Megami Magazine Vol. 138
This comes a few weeks late, but here is this month’s issue of Megami Magazine, volume 138. The magazine seems to have shifted away from Nanoha and friends and is now regularly featuring the girls from Idolmaster on their covers and in their posters. Volume 138 has a good mix of just about everything, so if you’re looking for variety, you may want to consider getting a copy. You can check out all of the posters included in this volume below. Remember that linked images are ecchi (a.k.a. NSFW).
Guilty Crown ep. 6 – The Troll Episode
Recently, I wrote an article over at Forever Geek discussing how Guilty Crown wasn’t that bad of an anime. It had an average plot, but great music and pretty animation; not an award-winner for sure but at least it was watchable. Well, after watching episode 6 and being trolled, I am forced to reconsider my view on the storyline.
It was easy to overlook some of the improbabilities of the anime given the genre. Shu, for example, being a useless teenage boy suddenly acquiring some magical power that can destroy everything in sight. Of course it’s unrealistic, but almost every “hero” story starts out like that, even western ones like Spiderman. The harder pill to swallow is that practically everyone in the Undertakers is a teenager. Gai, their leader, is 17; Inori, the pretty girl, is 16; Tsugumi, the cute and adorable hacker girl, is 14; and Ayase, the giant robot pilot, is 17. This presents the problem of how Undertaker has managed to build up enough resources to take on a military power in just a couple of years with people who barely have any connections in the world. I ignored all of that though, just because this is anime and that’s how things roll.
Fall 2011 Anime Round-up
It’s time for another round-up of the season’s anime. I know I’m a month late to the party, but I attribute that to travelling for 3 weeks and spending 2 weeks catching up on everything. I won’t bore you with the plot summaries, you can find them anywhere, these are just my impressions of the series for Fall 2011 and whether I consider them worth watching or not. If you are new to my blog, note that I don’t include sequels/continuations as I would be watching a story starting in the middle. Seasonal awards will be given out at the end of this post.
Nopy’s Top 5 Anime Openings
While its been a week since I got back from my trip, I’m still trying to catch up with anime, blogs, emails, and games. That means this will be a relatively short post. Taking an idea from Miette-chan and Exilehero, I thought I’d post my 5 favourite anime openings.
#5: Cloud Age Symphony (Last Exile)
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg_WdJql2sE
No, this is not from the currently airing series, but from the original Last Exile that aired 2003 (has it really been that long?). I was really taken back with how airy the music sounded at some points, which fit really well with the story since everything takes place in the skies.
Megami Magazine Vol. 18
The second-oldest Megami Magazine volume that I own is volume 18, published exactly 10 years ago on November 1, 2001. As with the oldest Megami Magazine I own, I bought this one simply for the cover, which features my two favourite characters from Denshin Mamotte Shugogatten: Shao and Kiryuu. I always like looking back on series that I have enjoyed and going through a Megami Magazine from 10 years ago is a good way of doing that. Note that I’ve censored any nudity, but ecchi (NSFW) images are still hidden in the links.
Home Sweet Home
I am finally back from my trip to Asia (a total of 5 countries and 2 special administrative regions). It looks like autopilot mode didn’t work so well because I didn’t have enough time to write anything before I left. While my trip was fun and enjoyable, there are two things that I have come to appreciate about my part of the world: clean air and no smoking laws.
In some of the cities I went to, it felt like I was suffocating, and going indoors didn’t help because everyone smokes. The air back home is fresh and clean, so I’ve gotten used to it and thought most of the world was like this except for factory cities. While watching a sunrise in Macau, I was dismayed at how uninspiring it looked. The sunrises I’m used to usually start with the sky looking like its been set ablaze with red, pink, and orange colours before a brilliant light appears over the Earth and turns the sky blue. In Macau, there was not a single cloud in the sky, but I did not see the sun “rise”. Instead, a faint red circle appeared within a thick line of blackness over the horizon and the sky turned grey. It took a relatively long time for the sun to become a blinding light and not just a red circle in the sky.
I was also shocked to see people of all backgrounds smoking. Although there are laws here that make it illegal to smoke in public spaces or within 5 metres of an entranceway, I don’t think it would be a major problem if those laws were not in place. From my experience, smoking is largely contained to the older generations and people in the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder.
Now that I’m home, I can breathe easy. I have about 4 weeks of anime to catch up on since I didn’t watch anything the week before I left. Since I don’t want any spoilers, I won’t be reading any episodic reviews until I’ve caught up with everything. If anyone has recommendations on what to watch this season, I’d be happy to hear them.
Switching to Autopilot
By the time you read this, I will be time travel…er flying over the Pacific Ocean. For the next few weeks I’ll be in different parts of Asia and I don’t know how often I’ll have internet access, so I’m switching the blog to autopilot. Any posts that appear here in the next 3 weeks would have been written in the wee hours of the night/morning before I left. Comments will be kept on, but I probably won’t be able to respond to them (or emails for that matter) until I get back.
Since the new anime season just started, I’ll be looking forward to reading everyone’s impressions of all the new series when I return. Until then, see you all later.
El Psy Congroo
Hanasaku Iroha Review
Going off to work as a waitress at a traditional Japanese inn in the countryside is every girl’s dream, right? Well, maybe if you were Japanese Cinderella. Hanasaku Iroha takes the basics of the Cinderella story (minus the prince and magic fairy) and tries to weave a story of understanding and friendship out of the dredges of despair and lonliness. I’m not going to describe the whole anime, so instead here’s the plot summary from MyAnimeList:
After her single mother decides to run off with a boyfriend to dodge debt collectors, the young and energetic Ohana is sent to live with her grandmother. However, her grandmother is the strict owner of a hot springs inn and requires her to work at the inn to pay for her living expenses. Although Ohana is unhappy about this situation at first, she decides to make the best of her situation and work hard. Ohana’s life is suddenly filled with fun, mischief, and drama!
Megami Magazine Vol. 137
Today I bring to you Megami Magazine Volume 137 (October 2011). Since we’re in the transition period between the summer and fall anime seasons, this volume contains a lot of posters from recently finished and to-be-aired series. The cover for this volume features two characters from a new anime that just happened to be announced right in this magazine (which explained why I couldn’t find any extra info on it). More on that once I get to that section in the magazine, but for now, here’s a look at the pin-up posters. As usual, linked images are ecchi (NSFW).
