Lame couple is lame.

The first thing I noticed about this episode was the really strange acoustic version of the OP, “My Story”, in the early scene in the infirmary. It was a really weird tune but it works, what didn’t work was the matching outfits that Yuri and Gotou had in that same scene. Also, I laughed way too much at the sight of Natsuki’s daughter. I enjoyed his Metroid roll once he got on the pitch, as well as Tatsumi asking Ma-chan; “Why can’t he be normal?” There was honestly a lot to enjoy in this episode and I’m glad that I’m not blogging it on Sunday morning like I did last week. However I think the best part of the episode has to go to Natsuki’s celebration, followed by the fan grabbing on to him without the thought of ever letting go, and the realization that his daughter had fallen asleep.

Cool couple is cool.

Something that I haven’t talked about much when it comes to this series is how much I enjoy Tatsumi as a character. I’m a huge fan of Seki Tomokazu as a seiyuu and he’s great in the disheveled tie of Tatsumi. I’ve been a big fan of him since I first heard him in Escaflowne alongside…well I think at this point I don’t need to say anything. I think my favourite role for him though has to be Gilgamesh in Fate/Stay Night. I’m not a fan of that anime since I’m a huge fan of the visual novel, but he does an amazing job as the original King in that show. He does an even better job in the visual novel though, or I should say the PS2 version since that’s where the voice file comes from that I have attached to my PC version thanks to the legendary folks at Mirror Moon. If you like the anime you should play the visual novel, especially since it’s the best translation job I have ever seen for a VN. His role and dialogue in the two paths not covered in the anime is amazing and well worth experiencing.

Needs a lady in his life, methinks.

Tatsumi is a very interesting character; I’m sure most of you agree with me but I have a very specific reason for saying this. Even though Tatsumi is considered the main character, and therefore the character that we should have the most insight on, I feel that we hardly know anything about him. A big elephant that sits in the room of this show is the reasoning for Tatsumi to leave ETU originally that he has specifically never told anyone. Even though Tatsumi is a cool guy he still gets pumped up as a man his age should when his team scores and wins games. However the end of this episode had me wondering about what Tatsumi is really thinking. After Murakoshi was finished thinking about how ETU really had improved and that this is a good mindset to be in, Tatsumi looked worried for his team. I think that Tatsumi is worried that his team may get ahead of itself from here, especially with tougher games on the horizon.

ZETSUBOUSHITA!!!!

The preview for the next episode showed the return of the Dutchman. You should all remember him from being a part of the most epic handshake in recent memory from an anime. He is clearly going to be a boss character, and looks very confident in the preview. Next episode looks as though a lot of training will be had, however the looks of anger in the rain maybe setting up a loss for ETU. Akasaki in particular looked very pissed off. Clearly Tatsumi thinks of Osaka (and the Dutchman) to be ETU’s biggest threat at the moment and that is why he will dedicate the entirety of their training to defeating them. Giant Killing has nine episodes to go, and if the Nagoya match is anything to go by we can expect three of those episodes to be dedicated to the Osaka match. That leaves more than enough room for this series to culminate in a final boss battle, a rematch against an improved Tokyo Victory. For some reason I feel the rivalry between those two is like Manchester United and Manchester City; underdogs catching up.

Related posts:

1. Giant Killing 8
2. Giant Killing 6
3. Giant Killing 14

If that didn’t just make you cream your pants then get out. Seriously, leave this post. This is not the manga for you. However, if you did suffer a pantsplosion, then clean yourself up and carry on reading. You might want to have an extra pair of clean pants handy, though.

Warning: This post contains some of the following: giant tanuki balls, yakuza, awesome grandpas, and Zen abuse. Reader discretion is advised.

Clearly Rikuo finds these color page spreads as arousing as I do.

NURARIHYON NO MAGO

「ぬらりひょんの孫」

Read Online: MangaFox

Nurarihyon no Nago (which is a bitch to type, so I’m going to call it NnM from here on out), is about Nura Rikuo, the titular “grandson of Nurarihyon”. Nurarihyon is a kind of youkai that enters people’s houses uninvited and eats their food. He is also the “Master of All Spirits” and the leader of the Hyakki Yakou (“Night Parade of a Hundred Demons”, but its really just like a big youkai gang).

Coolest. Grandpa. EVAR. Of all time.

Rikuo is in line to become the next heir to the Nurarihyon Hyakki Yakou, but there’s one problem: He’s only a quarter youkai. Actually, that’s not the only problem. He just wants to be a normal kid and have nothing to do with his youkai side. As a result, he goes out of his way at school to prove himself to be a nice guy. Basically, he cheerfully becomes everyone’s bitch. He does, however, have a few friends: his next-door neighbor, Kana, Keikain Yura, a young onmyouji-in-training (basically, a youkai-slayer) and the “Kiyo Cross Squad”, a group of friends unwillingly recruited by Kiyotsugu, a rich kid with a major boner for youkai.

This image is really just an excuse to fill the tanuki balls quota here at Seikjitsu.

To complicate matters even further, Rikuo’s one-quarter youkai blood can become active for a quarter of the night. This “Night Rikuo” is everything the Rikuo of the day isn’t: Handsome, charismatic, powerful and he wants to become the Master of All Spirits. But this manga isn’t about Rikuo’s battle with his dual-nature. Its about Rikuo’s journey, however reluctant it is, to become the leader of the Hyakki Yakou.

Itaku and Kubinashi engaged in what I can only assume is some sort of elaborate hatesex ritual.

Probably the best thing about this series, to me that is, would be the youkai characters. If you’re expecting Inuyasha-styled youkai that are just pretty boys and girls with animal ears and tails then you are shit out of luck. Shiibashi goes the more traditional route of weird-ass youkai you might find in a work by Mizuki Shigeru. The best example of this would be one of Nurarihyon’s companions, Nattou Kozou, who is basically a youkai with a tiny, child-like body and a head of nattou wrapped in straw. The sheer variety of youkai is fascinating and seeing Shiibashi’s take on some of them alone makes the series worth reading.

He's ALL yakuza, bitch.

The manga itself starts off a little slow. It has a one-shot (which might confuse some people –like it did to me—since Shiibashi changes a few things in the regular serialization) and the whole series starts off focusing more on Rikuo and his schoolmates rather than the youkai side of his life. I wouldn’t call it “filler’, but it does feel more like Shiibashi is testing the waters and getting the feel for what he wants to do with the series. By the Gyuuki Arc, the manga definitely has found its groove and starts building up to bigger and better things.

Unfortunately, I won’t have the time to cover each new NnM chapter, which is why I’m sticking to this short recommendation. However, the anime just aired and Viz is doing a simulcast on Hulu, so I’m going to try to cover that if I can.

Random Zen abuse is random.

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2. The Tatami Galaxy 11 [END]
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This episode is full of shit...

  Probably one of the better episodes of this week (HotD was boring beyond all belief, even a Mad Max reference couldn’t make it any better…), Occult Academy is showing a good pace - each episode is just a bit better than the last, and even though I didn’t expect it, I found myself falling in love with the characters. This episode pretty much had everything in it, both comedy & supernatural, as well as a great demonstration of beautiful animation & artwork. In the cave, the tree had a very impressive, gorgeous glow, and surrounding area of nature in the whole show is always nicely drawn & animated. It’s nice to know they didn’t decide to go with the off-model route and cut back on the animation quality after the first episode. 

♥_♥

  The Vice-Principal is a character who worked her way up as one of my favorites of Occult Academy. As Joojoobees noted, her voice actress (Kobayashi Yu) does an amazing job with this character, who seems to have an awful case of love-sickness and PMS. I feel for the VP because, honestly, who hasn’t had an unrequited love before? (If you haven’t, or even worse, were on the other side of an unrequited love, please go die.) I’m not rooting for her, but I admire her honesty and creepy… weirdness. After all, although she is more at Stephanie Meyer’s level of writing (higher, actually) than Jane Austen’s or Nicholas Sparks’, we can all agree she writes better than the majority of Naruto fanfiction writers out there.  Most importantly, she is definitely better than that faker, What’sherface.  

Like I said, full of shit... '3'

 Not much to say about What’sherface that isn’t already obvious. I’m just curious as to who/what she really is, what’s her game, and why Numbuh 6 doesn’t realize no girl really trips that much. But seriously… it should be obvious that she meant for him to get lost in that cave, but how did she get him to trip & land against that perfect spot? A little too coincidental, but it was a nice way to get rid of her and bring back Maya, because Lord knows there wasn’t enough Maya in the last episode. She & #6 make a great team – he runs away while she does all the work. The most important reason Maya needs to be around more is that she just spews out myth-related information here and there, which I really like, because I love the occult and supernatural, so whenever she mentions something I already know about, it makes me happy; but when she mentions something I don’t know about, it’s all good, because then I’ll look it up in my encycopledia of mythological creatures or online. I’m a total loser & reki-jo, so my favorite anime/manga are ones which make/encourage you to do research.

Max & Monica continue their journey to rid the world of clowns...

Speaking of great teams, Smile & JK are definitely the coolest so far, or at least the ones with the coolest nicknames. Sure, JK (“Porco Rosso”) isn’t the prettiest boy around - his make-up and hair do not do a single bit of good for his complexion - but he’s useful, funny, and a non-douchey musician. (It was interesting how the background music changed a bit to suit his weapon.) He’s unique, simply put. Smile, not the most uniquely designed character, hasn’t been around enough to judge, but he’s the kind of guy most girls will fall for - cool, laid back, big wrench. I like his design (jumpsuits are unusually cool), but mostly his giant wrench, although whatever needs a wrench that big is beyond me. Anyway, they’re the unlikely duo, and if there isn’t fanart or fanfiction pairing them up together, I would be disappointed… Not that I’ll be looking for it, or anything…

Use the Eternal Sword, revive the tree, merge the two worlds!

Unfortunately #6 can’t really do anything, but I’m starting to like him anyway; partially because I feel sorry for him, but also because his patheticness is just a bit amusing. At least he has the willpower (if that’s what to call it) to behave normally after falling into a pile of poop, to pull a cellphone out of said pile, a la Jurassic Park 3, and to walk around normally with no stains on his clothes as if nothing happened. Doesn’t What’sherface smell anything? (Maybe it’s because she’s full of shit, so she’s used to the smell…) Based on the sneak-peeks of the next episode, it’s going to feature more of Meganekko, who might be added to #6′s small, pathetic harem. It’s probably because of the lie he told What’sherface about saving her, but I’d much rather prefer Meganekko to have a crush on Maya instead. After the Black★Rock Shooter OVA, I wouldn’t mind a little extra girl’s love ;) 

 

Related posts:

1. Seikimatsu Occult Academy 2
2. Seikimatsu Occult Academy 1
3. Seikimatsu Occult Academy 3

This was announced the other day at Comic Con, and so once I did my victory dance, I decided to do this. Turn A Gundam is by far the most orginal gundam series yet. The main charecter Loran does not really kill much which is a change from other series especially the Tomino Ones.  He has a record for doing “Kill ‘em alls” where everybody around the main character usually dies (this was prominent in Victory especially, but also in Zeta). He made Turn A around 1999 I believe for the 20th Anniversary of Gundam, along with G-Saviour which is a bad Gundam live action.

Anyways this marks Yoko Kannos first, and only Gundam Series. Many of you know her for her work in Wolfs Rain, or even Cowboy Bebop. I enjoyed these series very much and think that this will be one of her best works yet. And while never stated publicly fans tend to believe this was her final go at Gundam, because she knew she couldn’t do it forever. This also marks the last gundam series to use this kind of animation before it was cg, like in seed.

Source: ANN

Related posts:

1. Gundam Unicorn 1
2. SD Gundam – Brave BattleWarriors 01
3. Giant Killing 17

The suit that this series revolves around.

Setting: The novel begins in U.C. 0001, at the very beginning of human space colonization, with the Laplace Incident, a major event that influences the course of human history forever. The main story takes place in U.C. 0096, three years after the events of Char’s Counterattack (Yes Amuro, and Char DID die), and 27 years before the movie Mobile Suit Gundam F91.

What I like about this is firstly how it was released dubbed and subbed at the same time, a feat in the industry not really heard of. Secondly this is the first time Sunrise has decided to adapt a Gundam Series based on something else, which in this case is a Novel.  Also the way the main Gundam of the Series is, we see at first it looks like a regular mobile suit with 1 horn in pure white, but in actuality this is a new creation NT-D (Newtype Drive, called Newtype Destroyer System by Full Frontal) which unleashes it into a more powerful form, that unlocks a Pyschoframe, and lot’s of parts to show, that yes in fact it is a Gundam. And if you are a Gundam fan who knows a ton about UC (Universal Century, from the original Series) you will recognize a few things, that I won’t go into now.

And here I thought the GM was a bad Suit, look at this!

My only real complaint though, is the usual Keys left in the suit syndrome, that you see in a lot of series (Aka 0079, Zeta, Double Zeta, X, 0083, this list goes on..). I was really hoping that the Main Character had already piloted Mobile Suits, in some shape, or form and I’m glad this is the case. Early on we see Mineva the little Ginger Girl from Zeta who was to become the next ruler of Neo Zeon after Haman Khan, but thanks in part due to CharAznable (Quatro Bajeena in Zeta) she escapes to Earth, although because it was from a game many don’t consider it canon.

Audrey Burne (Minevay) age 16

So like any run away royalty she has people chasing her to bring her back to fulfill her duties, but her new friend Banghar stops them constantly. He gets entrusted with the Gundam Unicorn because his Father was dieing (That’s a good reason for a 16 year old to pilot a Mobile suit right?). Although unlike a lot of other pilots of past series he actually has some strength outside of Mobile Suits. And so once the main plot kicks in he must pilot the Unicorn to save not only himself and his friends, but the colony, as those wacky Zekes are at it again, whether it’s stealing a Gundam with a nuke in it (WHY DO YOU LEAVE A NUKE, INSIDE A FUCKING GUNDAM, WITH THE SHIPS HANGAR OPEN?) or Dropping Colonys and asteroids onto Earth. They need to do something to stay noticed.

This Zaku head is...win...

Out of all the suits we see in this, I love the Zaku the most, and it’s apparently a Space Variant of the old Zaku II’s from the One Year War retrofitted for space combat and given that sweet looking head. My question though is why a Zaku II? They developed and extensively used the Zaku III in the first Neo Zeon War (Double Zeta, 2nd war was Char’s Counterattack), but not here? That’s like going into a Battle using a Ball. What destroys this suit is the Mass Produced Zeta Gundam Variant that used the same technology from the Zeta but uses a different head, and mostly the same weaponry (though I’m not sure about a panoramic cockpit though).

Tell me this does not look like a badass Gundam,

I thought it was funny how the Suits now have Airbags installed in them. Why? If your suit crashes or gets hit you’re usually done for. The Unicorns transformation was fucking awesome since it shows both the cockpit transforming and the suit which I thought was nice. And we even see a cameo of the Argama (Not the one from Zeta but the one from Double Zeta after the original is destroyed). I still think if you added 2 shield-looking things and covers for the Catapult deck it would look like a white Base almost fully.

Rating: I would have to give this OAV, an 8 out of 10, as it has a lot of great things about it, but still there are things that I’m a little off with. And as a heads up Bandai won’t be releasing the next one until October or November so that’s when I’ll review the second episode. Until then I’ll be doing more Strike Witches (I’ve more or less given up on trying to review K-On!! since they both come out the same day and it’s hard enough following all the animes this season.) But in Fall I will be doing Super Robot wars and Gunpla Builders, so look forward to that.

Related posts:

1. Turn A Gundam
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3. Hey Ladies

Welcome to Thunderdome.

So now I’m positive that this show is only one season long. I mean what the hell was with that ridiculous amount of recap that last almost the entire first half of the episode. We’re only four episodes in, that kind of stuff is crap. I don’t know what I find more annoying about this episode, the recap or Rei. Never mind, who am I kidding, it’s Rei. I know that most of you are probably thinking that I’m an idiot and that this show was obviously one season from the get go. Well, congratulations, you were right and I was wrong. I said last week that I didn’t enjoy some of the early parts of the manga and this episode did nothing to change my mind on that. It was an episode made up of recap, annoying rape-man and Rei. There wasn’t really anything to like about this episode from my point of view, and that is really bumming me out.

Grope...

Since so little happened in this episode there isn’t really much to talk about. It also doesn’t help that shortly before watching this I watched the Black Rock Shooter OVA which was a colossal disappointment. I had been planning on writing something about that OVA but after finishing that and this; I didn’t want to blog about either. I’m now most interested in how this anime is going to conclude. It seems likely to me that they will not have an anime exclusive ending and instead just stick to the source and leave it at a point that they can restart at when the manga is finished. Something I am concerned about though is how much of the manga material they are going to cover in the episodes remaining. I’m guessing that they will end this anime when they reach the safe house at around the chapter thirteen mark. This would make the next season start off with a bang. Fufufu~

Takashi brooding face of the week.

Shidou-sensei really is something else. That creepy calming lullaby he sung to those two girls was, well, creepy. H.O.T.D. follows the ever continuing Zombie movie path of very very stupid people doing very very stupid things. That student from the last episode that Shidou threw to the ‘wolves’ will not be the last. I don’t know what it is about Inoue Marina in this anime, but her voice annoys me to all hell. I hate Rei as a character to begin with so perhaps her voice is simply too perfect, but I never had a problem with her voice in Gurren Lagann, not that Yoko was anything close to my favourite character. If you watched Gurren Lagann and your favourite character wasn’t a guy, you’re lying about having seen Gurren lagan, or you’re crazy.

Well, I'm glad that one of us had fun.

I recently came across some good news that Sentai Filmworks will be releasing Canaan and Tears to Tiara in complete series Blu-Rays. Considering that Sentai Filmworks is also the liscense holder of the H.O.T.D. anime rights in North America, I would say that this gives a good chance of seeing H.O.T.D. on Blu-Ray in the not-to-distant future. Well, faster than we’ll see anything Kara no Kyoukai related at least *tear*. It really makes me sad that Canaan will be the first TYPE-MOON associated work I ever purchase on Blu-Ray. This is the fourth time I have given this spiel this weekend (now over). I say this weekend because I haven’t slept yet since the new week started, yay! Alright, that is all for this week, join us next week when we hopefully get back to the plot and view female characters that don’t make me want to shoot them by simply talking!

Related posts:

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First time in a while I've been able to use a good shot image.

My Biggest surprise in this episode was to find out that Akasaki is a midfield player. ETU utilize a 1-5-4 formation; a formation which Spain utilized in the World Cup Final. Only problem for ETU is that in order for that formation to work; you need to have one hell of a forward. Spain has multiple World Class strikers (duh), but the question is; does ETU have any? From what we’ve seen of Natsu I think we can assume that he’s an explosive forward. Sera on the other hand is having some Tsubaki-level problems. Tsubaki at this point isn’t even worth wasting air-time on apparently and has instead been relegated to a running gag. Hopefully Sera’s injury isn’t too bad, that looked like an ankle injury, and ankle injuries in football are rough. This episode of Giant Killing left us with many questions, however the only question that I have at this present moment is:

Who the fuck is this guy?

Kids, procrastination is a hell of a drug. I put off doing this post for a week because I had an essay that I really need to finish. Notice that I didn’t use past tense there, how I wish that I could have used past tense there. I put off this post to write that essay; except I have reached the end of the week with the new episode of Giant Killing looming and I have finished neither this post nor the essay. Though at least one of those things is soon to be rectified. Looking on the bright side, now I don’t have to wait very long to see the conclusion of Sera’s injury. Though that’s assuming that it isn’t milked for the first ten minutes of the show, which considering the previous episode highlights and OP at the start of the show is quite likely. Another thing that is looming over me is the next episode of H.O.T.D. which is about a day away. As it turns out this season, I’m either blogging an episode the moment it comes out, or close to a week later just before the next one.

I'm considering that this man might be Tsubaki's birth father.

As the images I have chosen for this week indicate, this was the week of stupid faces in Giant Killing. Everyone seemed to be making some sort of face at some point, and I was thoroughly amused. I haven’t used it in the post, but the shot of Murakoshi’s smug face after scoring the goal was my favourite. Just as a quick side note; Kuro seems like quite the happy camper now doesn’t he? I like this style of balancing on and off field play more than what has come before. I did not like ETU on the field against Nagoya for three weeks running, something I liked even less were the ridiculous subbed and dubbed conversations between the Brazilians that would last minutes of play time. At this point the only thing that I want from this show is to connect Fujisaki to Tatsumi. Now that ETU is winning I would like to see the two of them meet, and god forbid that a sports anime have some damn romance.

I'M NOW CONFIRMING THAT HE'S TSUBAKI'S BIRTH FATHER!!

I remember when Bass told me to read ‘Slam Dunk’ I asked him if it had romance in it. I was under the impression that it did since the whole reason for the main character to start playing basketball was the main heroine. I will never forget what Bass said to me; he repeated the words: “nah” about twenty times without even giving me a chance to talk. Then when I finally did talk he continued to say “nah” to all of my heart felt complaints for the lack of romance. The only complaint I had with Eyeshield 21 was that the romance between Mamoru X Hiruma and Suzuna X Sena were niether resolved, nor even confirmed for that matter. The only saving grace for romance in Eyeshield 21 was the fact that Marco’s whole reasoning for winning the Christmas Bowl was so that he could have sex with his manager. Truly a man among men.

"These are stupid people..." Is what Sera is thinking here.

I slept really poorly yesterday, and I couldn’t understand it at all. I played Alien Swarm and even took my medication by watching Remaining Sense of Pain and then listening to Everywhere. I tried very hard to figure out what was wrong, in order to do so I checked my MAL favourites list to see if maybe I had become too attached to a seiyuu again. Sure enough after watched the first two episodes of Arakawa Under the Bridge in 1080p I discovered that I had been suffering Hiroshi Kamiya withdrawals. It’s okay though, this has happened before; I even came up with a cure last time. I will simply go and play the Heaven’s Feel path in Fate/Stay Night and then I’ll hate his guts more than I hate Hirakawa Daisuke. Next week (A.K.A. later today) should hold an interesting episode. Hopefully we will see Natsu in action. Just as a quick shout out I’d like to tell anyone who doesn’t know to check out Metanorn, which is currently looking for more sacrif—writers. Hopefully I’ll see you there soon, fufufu~

Related posts:

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Yes. That's really what the show is called.

CAT SHIT ONE

「キャットシットワン」

Summary: Here we find the team codenamed Cat Shit One, consisting of American soldiers Perkins (“Packy”) and Botasky (“Bota”). Packy is the leader of the two and as such is serious, level-headed and pretty damn bad ass. Bota, on the other hand, is rather flaky and cowardly. However, he is a pretty good sniper and Packy can trust him to watch his back.

Packy and Bota are perched on a ridge overlooking an enemy encampment. Their enemy has three prisoners and, as the duo watch, that number is taken down to two when an escaping prisoner is gunned down. Their aerial support is still fifty minutes away, but Packy doesn’t want to risk any other prisoners dying. Bota doesn’t like the idea, but agrees to cover Packy when he goes down to liberate the prisoners. I mentioned Packy is a bad ass, right? He sneaky down into the encampment, slitting throats Rambo-style until he gets to the building with the prisoners. He puts a silencer on his handgun and takes out the guards from a window while Bota gets his sniper-action on, taking out the enemy outside and keeping them distracted.

The best part is that the enemy spots him because his ears are sticking up over the ridge.

Packy’s mission goes well, but Bota is in trouble. The enemy figures out where he is (they could see his bunny ears through their binoculars) and proceeds to launch some RPGs in this direction.* He scrambles just seconds before one hits his hiding spot and then makes is way down to Packy. The two meet up and radio for their backup’s ETA. They are told that they need to take the prisoners one kilometer south for pick up, however, three trucks of enemy reinforcements will arrive before their back up will. Packy tells Bota to take the prisoners to the meeting site (one is injured and has to be carried on a stretcher) while he stays behind to keep the enemy from following them. Bota doesn’t like the idea, but does as ordered.

I’m not goes to go into the details of what happens here since its a lot of bad guy shows up, Packy kills him, then dodges some bullets. The only thing worth mentioning really is that Packy rigs a couple of explosives to blow some shit up when he ambushes the arriving enemy. Bota makes it to the pick up site and puts up the yellow smoke signal. Not long after that, there is an explosion in the enemy encampment and Bota looks worried for his Sargeant (Packy had ordered him not to return for him).

The last thing you see before you die.

Packy has some trouble of his own when he’s out numbered and nearly knocked out by an RPG explosion. The enemy is nearly on him when they are taken out by two shots. Bota appears to save the day. Packy isn’t pleased, but accepts his help (I mean, its not like he can tell him to go away at this point). The two make their way to the pick up site and, at one point, Bota is attacked by a sword-wielding enemy soldier, but blocks his attack with his rifle before shooting him down. (Earlier Packy had reamed him out about having too many superfluous attachments to his rifle — Bota thought they looked cool and he is validated because they totally saved his life just now.)

The two are eventually cornered and pinned down by gunfire as they crouch behind a ruined brick wall. The enemy begins to surround them and all hope looks lost, until a helicopter appears. This is their back up, Angel One. So Packy and Bota are saved and begin walking into the sunset as Angel One decimates the encampment. Packy scolds Bota for violating a direct order, but his “punishment” is more of a reward.

I'm willing to bet that hawt PackyxBota slash has already been written. I prefer HelicopterxEnemy. Their love is so deadly.

Thoughts: Oh, wow. I don’t know where to start on this one. This is a very serious anime. If you stripped it of it’s animal characters then it would probably play like an adaption of a Tom Clancy novel. That having been said, most viewers probably won’t get into unless they like stories of modern warfare or anime that is serious in tone. There’s some good and bad about this episode.

The good is the quality of the animation and the music. The music actually reminded me of Hans Zimmer’s score for Black Hawk Down. Both the editing and the animation itself is well done. Even though the animators were using animals in place of people, its pretty obvious that they were striving for realism, from the way a person moves at the impact of a bullet to the twitching of the duo’s tails.

The bad is mostly the predictability of the plot (I wasn’t the least bit surprised Bota went back for Packy or that the helicopter arrived just in the nick of time) and the fact that the enemy consisted of graduates from the Imperial Marksmanship Academy. Seriously, they couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn from the inside (unless they’re using an RPG that is). In contrast, the heroes only miss when it serves the plot. Another this is the bloodlessness of the series. Maybe I’m just too used to violent, bloody anime, but it was weird seeing all the violent and no blood. It was like watching unfunny episode of Tom & Jerry.

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3. Seikimatsu Occult Academy 1

Keikaku doori…

Those bloody vampires. There, I said it. Proven and quite obvious; the Kirishikis raise their weird-hairstyled heads towards the unsuspecting, almost naïve townsfolk of Satoba. And this is not the only thing wrong with this godforsaken town, there are some resident citizens that are unique-looking like youkai, adding to the whole creepiness of the series. Even your friendly looking neighbors and priests have giant skeletons in their closet. For the village living off death markers, there is definitely more than just death surrounding them that is slowly turning into a paranormal epidemic.

Giving false hope? Tch.

「 Shiki 3 – Third Tragedy (第惨話) 」The angry-man Toshio, is taking his job seriously but very slowly. He’s gathering evidence but really can’t put his finger on the cause of continued death surrounding his village. The next in line is Nao, who he circled having the same symptoms as Megumi. Toshio is more than ashamed in deceiving his childhood friend Mikiyasu in believing that there were chances of her survival. In the quest for clues, he learns of the Kirishikis visiting the Yasumoris. The audience is more adept at recognizing clues than our good doctor, who cares more about blood tests and turns a blind eye to a bite-mark on Nao’s hand, which screamed vampire. Forget about the reticulocyte count going high, there are bloody vampires in town and they will suck everyone dry. Run for your lives, bakkamon. Though, nothing like that happens except for a child’s scare-intuition, the Yasumoris welcomes Seishiro and Chizuru into their house for O-bon celebrations proving themselves quite neighbourly. If only they knew…

Peekabooooooooo!

Town becomes abuzz with the string of deaths, especially for attention-whores like Masao Murasako. I’m aghast at the gall of him for hating Natsuno’s guts when he’s a weirdo himself. Even being a year senior to him, he’s an attention seeking bully that would break his own nephew’s toys just for the heck of it. I would like to see him bitten next just out of spite and was creeped-out nonetheless during his interaction with his sister-in-law over liking his brother.

Do we have a bromance, Houston? Depends on him remaining alive. Copy that, Over.

Tohru Mutou can be dubbed as the most likable character as yet with his friendly nature; not to mention the angelic smile and rainbows shooting out of hosepipes when he’s watering the garden (FTW~). He is the only one in town except for maybe Ritsu (Nurse in Ozaki clinic), who have genuinely taken interest in Natsuno and are trying to help him adjust to the peculiar town. He’s one of those reliable senpais that you look up to for support; of course, to Natsuno it’s all pretty much Mindukse and people should just leave him alone. Though, I can see him being thankful to him because he’s been losing sleep since Megumi passed away and keeps on getting the prickly feeling of being stared at. Finally, I didn’t want to punch Natsuno rather I empathized with his loneliness. He’s been a loner from a time unknown and likes to keep a distance from everyone. His thinking is definitely older than his age because he doesn’t follow the exact footsteps of a high school kid. I would give his brooding to break in an episode or two when he would finally faceoff with the changed Megumi. For now, at least he has Tohru, whose house he can sleepover at rather than his own, which has turned haunted and eerie due to you-know-who’s presence.

Meet Sunako-ch-- gomen~ no wallflower reference

The most intriguing introduction was of Sunako Kirishiki, who not only surprised the resident Junior Monk Seishin by materializing in front of him but totally gave Mina Tepes a run for her money (not that I liked Vampire Bund, such a waste by SHAFT). She reminds me more of Claudia from Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, who hated being called little and didn’t act her age—trapped in a frail body even after aging for hundreds of years (I’m referring to the book, which surprisingly has a manga adaptation too, check it out if you are curious). Her sugar-sweet voice hides an eeriness that only becomes plausible when she lays down secret information as if it was common knowledge. She lets slip three important clues:

• Their purpose for moving to Satoba (Seishiro being inspired by Seishin’s article “Village enveloped by death”).
• She considers Seishin to be forsaken by God as herself and her companions, who are defiled and unnatural beings.
• Seishin being a cutter, meaning a dark past that probably did not start at a sanctuary/seminary. How he turned out to be a Monk after being suicidal can be anybody’s guess.

If only the citizens of Satoba knew that Kirishikis moved in because of him…

I was a bit surprised to see Seishin as a novelist. Can a Monk actually get published? (Six novels, short stories and magazine articles; lucky, I could only wish for few! =P) Ideally their way is to distance themselves from everyday life and walk the path of difficulty to commune with God. The story he was working on in the beginning about an exile plagued by a guilty conscience could have been inspired by Natsuno but from what I could gather, Seishin is still trying to find God in his surroundings. Thus, he’s writing about things familiar to him like the village of Satoba as a giant shrine and some of its intriguing residents.

Didn't your parents teach you not to accept things from strangers?

It’s almost ironic how Satoba citizens are becoming food for vampires and no one has a clue. Of course, you can’t expect Toshio to just Google the reason rather than looking at the symptoms in a medical dictionary. How simple-minded people go, I see the big discovery episodes away; maybe Natsuno can be the first one to figure it out but then again anything can happen as things are going. My interest was piqued with the mention of a brother; did he have one? Is he adopted? Why doesn’t he share his parent’s name and why are the Koides in Satoba anyway? In the next one, I would like to know more about Natsuno and his deal because no kid is ready to die—like Masao, who freaked out at the mere thought—but incidentally he is and doesn’t even care. Would he be losing Tohru and finally get the motivation to actually care about what was happening around him or Megumi’s appearance would do the trick? There’s definitely potential in him as in Toshio and Seishin but I don’t expect them to wise up anytime soon.

I wanted MOAR Kirishikis and Gackt; still their entry was total WIN~ Such dramatics and European flair. Chizuru was almost scary with her dark-blue eyes and Sunako too, possessing the same in red. As predicted they are literally preying on humans and their errand boy is Tatsumi, who is gathering potential victims with his puppy-dog looks. So what if they are not particular about the jugular vein? They still love blood and would continue to slowly consume the townsfolk. So, I’ll look forward to more revelations in the next one. Till then, Ja ne~

Related posts:

1. Shiki 2
2. Shiki 1
3. Durarara!! Episode 09

Minorin, Ami and Taiga.... Wait.

Those apples cut like rabbits are so cute~

I have no words...

Couldn't they get the guys to wear butler uniforms at least? ;3;

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