spoilers ahead Best Mother Ever. ↩[LWC 58] Because (1) I enjoy lighthearted play on words and (2) have recently started watching the series at hand. I like it, the ‘slife element is very entertaining. Ok I had to marathon it (two days later after the previous sentence). I was pretty thrilled by the experience, and am still wallowing in [...]
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I didn’t like the anime Clannad this past year because it didn’t grew on me unlike Kanon and AIR did. Now on its more dramatic part, which is the After Story, I think this would be more tear-jerking than the previous Clannad and I think it would be worth watching if I’m in the mood [...]
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Here are today's "really cool products" that I've picked out for you, out of the 30+ new items we've added to the J-List and JBOX.com sites today. Note that some products may be "not safe for work" but that all links will allow you to redirect yourself either to the J-List or JBOX.com websites. To see all the J-List products, check out J-List or the JBOX.com updated products link. Ponyo Plush Medium Size ~ Ponyo on the Cliff on the Sea. For fans of the hit new Hayao Miyazaki film, here's a delightful plush toy of Ponyo, a cute girl fish who runs away from her home in the sea, wanting more than anything else to become human. It's so cute! Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea Playing Cards. Also, see the Pony playing cards we're posting, very high quality (of course) because every Studio Ghibli product receives the final approval of Hayao Miyazaki himself, or it doesn't get made. Dengeki Daioh Aug 2008. You want a thick manga? This is a thick manga! A stunning achievement of illustration work, this is the new issue of Dengeki Daioh ("Electric Shock Great King"), featuring some of the best manga in Japan, from Shakugan no Shana to Yotsubato and more. 900+ pages, with lots of fun free stuff! Goshiki Fighter Plane 1/9th Scale Figure ~ Mecha Musume. It's a cute girl with cat ears! It's a World War II airplane! Actually, it's both. This is the super-cute new Mecha Musume figure release, featuring the body of a Goshiki Japanese fighter plane, similar to the classic Zero. Kawaii? Nida Schuetlich 1/8 Figure ~ Shuraki Trinity Box 04. Wow, this is a gorgeous figure designed by Shunya Yamashita featuring a female original character in a military uniform. Best of all, it's a "cast off" figure, allowing you to remove her uniform -- awesome. This figure sold out in record time but is back in stock now! Makoto Sawatari 1/8 Figure ~ Kanon. I *love* this figure from Kanon. In fact, I want to nominate it for the unofficial Firefox web browser mascot, as this is related to this girl's story in the anime. Who's with me? Only one of these figures is in stock so I recommend you get it fast if you love it as much as I do. egg Aug 2008 vol. 142. Egg is an fascinating magazine, a combination fashion mag for stylish Tokyo girls and a glimpse into a unique area of Japanese popular culture. See everything that's going down this summer in street fashion culture in Egg, now in stock. If you like Japan's fashion magazines, remember that we sell all the most popular ones via monthly subscription. Ghost in the Shell S.A.C. Trilogy Box (Blu-ray Disc) ~ First Press Limited Edition. Blu-Ray fans, we've restocked the popular Ghost in the Shell S.A.C. box set again, featuring the longest and most gorgeous arcs in the series by Shirow Masamune and Mamoru Oishii. New J-Snacks. We've gotten in some great Japanese snacks today, including Kaki no Tane rice crackers w/ peanuts in rare Pepper Mayonnaise flavor, grape Fruit Juice Gummy with Chardonnay grapes inside, and the famous Bubblicious gum you loved as a child in bold Ramune flavor. iTunes Japan Music Cards -- Free Single of the Week. One of the many cool things about the Japan iTunes Music Store is the Free Single of the Week, which lets you sample Japan's amazing J-POP/J-ROCK world for free. To download, though, you need an account, which means using the prepaid cards that J-List sells, unless you happen to have a credit card issued in Japan. This week's free single is the eerily beautiful Oide Yo (Come Over and Visit) (iTunes link) by Kotoringo. Fun Traditional Items. Today we've gotten in stock of some popular items, including Japanese Jinbei, great short kimonos that are great for sleeping in wearing to a summer festival, Natural Fling Stone with Magatama Amulet, our clever Japanese ear cleaner that looks like a ninja sword, and our popular Happy Tanuki Sake Set for enjoying good sake with friends. Fifteen Minutes a Day Kanji Practice. See some great books and other items to help you learn Japanese at J-List. Today we're restocking the 15 Minutes a Day Kanji Practice Books, which lets you memorize Japanese characters by learning them in order and writing each repeately. Totoro Music Box -- Neko Bus. We've gotten in another ceramic Music Box for Totoro fans, this time the delightful Neko Bus (Cat Bus). Great for displaying in your room. Shiki Ryougi 1/7 Figure ~ Kara no Kyoukai *Preorder*. Beautiful women in kimonos with samurai swords go together quite well, don't you think? This is a great figure of SHiki Ryougi from a popular doujin illustrated novel that will become an anime soon. I love this figure's detail and large 1/7 scale size. Preorder her now. SMC Ekitoku Chouhi 1/7 Figure ~ Dragon Destiny *Preorder*. Next, there's another figure we're posting, the delightful Ekitoku Chouhi from Dragon Destiny / Ikki Tousen, wearing traditional Chinese plate armor and wielding a cool weapon. Preorder it now for shipping around November. Miku Hatsune Nendoroid Figure. The most popular Nendoroid figure that we can remember came back in stock...and then promptly sold out again. However, the figure that became an icon of all otakudom (to say nothing of spinning leeks) is being re-issued, so preorder yours to get it when it comes out in December. Restocked Bento Boxes, Accessories. Got a large update of bento items for you, including the Rabbit & Moon DX Bento Set that's one of the coolest I've ever seen, Blue Dragon Bento, Easy Boiled Egg Shaper and more. If you love Japan's culture of visually appealing boxed lunches, why not browse our entire selection now? Downhill Night 1-3 *Preorder*. The newest PC dating-sim games to be announced are the Downhill Night trilogy (Japanese title, Moero Downhill Night), an exciting series of "H" games in which you must help beautiful female drivers win fast-paced races. The games feature CG animation by the team that did Initial D, meaning tons of great action at every turn, and the third title in the series is actually a full 3D driving game. The new games are being posted for preorder to the site now. Juicy Girl -- Mizuki Oshima. Heh, the Japanese are good at coming up with funny English names, and "Juicy Girl" fits the lovely Mizuki-chan to a T. Fabulous glossy photographs printed in this nice coffeetable-quality large photobook.
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I’M NOT TALKING ABOUT THE ANIME. I REPEAT, I’M NOT TALKING ABOUT THE ANIME! Tomoyo after ~it’s a wonderful life~ is a VN made by Key (you know these people, they made Kanon, Air, and Clannad) in 2005. The original release was made for the PC and contained 18+ material, but later, a ps2 port with [...]
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I bet you were thinking I was going to pick on the CG rosarios in the OP sequence - well, think again. The first season of MariMite has something that definitely trumps Kanons rubber ducky - a CG card. Yes, it’s a red rectangle, which rotates around a little. How exciting! All joking aside, I really [...]
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Here is a video from an Otogijushi Akazukin DVD of Tamura Yukari (who plays Akazukin) and Yahagi Sayuri (Gretel). They talk about their roles and play a funny little tabletop game.Yukarin is oHagi's senpai at I"m Enterprises. They are two of the most talented voices in the industry, in my opinion. Yukarin is the consummate pro, and oHagi is getting there, with her wonderful juicy voice now under more and more control. I don't think of either of them as serious actresses, like a Sawashiro Miyuki or a Paku Romi, but for normal anime roles, they are both outstanding.From her first role as Karin, I have simply loved oHagi. She is widely regarded as ugly, but really she is ugly-cute. She's a belle laide, as the French say (a beautiful ugly woman). That goes for Yukarin, too, in my opinion. I find oHagi utterly charming on radio and in videos like this. Natural and nice.<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/u_BNYAxlJFE&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/u_BNYAxlJFE&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Yukarin (32) is best known for playing Nanoha, but she has had many other great roles, including Mai in Kanon, Sakura in DaCapo, and Rika in Higurashi. oHagi (22) burst onto the scene at 19 with her wonderful voice as Karin in 2005, and now is getting constant work as a reliable second-line performer. She was outstanding doing the weepy voice of Kuu in Kyoshiro and the Eternal Sky, and is now Haruna in ToLoveRu. She has the juiciest voice I know, although she appears to be trying to dry it out a bit so she can play more varied roles.In Hirano Aya news, Aaya visited both Hokkaido and Kyushu recently, promoting her album by visiting stores and doing a mini-live in each place. The album has been a commercial success, selling 31,862 copies in its first three weeks of release. It went from sixth for its first week, to #32 and then #52, but it is still selling: 2,994 copies in the third week.And today's blog entry from Aaya says that they are now recording the final episodes of Daughter of Twenty-Faces. I have loved her work in that show, although I was not so happy with it in the most recent episode, ep15.
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This week we feature the delectable Seena Kanon from the Shining game series. No, she’s not from the good Shining Force games. She’s from that other Shining series, the one that’s ridiculously bad… Shining Tears/Wind. As if the games weren’t bad enough, remember the Shining Tears x Wind anime? I’d rather not because I don’t [...]
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Anime on Mania DVD has word of both the next set of Geneon titles released by FUNimation and the first set of former-ADV titles, specifically Devil May Cry (all three volumes out October 7th) and Kanon 6 (October 14th).
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Clannad girls, but not all.I rarely write topic about anime but this time is different. Last week is a week full of watching anime, including Keroro Gunsou, Clannad, and Ichigo Mashimaro (TV and OVA). And Clannad happened to be the anime that made me cry and not just once.Key is known for their capability to create a great touching romance / drama story (visual novel) and Clannad is one of some masterpieces from Key. I watched Key's masterpiece like AIR and Kanon (2006), and i cried while watching both animes.This is one reason why i like Clannad, the girls!Let's start with some summary of the story and character intro:The story starts with Okazaki Tomoya a delinquent lazy bum which often skips class and also has a delinquent friend, Sunohara Youhei. Some day in the way to school he met a cute brown haired girl, Furukawa Nagisa, talking to herself.Tomoya once again met Nagisa in the school park and talked to her. He figured that Nagisa wanted to enter Drama club, but the club has already disbanded. Nagisa's dream didn't end there. She, with the help of Tomoya, planned to re-establish Drama club.The story of Clannad revolves around Tomoya, Nagisa, and their journey to re-establish the drama club and perform a solo show in the school festival. In this journey, they met some beautiful and cute girls who have unique background stories and their own problems.Need moar Clannad girls in maid costume.That's it for the introduction, next will be full of spoilers. I'll talk about the characters and their story (and probably visual novel -VN for short- stories).Furukawa NagisaShe's the main heroine for this anime. Clannad stories itself will be focused to her path in visual novel. It's all about drama club. In this VN path, Tomoya and Nagisa isn't really dating, but they're always together going here and there.First is introduction of Tomoya, Nagisa, and friends. Next is about getting minimum member for re-establishing club, Tomoya and Youhei are the victims. But actually they're not the only one. Apparently Kotomi, Kyou, and Ryou also "accidentally" joined this club. I don't know about the visual novel but in the anime version they all joined the club.After getting enough member, the rest is up to Student council. But the student council at that time was too strict, so Nagisa still couldn't get the club re-established. And appears Sakagami Tomoyo, a candidate for next student council. Tomoya helped Tomoyo getting her elected to be student council, so he could ask Tomoyo to approve the establishment of drama club.Next part is the climax. School festival is getting near and the club training hard every day. One day before the day, Nagisa discovered the harsh truth about their parents. They had to leave their dreams and open a bakery because Nagisa is too weak and they felt that they couldn't leave Nagisa alone. When the show began, Nagisa couldn't say anything and she ended up crying. Fortunately, her dad came and encouraged her together with her mom and Tomoya.The show went well, and then Tomoya and Nagisa confessed each other, and they ended up dating.Clannad itself ended in episode 22. Their life after the confession starts in episode 23, and in episode 24 is another story regarding Tomoyo's path in VN.My (personal) opinion:It's somewhat typical to have Nagisa path being the main story of this anime. Nagisa isn't really my favorite character, just like Tsukimiya Ayu. But they also had their VN path became the main story of their anime. Nagisa is cute, and she's somewhat funny in her story, i like when they were embarrassed because something "interesting" happened.Nagisa's story was OK, but i guess i was somewhat bored with this kind of monopolization of main character and story.I love Kyou and Tomoyo in yuri action.Ichinose KotomiKotomi is genius quiet girl. She doesn't have any friend, except Tomoya. She has some kind of relationship with Tomoya in the past. She always keep herself in the library, reading some difficult books. She has a difficulty with communicating with other people, and Tomoya helped her out for that problem.In the anime version, Kotomi introduced to Nagisa, Kyou, and Ryou for her first friend. She also showed her interest to violin, even though her play is soooooo bad. Her friendship went well for the time being. Kyou even helped her to held a violin recital (concert).An incident happened. It's a crash between bus and taxi. Although this accident didn't involve the characters directly, Kotomi was somewhat affected with this accident and she loudly, and then she fell unconscious. Then she decided to take some days off from school. Anyway, this incident happened near Kotomi's birthday.Looking at her condition, Tomoya couldn't resist to remain silent and do nothing. He came to Kotomi's house everyday and he discovered the truth about Kotomi's parent and his own past with Kotomi.To make up for his own mistake (about forgetting Kotomi), Tomoya started to repair Kotomi's house garden. With the help of his friends, they managed to finish right before Kotomi's birthday. And also in that day they, especially Kotomi, learned the truth about her parents.My (personal) opinion:Kotomi is one of my favorite girl in Clannad, especially because of her hair (and breast). In her storyline, Kotomi doesn't need to be Tomoya's girlfriend so KyoAni can insert her story in the anime. I know KyoAni can insert all Kanon's characters' stories, but they can't manage to insert all Clannad's characters' stories in the anime.Anyway, Kotomi's story isn't that interesting, especially at the part when she cut school after the crash, she didn't make any appearance for some time.Sakagami Tomoyo with apron and MEGANE!!! WAAANTTTTT!!!!Sakagami TomoyoAn energetic and strong girl, right a year below Tomoya. He met her because of her rumor of being strong and popular girl. Youhei, Tomoya's friend, started to challenge her a few times and resulted in complete loss for Youhei, and of course new friend for Tomoya. She actually a candidate for new student council head.After meeting her for a while, Tomoyo started to do something outrageous. She came by to Tomoya's house every morning to wake him up and made him some food. Damn that Tomoya, he's a lucky bastard. You won't find any girl like that in the world, except your wife or girl from anime. Tomoya, once again with his personality, helped Tomoyo to get elected in student council election. And yeah, he DID help her to be the winner.In the anime version, Tomoya helped Tomoyo because he wants Tomoyo to be the student council head and approves the drama club. But the VN version is totally different than that. You can see her real VN story in episode 24 of this anime, or the official title is Clannad Another Story : Tomoyo Chapter.KyoAni really did a great move for this. I know that I'm not the only Tomoyo fans in the world, and this episode greatly pleased Tomoyo fans in the world including me. In this story, Tomoyo and Tomoya were dating, so it's impossible to insert this story in the middle of Clannad anime (Nagisa) story.As i said above, Tomoyo and Tomoya were dating. The story starts from the point where Tomoyo and Tomoya waited for student council election results. I heard from my friend that in the VN version, while they were waiting there was a kissing scene between them. I don't know why KyoAni cut this part.Tomoyo has so many things to do when she became student council head. And people believed that Tomoya was just a hindrance for Tomoyo, so he decided to break up with her. After a long wait and all, Tomoyo's dream came true (i won't discuss about her dream). And she decided to came back to Tomoya, with sacrificing all good things like enrolling to great university.My (personal) opinion:Tomoyo is once again my favorite character because her megane and her breast. I like her when she started to came to Tomoya's house every morning. I already said this but I'll say it again: KyoAni did a great job for Tomoyo. KyoAni gave people a chance to see animated version of Tomoyo's VN path. I guess KyoAni had a hard time to decide how they'll combine those VN stories together in 1 complete anime. It was a great move to create an extra episode like that.Megane Fujibayashi Kyou, i... can't stan...d... thi...ss any...moooaaarr...Fujibayashi KyouShe's a third year student, same grade with Tomoya. She also has a twin sister, Fujibayashi Ryou. They reminded me of Kagami and Tsukasa, being twin and also long and short haired. As a twin Kyou and Ryou has the same job as class president, and also has the same interest with Tomoya. DAMN YOU CURSED TOMOYAAA!!!!In the anime Kyou and Ryou only have a supporting role. But in the VN version, Kyou went into some sad and touching love story. Kyou and Ryou both loved Tomoya, with Kyou is a tsundere big breasted girl, and Ryou is a clumsy and cute girl. Very high similarity with the Hiiragi twins, except the love part.I found out that the lunch together part and the locked in storage part are part of Kyou's path in the VN. I don't know much about her story in VN. The only thing i know is that Kyou loved Tomoya, but she has to hold her feeling because she wants her sister to be happy more than herself. So she decided to help Ryou to win Tomoya's feeling.I heard from my friend that in the VN, Tomoya ended up dating with Ryou. But after some time Kyou couldn't hold her feeling and also ended up confessing with Tomoya. And in the end, Kyou became Tomoya's girlfriend, leaving Ryou dating another Nagisa.... sorry i mean another guy.My (personal) opinion:Kyou is my personal best favorite for recently watched anime. She has her long hair, beautiful face, tsundere personality, and sexy body. But life is unfair. KyoAni made Tomoyo Chapter but i think there will be no Kyou Chapter or something like that. So Kyou fans in the world will cry because there will be no animated version of her VN path. Kyou being a supporting role in this anime is the reason why i cried while watching this anime, especially at the part when Kyou said "we knew that, didn't we" and then cried together with Ryou.Lyrical Magical Fujibayashi Kyou!I also watched the movie version and it ended up just like AIR the movie, it's a bad way to do retelling for the story. I heard from my friend that the ending for this movie is somewhat made up. The part where Nagisa passed away and Ushio was born came from After Story, but the ending wasn't from After Story.So Clannad After Story will be next, and i will look forward to this one. If you noticed, there isn't anything about Ibuki Fuko in this post. It's because i don't want to discuss about her, that's all. It's just i hate this character.I hope you enjoy, and please tell me if there's anything wrong / mistakes, especially about the visual novel parts. Well that's it for this long rant.
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I haven't marathoned an anime in a long time. After being repeatedly disappointed by with a lot of the things that I marathoned like Kanon and Da Capo, which I never got past episode 4 of each. I'm not sorry, but harem anime are crap in my books ~but their art is lovely. I really prefer something with a little more common sense or a lot of comedy apart from the blood and guts every once in a while.I've been meaning to watch Lovely Complex for months now. But the premise of tall girl and short guy kinda put me off. Well... I watched and loved Toshokan Sensou already so I figured I should finally watch this already.The story revolves around Koizumi Risa who is taller than the average Japanese female at 5'8" and Otani Atsushi (LOL! Same given name as that short guy the sexy beast Dojo!) who is shorter than the average Japanese male at 5'1". Both have spontaneous and fun-loving personalities who always speak their minds. They fall in love with each other but are hesitant because of they're uneasy about the height different. Risa gets over it faster and confessed to him but he took a little more time getting over the fact and they finally get together. The series spanned through the three years of high school. In between, they are surrounded by their friends some want nothing more than for the two of them to get together and a handful wants to break them up.I love this show! It is freaking awesome! I can't believe I sat through True Tears (I had to admit, it was good but was kinda meh... story-wise) rather than watch this show that time. The story is nothing extraordinary - no on is super rich or super talented or super anything. Actually, it's incredibly ordinary, but the consistency in the characters' personality with the right injection of comedy totally made it worth it! It had the best depiction of boy-girl friendships I've ever seen in anime where the characters are not in elementary school. But the thing I love love love about this show is: common sense. It goes through the motions of misunderstandings and awkward situations, but they don't last very long because the characters are actually willing to listen to explanations when they are being made. They don't stop at, "I will never speak to you again no matter how valid your explanation is!"The art style is suited for the anime... it's not going to win any awards for pretty animation (Also, when I started, I thought Otani looked a lot like that moron Yano from Bokura ga Ita so I had a big prejudice against because he's a moron. I got over that fast because his personality shone more his appearance). The two OPs and EDs are nice, though it's not something I'd listen to regularly - reminds me of perky teenybopper music. I like the BGMs though... well, I am a sucker for BGMs.The only complaint I have about the show is the sequencing. I sat through 17 episodes of getting together and only 2 or so of Koizumi and Otani as couple??? I mean, that's it? The only problem they encountered as a couple before they had a happily ever after is that other short guy in the restaurant that Koizumi worked in? Well, I heard that there are actually more things that happened to the pair as a couple in the manga, but I haven't read the manga. I certainly wouldn't have minded if they had more episodes just to make the part of them being a couple more stable.But other than that, I don't really have any complaints about the show. This is one of those shows where brains is not really a requirement to watch and appreciate the show, which was a relief for me..
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