WARNING: Spoilers below.

One of the anime I would’ve liked to have seen rewritten is Chaos;Head. It’s the prequel to the currently airing series, Steins;Gate, and is about a delusional hikikomori, Takumi, that believes everyone is  out to get him. From the start, Takumi is presented as an unreliable narrator. His views and descriptions are inconsistent with those shown during the third person and even conflict with some of his own experiences, leading to some very confusing moments for him. At first I thought Chaos;Head was going to be a very in-depth story about the fall of a teenage boy into the depths of insanity where he would be lost forever, or realize the extent of his illness and wake up one day in a mental asylum. Oh how wrong I was.

Chaos;Head is about a guy (Takumi) with a harem of very beautiful girls (one of which is an anime character) who all wield cool weapons and fight some bad organization from taking over the world. Let’s also not forget that all of those girls have a thing for Takumi. Now before you say that that could have just been all Takumi’s imagination, there’s plenty of scenes showing that’s impossible. A lot of the side scenes with the girls are clearly taking place far away from Takumi so he would have no idea what’s going on. That means everything the viewer thought was a delusion at the start of the anime was actually real, making Chaos;Head a harem/fantasy anime rather than one about mental disorder. If I could have things my way, Takumi would have ended up in a mental asylum and none of the girls would have existed (at least not in the way he imagined them). I think that would have made for a more intriguing anime.

Next is Code Geass R2, but first off, I’d just like to say that Code Geass (season 1) was magnificent. The setting, character designs, comedy, and action scenes were all good points, but by far the most impressive aspect of the anime was the mastermind, Lelouch. A cold-hearted villain bent on revenge, Lelouch would do whatever it takes to reach his goals. He was aided by C.C. and the power of geass, which let him order anyone to do anything he wanted, but the greatest aspect about him was that he was able to manipulate people without the use of his geass. As Baron Acton once said, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” Code Geass was certainly going down this path, and after the cliffhanger at the end of the first season, I couldn’t wait for the next one to see what happens.

When R2 came around, I was sorely disappointed. They didn’t resolve what happened between Lelouch and Suzaku at the end of the first season, but even worse, it was almost as if someone decided to take a 180 on the plot development. Lelouch started to lose sight of his goals, he started caring for people, and worst of all, he was no longer an evil mastermind. Heck, his plans didn’t even seem very well thought-out either. Lelouch was no longer the great villain that I had admired, but a confused boy questioning his very own decisions. When he “saved the world” in the final episode, that was the last nail in the coffin for me. They had killed Lelouch both figuratively and literally. So if I could rewrite Code Geass R2, I would make it very close to the first season, with Lelouch continuing down his path of destruction, eventually losing all of his loved ones, including Nunally, who would die by his own hands. At the very least, I would’ve made it clear the cart driver was Lelouch.

The last anime I would like rewritten is Venus Versus Virus. It was so good that I can’t remember the characters’ names. I do remember that the plot was something along the lines of semi-yuri, girls fighting something using special guns, and 1 useless guy somewhere in there. Honestly, the only reason I watched Venus Versus Virus in the first place was because I really liked the ending song and I was waiting for some yuri action.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rynqQ4HJ4RY

What really disappointed me about this anime was the way it ended. When I was in elementary school, we were always asked to write stories and were given a minimum number of pages. I hated writing (which is ironic now that I have my own blog), so once I reached the minimum page count, I always ended the story with “…and they all died.” That’s exactly what happened in Venus Versus Virus, everyone died in one big explosion. If I could rewrite this anime, I would have given it a real ending, perhaps only one of the girls die, maybe they both live on, or even have one of the side characters survive, having everyone die is just plain laziness on the part of the writers.

While these three anime titles are by no means the worst anime out there (except maybe Venus Versus Virus), they were the most disappointing in my eyes. Each one had so much potential and seemed like they were going to lead up to an epic ending, only to have this viewer asking himself what he just wasted his time on. The way a series ends can make or break it, and these three definitely didn’t make it for me.

Related posts:

1. Penguin Musume Heart ep. 15 & Code Geass Ending
2. Schneizel Nukes Toronto, or not
3. Overthinking Anime

This issue features the main character from Sora Wo Kakeru Shoujo on the cover. I watched the first episode of this anime and it just seemed a bit too weird for me.

The posters this time had a good mix of just-finished and currently airing series.

I never understood why Kannagi was so popular. It seems to be getting quite a few posters in Megami Magazine, and this volume has a book-in-book thing featuring Kannagi.

I have to say that Toradora is one of the better love comedies that I’ve seen. It’s good to see that Taiga and Ami are getting along now, and I hope the ending turns out well.

White Album is another one of those eroge (erotic games) that have been adapted into an anime. Going from eroge -> anime is pretty common nowadays, but I don’t think the stories are very good. I guess the main reason for making an anime out of an eroge is to please the game’s fans by animating the characters and making more money.

I haven’t seen Asu no Yoichi, but from what I’ve heard it sounds a bit like Love Hina. The shredding of clothes in this poster just makes it look like Love Hina even more.

Kotomi and Tomoyo seem so excited about the snow.

I wonder how that little yellow thing in Sora wo Kakeru works. I was so surprised when it flew out of the head of a maid.

What is that girl holding o.o

“You can’t ask someone to do something you’re not willing to do yourself” is why I think both the painter and model are naked in this poster.

That alien must be really happy.

After finishing Macademi Wasshoi, I realized that there was absolutely no plot in the series except at the end when they tried to put something together and failed miserably.

Those things on that coco*natts fan look kinda scary.

As always, Megami Magazine always has the latest info on upcoming anime releases. The Toaru Majutsu no Index volume 1 blu-rays and dvds were released on Jan. 23, and the second volume will be released on Feb. 25.

There has been a lot of criticism on the animation quality of Minami-ke Okaeri, but as long as it’s watchable I think it’s ok.

Ami always has the best swimsuits :)

The first episode of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei will finally be released on Feb. 25, everyone mark your calendars :D

This is a page from the Kannagi book-in-book that is featured in this volume of Megami Magazine. It’s nice to see anime characters in different costumes since most older anime and even some current ones keep their characters in the same clothes throughout the series.

Chaos;Head Noah for the Xbox 360 comes out soon in Japan. The screenshots here make it look like a tempting game to get, but if the ending is anything like the anime, then it’s not worth getting. You can read about my Chaos;Head ramblings here.

More dvd releases, this time for Jigoku Shoujo. I thought all of the sending to hell in Jigoku Shoujo was pretty good until it got really repetitive.

All of the Weib Schwarz advertisements in Megami Magazine are so nice, it makes me want to buy their cards.

Of course, the back of the magazine reminds us once again that Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei will be available on Feb. 25.

The big poster that came with this volume features Code Geass R2 on one side with Lelouch’s harem (minus Sumeragi for some unknown reason) in swimsuits by the pool, and it seems like they’re undressing CC.

The other side features the good and bad characters (if you can classify them that way) from Nanoha Strikers. I think they should’ve made Nanoha’s pose more aggressive; it looks like she was just surprised by something.

I thought volume 105 was a good volume. All of the pages with blu-ray and dvd release dates were accompanied by a nice full-page image and now I finally have a Code Geass poster to put on my wall.

–>Subscribe to Megami Magazine

Related posts:

1. Megami Magazine Vol. 104
2. Megami Magazine Vol. 103
3. Megami Magazine Vol. 102

Well, I just finished watching ep 15 of Penguin Musume. This episode involved Etorofu hijacking the Nankyoku time machine and going back in time to get rid of an embarrasing event. Of course, with any show that involves time travel there are unwanted consequences. At the end of the episode it appears that Pen-chan (Sakura) is no longer the main character and the anime is now called Shirokuma-ojousama Heart. I guess this is how Shirokuma gets her fortune/company back after going into bankruptcy.

So, after watching this ep, I started to wonder what I would do if I could go back in time to change something. If someone gave me a time machine right now, I would travel back a few years and tell the producers of Code Geass R2 to change the ending ^.^

(spoilers below for anyone that hasn’t seen the ending to Code Geass)

When I was watching the last ep of Geass I was so happy when Suzaku died. That bastard killed my favourite disposable character, Monica Kruszewski (the Knight of Twelve). I don’t think she got more than a few minutes of screen time, but she was still cool.

It was also partially Suzaku’s fault that Shirley got killed since he was supposed to be watching her, and I can’t even remember how many times he’s switched sides now.

What also sucked about this episode is obviously Lelouch’s death. The fact that it was Suzaku that killed him too doesn’t makes me hate him even more. I’m sure that most people predicted that the ending would see either Lelouch gain control of the world or see him die in a blaze of glory, taking everyone with him (or at least that’s what I predicted). But no, he just gets stabbed in the chest and slides down his big moving throne thing and dies with Nunally holding his hand (they could’ve at least made him die in Nunally’s arms or something). Speaking of Nunally, I really thought she looked like she was plucked straight out of Star Wars.

So after Lelouch dies, the world is at peace and magically, everyone turns out happy. Kallen goes back to school, Nunally is still in a wheelchair but at least she’s enslaved Suzaku and has him pushing her around, and Ohgi and Villeta get married.

Is that the girl that stole Lelouch’s hat behind Rivalz?

Anyways, I think the most “wtf” ending was Orange-kun picking oranges with his new loli girlfriend…

Seriously, who in their right mind would want to pick oranges for a living? And why is Anya even with Orange-kun?

A nice shot of CC before the episode ends. CC was one of my favourite characters, but when you think about it, the plot wouldn’t have changed much if she didn’t exist. Other than giving Lelouch his geass she didn’t have any other important purpose other than looking sexy and advertising for pizza hut.

So if I could change the past, what would my ending be like? I would’ve just ended it once Lelouch became emporer rather than try to drag it out and make a happy ending for everyone (minus the main character). Either that or I would go back in time and tell myself how the cliffhanger from the first season ended and not to watch the second season.

Well, that’s it for my combined post, I was too lazy to write 2 separate ones. On a side note, chibi Pen-chan is so cute ^.^

Related posts:

1. Penguin Musume Heart

At first I didn’t think much of it, he was just targetting some major world cities, one of which appears at first to be Toronto. But when I was looking at the map above, I noticed that the target near the Great Lakes is not where Toronto is. Toronto is located along Lake Ontario (the eastern-most lake for those who don’t know), but the target on that map is north of Lake Ontario and east of Lake Huron. I didn’t know of any cities in that area so I opened up google maps and this is what I found:

According to Wikipedia, Huntsville is just a small town with a population of under 20000. So far, all of the cities in Code Geass have been located where they should be (except Pendragon, which is a fictional city) so I highly doubt that the production staff at Sunrise were planning to target Huntsville when they drew up that map, and were actually trying to target Toronto. I guess with the way that Code Geass is turning out, we can’t even expect the makers of Code Geass to look up some geography.

No related posts.