feature less Japanese badly pronounced Latin and Greek >_<). Does anyone know when it is coming out?

/me will now toddle over to Amazon.co.uk and buy Negima volume 10.

Toodles.

This came to mind yesterday night when I was searching for a reason to post the picture at the bottom of this post, and also kinda reminiscing about how I am possibly the world’s most unexcited person about KyoAni’s remaking of Kanon in 24 episodes. Taking Kanon and Air as pretty much the same bag of tricks, I have brought myself to watch all of Kanon, since people were gushing about it endlessly to me, but even though an equal amount of gush-ness was said about Air, I only managed to make it through about 6 episodes.

My opinion on Kanon was that it was a pretty passable (and easily forgettable) anime. Since the storyline appeared squashed, I never really got a feeling about the backstories of all the characters, and then it ended and you are left with 1 – Wtf? is she alive or is she dead? And if she’s alive, why the hell didn’t he notice in the first place when he took her to the hospital? and 2 – Poor Nayuki. Also, I never really got whether the things Mai were fighting were real, or whether they were just in her imagination and she was a little loopy. Oh, and boxcutter Kaede > Nayuki.

So I guess that it was just those little points that were badly exposed and the art style (I think it was the face shape and the eye colouring style that I disagreed with) that meant that my first experience with Kanon was not as good as I was expecting.

However, I found that Air was similarly slow to start and I ended up giving up on it before it reputedly got good. My reasoning was that if they were going to express the expositions like they did in Kanon, then I would be left with the similar feeling that it hadn’t really been explained very well and dissatisfaction at the anime…

However, the things I did like out of it were:

• Misuzu saying “Gao”
• The “Gao Gao Stegosaurus” T-shirt she gives to Yukito (which I have, incidentally)
• Potato.
• Kirishima Hijiri because she reminds me of Mai, the best character from Kanon.
• The art (which is better than Kanon), though I prefer fanart of the series to the anime art, generally.

(Oh, that reminds me to look up Mai/Sayuri fanfiction for next week…)

In fact, at Glastonbury Festival last year, Holly (the girlfriend) and I purchased a cuddly stegosaurus called Gao. (Well, he wasn’t originally called Gao, but he is now.) And the real reason for this post is so I could post the picture below which she made in Paint yesterday. I’m sure it took her a long time, so be gentle ^_^;;;

Comments? Also, should I finish Air? What do you people think?

PS. How awesome is it that Na Li of China is the first Chinese person ever to get into the last 8 of a Grand Slam? (As a Brit, obviously I’m talking about Wimbledon) Especially since there are no Americans at all – their worst showing for over 80 years ^_^. Li will lose to Clijsters in the Quarters though, I don’t fancy her chances, since she has not been past the 3rd round in any major. It’s a pretty interesting Wimbledon this year!

It occurred to me the other day that I hadn’t done a Konshuu no Renai for a while, and though I feel that less people come to the site looking for fanfiction, I scouted round on Fanfiction.net for a pairing that I hadn’t done yet and wanted to do. Unfortunately, I rather like minority pairings, so fanfiction was either few and far between (and extremely bad) or far too voluminous to sort through. I did find an extremely bad Anita/Hisami lemon yuri fic though…(lemon meaning “+ dodgy sexual content”)

Reading through all the Nancy/Yomiko Read or Die fanfic I got extremely tired with finding fanfiction that I was dismissing on first glance simply because it looked unreadable, or that the author hadn’t paid enough attention to get names or spellings right. This annoys me on two levels – that I can’t read what could be a good fiction due to bad formatting, and that people can’t even be bothered to check their work before publishing.

So in this article, I would like to go over a few tips for the up and coming fanfiction writer, just to make sure that your fiction is not thrown straight in the Recycle bin without being given a fair chance. I must stress, these are not tips on how to write good fanfiction, merely how to write readable fanfiction. Please, if you do know any authors that suffer from any of these, then point them towards this article. For your sake and the entire fanfiction community ^_^.

1. GET A BETA READER (otherwise known as proof reader)

This is my single most important point to anyone starting out writing, especially if you are not confident with your English. There is no excuse publishing badly spelt fanfiction with wrong tenses and missing conjunctions, even if your mother tongue is not English. Just loitering on fanfiction forums, there are tens of people who would be happy to beta read your fanfiction for you, and many authors even offer their beta reading services on their sites (or you can just email them). There are even directories of beta readers, for example, Perfect imagination, where you can find beta readers willing to read your work and even state what parts of English you struggle with and would like concentrated on. There is seriously NO EXCUSE for not betaing your work, and it will increase the number of people who read your work exponentially, especially if you are from forn parts.

2. Formatting…formatting…formatting

Secondly and no less importantly, the formatting of your masterpiece is as equally important as your spelling. Since beta readers may not comment on your formatting, it is important that you get it right as you write (as it can be a pain to edit afterwards).

Fanfiction is a very different medium than book based literature, mainly because people are reading from bright screens rather than inoffensive ink on paper. Therefore, making your text as reader friendly as possible is very important. I will assume for the moment that you are publishing this on Fanfiction.net with black text on white (and not one of those godawful sites with red text on black or similar).

To sum up in one line: People do not want to read huge blocks of text. 

If you notice as I write on my blog (and in most other blogs), I put in paragraph breaks in every few lines or so, even when paragraphs are perhaps not required. When a reader’s eye scans down the page, it stops on the line breaks, and the most intensive reading is done on the words above and below line breaks, simply becuase it is less strain to separate the text from the surrounding words.

In A4 writing, you should probably aim to put paragraph breaks every 5-6 lines or so, and not have blocks of text longer than 10-15 lines(and even that’s pushing it). Also, start new paragraphs when new people start talking, it saves on confusion.

3. Research your anime

This may be a minor niggle, but being a fan of an anime, as you are likely to be reading a fanfiction about it, means that misspellings of important names are extremely annoying. If you have only watched part of an anime, look up the names on ANN or Wikipedia, for example before writing a fanfic. A little research goes a long way in the eyes of the reader.

I remember, for example, that there was a huge discussion on the Wonderland AzuDai forums as to the last name of Kaorin from Azudai. (I believe the agreed name is Aida Kaori now, so if you are thinking of writing, that is probably the name you should use)

4. Perspective

Please please please decide if you are going to write in the 1st person (i.e. I did something), or the 3rd person (i.e. Kaorin did something) before you start writing. New writers may think at first that it is easier to write in the 1st person, but actually, it is much harder (especially with describing events happening away from your main character) and the choice is rather limited (think how many novels are written in the 3rd person!).

Switching between the 1st and 3rd person while writing is also a tricky business, especially in fanfiction, where it seems very clunky to read, and often invites confusion as to who’s viewpoint we are now reading from. The best thing to do is either to choose 1st or 3rd person and stick to it, or only change after chapter breaks (for example, having alternate chapters from a character’s viewpoint and in the 3rd person can work, as long as it is the same character each time).

5. Speech

Not too much please. I am tired of clicking through stories which are entirely composed of speech between characters and line breaks, with very little action in between. For a start, there is a name for pieces like this – they are play scripts, and should be formatted as such (with character names preceding each line, stage dicrections etc.)

Creative writing should be description with speech as an accessory. Monologues are all well and good as part of a larger story, but dialogues should have things happening in the middle of them, otherwise it becomes extremely difficult for the reader to visualise the scene and the reader gives up.

Also, don’t feel that you need to qualify each sentence with a “she said” or even description (such as ‘”Are you sure you want to come back with me?” she said, her fingers dripping with green goo.’) Sometimes forcing description after every line of speech can feel lumpy and interrupt the flow.

6. Miscellaneous tips

Also, a great tip is to proof read your own work as well as to get someone else to read it. Proof reading (although painful) allows you to assess whether your work flows the way you want it to and which parts require rewriting. Releasing your work without proof reading is like an artist painting blindfolded and sending his work off without looking to see whether its good.

If you do want to write a lemon (called PWP (porn without plot/plot? what plot?) in regular fanfiction), please read through your sex scenes and make sure they flow well. Also, please don’t start straight out with the sex. Buildup is required to write a good lemon and at least some storyline as to how the characters got there in the first place is required. I certainly don’t want to read a fic and rush headlong into Anita’s “stiff nipples” (Warning: not safe for work. Happens to be the fic with annoying misspellings of character’s names). Also, I’m tired of reading multiple variants on spelling of the word “tongue”. Get it right, people.

Multiple pronoun syndrome – It is certainly common when you start writing to run out of pronouns describing a character. Please resist the urge to drop to using “the blonde/brunette/greenhead etc.” or a character’s occupation (“ZA PAYPAAAR”) in place of “he” or “she” in a sentence if at all necessary. Joining sentences together to places where you need to put pronouns, or repeated usage of “He/she” or a character’s name is fine.

I hope this has been useful, though it is unlikely to stem the tide of badly spelt, badly formatted and just generally bad fanfiction that is belched forth by the internet fanfiction community, but I hope that it will at least help a few potentially good writers to realise that their work really isn’t all that bad.

I hope.

The title for this post was going to be a homage to Nagato Yuki’s awesome guitar skillz, but I couldn’t quite get the pun together O_o. Anyways, the useful part of today has been spent tapping away at the computer listening to “God knows…” and “LOST MY MUSIC” on loop in Winamp, with the occasional strains of “Koi no Mikuru Densetsu” creeping in when I got tired of them. (Thanks go to Jason for posting the links for those mp3s ^_^).

Watching the concert scene for the third successive time got me thinking back to a post I wrote notes for ages ago but then lost my notebook; on why a person like me who is into rock and metal also loves J-pop and J-rock when the genre differences are evident even to society isolated hermits. First, I should give a disclaimer: all R ‘n’ B and rap fans (and I’m not talking about “Rhythm and blues”, you people can stay), please stop reading now, for fear of severe insult.

As I said before, I am a massive rock fan. I also love punk, ska, metal (not death metal though ^_^), jazz and rhythm and blues, and even barbershop. Basically, I tend to like music that shows off musical talent, and though I acknowledge that R ‘n’ B takes some musical talent, I can’t believe that it is a major issue (I assume the major selling point of R ‘n’ B is the size, shape and consistency of the female singers’ butt). Rap as well, I’m sure takes talent, but musical talent it is not.

So why oh why would I like J-pop and J-Rock which is obviously not written by the performers for the most part (since the performers are either idols or seiyuu and probably have no music writing talent whatsoever). As an example, let me take apart one of the Haruhi Insert songs to show people why I like it so much.

Aya Hirano and as yet unknown backing band sing “God Knows…” (actually, seriously, if anyone knows the backing band or the writer of either/both of these songs please tell me. This information seems to have slipped me by)

1. Starting Riff
I have to admit I was impressed by the starting riff, simply because it was quite technically fiddly and shows off immediately that the guitarist knows what she (I’ll stick with the anime band genders for now ^_^) is doing. However, in contrast to its technical difficulty, it doesn’t overshadow the other parts, most notably the drums which are simple and effective at highlighting changes in tempo and verse/bridge transitions with changes in rhythm. Bass is technically rather disappointing, but then I always criticise this – there aren’t many good female bassists ^_^;;

2. Verse – “Kawaita kokoro de kakenukeru/Gomen ne nanimo dekinakute”
Aya Hirano’s singing fits this song. The high female vocals fit most J-rock rather well, since the songs are more upbeat and happy and don’t require growling. Conversely, however, female vocals do not suit Western rock as generally it is more minor (and dare I say “emo”), so high female voices don’t provide the bass rumble that goes well with the music. Gruff female singers who smoke more than 40 a day such as The Distillers and The Donnas are exceptions to this rule. Guitar and drums play simple rhythms with good buildup to the bridge.

3. Bridge – “Muku ni ikiru tame furimukazu/Senaka mukete satte shimau”
Nothing special here. Leads on nicely from the verse with a new drum rhythm and a good transition into the chorus with the drums. I’m not sure if they are using simple shift harmonisation (i.e. Aya is harmonising with herself shifted to a different key) or if there are really 2 singers. Either way, female vocal harmonisation makes me cry with joy. Beat is insistent and gets under your skin, making you want to tap your feet and nod your nead in a rock-music fashion. If you’re tapping your feet now there’s no hope for you now…

4. Chorus – “Watashi tsuiteku yo donna tsurai/Sekai no yami no naka de sae”
The swell building up during the verse lets loose with a flurry of drums and power chords. Fans like me start waving their fists in time with the music in front of their computers and anyone who was tapping their feet in the bridge starts fully rocking out. Most of all, Aya Hirano’s powerful vocals really shine through here. The power lacking in most female rock vocalists in J-rock shall not be spoken of in her presence. The emotion she puts into the Engrish at the end puts a tear to the hardened rocker’s eye.
(Opening Riff 2, Verse 2, Bridge 2, Chorus – Not included in TV version – i.e. I don’t know the lyrics ^_^;;)

5. Middle 8 – “Anata ga ite/Watashi ga ite hoka no hito wa”
After the second verse, Haruhi takes a break in the middle 8, which, again is pretty standard – Measured beats by the drums back emotion filled lines as a prelude to the final repeated choruses. Meanwhile, Yuki’s guitar howls in the background and Aya Hirano hits a high note harmony with such power that even Matt Bellamy would be impressed. Shivers run down the spines of the crowd. (NB – NOT an emo-distortion)

6. Tension stop (well, that’s what I call it anyway) – “Dakara…/Watashi…”
I love “tension stops”. I have no idea what they are called in the music business, but I coined the term to encompass parts in (mainly rock) songs where the usual beat is abandoned for a few bars and the pause in between notes which are not of the expected length builds tension in the crowd, which causes people that know the beat already to flail their hands in the air in time with the off beats. That would be me, of course ^_^.

7. Outro solo
Hammer on/pull off galore as Yuki’s fingers become a blur in this outro solo. Haruhi’s rhythm guitar even joins in at one point ^_^. Bass still boring though. End on a lovely discordant, but melodic chord. Blogger lets out a sigh of pleasure. End of Song.

Hmm, that was fun to write ^_^. I do like overanalysing music. Maybe I will do a similar one for “LOST MY MUSIC” sometime. (when I can be bothered)

Anyway, my point is that Japanese rock (and indeed some examples of pop) music is not unusual. In fact, I could probably name 10 songs off the top of my head in Western rock where all of those devices were used (except the female vocalist, of course!). However, the genius in which some Japanese rock and pop songs are written, I believe, is embedded in the way they embrace Western culture.

Let me give you an example. I went to Japan last year, and one of the things that made a great impact on me was bakeries. You can’t go 500 yards inside any largish Japanese town without finding at least one bakery. And these aren’t your regular run down British affair, oh no. Bread is an extremely big business in Japan (as are cake stores), but the types of bread on offer may surprise many Western bakers. For instance, Kare-pan; a deep fried doughnut type bread with curry inside, when the most adventurous thing we put inside ours is jam. Even more controversial, Meron-pan – the fusion of two different kinds of dough (cookie dough and normal sweet bread dough). Also, the existance of potato croquet and yakisoba sandwiches.

It’s as if Japanese bakers took one look at Western rules for baking, gave it the finger and just did whatever they wanted. In the UK: starchy things like potatoes in sandwiches? BLASPHEMY!

It seems that they have taken the same approach to their music as well. Since J-Rock/Pop is a relatively new phenomenon, it too suffers from the same fate of Japanese “mix ‘n’ match”, and unlike the boringly uniform UK pop music (which is now almost completely R ‘n’ B), you get exciting mixes of styles from sugary sweet pure pop songs like “Miko miko Nurse”, Pop-ska in the form of “Guri guri” (Sato Hiromi), even Pop-jazz in the case of Scramble by Horie Yui (the first School Rumble OP). Happy bouncy rock songs such as “LOST MY MUSIC” are written and suit the female vocalists that sing them, something not found in Western rock at all. Guitars, often with rather good soloage feature heavily in J-pop, to excellent effect and overall, the effect, in my opinion is rather refreshing.

Japanese rock pop will seem to cover multiple genres of music, since J-pop has no real concept of the genre boundaries and just seems to play what sounds good – For instance, compared to “God Knows…”, “LOST MY MUSIC” has a definite punkish feel to it thanks to the off beat drums, but still maintains a very “rock and roll” feel of guitars and vocals.

The thing I really love about Japanese pop-rock is simply that the songs are really upbeat and happy, something I think is really missing from the rock music coming out today, which is getting more and more emo as we speak. In short, J-rock makes me happy. And it knocks out solos that would make a Western indie band tremble at the knees. Also, untrained female voices harmonise much much better than untrained male voices, which is always a plus in my book.

If I had to make a concluding comment, I would have to say that J-pop/rock is by no means better than Western music, but it’s habit of going against conventional musical ideals and mixing styles means that once in a while it comes up with absolute jewels which are refreshing in this age of conformity (at least in the UK, anyway ^_^).

Apologies for the long ramble, just think, it would have been longer if I had analysed “LOST MY MUSIC” as well ^_^. Oh, and as a knee-jerk complaint – all you Japanese “band” girls who pretend to play instruments in your videos – don’t bother. Just do what you’re best at and look pretty with your strange synchronised dancing and maybe we’ll forgive you for not being able to play your instruments.

That is all.

Bored and seemingly devoid of commentage, I decided to work out by extrapolation how many hits per post Jason must get based on how many comments he gets. This is pure boredom speculation and entirely open tohaving the mathematical smackdown laid upon it.

On my humble blog, I selected 5 of my most commented posts and worked out using WordPress.com’s page hit counter how many views per comment on average I get.

“Ten anime I am ashamed to like” – Comments 13, Views 496 = 38.2 views/comment

“1 month old…” – Comments 11, Views 114 = 10.4

“Ero Game overload…” – Comments 6, Views 324 = 54

“Yuri Dai Batturu…” – Comments 7, Views 287 = 41

“Top 10 Yuri Underdogs” – Comments 8, Views 336 = 42

Average = 37.12 Views per comment.

Also, according to my page hit counter, WordPress.com’s post hit counter underestimates the total amount of hits by about 2/5 (i.e. collectively, the post hits make up about 3/5 of the daily total)

Therefore that gives us a views per comment of about 62.

Thinking about it, that’s not too bad – that I need to get approximately 62 views of a post before somone posts a comment.

Extrapolating this factor to Jason’s blog, he commonly gets about 30 comments for one of his normal posts which works out at about – 1860 views per post! (Though I would probably place it a lot more than that ^_^) and his recent Suzumiya Haruhi post which reaped 87 comments would have required 5394 page views! – numbers I can only dream of ^_^;;

Anyway, this has been a complete waste of time brought to you by yuribou. You may now get back to your regularly scheduled lives.