Nihonomaru Anime Network - Current On-Going Series http://forum.nihonomaru.com Here you will find the most updated anime series. The ones what are being released the latest. en Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:33:33 GMT vBulletin 60 http://img1.nihonomaru.com/forum/images/nihonomaru/misc/rss.jpg Nihonomaru Anime Network - Current On-Going Series http://forum.nihonomaru.com To Aru Kagaku no Railgun - 08 http://forum.nihonomaru.com/current-going-series/147762-aru-kagaku-no-railgun-08-a-new-post.html Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:44:45 GMT To Aru Kagaku no Railgun - 08 Image:...
To Aru Kagaku no Railgun - 08




Summary:

Uiharu has gotten sick recently, and while going to deliver some medicine, Saten runs into Mikoto and Kuroko. All three of them go to visit their sick friend, and Uiharu ends up asking about if there’s been any progress on the graviton case. The mystery still is how a Level 2 was able to use Level 4 powers, and Mikoto is reminded of how Saten told her about the Level Upper. Since Saten doesn’t know the exact details of it, they refer to a related BBS, and Mikoto and Kuroko go to investigate a gathering spot to learn more about it. While those two are gone, Saten takes care of Uiharu and wonders what would happen if she herself used the Level Upper. She laments her own lack of power, especially compared to her friends, and while Uiharu can relate to that, she reminds Saten of how much fun they all have together.

Mikoto and Kuroko meanwhile arrive at the restaurant gathering spot, and Mikoto pretends to be an innocent girl who wants to learn about the Level Upper. Her act attracts the attention of a group of thugs, and they take her to a back alley to take advantage of her. Mikoto finds herself with no choice but to fry all of them with her electricity, and she’s then faced with the female leader of the group. This new girl has the ability to control the viscosity of asphalt, but it’s still no match for Mikoto’s ability. Unfortunately, not only does Mikoto not learn anything useful, but she also realizes too late that she unleashed a huge blast right next door to a power station, and it took out power across the city. The next day, Kuroko alerts Mikoto to how the culprit from the previous case has suddenly lost consciousness, and the baffled hospital doctors have brought in an outside specialist: Kiyama Harumi. Back in her own apartment, Saten is still trying to find the Level Upper and stumbles upon a hidden link pointing to it.

Preview



This wasn’t a bad episode by any means, but the main question on my mind after seeing it was why Touma was completely taken out. As those of you who have read the manga might remember, Touma was supposed to appear and end up facing Mikoto’s wrath in a bridge scene that mirrors the one in the very beginning of Index. I always really appreciated that as a sign of how the two series are connected and parallel, but unless they’ve decided to move it to later (which would feel awkward given the potential need to repeat the circumstances and blackout aftermath), it looks like that connection might be gone. Instead we had here a random girl who made for a decent fight, but that scene didn’t carry anywhere near the same weight as the Touma one would have.

On a different note, I also found it odd that Judgment didn’t have more smart people working on the level mismatch problem in the graviton case. It seems like the kind of thing that would raise a lot of red flags, and surely someone else in Judgment or Anti-Skills has heard of the Level Upper urban legend and put two and two together. And yet here we are, and it’s always Uiharu, Saten, Kuroko, or Mikoto in the lead. It’s not a bad thing because obviously they’re the main characters, and it’s fun to watch them in action, as Mikoto’s innocent act and Kuroko’s reaction this episode clearly showed, but it still bothers me a bit. Oh well… On the plus side, the story is really getting going now, and it looks like next episode should have a lot of Saten and Kuroko.

Reviewed by OMNI ]]> Current On-Going Series ellymate http://forum.nihonomaru.com/current-going-series/147762-aru-kagaku-no-railgun-08-a.html Darker than BLACK: Ryuusei no Gemini - 07 http://forum.nihonomaru.com/current-going-series/147761-darker-than-black-ryuusei-no-gemini-07-a-new-post.html Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:13:43 GMT Darker than BLACK: Ryuusei no Gemini - 07 Image:...
Darker than BLACK: Ryuusei no Gemini - 07




Summary:

Since they’ve got a lot of enemies, Hei and company find it hard to get out of Hokkaido in order to get to Tokyo. Hei decides to hire someone to smuggle them through the checkpoints, and this lady ends up disguising July as a corpse and Hei and Suou as the grieving family. Shortly after arriving in Aomori though, the car that Hei and Suou are in gets a flat tire, and the hearse with the lady and July doesn’t stop. Hei and Mao figure out that this was intentional and that the lady’s goal was to steal July and sell him, but Hei also thinks that it’s a waste of time to go after him. Suou disagrees, and after seeing July’s observer spirit on a departing truck’s window, she hops into the back of the truck with Mao in tow and leaves Hei behind. She’s convinced that July is feeling lonely and helpless, and she believes that Contractors and Dolls retain some fragment of their emotions.

Through July’s observer spirit’s guidance, Suou and Mao find him being held in a warehouse. Remembering the lessons Hei taught her, Suou makes use of some broken glass and throws severals shards at the woman who betrayed them until Mao finally stops her. While Suou is getting July though, a Contractor known as Ilya Sokolov who had been tracking them suddenly shows up. He kills off the woman with his Contractor ability to induce drugged states in people’s brains, and he easily captures Suou, July, and Mao. Fortunately, while he’s transporting them on the highway, their car is attacked by Hei. Despite hanging off the side of a moving car, Hei is able to use his wire as a garrote to strangle Sokolov to death and save everyone. He attributes some of his success though to July who had used an observer spirit to distract Sokolov, and in the aftermath, July notes his pain when Suou touches the bump on his head. The group then makes their way to Sendai and boards a train there, unaware that Repnin and Tanya are aboard the same train after having come to Japan because of a recent photograph showing Suou’s father alive in Tokyo.

Preview



This was a decent episode that moves the story along, but at a slightly slower pace than I would have expected from a 12-episode series (I didn’t think they’d make anything of the trip to Tokyo). It was nice to see July finally get some more character development, though it’s probably just as important that Suou got a bunch of her own development with the focus on her ruthless Contractor side contrasted with her care for July. That scene where she was repeated chucking glass shards at that woman certainly made the former point.

I do wish though that they wouldn’t keep introducing Contractors with cool powers (and in this case, a creepy remuneration) and then killing them off so quickly because it makes those characters seem like cheap roadblocks, like monsters-of-the-week. On the other hand, they are developing the mystery around the overarching story nicely with the Misaki/Genma scene, the Mr. Golgo 13 scene, and with the reappearance of Shion and Dr. Pavlichenko, so I can’t complain too much. It seems that it all has something to do with the ME network stuff, and maybe Repnin will explain it a bit more next episode when he meets with Hei.

Reviewed by OMNI ]]> Current On-Going Series ellymate http://forum.nihonomaru.com/current-going-series/147761-darker-than-black-ryuusei-no-gemini-07-a.html Nyan Koi! - 08 http://forum.nihonomaru.com/current-going-series/147655-nyan-koi-08-a-new-post.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:04:45 GMT Nyan Koi! - 08 Image: http://i403.photobucket.com/albums/pp111/nihoanime/Nyan%20Koi/NyanKoi-08-Large07.jpg Image:...
Nyan Koi! - 08





「炎の個人教授ランナー」 (Honoo no Kojin Kyouju Rannaa)
“The Blazing Private Instruction Runner”

Female underwear comes to save the (comedic) day! It was not a mistake in believing a mere bra could turn the tide, but having the Kirishima twins undoubtedly helps too. All they really had to do is make themselves at home at Junpei’s place with Kotone declaring herself as his future bride. That alone gets the ball rolling, but Nagi takes over soon after and steamrolls things along. Oh yeah, there’s more Junpei x Kaede going on and a cat problem to boot!

Over the course of the episode, there were plenty of cheeky remarks to go around this time, which I found was an improvement over last week’s showing. Right from the get-go, things bust out with a cold open of Junpei pulling Kaede’s bra out of his bag in the middle of a shopping district. Needless to say, I was lost as to why that happening out of the blue, but they quickly switched gears to show just how we got there. The quick rundown is that Junpei has to help teach the new cat in distress, Micchi, how to catch a tree sparrow because he’s a wuss. However, he gets heavily sidetracked by the appearance of Nagi, who blackmails him into taking part in track & field for Kaede’s sake. “It’s hooking up with her or marrying me!” Because of this, he ends up forgetting about Micchi’s request, spurring the resentful cat into stealing Kaede’s underwear and framing Junpei for it. After crap hits the fan in his situation, Junpei learns that Micchi’s actually trying to impress another cat named Sue, who won’t go out with him because he can’t even catch a bird. Feeling bad about neglecting him all this time, Junpei decides to make good on Micchi’s request and starts training him.

My personal highlights include Kotone being overjoyed about having Suzu as a little sister and completely disregarding Akari’s existence, Kotone tapping Junpei’s house with a wireless radio and overhearing that they’re going to have osekihan and whole red snapper for dinner, Akari telling her to not spy on others and be a peeping tom until she turns the adult age of 20 (because stalking is apparently okay then…), Nagi threatening Junpei into participating in track & field and spending time with Kaede or marrying her, the flat-chested senpai’s displeasure over Kanako’s “365 days a year, 24/7 outrageously sized breasts”, Metal Gear Solid style cat espionage, Junpei whipping Micchi into shape, and Micchi’s instant deep voice/personality change once he’s muscled up. Seeing as Junpei cleared up the misunderstanding over the underwear theft with the help of Haruhiko, and was still able to return Kaede’s handkerchief to her, the only person who really lost out this time was Kanako for joining in on the exercise. However, if we get to see her all bruised and battered for her efforts, it’s fine by me when it’s this alluring.

Without question, Tomatsu Haruka’s awesomeness as Kotone and Akari still steals the spotlight in my eyes. In fact, I would absolutely love to see her talking to herself during the dubbing sessions for this show, just because of how different the twins’ personalities are. Other than that, Kobayashi Yuu’s insanity as Nagi continues to drive the comedy factor. For this particular episode though, I must admit I enjoyed the MGS spoof more than I probably should have. I happen to be a big fan of the Metal Gear franchise, or at least that’s what one of my MGS4 playthroughs should indicate. Anyway, next time it’s swimsuits with Akari losing her top! Next Thursday is going to be fan-service crazy with both Kampfer and Nyan Koi pulling out their swimsuit trump cards. I’m probably promoting swimsuit episodes more than I look forward to them, but with amiable characters like these two series have, it should be a lot of fun.



Omake




Preview




Reviewed by DIVINE ]]> Current On-Going Series ellymate http://forum.nihonomaru.com/current-going-series/147655-nyan-koi-08-a.html Kampfer - 08 http://forum.nihonomaru.com/current-going-series/147654-kampfer-08-a-new-post.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:59:55 GMT Kampfer - 08 Image: http://i403.photobucket.com/albums/pp111/nihoanime/Kampfer/Kampfer-08-Large05.jpg Image:...
Kampfer - 08





「Liebste ~初めてのデート~」 (Hajimete no Deeto)
“Dearest One ~First Date~”

Damnit Natsuru, when the hot and sexy student council president invites you out on a date, you don’t ask why, you just do it! There’s no need to convince yourself that it’s camouflage for luring out white Kampfers. It doesn’t matter if she wants you to strip down and jump through flaming hoops; you just do it because she’ll reward you personally. Gah, I’m so jealous!

Oddly enough, things went smoothly from Natsuru’s perspective simply because he didn’t realize it was an actual date Shizuku was after. Thanks to his stupidity and overall denseness, he was pretty nonchalant in a hard-to-get kind of way. This of course works well for strong and confident girls like Shizuku, who enjoy making a project out of their boy toys. It’s the whole, “how can I get this seemingly uncaring guy to love me and want to protect me” type of challenge. For the most part, their date took place at an aquarium before shifting to a picnic lunch prepared by Shizuku. While our prez maintained her calm and complacent composure throughout the day and even initiated on a quite a few occasions, her girlish side came out a fair bit. This includes getting Natsuru to buy her a commemorative gift, being happy that he likes her food, and cozying up against him. Now now, I know she’s the super sexy, sultry, and seductive Shizuku, but she was so cute during those moments. It’s for softsided times like these that make the confident type of girls stand out in my eyes. The best part is that they’ll only show it to you, and only rely on you when they need help.

That said, I actually felt a bit sorry for Shizuku after seeing how much effort she put towards making the date go well. Natsuru was so convinced it was a ploy to lure out white Kampfers and daydreaming about doing all this with Kaede that he wasn’t the least bit receptive to her feelings nor advances. Using her esper-like senses, Shizuku was also well aware that he’d much rather it be Kaede here than her, and tried to make it easier for him by telling him to pretend she’s Kaede. Even then, Natsuru was too dumb to see where she was going with things. (Seriously, what an inconsiderate jerk!) To make things worse, when Shizuku eventually ended up talking about Kampfers, the idea that Kaede might be a Moderator, how she won’t fight the white Kampfers and be a tool, and how she’ll take revenge on the Moderators, freaken Natsuru dozes off and dreams about being popular and kissing other girls. During this time, Shizuku simply watches over him in his sleep and lets him rest on her lap (and steals another kiss!), being the caring girl that she is. Ugh, so much angst! Why do all the nice girls flock towards the unappreciative guys?

Okay, the fact that they have me all riled up means they’re doing something right entertainment-wise; however, that doesn’t stop me from enjoying the thrashing Mikoto gave Natsuru. I mean, not only did the highly sought after prez invite him out on a date, she also showed him where she lives and was about to invite him in as well! Even with Mikoto kicking his ass, he was still begging Shizuku to clear up the confusion over the date. Well you can call me one happy camper after Shizuku insisted that it was a date and suggested they did a whole a lot “more”. Unfortunately, Natsuru is proving to be quite the lost cause since he doesn’t even understand why Mikoto was in tears at that point. No one other than Kaede my ass!

His saving grace of the episode came at the end, when he managed to cheer up Akane by saying a girl like her is his type (amidst the one-track Sakura Kaede mindset). This led to the yet to be seen Kampfer transformation for Akane, which was mersmerizingly delicious. (All that’s left is Mikoto’s transformation!) Despite falling victim to Natsuru The Player’s ways, it was nice to see Akane in good spirits and forcibly getting him to pledge to her and go on a date. Next time, it looks like we’ll see just that during high summer, which means SWIMSUITS. Oh hell yeah! To top it off, we have some new faces showing up as well. More white Kampfer? I’d say it’s pretty likely. I said it before and I’ll say it again, this show rocks. Harem anime done right. Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise!

* I’ll get it right this time, I promise. Here’s the Rika Seppuku Kuro Usagi eyecatch!
(Good god, the seiyuu’s voice is a dead giveaway yet I never bothered to take notice until now. Ha, that was pretty fail on my part. orz)
* Uncensored DVD version for this scene please.



Preview



Reviewed by DIVINE ]]> Current On-Going Series ellymate http://forum.nihonomaru.com/current-going-series/147654-kampfer-08-a.html Kimi ni Todoke - 07 http://forum.nihonomaru.com/current-going-series/147539-kimi-ni-todoke-07-a-new-post.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:45:19 GMT Kimi ni Todoke - 07 Image: http://i403.photobucket.com/albums/pp111/nihoanime/Kimi%20ni%20Todoke/KiminiTodoke-07-Large13.jpg Image:...
Kimi ni Todoke - 07





「土曜の夜」 (Doyou no Yoru)
“Saturday Night”

We now interrupt your regular Omni Kimi ni Todoke broadcast for a little backup divine support. *static noise bzz bzz*
So after clearing up the rumours last time, Sawako is back to enjoying high school life like she never has — with friends! That means hanging out on Saturday night over at a guy’s place, getting teased about crushes, and all that other jazz. This episode had me laughing a lot more than I thought it would for one sole reason: it was sooo high school.

Things start off pretty precariously with a phone call from Yoshida out of the blue. Having missed a previous opportunity to eat out with Sawako, Yoshida invites her out for a second attempt at eating some touted ramen. Naturally, Sawako’s parents are overjoyed at the thought of their lonely daughter going out with some friends, so off she goes to Ryuu’s family run ramen shop/house. One delicious bowl of miso ramen later (with egg and all! *drool*), Yoshida takes Sawako and Yano upstairs to Ryuu’s room and makes herself at home. There, they discuss Yano’s adult-like relationships, Yoshida and Sawako’s lack thereof, and Yoshida and Ryuu’s sibling-like relationship, before deciding to get Sawako to call over the ultimate of ultimate rejuvenating individuals, Kazehaya. However, this is done with Ryuu’s phone for Yoshida’s entertainment, which has Kazehaya scampering about like a flustered little boy at the sound of Sawako’s voice.

While Mr. Refreshing zips on over, Sawako gets a glimpse of Ryuu’s middle school photo album and learns that Kazehaya was big on baseball before, but opted not to play in high school. When they come across Kurumizawa Ume’s picture, the talk quickly drifts over to girls and how she’s not Ryuu’s type, but Sawako is surprisingly alright in his books. One earth-shattering moment later, Yoshida and Yano quickly pick up on the fact that Sawako likes Kazehaya. After Kazehaya arrives, Yano notices the feeling is mutual and uses the opportunity to entertain herself to no end. Pin later storms in, disrupting the good ‘ol high school teasing. As it turns out, he was coached in little league by Kazehaya’s father and he’s quite the regular at Ryuu’s ramen shop too. Their crazy teacher then misunderstands Sawako as someone who can rid him of the little men that haunt him, causing Kazehaya’s boyish jealousy to quickly surface. Sawako however doesn’t mind one bit, since she’s so happy about hanging out with friends. When everyone finally heads home, Kazehaya chooses to accompany Sawako by using a convenience store run as an excuse, whereas Ryuu is quick to notice that Yoshida did all this to let him know they’ve reconciled with Sawako.

This episode was so amusing to me because it was basically a page right out of my high school days. It had everything from guessing who likes who to going through old yearbooks. In the process, you usually come across one or two friends who wear their feelings on their sleeve. Here, it happened to be Sawako and Kazehaya. The fun that Yano had with hugging Sawako and making Kazehaya envious was something I’ve seen happen all too often. It’s childish and dumb, but hey, that’s high school for you. In a way, the near-perfect high school depiction was almost scary, but I could simply laugh it off thinking, “oh man, I used to do such stupid things before.” If you’re wondering where I fit into all this during my teenage years, I was pretty much like Ryuu. I’d hang out with everyone, but be pretty indifferent to all the petty/friendly teasing going on. You know, it’s how we cool, calm, and composed guys roll… yep yep. (Sarcasm heavily intended.)

Aside from that, I actually liked the prevailent use of silly flat faces this time around. While the thought of them being used as time-saving measures crossed my mind, it seemed more intentional than anything else. The faces brought out all the silly high school behaviour a lot better, which unquestionably added to my personal enjoyment. Overall, an awesome episode that’s a nice change from all the high school melodrama. The latter is good as well, but I loved the change of gears here. Great stuff!

P.S. Yano stopped calling Sawako “Sadako”! *gasp*



Preview



Reviewed by DIVINE ]]> Current On-Going Series ellymate http://forum.nihonomaru.com/current-going-series/147539-kimi-ni-todoke-07-a.html Sasameki Koto - 07 http://forum.nihonomaru.com/current-going-series/147538-sasameki-koto-07-a-new-post.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:39:02 GMT Sasameki Koto - 07 Image: http://i403.photobucket.com/albums/pp111/nihoanime/Sasameki%20Koto%20-%2001/SasamekiKoto-07-Large06.jpg Image:...
Sasameki Koto - 07





「少年少女」 (Shounen Shoujo)
“Boys and Girls”

It’s a shame more people don’t check out other genres of anime and see what they have to offer as this episode of Sasameki Koto was absolute gold. I’m often asked what I see in yuri anime and accused of the obvious, but I can definitively say it’s for unexpected screenplay such as this. They took a whole different spin on the trap bit by having Sumika go on a date with “Akemi”, thanks to his bro-con little sister Manaka.

Someone was definitely wearing the pants on that date and it sure wasn’t Masaki. In fact, he was all out crossdressing in frilly clothes, squealing like a girl after soiling himself with some “cream”, trying on female clothes while flirting with Sumika, and getting chased by three fat Akiba-kei who can perform the Black Tri Stars’ infamous Jet Stream Attack. (GSD variation here.) That’s right, we have a Gundam reference in yuri anime! How is that not win? Back on topic, deep down inside Masaki must be enjoying his crossdressing ways on some level. I mean, he sure can play the part — much better than Sumika can anyway. If not him, Manaka undoubtedly does with her private photo sessions, Akemi fansite, attempt to take advantage of her cute brother, and spontaneous uncontrollable nosebleeds. Speaking of which, I’m pretty impressed she wasn’t lethargic after all that blood loss.

As I was saying above, this whole bucket of absolute win gets kicked off with the help of Masaki’s younger sister Manaka. To put her in a better, biased light, she happens to be played by Taketatsu Ayana, whom most people will know for her role as Nakano Azusa in the ever-so-popular light music anime. Well unlike Azusa, Manaka is far from being the one taken advantage of since she exploits/blackmails others instead. This of course leads to Masaki crossdressing for her personal enjoyment, but when she threatens Sumika to go on a date him (by compromising HIS reputation of all things), he draws the line there for Sumika’s sake. Somehow, her logic that Sumika should go out with her cute BROTHER because she’s interested in cute GIRLS doesn’t quite sit well with anyone (…with a brain). However, Sumika eventually decides to go along with the date this one time. It’s not for Masaki’s sake though, but because she feels sorry for Manaka having such a lame older brother. *Queue reaction*

Hilarity ensues when Manaka stalks them during the date in an effort to get Sumika to fall for Masaki, but nothing goes according to plan, not even the use of a questionable Internet-bought love potion (that ended up working for some cats). As a last resort, she sicks the aforementioned camera-bearing Akiba-kei on Sumika so that Masaki would have a moment to shine by luring them away. Unfortunately for him, they don’t seem to care that he’s a guy, making that attempt backfire. During all this time, Ushio’s been trying to get in touch with Sumika, who’s had her phone turned off ever since the movie, and is unaware of the date I’m sure she’s dying to go on herself.

For the most part, I wanted to say that Masaki brings this upon himself and just laugh at his predicament, but they had to slip in the ideal that he’s doing it to get along with his sister. When he says that wearing female clothes is a small price to pay, it’s hard to see him as just another crossdressing pervert and nothing else. Aside from that, it was pretty hilarious watching Sumika run off in tears complaining to god about giving all this cuteness to a boy and none to her. It must really hurt to be outdone by a guy in this area, but that’s the beauty of this trap scenario. Next time it looks like we’ll finally be introduced to Aoi Azusa, who’s been popping up in a lot of the episodes thus far.

P.S. Think it’s safe to say that Masaki shaves his legs?



Preview



Reviewed by DIVINE ]]> Current On-Going Series ellymate http://forum.nihonomaru.com/current-going-series/147538-sasameki-koto-07-a.html 11eyes - 07 http://forum.nihonomaru.com/current-going-series/147537-11eyes-07-a-new-post.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:33:19 GMT 11eyes - 07 Image: http://i403.photobucket.com/albums/pp111/nihoanime/11eyes/11eyes-07-Large03.jpg Image:...
11eyes - 07





「歪んだ覚醒 kanyargós ébredés」 (Yuganda Kakusei)
“Twisted Awakening”

Ahhh!!! When girls start talking to themselves out of sheer jealousy and smiling uncontrollably at the sound of a guy’s name, you just know we’ve tread into some dangerous yandere territory. Give her the ability to negate everyone’s powers (plus seemingly do a lot more) and no one’s safe anymore. By the way, did I mention we’re talking about our cute and lovable Yuka here?

For those who need a trip down memory lane on what yanderes are capable of, I direct you to our “wonderful” high school harem anime School Days. While Yuka’s still in the early stages of tearing up her Penzou-san bag, pass the girl one of Yukiko’s knives and she could be well on her way to Kotonoha’s level. But seriously speaking, I don’t need to see that here, nor do I want to. What happened to my good ‘ol wholesome high school students battling evil monsters in a strange world (eroge) anime? I’ve been pretty content with that so far (along with the occasional Misuzu stripping down scene). This has been a “no hacksaw decapitation” zone and I’d like to keep things that way if possible.

Anyway, there was actually a fair bit happening this week in the ongoing Red Night — Yuka’s awakening (in more ways than one) was just the icing on the cake. During everyone’s frantic search for Yuka, we learned about Takahisa’s crush on Yukiko officially, heard more of Yukiko’s murderous past in Dransvania, witnessed the death of Scholastica (the piece of Acedia that broke off last time) at the hands of Shiori, were shown how Superbia has both the knowledge and techniques of the Kusakabe family, and saw Invidia bite the dust as well. As for the brief demonstration of Yuka’s newly awakened ability, soon to be referred to as 「栄光の手」 (Eikou no Te) a.k.a. “Hand of Glory”, it can’t seem to differentiate between friend and foe. Apparently there’s more to her ability than meets the eye, but its ability to negate the power of others is all we’re left with for now.

What I found more intriguing though is the mysterious appearance of Shiori in the Red Night and how they hinted at Superbia being a former Kusakabe onmyouji. i.e. The exiled Misao mentioned back in episode three. As I discussed back then, the thought did occur to me after the Black Knights hinted at being human before, so it’s nice to know that it pays to take notice of the signs along the way. At the very least, it should make the screenwriters happy about how well they’ve let the story unfold. In terms of flashbacks, we’re also given a glimpse into more of Velad’s history. This time, we’re shown a tearful and vengeful girl named Lieselotte, who unsurprisingly resembles the Lisette trying to escape her crystal prison. Coincidence? I think not, especially when the credits don’t list a separate seiyuu for her.

Finally, I found it a bit odd that Kakeru was shocked that Kukuri may have written the note saying he’s the one that woke up the demons. It doesn’t seem like Kukuri has any bad intentions, so that scene was far from being any sort of a cliffhanger for me. It was more like, “Yeah Kakeru, she does have a better grasp of the situation than you. So does everyone else for that matter.” What he should be more concerned about is Yuka. Her eyes look like she can kill anyone without a second thought.



Preview




Reviewed by DIVINE ]]> Current On-Going Series ellymate http://forum.nihonomaru.com/current-going-series/147537-11eyes-07-a.html Bleach - 246 http://forum.nihonomaru.com/current-going-series/147536-bleach-246-a-new-post.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:28:33 GMT Bleach - 246 Image: http://i403.photobucket.com/albums/pp111/nihoanime/bleach/Bleach-246-Large02.jpg Image:...
Bleach - 246




Summary:

Yoruichi has an idea of where Yamamoto is, so Zaraki, Yachiru, Kyouraku, Ukitake, and Ichigo accompany her to find him. They arrive in the woods to one opening to an underground area, and the three captains and Yachiru take that one while Yoruichi and Ichigo head in through another entrance. Along the way, Yoruichi gets attacked by Tobiume and Haineko, and since she can handle both of them by herself, she sends Ichigo on ahead. Kyouraku and Ukitake meanwhile run into their own respective Zanpakutou, and both Katen Kyoukotsu and Sougyo no Kotowari are actually two entities. Elsewhere in the maze of tunnels, Zaraki and Yachiru run into Gonryoumaru and Tenken. By now, Ichigo has also run into a Zanpakutou, and in his case, it’s Minazuki. Minazuki, however, does not attack and instead leads Ichigo down a tunnel to where Kazeshini is waiting. Ichigo is able to beat Kazeshini by using his bankai and Getsuga Tenshou, and afterward, he continues on to cavern where Yamamoto is being kept.

Preview



Well, Kazeshini was kind of pathetic in that fight, but I guess he wasn’t at 100%, and he was fighting the main character of the series. Still, it would have been more appropriate if Kira had just finished him off in the previous battle instead of Ichigo here. I am curious though why Minazuki didn’t do anything except lead Ichigo forward. Since Unohana didn’t come with the other captains, I guess this probably means that we won’t see Minazuki fight this time (and in fact I have a sneaking suspicion that Minazuki might not ever fight in this arc). On that note, I wish that we got to see Yoruichi’s Zanpakutou in this mix too since this would be an ideal place to develop that story, but it doesn’t look like they’re going to introduce anything that’ll limit what Kubo Tite can draw in the manga in the future. I do wonder though if there’ll be hints or references to Katen Kyoukotsu’s abilities since those have now been shown in the manga. It’s definitely something to look for in the next episode, though the future episode titles seem to indicate that the story might take a different turn soon. Ichigo might not want to release Yamamoto here…

Reviewed by OMNI ]]> Current On-Going Series ellymate http://forum.nihonomaru.com/current-going-series/147536-bleach-246-a.html Kobato. - 06 http://forum.nihonomaru.com/current-going-series/147460-kobato-06-a-new-post.html Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:17:56 GMT Kobato. - 06 Image: http://i403.photobucket.com/albums/pp111/nihoanime/Kobato/Kobato-06-Large02.jpg Image:...
Kobato. - 06




Summary:

Shortly before leaving on a trip to the park with all the children, Kobato goes to get her bag and Ioryogi. She ends up answering a ringing phone in the process and finds herself talking with the person Sayaka owes money to. This guy wants her to pass along a message to Sayaka that he’s going to be shutting down the nursery school, and he hangs up soon after. Hearing this, Ioryogi decides to pass on the trip and instead heads out on his own to gather some more information. He finds a certain portal in town and ends up in front of a baumkuchen bakery in the middle of a forest. This bakery is run by an old acquaintance of Ioryogi’s named Genko, and Ioryogi asks him to do some investigating on the nursery school. Back at the school, Kobato tells Kiyokazu about the phone call, and he doesn’t want her telling Sayaka. The group then heads to the park where the kids have fun, but one little girl notices that Kobato is worried about something.

Kobato ends up playing hide and seek with the kids until it’s time to go, but that one girl doesn’t show up with the rest of the kids. Kiyokazu and Kobato eventually find her sleeping under a tree after having tried to find a four-leaf clover to make Kobato feel better. As luck would have it, Kobato finds a four-leaf clover in the girl’s hair during the group picture, and there’s an entire patch of them nearby. Ioryogi meanwhile returns to town and discovers another acquaintance named Ginsei waiting for him. The two have a brief battle, and afterward, Ginsei questions if Ioryogi is going to return to the other world. Ioryogi explains that he has something he has to do, and he warns Ginsei to leave Kobato alone. Ioryogi continues on his way after Ginsei backs off, and he’s met a little while later by a bird who brings information from Genko. It turns out that the nursery school used to be run by Sayaka’s father - who is now dead - and he was tricked and had to borrow money. The people who did it are dangerous, and among them is someone related to Sayaka. Ioryogi then returns home to Kobato, but he keeps to himself about what he learned.

Preview



I thought the stuff with the little girl was really predictable and not very interesting to watch, but it ended up being not quite so bad thanks to the scene where Kobato finally finds a four-leaf clover (and the music accompanying it). Much more interesting was the fact that Ioryogi went off on his own and actually did something significant, which both developed the main story, his own backstory - i.e. the circumstances to how he became a stuffed animal - and introduced some new characters. It seems like he still has a ton of pull too, and after seeing him go through magical portals and fight, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a few more special abilities he hasn’t shown yet. Speaking of which, it was a nice change of pace to see him battle Ginsei, even if it was a fairly short sequence. He can be pretty cool when he needs to be, and it’s in big contrast to all the cuteness in the show. In general though, it feels like the tone of the series is shifting more to the serious side now with all of the debt stuff, and I’m curious to see how it gets resolved.


Reviewed by OMNI ]]> Current On-Going Series ellymate http://forum.nihonomaru.com/current-going-series/147460-kobato-06-a.html Fairy tail - 06 http://forum.nihonomaru.com/current-going-series/147301-fairy-tail-06-a-new-post.html Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:53:16 GMT FAIRY TAIL - 06 Image: http://i403.photobucket.com/albums/pp111/nihoanime/fairy%20tail/FAIRYTAIL-06-Large01.jpg Image:...
FAIRY TAIL - 06





Summary:

Given how the dark guild Eisenwald has taken over a train, Lucy, Erza, Natsu, and Gray rush to the next station and find a large crowd gathered outside. They head in and find Erigor along with the rest of his guild waiting for them, and Erigor makes it sound like he plans to broadcast the death magic of Lullaby to the crowd gathered outside. Erigor, however, departs the scene and leaves the members of Eisenwald to take care of Natsu and company. In response to this, Erza decides to send Natsu and Gray after him, and she makes it a point to emphasize that they should work together. Two of the top Eisenwald members go after them, but that still leaves a ton of opponents for Erza and Lucy. That proves not to be a problem though because Erza makes use of her ability to switch out equipment on the fly, giving her access to a vast array of weapons.

Erza is also able to switch out her armor, and after doing so, she’s able to wipe out almost all of the enemies in one attack. The one remaining guy runs away, so Erza sends Lucy after him. Erza herself then grabs a megaphone and disperses the crowd outside, but much to her surprise, Erigor subsequently surrounds the station in a barrier made of wind and pushes Erza back inside. Natsu and Gray meanwhile decide to go down different paths, and after finding the station’s broadcast studio empty, Gray starts to question what Erigor’s real goal is. He then gets attacked by one of the guys who chased after him, but Gray doesn’t have too much trouble handling him. Gray gets the guy to reveal that Erigor’s real goal is to trap them here so that Erigor himself can fly to the meeting of guild masters and use the Lullaby on them. This gets Gray really pissed off, and he vows to stop them.

Preview



After all the setup last week, this turned out to be a pretty good episode. The main highlight was Erza of course, and as overpowered as she was, she was still a lot of fun to watch with all of her attacks and mahou shoujo-esque transformation. I also noticed that her armor got a lot more revealing, and in general, bust sizes seemed to increase this episode. In any case, the battles this episode were kind of weak since not even Gray’s opponent posed much of a challenge, but I suspect the main purpose of this episode was to showcase Erza and Gray’s abilities. As such, Kageyama will probably be a bit harder of a fight since we’ve already seen Natsu’s abilities plenty of times, and Erigor will likely be the real challenge, so I’m looking forward to next episode.

On a different note, I saw Watarirouka Hashiritai singing this series’ ending song on NHK’s Music Japan, and it felt odd to see them performing such a cutesy anime-connected song among the line-up of much more well-known (at least to me) artists like Otsuka Ai, flumpool, and MINMI. Then again, I don’t think very highly of the song, so I’m probably biased against it.


Reviewed by OMNI ]]> Current On-Going Series ellymate http://forum.nihonomaru.com/current-going-series/147301-fairy-tail-06-a.html Natsu no Arashi! Akinai-chuu - 07 http://forum.nihonomaru.com/current-going-series/147300-natsu-no-arashi-akinai-chuu-07-a-new-post.html Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:50:09 GMT Natsu no Arashi! Akinai-chuu - 07 Image:...
Natsu no Arashi! Akinai-chuu - 07





「天城越え」 (Amagigoe)
“Amagigoe”

If you believe in the single timeline theory, it’s safe to say you believe in fate as well. Things will happen and won’t happen at predetermined times, ensuring that nothing in the past, present, nor future will ever change. While that may be the case here, Sayaka still manages to give everyone a heart attack by sending them to the past over and over again and risking running into their former selves, just so that she can retrieve a teacup worth 10 million yen.

But hey, if it’s worth 10 million yen, wouldn’t you take the chance? The only problem is that for every failed attempt, the next time you travel back to the same period of time there will be one more of you. And with that, the chance of running into yourself and self-imploding doubles. Of course, that’s never really a problem since everyone’s in one piece to begin with, but it’s amusing nonetheless how everything works out. The disruption everyone causes in the past actually explains things they have yet to understand in the present. The reason for that is because their future selves are going to be doing the time traveling, which of course makes one wonder how something in the future could’ve happened already when it’s the future and all. Still with me here?

Fate, destiny, predestined, whatever you want to call it. That’s how. Natsu no Arashi works on the principle that whatever happens in the future is already set in stone, so it’s logical to have it as the source of events in the past. Messed up I know, but it explains how Sayaka called Yamashiro without knowing why (because the future her got him to bet on horse races), how all the dishes in the cupboard broke (because the future Hajime got kicked into it by Sayaka), how Arashi heard herself calling for clean up, how Yayoi was told to put the 10 million yen Kobayashi-made teacup in the cupboard, and how Kaya ended up making her pudding in it. Things probably sound more confusing than they actually are, but a graph of the timeline plotting out the order of events would clear things up pretty quickly. I’m not hardcore enough to provide one here, but I do have it all worked out in my head. =)

Comedy-wise, there were some really stupid things happening such as Sayaka drunk and running away from everyone in a hadaka apron, but we only got to hear about it. Surprisingly, they didn’t show anything that happened during everyone’s time slips, so we (the viewer) were limited to whatever updates the characters gave in the present. As such, the screen capture show pretty much nothing going on. I know I’ve been harsh on SHAFT’s production here as of late, but I actually don’t mind this approach if I knew they weren’t doing it for budget reasons. (Whether or not they are, I’ll let you be the judge.) In any case, I guess it should come as no surprise that no one realized they had the 10 million yen teacup all this time, which finally ended up as a plant pot for Kanako. Even though Sayaka had mentioned that the teacup had “Kobayashi” 「小林」 etched on it, it didn’t occur to anyone that she meant on the bottom of the cup and not underneath it. Oh the irony! In other news, Sayaka was also able to spontaneously connect with Yayoi, which proved to be a very bad combination since she has no understanding of time travel. This is how wars may have started!

P.S. Still no salt for the salt guy. The shaker was empty!



Preview



Reviewed by DIVINE ]]> Current On-Going Series ellymate http://forum.nihonomaru.com/current-going-series/147300-natsu-no-arashi-akinai-chuu-07-a.html InuYasha - The Final Act - 07 http://forum.nihonomaru.com/current-going-series/147299-inuyasha-final-act-07-a-new-post.html Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:45:54 GMT InuYasha - The Final Act - 07 Image:...
InuYasha - The Final Act - 07




Summary:

After Kikyou heals Miroku, she and Kohaku leave InuYasha and company. The two then encounter giant spiderwebs that Kikyou knows are coming from Naraku. As it turns out, Naraku has figured out Kikyou’s purification plan and has gone back to get his human heart for its negative properties. He now uses spiderwebs to capture Kikyou and to lure both InuYasha and Kagome in, and he shows Kagome the scene of Kikyou and InuYasha from 50 years ago so that Kagome can feel Kikyou’s love for InuYasha. When Kagome regains consciousness, Kikyou explains what Naraku is up to and offers her bow to Kagome to purify the contamination inside of her. When Kagome touches the bow though, the string breaks, and Kikyou confirms that Kagome has been contaminated as well. The only way to save Kikyou now is for Kagome to go retrieve a bowstring kept in a nearby mountain mausoleum, though Kikyou warns that Kagome has to truly want to save her. Kagome thus sets off with everyone except for InuYasha and Kikyou, who end up going after Kohaku. Kohaku had been attacked by Byakuya, but he was saved by Sesshoumaru and is gone by the time InuYasha and Kikyou arrive.

Kagome’s group meanwhile reaches the mountain, but Kagome soon finds herself separated from everyone else. She then encounters a faceless spirit who takes on Kikyou’s appearance and leads her to the bow. Kagome is able to leave with the bow, but on her way down the mountain, she gets sidetracked by the sight of InuYasha and Kikyou together. This Kikyou implies that Kagome doesn’t truly want to save her, and Kagome then finds herself hanging off the side of a cliff. Looking down at her is Kikyou, and she wants the bow. The spirit of the mountain also appears and suggests that Kikyou will take the bow, abandon Kagome to die, and go off with InuYasha. Kikyou then suggests that Kagome is the one filled with jealousy and hatred and is only pretending to pity her. Kagome, however, thinks that Kikyou is afraid of her, and she recognizes that Kikyou and InuYasha have a past together that she can’t trespass on, but she points out that she’s also spent a lot of time with InuYasha and that she knows sides of him that Kikyou doesn’t. All of this causes Kagome to realize that she’s in the same position as Kikyou, and she refuses to abandon her. The spirit then tells Kagome that she can now climb up with her own strength, and Kikyou subsequently turns into an illusion of spiderwebs. Kagome becomes freed from these spiderwebs, but she finds herself in free fall.



Impressions:


While I can appreciate the general idea of Kagome coming to terms with Kikyou and Kikyou’s relationship with InuYasha, I thought the pacing of everything leading up to it was awful. It might not have felt so bad if you were familiar with the manga, but for me it made things really confusing to follow because it felt like they were jumping from one realization or event to the next (even with transitions) without pausing to let the audience catch its breath, so to speak. That really ruined for me what could have been a solid episode, particularly since I thought the scene towards the end where Kagome made her speech and realizations was actually pretty good. I enjoyed seeing Kagome get some more screen-time again, and I liked the music they paired with the scene; if only they had done a better job of getting to that point. On a different note, I saw the preview that went with the English version stream of this episode, and it looked like a ton of spoilers about what’ll happen with Kikyou. Sheesh, maybe that’s why they don’t show previews in the NTV broadcast version.

Reviewed by OMNI ]]> Current On-Going Series ellymate http://forum.nihonomaru.com/current-going-series/147299-inuyasha-final-act-07-a.html Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu Purezza - 07 http://forum.nihonomaru.com/current-going-series/147298-nogizaka-haruka-no-himitsu-purezza-07-a-new-post.html Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:40:40 GMT Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu Purezza - 07 Image:...
Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu Purezza - 07





「入っちゃったかも……」 (Icchatta Kamo……)
“It Might Have Gone In…….”

Oh screw you Yuuto. You already have Haruka; you don’t have to win over Shiina as well. I don’t care how nice Yuuto is. His kindness is just toying with a young girl’s maiden heart! Also, Biribiri (Satou Rina) is mine!

This episode was cute in a lot of mushy ways, but it was hard for me to overlook how silly the whole setup was. To get Shiina all mellow-mellow, Yuuto searched around a freezing cold stream for what looked like hours, just to find a hairpin that was no more than one foot away from him. Naturally, the hairpin had to have a lot of sentimental value to Shiina or else Yuuto wouldn’t have tried so hard, so it just so happened to be a gift from her grandmother. How convenient! That was almost too easy of a way to get Shiina thinking of Yuuto again, but they made things even easier by having her injure her foot from accidentally kicking a cabinet at home. Apparently it was so bad that she needed a full cast too. See where this is going?

It was a cheap way to get Yuuto to spend some time at Shiina’s place no matter how you look at it, but it did lead to some quality time between the two of them. I think if Haruka were aware of how well Yuuto was taking care of a female “friend” — giving her sensual massages, carrying her like a princess, cooking her dinner, spoon-feeding her, hanging out in her room alone together, sharing in childhood pictures, and getting kissed on the cheek — even she’d be a bit jealous. Actually, I’d be shocked if Haruka wasn’t jealous at all when Shiina’s a friend of hers too. Looking back though, I guess there can be a lot of legitimate reasons when a third wheel’s involved. Jumping to conclusions is usually the easiest thing to do, but Shiina’s a good example of someone who likes a guy that’s already seeing someone else and NOT trying to break them up. I guess the morale of the story is, give your friends the benefit of the doubt and hear them out even if the evidence is pitted against them. Nogizaka Haruka and morales again!

As you may have noticed, the fan-service dialed back up a bit, but it was actually nice to see since Ryouko was the driving factor behind it. Having Yuuto give everyone orgasmic massages was as humorous as it was arousing, especially when Ryouko decided to strip down to her underwear for it. She may have thought that Yuuto was harmless at first, but her uncontrollable moans and sweating sure indicated otherwise. I can’t help but feel that Kitamura Eri’s moaning was censored on ytv’s broadcast though, as the audio seemed off when Ryouko reached her climax. Whether it was or not, that scene sure could’ve been a lot dirtier than it was, seeing how visibly spent Ryouko and Mai (Toyosaki Aki) were. Other than that, it was a nice change of pace to see more of Shiina and less of Haruka this week, but I was surprised that Mika, Hazuki, and Nanami were completely sidelined (if you don’t count the preview). Anyway, I still don’t see Shiina posing much competition to Haruka after this, but it did help establish her as the only other girl with any sort of chance of being a rival.



Preview



Reviewed by DIVINE ]]> Current On-Going Series ellymate http://forum.nihonomaru.com/current-going-series/147298-nogizaka-haruka-no-himitsu-purezza-07-a.html Sora no Otoshimono - 07 http://forum.nihonomaru.com/current-going-series/147297-sora-no-otoshimono-07-a-new-post.html Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:35:25 GMT Sora no Otoshimono - 07 Image: http://i403.photobucket.com/albums/pp111/nihoanime/Sora%20no%20Otoshimono/SoranoOtoshimono-07-Large02.jpg Image:...
Sora no Otoshimono - 07





「頭脳少女(トキメキ)の転校生」 (Zunou Shoujo (Tokimeki) Tenkousei)
“The Smart Female (Heartthrob) Transfer Students”

Well the transfer students turned out to be none other than Ikaros and Nymph themselves. You’d think people would be bothered about seeing two angels around their school, wings and all, but everyone’s too busy falling in love with them to even care. Talk about messed up students!

To start things off, our two Angelroids get recognized as transfer students with the help of one of Ikaros’ alpha cards and some memory manipulation on Tomoki’s teacher. This of course puts Tomoki’s peaceful days down the crapper, but he eventually caves in to the idea of giving Ikaros’ a more human-like lifestyle. Hearing this, Sohara takes it upon herself to help them get accustomed to life at school; however, the two of them prove more than capable of handling everything from studies to cooking, leaving her feeling inferior in every way. As the cute, new, top students, Ikaros and Nymph’s popularity goes through the roof and all the guys at school start giving them love letters. While Nymph’s intent on just tossing all hers in the garbage, both her and Ikaros decide to read them after Tomoki insists on taking the senders’ feelings into consideration. In Ikaros’ case, she diligently reads them all despite having no understanding of love or romance. This gets on Nymph’s nerves so she decides to scan Ikaros, revealing what she’s already suspected — most of her functions and all of her memory/emotions have protection placed on them. This leads her to believe that Ikaros is the “Uranus Queen” who rocked the Synapse before, which she later reports to her master on Synapse and promises to bring Ikaros back.



Well things sure picked up plot-wise. While some viewers criticized the series for being too devoid of plot early on, I think it only makes sense to have the nonsensical comedic stuff up front here. Now that things have taken a serious turn in terms of the Synapse, Nymph’s true objective, and Ikaros’ identity, it’s kind of hard to have the characters continue messing around like they have been. For most comedies, once a trace of a plot begins to surface, I find that things rarely return to their lighthearted ways until it’s resolved. In the case of one cour series (i.e. 12-13 episodes), there’s usually only enough time for this pattern to happen once (and often at the tail end of the story). As such, I don’t really see a problem with them holding out until now so that the series can conclude on a high note. It’s pretty standard affair. KIDDY GiRL-AND is going the same route as did Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo.

That said, they did raise a lot of questions this time around regarding Ikaros and Nymph. For Ikaros, it comes as no surprise that her memories and emotions have been suppressed, especially when you see how different Nymph is. However, the changing of her eye color from green to red seems to indicate that she’s accessing her protected abilities. This has been demonstrated on a couple of occasions when she protects Tomoki, but this is the first time I’ve seen her use it to unlock her superhuman computational abilities. As you may recall back in episode three, Ikaros didn’t seem to possess any abilities in this area. For Nymph, she’s taken notice to this twice now and it’s enough for her to identify Ikaros as the Uranus Queen who attacked (?) Synapse. Normally I’d consider Ikaros some dangerous weapon who’s had her memories/emotions sealed away at this point, but both Nymph and her master’s evil smiles at the end make me think otherwise. Eishirou’s suspicious of Nymph’s intentions too, but I can’t really see her being an antagonist long term. Nymph seems to have something against keeping birds caged up, so I imagine this reflects her own situation in some way.

Not everything was on a serious note though. On the comedic side, we see the return of a watermelon in Ikaros’ arms as The Second, Sohara getting shown her place amongst Angelroids, masochistic guys who like being called bugs by Nymph, and Tomoki being suckered into trying to fly. The last happened because of Nymph’s involvement, but it was funny to see Eishirou and Mikako there to help things along. It was even better when they put a serious spin on things to make it seem like Tomoki would actually succeed, but if you’ve been watching this show at all for the past while, you’d know it was just a huge fake out. (Even though this particular scene was stunning.) I never once doubted that Tomoki would fall flat on his face and get owned, but it was nice to see him encourage Ikaros and Nymph to continue going to school afterwards. Other than that, I found it funny how Ikaros wrote her name using four kanji 「威伽露主」 that read I-KA-RO-SU, but made it needlessly complicated. As for some other interesting revelations, Tomoki surprisingly doesn’t see Ikaros in that way despite how good she looks. While that won you some points with Sohara, you’ve disappointed me as the master pervert Tomoki!



On a real world related note, the creator of Rocket Girls, Nojiri Housuke, was so inspired by the SoraOto flying pantsu ending that he decided to make his own rubberband-powered ornithopter to mimic it. Word is that he’s thinking about commercializing it as a toy too. Click the ‘Show Video’ spoiler tag for a demonstration. Can you imagine 100+ of these swarming the sky at once? It would be epic. Show Video ▼




ED7 Sequence



ED7: 「ふり向くな君は美しい」 (Furimuku na Kimi wa Utsukushii) by イカロス(早見沙織), ニムフ(野水伊織), 見月そはら(美名伊織), 五月田根美香子(高垣彩陽), 桜井智樹(保志総一朗), 守形英四郎(鈴木達央)
Ikaros (Hayami Saori), Nymph (Nomizu Iori), Mitsuki Sohara (Mina), Satsukitane Mikako (Takagaki Ayahi), Sakurai Tomoki (Hoshi Souichirou), Sugata Eishirou (Suzuki Tatsuhisa)
Watch the 7th ED!: Mirror 1 , Mirror 2

Preview




Reviewed by DIVINE ]]> Current On-Going Series ellymate http://forum.nihonomaru.com/current-going-series/147297-sora-no-otoshimono-07-a.html Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - 32 http://forum.nihonomaru.com/current-going-series/147296-fullmetal-alchemist-brotherhood-32-a-new-post.html Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:30:13 GMT Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - 32 Image:...
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - 32




Summary:

Ed and Al haven’t been able to track down May Chang, and unbeknownst to them, she’s actually at the train station. She runs into a certain old woman there and reveals that she’s headed north, and the old woman takes note of Shao May. Scar meanwhile is heading in a different direction and escapes from his pursuers who are now reporting to Kimblee. Over at the cemetery, Mustang runs into the same old woman that saw May Chang and realizes that it’s actually Lt. General Grumman in disguise. After Mustang fills him in on what’s going on in Central, Grumman reveals that Raven had approached him a while back about an immortal army. Grumman had rejected the idea, and soon after, he had been transferred to the East. Mustang gets Grumman interested in getting involved again, and after seeing the drawing of Shao May that Mustang is carrying, Grumman tells Mustang of what he saw earlier.

At the library, Ed and Al are trying to do some research on alkahestry but aren’t having much luck. Ed is found there by Armstrong, and Armstrong passes along a message from Mustang about how May Chang is headed north. Because of this, Armstrong also gives Ed a letter of introduction to the Major General Armstrong who guards the northern border. Ed then goes to tell Al of the news, and he finds him with a young boy who knows exactly who the brothers are. It turns out that the boy is none other than King Bradley’s son Selim, and he invites them to his house with his mother. There, the brothers learn of how Selim is interested in alchemy and how he wants to help his father. Partway through the meeting, King Bradley himself shows up, and he and his wife explain that Selim was adopted. King Bradley emphasizes how he has a family and reminds Ed and Al of their own family before leaving again. Afterward, Ed and Al refocus on how their goal is in the north, and they set off in that direction by train.

Preview



So I never realized how fun a character Grumman was. The whole old lady bit here was great, and it was funny seeing Mustang’s reaction to it. The question mark in the eye-catch of him was pretty amusing too. What’s even better is that he seems like the kind of character who can really help Mustang get things done, and this showed the extent to which he’ll operate, so I’d love to see more of his antics in the future.

Aside from that, the episode for the most part was split between Kimblee tracking Scar and Marcoh, and Ed and Al meeting Selim. The Selim stuff was interesting to the extent that it showed his character a bit and that King Bradley has a family as well, but I couldn’t help but be reminded of how King Bradley had told Mustang previously that Selim wouldn’t be his weak point. I’m not sure if this is a contradiction to that or just King Bradley putting on a different face. I did notice though that Hawkeye is already following him around. There wasn’t too much else of note, though I’m very curious now about Armstrong’s sister (who’s already shown up in consecutive weeks in the commercials and sounds a bit gruff). In any case, the preview makes it look like we could be seeing some more action next episode as things shift northward.


Reviewed by OMNI ]]> Current On-Going Series ellymate http://forum.nihonomaru.com/current-going-series/147296-fullmetal-alchemist-brotherhood-32-a.html