Personally, I fully enjoyed every episode of Seitokai no Ichizon, but some people have dismissed the series as a poor excuse of an anime so lets take a look at why they say that first.

Seitokai no Ichizon, put simply, is an anime about the everyday activities of the student council at Hekiyou High School. Four of the members are chosen by popular vote, and as such ended up being the 4 most popular girls in the school (Kurimu, Chizuru, Minatsu, and Mafuyu). Based on school rules, the fifth member of the council is the student with the highest test scores, and that ends up being Ken Sugisaki. That’s basically it for the plot summary, five people in a room talking amongst themselves. That’s also one of the major reasons why Seitokai no Ichizon had the makings of a fail anime: no plot. An anime without a plot is just mindless drizzle with no direction or purpose, something you watch when you have nothing better to do.

Another reason for why Seitokai no Ichizon failed for many people was the blatant appeal to fans of specific character types. Kurimu (which sounds like “cream”) is a super-cute loli character with a love for sweets and a travel bag full of toys. Chizuru is a mature and refined woman with an air of mystery about her (she’s actually a secret agent). Minatsu is an athletic tom-boy with a love of the shounen genre. Mafuyu is Minatsu’s twin sister and an avid game otaku/blogger/yaoi fan. If that isn’t enough for you, there’s the tsundere president of the newspaper club, Lilicia and her adorable yet witty little sister, Elise. There’s also the laid-back Magiru-sensei. With characters like these, it’s hard not to think that Seitokai no Ichizon is simply trying to lure in an audience by creating so many varied girls that most people would find at least one they liked.

With all of these female characters and a single male character, it’s obvious that this is a harem anime. I know people that will avoid harem anime like the plague, and the genre seems to have taken a downward trend since the late 90′s/early 00′s. They’re all pretty much the same, with the exception of maybe Clannad and a few others. The male lead is always a regular guy with no redeeming qualities but the hottest girls in his school all want him for themselves. Ken Sugisaki can be described in the same way, he’s a pervert that plays eroge and get surrounded by a whole bunch of girls, eventually ending with him hooking up with one of them or leaving it open-ended (the two ways how all harem anime end).

So with all the makings of a sub-standard anime, why did I like Seitokai no Ichizon? To understand that, lets take a look at some of the aspects again.

First off, lets address the problem of the anime taking place almost entirely in a single room. Yes, that sounds boring no matter how you slice it, but there is a surprisingly large number of changes in scenery, and no, I’m not talking about facing one wall versus another. Whenever a character talks about his/her fantasies, the setting instantly changes to reflect that. In the blink of an eye we can go from the student council room to an apocalyptic Earth, then to a homosexual couple’s bedroom (who happen to be Ken and his brother, Echo of Death), and onto a torture chamber (don’t ask). Seitokai no Ichizon goes through so many of these fantasy worlds that very little time is actually spent within the student council room.

All of the characters are also highly exaggerated and overly dramatic in a good way. Take Mafuyu for example, she doesn’t just like games and boys love (basically yaoi), they make up all of her waking thoughts. It’s always funny to see her come up with an idea, pull out a game console out of nowhere and make references to a classic game or cheat code. The other characters have similar reactions such as Chizuru with her dominatrix toys, Minatsu with her shounen manga, Kurimu with her loli mode, and Ken with his harem fantasies. While it’s expected what each character’s reaction will be, it’s still refreshing because no two are the same. Every reference to anything comes from a different series, genre, or era.

Speaking of references, that brings me to my next point: the parodies. I’ve read reviews and descriptions that have  explained how Seitokai no Ichizon has parodied anime like Haruhi, K-ON, DBZ, and Death Note, but that doesn’t do it justice. While parodies of more recent anime are the most recognizable, references go all the way back to the 70′s with anime like Ashita no Joe. In addition to anime, there are also plenty of references to magazines, light novels, manga, games, eroge companies, and fanfics. With such a wide and deep array of references to use as jokes, it doesn’t matter if you’re an old or new anime fan or if you enjoy manga or games more, there’s bound to be something to catch your eye.

With all of this focus on humour and comedy, it might seem that Seitokai no Ichizon really has no plot, but if you’ve seen all twelve episodes then you’ll know that there actually is. Admittedly, the one-episode stories involving characters like Minatsu and Chizuru were a bit too short to be great, but they do help to build up to the climax. Throughout the second half of the series, we see numerous glimpses of Ken’s past which are easily ignored because of all the funny scenes afterwards. Those small glimpses serve to paint a picture of a young man who has overcome adversity by putting his heart and soul into achieving his goals (no, not getting a harem).

The young man is of course, Ken, the so-called pervert who claims he wants to make the student council members of his harem. His true purpose for getting into the student council is much more noble and completely changed my view of him by the end of the series. Some of you may have met people like Ken before, someone who at first seems like a class clown, but in reality is someone who you can place your trust in and rely on in times of need and always lightens the mood. It’s no wonder that he ranked 13th in Newtype Magazine’s top 30 male characters of the decade (2000-2009). His time in the light comes in the climax during the last episode when everything comes full-circle and we finally see the complete picture of how and why Ken has given so much. I thought it was very heartwarming and the perfect way to end a series like Seitokai no Ichizon.

By now I hope to have convinced some of you to watch or rewatch Seitokai no Ichizon. Not only is it funny as hell, there are some very touching moments and lots of lead-up to a fantastic ending. The second season has a lot to live up to, but if it’s anything like the first, then I’m sure it’ll turn out well.

________________________________

Side Note: For anyone wondering, my favourite scenes (besides the ending) were the end of the Tokyo trip, aruminiumu, and mokyu.

Related posts:

1. Seitokai Yakuindomo Review
2. Anime Screenshots 1
3. Anime Screenshots 2

In other non-personal related news, I recently saw this figure at AmiAmi:

After staring at it for a couple days, I decided to preorder it. With the Japanese Yen soaring and at a price of 9,800 yen, this figure doesn’t come cheap. It’s a limited release from Petit Jeuness based on an illustration done by the famous artist Hiro Suzuhira. I also spent quite a bit of time looking at the pink version, but decided that the black/purple one looked better.

In between staring at these two figures, I also checked out how things were going with Saimoe 2010 and was happy to find out that two of my favourite characters, Kurimu Sakurano and Mafuyu Shiina (both from Seitokai no Ichizon) had made it past the first round. Kurimu narrowly beat out Misaki from Kaichou wa Maid-sama, while Mafuyu (surprisingly) beat out Hinagiku from Hayate no Gotoku. While some people didn’t like Seitokai no Ichizon because it lacked a plot, I absolutely loved it and hope either Kurimu or Mafuyu (but I’m rooting more for Mafuyu) win the competition. My favourite parts from the anime were “aluminium”, “tastes like happiness”, and “mokyu”, those of you who watched it will know what I’m talking about.

Isn't she adorable? Hard to believe she reads BL and yaoi.

That’s all I have to say for now. If you guys don’t hear from me for a week, at least you’ll know what happened.

Related posts:

1. What Would You Like To See on Nopy’s Blog?

Since I’m feeling lazy, I’ve decided to cover all the figures I got during June in one post. Some of these were from my Japan trip while others were preorders that arrived while I was away. The ones from Japan are the Reimu, Marisa, Sakuya, Sanae, and Sumomo nendoroids. The Fate nendoroid, Bakemonogatari nendoroid petits, Seitokai no Ichizon figures, and Ruri were all waiting for me at home when I got back at the end of June. I could have picked up everything in Japan instead of preordering, but that wouldn’t have left very much room in my luggage. That’s why I decided to just get the Touhou nendoroids since they’re hard to find online. Sumomo was an impulse buy, so I had to find some room for her in my luggage, luckily everything just barely fit.

Reimu was the first figure I picked up in Japan. After searching around Akiba for a day, I had found her selling for anywhere between 7,900 – 15,000 yen. As you can see, the one I got was just 280 yen more than the cheapest, but the store owner said that this one was unopened whereas the cheaper one had already been opened. Naturally, I went for the unopened one.

This is what she looks like straight out of the box. The details are perfect, and if it weren’t for that little red smudge on her collar, I’d say that the paint job was perfect as well. Reimu also has a base with the ying yang symbol painted on it, which is a nice touch.

I loved the ribbons on her back and in her hair. Her ponytail is detachable and movable, in case you wanted to have her pose in the wind or something.

This is one of my favourite poses. Reimu comes with a hand that has a tea cup glued on to it so you don’t have to worry about the cup falling off.

Reimu also comes with some miko related items. I’m not sure what exactly they are or what they’re called, so if any of you know, please enlighten me :)

This Marisa nendoroid was an opened one that I bought at Mandarake for 4,700 yen (I think). The box was in a lot better condition when I bought it, the damage you see here was from being tossed around in my luggage.

For a used figure, Marisa wasn’t in a bad condition. There were some scratches on her clothes that you can see here, but it’s nothing too major. Her base has the same symbols as the magic thingy that she has (I really need to learn my Touhou items).

No witch is complete without her broom and pointed hat. I was hoping that the hat would be magnetic, but unfortunately it’s not. It stays on the head if you put it straight on, but you can’t have it at an angle.

Here’s the magic thingy I was talking about. There’s a peg on the back that you can stick into one of the hands, but I wish there were two pegs so that you could stick it in both hands. I found it a bit difficult to line up the second hand with the first to make it look like she’s holding it with both hands.

Sakuya ended up being the cheapest Touhou nendoroid that I bought. I found her in a small store in Akiba underneath the train tracks near Book-Off. It was a really shady looking area because it was so dark and dirty, and there was a porno shop across the street, but at least things were well-priced.

To tell the truth, I’m not a very big Sakuya fan, but since I was planning on getting most of the Touhou nendoroids, I figured I’d just collect them all. Unlike Reimu and Marisa, Sakuya comes with a sort of angry face rather than a happy face. Her base is painted with a clock since she can control time (somewhat).

My favourite part of this nendoroid is the tea set that it comes with. There’s a peg underneath the platter so you can stick it on her hand, but the interesting thing is that you can rotate the tea cup and teapot. Most nendoroid accessories are static items, so I was surprised to find that GSC made one with movable parts.

Sakuya also comes with some crossed arms, which could be used to show some dissatisfaction (maybe because it’s so dirty?)

Of course, you can’t have a Sakuya figure and not include her knives. The knives are cool, but I wish they had a hand holding several of them between her fingers rather than just having one knife per hand.

I got this Sanae nendoroid for 5,800 yen in a store a couple blocks away from where I bought Sakuya. The store had everything behind glass display cases so all of their figures were in good condition.

I haven’t played past Perfect Cherry Blossom in the Touhou series yet so I don’t know much about Sanae other than she’s also a miko like Reimu. She looks like a cute character, and I like the frog clip she has in her hair. As for the figure itself, I was a bit diappointed with the quality. If you take a look at her shirt, you’ll see that the paint job isn’t very smooth. This is the same thing I noticed with my Nanoha nendoroid, but to a lesser degree. Both of these nendoroids are relatively recent releases, so I’m starting to wonder if GSC is cutting back on quality control to produce more figures, or if it’s just a coincidence.

Sanae comes with several hands and sleeves which allow you to make more gestures than most nendoroids.

The only accessory she comes with is another item that I can’t name. I’m assuming it has something to do with her miko duties.

Sanae also comes with this cute scared face. This pose reminds me of when we played dodgeball in grade school. Most of the girls would have this look on their face sometime during the game, then you decide not to throw the ball at them, and then someone on their team gets you.

I preordered Fate back in January from Toyslogic and she arrived just before the end of June. I’ve placed orders with Toyslogic before and was not happy with their service so I try to avoid them, but at the time they were the only place I knew of that was still taking orders for Fate, everywhere else was sold out. This time there were no problems with my order, so I have a little bit more faith in them.

Fate has movable twintails and a cape that is held in place by her head. The cape was actually a bit troublesome when it came to positioning the figure because I couldn’t get Fate’s head all the way down with the cape on her shoulders. This means that her head is always tilted up a little bit. I didn’t find any obvious flaws, and I like how they managed to sculpt the outline of her bellybutton.

Fate comes with two versions of Bardiche, the first one is just in regular form.

The second one is in its scythe form. This one looks a lot cooler, but the number of poses she can do with it is limited because of its size.

Since the Nanoha nendoroid came with a little Yuuno figure, Fate comes with a little Arf figure. Unfortunately, the only movable part on Arf is her tail, so there’s not many poses you can make with her.

Like I said earlier, Sumomo was an impulse buy. I found her in a game store in Hiroshima for only 2,800 yen. A good deal considering most nendoroids cost more than that, and Sumomo comes with the Nanatsuiro Drops DS game and a bunch of other stuff.

From what I can tell, Sumomo is a magical girl, but when I was playing the game, most of the time you see her in her bedroom in her PJs. She looks really cute, and except for a brown spot on her shirt, I didn’t find anything wrong with her.

She also comes with this weird animal thing, which is supposed to be who you are in the game. I guess that explains why I was in a girl’s bedroom. Everything was in Japanese so when I was playing I thought something dirty was going to happen since I didn’t know what was going on. Turns out all you do is count sheep as Sumomo falls asleep.

Sumomo only has two faces instead of the usual three, but she comes with a little pillow that she can sleep on. The only downside, as you can see here, is that her head is a bit too big for the pillow so it looks a bit awkward when you look at her from the side. I was still really happy with this purchase though, probably the best deal I’ve ever gotten on a nendoroid.

I got the Bakemonogatari set 1 nendoroid petits sometime early in June. The only other nendoroid petit I had at the time was a Yuri (Angel Beats) that came with an issue of Dengeki G’s magazine, so these were my 2nd, 3rd, and 4th ones.

After owning 4 nendoroid petits, I have to say that I’m rather impressed with how much detail they can put into something so small. The only real downside that I found with these figures was that it was hard to get pieces on and off since some of the pegs were too big. I think it took about half an hour for me to pull Hanekawa’s body apart to remove the piece of plastic separating them.

The box of figures on the right came with the Seitokai no Ichizon artbook on the left. I really enjoyed the Seitokai no Ichizon anime so I decided to buy this even though the figures didn’t look very high quality.

Sure enough, the figures I got aren’t that much better than what you would find in gachapon machines in Japan. You can move around the arms and heads a bit to make a few different poses. The only thing I really didn’t like was that Mafuyu isn’t attached to her base so she keeps falling over since her head is so heavy.

This Ruri figure is the only non-chibi figure that I got in June. Long time readers of my blog will know that Nadesico is my favourite anime of all time, and Ruri is my favourite character. That’s why I just had to get this figure when I heard about it.

I’m generally happy with Kotobukiya’s figure quality, and this was no exception. Ruri’s dress is really nicely done, and there were a lot of small details like her shoe ribbons and the flowers that make having Ruri all the more worthwhile. The only bad thing about this figure is that her left hand is attached to her skirt, but her skirt isn’t attached to her body. When I was taking off her legs to remove the protective plastic, I was really nervous about accidently breaking her hand off since her lower half was really stuck in there.

Overall, I was satisfied with my acquisitions for June. I don’t normally get so many figures in one month, so I’m going to have to cut back on figure spending for a while.

Related posts:

1. Miku Hatsune GSC Figure
2. Figure Splurge
3. Hayate Yagami Figure Shipped

Volume 5 of Nyantype Magazine came out a few months ago, and it looks like they’ve caught Nanoha fever as well judging from the cover. Hopefully they won’t go overboard with it like Megami does.

One of the things that I like about Nyantype over Megami is that they have one pin-up poster that’s 3 sheets long rather than two. Here they have Nanoha and Fate getting ready to film their big movie; I thought it was really cute.

On the other side is Haruhi looking hot with her long hair.

Strike Witches has always provided lots of nice posters, but I hear that the show itself is pretty good so I’m thinking of giving it a go.

Seikon no Qwaser freaked me out when I heard about it and it still does. In this poster they seem to have the girls lined up like cows.

Chu-Bra also sounded a little weird, and I didn’t particularly like the art. Likewise, I wasn’t too thrilled with this poster.

This railgun poster was really nice. How often do you get a chance to see Misaka and Kuroko in maid outfits? I actually like Kuroko’s little pose there.

Unlike Chu-Bra, Omamori Himari provides excellent fanservice without the ugliness. I think it has something to do with the faces, and the fact that there’s actual shading in this poster.

I thought the background in this Sora no Woto poster was nicer than the characters themselves. It might be because Sora no Woto uses such a simple style for their character designs.

One of the better posters in this volume is this Ookami Kakushi poster. Not only are all of the characters drawn to the right proportions, the shading also looks nice, and it has a beautiful background.

I’d love to receive Kurimu in a box of chocolates, she looks so adorable!

This poster from Sora no Otoshimono is pretty cute too. It looks like she was attempting to make some valentines chocolates.

This poster could have used some work. Everything from the character to the bed and the background were all really plain.

While I didn’t really like Ladies vs Butlers, I was really impressed with this poster. The shadows of the leaves were done extremely well.

Rin is looking hot as always. Has anyone gotten the chance to see the FSN movie, and was it any good?

There have been a few posters in Megami where girls are just randomly falling out of the sky, and it looks like Nyantype is following in their footsteps. I wonder how many people would try to catch a naked girl from the sky.

I thought Mai’s face looked really off here, that’s something that Nyantype still needs to work on.

Nyantype also needs to work on the positioning of body parts. If you look at this girl’s hips, they’re pointing mostly forward, so it shouldn’t be possible for her leg to stick up like that.

I don’t know if this was intentional or not, but it looks like they just stopped drawing once they reached his crotch area. I’m glad they did because we all know that Hideyoshi is a trap, and I’m sure readers of a bishoujo magazine wouldn’t appreciate a male part in there.

The magazine did a little feature on Rin Tosaka and had a bunch of information on the anime series that were airing at the time.

This volume came with these three decoration seals that you can stick on to your PSP. Unfortunately, I don’t have one so I’ll have to save them for when I do get one. If I had to choose, I’d go with the Hayate seal.

Some of you may have bought these figures already. I considered getting that Mio figure, but I didn’t like her facial expression in the end so it was another non-buy.

For those of you who actually enjoyed Chu-Bra (is that even possible?), the opening and ending songs are now available on CD.

After looking through the posters in this volume, it looks like Nyantype’s posters are getting better in quality, but they still have a lot of work to do. My biggest concern with the quality is how body parts are drawn disproportionately or in impossible positions. Everyone has a body so I don’t think it’d be too hard to take a look at yourself and compare that to what has  been drawn. On the other hand, whoever they hired to draw the Nanoha, Ookami Kakushi, and Ladies vs Butlers posters should get a raise. I thought those three posters were really nicely done.

Related posts:

1. Nyantype Magazine Vol. 4
2. Megami Magazine Vol. 118
3. Nyantype Magazine Vol. 3

Once again, Nanoha is featured on the cover of the magazine. I liked seeing her on the cover at first, but now it’s starting to get old. I’d prefer seeing some other anime on the cover now.

It looks like the K-ON craze is back. This poster is from the K-ON OVA that came out a couple months ago. You can tell because Mio and Ritsu have those backstage pass stickers on their coats.

I really liked Seitokai no Ichizon, but I found this poster to be really creepy. No, it’s not the fact that Kurimu and Chizuru are hugging each other nude, it’s the fact that Kurimu’s legs are missing. Just take a closer look, her legs go straight into Chizuru’s left leg and then disappear.

I really want to show this poster to some people and ask, “do you prefer large, medium, or small?” Seriously though, Ladies vs. Butlers was too ecchi for me, and I didn’t particularly like the animation quality.

Yay for some yuri action. I guess Seikon no Qwaser isn’t all that bad.

I didn’t expect to see a Chu-Bra poster in here, then I remembered that this is the March issue. You would think that a girl obssessed with lingerie would wear something more attractive than this.

This poster was nice because Minami has her hair down for once and not tied up in a ponytail. I’m actually surprised that Hideyoshi isn’t in this poster, he’s the main selling point of the anime.

I still haven’t seen the Haruhi movie. I’m hoping that it comes out on DVD soon or else I’m going to have to bring a translator into the theatre when I go to Japan. It feels so weird to see Nagato act shy and timid, it just doesn’t fit her alien aura.

Here’s another shower scene poster, this time of Darker Than Black. I’ve been meaning to watch the anime, but I haven’t gotten around to it. Can anyone tell me if it’s any good?

I liked the character designs in Omamori Himari, so I’m happy to see a poster in here. The only problem with the anime was that it seemed to follow the typical anime formula of boy meets girl + fantasy + action.

This is a cute little poster of the girls from To Aru Kagaku no Railgun. I love their outfits and how Uiharu’s flower ring thing has been replaced with a flower hat.

This is an amazing illustration. The colour and detail just make me want to stare at it all day. I’ll even forgive the fact that it doesn’t make sense to wear armour if you’re whole front is exposed, just because it’s so pretty.

This poster was a surprise, I didn’t expect to see Louise from Zero no Tsukaima so long after the series ended. While I am a Louise fan, I actually didn’t like this illustration very much. I think it’s a bit hard to tell who she is if you don’t look at the Saito doll.

Considering how popular Ikkitousen is, I’m surprised that there aren’t more posters of it in Megami Magazine. I realy like the chinese dresses in this poster.

I thought Shana looked cute in this poster. I was hoping that Shakugan no Shana S would continue with the story, but nothing really happens in the series, it’s just for people that need their Shana fix.

Here’s another blast from the past poster. I remember watching Mai-Hime several years ago, the Orphans that they summon were so cool.

Ookami Kakushi was a terrible anime, but at least it produced some decent artwork, like this poster. While I think Mana and Isuzu are nicely drawn here, I think they could’ve fixed Nemuru’s hand. It looks like it’s 50% bigger than what it should be.

In case anyone needs their Shana fix, the DVD for the OVA has already been released.

It looks like Megami is still covering the first Nanoha movie. With each new volume I’m starting to think that I was right when I said that someone that works for the magazine really likes the Nanoha series.

While I’m not too interested in a breast-feeding anime, I’m sure many people are. If you’re one of those people, you should be happy to know that Seikon no Qwaser is now on Blu-ray and DVD.

With this volume comes the 100th issue of Girls Avenue (the beautiful illustration of the knight earlier). I haven’t been pointing out which posters are the Girls Avenue ones in my Megami posts, but it’s not too hard to tell. They’re the ones that look nicer (most of the time) than the rest and usually aren’t from any anime.

I didn’t know that there was an Utawarerumono OVA, but apparently the Blu-ray and DVD are now on sale.

A little extra that came with this volume of Megami was this Starter Book for the Nanoha Battle of Aces game on the PSP.

Inside you’ll find some information on the moves that the characters can perform. Unfortunately, I don’t have a PSP or the game so I can’t try them out :(

The large poster that came with this volume features Nanoha characters on both sides. Like I said before, as much as I like Nanoha, they really need to have more variety when it comes to the magazine cover and the posters. I actually have enough Nanoha posters from Megami Magazine now to cover an entire wall in my room, that’s a lot of posters.

Obviously, my favourite poster in this volume was the one with the knight girl, but some other notable ones were the Haruhi and Shana posters. This volume could have been better with some more quality control. Drawing Nemuru’s hand weird is forgivable, but cutting off both of a character’s legs is just bad quality. Megami Magazine isn’t known for slip-ups like these so hopefully we won’t see them again in future volumes.

I’ll try to make more regular posts here now that I have some free time, so look forward to them :) I actually wanted to post this yesterday, but I was busy writing this article for ForeverGeek. It took me a lot longer than I thought it would to write, so if you read it, let me know what you think of my choices.

–>Subscribe to Megami Magazine

Related posts:

1. Megami Magazine Vol. 117
2. Megami Magazine Vol. 116
3. Megami Magazine Vol. 114

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

It’s been a week since I went missing, but I’m back. I had a ton of work to get done so I didn’t have any time to post anything on my blog and only managed a few tweets here and there. Now that everything is done though, it’s time to get back to going through my backlog of magazines. First up is volume 4 of Nyantype Magazine which came out before Christmas. On the cover is the cute angel Icarus from Sora no Otoshimono. You’d think that angels would have more clothing, but I guess they don’t have a dress code where Icarus is from.

We’ve already seen posters of Haruhi and Mikuru in the previous volumes and now it’s time for Yuki fans to rejoice with this sweet poster.

On the reverse side is a Sora no Otoshimono poster. This one looks like it was meant for a dakimakura. Maybe someone will actually make one.

Is it just me or does Kurimu’s leg seem a bit weird? Oh well, I really like Minatsu’s gold anklets and arm band.

I’ve seen a lot of striped pantsu in anime, but I’m pretty sure that this is my first time seeing a striped bra. It’s even in the usual white and blue.

I like cat ears and the tail, but the big paw gloves just look weird to me.

I bet Strike Witches fans would like to have this image printed on a bed sheet rather than on a poster.

I really liked this Love Plus poster. It really has that Christmas feel with the presents, the tree in the background, and how the edges fade to white.

11eyes looked really cool at first, but then it started to look more and more like a fanservice anime. From the looks of this poster, I’m guessing every time the girls got into a fight they’d get some clothes torn off.

Then again, I don’t think anything can have more fanservice than Queen’s Blade.

This poster was cute, Mio and Azusa in santa outfits. That big strawberry in the middle is kinda weird though, makes me wonder why they put it in.

I’m really curious as to how Kanu lost all of her clothing.

This poster reminds me that I still have to finish watching the second season of Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu.

I’m really disappointed at the way railgun has turned out. Very few of the episodes had anything to do with the plot, including the beach episode that this poster was based on.

I was a bit surprised to see this Princess Lover poster in here, but then I remembered that this was from before Christmas.

The same goes for this Sacred Blacksmith poster.

More Christmas themed posters. I wish it was Christmas again, I had nothing to worry about back then.

And since the railgun poster wasn’t enough, here’s another obligatory beach/swimsuit poster for your enjoyment.

For anyone that missed it, Kanon is now on Blu-Ray and it looks AWESOME. I think every Kanon fan should get it even if there aren’t any subtitles. After all, a true fan would have memorized all the lines already :P

There was a little Seitokai no Ichizon feature in the magazine that included the characters wearing a bunch of different types of clothing. I thought Kurimu in the red dress with the two pistols was really cute, she’s so small but she’s trying to act so mature.

I had considered watching Omamori Himari when it came out, but I figured that I’d seen enough harem anime to last me a few years and watching more would just get really boring.

A bunch of upcoming (as of December) figures are showcased here. I got my Nanoha nendoroid a couple of days ago so you guys can expect a review sometime next week.

This volume also came with a free Weib Schawrz card. I tend to keep them in the pouches attached to the magazine so I don’t lose them.

On the back of the magazine is an advertisement for Chu-Bra, which in my opinion was a failure of an anime. Anime producers seriously need to come up with better ideas.

One of the extras that came with this magazine was this Love Plus Christmas card. I bet a lot of Love Plus fans would enjoy receiving one of these.

The other extra was this Nanoha Force pencil board.

Personally I liked this side better than the first side. It’s too bad that they put Fate off on the side there.

Overall, I’d say that this was an average volume of Nyantype. Except for the Love Plus poster and the poster of Yuki at the beginning, nothing else really stood out. If Nyantype could obtain more posters like those, they might become more popular than Megami one day.

Related posts:

1. Nyantype Magazine Vol. 3
2. Nyantype Magazine Vol. 1
3. Megami Magazine Vol. 115

I don’t remember the last time I took a look at Nyantype Magazine. Since they don’t release on a regular schedule, I kinda forgot to review them after volume 2. Anyways, better late than never, so here’s a look at the 3rd volume of Nyantype Magazine.

This volume starts out with a pinup poster of loli Nanoha and her two non-magical friends. The one thing I like about Nyantype over Megami is that they always have one of these larger pinup posters that are 3 sheets long instead of the regular two.

On the reverse side is Mikuru dressed in some really nice clothes. Unfortunately for her, she forgot to check the weather report. I bet Kyon would be jumping for joy though.

I didn’t think Kurimu-chan was a very clumsy character from watching Seitokai no Ichizon, but I wonder how she ended up in that position with the milk only falling on her in what seems like groups of droplets instead of spilling across her clothes.

Is it just me, or does it look like an invisible hand is lifting up Haruka’s dress? There’s no way normal clothes act like that.

I never really got into the Strike Witches craze, but was the girl on the left always so… droopy? It also looks like one of her hands just disappears into nowhere.

I guess at least one good thing came out of Princess Lover :)

Can someone explain why they have microphones. I thought Koihime Musou was set in some ancient land or something.

Like I’ve said in previous posts, Horo always appears naked in posters. This only further proves my point.

It’s been a while since I saw Saki poster, but then again, this volume came out a long time ago. I was surprised at how fast everyone forgot about the anime, I guess it wasn’t really very good.

I wonder if To Aru Kagaku no Railgun will turn out like Saki after it ends. Anyways, I thought this poster looked a bit off, I think it might be the way Mikoto’s eyes are drawn, it looks like she’s cross-eyed.

The Sacred Blacksmith also seems to have dropped off the radar. Just goes to show that fanservice won’t save a bad anime.

I can’t believe that Kissxsis is actually getting a full tv anime and not just another OVA. It just doesn’t make sense to me to have an anime that teases you so much without a real plot.

The existence of Queen’s Blade also doesn’t make much sense to me. It’s kinda in that limbo zone between 17+ and 18+.

As for Asura Cryin, I thought it had some potential, but it just tried too hard to combine too many genres into one anime.

Fight! Ippatsu Juuden-chan is also one of those fanservice-based anime. As much as I liked the character designs, the plot wasn’t that good, and I’d bet that no one will remember it 10 years from now.

Shakugan no Shana was at least a decent anime. It had a plot that sorta made sense and it wasn’t jam packed with fanservice, just enough to keep people happy.

Besides the posters, Nyantype also had some pages dedicated to the Seitokai no Ichizon girls. I highly doubt you’d ever actually see them in the kind of situation shown above except in Ken’s fantasies. I’m still kinda upset that the anime is over, it was one of my favourites of the year.

When I watched Macross Frontier, I thought that Ranka would be everyone’s favourite character, but apparently Sheryl is more popular. I wonder if it’s because of her personality or her character design.

Nendoroid Luka came out a while ago, but I won’t be getting her for a couple months since I ordered her from an American store and they don’t release there until later :(

I watched the first episode of Kanamemo and it was too childish for me. I don’t get why they’d put an ad in Nyantype Magazine since it seems like it’s geared towards children.

Rather than coming with a free poster, this volume included this really nice Nanoha illustration collection. Most of these images have been used in Nyantype already, but it’s nice to have them all in one little booklet if you’re a Nanoha fan. The images come from all of the Nanoha series.

When I first watched Triangle Heart, I never would have imagined that the little sister in the anime would ever get her own series, or that it’d turn out as successful as it did. It’s a good thing that people liked Nanoha though, or else we wouldn’t have all this pretty artwork.

This volume had it’s high and low points. The poster of Mikuru was really nice, and I’ve hung it up in my room. The Nanoha illustration collection was also a welcome treat. On the other hand, some of the posters were less than perfect. Missing limbs and crossed eyes just make a good illustration horrible. Unless there’s something you really want in this volume, it may be better just to pass it up.

Related posts:

1. Nyantype Magazine Vol. 2
2. Nyantype Magazine Vol. 1
3. Megami Magazine Vol. 116

It looks like I’m getting close to catching up with my Megami posts. On the cover of volume 116 are the girls from Seitokai no Ichizon doing some cosplay. Personally, I’m pretty happy that they finally decided to put Seitokai no Ichizon on the cover of a Megami Magazine since it was my favourite show last season. It seems most of the covers lately have been focusing on new/upcoming anime movies, so it’s nice to see a tv series back on every once in a while. Anyways, enough with the cover, if you wanted to see the pin-up posters (and I’m sure you do), they’re all below:

I don’t recall ever seeing biribiri play tennis, but I think tennis outfits are cute so it’s all good to me. Their skirts do seem a bit on the short side though, I wonder if Mikoto is wearing shorts under there too.

I haven’t seen Nyan Koi so I don’t know who these characters are, but I wonder what would happen if you put a dog in there.

I never really got into Queen’s Blade either, but I did watch the first episode. Isn’t the girl on the right supposed to be a bad guy or something? I also recall her (or maybe it was someone else) shooting some acid milk out of their jugs…

It seems like every Haruka poster that shows up in Megami either has her in a bath or doing some kind of cosplay. I guess an otaku doing cosplay makes sense, but I’d like some more posters of her in her regular clothes.

I like the ice wings on the blue-haired girl, and the kuma-san panties are cute ^.^

Don’t you just hate water that you can’t see through?

I think anime is the only place where I’ve actually seen girls wear nothing but an apron. I guess the Japanese just really like cute girls wearing aprons or something.

Hot yuri action is always welcome here. Has anyone watched here watched all of Shin Koihime Musou, and is it any good?

Mio looks really cool and mature in this poster, I think it’s a combination of her fashion sense, posture, and the fact that she’s holding a cup of tea. Yui and Azusa, on the other hand, still look like a couple of high schoolers. They should take some pointers from Mio.

Here’s a couple of nice posters of Nanoha and Fate, but I prefer them in their battle clothes over regular clothes.

Haruhi isn’t the type of girl who would normally dress up and go to formal events, so it’s nice seeing her in such a beautiful dress. In the future, when I’m married, I hope my wife will have good fashion sense like Haruhi and Mikuru here ^.^

You can probably guess what’s been going on (or will be going on) in this scene, but like I said before, yuri action is always welcome here.

If anyone has ever wondered what kind of panties Ange and Maria wear, you now have your answer. I was disappointed in the way they ended the Umineko no Naku Koro Ni anime, hopefully there’ll be a second season to answer all the unanswered questions.

Stripped pantsu are pretty popular, and it looks like they’re starting to make stripped bikinis too. I wonder if it’ll catch on.

Although this is the January 2010 volume of Megami Magazine, it actually comes out in December, which explains why there’s still a Christmas themed poster in here. If Eve were santa and she was bringing me Mio, Kuchinashi, and Setsuna, then I’d stay up all night waiting for her on Christmas Eve.

There’s been quite a few Juuden-chan posters recently. Plug always seems to be doing something wrong.

This volume must be geared towards yuri lovers or something. So if you were Keita, would you choose Ako or Riko?

Here’s the picture that was used on the cover of this volume. I just love Chizuru in a nurse outfit; a nurse is just so far away from her usual personality that it’s funny.

Once again, considering Chizuru’s personality I’m a bit surprised at this poster. She doesn’t seem like the kind of girl who would let her guard down enough for someone to get a shot of this. Then again, if someone did walk in on her and Kurimu changing, they’d probably disappear the next day.

What happened in Kowarekake no Orgol was so sad. If I ever get a robot/android in the future, I’ll be sure to take good care of it.

There was quite a bit of Seitokai no Ichizon content in here, which was great. As you can see, there was even a whole page devoted to my favourite character, Mafuyu. She’s a crazy game addict and BL lover, but she’s just hilarious. My favourite scenes with her in the anime was when she realized that the panties in the lost and found were actually hers, and her reaction when Ken meets Nakameguro in the last episode.

The Nanoha movie looks so good, I wish I could watch it right now. Alas, I won’t be able to see it until I go to Japan in June or until the DVD comes out, whichever is first.

I’m also looking forward to watching the Fate Stay Night movie. It looks like Rin is going to play a bigger part in the movie than in the anime ^.^

I’m always impressed by the great character designs and artwork that they have in eroge and dating sims. After seeing a few of these types of games, I can see why some girls play eroge too, it’s not all about sex after all. It’s a shame that not all anime are done as nice as this.

It looks like Weib Schwarz is introducing some new cards, this time it’s from Haruhi.

You got to see Ange and Maria’s panties earlier, now here’s Jessica’s. That little picture in the middle looks like a dakimakura to me, I didn’t think Jessica was that popular of a character.

There was no B2 size poster that came with this volume. Instead, a little book containing some artwork from Kanokon (mostly of Chizuru) was included.

This would be great to have if you like big oppai, but I find them to be a bit excessive. I know it doesn’t look that bad in anime, but if I actually saw someone walking around with knockers like that it’d just freak me out.

Overall, I thought this was a great issue. There’s certainly a lot of yuri in here so if you’re into that, this would be a good volume to pick up. I was also happy that they included more Seitokai no Ichizon material than usual, but I would’ve been even happier if the little booklet that was included was Seitokai-related instead of Kanokon-related. You can’t get everything you want I guess, and I’m sure the booklet made plenty of other people really happy.

–>Subscribe to Megami Magazine

Related posts:

1. Megami Magazine Vol. 115
2. Megami Magazine Vol. 114
3. Megami Magazine Vol. 110

Sorry, everyone, for the lack of posts recently. Life has been really busy so I haven’t been able to write much or reply to comments for the past two weeks. Now that I have a break though, I can finally get back to making some regular posts. I still have several magazines that I haven’t gone through, but I’ll get to them eventually. Today I’m going to take a look at Megami Magazine Vol. 115. Although Christmas is long over, there’s still plenty of snow on the ground, so this issue of Megami Magazine doesn’t feel out of season yet.

This poster was a bit shocking, but I guess bigger is better, right? I can see why Kouta has such a hard time resisting Chizuru’s advances in Kanokon.

I guess there’s more Queen’s Blade anime coming. Never really got into the story though.

I remember watching parts of the first season of Koihime Musou, but I don’t remember seeing the girl on the left. Is she a new character?

It should come as no surprise that none of the skirts worn in Megami Magazine are long enough to cover a girls panties.

There’s quite a few swimsuit posters in here, which is weird considering it’s the December 2009 issue. I’m not complaining though, especially if there are more Seitokai no Ichizon posters ^.^

I finally got around to watching the first episode of Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu Purezza a couple weeks ago. It looks like there’s some more characters and even more risqué scenes than the first season.

I can’t say I disapprove of Yuri when I get nice posters like this one.

It looks like Yui is going to be late for school again. Congrats to her for placing second in the 2009 Anime Saimoe Tournament though.

I would be stunned if I saw two naked girls falling out of the sky like this. I wonder how Ikaros is keeping her tea in that cup.

The female members of the SOS-dan look ready for winter, except for the fact that they’re still wearing skirts. I’ve always wondered if Japanese schoolgirls still wear skirts when it’s freezing outside. Has anyone been to Japan in the winter and seen this?

Stripped pantsu seems to be gaining popularity in recent years, I guess that’s why Natsuru is wearing them even though he’s actually a guy. What I find weirder than that is that their clothes are all torn from the attacks, but it doesn’t look like they’ve actually been hurt anywhere. You’ve gotta have some skill to cut through stockings but leave the skin unharmed.

As usual, Kuroko is wearing some outrageously revealing outfit, putting the spice in the show. I can’t imagine what To Aru Kagaku no Railgun would be like without her.

Waking up to a couple of almost-naked catgirls would be nice if it weren’t for the fact that I’m allergic to them.

It’s been a while since NEEDLESS ended so I was a bit surprised to see this poster in here.

I stopped watching Weiss Survive quite a while ago, but I might pick it up again since it looks like there are new characters now.

I wonder what the girl on top is doing…

Looks like Plug is getting scolded again. Not exactly sure why she’s not wearing anything besides an apron.

Tayutama ended quite a while back as well, but I don’t mind seeing a new poster every now and then since I really like the character designs. I prefer animal ears that look like it’s a part of the hair rather than ones that just randomly stick out of the head.

Walking in on a girl changing is never a good idea.

The ears in Nyan Koi are an example of what I mean by ears that just stick out of the head rather than blend in with the hair.

Bernkastel is a little weird, so I can imagine her doing something like this. What I don’t get is why Lambda Delta looks so annoyed, she should be enjoying seeing Bernkastel in a sexy pose.

It doesn’t look like the makers of Aika ZERO have caught on to the stripped pantsu fad yet.

I got around to watching Kowarekake no Orgol last month, it was so cute, but so sad.

There was quite a bit of info on biribiri and friends in this issue. I wonder if Kuroko will ever succeed in dominating Mikoto.

There are some pretty amazing swimsuit figures now available. If they didn’t cost so much, I’d probably have a shelf full of anime figures in bikinis.

Looks like Princess Lover is trying to sell some more DVDs. The story didn’t seem all that good though.

The extra item that comes with the magazine this time is not a B2 size poster, but a book-in-book titled “All About Haruhi.” I’m sure you can already tell what’s going to be in it based on the title.

I wish I had a full-size image of Haurhi in that dress on the right. Does anyone know where I can find one?

Yuki looks really good in her dress too.

I was a bit disappointed that Mikuru was wearing her usual bunny outfit. I was hoping she’d get a nice dress too.

There was quite a bit of information about Haruhi in this book.

At the end was a reminder about the Haruhi movie that came out earlier this year. I can’t wait for it to come out on DVD. On the left is a bunch of postcards that come with the book.

The reverse side of the postcards have some sweet Haruhi pics. My favourite is the one on the top right with the girls in wedding dresses. I certainly won’t be mailing these anywhere.

Considering that this volume was released for December, I expected a lot more winter posters, but There seemed to be more swimsuit posters than usual. I guess with the cold weather, the guys at Megami Magazine decided their readers needed something to warm them up. My favourites in this volume were the Seitokai, Railgun, and Tayutama posters. I also really like the Haruhi book-in-book.

–>Subscribe to Megami Magazine

Related posts:

1. Megami Magazine Vol. 114
2. Megami Magazine Vol. 113
3. Megami Magazine Vol. 110