Since a lot of people have asked for more Magazine coverage, I will be reviewing more of them this month. This time I will be covering Megami Magazine volume 121 from June of this year. The cover features Mahiru from Working!! holding up cute chibi versions of Poplar and Aoi. Now for the posters:

The first poster is of Yui and Ui. It looks like Ui is busy preparing lunch, but Yui couldn’t resist taking not taking a bite.

Here’s another Working!! image, with the focus being on Mahiru again.

This poster brought back some memories, mainly of the episode in Mayoi Neko Overrun when they had the swimsuit competition.

I don’t remember Haruhi and Nagato ever cosplaying as cops in the anime. The police probably don’t actually wear skirts like that though, so they might actually be cosplaying as security guards or something. Either way, I like it.

After the previous volume, it seems they’ve gone back to girls lacking clothes when it comes to Ikki Tousen posters, like this one of Sonsaku.

One thing that I’ve noticed about anime is that baths sometimes have green water. I think they do that because it’s hard to draw clear water, but I could be wrong. Maybe they do bathe in green water in Japan, who knows.

This looks more like a promotional poster without the text. It actually doesn’t look that good without any sort of real background.

This amazing piece of art was done by Bun+Bun. I love the little glowy lights and how the shadows look in this poster. The only thing I would complain about is the foot of the girl in front, it’s a bit too small to look right.

Here’s a poster of Tomo from Seikon no Qwaser.

I only recognize this poster being from Bungaku Shoujo because Touko is in it. I’m not sure who the other girl is, but I’m assuming she was in the movie. Her spikey hair looks kinda cool.

I never got into Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou, it seemed like a regular harem series to me. The shading in this poster seems to be a bit weird to me, kinda like a mix of pastels and digital colours.

I’ve been meaning to watch Strike Witches for the longest time, but I just never got around to it. I have to admit, the characters do look pretty cute.

As expected, Nanoha is in this volume as with every other volume. Nanoha and Fate look nice in this illustration, but I wish they’d gone with a battle pose instead.

This is the same image that was used on the cover of the magazine, but without the text. I’m not too fond of the background, but at least now Poplar isn’t half covered up by something.

Illustrations like this are hard to draw, so I’m impressed with whoever did it. Except for a few things that look a bit awkward like Mizuki’s right arm and Akira’s right leg, everything looks right to me.

This volume came with a little booklet with some details about the Nanoha movie.

All of the screenshots that they had inside just makes me want to see it even more. I hope it comes out on DVD soon since I can’t watch it in theatres here.

Seeing this large poster brought back some memories. For those of you who don’t know, Nanoha was originally a side-character from a series called Triangle Hearts. I watched Triangle Heart – Sweet Songs Forever a long time ago and really enjoyed it. Nanoha made a brief appearance in the cafe that her family runs called Midori-ya (which you can see on her apron).

The image for this poster looks like something from a dakimakura. It’s cute though, and not too ecchi.

I didn’t think this volume was anything too impressive. There were some good posters in here, but most of them were dull or just lacking in anything special. In my opinion, the best poster was the one by Bun+Bun.

–>Subscribe to Megami Magazine

Related posts:

1. Megami Magazine Vol. 120
2. Megami Magazine Vol. 119
3. Megami Magazine Vol. 117

This is my first Megami Magazine post since mid-May, so I’ve got a few volumes to catch up on. First, I’ll start with volume 120, which features Mio and Yui from K-ON on the cover. This volume came out in May, which was right around the end of the spring season so there are lots of posters from then in here. There was also a section with an interview of some voice actresses, but I couldn’t translate any of it. Anyways, here’s a look at what posters came with this volume:

I only watched the first couple of episodes of Working!!, but I was told that it was a “meh” kind of anime. I was surprised to hear which girl the main guy ended up with though, I thought for sure that Poplar was going to be chosen.

I like this Railgun poster because Kuroko is actually wearing something other than her micro-bikini *gasp*. She’s so weird and crazy sometimes, I just love her; she’s by far my favourite character of the series. Hopefully Kuroko will make a few appearances in the upcoming second season of To Aru Majutsu no Index.

As much as I liked the character designs in Mayoi Neko Overrun, I was upset that they had Fumino and Nozomi in this poster but not Chise. Like Kuroko, I liked Chise for her sometimes outrageous personality.

I don’t recognize which anime this is from, but the poster is nice.

I didn’t think this Ikki Tousen poster was that great.

On the other hand, I was blown away when I saw this poster. I’m not as big a fan of Nagato as Haruhi, but this illustration is just amazing. There’s so much detail in it and it’s beatifully coloured. I’d say this is one of the best Megami posters I’ve seen in a while.

Here’s the full image of Mio and Yui that was used on the cover. I didn’t notice this at first, but after looking at it more carefully, it seems that Yui has just dislocated Mio’s shoulder…

This was a funny poster of the girls from Baka To Test To Shokanju. While I wouldn’t say the anime was great, it was good enough for me to look forward to the second season.

Ayakura Juu was featured in this volume’s Girl’s Avenue section. Juu was the one behind the popular series Spice and Wolf.

I still haven’t gotten around to watching Strike Witches. One of the main reasons is because the ecchi level just doesn’t make it feel very serious to me.

Likewise, Seikon no Qwaser’s ecchi level was just too high for me, as you can probably tell from this poster.

When I first looked at this poster, I thought Yamada was wearing her school uniform, then I realized that she’s just holding it up.

I liked the simple character designs for Ako and Riko, but I don’t recall seeing any reviews for KissxSis after it finished airing. Either no one really watched it or it was just too boring.

Ladies vs Butlers posters always seem to show a lot of skin. At least this one has a nice background, I like how well the palm trees were drawn.

While blue skies is technically a background, I don’t think it’s much better than when they use a gradient. It’s always surprising to see how wide the gap is in quality between illustrations within the same volume of Megami Magazine.

Some of you probably have already heard about (or bought) the first volume of Girl’s Avenue. I believe it contains all of the art featured in the Girl’s Avenue section of Megami all the way up to the 100th artist. For reference, Ayakura Juu is the 102nd artist.

I would’ve liked to have had a poster with this image on it. I don’t know what this fasion style is called, but Mio looks pretty good in it (though I guess some people would say she looks good in everything).

Even after the Nanoha movie has passed, Megami still seems to be promoting it a lot. The freebie that came with this volume was a pencil board with images from the movie on both sides.

That’s pretty much it for this volume. I absolutely loved the Nagato poster, but otherwise I thought the quality was average. I was also hoping the freebie would be something else other than Nanoha, but like I’ve said before, someone at the Megami offices really likes the Nanoha series so she’s going to be around for a long time.

–>Subscribe to Megami Magazine

Related posts:

1. Megami Magazine Vol. 119
2. Megami Magazine Vol. 118
3. Megami Magazine Vol. 117

Anyone who likes maid cafes and Haruhi would love this poster. Haruhi and Nagato pick up on the making-heart-shapes-with-your-hands fad while wearing cute red and white maid uniforms. I wonder how many points you would need to collect at a cafe to get a picture like this.

Ever since meronpan pointed out how Selnia’s hairdo looks like maggots, I haven’t been able to see it any other way. Another interesting thing about the animation is the lack of details like the nose and other parts. I guess it’s a good way of censoring stuff without actually censoring.

Megami Magazine illustrations are usually very good quality, but this one is just horrible. Sure, Sora no Woto might be a moeblob anime, but you’d still expect clothing and hands to look correct.

Baka to Test to Shoukanju wasn’t the best anime, but it had cute characters and some memorable moments. Out of the girls, I think Himeji looks best in a wedding dress, though I’d also like to see how Hideyoshi would look in one ;)

This poster reminded me of the Clannad poster in Megami Magazine Volume 107. Azusa and Yui are in the same position as Ushio and Fuuko, plus they are also relaxing in a field outdoors.

I never saw Omamori Himari after the first episode, but I’m guessing from this poster that there’s some rivalry between Himari and this green-haired girl. I actually quite like this poster, Himari looks cute in it.

Nanoha didn’t make it onto the cover this time, but she still managed to get in the magazine. This poster is decent though, so I won’t complain about it.

I’m not too fond of the art style used in Hidamari Sketch. The wide faces and small bodies don’t really appeal to me.

For the Girls Avenue section of the magazine, this volume featured artist Miki Miyashita (http://www.saturn.dti.ne.jp/~m-miki/). This illustration is lovely, and while I usually dislike plain backgrounds, I don’t think Miki would’ve been able to achieve the same effect with the feathers if she had used a detailed background.

Seikon no Qwaser is an absurd anime, but at least we get nice posters like this one of Mafuyu.

This is the cool image of Misaka that was used on the cover. Pictures of her usually involve her in cute outfits or doing something embarrassing, so it’s nice to get a poster of her just before she fires her railgun.

Megami usually doesn’t have two posters from the same anime in the same volume, so I was surprised to see two railgun posters, especially considering this volume has fewer posters overall. I was a bit upset that they didn’t include Kuroko in here.

Dance in The Vampire Bund weirded me out with the first couple of episodes, and it continues to do so, but now in poster form.

The Japanese come up with some unique maid uniforms. I love how cute these ones are, especially the ribbons around the legs.

I’ve always liked the character designs in Seto no Hanayome, but for some reason I just never watched it. This is another anime that I’m adding to my “older anime that I need to watch” list.

Within this volume was a little section on the Haruhi movie. I still haven’t seen it yet. Hopefully it’ll still being shown in theatres in Japan when I go.

I liked this section which focused in on characters from current and upcoming anime. Sleeping with Hinako is probably one of the weirdest anime I’ve seen. It makes me wonder if anyone actually goes to sleep with Hinako sleeping on their tv screen.

There wasn’t really anything that caught my eye in the upcoming figures section. I thought about getting that Seira figure, but it was just a tad too expensive for a character that I didn’t like more than average.

Personally I don’t see what’s so great about the “Tales of” series, but since it’s so popular, a lot of people must like it.

This time Megami included one of those long and thing posters rather than the regular B2 size posters. On the first side is Yuki Nagato, who seems to have soared in popularity again because of the Haruhi movie.

On the reverse side is Mikoto Misaka in her polka dot swimsuit. I thought her face looked a bit weird here, but other than that, it’s nice.

While I wish that they didn’t cut back on the number of posters, I thought that the qualit of most of them was really good. My favourite one would have to be the first poster of Haruhi and Yuki as maids. The Seikon no Qwaser poster was also really nicely done with a detailed background, nice curves, and water that looks like what it should. This volume would be a good choice to get if you want quality and don’t care about quantity.

–>Subscribe to Megami Magazine

Related posts:

1. Megami Magazine Vol. 117
2. Megami Magazine Vol. 118
3. Nyantype Magazine Vol. 5

Baka to Test to Shokanju

Although this is a fanservice anime, I actually found it to be pretty decent. The little summoned beings were cute and there were some scenes that made me laugh. I also enjoyed the ESB battles and wish that they had more of them. Hideyoshi was obviously the main selling point, and anyone that has seen the first episode can tell why. Unless you really like traps, Baka to Test to Shokanju isn’t an anime I would recommend if you’re looking for something good.

One word to describe Baka to Test to Shokanju: Hideyoshi

Inuyasha

I started watching Inuyasha back when I was in grade 11, about 6 years ago, and I finally finished it last week. The series had too many filler arcs with enemies that really had nothing to do with the story, and I think it could have done just as well with just two seasons. Excluding the fillers, the anime was great and I liked the ending which was reminiscent of the first movie. The only thing I really wish they had focused more on was the relationship between Sesshoumaru and Kagura, but I guess they didn’t want that to overshadow Sesshoumaru and Rin (yes, he’s a dirty old pedophile). I’d also like to mention that Inuyasha has the best anime ending songs I’ve ever heard, if you don’t watch the anime at least listen to its music.

One word to describe Inuyasha: Long

Kimi ni Todoke

Despite being a guy, I used to like watching romance shows when I was in high school. As I got older however, my interest in them diminished since they all seemed to follow the same general formula which I had seen dozens of times already. With that said, I was reluctant to watch Kimi ni Todoke at first, but hearing of Sawako’s unique situation got me interested. After finishing the last episode today, I have to say that Kimi ni Todoke was absolutely beautiful. I know it’s targeted at a female audience, but anyone who remembers their first big crush should be able to relate. You really get to know the characters through their monologues and feel for them whenever there’s a misunderstanding. I’ll admit that some scenes brought tears to my eyes (I didn’t cry though) and others made me laugh really hard. No anime has been able to do that since Toradora. In my opinion, Kimi ni Todoke was the best anime of the season.

One word to describe Kimi ni Todoke: Masterpiece

Kobato

CLAMP can come up with some very impressive work (like Card Captor Sakura and Tsubasa Chronicles), but unfortunately Kobato was not one of them. This anime simply bored me to death and Kobato, the character, was just really annoying at times. It actually reminded me a lot of Angelic Layer where every episode involved making new friends, the only difference is that there is very little action in Kobato. This would probably be a nice anime to show your kids to teach them about friendship, but it’s not something I think most older people would enjoy.

One word to describe Kobato: Boring

Ookami Kakushi

I don’t have much to say for Ookami Kakushi; considering it was written by Ryukishi07, I’d say it was the biggest disappointment of the season. For an anime with only 11 plot-oriented episodes, it started off far too slow and ended far too quickly. The atmosphere also just didn’t feel right in some parts, like at the series’ climax when everything was happening on a bright sunny day. I have a feeling that Ryukishi07 didn’t put a lot of effort into this story and it’s just not worth watching.

One word to describe Ookami Kakushi: Lame

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun

If you’re going to watch this anime it better be for one of these reasons: cute junior high school girls or supernatural powers/abilities. Other than that, To Aru Kagaku no Railgun doesn’t have much going for it. The comedic scenes in the anime weren’t that funny and the plot only started to pick up in the last several episodes. Speaking of the plot, it was questionable at best and seemed like its only purpose was to create a scenario where Misaka could showcase her abilities. To be fair though, I did enjoy the fight against Touma, the fetus thing, and when Misaka and Kuroko teamed up in the last episode. In the end, if you just watch all the action scenes on youtube, you wouldn’t be missing much.

One word to describe To Aru Kagaku no Railgun: Tsundere

Related posts:

1. My Thoughts on Winter 2010 Anime
2. Upcoming Spring 2010 Anime
3. Anime Screenshots 2

Alrighty, for everyone that’ve been waiting patiently I’ve finally gotten around to another Megami Magazine post.  This is Volume 117 of Megami Magazine, for February 2010, only 1 month later than usual (or 2 if you consider that Megami releases 1 month before the printed month). With all the hype over the Nanoha movie, it’s only natural that Nanoha would once again find her way onto the cover of Megami Magazine. By my count, this is the 10th time that Nanoha has been featured on the cover, more than any other character. She has appeared in volumes 68, 77, 82, 84, 88, 90, 91, 100, 112, and 117. When you do the math, that works out to be 8.5% of all the Megami covers. I think it’s pretty obvious that someone at Megami has a soft spot for Nanoha, especially when you consider that other characters like Haruhi have only made it on to the cover twice.

The first poster in the volume is of Yuki Nagato and Ryouko Asakura from the Haruhi movie. I don’t think I’ll get the chance to see the movie until this summer when I go to Japan, but it seems like a lot of people are going fan crazy over Yuki. I guess she has an important role in the movie, or I just never realized how many fans she had.

Moving on, here’s another Nanoha poster to add to my collection. Since I don’t have all of the Megami Magazines, I don’t know how many Nanoha posters there are, but like the cover appearances, I’m sure she has a lot more than most other characters.

I really liked this poster, not for the art or anything, but because it has my two favourite Seitokai no Ichizon characters: Mafuyu and Kurimu.

I don’t know what I’m supposed to think about this poster. In case any of you haven’t seen Baka to Test to Shokanju, Hideyoshi (the one in the middle) is a guy, but everyone sees him as a girl (in otherwords, he’s a trap). In the anime he gets his own changing room because the boys don’t want him changing with them and he doesn’t want to go into the girls’ changing room so I’m surprised he’s changing with Himeji and Minami.

I think Queen’s Blade might be able to rival Nanoha in terms of the number of posters shown in Megami Magazine.

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun also had a good chance early on, but considering how the anime went, I don’t think we’ll be seeing much biri biri by the end of the year.

Originally, I thought that Hidamari Sketch was about a bunch of elementary school students, but I just found out recently that they’re in high school. I guess that explains why they’re so developed in this poster.

I had completely forgotten about watching the second season of Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu until now. I don’t recall seeing any reviews of it anywhere, has anyone seen it and was it better than the first season?

I decided not to watch Omamori Himari since it looked like an average harem anime, but it does produce some yummy posters :)

This was a cute poster. I like Mio’s clothes, it’s too bad Yui and Ui didn’t dress up too.

From the looks of it, it doesn’t seem like the girls in Ladies vs Butlers wear any bras. Either that or their clothes are extremely tight around the chest. I don’t mind some ecchi stuff every once in a while in an anime, but when an anime is all about the fanservice (like this one), then there’s really no point in watching it.

That statement also applies to Seikon no Qwaser.

Fate/stay Night Unlimited Blade Works also came out in theatres around the same time as Haruhi and Nanoha, but I think those two kinda pushed FSN to the back of everyone’s minds.

This is an interesting scene. I don’t think I’ve ever seen people snowboarding/skiing/tobogganing in the snow naked.

Did anyone bother watching Chu-Bra? I didn’t like the first episode so I didn’t watch any more of it and it seems like no one else watched it either.

I don’t follow the Koihime Musou series so can someone enlighten me as to who this pink-haired girl is?

Cute catgirl.

I really like the character designs for Seto no Hanayome, but I just have too much anime to watch to get around to it.

This illustration is part of the Girls Avenue section. I like the style of the armour.

I’m not familiar with this anime, it looks too childish for me.

Not sure why they decided to put a Kurokami poster in here when the anime ended so long ago. I was a bit disappointed with how the story turned out.

I didn’t really like Fight! Ippatsu Juuden-chan either, but I thought that Plug was a cute character, especially with those bunny ear-like things sticking out of her head.

It’s always funny to see anime characters cosplaying as other anime characters ^.^

I just have to say that that is a huge bed. I wish I had one.

I watched Kowarekake no Orgol, but I don’t remember seeing those three girls in the background in the anime. Is there another part of the story that I don’t know about?

There was quite a bit of information regarding the Nanoha movie, certainly a lot more than the Haruhi movie.

Weib Schwarz looks like it’s trying to capitalize on Haruhi fans recently. If I knew anyone that played with Weib Schwarz cards I’d probably buy some, but right now I would have no one to play with.

Another free card came with this volume. This time it’s Fate from the Nanoha movie, but I think she looks a bit scary in here.

In case any Umineko no Naku Koro Ni fans missed it, the DVD and Blu-ray for the 4th volume was released on January 22. I thought the anime was better than most, but it wasn’t as good as Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, which was a big disappointment.

This time the large poster had Nanoha on both sides. The first side has Fate and Nanoha in their barrier jackets with the city at night in the background.

The opposite side has Nanoha and Fate in the middle of their transformation sequences (aka naked). I’m sure a lot of guys out there would be happy to have this poster, but I’m sure a lot of them would also get into trouble with someone if they stuck it on their wall :)

I really liked the first several posters in this volume, but the ones in the middle and end seemed very average to me. There also wasn’t much content in the magazine that caught my attention except for the Nanoha stuff. Overall, it felt like Nanoha was the main focus of this volume so it’s certain to please any Nanoha fan, but the number of non-Nanoha posters helped to balance it out if you don’t like the series.

–>Subscribe to Megami Magazine

Related posts:

1. Megami Magazine Vol. 116
2. Megami Magazine Vol. 114
3. Megami Magazine Vol. 115

The main characters are split into teams: the idiots (Yoshii, Yuuji, Hideyoshi), the not-so-dumb team (Minami, Himeji, Tsuchiya), and the A class team (I can’t remember their names). Naturally, the A class team has no trouble finding the locations of the prizes, but Minami’s team seems to have quite a few distractions, while Yoshi’s team is relying on pure luck.

The class A group finds their first prize.

I would be distracted too if there was glowing underwear with bright rainbow colours and sparkles around it.

Has anyone ever used one of these test pencils?

There were some laughs to be had while the groups searched for the prizes.

Death by Himeji's cake.

We get some hot yuri action as Miharu tries to rape Minami.

For the ladies, there is some yaoi action going on too (sorta).

 Of course, the main reason anyone is watching bakatest is for Hideyoshi (you know I’m right), and he gets quite a bit of screentime.

Moe Moe Kyun!

 This scene was just adorable, Hideyoshi using the test pencil. It really reminded me of Mio and K-ON what with the hearts and everything.

sparkle

A girl can’t be hot unless she… er, I mean he has some sparkles around.

CHARGE!

To all you girls (or guys) out there, be careful how many sparkles you have around, or you might get a stampede of guys coming after you.

lol

Would you be embarrassed if Hideyoshi walked in on you changing?

Yay for chinese dresses.

There’s no particular reason for Hideyoshi to be wearing a dress, it’s just really nice fanservice. It’s funny how no one even mentions his change of clothing.

What?

Is Hideyoshi in the position I think he’s in?

The highlight of the episode.

Hideyoshi with his clothes blown off was just pure fanservice. It’s weird how there are no scratches or dirt on his face.

So far there hasn’t really been much plot in bakatest, it’s mostly been random events sprinkled with some comedy. They’ve got something good going for them though, and as you can probably tell, it’s the ultimate trap Hideyoshi. I’m sure a lot of people are watching the series solely for him, but hopefully a good plot starts to develop soon.

Related posts:

1. Natsu no Arashi ep. 5
2. Phantom ~Requiem For The Phantom~ ep. 1
3. Kemeko Deluxe ep. 1